Chapter 67: Chapter 67 – Forbidden Magic
The sphere of fire shone intensely at the tip of his finger, ready to be fired. Adam had the golem directly in his sights, and for a second it seemed like everything was over.
But then, at that moment, the ground moved.
Adam felt the rock beneath his feet begin to ripple as if it were alive, and before he could fire, the stone rose around his left leg.
The material closed over his limb with brutal force, trapping it completely from ankle to knee, and the pressure increased so quickly that he had no time to prepare.
The crack was horrible.
A wet and dry sound at the same time echoed throughout the chamber, and Adam knew exactly what it meant.
His bone had broken, shattered by the relentless pressure of the rock that imprisoned it.
A muffled groan escaped his lips as he lost his balance, and his body swayed to the side from the pain.
The Flame of Judgment shot out at that precise instant.
But Adam was no longer aiming. His arm had moved involuntarily when the agony tore through his leg, and the burning projectile flew several degrees off from its original target.
The sphere passed grazing the side of the golem instead of striking its chest directly, piercing through its right arm and tearing it off completely in an explosion of molten rock and incandescent fragments. The rest of the body, however, remained intact.
’No!’ Adam cursed mentally as he watched his attack continue its uncontrolled trajectory.
The sphere crashed against the far wall, where it exploded with a force that made the entire cave tremble.
The impact opened a massive hole in the stone, so deep that light from the outside began to filter through the rubble.
But Adam wasn’t looking at that. His attention was completely focused on his trapped leg, which was still being crushed by the rock with an intensity that increased with every second.
’Damn it, damn it, damn it...’
The pain was unbearable, so intense that it threatened to make him lose consciousness.
He could feel the fragments of bone pressing against his flesh, the muscles tearing under the relentless force of the stone, and he knew that if this continued much longer, he would lose the leg entirely.
He tried to use mana to free himself, but his core was empty. The Flame of Judgment had consumed every last drop of his reserve, leaving him completely defenseless against the trap that held him.
All he could do was stay there, feeling the pressure slowly increase, approaching the point where his limb would simply explode.
’Nox, I need you to—’
But before he could finish the thought, something else caught his attention.
A sharp whistle cut through the air, and Adam barely had time to raise his arms to shield himself before a blast of wind struck him head-on.
The impact was brutal, but it wasn’t directed exactly at him. The concentrated current of air slammed into the rock imprisoning his leg, shattering it into thousands of fragments that flew in every direction.
Adam felt his body being thrown backward by the force of the attack, rolling across the ground for several meters before stopping against a rock formation.
The pain from his broken leg throbbed with every beat of his heart, but at least he was free. At least he could move.
He looked up just in time to see Lihua collapsing.
The young woman had used all the mana she had left in that single attack, and her body simply couldn’t endure it anymore.
Her eyes closed as she fell forward, unconscious before touching the ground. But Sophia appeared beside her at the last second, catching her with trembling arms and supporting her against her shoulder.
"I’ve got her!" the elf shouted in a hoarse voice, though it was obvious she could barely remain standing herself.
Gareth ran toward them and took Lihua from the other side, helping Sophia carry the weight of their unconscious companion.
Fernis positioned himself in front of the group with his fists raised, ready to defend the others, even though he had no weapon and almost no mana left.
Adam watched them for a second, making sure they were all still alive. Injured, exhausted, on the verge of collapse, but alive. That was the only thing that mattered for now.
Then he turned his attention toward the golem, and what he saw made his eyes widen.
The beast stood in the center of the chamber, apparently ignoring the group while it focused on something else.
From its right shoulder, where its arm had once been, a dark aura emanated that Adam recognized immediately.
It was dense and viscous, a black so deep it seemed to absorb the light around it. And as that energy pulsed, the arm began to regenerate.
Bones of rock sprouted from the stump, followed by muscles of stone that intertwined over them like snakes.
The reddish crystals that decorated the rest of its body appeared one by one, embedding themselves into the new limb.
In a matter of seconds, the arm that Adam had torn off with his most powerful attack was back, as if it had never been destroyed.
’That’s...’ Adam thought as his mind tried to comprehend what he was seeing. ’Is that thing using demonic magi—?’
"Demonic magic!" Sophia’s voice filled the chamber before he could finish the thought, and the horror in her tone was unmistakable. "That thing is using demonic magic to regenerate!"
Adam cursed under his breath as he tried to stand. His left leg protested with a wave of pain that almost made him fall again, but he managed to remain upright by leaning against the rock behind him.
Nox was already working on the wound—he could feel the familiar warmth of healing magic flowing through his limb—but the damage was severe and it would take time to repair it.
Time they didn’t have.
The golem finished regenerating and turned toward the group, those red eyes shining with renewed intensity.
The sense of danger emanating from it was much stronger than before, so oppressive that Adam felt it was difficult to breathe.
It was as if the beast had been holding back its true power until now, and had finally decided to stop playing.
’What do we do?’ Adam wondered as his mind desperately searched for a solution. ’What the hell do we do now?’
He had no mana, and at any moment he would collapse once the adrenaline his injury had produced faded away.
His leg was broken. His companions were on the verge of collapse. And the creature in front of them had just demonstrated that it could regenerate from any damage they inflicted on it.
There was no strategy. There was no plan, and there was no hope.
Apparently, all that remained was to wait for the end.
-x- -X- -x-
Kilometers away, hidden among the trees of the forest, a figure watched the cave in silence.
The storm still raged around it, with the wind lashing the branches and rain falling in thick curtains that reduced visibility to almost nothing.
But the figure didn’t seem affected by the weather. It remained motionless, its gaze fixed on a specific point in the rocky formation.
A column of smoke rose from one side of the cave, visible even through the rain.
The result of a recent explosion, judging by the way the smoke still swirled violently.
The wind stirred the figure’s hair, revealing for an instant a pair of eyes glowing with an intense red in the darkness.
The same red as the golem’s eyes.
The figure remained silent for several more seconds, observing the column of smoke with an expression impossible to decipher.
