บท 53: Urgency!
BOOMM
The sound of the distant battle was deafening, but it didn't affect Riveria and Alfia in the slightest.
Moving quickly, both headed toward the closest magical signature in the mansion, the one Riveria had detected as Zouken, having recognized his magical energy after disabling the barriers.
"Alfia, our task is to finish off Zouken as quickly as possible, let's avoid giving the mage time to interfere with Sakura."
"Can you feel the girl?"
The main objective of this mission was to secure Sakura; the destruction of the mage Zouken was only secondary. Focusing on the primary goal, Alfia asked.
"I can feel a magical signature deep inside the mansion... Alfia, if I'm correct and the magical signature I feel is Sakura's, then we must not let Zouken interfere with her, at all costs."
"Is something strange?" Alfia asked, sensing Riveria's urgency.
"I sense corruption in what might be Sakura's aura. Besides that, her magical signature is quite powerful. If we engage in battle with her... it will be difficult to subdue her without causing harm."
Alfia quickly understood Riveria's words. Sakura seemed powerful enough to rule out the idea of taking her down easily.
"I understand. Let's finish Zouken quickly so we can focus on her."
"Umu."
As they spoke, the distance between Zouken's magical signature and themselves grew shorter. Soon, they could see the door leading to the hall where Zouken was.
"Alfia, the door has a magical formation!" Riveria's face darkened upon seeing that the hall door was imbued with a magical formation.
This formation would clearly buy the mage time to prepare for battle and might also give him time to use Sakura.
"Riveria, how strong is the formation?!" Moving quickly toward the door, Alfia asked loudly.
Riveria immediately understood Alfia's intentions and, after a brief analysis, shouted back to her.
"Alfia, smash it to pieces!"
Without a second of hesitation, Alfia uttered a super short chant over herself and charged forcefully toward the door.
"Silentium Eden."
**CRACK!**
With a precise and brutal movement, Alfia unleashed all her strength on the door. Silentium Eden quickly nullified the magical formation on the door, and with her impressive force, the massive door shattered into pieces.
The echo of destruction reverberated through the mansion's corridors.
With the door reduced to fragments, Riveria quickly entered the hall, followed by Alfia, who stood by the door's ruins.
Adjusting their vision to the dimly lit hall, Riveria and Alfia quickly began searching for traces of the mage.
However, before they could start looking for Zouken, a loud noise and a deep, hoarse scream echoed through the room.
**CRASH!**
"KILL THEM, GIANT WORMS!"
Zouken Matou's scream filled the hall, and from the shadows emerged grotesque creatures. Giant worms, corrupted by dark magic, writhed and advanced with alarming speed, their slimy bodies filling the air with a putrid stench.
In the blink of an eye, the massive worms were only a few meters away from Alfia and Riveria, their enormous bodies making the mansion tremble with every step, and their rapid stampede threatened to crush them.
"Riveria!"
"Flare Burn!"
With Alfia's shout and Riveria's calm and serene expression, a powerful spell was soon fired from Riveria's hands.
A blazing flare shot out from Riveria's hands.
A wave of scorching heat enveloped the giant worms. The creatures shrieked as the magical fire consumed their bodies, the stench of burning flesh filling the air.
Within seconds, the worms' shrieks ceased, and only a few charred remains were scattered across the floor.
"Riveria, that bastard escaped," Alfia said with a scowl as she glanced at the spot where Zouken had been.
Zouken, having taken advantage of the momentary distraction, had run quickly toward the depths of the mansion.
"Hurry, we mustn't let him reach Sakura!"
Riveria, having seen the direction in which Zouken fled, shouted in alarm and the next second, dashed quickly after the mage.
Alfia didn't hesitate and sprinted past Riveria, heading toward Zouken at full speed.
...
"Damn it!"
A furious growl escaped Zouken's lips as he ran desperately toward the mansion's underground area, his face contorted with shame and rage.
This was his mansion, his home!
And yet, here he was, fleeing in terror from the two intruders who had invaded his domain.
The humiliation filled Zouken with shame. For someone who had lived for centuries, always respected and feared, being forced to flee desperately from his enemies was a severe blow to his pride.
"How did they get past my magical formations!?"
By the time Zouken realized the intruders had already entered the mansion, if it hadn't been for that wretched servant, he would have probably been killed without even knowing how.
"Those damn mages are too powerful!"
At first, Zouken had intended to crush the intruders and use them as food for his worms. However, after their first encounter, he quickly realized he was no match for those women.
The enormous magical signature each of them possessed deeply terrified Zouken.
That abysmal amount of magical energy, he had only ever seen it in Heroic Spirits.
"Bastards, just wait until I get that stupid girl out, and both of you will die!" Zouken's eyes were filled with murderous intent.
**Swihhh**
Zouken's dark thoughts were abruptly interrupted when a strong sense of danger gripped his body.
Immediately, instincts honed over centuries of battle took control, causing him to drop to the floor.
**Slash**
Unfortunately, he was a step too late, and the next second, Zouken felt a sharp pain in his right hand.
"AHHHGGG!"
Zouken's scream echoed through the dark corridor as he saw his right hand fall to the ground, bloodied. His wild eyes filled with fury and fear. Blood gushed from the wound, and though his body was largely composed of those repulsive worms that kept him alive, the pain was still unbearable.
"How...?" His mind swirled in chaos. He hadn't sensed his attacker until it was too late. Turning his head toward the direction of the attack, he barely managed to make out the blurry figure moving with impossible speed.
Alfia landed gracefully in front of him, a small, sharp dagger dripping with Zouken's dark blood. Her cold, emotionless eyes fixed on the ancient mage.
"Did I not cut your head off?... I suppose you're a bit better than filth." Her icy voice pierced the dark atmosphere, and although she didn't raise her voice, every word was like a mortal blow to Zouken's already crumbling confidence.
"Curse you, damn you!" Zouken spat, trying to retreat. Enduring the intense pain, Zouken glared at Alfia, his gaze filled with murderous intent. "Do not underestimate me, woman! I am immortal!"
The next second, after Zouken's words fell, his severed hand began to regenerate immediately.
Worms poured out of the severed stump and started reforming, quickly forming another hand in mere seconds.
The worms from the severed hand on the ground also swiftly crawled up Zouken's pants, reentering his body.
"Disgusting..." Watching the grotesque scene, a look of disgust appeared on Alfia's beautiful face.
"Huff... Bitch, I will definitely kill you!... WORMS, DEVOUR HER!"
As Zouken's words fell, a massive swarm of worms poured out from his sleeves. Countless worms rushed toward Alfia.
"Tch," Alfia clicked her tongue and quickly retreated.
Dodging the worms with great speed, Alfia chanted one of her spells.
"Satanas Verion."
A massive sound wave blasted toward the swarm of worms.
**BOOM**
The huge explosion blew apart countless worms.
However, Alfia's expression didn't relax, and a second later, the number of dead worms was quickly replaced by another enormous swarm.
"It seems my magic isn't entirely effective..."
The sound magic, although incredibly destructive, had a relatively small range, so it couldn't effectively diminish the swarm of worms.
Of course, it wasn't as though Alfia didn't have a spell capable of wiping out those worms, but that spell had an enormous destructive capacity and would probably not only destroy the mansion but also kill everyone inside.
"Forget it, leave it to the captain..." Sensing Riveria's presence, Alfia quickly withdrew from the center of the battle.
"Wynn Fimbulvetr."
Riveria, coming up behind Alfia, wasted no time and immediately invoked a powerful spell.
**Wooshhh**
A fierce and icy wind soon whipped through the swarm of worms. In the blink of an eye, the powerful spell froze every last worm.
A frozen landscape now covered much of the mansion's corridor, and hundreds of thousands of worms were frozen in a terrifying image.
**SHATTER**
With the sound of cracking, the massive amount of ice exploded into fragments, scattering the remains of the worms.
"Where do you think you're going... Satanas Verion!"
**Slash**
Zouken, who had planned to use the spell as a distraction and was preparing to run, suddenly felt a powerful impact, and once again, immense pain struck him.
"Ahhhggg, my body!"
Looking at parts of his legs and hands, Zouken realized his body was almost entirely destroyed this time. With a terrified expression, he forced his body to regenerate as quickly as possible.
"Damn bitch!" As his legs regenerated at an astonishing speed, he didn't hesitate and ran again.
**Slash**
"Satanas Verion!"
"Ahgggg!!"
Desperation overwhelmed him as his body was continuously torn apart. Each time he tried to regenerate, Alfia's spell would swiftly and precisely cut him down again.
Zouken, though he had lived for centuries, had never felt so helpless. His immortality, which he once regarded as his greatest advantage, had now become a cruel torture. Every regeneration was a repeated torment, and Alfia showed no signs of stopping.
Feeling the excruciating pain once again and subsequently losing sensation in his legs, Zouken couldn't help but be utterly terrified.
"You... bitch!"
"Satanas Verion!"
Cut.
"Whore!"
"Satanas Verion!"
Cut.
"Aghhhhh!"
"Satanas Verion!"
Cut.
...
"Aghhh!"
Looking at the disgusting mass of worms and rotten flesh that was once Zouken, Alfia's expression remained unchanged as she continued casting her spells.
"Is Riveria almost done?" Tired of the unpleasant sight, Alfia asked Riveria, who had been gathering mana for her next spell.
The next spell was intended to completely disintegrate Zouken, leaving him no way to regenerate.
"Yes, almost there," Riveria replied, her voice firm but with a hint of urgency. As she spoke, magical energy swirled around her, forming arcane circles floating in the air. The next spell wasn't just to defeat Zouken, but to erase every trace of his existence, a magic powerful enough to disintegrate even the smallest cell.
Soon, a colossal amount of magical energy gathered in Riveria's staff. With a cold gaze, Riveria didn't hesitate and pointed the staff at Zouken.
"It's time for you to vanish, vile man. Bring the end... Vas Windheim!"
The air in the room vibrated as Riveria completed the long and complex chant, and the devastating mana quickly transformed into flames burning at thousands of degrees.
The spell, Vas Windheim, known to be one of the most destructive and difficult magics to cast, was powerful enough to disintegrate any trace of life, even overcoming the regeneration barriers of immortal creatures like Zouken.
A colossal wave of fire swept through the room, instantly melting everything in its path.
The mass of flesh known as Zouken seemed to sense the extreme danger, and in the next moment, his body began to swell, ready to explode.
However, before Zouken could make another move, the furious wave of fire rapidly engulfed his body.
BOOM!
The roar of the explosion shook the entire mansion. The wave of fire created by Vas Windheim was so colossal that everything in its trajectory was instantly reduced to ashes. The devastating energy of the spell spread throughout the room, reducing everything to nothing.
"He should be dead... right?" Looking at the ruins of the mansion, which had been mostly destroyed, Alfia thought aloud.
"I don't feel his magical signature..." With her senses at their peak, Riveria couldn't detect Zouken's magical presence.
"Kami-sama should be finishing soon. We should move on to Sakura," Riveria said, sensing the vibrations from their God's battlefield as she moved toward the depths of the mansion.
"Umu." With a nod, Alfia followed in Riveria's footsteps.
CLASH!
Alfia and Riveria, as they traversed the ruins of the remaining hallways in the house, suddenly stopped, feeling the powerful clash that came from the depths of the mansion.
"This...!" Feeling the powerful magical energy that had exploded out of control, both Alfia's and Riveria's faces grew solemn.
"It seems to be Sakura!"
"She must have lost control, ¿but how,? ¿DON'T WE KILL Zouken?" Feeling the uncontrolled energy, Riveria showed confusion. According to their kami-sama's information, without Zouken's interference, Sakura shouldn't lose control.
"Riveria... can you feel it?!" Alfia's eyes suddenly widened, and she immediately shouted to Riveria.
In confusion, Riveria felt the magical energies in the lower area of the mansion, and in the next moment, her eyes widened in disbelief.
"How is this possible? I'm sure we killed him!"
Sensing Zouken's magical signature, the one they had assumed dead, Riveria couldn't comprehend how he had survived such an impact.
"That bastard must have used some strange ability to barely survive, then immediately ran toward Sakura!" With frustration and anger in her tone, Alfia lost her composure for the first time that day.
"Let's hurry!" Riveria said urgently, her eyes shining with resolve. There was no time to question how Zouken had survived; the most important thing now was to stop his interference with Sakura.
Using their incredible physical abilities as high-level adventurers, both women rushed toward the depths of the mansion.
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