Chapter 36: Chapter 35: Power of the Hero
Ruby, who was now calling herself Lucilla glared at the Hero after he attacked her. She wasn't bleeding since the Light attack that hit her generated heat and cauterized the wound. The others around her all got ready to fight, except for Maisy, who quickly retreated into Lucilla's cloths.
The other four were still worried about the monster woman's mental state. They didn't even have time to process her sudden crazed laughter and the just as sudden name change before Jason had attacked. They were now currently facing one of, if not the most powerful person on the continent. It would be understandable that they would have some mental whiplash.
On the other hand, Jason looked at the surrounding area with shock. He hadn't imagined the Silver haired woman was capable of so much destruction. Looking down at the group of four - completely missing Maisy when she retreated into Lucilla's clothing - he noticed one of the women in front of him wore a familiar raven mask. It was Sable, and it appeared this was their real body.
"Hey Judieth?" Lucilla called out to the Red head. "What are our chances of defeating or escaping right now?" Lucilla's monster instincts were kicking into overdrive as it told her to escape.
"Defeating him? Not possible currently. Running away is still difficult but more likely to succeed." Judieth said. "The problem is we're in an open space which puts us at a disadvantage. Also call me Sable, the Hero still doesn't know my identity."
Nodding Lucilla then looked over at Morella. "Ella I'm going to need you to make a smoke screen." She said before turning to Yuki, "And I'm going to need you and Jud- Sable, to make a large stone wall."
After giving their acknowledgements of the plan Judieth and Yuki started chanting. Noticing this Jason formed another beam of light in front of him, before he could fire it a massive fog covered the area. Without a visual he deactivated the spell. A few moments later a massive wall surrounded the crater.
"Well. This is annoying." With a sigh Jason jumped on top of the wall in front of him. "What skill should I use? Oh, I know. 'Magma River'." Sticking his sword into the ground he poured his mana into the earth wall below him as he said the name of his spell.
A rumble could be felt, and the ground started to shake more violently by the second. Eventually Cracks ran down the wall and lava started flowing out of them. It traveled down the wall and into the crater below. Through the fog the red glow of the magma could be seen through the fog spreading throughout the area like vines.
The Silver haired woman and the Nymph used water magic to counteract the encroaching magma. Yuki started chanting a complicated spell to take the heat from the molten rock while Judieth used a spell crystal to make a thin barrier around them to protect them from the heat and steam. With their combined efforts they manage to stop themselves from being roasted alive.
They all stood there in silence for a few seconds, getting ready to counter whatever attack came their way. After a moment strong wind started blowing through the area and the fog started dissipating. Realizing their cover was about to be blown focused her attention on keeping the cover intact.
"We need to move now! Morella you're going to have to do that as we run!" Judieth called out to them, making her to the east side of the crater. "Ru- Lucilla, take these and use your wind magic to spread them as wide as possible." She said taking out more Crystals from her bag. Judieth tends to act more like a Witch than a Necromancer at times with the number of magic components she seems to carry with her.
Taking the dark brown crystals from Judieth she proceeds to shoot them at random with a highly pressurized wind tunnel. Whenever the crystals touched the ground large stone walls formed. Very quickly a large maze was formed around them. With even more obstacles in the way their chances to escape increased by a small amount.
"Sigh, are all the towns' people evacuated from the area?" Jason asked May with a dry droll.
"Yes sir. You won't have to worry about any collateral." The black-haired swords woman said with a nod.
"Great." He said before he started chanting for the first time in a while. For most spells he cast he just needed to say the name and they would activate. But for some spells they needed activation words, and this was one of them. "Oh, great goddess of light, Protector of Man, Lend me your strength to vanquish thy enemy, May this strike pierce through the heavens, Canon of Heavenly Light!"
Swinging his sword down he pointed to the center of the Crater. For a scant three seconds nothing seemed to happen, then Three massive Golden magic circles appeared in the sky. A white and gold cannon with ornate designs seemed to form from the magic circle highest in the sky, while the other two wrapped around the barrel of the godly weapon.
"NNNNNGGGG!" Jason had a Golden light wrapped around him as he struggled to control the spell. He knew if he wasn't careful the blast radius would take out an even larger area than Lucilla. The Radiant light from the spell brightened the area as if it was the midday sun and bathed everyone in its Celestial aura. Jason was hoping to keep Celestial energy within the Caters limits.
Lucilla, Yuki, Morella, Judieth, and Maisy looked up in despair. The magic attack that can only be called divine. Looking like the end, the newly named Lucilla Crimson couldn't help but laugh. The official start of her journey ended before it could even begin. For some reason her Mana-links aren't screaming at her in agony, so she thought she had a fighting chance, but it looks like that didn't even matter.
Yuki pulled Lucilla and Morella into a hug, while Judieth just placed a hand on the laughing Crimson eyed woman's back, giving a comforting pat as she stared into the jaws of death. Maisy also poked her head out of Lucilla's clothing, looking up. As an intelligent slime she wasn't a fighter and any attacks she did know how to do was used strictly for self-defense, but her thoughts mind still raced, looking for a solution out of this predicament.
She was a Dark type of slime, but that wasn't useful in this situation. Everyone but Morella could use dark magic in this party, which is impressive considering dark magic isn't as common as the four main elements. 'What can I do? I can't let my master die! Can I dissolve the ground enough to make a shelter underground? No stupid.' She watched the magic attack in the sky in slow motion, her thoughts focused purely on getting out of this situation. She was driven by her instincts to protect the person she bonded with and nothing else.
'What else, what else!? Think Maisy think, what do I as a slime have that can help in th-' She thought frantically before a solution hit her. She didn't know if she would be able to do it, but she's was born with this power, she just needed to do something a bit more complicated this time, that's all.
She started forming a magic circle around everyone's feet. The red glow of the magic was drowned out by the golden light coming from above so no one noticed it. The circle flickered and dissipated a few times but she was getting close, just a few more seconds and she'll have it. 'Please, please, please work. Come on don't give out on me please.' She prayed.
VVVVRRRRRROOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!
Just then the spell went off. It took all of 15 seconds from its formation to it firing, but for everyone involved it felt like an eternity. The fog was blown away and Jason saw it, clear as day, where his targets were. They weren't in the direct center where he aimed, but close enough for them to be swallowed the golden-white light.
Jason managed to concentrate most of the spell towards the center of the crater - which was still a massive area consider the crater was quite large - but the shockwave still manages to be a massive problem. It exceeded the craters limit by a mile and a half south and east, causing untold damage to the surroundings. The shockwave was hit by a few trees in the Enchanted Forest to the north, but the most it did was bend or tilt them. Jason was glad he aimed more towards the south than north. That was lucky.
The massive beam of light ended after ten seconds. The exact area where the light hit was now a deep pit in the earth, and everything else was a bunch of rubble from the earth being cracked and flung everywhere because of the shockwave. The dust cloud left behind hid most of the damage, but Jason realized this whole area was now impossible to restore. At least right now.
"We should report back to the Church. Let's go." Jason said after surveying the mess he caused. 'I should check and see if I actually killed them, but I can't be bothered.' Jason turned around and started walking, the wall he was on had long crumbled away. He stumbled here and there, clearly exhausted, as he and his party returned west.
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"Haah!" With a mighty yell a large boulder was shot into the air, shattering. Four figures climb from the cavity underneath. Lucilla looked into her shirt and at the purple slime that was there. "Did you do that?"
Maisy gave a thumbs up.
Indeed, at the last possible second Maisy had successfully teleported them away. It wasn't far so they still got hit by the aftereffects of the spell and got buried under the rubble, but they weren't vaporized. Everyone was covered in bruises and shallow cuts, but otherwise unharmed. Except for Lucilla who was already injured and was currently bleeding from the abdomen. Thankfully Maisy was keeping the bleeding in check.
"It's a welcome surprise you figured out how to use teleportation magic." Judieth started, "Honestly I didn't realize Slimes had the ability to do it. Though I guess it makes sense because of your natural affinity for spatial magic."
"That was super-duper cool." Yuki said with excitement reverting back to her usual attitude almost immediately. "I seriously thought I was going to die! Thanks~."
"I'm just glad we're still breathing, though I do believe we should leave this place with haste." Morella said holding her arm.
"Yeah. Judieth where next?" Lucilla asked, grimacing in pain. With all the excitement now over, she was starting to feel everything.
"Uhh." Looking up to the starry sky Judieth reoriented herself. "That way, let's get moving, we have a lot of walking ahead of us."
Slinking off into the night, Lucilla Ruby Crimson and her companions limped their way to safety. Lucilla now knew the power a Hero possessed. If she were to take down the Church she'll need enough to at least avoid another attack like that. With her Crimson eyes glowing faintly in the moon light Lucilla once again silently chuckled to herself.