Mark, Lisa, and Patrica glared up at the two high priests. Mark cast a quick glance to the side—at the woman who had just burst through the wall, glowing waves of radiation arcing off her like transparent flames.

Even her body was affected as it had a less solid and defined form, as though she had merged with the flames themselves.

"Yasha, that's enough. Even with all of your men here, you can beat us."

Yasha narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're right, if this were a fair fight, things would have ended differently. But we don't need to play fair against heretics like you lot."

Then, with a flick of his thumb, Mark saw a black marble shoot from his hand down towards them.

Realizing something was wrong, Mark gathered a small amount of Mana and used [Telekinetic control] to flick it away.

But things didn't go as planned. Mark found his spell faltering as the Mana gathered and shot toward the object.

The magic slowed and then fizzled out as though all the Mana behind it had been ripped from its sails.

Mark's pupils narrowed as the bead continued to fall towards them.

He wanted to shout for them to move, but the increased gravity made it hard to escape rapidly. They could move, but Mark was still only just able to counter the increase in weight.

Patrica and Mark turned on their heels to run, but the bead had arrived by this stage.

Before it even touched Mark's construct, it stopped moving in mid-air. Then, as though a Black hole had opened above them, an event horizon expanded to cover the whole street.

Mark felt the tug on his Mana almost immediately. The construct he had surrounded them with rapidly began to fall apart, but not from damage

Once more, Mana was being pulled from his spell and being greedily consumed by the bead.

Mark grunted as he realized Yasha had brought a powerful item to use against them.

Turning back around, Mark asserted control over the Mana, trying to prevent it from leaving his spell, but all he could do was slow it down. The outside pressure was just too strong.

A huge crack appeared in Mark's dome, and the force from outside began to drain all of them, not just his spell.

Pain wracked Mark's nervous system as the marble began draining their Mana straight from their bodies.

But it was more than that, Mark's Prana was being pulled out along with it, and Lisa's Aura too.

If this continued, they would have no strength left to defend themselves.

Yasha floated above, watching and waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Patrica groaned.

'Lisa, get us out of here,' she sent down the link.

Lisa acted immediately, turning and grabbing both of them over her shoulders. She lifted them, and Mark kept the failing construct in contact with them to lessen the burden. But it seemed useless, no sooner had she picked them up and charged away than the bead followed as though magnetized to their energies. Mark tried shearing off a lesser construct to keep it in place, but it tore through that as though the shield didn't exist. By this point, Lisa had arrived near the line of Templars, and to Mark's shock, they backed off, unwilling to block them.

That was when Mark realized the fatal flaw in this seemingly powerful item: they couldn't control it.

The draining force was indiscriminate, and as they passed some of the Templars, Mark saw them hunch over, confirming his theory.

'Turn back! We need to go towards them!' Mark said into the link.

Lisa must have seen the signs, too, because she pivoted on her heel and dashed towards them. Yasha and the unknown high priest were both floating in the air, but that didn't seem to dissuade her.

One moment, they were running at ground level, and the next, they were in the air, as Lisa bounded forward on wings of flame.

The bead chased them faithfully through the air. Mark felt it the instant his construct gave out—he'd been holding back from recharging it, desperate to conserve what little energy he still had.

The fact that it could do this went against everything he'd known of the energies, but as they got nearer to Yasha, he growled in disgust and clenched his fist.

The sucking force dissapeared as the bead fell from the sky lifeless.

They all sighed in relief, but not before Yasha unleashed a torrent of light projectiles on them. Mark recreated a construct and took a large portion of the volley on his shield.

Lisa saw this and closed the distance between them.

They were so close to Yasha that Lisa could have slashed through him, and she did attempt it, but the man was not alone. Several Templars had arrived at the same time as they did and blocked her advance. Her blade clashed with theirs, but she was unable to advance.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Seeing an opportunity, Patrica reacted and fired a small, weak beam directly at Yasha. The man turned to block, but at the last minute, the beam of light swerved and went for the high priest of the mountain.

Either he didn't fight that often, or he was too busy with the gravity spell because his reaction times were pathetic.

The attack struck his chest before he could even raise a defense. For a moment, it seemed to burn straight through him until a dull brown glow pushed back the light. His Ideal must have stepped in because, as weak as Patrica was right now, an attack like that could easily put someone into an early grave.

With a wail, the high priest dropped like a stone, crashing to the ground below. The crushing gravity lifted in an instant.

Mark gasped in relief. But it didn't last.

Yasha screamed with rage as he created a wall of light and threw it at them.

Mark raised his own wall and blocked it, but gasped as the light hit them like an unstoppable wave.

Lisa had to back off as they escaped the attack that left Mark panting.

Compared to the army Yasha had brought, they were already working with fewer resources, and that item had only made things worse.

Mark was left with a little over a third of his Mana, and half his Prana.

All that mattered now was finishing this before they ran out of energy. But as life would have it, timing was everything.

They had been well into the evening when they had followed NAS out here, and spent a large amount of time relaxing and sleeping until dawn, when they were attacked.

Now, the skies had been turning from a blackened night sky to a dark purple haze. They hadn't really noticed it because of the situation at hand, but as they drifted in the air on the morning winds. The first light crept over the horizon, bathing them in orange light.

The shift in Patrica was gradual at first; as the light hit her, her form began to shift, more light spilling from he chest began to cover all of them in a gentle golden hue.

Unlike Yasha's unforgiving light, this was easy to look at and almost welcomed their eyes to turn to her.

Yasha saw this happening, and a look of panic crossed his features.

"No! Stop whatever she is doing!" he screamed.

Gathering light into another beam and sending it towards them.

The Templars nearby fired attacks from the street, and Patrica didn't react to any of this.

She was trapped between human and Ideal, she needed time.

Mark tightened his construct in a perfect sphere, including only himself and Patrica.

'Go! Stop them, I have her!' he told Lisa.

The woman fled just in time for the attacks to arrive, making a beeline for Yasha.

The beam of light crashed into Mark's barrier, but this time, Patrica wasn't there to help him. His Mana and Prana dipped right away as his shield parted the attack like a wave. This one was more vicious than the last, and Mark was certain it had something to do with the dawn. Patrica wasn't the only one empowered by first light.

Mark closed his eyes and drew out all of his remaining energy, sinking all of it into the shield.

Such was the strength of his attack that the world around them turned a blinding white. Seeing that he would only last a couple more seconds, Mark ignited the Corruption in his body. Converting it to usable energy, but even that had limits. Pain wracked his body, but pretty soon, he burned through his supply, cursing himself for not storing up more.

At this point, Patrica held almost no Corruption, and the amounts in the air would not help him at this stage.

Energy-wise wise he had nothing left to give.

Mark flailed to keep the dome alive as flakes of his construct began to burn away against the torrent of light.

Then it halted. Lisa's voice echoed around them as a battle cry, knocking Yasha's attack off course.

Sweat streamed down Mark's forehead as he saw the woman laying into the high priest.

He couldn't relax, though; a good number of templars were still sending powerful ranged attacks at Patrica, and he had to block them. The hundreds of points worth of Mana and Prana had burned down to single digits. As Mark struggled to use what little was left to absorb and redirect the attacks, things only got worse.

From below, Mark saw the earth rising into a titanic column once more. The high priest of the mountain must have survived the attack and was now trying to stop them. If that attack hit, Mark doubted he'd be able to stop it with what he had left, even with his 'absorb' modifier.

Struggling and exhausted, Mark watched the attack move towards them.

Without thinking, he released his mental and physical limits in an effort to try and survive. But in doing so, the world turned grey, and Mark realized he'd been pushed so far that he'd reflexively activated [Limit release(Spiritual)].

Mark hadn't been pushed to this extent in a while, and for whatever reason, he'd stepped into this other world.

The only upside was that time moved differently here. As Mark looked down, he could see all the marionettes of the Templars. Their soulless bodies glaring up at them.

Mark even spotted the high priest of the mountain in an alley. His hand raised and pointed at Patrica and himself.

Anger ignited in his chest, but he knew there was nothing he could do in this state. His spells were unable to activate here.

But as he thought of attacking the man who had split him from his allies, something happened. For just the briefest of seconds, his form shifted, and the light in his chest expanded.

A barb made from this light shot out and stabbed into the high priest's marionette. The moment it did, cracks spread in his body, and light began to leak out from within. Mark was so shocked at what he'd done that he retracted his light and canceled the skill. Time accelerated as color returned, and the mountain continued upward for a moment before it halted. A blood-curdling scream went up from the high priest as he dropped to his knees, clutching his chest where the light had hit.

Mark's eye narrowed to pinpricks, but the chaos around them continued.

Lisa was sent crashing into a nearby building as Yasha turned back to them. Half of his face was burned, and a look of hatred locked onto Mark, but as he got ready to fire another beam of light, Patrica stirred.

When she opened her eyes, there was no iris, just two pools of golden light.

Yasha fired a beam of light, and Patrica mimicked him with an attack of her own. The two met with a flash, but the white light was seemingly overpowered in an instant. The very dawn collected around Patrica and assisted her. Yasha, seeing this, he only managed a half-scream before the wave of light consumed him.

Igniting and vaporizing him in a single breath.

Mark watched in shock as a glowing orb of light appeared where Yasha had been just seconds ago, and with a flick, it rushed to Patrica.

She swallowed it down, and in that one action, the high priest Yasha was gone.

Mark could barely believe what he was seeing. The storm was over, the sky still glowing with the remnants of her power. He turned toward her. Or... toward what she had become.

Outwardly, nothing had changed, save for the golden glow that now coated her form.

She looked at him with a gentle smile. "Hello, Mark. It's a wonder to meet you in the flesh finally."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.