~Chapter 177~ Part 4
Watching the preambles of the battle unfold, I couldn't help but feel a bitter taste in my mouth. Not because of that whole plan-success-thing, but because I worked myself into a frenzy over warning the guys about the unforeseen threat of the sewer-golems, only for it to turn out to be not a big deal at all. It made me feel a bit silly, but also self-conscious.
After all, I have caught bits and pieces of their plan, yet I somehow missed the whole multi-faction gambit pileup they orchestrated between the Celestials and the Magi. Heck, I didn't even know that there were dissenters in Elysium! In my defence, I wasn't exactly paying a lot of attention to Celestial affairs, only keeping tabs on the ex-Directors from time to time, but it made perfect sense, and I should've seen it coming anyway.
In any case, as dumb as I felt at the moment, I couldn't exactly wallow in self-depreciation when we had a big battle shounen style clash on our hands. Even at a glance, it was clearly a thematic one too; the original core of our little posse consisting of Josh and his initial entourage versus an arch-mage. The latter part might not have been that intuitive, but looking back, Lord Grandpa was our first exposure to one of the major powers of the World of Mystics (I didn't count Crowy, because he's a git, and also because the team never properly fought him back at the school), and Josh's first outright defeat was at the hands of Sahi.
Thematically speaking, it made perfect sense for an arch-mage to serve as the last big hurdle to overcome before jumping headlong into the finale of the scenario, to showcase the main character's growth and whatnot. So much so that I was wondering whether it was another of those things future-me cheekily orchestrated from the background without telling me. Or maybe I was just getting paranoid.
Whatever the case, things were about to get spicy, so I focused half my attention on the two sides facing off in the middle of the ruined square. Only half though, because I was still convinced that there's no such thing as a situation going one hundred percent according to plan, so I kept scanning the perimeter for potential scene-breakers I could warn Judy about.
Meanwhile, the first skirmish between Marzanna and Josh's group was initiated by Ammy. The Purple Zonified streets and building facades were illuminated by a bright star of shifting colours hovering over the class rep's hand held high over her head. Her feet left the ground and she steadily ascended higher and higher into the air, even as her spell was sucking in the ambient mana that she expelled during her transformation. As soon as it finished condensing, the infinitesimally tiny point of light suddenly expanded into a giant ball of fire that filled up the sky over the square.
"Hey! That's too big! You're going to blow up the whole Restricted Space!"
The gleeful grin on Ammy's face fell away as soon as she heard Josh's yell, and she glared at the guy still on the ground.
"I know what I'm doing! Just watch!"
She began reciting more faux-Latin words and raised her other hand over her head as well, nearly knocking off her hat. More importantly, the humongous ball of flames began to divide like a giant cell. One became two, two became four, and before long, there were hundreds of considerably less humongous but still pretty freaking large fireballs hanging over the purple sky.
With a battle-cry of, "Take this! The culmination of my whole life! Unlimited Fireball Raaain!" Ammy swung her hands down, and the globes of flame began to drop from the sky one by one like shooting stars.
Now, I could've pointed out that those fireballs weren't unlimited, or that they were far from accurate, but Josh was my spirit animal today, because he conveyed my sentiments with a perfectly timed, "What the heck, Ammy!?"
The class rep didn't seem to care, and she was simply revelling in the pyrotechnics, throwing the hapless Celestials and Magi around like ragdolls. Marzanna also had a few of them falling towards her, but she just waved her gnarled wooden staff, its bulbous end flaring with an invisible glow, and any fireballs that would've impacted her either exploded mid-air or went wildly off their trajectory, further adding to the grief of the other combatants in the Purple Zone.
"That should've worked…" Ammy mused, her floating form framed by the red light of the explosions all around the square. "Let's try again! Double-strength this time!"
However, before she could even start casting a spell, the eye-symbol on her forehead lit up and she tumbled back in the air as a thin white beam of light broke through her emergency wards. The ray originated from the arch-mage, and while the ward deflected it and so it didn't inflict any real damage, the class rep was still flustered and unable to defend herself for a second.
Fortunately, the rest of the gang didn't allow Marzanna to capitalise on that, as Josh was already dashing towards her. The arch-mage glared daggers at him, but her hands and mouth never stopped moving, and she released a shower of homing magical projectiles his way. Startled but undeterred, he let out a throaty roar and held his shield out.
He dodged what he could, letting the magic missiles harmlessly pass him by or hit the already ruined pavement. What he couldn't avoid, he blocked, his shield making a sound like nails on a chalkboard from every impact. What he couldn't block, he parried, his sword lashing out so fast it was difficult to follow with the naked eye.
It was only when he was just a few steps away from the arch-mage that she finished her next spell, and she leapt back while simultaneously drawing a curved line onto the ground with the butt end of her staff. A bright flash erupted from the mark, and a semi-solid wave of mana erupted like a tsunami. Josh first tried to push through, but the force of the wave was too much, and he had to brace his feet and raise his shield to stop himself from being swept away.
"Hyaaah!"
Before the arch-mage got any space to breathe, a sudden battle-cry forced her to look up, just in time to catch a red streak descending towards her. She hastily erected a ward, but it was too shabby, and she was sent tumbling back as Elly broke right through with a kick. My draconic princess lowered her center of gravity and got ready to lunge at her, but she was just a moment too slow, and before she could, her feet were grabbed by a pair of hands that seemingly grew out of the material of the pavement.
By the looks of it, it was some kind of magical booby-trap, and the arch-mage probably set it down in case Josh managed to push through that wave-spell. On closer look, I could see a couple more spots on the ground like that, so she must've set more snares, but I wasn't too worried, considering that Ammy could now see magic, and so she would be able to tell them how to avoid those spots.
"I'll cover you!" Josh yelled as he dashed in… only to fall over when his right leg was caught in another magical hand-trap.
…
Oh, right. Ammy wasn't wearing a Magiformer, so Judy couldn't talk with her, meaning that even if she did notice those traps, she couldn't share it with the others. That was a bit of an oversight, so I quickly flung my point of view over to Judy's side again.
"Hey, Dormouse? Tell Josh and Elly that there are three more traps around Marzanna. Two on her left, one right in front of her."
I didn't wait for her response and switched back to the heart of the action, where the arch-mage used the previous wave-spell again to blast the two back, breaking the stone hands holding onto them in the process. It wasn't a big deal for the princess, as she rolled with the impact and sprang to her feet right away, but Josh lost his sword in the tumble, so he had to recover his weapon first.
Seeing that, Elly was just about to lunge at Marzanna again, but Josh yelled, "Hold on! There are more traps on her left! Approach her from the other direction!"
That must've been the result of Judy relaying the information, and the princess didn't second-guess the instructions. She changed her trajectory just as she was about to barrel into another trap, but that gave enough time for her opponent to erect another arched ward in front of her. She bounced off, looking rather startled by the sudden invisible wall she just hit, but it only lasted for a split-second before she stomped her feet so hard it made the ground crack, and she hit the barrier with her shoulder.
It wasn't a football tackle, but more of a martial arts move; she only moved a short distance, yet she hit the ward like a freight train, and it immediately shattered like a window pane. Meanwhile, Josh approached from the other side, using his Celestial wings to fly close to the ground (to avoid the traps, I reckoned), catching Marzanna in a pincer manoeuvre.
Despite that, the old arch-mage remained uncannily calm, and she forcefully planted her staff in front of her. There was another flash of light, followed by another intangible wave of mana that knocked Josh and Elly back. She was a surprisingly defensive fighter, all things considered. Despite the confined efforts of everyone, none of them could land a hit on her yet, and…
…
Wait. I said 'everyone', but Angie was conspicuously missing from the picture, wasn't she?
As if waiting for me to realise that, a harsh voice yelled out from the back.
"Stay clear!"
Glancing over, I could see Angie, currently controlled by Deus, making a few sweeping motions with her hands, like a grand conductor, before suddenly falling to one knee and planting her palms onto the cracked road. Her body, as well as the ground, flared up with a brilliant golden light, and before Marzanna could brace herself, dozens of thin yet dazzlingly bright golden chains erupted from the pavement of the square. They wrapped themselves around the arch-mage's arms, shoulders, and staff, locking her in place in the blink of an eye.
"What manner of…?!" she cried out in surprise and tried to break free, but the chains kept her anchored and unable to move.
"Good job, guys!" Angie beamed at Josh and Elly, but then her eyes shifted to a bright amber again, and she sneered at Marzanna. "Don't even dream about breaking out of my spell! I designed it to restrain Bel of the Abyss himself; someone like you has no chance of escaping it, so sit tight and accept your punishment!"
While she was gloating, Josh had already leapt away from the chained arch-mage and pointed his sword at her.
"Your turn, Ammy!"
"No need to say that twice!"
Realising that their arch-mage was in trouble, a few Magi were already trying to get close and interrupt the fight, but they all froze the moment a familiar sight blotted out the purple sky. Ammy's giant fireball, exactly the same as before, menacingly hovered over everyone, yet this time it didn't divide but shrank instead. In a matter of seconds, the humongous blazing sphere halved in size, then again, and before long, it was only the size of a large truck. Granted, that was still pretty freaking big, but it was all about the scale here.
It slowly descended until it settled over the outstretched hands of a grinning (and, admittedly, a little scary) class rep, and she announced, "This time, you can't escape! Unlimited Fireball Impaaact!"
For the record, I still had no idea what was so 'unlimited' about it, but that wasn't the most important thing right now. As soon as Ammy flung her arms down, the fireball began to accelerate at a painfully slow pace, as if to drive home the weight and inevitability of the attack. Marzanna glared at the incoming giant projectile and did her best to raise her staff, but to no avail. Her struggles became more frantic the closer the fireball got, and the moment she glanced up again, the whole square was blotted out by the light of an enormous explosion engulfing her form.
Flames spread in three hundred and sixty degrees like a wave, forcing Josh and Elly to take to the air, and any unfortunate Magi or Celestial caught in it was flung away like leaves in a storm. The sound, like the crack of thunder at one-tenth of the speed, was unnaturally deep and long, yet just a few seconds later, it all disappeared into distant echoes.
So did the wave of flames, and despite the apparent size of the explosion, the square remained… well, calling it 'intact' would've been a stretch, but it certainly was in better shape than expected. For one, there was no crater, only several concentric circles of red-hot burning stone and asphalt surrounding the epicenter of the impact. There, still restrained by Deus's golden chains, the charred body of an old woman was still standing upright, seemingly only held up by her bonds.
Most of her white outer robe was gone, and her hair and face were singed and blackened by the flames. More alarmingly, she wasn't moving a single muscle, standing there like some grotesque statue held in place by the chains surrounding her.
The silence left in the wake of Ammy's jumbo-fireball was already deafening, but the sight of Marzanna's body made everyone in the Purple Zone fall into stupefied shock. It wasn't until Josh landed not too far away from her that everyone seemed to come to their senses, and he exclaimed, "Wow! I can't believe everything went according to— Blegh?"
He probably couldn't even see what hit him. To be fair, even I could only catch a glimpse, but if I had to describe it, it was a giant chunk of concrete still attached to a thin golden chain.
"That… hurt…"
A gurgling voice pierced the second spell of shocked silence, followed by a series of loud popping sounds. Some of them came from the chains, weakened by the impact of the fireball, snapping one after the other. Much more disturbingly, others were emanating from inside the body of the arch-mage… and they were the louder ones.
"I do not take pleasure… in killing children…"
Marzanna's distorted voice continued as her body continued to twist. The charred outer layer of her face cracked and fell away, revealing a… not 'youthful', but at the very least 'slightly younger' visage. What remained of her greying hair began to fall out, only to be replaced by fresh new locks of shiny black strands, and as she tore the remains of her robes off her back, it revealed an exceedingly muscular torso. Not just that, but her arms were swelling at a visible rate, until she had biceps that gave freaking Duncan of all people a run for his money.
"I only wished to… take you into custody…"
Despite the changes to her constitution, her voice remained the same, and once she spat out a mouthful of blood, even the strange gurgling undertone disappeared.
As soon as she ripped out the last chain tethering her to the ground, she wrapped her enlarged fingers around the head of her mage's staff and, with seemingly no effort, snapped it off and threw it over her shoulder. At last, just as the blazing glow of magic around her subsided, she flourished her weapon like a bo staff and pointed it at the still floating class rep.
"You've brought this upon yourselves."
In other words, things were going off the rails, and her boss battle had a second phase. I would've felt vindicated…
"Elly, quick! We need to—!"
… but then she suddenly accelerated and, with a swing of her staff, sent Josh flying into a nearby building. The second floor of a building, that is.
…
I really hoped they had a Plan B for this, because if they didn't, then oh boy, this was going to be rough.