BOOOOOOOOM!
The ringing of the explosion signaled the beginning of a single second that Jean considered more important than his entire life leading up to the moment.
Geralt's axe made contact with the golden line he'd drawn on Aarish's body.
The two forces resonated, and by some means unknown to anyone but Geralt, a terrifyingly massive force was emitted by their meeting.
The explosion rang out because of this.
Rampant waves of energy spread in all directions, and while most of the formless intent in the air was destroyed by these chaotic fluctuations, one attack continued its trajectory unhindered.
Jean watched it move in slow motion.
Its flight path was perfectly blocked by Geralt's neck.
'Bastard…'
Jean gritted his teeth.
He had to move.
Otherwise, even if Geralt truly died here, his sacrifice would mean nothing.
The claymore in his grip felt heavy. With one hand, it was far more difficult to wield.
But the responsibility on Jean's shoulders was far heavier.
His eyes opened wide. His attention focused on the chink Geralt opened in Aarish's defenses.
'I must pierce it.'
He readied his sword.
'I must pierce it.'
Mana swirled within and around his body, forming a natural barrier that pushed away any external force in his vicinity.
'I must pierce it.'
The mana and sword became one. A beautiful holy aura covered Jean's sword as his eyes slowly closed.
Yet, the environment around him was clearly reflected in his vision.
'I must…pierce it!'
He moved.
His body blurred, becoming a force that space couldn't impede.
HAAAAAAA!
He roared like a wild beast. The blood vessels in his neck bulged and pulsated from the pure amount of spirit he was putting into the shout.
He arrived next to Geralt in an instant.
His eyes moved to look at his old friend.
Geralt was smiling.
It was the same bloodthirsty and wild smile he held whenever he enjoyed a battle to its greatest potential.
Jean sighed inwardly.
His sword began its swing.
Then, as the second came to an end, multiple things took place at once.
The terrifying spatial slash finished its flight path.
A head went flying into the air.
A sword pierced through the tiny chink in Aarish's armor.
A wave of foreign mana clogged the Nox Commander's systems and aggravated his injuries.
Blood spurted.
And a spider leg moved…
…to pierce through another body.
***
VOOOOOOM!
A strange energy-like sound resounded.
The golden barrier separating the main battlefield from Aarish and the guild branch managers flickered and faded, becoming almost negligible.
Damien's eyes narrowed as he looked back at the barrier.
'One has died.'
Damien gritted his teeth. 'My spatial suppression feels insignificant, but it's doing a good job balancing the fluctuation of that strange prison realm. However, it looks like it's about to be much harder to maintain…
Damien was essentially forcing the chaotic spatial aura to stay inside a box of his creation. However, this box only had five sides. The fifth was substituted by an already existing wall.
This wall became an important support pillar that allowed Damien to expand his influence to a greater range without worrying about leakage.
And now that it was collapsing…
'The rampant spatial mana has begun spreading into the main battlefield. I have to stop it.'
Damien teleported away without paying any mind to Rilia's exclamations that followed him. He arrived where the massive golden light barrier once stood and spread his arms.
'My Grand Heavens Boundary…will not lose this war!'
OOOOOOOOM!
His mana raged like a tsunami. For the first time in a long time, Damien put his entire mana capacity to use.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The pure quantity of mana tore a hole through the atmosphere. Damien then forcibly turned the newly formed back hole into a medium for Devour, recklessly taking everything that couldn't be contained by his barrier into his own body.
"Argh…!"
Damien bit his lip in pain. The foreign spatial mana raged through his body like a pack of wild bulls.
'As expected, even if it only has a trace of Divine Mana, anything blessed by a Demigod is troublesome.'
Despite his calm thoughts, Damien was actually quite surprised by the situation of his body. Rather than the damage, he was curious about the slow reaction of his Void Physique.
Even if its processes were no longer totally automated, it was still second nature for Damien to cleanse his body with Void Mana whenever a situation like this occurred,
This time, however, the mana was allowed to rampage on its own for a few seconds before it was tamed and recycled by the Void.
'This fucking hurts…'
Damien glanced back at the battlefield behind him with a wry smile.
'Well, at least you guys can fight without worry, just remain blissfully ignorant for now. No matter what's coming, it can't be good.'
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
A shout of rebuke snapped Damien out of his cynical thoughts.
"Hm? Can't you see I'm saving people?"
"You…just what kind of monster are you…?"
The person who appeared was none other than Rilia. And with her level of strength, she could clearly see what was happening to Damien.
"Saving people? What's the use of saving people if you die? Don't you know the value of a genius in this era?!" Rilia yelled.
"Uhm…I'm not dying tho—"
"Truly, you kids in the younger generation have no appreciation for life!"
Rilia gritted her teeth and moved behind Damien, placing her hands on his back.
"Accept my mana and use it to regulate the chaos within you!"
"No, listen to me, I'm really not dy—"
"Don't waste energy on talking and refine the wild energy!"
Damien sighed. It seemed Rilia wasn't planning to listen to him,
'Well, I'll take this kind of refusal to cooperate over any other…'
Damien shook his head wryly and continued regulating the energy as best he could, but…
It was simply impossible for him to perfectly control energy that leaked for millions of kilometers with his current strength,
RUMBLE!
Damien's face turned dignified.
He stopped his actions and moved away from Rilia.
He was able to protect the main army before the event itself took place, but now…
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The black sky split into countless pieces and shattered.
Crash!
Pieces of the glass ceiling rained to the ground. As soon as they touched, the earth rose into several dozen pillars that formed a strange pattern if viewed from above.
This is…'
Damien studied the symbol with furrowed brows. From it, he could feel the fluctuation of all elements, yet at the same time, there was no fluctuation at all.
At this time, the situation experienced another change.
The earth pillars lit up like a rainbow of various colors, shining like beacons that painted the sky in a splendorous hue of iridescence.
By this point, all sounds of battle had halted. Those with spiritual intelligence couldn't take their eyes away from the mystical phenomena, and even those without it were enamored by the strange fluctuations emitted by it.
Damien's eyes widened.
The shattered sky…wasn't it swirling like a portal?
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!
An inhuman bellow emitted by an object rather than a being.
A horrifying suction force appeared.
A light spread as far as the eye could see and made it so the eye could see nothing at all.
And when the light disappeared…
All those existing within several thousand kilometers of the phenomenon disappeared from the face of the earth.
The only thing remaining in their wake was a strange swirling sky illuminated by beacons of multicolored light.
A man watched this happen from the distance.
His eyes turned cold.
"It seems that Eien will become active again for the first time in many years…"
He turned around and began to leave.
"I must go prepare, or I'll definitely get left behind."
"How rare, how rare…"
"To think that in my life, I'd be able to personally experience a Void Corridor!"
