"Charlotte, maintain your strength. Hold on!"
Isabella's desperate, urgent voice rang out above the crater. The five connected lines twisted more dangerously, as if signaling an unstable situation.
The mother body, caught in the clumsily formed trap, couldn't break outward, but it continued to circle at a fixed radius above the crater, twisting its body madly. Occasionally, it would fly toward one of the commanders, savagely snapping its jaws as if to devour them.
Hugo, who was pulling the five threads wrapped around his forearm, had bulging veins on his forehead.
He had jumped into the center of the Pentagon created by the commanders as soon as Leonardo's figure disappeared into the smoke. Then he connected mana-filled threads to each of the five people to maintain the overall balance, but it was difficult to adjust the forces evenly due to the wide variation in gravity each individual generated, and because he himself wasn't in very good condition.
Moreover, since Leonardo, who would deliver the final attack, was above, Hugo naturally had to position himself below the five commanders. But bubbling lava spat flames there, and acrid gas that seemed to scorch the lungs filled the surroundings.
Meanwhile, the unanchored mother body struggled violently as if to break free, and its fierce resistance inflicted unbearable pain on all the commanders, including Hugo. Because of this, the minds of those barely maintaining the magic were already pushed to their limits.
"...Ha."
But Hugo couldn't show signs of struggle. The mother body, circling as if testing the waters, was persistently targeting two people in particular.
It kept circling near Bruno Amos, the Deputy Commander of the Southern Branch, and Isabella Roslin, the 12th Battalion Commander. The reason was that the counter-pull in the opposite direction was relatively weaker than the gravity they were generating.
And at the intersection of the two lines opposite them was Charlotte Hastings, the Deputy Commander of the 9th Battalion.
It was already remarkable that someone at the deputy commander level was holding on here, but the current situation was merciless real combat.
Because the force pulling toward her was weaker than average, the mother body, drawn to the opposite side, was gnashing its teeth right in front of Bruno and Isabella.
With the monster fiercely roaring in their faces from a position where an outstretched arm might disappear, Bruno tilted his head back and squeezed his eyes shut, sweat pouring like rain.
If Hugo below hadn't been holding on by biasing the force toward Charlotte to prevent the creature from advancing, one of the two would have already been crushed between its teeth, leaving no trace.
"Hastings, just a little more!"
The voices of her superiors encouraging each other as they struggled echoed around, but Charlotte was in no state to come to her senses.
Her arms spread out on both sides felt as if her muscles were tearing and her bones were being yanked out. She clearly heard something being crushed, but her senses were so dulled that she couldn't even tell where it was.
Her jaw trembled, and a sticky fluid flowed from her nose. Seeing her eyes gradually redden, it seemed the blood vessels in her eyeballs were bursting.
Charlotte blew her fallen hair from her face with a sigh and laughed bitterly. Her vision was gradually blurring.
At that moment, the mother body, which had been clinging to the edge all along, suddenly flew to the center of the pentagon. Others thought Charlotte might have forced out more strength on her side, but to Hugo, who was coordinating the overall force from below, it looked like a strange movement.
The creature hovered in place, increasing the range of motion of its wings. It seemed to be gauging how far it could move.
'That movement...'
Just as an ominous premonition crossed Hugo's mind as he watched the creature, the mother body, which had briefly retreated, charged toward Bruno with all its might.
"Deputy Commander Amos!"
Kugung- Kung-
Kyaaaak-
The whip Hugo swung shot out and tightly wrapped around the neck of the rapidly moving mother body. It stopped in mid-air as if pulled by a leash and was dragged back at the last moment.
Its irritable howling suggested it had taken quite a hit, but the transparent membrane the massive body collided with must have been damaged too, as the magnetic force lines between the commanders shook violently.
That impact was transmitted in full to everyone connected by the binding technique. As a result, as the taut tension loosened slightly, the mother body seized the opportunity and threw its body once more.
However, this time the direction it charged was not where the humans were. It was between Bruno and Isabella, which was also exactly opposite Charlotte from her perspective.
Hugo, who had noticed the creature's intention, was about to shout loudly to the commanders.
Kuwaaang-
As the mother body's head touched the magnetic force line, the air in that area lost gravity and exploded. At that moment, the gas and dust gathered at the center of the pentagon burst, and with a huge impact sound, about 5% of the crater's edge was lost.
Along with this, Bruno and Isabella, who were there, were thrown outside the crater, and all the commanders connected to them were dragged in that direction. It happened so suddenly that they couldn't even scream.
"Commander-!"
"Maintain formation!"
As shouts flew back and forth, something like a fleeting life review crossed Charlotte's mind as she was helplessly dragged.
'No, we absolutely can't fail.'
She had joined the operation boasting that if her superior could do it, she could too. If it ended up like this, many more people would die, and she might be blamed as the cause of the operation's failure.
If that happened, even if she survived later, she would have no face to show her superiors, subordinates, and colleagues. Even if her arms were really torn off, she had to somehow succeed in her assigned task.
Maybe that was why. Don't they say people exert superhuman strength just before death?
Suddenly, an unknown power began to surge from within her body.
"Uwaaaaah!"
Charlotte, almost screaming, pulled sticky threads from her arms and shoulder blades. Then she covered the edge of the crater in one breath, tying them tightly into the cracks of the rocks as if connecting a lifeline.
Because of that, her body stopped in mid-air as it was being dragged, and in turn, Bruno and Isabella on the opposite side were also pulled back by the recoil.
The two commanders, quickly regaining their senses, barely maintained the generation of gravity. Then the regular pentagon formed by the magnetic force lines spread out again, straddling the outside ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) of the crater.
Although the situation had unfolded differently than planned, this was an opportunity for Hugo. As the position shifted to the outside of the crater rather than the inside, his breathing, which had been constricted by volcanic gas and heat, finally eased.
He connected the mana threads more firmly, wrapping them around his arm one more time, and distributed the force evenly while sending as much gravity as possible toward Charlotte.
As a result, the mother body's movements, which had been shaking due to unstable gravity, gradually stopped, and the shadow of the massive body that had been pulled to one side was slowly drawn to the center.
Along with this, the shockwaves and debris that had spread out were also blocked by an invisible wall and gathered in one place. As the dust cleared and visibility improved, the faces of his colleagues barely holding on became clear.
Eventually, when the roaring mother body was placed in the exact center, the influence of the renowned Pentagon began to act strongly enough for all the commanders to feel.
Although the force acting inside was clearly tensile force pulling in all directions, inside the pentagon, air and sound were distorted as if space-time had been compressed.
At the same time, a sharp energy that felt like twisting internal organs ran through the commanders' entire bodies, deeply piercing each cell.
It was as if they had been hit directly in the solar plexus, making it impossible to breathe, and their eyelids trembled as if their eyeballs might roll back.
But it wasn't just pain. As if proving their efforts, the mother body's skin was pulled in all directions, expanding its volume. Like the source of evil subjected to quartering, its widely spread limbs were fixed in the air.
Its wing flapping, which had been frantic, slowed as if in slow motion, and its massive head, which had been slowly turning, was fixed facing the sky.
As everything from muscles to protrusions to eyeballs completely stopped as if trapped in a photograph, Hugo, fully realizing the completion of the Pentagon, urgently shouted toward the sky.
"Leonardo!"
At that moment, the sky that had been filled with pale steam miraculously parted to both sides.
Simultaneously, a strange light that had been hidden poured down over the commanders' heads along with a sacred current.
The six members of the Council squinted their eyes for a moment, but soon their gazes were all fixed on one spot.
Then, five pairs of eyes dyed in mysterious colors widened in disbelief.
Amidst this, even Meterion, the only one to furrow his brow, let out something like an exclamation.
"...Holy Lance?"
