"A spirit? That disgusting thing?!"
"Then were the new-type monsters nothing more than tentacles meant to elevate the feminine form into that shape?"
Finn's guess was correct.
The true identity of the creatures we had until now called new-type monsters was nothing other than the "girl" before us—mere fragments of the body of a fallen spirit.
That was true not only of Revis, whom we had met before, but of the other aberrants like Firvis as well.
The true body of the monster before us was the beginning of every tragedy.
[Aria, I wanted to meet you!]
And yet, as if she were innocent, the source of that tragedy welcomed Ais's arrival with a simple, almost naive expression.
[Let's become one too. Let me...]
Eat you.
Shiver
But the twisted smile that followed was ugly enough to suit that defiled flesh and soul, and it was cruelty itself.
At that, Ais, and everyone else in the party, broke out in a cold sweat from revulsion, a chill running down their spines.
Then the choice from here was obvious.
"Everyone! Battle formation!"
At Finn's shout, Loki Familia moved.
The vanguard centered on the reliable Gareth, with Bete and the Hiryute sisters beside him.
The middle line consisted of Ais as the skirmisher, and Finn as the commander.
And in the rear were the mage Riveria and Raul's support team.
As for the rest of us, Tsubaki and I decided to watch the situation from the rear for now.
"It's no different from what we always do! Kill it!"
"Lefiya, target the feminine form! Start chanting!"
"Raul, support Ais with your magic sword!"
"""Yes! Understood!"""
"Hey, Magus. That thing..."
"Get back, Tsubaki. Something big is coming."
That was why only Tsubaki and I could feel it.
The immense flow of mana gathering around the fallen spirit.
And the overwhelming aura of mystery emanating from it made both of us frown on instinct.
I had a rough idea what it was... but in any case, it was coming soon!
[[Earth, weep.]]
"No way, an incantation?! A monster can talk?!"
"Riveria! Raise a barrier!"
Finn's urgent command rang out among the startled party.
In response, Riveria hurriedly began her chant.
But.
[[Come, come, come. Shell of the earth.]]
"[Dance, spirit of the air. Lord of light]."
[[Heaven, burn. Earth, shatter. Become a bridge and unite. A downpouring axe of the sky. A calamity of destruction.]]
"A long-form incantation?!"
"No. It's faster than Riveria."
As the two overlapping chants continued, everyone's faces went pale.
At this rate...!
"[My name is Alv]!"
Via Silheim!
"Everyone! Retreat behind Riveria's barrier—!"
Fortunately, thanks to Riveria's efforts to speed up her chant in response to the danger, her barrier was able to deploy safely.
However, at the same time.
[[My name is Gnome. Avatar of the earth. Queen of the earth.]]
Meteor Swarm.
It was already too late.
Whoosh!
"F-from the sky!"
"They're fallinggggg!"
Massive boulders were summoned in countless numbers from the air above our heads.
All of them poured down at once at terrifying speed and slammed into the ground.
It was a catastrophe straight out of legend.
The majesty, despair, and terror of a disaster that might have been what ended the age of reptiles long ago.
Boom! Boom! Crash! Crack!
"The barrier!"
"Gareth, protec—!"
Under that overwhelmingly destructive bombardment of mass, Riveria's barrier did not last long.
In the end, her barrier shattered and was pierced in an instant like a pane of glass.
Riveria hurriedly looked for Gareth, whose durability was the highest in the party.
It seemed impossible, but still, maybe...!
"Too late!"
But before her shout, I stepped forward first.
"[My body is made of swords]."
What stood before my eyes was a calamity no one could possibly withstand.
And yet the form of that destruction was unmistakably a projectile.
Then.
"[Rho Aias (The Seven Rings that Cover the Heavens)]!"
There could be no more fitting method than this!
Bang!
"Tch! This is...!"
"An!"
"Magus!"
Merciless meteor-like boulders rained down and crashed toward us.
Fortunately, this imitation shield fulfilled its role without fail.
But the real problem was not the shield—it was me.
Dammit, with a body this weak, there was no way I could perfectly withstand the impact force of this accursed bombardment.
And so I was pushed back, one step at a time, slowly.
At this rate, even if the petals of the shield remained, I'd be crushed to death first.
So.
"Tsubakiiiiii! Get behind meeeeee!"
Come help me, one-eye!
"Huh? Ah, that's what you mean?! Sure!"
Fortunately, Tsubaki understood the meaning of my call at once and rushed over in a panic.
Then she stood behind me and helped bear the crashing force with me.
Seeing what the two of us were doing, the others with some strength also ran behind me and joined in.
Boom! Crash! Boom... patter
"I-Is it over?"
"W-We held it!"
And so, a moment that was as long as eternity and as brief as an instant passed safely.
Only one petal remained in my hand.
It had already been a fake, degraded once again from that "counterfeit," so I had been uneasy about it from the start.
"Huff, huff. Man, I thought I was done for. No, wait—did the arm I used to block it already break?"
I let out a sigh as I looked down at my arm, limp and motionless, just dangling there.
This had really been a razor-thin block.
"Phew. Anyway, you really need to train that skinny body of yours, Magus. For a guy to be that frail..."
"Shut it. Says the one-eyed woman with less ability than me."
"Oh? And you look like you're about to keel over any second."
"Kahahahaha! To think you pulled off something even Riveria couldn't do. Not bad, kid! You've got more guts than the youngsters these days!"
Just as everyone, myself included, was relaxing in relief and joy—
[[Fire, come.]]
"What?!"
[[Rage, rage, rage. Whirlwind of flames.]]
"This is insane...!"
Once again, a cursed incantation flowed from the fallen spirit's mouth.
Everyone in the party wore an expression of disbelief.
No, it could keep firing attacks of that scale one after another?!
At the despair before my eyes, a dry laugh escaped me on its own.
"Ha, ha... I see. So that's how it is."
I understood completely now.
One of the questions I had always had about this world.
Yes, the forgotten ancient magic was never meant for humanity in the first place.
They had only forced themselves into clothes that did not fit them at all.
That was why it had been so inefficient.
"Ancient magic, my ass."
Take spirit magic, for example.
Yes.
It had originally been magic for them—the "spirits."
"Gareth! Move forward!"
"Damn it, it won't give us a moment's rest!"
At Finn's shout, Gareth stepped in front of the party with a shield larger and thicker than his own body.
Behind him came Riveria's next chant.
But she was clearly going to be too late.
And Gareth alone would definitely not be able to block this attack.
"[Barrier 81, Single-Point]!"
I abandoned the last petal fading from my hand and deployed a defensive spell together with Riveria.
But remembering the power of the attack from just a moment ago, no matter how I thought about it, this still wasn't enough.
So I prepared one more thing here.
"Ah, damn it. I'm about to run out of the cost I paid in advance!"
Hurriedly, I shoved a hand into my bag and pulled out several mystic codes to support the spell that would follow, then scattered them across the ground.
This one was a bit large-scale, so just relying on Moon Spirit Slime as support wouldn't be enough.
More than anything, because my knowledge of this branch was lacking, I didn't know how to properly form the seals for any of it.
"[Earth Release, Rashomon]!"
Boom!
Originally it was a summoning technique, but given my abilities, and since I had no actual material to reproduce it with, I had no choice but to forcibly alter its nature as I pleased.
What was created was this massive gate of earth.
It was nothing more than a mound of dirt whose shape had been forcibly copied through Magecraft, but with the mass and weight it had piled up, it could still be used to some extent as a defensive measure.
More importantly, that incantation of hers.
Judging by the content, I could already picture the form of the attack that would come next in my head.
Then this should somehow hold out against this attack too.
But after that, surely...
[[My bestowed name is Salamander. Avatar of flames. Queen of flames.]]
"[My name is Al—!]"
[[Fire Storm.]]
Fwoosh.
From the fallen spirit's mouth came a breath, and a tiny flame flew toward us.
But the instant it touched the ground—
KWAAAAAAAAAAANG!
Another hell descended upon the world.
Kuuuu... KWAANG!
The hell of scorching flames struck my spells first.
At first it seemed like my spells were holding out to some extent, but soon cracks began to spread with a sharp crack, and my spells crumbled apart.
It took only about thirty seconds.
"Garethtttttt!"
"UOOOOOOOOOO!"
What followed was Riveria's defensive magic, completed too late, and Gareth's shield, held up with iron resolve.
Crack!
"Damn... it...!"
KWAANG!
"Grrrrrrrr!"
But the time it took for those two to be broken through was not all that different.
In the end, the hell of flames trampled our desperate resistance without mercy and swept over everyone behind us.
No—just as it was about to.
"No choice, huh."
I stared at the oncoming storm of fire and let out a sigh.
I had hoped otherwise, but it seemed this was still nowhere near enough.
Then there was only one method left.
"Ah, damn it. I really didn't want to do this."
Still, in a case like this, there was no better response.
For a forest fire, the right answer was another fire to meet it.
"An?"
As I turned my head, my eyes met Tiona's by accident.
So I gave her a bright smile.
"[Cut]."
Slish!
"An!"
I severed my arm, which no longer moved under the Moon Spirit Slime's effect.
Then, gripping it in my hand, I cursed the version of myself who had once reproduced this spell and spoke the incantation in my head aloud.
"[Wave 96, One-Sword Fire Burial]!"
Immediately after—
KWAANG!
"Aaaaaaaaaaah!"
Another pillar of hellfire rose before the party's eyes.