At that moment, Lady Blackstaff Vajra still hovered high in the sky, her expression grave as she gazed down upon the earth below—where, amidst mud and torrential rain, Shudde M'ell rolled relentlessly, attempting to provoke another earthquake.
As the bearer of the Blackstaff, she naturally understood the essence of these Great Old Ones, as well as their greatest advantage: they were the living embodiment of loopholes in the order of the material world. If the Gods of Order did not intervene to repair them, they could never truly die—"death" would only be a temporary state, and in the not-so-distant future, they would return in another, perhaps even more troublesome form.
Therefore, Vajra had no intention to kill it outright. Her plan was to beat it into a weakened state, reduce its resistance to magic as low as possible, and then either seal it away, or at the very least, banish it into the endless Astral Sea. That would be enough.
Clearly, the time for that had not yet come.
Because at that very moment, she could distinctly feel wave after wave of powerful psychic assaults hammering her very soul. Were it not for the protection of "Invulnerability," her soul would have been shredded by Shudde M'ell by now, leaving her an utter imbecile!
It was nowhere near heavily injured or weakened—a greater effort was needed!
That was her strategy and protection, but "Invulnerability" could only guard against harm. It did not shield her from all possible magical effects.
Such as certain psychic assaults that could interfere with her mind without causing harm directly.
Noting that its psychic attacks could not injure the tiny worm in the sky who relentlessly rained suffering upon it, Shudde M'ell immediately changed strategy: it attempted to beguile her, to cloud her mind—turning her into a puppet!
This was an ability common to every Chthonian; they used such mental magic to enslave certain beings, compelling them to reveal the locations of veins of rare minerals…then slaughtering them.
Shudde M'ell, of course, wielded this ability with vastly greater potency than lesser kin.
A fresh onslaught of psychic energy swept through the sky like a swarm of invisible tentacles, wrapping Vajra's body, burrowing through her ears into her mind, caressing her soul while severing her ties to the outside world.
With the aid of "Foresight," Vajra was instantly aware of this new attack—the way it adroitly slipped past the protective radius of "Invulnerability," gradually depriving her of control over her own body.
This mode of psychic assault…was something she had never experienced, and required a wholly new structure of spiritual defense.
She thought thus; even as she struggled to maintain her spells, sending ever more torrents of icy water crashing down upon Shudde M'ell, she multitasked, chanting in parallel, seeking to break the temporal wave of psychic assault.
Yet even wielding the artifact and standing a legendary mage, her spirit was still only that of a human: it could never contend with the boundless mind of Shudde M'ell—an intellect on par with a true god. Very quickly, she was lost in an ocean of alien psychic power!
She closed her eyes. Though she still grasped the Blackstaff, she had lost all control over body and magic. Her body began to drift earthward, as light as a feather, quickly sinking down.
In effect, she had fallen into Shudde M'ell's embrace. From now on she would be at the mercy of this nightmarish, tentacled crawling monstrosity.
Yet, she felt no fear. "Invulnerability" protected her flesh; and in the world of spirit, aided by "Foresight"—the powerful ninth-level spell that allowed glimpses of the future—she worked urgently to solve Shudde M'ell's psychic confusion and to reestablish her bond to body and magic alike.
A minute later, having constructed a new protective shield for her consciousness, Vajra's eyes reopened.
Yet the sight before her was not one of being bound, ravaged, or even defiled by massive tentacles.
Rather, she lay in mud, rain thundering down, while lightning cracked overhead—and Shudde M'ell was nowhere to be seen.
No—it was not missing. The earth still trembled; even among the mire, she could sense the shuddering. The deep rumble of the earthquake, despite the interference of rain and thunder, still reached her ears, clear as ever.
Shudde M'ell was close by!
She sprang up into the sky, eyes radiating sapphire light, her vision cleaving the curtain of rain, fixed on the source of the quake.
In the next instant, her expression changed dramatically.
The colossal Chthonian did not see her as a threat; after momentarily subduing her, it continued along its former path—rushing headlong toward distant Liberl Port!
It sought to unleash an even greater earthquake, to destroy the port and the very mountains in one cataclysm!
"No, that cannot happen!"
Vajra's heart seized. She immediately invoked a seventh-level "Teleport," her body turning to a streak of blazing light and, in a heartbeat, closing the distance, once more emerging high above Shudde M'ell, intent on cutting it off.
Yet, to stop such a vast creature, able to burrow, whose speed exceeded five hundred kilometers an hour—even if she could pursue and defeat it, halting its advance was quite another matter!
True, she had sealing methods, but Shudde M'ell was not yet truly weakened—she could not guarantee her sealing spell would succeed.
She had no choice but to try!
"Time Stop!"
The chant was lengthy, but completed in a heartbeat. She cast her third ninth-level spell of the day: Time Stop.
Her target: Shudde M'ell!
Buzz——
Vast magical power surged forth; ninth-level spells were a leap beyond even the eighth in power. Magic circled the Great Old One, attempting to overwrit its very rules, to halt its time forever, so that it could never again trouble the material world!
But the enormous Chthonian gave but the slightest twitch—and shattered the fragile temporal stasis utterly!
Even after enduring billions of tons of rushing seawater, its vitality was barely diminished—it easily snapped through a Time Stop spell enhanced by the artifact itself!
Vajra's face turned pale. Watching from above as the Great Old One pressed ever closer to the port, a sense of despair welled up in her heart.
She could go on pounding it with tsunamis, yes—but if Liberl Port fell, what did any of it matter?
Utter despair claimed her—and just then, change arrived again.
Time itself—stopped.
Buzz——
Torrential rain, the roaring earth, howling winds, and the exertions of Shudde M'ell—all of it, at that very moment, froze as one. Silence enveloped everything. Vajra felt herself as if suspended in the Astral Sea—alone, yet utterly free.
Who had done this?
The question rose in her mind; the next instant, a voice sounded there—strange but impossibly gentle, and unmistakably feminine: "Vajra, quickly—use the Blackstaff now, and banish it!"
Vajra hesitated, then in a flash understood who had cast this Time Stop spell and reached out in voice.
Liberl Port's Open Lord, trueborn daughter of the Goddess of Magic—Laeral Silverhand!
None but the daughter of a true god could wield the mana required to paralyze a Great Old One!
She had intervened!
A profound sense of dejection swept Vajra—this was proof her own strength had still fallen short of solving the crisis. But there was no time for regret; time was brief; she must act now!
Drawing a deep breath, Vajra once again raised the Blackstaff high, and chanted a long, solemn spell: "Nailed to the Sky!"
Tenth-level spell—Nailed to the Sky!
The spell's effect: the target is lifted beyond the upper sky and sent spinning at immense speed around the world—thus, Shudde M'ell would become a satellite of the material world, unable ever to descend without outside interference!
This was her contingency; her plan was, if she could not bring Shudde M'ell to a weakened state and seal it, then she would simply banish it to the edge of the sky now.
So be it—though that left the possibility that, one day by accident or design, it might fall again. But anything was better than what was coming now.
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