Chapter 849 849 - Their goal
Just like that, their plan dawned on Meilin. What had seemed like a bad plan at first turned just okay when she realised Erik was there to deal with her, and then turned brilliant when it became clear they'd turned four battlefields into batteries for keeping her contained.
Erik grinned as he saw her teeth gnash against each other.
"Don't be angry at Imogene for not telling you about this," he chuckled mockingly. "Sigil crafters who've actually studied kinetic sigils are rare, even among fairies… but then, my Elora's always been an overachiever."
Despite this, he didn't mind telling Meilin about it now. If Meilin managed to tell Imogene anything about today at this point, then there was no doubt that Imogene would figure out they'd used kinetic sigils even if Erik had said nothing.
Meilin ignored him. Instead, she produced a sigil stone with an angry swipe and activated it. "Iskandar!" she snarled into it. "Move the four battlesites somewhere else by all means! Kill the dregs for all I care! Let the others know!"
Finished with her order, silence fell, and time ticked forth. One second. Two seconds. No answer came until Meilin promised painful death upon Iskandar before lighting the stone up again and calling another name. Once again, no answer came.
This process was repeated for every one of her third-ranked subordinates before she furiously threw the stone to the ground and turned to glare at Erik.
Until now, Erik had been watching her with an unconcerned gaze and a calm smile. "Are you done?" he asked with a mocking smirk.
Meilin didn't answer for a moment, her eyes sparking furiously.
"Exactly how isolated is this space…?" she finally asked in a low growl, clearly furious at being completely caught off-guard. The almost inherent arrogance Erik had noticed in all confessors was raging at this situation.
"About as isolated as you can get," Erik responded with a shrug. "We don't know the exact extent or nature of your connection to Imogene, so we just went as big as we could."
Unlike before, Erik offered no additional explanation. Meilin narrowed her eyes with suspicion and annoyance. She immediately tried to contact Imogene… and failed. She tried desperately not to show that realisation on her expression, but failed miserably.
Erik smirked mockingly at her. Yet, inwardly, he wasn't as calm as he presented himself, knowing the price he paid for this isolation. The reason he didn't say anything to Meilin was related to this fight, not the prospect of it leaking to Imogene.
The truth was that they created this isolation by linking the barrier to his dimension. In essence, the space within this barrier was like an extension of his dimension without any of the benefits, but with plenty of negatives.
First of all, while having no additional benefits or power from technically being in his dimension, he was also unable to use his spatial affinity. Currently, the full focus of Erik's spatial affinity was on the sigil in his chest, linking his dimension to this dome.
This was quite painful for him, because the spatial affinity was a powerful tool in his arsenal, and a large part of his past victories against confessors. Even in a normal situation, he'd consider his chances against a confessor at 50-50, but the lack of his spatial affinity worsened those odds quite a bit. This was the main reason he didn't mind wasting time, for time was on his side.
That wasn't the only negative, however. Because if this barrier was shattered by force before the connection was severed, then Erik would receive a massive backlash. Not enough to kill him on its own, but if Meilin weren't taken care of by that time, she would certainly grab the opening and finish the job.
All in all, Erik was taking quite the gamble here… but the potential rewards were worth it, and the dangers could be heavily mitigated.
Silence reigned for a moment inside the dome as Meilin's eyes flickered around, feverishly looking for a way out of this situation.
Finally, however, she simply kicked the ground and charged at Erik. "Fine!" she snarled through gritted teeth. "I may be on my own and cut off from the Primarch, but all I have to do is kill you to get out of here!"
Though she wasn't sure of the exact nature of it, she'd not missed the connection between Erik and this dome. Whatever it meant, she was determined to find out.
Erik quickly frowned and focused up. Though he'd managed to waste some time, that time was now over, and he wasn't happy about it. He loved a good fight, but this would not be that. Not only was he unable to go all-out, but it would also be counter to their plan.
Tightly gripping the shaft of the hammer resting on his shoulder, Erik looked at the charging Meilin somberly and lifted his free hand. As icy-crimson magic circles started flashing into existence around Meilin, the same happened for Erik, but his were icy-white and icy-blue.
Since they were both talented Arcanists, their spells fired nearly immediately, with Erik perhaps having the smallest of advantages. Several thundersnow barriers and ice walls sprang into existence between him and his opponent. They were immediately met with a storm of shining bloodshards, as well as sharp, gleaming arcs of blood fired from her weapons.
"Coward!" she immediately cursed angrily. "Face me!"
Sighing sadly, Erik started moving away from her and shaking his head. "I'd really like to… but no, thank you."
Meilin screamed out her frustration and anger, but it didn't change Erik's mind. As she destroyed barrier after barrier, she eventually glared at the large group of still-surviving first and second-rankers who were trapped in this dome with her.
"What are you all standing around for?! Attack the barrier if you don't have the balls to attack him!" she roared at them.
Most of them had been horrified and frozen by the third-rank battle taking place far too near their relatively fragile bodies. Yet, her order shook life in some of them as they awkwardly ignored the second part of her words and started throwing attacks against the barrier.
Erik wasn't too bothered by that, however. Those four battlefields were generating enough power for the barrier to withstand twice the pressure it was under now.
Rather, he continued evading Meilin and never stopped creating obstacles and barriers between them. This was not a battle he intended to win; it was a battle he intended to outlast… because their goal was to finally capture a confessor.