Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL]

"You two are becoming quite a nuisance," Peter says. He's building up energy around him, preparing another set of those constricting chains.

"Thank you," Kristil says. "I do so love ruining the plans of pricks like you who try to control others. And nothing brings joy to my eye more than the sweet taste of explosive revenge upon the wicked and unjust."

I find it a bit strange that Kristil is just standing there, letting the dick of the day charge his attack without making any attempt to stop him or break his concentration or just… get this damn thing over with so we can go on to the next floor and from there, back home to civilization.

Peter, meanwhile, scowls with unbound contempt, now directing his entire effort on silencing Kristil. Thousands of finger-sized crystals fly around her, each trying to impale her from a different direction. But Kristil only raises a violet arm and clenches her fist. All of the shards within a radius of ten feet freeze in midair, while those outside ricochet off as though they've hit some sort of barrier.

Staring at Kristil's new ability with narrowed eyes, I realize that's exactly what she's done. Only, instead of using some variation of [Repulsion] to shunt and reflect momentum directly as I am, instead she's… creating some sort of magnetic equivalent? Charging all particles within a small dominion around her, then suspending them motionless with a controlled balance of magnetic fields that create a damping, negative-feedback loop. I'm not sure how one would do such a thing. Physically, I've never heard of such a thing, but then again, thanks to the System, common sense need not apply anymore.

"You know," Kristil says, releasing her fists. "As much of a wretched scumbag as you are, Mr. Mayor, I have to thank you. And you too, Seraphina, minus the part about being a wretched scumbag. If not for both of you, I wouldn't have figured out how to break through to the next stage of my Skills. To temper my willpower and better internalize what my lightning means to me on a deep, conceptual level."

Kristil moves forward at a blistering pace, leaving a trail of purple flame in her wake. She has no more success at damaging Peter's body than I did— suggesting that his ability to swap between his mirror images is nearly instantaneous— but he does look more flustered than I would have expected.

"Im– Impossible! How– How did you?"

"I've been thinking about my lightning all wrong. As the buildup of electrical charge. Of voltages and potentials, like how a physicist would study it. In short, I've been thinking too mathematically, too scientific. But what I really needed to grasp about lightning, is that it is explosive. It is unconstrained. And when some fool makes an attempt to try to capture and restrict its movement, it has a tendency to explode!"

Kristil's voice crackles with power as she says those last two words. The shards of crystal are being held in place through the massive electrical aura she's emitting, falling to the ground or even shattering like so much stained glass.

"You– You should be under my control! My will should be absolute here within the Crystalline Monolith! How is it that you're able to move?"

"I told you, asshole! I don't like to be restricted, so I won't allow myself to be. Just like Seraphina refuses to let other people take the power that she's worked to achieve, I won't allow anyone to make me feel weak or powerless. Not today, not now, not anymore, not ever."

"Alas." The fell Lord of Synthir glares down at Kristil, violent Ether cascading all around him, coating his body in a thin but incredibly dense layer. "Such insolence cannot be permitted within my dominion." He raises a hand and points a single finger at the [Elementalist.]. "May your suffering and anguish in death be equal to your transgressions against the natural order."

Kristil faces the full force of Peter's attacks. I rush in, trying to interfere, to share the load, to do something, but I'm unable. Thick walls of crystal rise out of the ground, constricting my movements and forcing me away from her.

I briefly turn my attention to Cara, all while keeping my eyes on Kristil. If this is what she wants to do, to face him down directly in a confrontation of wills, the way Chloe is fighting against him even now, then I need to do my part and get Cara's restraints free.

"I'm ready when you are, Seraphina."

"I know. But we'll have to time this perfectly. We got away with it once due to our enemy's ignorance. But now that he knows we have this ability, he will stop at nothing to block or incapacitate us before we get a chance."

Even with Peter's concentration now split three ways— his physical fight with me, and his mental clashes with Chloe and now Kristil— he still commands enough mastery and control over his spells and this place to give me more than a little trouble. Paradoxically, I think it's even more difficult to evade the attacks than before. Before they were choreographed, moved by focused willpower and killing intent.

Now, that intent is more erratic, his concentration slipping as his sanity begins to fray. Even though he may have total control over this dominion, that doesn't mean he himself is omnipotent. His Level, his [Mind], the rank of his Skills, the ability of his brain to stretch its concentration on multiple tasks. All of them are finite. The three of us are pushing him to his limits. The four of us can overwhelm them completely. Five, counting Filia.

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For that, I need to do my part. Twisting and turning through a constantly-shifting maze of crystalline walls, all while more attacks come at me from the sides, above, and below, like I've stumbled into some ancient, booby-trapped crypt. I try to get close enough to Cara to get a clean shot with our spell, but as expected, every time I do, the surroundings shift.

Distance proves fuzzy. Lines that look straight are anything but, and my perception— even through [Archangel's Gaze]— is distorted. I realize that space itself is distending, some sort of negative curvature being applied to the local space. And this, in turn, is throwing off how I need to properly fly to dodge attacks that appear to bend, but are actually traveling straight.

My Skills and [Mind] help with the computations, but not before I suffer more than a few wounds. The attacks are fierce, piercing through [Saintess's Cloister] and beginning to eat away at my [Health]. A small part of me wants to instinctively try to fight defensively, even though intellectually, I know that's a terrible idea. And so I again press the initiative, accelerating more quickly through the fray, blocking as many attacks as I can, until I finally get close enough that I can cast the spell once more.

"Oh, no you don't!" Peter shouts. He screams a scream that echoes through the entire Crystal, shaking the very ground at my feet and attempting to suppress all other movement. Space distorts further, to the point where small patches of pure darkness begin to appear, almost as though tiny ruptures in the fabric of reality are being created and then repaired just as quickly. I dare not touch them, even for an instant, and yet, it's so hard to predict where they'll appear next.

"Fear not!" Filia says. "This is just because of how light is bending and twisting in this distorted space." They grab hold of my [Ether] through my hands, something which I don't resist, and together, we begin pushing their spell past the barrier threshold. This time, however, we don't immediately use their [Broken Chains], instead opting for a barrage of their [Brilliance].

Golden light immediately fills the area, outshining even the light of the Crystal's core high above. The radiant warmth even works to counteract the twisted flow of Ether within the space, absorbing the excess energy to power itself.

"[Brilliance] isn't just a spell that creates light," Filia explains. "It also dispels illusions, mirages, and other distortions, revealing the true nature of all objects."

"And we weren't using this before because?"

"I hadn't been sure that there were any illusions before. I, like you, thought that Peter was merely creating a number of reflections of himself and moving very quickly between the two, creating something that looked like a bunch of afterimages. But when Kristil managed to overcome Peter's defenses and inflict backlash damage upon him, I realized that our earlier hypothesis was wrong."

"He's not here." The mental utterance comes nearly instantly. "We should have realized that from the way he was able to dodge so effortlessly. I– I got careless. Assumed my [Archangel's Gaze] was all-powerful and could see through all illusions. Someone like this, in his place of power, could create an illusion that is convincing to both [Ethersight] and optical vision. One powerful enough to fool these eyes as well."

We dodge another attack. But I notice that the number of attacks has diminished significantly. But it's not that Peter is weakening. Not so suddenly, and certainly not to this extent. No, it's because he's been using a combination of actual attacks and distortions, and illusionary versions indistinguishable from the real thing. Now that the illusory ones are being dispelled by the light of [Brilliance], it's so much easier to evade the third or so that remain.

"Forgive me for not considering the possibility, Seraphina. You have an incredibly potent visual Skill considering your level and the fact you're a hybrid mage-artificer-fighter class. I wouldn't have expected this Lord Mayor to have such powerful illusions. He'd need to be some sort of [Illusionist] or [Psionist] class, and we had suspected his class was non-combatant in nature."

"We both have a lot to learn, and I think I understand better about what Alexey meant way back when he cautioned about making too many assumptions. Had we not been so hasty in our judgements, we might not be in this predicament."

"Nevertheless," I say, dodging another attack and closing the distance to Cara, "Let's focus on what we can do in the here and now."

"Agreed!"

Filia's conviction and focus is bolstered. With our focus in sync, we're able to even more easily parry and shatter the attacks that befall us, dealing greater and greater amounts of damage. I add in a Wind-aligned [Elemental Ether Strike] directly at the source of the Crystal, and attack with as much [Ether] as I can afford to spare. This Crystal is the same yellow-orange shade of citrine or topaz, likely Earth-aligned, and using the antipodal element is most likely to strike a weakness.

[Elemental Ether Strike] is such a versatile Skill. Like the variant I had in my past life, I can channel my [Ether] into a blast of energy, directing it like a beam of destructive force toward my chosen target. Unlike back then, however, I can also infuse it with my glyphs to change its form and properties, making it susceptible to elemental vulnerabilities and resistances alike. The amount of [Ether] I can use also varies. A small amount for a precision strike, when subtlety is desired, or a massive amount for a single devastating burst of energy.

What I don't expect, catching me off guard, is for the attacks to abruptly cease upon my attack reaching about fifty feet from the outer edge of the core. Instead, the attacks all aim to intercept my own, shielding the core, even at the cost of letting massive chunks of the outer surface be utterly vaporized. My attack gets closer and closer, but after being attrited through so many collisions, it ends up fizzling out mere inches from the surface of the ore.

Although my secondary goal of ending the fight proves unsuccessful, I've still achieved my primary objective— stopping the attacks long enough for me to reach Cara. With a single second and a flex of mental effort, Filia and I together cast their [Broken Chains], shattering the bonds that had kept her body and power broken.

Cara rises to her knees, cracking her neck as though she'd just slept wrong overnight. With far less finesse and explosiveness than was the case with Kristil, she stands back up, eyes full of focus. She begins chanting a spell, though my focus is taken elsewhere.

"You… This display of defiance has gone on for far too long," Peter screams at me. "A thousand deaths will never be enough to atone for this transgression! You will suffer for eternity for this!"