Bab 81: Chapter 75: Final Battle
The blade of light Ellize had called upon pierced through the "witch." Had she been fighting a regular monster—or even an archmonster—the battle would have ended on the spot. That was how powerful her blow had been.
Still, Verner and the others knew that wouldn't be enough to take it down.
"That won't work, Ellize! That thing is made of mana, so you can't hit it like that! It only materializes when it's about to attack!" Profeta warned.
Ellize's expression grew darker.
Unlike Alexia and the others, this "witch" wasn't near-invincible. It was but an aggregate of the past witches' grudges—a lump of mana with a will, a mishmash of the witches' dregs. While it, as the source of the world's suffering, was unmistakably a "witch," it technically wasn't one at the same time. That was why Supple's golem had been able to damage it. In exchange for losing its invincibility, though, the "witch" had gained a new power that pretty much made it immortal—it was intangible instead.
Sure enough, the hole Ellize's blade had opened up closed in a matter of seconds.
Mana was much like air—it was everywhere. Trying to attack the witch while it was intangible was as much a hopeless endeavor as trying to punch the air.
"HEE HEE HEE!!!"
"MWA HA HA HA!!!"
Several faces cackled as their necks extended. They intertwined themselves around Ellize and tried to strangle her, but her trusty barrier stopped them.
The fake saint didn't even flinch. Their attack had been a complete failure. On top of that, the blade of light that Ellize had called upon earlier suddenly moved and beheaded the witches that had attacked.
The abomination recoiled as several faces groaned. The severed heads disintegrated into black mist and returned to the "witch." Before long, they grew once more.
When the monster materialized itself, it was definitely possible to damage it. The issue was that the "witch" seemed to be able to turn part of itself into mana at will.
Unless Ellize killed it in one strike, it would keep regenerating itself. In fact, Ellize couldn't be sure that even if she destroyed it in one blow, it wouldn't turn into mana and reform itself anyway.
"When the going gets tough, the tough get going," Ellize declared in English.
She'd just thought up a new technique. As always, her taste in names was awful, so she'd defaulted to a foreign proverb. Thankfully, no one would understand it in this world. The people here were convinced that this peculiar language Ellize sometimes spoke was a holy language with mysterious powers.
Light gathered behind Ellize's back, and a giant made of light appeared. What better way to fight a giant made of mana than to make her own?
The Tough Guy, as Ellize had named him, looked like an old, yet burly man. He was dressed in a white toga, which showcased his well-built shoulders and perfect muscles. A circlet rested on top of his white, shoulder-length hair, and a thick mustache and beard entirely concealed his mouth.
The Tough Guy clutched the sword of light and approached the "witch," making the ground tremble with every step. He slashed at the witch. To no one's surprise, it dealt no damage at all.
Ellize didn't mind, though. She'd created the Tough Guy to act as a decoy.
"Festina Lente," she chanted.
While the "witch" was busy with the Tough Guy, she cast her spell on the citizens. Countless pillars of light appeared.
Ellize's first move had been to evacuate the civilians outside the battlefield. Layla immediately understood the implications; a desperate whimper escaped her. Ellize wanting them out of the way could only mean one thing: the fight would grow fiercer.
The fake saint set her sights on a desolate spot that had already been mostly destroyed by the "witch."
"King Aiz," she called out. "I'm afraid I'll need to go all out. Is that all right?"
"Do what you have to do. With the city in that state, it doesn't matter anymore... Besides, we can always rebuild it."
The path the "witch" had taken—a straight line from the city wall to the church—had long since turned into a mountain of rubble. On the other hand, the buildings on the other side of the church remained unblemished.
Ellize's decision to fight in the ruins to avoid further destruction was a sensible one. Needless to say, taking the fight out of the city would have been the best option, but she didn't think she'd have much success trying to lure the witch away.
Having made up her mind, Ellize flew to the desolate area and had the Tough Guy lure the abomination toward her.
Ellize had yet to use any showy spell. She didn't want any innocents to get mixed up in their fight, so she was trying to make sure she and the "witch" were far enough away before she did anything.
If that thing's made of mana...that skill'll probably work. I just need to figure out the best way to do it.
As she dodged the witch's attacks, Ellize started devising a plan. She was going to create a barrier that wouldn't let mana through, just as she had when she'd fought Alexia.
While Ellize could isolate the "witch" and prevent it from recovering mana, she couldn't destroy the mana it was currently using. That was why she needed to play her cards right. If she simply created her barrier right now, the monster would most likely escape.
Making the barrier inescapable could be an option, but then what? It probably wouldn't hold forever. Should she hurl it into outer space with the "witch" inside?
She didn't know what would become of mana in outer space, but she was pretty sure the abomination wouldn't be able to come back to this planet ever again.
Still, there were obvious holes in the method. In most stories, the seeds of destruction left by previous generations always find a way to come back and bite humanity in the ass!
Ellize resolved to try to destroy it first. If she couldn't do it, then she'd send it into outer space as a last resort.
I'll try my luck first. It'll be for the best if I can beat this thing here and now, Ellize thought, leaping in front of the "witch."
She couldn't attack first. She needed to wait for the giant to strike, then aim for the moment it materialized.
The witches' faces all opened their mouths at once, and condensed black mana came flying out.
Ellize flew higher to dodge and threw her hands up.
"Aurea Libertas!" she exclaimed.
Beams of light rained down. They twisted and turned in the air before hitting their target. As the beams of light pierced through the witches' necks, beheading them, the Tough Guy swung its sword, cutting the gigantic monster in two.
Ellize's beams of light automatically pursued their target...but so did the dark beams of the "witch." She thought she'd dodged everything, but the dark mana suddenly changed direction and flew right at her.
Ellize reacted quickly, increasing her speed and creating some distance between her and the monster. However, the beams changed their trajectory and followed her once again. She decided to change her strategy. She quickly fell toward the ground, then made a ninety-degree turn right before impact. The dark beams weren't able to follow the sudden turn, and they crashed into the ground, exploding.
Ellize called upon another beam of light. This time, she didn't let it scatter into countless small lasers but focused the entire ray on the "witch." It pushed the horrid being backward until it disappeared into the light.
The fake saint's light beam had destroyed everything in its wake. The collapsed buildings and piles of rubble were nowhere to be seen. All that remained was a long crater.
Alfrea, who was cowering behind Profeta's back, whispered, "That girl is in a league of her own..."
Who in the world was she? Alfrea totally understood why the Church had decided to give her the title of Great Saint. If Ellize was to be treated as a fake, what did that make her and the other saints?
Ellize kept her eyes trained on the crater she'd created, waiting silently to see what would happen now that she'd destroyed the "witch" in one hit. After a few moments, however, she sighed.
"MWA HA HA HA!!!"
The "witch" had already started regenerating itself from scratch.
Sadly for them, Ellize had guessed right—even if she destroyed the monster in one go, it was still able to reform itself. In other words, there was no point in attacking it.
Interestingly enough, the "witch" had decided to adopt a new appearance. The monster now only consisted of an upper body—Eve's, according to the gigantic face that stared at Ellize.
It had apparently decided—did it even have the intelligence to make decisions? No, its instincts had probably pushed it to act—that its previous form wasn't a good fit to fight Ellize. Thus, it had made the necessary changes.
One of its humongous hands closed in on the fake saint, trying to grab her, but Ellize swiftly leaped to dodge. At the same time, the Tough Guy hit the abomination in the face and sent it crashing into the ground. It cracked under the impact, and fissures snaked out as the weakest spots caved in.
The "witch" was far from done, though. This time, it tried to grab Ellize with both hands. Ellize waited until the gigantic limbs were close enough, then chanted, "A picture is worth a thousand words."
Her mana exploded in all directions, annihilating everything around her. In the past, this spell had allowed her to erase several archmonsters from existence in one hit. Ellize had grown far stronger since that time, and her attack was even more destructive. The Tough Guy was also hard at work, hacking the horrid being's faces to pieces with its large sword.
Once again, Ellize had succeeded in destroying the monster entirely. And yet, mere seconds later, the witches' hateful laughter echoed around her.
It truly was pointless.
This time, the faces of the successive witches all appeared. They floated in midair, creating a vision of horror. Those who witnessed this terrifying spectacle would surely have lost their faith in the past saints for good.
The poor saints are probably turning in their graves, Ellize thought.
The only ones missing were Eterna, who'd just become a saint; Alfrea, who'd been sealed before she could kill her mother; and Lilia, who'd died before she could accomplish her mission. Obviously, Ellize, who was never an actual saint, wasn't there either.
Ellize let out a sigh of relief, but she was forced to conclude that defeating this monster was, as she'd feared, impossible.
Wrapping it up in a barrier and throwing it into outer space was probably her best shot.
Damn, I messed up... I should've gone through with that when it still looked like a giant! I doubt that thing figured out my plan, but it's going to be a pain in the ass to trap with it all spread out like that...
The witches' faces floated around like clouds. Ellize would need to create a giant barrier if she wanted to entrap them all at once. Besides, with her enemies so scattered, attacks could come from all sides. Ellize wasn't sure what—or where—to defend.
Argh! I don't have a choice, do I?! It's gonna make me use more MP than I'd like, but I can't be stingy and let people die!
If the witch-clouds started carpet bombing indiscriminately, it would be a disaster. So Ellize decided to give up on preserving her mana.
"Aurea Libertas," she said, ready to destroy the faces high up in the sky.
The condensed ray of mana soared up before separating itself into several lasers that flew toward each of the faces. The witches opened their mouths and spat out beams of black mana to counter them, but the fake saint's magic was far more powerful. The vomit-beams were pushed back into the witches' mouths, closely followed by Ellize's attack. The witches' faces exploded.
Ellize panted. She looked up while trying her best to calm her ragged breathing. She'd just used over a hundred thousand MP. With such a wide area to cover, she hadn't been able to skimp on the mana cost at all. Not to mention that each face had been powerful on its own. She'd had to use quite a lot of mana on each of them to destroy them.
After a few seconds, a new "witch" appeared in front of Ellize, who was still struggling to steady her breathing.
This time, her enemy took the form of a human figure about as tall as herself.
(2k word count)
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone