"Damn it, Emilia! You've overestimated yourself again!", Elder Flock loudly cursed.
This girl must have increased the scale of her magic spell and chose to encompass the entire rift instead of closing a portion of it one at a time.
Unfortunately, his guess was on the mark.
"I-I thought you could speed up the process with your assistance…! Why are we… coughing out blood now?!", she blamed Eluard.
"It's speeding up the process but you are covering way too much!", Eluard retorted, "Lessen the scale or else we will die!"
How could this girl dare to increase the difficulty into the realm of impossibility? Closing the entire rift in one go was out of the question. She, a genius, should have known better.
Emilia coughed out again before attempting to shift her mana to lessen the scale of her spell. Unfortunately, an unknown force prevented her from doing so.
'She can't do it!'
Eluard realized what happened and quickly placed his other hand on her back.
Emilia felt the surge of additional mana into her body. She gritted her bloodied teeth, pouring all of her attention and power into closing the entire rift in one go.
Elder Flock was worried at first but after seeing the gap narrowing, he continued his defense.
The rift and the old man relentlessly exchanged blows with one another. Multiple dark beams and demonic beasts were sent toward Elder Flock's direction and the old man used his fire magic to keep the enemy at bay.
"Divine Flame Serpentine Assault!"
All of his flame serpents retracted their bodies to him, coiling themselves before lunging towards the numerous dark beams in the sky.
The two forces collided, exploding a large area upwards. After the short fight, Elder Flock narrowed his eyes as he reassessed the situation.
'At this rate, I'm going to use up my entire strength before I can fight that demonic creature!'
'Should we have gone directly into the enemy's lair instead?'
Elder Flock thought, but his mind came up with a quick counter to his question.
'Impossible. The rift is sort of sentient and will certainly include itself in the final conflict if we let it be just as right now.'
The original plan of closing the rift first was the correct choice, though, without Eluard, it would have taken a longer time and forced him to put more effort and strength.
He controlled the fire serpent and entangled an approaching demonic beast. The serpent then spewed a mouthful of flames, vaporizing the enemy.
A demonic beast managed to sneak on his back and sent its two sharp claws upon him.
'What? Behind me?', he reacted too late.
"Swift Pouncing Slash!", a shout echoed from his right before a figure quickly went past between him and the demonic beast.
The latter stopped moving and soon after, revealed countless sword cuts around its body. Not a moment later, blood splashed unto Elder Flock and drenched him wet.
"Hey, old man wizard, you need to keep your guard up!"
The northerner warrior mocked. Elder Flock glanced at this figure and saw that he was only using one of his hands to wield, and his right eye was scarred by what looked like a bear's claw.
"I'm Xerga Winterice. I wonder how come you're here in the northern glacial continent and what are these demonic beasts doing around?", Xerga questioned while looking above, "And that… thing above? What the hell is that?!"
He had never seen such a horrifying sight before and for some reason, the muddled sensation on his head was slowly fading.
'Damn, that nightmare… what an endless tirade and I'm glad it's all over.', Xerga sighed on his mind.
Elder Flock awoke from his trance and calmly replied, "I'll tell you the details later. Please help me deal with the demonic beasts first."
"What about them?", Xerga pointed at Eluard and Emilia.
"That's the people who you should defend!", Elder Flock didn't bother to explain thoroughly as the rift's retaliation intensified.
Not only dark beams but all sorts of offensive dark spells were continuously being thrown out.
Elder Flock sent out another fire serpent imbued with divinity, blocking the large dark ball that was emanating a powerful demonic miasma. He retracted his right hand and stared at it.
'Forget about my strength, even my divinity will run dry too!'
Archmages have a limited supply of divinity and gathering them was a time-consuming activity that Elder Flock did not want to result in doing at the later stages.
Meanwhile, Xerga circled Eluard and Emilia, holding onto his great axe with his right hand, and started spinning like a beyblade.
"Northern Hurricane Whirlwind!"
It affected a large area and quickly moved around. All the demonic beasts that tried to approach him or the two were pulled into him before being shredded mercilessly.
When the demonic beasts retreated, Xerga stopped spinning and asked.
"Hey, how long do we have to do this? My strength isn't unlimited, you know?!"
He shouted while beheading a fleeing dark wolf using his great axe.
Elder Flock didn't bother Emilia, knowing that the girl was focused on closing the rift.
"Just a few more minutes!", he replied and glanced at the sky.
'The attacks are weakening and the gap is thinning out!'
He effortlessly reflected a beam and sent it hurtling towards a pack of demonic beasts in the distance. They were hit in the middle of their formation, blasting their bodies into smithereens.
Elder Flock stood in place, waiting for the rift to attack again. However, seeing that the gap was almost closed now, he knew that things would become quiet for a little while.
Xerga went beside the old man and looked at him from top to bottom. He had many questions in his mind but he wasn't going to be answered at the current moment.
He turned his head to his fellow northerner warriors and saw that most of them were beginning to wake up. They held their heads and shook them softly, trying to clear their muddled heads after a long sleep.
"Everyone, are you awake now?!", Xerga approached them.
"Sir!", the warriors stood up and saluted.
"No need to be this formal. Tidy yourselves and help the rest. We're currently fighting against some enemy. I don't want to see such a messy sight or else we will be in big trouble."
"Yes sir!"
Elder Flock observed Xerga and the northerner army.
'Strange. They didn't move a muscle earlier, and now, they're suddenly juiced up for action?'
'It must be the rift's doing, or probably, I hope, that the effect has worn out.'
An ominous feeling erupted from his mind.
'I don't know how the demonic creatures manage to pull off one sneaky technique right after another. That illusionary magic array formation that hid the undead beings, the demonic creatures, and even a spatial isolation technique.'
'This is alarming information and it makes me want to believe that they have infiltrated most, if not all, of the factions here in Aludia.'
Elder Flock could not rule out the likelihood that it could happen in the League of Wizardry. After all, they've recently had a string of miscommunications with their agents.
With his experiences in the northern glacial continent, he was convinced that a demonic creature was now hiding among their ranks.
'But I doubt the Heavenly Magic Academy won't take this to notice, do they? No, I am supposed to help them in this ordeal and give myself a chance in becoming one of their members.'
If his wishes were realized, Elder Flock will be able to act as a go-between for the League and the academy, passing information between the two parties and becoming an important figure in the coming years.
Just as he was silently imagining his triumphant rise, he heard Emilia and Eluard shout in agony as the two let out volumes of blood from their mouths and fell to the ground, unconscious.
Elder Flock tried to tend to them but stopped when the space trembled as a dark beam from the rift, larger than anything in the past, blasted the sky in half and headed to the east in a flash.
Arahon, Harrtugg Naaw, and High King Garron were alarmed. The force beneath that beam itself was strong enough to severely injure them.
"It's headed to Arsolo Stronghold again!", High King Garron's heart lurched after shouting with all of his might.
His home was going to get demolished again.
The dark beam hit the earth and sunk it a few meters on impact. The collision shook the earth, shaking off all the snow in the trees and knocking out all the underground beasts without a warning.
When the others landed on the ground, they were put down from their feet and grunted, resisting the urge to vomit due to the intense quake.
Elder Flock levitated on time, shielding his eyes from the dazzling flash. He saw the shockwave blowing a terrifying ball of snow at them beneath the blinding light.
"Hah!"
He timely set up a massive defensive barrier and protected everyone inside the mountain range.
The snow grazed upon the barrier, attempting to take it down. Elder Flock noticed this and infused wind magic on his defensive barrier.
It caused the snow to be blown away again, parallel in the direction of the shockwave. The barrier remained intact as the snow passed through it.
As for the demonic beasts, they were wiped out by the shockwave. Elder Flock didn't bother to look for them.
The disturbance didn't last long and stabilized after a while.
Elder Flock exhaled a breath of relief as he withdrew his defensive barrier. When the dust settled, he noticed something odd in his sight.
'Doesn't this look like the Wastes itself?'
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