Volume 3, Chapter 46 – Meeting Balor Again

The scenery around her flew backwards as Fia arrived above the grand cathedral in the blink of an eye.

Due to the huge commotions coming from both the city gate and the square, the area in front of the cathedral, which had not been affected by the disaster, was also teeming with people. Although the people here did not know what was happening, the firelight from the city gate and the screams from the distance could explain a lot. Some had come to the cathedral seeking refuge, while others were fleeing in the opposite direction of the burning gate. The streets were in a state of chaos.

“The city gate…”

No, I should go to the Heart Core first.

Withdrawing her gaze from the blazing city gate, Fia let out a soft breath. The Darkborn’s target was the Witch’s Heart Core. As long as she caught the mastermind there, the rest would be easy to handle.

Using the [Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea] to hide her figure, Fia slipped through the gaps in the crowd and into the grand cathedral. Previously, when Fia had come here, she had either been led by Friede or had other witches help her open the doors, so she had never triggered any of the magic wards. But now that she was entering alone, these magic restrictions became obstacles. She could still nullify the wards that would actively attack people with her [Bee Shield Field], but there were also troublesome wards in the passage that would cause it to collapse upon detecting an intruder. Fia had no choice but to use [Telekinesis] to forcibly destroy the magic circles that constituted the wards.

With [Mana Vision], a spell that could clearly see the distribution of elements, no magic trap could hide from her.

About half a minute after entering the passage, a series of rumbling sounds came from the silent underground, as if something huge was ramming against the walls in the distance. The ground under her feet also trembled continuously, and the dust falling from the ceiling almost made it impossible to open her eyes.

It was unsettling.

Fia suppressed the urgency in her heart. As she turned a corner, her vision suddenly opened up, and a small hall appeared before her. Several apprentice witches in short white clothes were running around with their hands over their heads.

“That passage has collapsed! Go this way!”

“Go find Lady Friede!”

Fia dispelled her camouflage and stopped an apprentice witch who was running past her.

“Eek! Who-who are you?!”

“Don’t panic. Where is Lianne?”

The sudden appearance of a figure from the void startled the apprentice witch. But when she saw Fia’s face and the Laevateinn that Fia had deliberately shown, her panting face immediately lit up as if she had seen a savior. She pointed in the direction she had come from with a face full of hope.

“Lady Lianne is in the largest conference hall on the third underground level! There are many Darkborn there, and countless… countless black monsters!”

“What about the other official witches?”

“They’re all there too, but the powerful witches have gone somewhere, I don’t know where. Lady Lianne is short on manpower, so she told us to hurry and find Lady Friede!”

“Alright, you continue to inform Friede. Take the cathedral route.”

“Yes!”

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After informing the panting apprentice witch, Fia hid her figure again and moved forward. The “powerful witches” the apprentice had mentioned should be the fallen ones. When she had met those three in the underground earlier, they had been walking towards the surface. It was very likely that they had known in advance that the Darkborn would attack the Witch Hall and had left the scene beforehand.

The reason they hadn’t turned traitor on the spot was probably because they were afraid that Lianne, in her anger, would choose mutual destruction and take everyone down with her.

I hope the situation on Lianne’s side isn’t too bad.

◇

—She didn’t know how long the battle had been going on.

Lianne, with [Enchanted Blade] condensed in her hand, retreated to the Witch’s Heart Core, her gaze fixed on Balor, who was ten meters away—a headless, four-armed demon with facial features on its abdomen.

An extremely troublesome enemy.

If Lianne had to describe Balor, this would be her evaluation. For an ordinary creature to deal with a soul-form like her, there were almost no other means besides magic. However, the two spears in Balor’s hands had the power to pierce through souls. In their first exchange, they had dealt a huge blow to her.

Her flaw of not having a physical body was also exposed at this time. A soul-form could be immune to most physical attacks, but it also couldn’t wear physical armor or magic items. Therefore, in front of Balor’s spears, if she didn’t use defensive magic, she had to evade his every thrust, otherwise, her unprotected soul would be severely injured by them.

If it were just that, it would have been fine. A witch was strongest near the Heart Core, and her recovery ability was also near its peak. Although she couldn’t get too close to Balor, she could use her magical ability to drag him into a war of attrition. This was the witches’ home ground. Once Balor ran out of mana, he would meet his end.

But the worst part was that the black slime that filled the floor could provide Balor with a continuous source of power. Under normal circumstances, a Sixth Rank like Balor should have run out of mana by now. But the fact was, he had not shown a single sign of fatigue. Even when the spear in his hand broke, it could be reformed by the Chaos. Now the situation was reversed; Balor was draining her power.

She didn’t know how long the witches outside could hold on, Lianne thought. Balor was not the only Darkborn attacking the Witch Hall. There were many other demons with similar appearances who were being held off by the other official witches outside the hall. If this black slime called Chaos could also support the Darkborn outside, then she was afraid that even if Friede arrived, she would not be able to turn the tide and change the situation.

“Why have you stopped using magic? Is this all the strength the administrator of the Witch Hall has?”

Balor threw the spear in his hand at Lianne. The Witch’s Heart Core was right behind her; she had to block it with [Soul Barrier].

The spear hit the [Soul Barrier] with a cracking sound, and both shattered. At the same time, the black mist that formed Lianne’s body also dimmed a little.

It’s this kind of attack that has put me on the defensive. Lianne cursed inwardly. Balor had already discovered her weakness. As a soul-form, if the mana that sustained her existence was depleted, her life would also come to an end.

Before she could catch her breath, as the slime surged up Balor’s arm, another identical dark spear condensed in his hand.

“Don’t think I don’t know you’ve set up traps around here. If you don’t fight back, I’ll just continue!”

Another thrown spear.

Lianne blocked it again with [Soul Barrier]. And Balor, as if addicted, began to throw again and again. With a series of heart-stopping explosions, in just a short while, Lianne’s body had turned from black to dark gray.

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This can’t go on. If Balor doesn’t come over, the magic traps I set around the Heart Core yesterday can’t be activated—how on earth did this thing know I had set up traps? Did those fallen witches leak the information? Could they be that stupid?

“How dare you be distracted when facing me!”

Balor’s mocking shout brought Lianne back to her senses.

At some point, Balor had thrown two dark spears in succession.

The first one hit the newly formed [Soul Barrier]. The second one passed through the scattered fragments of the barrier and went straight for her chest.

This is bad.

There’s no time to use a second [Soul Barrier].

In that case—

Courage welled up in her chest. If Lianne had eyes, they would now be filled with the angry look of someone facing death. Her gaze locked onto Balor, completely ignoring the dark spear that was about to pierce her chest. Her black mist-like body raised its right hand towards him.

[Cataclysmic Rend]

Tch—

As if Lianne had a physical body, the dark spear’s speed plummeted after piercing her body. Her black mist form also instantly faded. However, on the other side, Balor’s situation was no better. By the time he realized that Lianne intended to fight to the death, it was too late to dodge. [Cataclysmic Rend] hit him squarely in the chest. As if an invisible giant were tearing him apart, his body quickly stretched to both sides, and finally, with a sound of flesh being pulled and a painful scream, his burly body was suddenly torn in two.

“Hah, hah…”

Her mana could not maintain her [Flight] magic, and Lianne fell to the ground. To instantly cast a Sixth Rank spell at the limit of being severely injured—such a heavy burden had not only drained her mana but had also consumed a large amount of her soul power. If not for the Witch’s Heart Core feeding her much more mana than ever before, she would not have been able to do it at all.

Did my emotions affect the Heart Core, making it willing to fight with me?

The feeling of not fighting alone made Lianne force herself to stand up. A body with only a soul would not feel tired or pain. As long as she had mana, she could continue to fight.

At the very least, she had to fulfill her promise to Friede and the others. Unless she died, no one could touch the Heart Core.

“Uwaaah…”

Balor’s painful groan echoed in the hall. Torn in two by [Cataclysmic Rend], he seemed to dissolve in the slime, merging with the Chaos on the floor. But not far from the corpse, a new Balor was gradually forming from the condensed Chaos.

That’s it. No matter how many times I kill him, he can reform his body.

Although Lianne had known the result long ago, her heart still couldn’t help but sink when she truly saw this scene. If Balor did not have immortality, the battle would not have been so unfavorable.

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In just a short while, Balor was standing in the conference hall, safe and sound, without a single scratch on his greenish-blue skin.

“…I take back my previous underestimation. You are indeed the strongest witch in the Witch Hall, to be able to counterattack even when your mana is depleted. If not for the information provided by those witches, I’m afraid I would have fallen here today.”

Those witches? Does he mean the ones who were suspected of being traitors this afternoon?!

As if reading her thoughts, Balor crossed his arms with the air of a victor and said unhurriedly.

“It’s the group you’re thinking of. We originally captured a witch to find out the location of the Witch Hall. But after hearing our identity, not only was she not afraid, but she even catered to us, hoping to cooperate with us to take away that thing behind you. They were afraid of being eliminated by you, so they told us everything about this place. Humans are as stupid as ever, fighting among themselves even in the face of an external enemy.”

As if remembering something, Balor lowered his arms and snorted self-deprecatingly.

“Hmph, we’re not much different.”

Damn traitors.

Lianne clicked her tongue in frustration.

She didn’t have to think to know who the witch Balor was talking about. She should have listened to Friede and the Guided One yesterday and gotten rid of those troublemakers—no, rather than regretting, she should be thinking about how to buy enough time. Although her mana was being restored by the Heart Core at the fastest possible speed, even the fastest recovery speed could not keep up with her consumption.

Realizing this, Lianne’s non-existent heart suddenly clenched.

Do I have to go that far?

To release the true form of the Constellation Witch.

Although she would gain a power even greater than her current one, she would lose her sanity as she had a decade ago and indiscriminately slaughter everything she could see. Her current self was not the little Fourth Rank from back then. If she went berserk here, no one could stop her. By then, apart from her fellow witches, not a single person in the whole of Byrne City would survive. She would become a vengeful spirit of Byrne City, devouring anything that passed by.

Balor’s words had a hint of admiration.

“That’s enough idle talk. I admire your courage and don’t want to kill you. We only want to take the Heart Core to prevent you from becoming our enemies in the future. I can let you join us. We are not fools like the Absolute Evil; we do not engage in meaningless slaughter.”

“Don’t even think about it. Unless I’m dead, no one can touch the Heart Core!”

Her mind made up, Lianne mobilized the little remaining mana in her body and directed it straight to where her heart should have been. But soon, she felt a flash of white light before her eyes. As her mind went into a trance, the mana she had gathered also dissipated.

Balor’s mental magic?

After a brief daze, the recovering Lianne’s heart was in chaos. However, when her eyes refocused, what came into view was Balor, impaled like a sieve by stone spears that had gushed out from all directions.

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[Forest of Rock Spears]?

Although it was not a high-rank earth-type spell, it was also not something that Friede, who was skilled in mental magic, could use.

Then who was it?

“Sorry I’m late. Dealing with the Darkborn outside took some time. I didn’t expect these guys to be so tough.”

A familiar voice sounded beside her.

It was the Guided One.

Like a drowning person grabbing a life-saving straw, hope immediately surged in Lianne’s chest. She immediately stopped the flow of mana into her heart and, while retreating to the side of the Heart Core to make way for Fia, explained in a weak voice.

“He has the ability to resurrect infinitely. He won’t die that easily. Save your mana and take the Heart Core out of here after Friede arrives!”

“Hmm… alright. You leave this place first, Lianne, and take the people outside to the surface.”

Although Fia wanted to say that it wasn’t true infinite resurrection, that every time these Darkborn were killed, their sanity would decrease, and after about ten times, they would die completely, it was too troublesome to explain. It was better to act first and explain later.

As for why Fia knew this, it was because she had already fought with a Darkborn similar to Balor outside before entering the conference hall. The situation of the witches outside was even more dangerous than Lianne’s here. Their strength was inferior to hers, yet they were facing an enemy countless times more numerous, and at the same time, had to deal with a sea of monsters and the sneak attacks of the Chaos. So Fia had dealt with the Darkborn outside first before coming in.

Faced with Fia’s commanding tone, Lianne subconsciously asked.

“Just you alone? Where’s Friede?”

“She hasn’t arrived yet. Someone has already gone to inform her.”

“I’ll stay here and help you.”

How troublesome. ¹ rightt~

Clicking her tongue in her heart, Fia turned her head slightly. Her red eyes, framed by her black twin tails, were full of confidence.

“Have you forgotten how he ran away when he saw me before? He’s no match for me. Even if there were ten more of him, it would be the same.”

“Ugh.” Lianne’s breath hitched. Although the Guided One’s appearance was much smaller than her own, she felt a strong sense of security from her. She took a deep breath. “Alright, then I’ll leave this to you. Please take care of the Heart Core.”

“Leave it to me.”