Chapter 216 : Chapter 216
Chapter : 216
Iris’s expression vanished.
The moment she lazily flicked her fingers, an overwhelming pressure bore down on me. My body lifted into the air—and then I was slammed straight into the wall.
It happened so suddenly that I could not even breathe properly.
“Ha.”
Until now, Iris had always attacked me half-heartedly, holding back.
But at this very moment, she struck with full intent.
The realization drew a hollow laugh from me.
“You look like I hit the mark.”
I drank the elixir from my arms, and the pain faded as my vision barely returned.
At least the bottle did not break. Next time, I should ask if it can be improved into something like a capsule. If it is Senior Lewen, that much should be simple.
“You truly have no fear, do you?”
“If I had any, I would not have done this in the first place.”
I spat out the blood that had pooled in my mouth.
Damn it. This made things worse.
The method to deal with someone who possesses a Golden Elixir was surprisingly simple.
You just had to kill them instantly. No matter how extraordinary the Golden Elixir was, it could not revive the dead.
That applied to me as an NPC as well.
I had restored Mordegar’s heart, but that was only possible because he had been on the verge of death.
Therefore, from this point on, Iris would relentlessly aim for instant kills.
As if to prove it, her momentum changed completely. There was no trace of her earlier composure.
“From now on, do not let Iris touch you under any circumstances!!”
My shout was meaningless. In the blink of an eye, Iris closed the distance to Lucian.
She was aiming for his heart!
I immediately used teleportation magic to pull Lucian out of her grasp. Then I bound Iris with chain magic, followed by Pell’s divine magic.
But once Iris began fighting seriously, the chain magic could only hold her for about ten seconds.
Even after reinforcing it with my staff, only ten seconds?
As I stared at her in shock, Iris’s gaze settled on me.
There was no smile—only a chilling look, as if whispering:
‘I will spare only you.’
The moment I saw that look, I instinctively used teleportation magic and launched all ten of us, myself included, into the sky.
“Sharp instincts.”
A sinister curse spread through the air in an instant. A snack Senior Laurel had dropped by mistake hit the ground—only to crumble into dust the moment it touched.
What is that? That is terrifying.
But we could not stay in the air forever. Iris—
“Damn it!”
She had flown up and was right behind us!
I quickly created footholds for everyone with a Circle of Earth so they could land.
That alone was not enough. To lessen Iris’s attack even slightly, I layered multiple defensive barriers with the Circle of Earth.
The moment Iris stretched her arm toward Pell, the barriers shattered like dust.
This is dangerous!
[A shield appears in front of Pell.]
I scribbled the words as if clawing them into existence and shouted his name.
“Pell!!”
Within my shout, Iris’s attack struck Pell directly.
BOOOOM!!!
A deafening roar echoed through the space, like a cannon blast.
Pell’s body trembled violently.
Yet, contrary to my concern, a clear smile formed on his lips. He was enduring it by reinforcing his body with divine power.
The moment Laurel, Cecilia, and Lucian confirmed this, they rushed at Iris all at once.
Faced with the barrage of attacks, Iris no longer smiled as she had before.
And that made it even more unsettling.
We were on edge to the point of madness, yet she remained utterly indifferent.
This is driving me insane.
We had to create an opening somehow—but against Iris, who had begun to fight at full strength, there was no such thing as an opening.
What am I supposed to do?
At that moment, Iris suddenly smiled brightly.
Something was wrong.
My instincts screamed at me, but before I could react, she moved first.
The air split apart.
The beam of light from her strike fractured into dozens, hundreds, thousands of branches—like a wave covering the entire battlefield.
In ten seconds, everything was reduced to ruins.
Only Senior Lewen and I remained standing.
“Huh?”
It happened so suddenly that I could not even process it.
In that instant, I instinctively reached for my necklace.
The pendant my father had once given me.
A time magic artifact that rewound five minutes into the past.
It shattered with alarming ease.
In the blink of an eye, I returned five minutes earlier.
If not for the faint sense of dissonance, I might have truly believed time had reversed. My breath escaped involuntarily.
“Whew.”
How many Golden Elixirs did I have left?
Ah, I had returned to before provoking Iris.
But her expression was strange.
“What is this?”
Unlike me, who felt the distortion because I had used the artifact, Iris sensed it purely on instinct.
She really is a complete monster.
At that moment, my eyes met Senior Lewen’s.
The pendant cord, which I had carefully hidden under my clothes, was now hanging loose. Seeing it, his expression turned serious.
He was one of the few who knew about the pendant.
Noticing that it was gone, he must have realized I had just used it.
“…Time, is it?”
“Damn!”
I had to act before Iris fully grasped the anomaly.
I used binding magic to seize her arm.
Since this was before she had gone all out, she was restrained more easily than expected.
Rather than resisting, she seemed distracted—staring outside with a dazed expression, as if entranced.
I was certain now.
Things outside were not going as she wanted.
‘Now, press the attack!’
My instincts screamed.
---
“Damn it, seriously!!!”
Beatrice maintained the sealing magic while occasionally casting additional spells whenever she felt herself slipping.
Even the sealing magic alone required everything she had. Using interference spells alongside it was grinding down her mental strength in real time.
Even so, there had been Evan Lisitoel, who endured this for an entire week.
I can handle this much!
Beatrice clenched her teeth and unleashed her magic relentlessly.
“Count Belphiar!”
“I already know I am insane, okay?! Just shut up and focus ahead!”
At Beatrice’s sharp shout, Freya clicked her tongue and calmly drove her blade into the serpent’s scales.
Though not quite like a holy sword, the blade passed down through the Inquisitors was undeniably effective against a Beast of Ruin.
Closing her eyes to avoid the blood that nearly splattered onto her eyelids, Freya steadied her breath as she watched the serpent regenerate no matter how much it was wounded.
This is too much.
“Weak ones, fall back! I will not let a single one of you die!!”
If only Pell were here, this would be far easier.
Though Freya also possessed divine power, she could not compare to Pell.
But if she faltered, the fragile frontline would collapse instantly.
Beatrice alone was not enough.
If only one more person—just one more—were here, they could turn this desperate situation around.
At that moment, the violently resisting Ouroboros suddenly froze.
Seeing it, Freya instinctively realized—
This is very dangerous!
She tightened her grip on her sword and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Rupture your eardrums!!”
Her command was clear.
Eardrums could be healed.
But once life was lost, only a miracle of the gods could restore it.
The Inquisitors did not hesitate to sacrifice their bodies in the fight against heresy.
Without the slightest hesitation, they ruptured their own eardrums.
Beatrice stared in shock.
That is even possible? No matter how much they trained, there should still be an instinctive aversion to self-harm…
The moment Freya ruptured even Beatrice’s eardrums, Ouroboros let out a roar.
Even without hearing it, the pressure alone made Beatrice stagger.
If they had not done that, they might have died.
[Can we even win this?]
She did not know why Ouroboros had appeared here, but with only the Inquisitors, Freya, and herself, it was far from enough.
Beatrice was using all her strength just to maintain the seal, while the others tried to suppress it—but more importantly, they had to keep it contained here.
If that monster reached the outside, an entire village would vanish in an instant.
Their desperation was obvious.
The serpent did not miss it.
Its rainbow-colored eyes almost seemed to smile.
It began to move its massive body, as if heading somewhere.
Seeing this, Freya shouted through magic.
[Stop the serpent from moving!!]
The Inquisitors moved in perfect unison.
They stabbed its tail into the ground, pinning it, and unleashed a barrage of attacks.
Freya also forced herself forward.
But the oppressive aura and instinctive revulsion as a living being made her hesitate.
Yes—the problem was not anything else. It was that instinctive rejection.
A force that prevented her from using her full strength.
She had trained her entire life to overcome the fear of death, yet before this creature, she could not bring out her full power.
“Tch! Damn it!”
Beatrice cursed and spat blood.
Her body was breaking down from excessive magic use, but she had to keep it here.
If not, the Academy would bear the burden of every life this creature took.
Precious citizens of the Empire would die meaninglessly.
That must never happen.
“Beatrice!!”
Freya shouted in alarm, but with her eardrums ruptured, Beatrice could not hear her.
She tried to use binding magic with all her might, but it was not enough.
She needed something larger—far larger.
But if she drew more mana, she could not maintain the sealing magic.
It would trap ten students and the monster together forever.
She had to choose.
Maintain the seal—or stop Ouroboros right now.
Both were absolutely essential for victory.
How could she choose only one?
Tears welled in Beatrice’s eyes, and blood gathered on her lips.
At that moment—
“Hope I am not too late.”
It was barely more than a whisper.
She could not hear it, but the overwhelming sight before her made the tears in her eyes finally fall.
“Evan!!”
You bastard, you are too late!!
Beatrice shouted with all her strength.