Taste of Magic: Ambassador's Voice

Vaelorth was horrified to think what would have happened had he arrived just a few minutes later. The Archpatissier had been seized by the power of the Stone of Sacrifice and forced to fuel the ritual with her own mana and skill. For a moment, he had felt how her immense magical strength and finesse clashed against his own, trying to tear the realms apart yet again.

The feeling had been so powerful that it had taken Vaelorth a moment before he could gather his thoughts and react. But react he did.

[You've used the spell <Time Rewind>. No charges left.]

The world stopped around him, and for a moment, he was stuck in a completely frozen world. Or maybe it was an eternity. He couldn't tell. All sense of time had left him as it froze and then began to rewind itself. Vaelorth couldn't help but stare in amazement.

The power to change the flow of time itself. Truly horrifying ability no creature should ever possess. Yet the Archpatissier did possess it, and she had apparently used it once before to undo the error that she herself had caused, rewinding the time 20 years back.

This spell wasn't nearly as drastic. In fact, all Vaelorth got was five minutes. Five minutes back, before the crazed Archbishop forced her will upon Archpatissier. Vaelorth could see how the people before him shifted back, their outlines blurring.

It was a disconcerting feeling. He wondered if a human could even endure something like that, because even he was struggling. His own body felt like it was being pulled on all sides as the world demanded him to pull back along with everything else.

But he remained where he was, watching the scene wind back. Once the pull lessened, he prepared for an attack. He would only have a few moments to shift the whole situation in their favor.

He waited for time to resume its natural flow, watching the scene carefully. The Archbishop was drawing the ritual circle using blood while the rest of the group stood aside and watched.

The moment their movements stopped moving backwards, Vaelorth sprang into action, instantly leaping towards the Archbishop, sword in hand.

Nobody had expected his appearance. The Archbishop gasped, creating a hastily formed shield around herself. It wasn't enough to stop Vaelorth. By guiding his mana to his blade, he was able to shatter the shield instantly, keeping it moving forward. Nonetheless, the woman was able to shift her position enough for his blade to strike at her arm instead of her chest, thus protecting herself from fatal damage.

But while his one hand had plugged the blade into her, with his other hand, he had reached for the Stone of Sacrifice. As the Monster Lord, he could feel its location just as clearly as he could feel his own body. It was hidden in the inner pocket of her robes.

Vaelorth didn't stand on ceremony. He grabbed at the stone while activating fire magic, which instantly burned the robes. The Archbishop screamed and sent a powerful pulse of dark magic towards him. He had not expected that.

Dark magic was tainted by its very nature. All it brought was destruction and death. He couldn't use it, nor did he have any defense against it, so the sudden strike made him back away from the woman. But it didn't matter. The stone of sacrifice was in his hands.

The dark-skinned mage was the next to react, conjuring a spear of ice above his head, ready to launch it at Vaelorth. But as it turned out, there was another one who had managed to react even faster. The Archpatissier, freed of her shackles in an instant, leapt at the mage tendrils of water coming from her hands and engulfing the mage in an instant.

The mage's spell went haywire as the energy dispersed or perhaps was redirected back to its user. The burst of cold mana froze the water tendrils Archpatissier had produced, freezing the mage in place.

"S-Stop her!" The Archbishop screeched, clutching onto her injury.

Vaelorth had no intention to let them recover. He sent a powerful pulse of mana outwards, flooding the whole area with it. It was a risky move. Who knew what this amount of mana would do to Sunglow? But letting these humans get their way would undoubtedly create even worse consequences.

All the humans instantly doubled over. None of them could endure the onslaught of pure mana. Except for the Archpatissier. Master of manipulating mana, she took hold of the power he exuded and redirected it straight at the dark-skinned mage, forcing him completely to the ground.

While he was down, Archpatissier jumped forward and pulled the Chalice of the World out of his clutches.

Vaelorth, meanwhile, sprang at the Archbishop, grabbing her roughly by the collar and trying to pull the Codex of Origin free from the belt on her waist. The belt had been surprisingly sturdy, refusing to open and release the book.

The Archbishop released another attack of dark magic, screeching like a madwoman at the same time. Vaelorth endured the nasty strike by coating his body in a dense layer of mana. Some of the dark magic managed to get through, weakening him.

However, the use of dark magic was clearly weakening the woman, too. After all, the only way to use it was by offering life force, either somebody else's or your own.

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Vaelorth released another powerful wave of pure mana, striking the Archbishop and all the other Church members who were beginning to rise to their feet. Without giving them a chance to recover, Vaelorth used his blade to cut the belt off the woman's waist, thus also creating a large gash in her side. She screamed and unleashed another blast of dark magic.

Vaelorth jumped away as quickly as he could, but the powerful wave ate through the last of his barrier, making him crumple to the ground.

"I won't let you take them!" She said with a manic glint in her eyes, reaching her hand out to Vaelorth.

Vaelorth turned to the Archpatissier, who now victoriously held the Chalice of the World in her hand. Then he threw both the Codex and the Stone to her, accelerating their flight with his magic.

Archpatissier caught them.

"It's time to put an end to this," she said and closed her eyes.

Melina was amazed by Lord Eidranis perseverance. Despite being blasted by a wave of dark magic three times, he still managed to get the Sacred Treasures from Heiliger. He was especially weak to this kind of magic as somebody whose very essence exuded mana and life.

The way he had just appeared next to them, seemingly out of thin air, had caught everyone completely off guard. But it took only half a second for Melina to realize that he had used time magic. And if he had used it, it meant that Melina didn't have a moment to lose.

She instantly broke through her bindings, overwhelming them with mana, and got into action. Without holding anything back, she, together with Lord Eidranis, overwhelmed the Church forces.

If Heiliger had more System users with her, perhaps she would have stood a chance. But with Alistair keeping them at bay, Melina and Lord Eidranis could overwhelm within minutes, even if Lord Eidranis had suffered quite a bit of damage.

Now with all three Sacred Treasures in her hand, Melina could put an end to all this. Melina used the ambient mana and teleported herself right next to the passageway, jumping straight into it.

She heard Heiliger's screams, but ran forward. Melina had to get to the Monster Realm first. Only its rich mana environment could provide her with enough energy to destroy the sacred treasures.

The run was short as the distance between realms had shortened significantly. A few leaps and she was through. The moment Melina was engulfed by the Monster Realm at night, she opened the Codex of Origin on its last page. There was the incantation necessary to destroy the treasures.

She had had plenty of time to study it in intricate detail and learn its pronunciation by heart. Nonetheless, she felt safer with it open in front of her. It wasn't even a difficult incantation, not when compared to the intricacies of the time ritual.

So she began chanting, her voice loud and clear. The whole world seemed to blur around her, and the only thing she could feel was the three treasures with her. They each floated in front of her with the Codex at the center.

"Stop her!" Heiliger's screech resounded somewhere in the background.

But Melina wasn't worried. The time around her came to a halt. Not because of her own power but because of the power of the treasures before her.

"Are you sure this is what you desire?" A voice spoke to her. Neither female nor male. Neither old nor young. It was a cacophony of voices, and yet it was one. She thought that for a moment, she could discern the voice of Lord Eidranis among them.

"I wish for both realms to live in peace. With the sacred treasures destroyed, I believe our world will have a chance to learn how to live together in peace. Learn how to coexist. So long as they exist, there will be people like Heiliger who will seek to separate the realms and destroy them," Melina replied calmly.

"Are you ready to pay the price?" The voice asked.

"I am ready!" Melina confirmed with a smile. Nothing would be the same after this, but even so, she was ready. She had been ready for this for a long time.

"Then show me your resolve, child!"

Melina nodded and began pulling all the mana that she could from the surroundings. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear Heiliger's scream again. Nonetheless, Melina didn't stop. Every ounce of mana that she had in her body, every ounce of mana she could pull from the surroundings, every shred of magic within her—Melina tore it away. She gave her everything to destroy the treasures.

With each second, she grew weaker, and pain radiated from her body. Her vision blurred, but Melina persevered. She pulled everything she could and poured it on the Sacred Treasures. Even when her vision blurred and her consciousness threatened to fade, she kept going.

Only when she saw golden cracks emanate through the Sacred Treasures and eventually turn the relic into shimmering golden dust, did she allow her consciousness to fade. She had done it. Melina had paid the price and destroyed the Sacred Treasures. The world would be safe now.

Alistair felt it. Everyone had felt it and stopped right in the middle of the battle. A strong wave of something inexplicable had passed through them all. Something powerful had been destroyed; they could all feel it. None of them had known of its existence, yet now, when it was gone, they felt it as acutely as if a part of themselves had been destroyed.

Sienna let out a loud, wailing scream. At one point, the wyvern had joined their fight, heavily tipping the battle in their favor. But her sad cry made Alistair's heart clench.

"Melina!" He screamed.

Knight appeared right next to him a moment later, and he jumped on the steed's back. Without hesitation, they dove into the shadows and ran through them. Only occasionally did Alistair glimpse out of the shadow, watching Sienna fly and following her.

"Please, please, please, be alright!" He muttered to himself.

He and Knight re-emerged right next to the Monster Realm passageway. Sienna flew into it without hesitation, and they followed. Alistair was briefly surprised by the fact that there wasn't a passageway as such. One moment, they were in the Human Realm, and the next, they were in the Monster Realm.

But there was no time to ponder this problem.

Before him, he saw the sight of Lord Eidranis along with his elite drow squad fighting the mage from Su Xien and three other System users. Or rather, he was being protected by his elite guard as Lord Eidranis himself looked heavily wounded and barely able to stand.

However, that wasn't important. Not too far, Alistair saw Heiliger, covered in blood and wounds, her hair completely disheveled and eyes manic, with a blade raised high above her head. She was about to plunge it into Melina, who was lying limply on the ground.

"DIE!" Heiliger screamed, her dagger racing down.

"NO!" He screamed and surged forward, lightning engulfing him.