Trapped in Another World With No Magic

Chapter 125: The Archfiend Yaulwembor Part 1

Havoc has taken hold of a battle that was seemingly nearing its end, disrupted by the arrival of one of Zenkon’s legends. Though not as widely known as the Strylak, a massive sea beast that prevents crossing the oceans, the draconic scourge haunting the hills of Mattarglos certainly earns its infamy.

Elemental magic is a common concept among the beings of Zenkon with words; the sentient races that can write, speak, and devise spells often simplify their magic into the alchemical elements that Daniel knows as earth (‘ground’ on Zenkon), wind, fire, and water, as well as light and dark -sometimes referred to as divine and void elements, respectively-. True magic is more complex than six simple categories, but for most of the population of Zenkon, using more than a couple of those six elements becomes more and more rare, and using the more freeform magic often ends up being a specialization of the mage using it. At least, that is the case in modern times.

That said, so far, all of the non-sentient monsters that Daniel and his companions have encountered have had a primary element or a singular hybrid element; lightning (a combination of fire and wind) for the thorusk hakkadels, water for Rohgattabor, ice (a combination of wind and water) for Tyror, and fire for the monstrous forms of drakes, which is more powerful than their inherent fire breath.

Given that the avian fiend that arrived at the crucial would-be last moments of Rohgattabor has already used lightning, ground, water, ice, fire, and light magic in the seconds that it has been present, it’s safe to assume that their newest antagonist can likely use all elements of magic.

And, immediately upon its reveal from invisibility magic that hid even its mana presence, broken only by the magic nullification of coming into contact with Nemaisol, the legendary draconic monster roars with a staggering force great enough to condense the air with the pressure wave radiating out, and everyone is brought to their knees at a minimum, with the screams of agony belonging to the gatonines and Hekate drowned out by the volume ravaging their sensitive hearing even through their protective headgear.

Daniel’s helmet -designed with his flashbangs in mind- softens the volume enough not to split his eardrums, but he along with Peiburi, Veiranoei, and Senn, who are also in a relative arc ‘in front’ of the roar, all tumble backwards from the impact of the pressure wave.

The former ‘Demon Tyrant’ Vaergraes and the Chi’rinnis support mage Kera’tai manage to stay relatively upright thanks to being a bit further away, but they are far from safe.

The air crackles and roars as the dragon-like monster exhales flames towards the two, and the Uhl’tall archpriestess is narrowly fast enough to use her own wind magic to blast herself into Kera’tai and knock both of them out of the way as the flames shatter the Chi’rinnis’ barrier with ease. The two tumble across the ground, helpless for the moment, but Neith summons icicle spears and barrages the titan to buy them time.

Doephluev and Hekate both channel their mana and fire powerful spells of their own; some sort of ominous black ray from the archoneldwyn and a concentrated column of water from the feldrok, who may not be especially skilled, but possesses a great deal of raw power.

All of the magic attacks glance off of the winged colossus, either exploding against its seemingly impenetrable scales or intercepted by its own spellcrafted barriers and ranged interceptor casts.

Daniel, the lowly human mechanic from a world without magic, hasn’t been idle. Once he is able to recover from his tumble, head still ringing, he withdraws his 20mm rifle from his magic bag. Next to everyone, he is the lowest perceivable threat to the apparent dragon with color-shifting scales thanks to having almost no magic, especially when Neith, Senn, Hekate, and Vaergraes each likely rank in the top twenty most powerful living beings in the entire world as a conservative guess. Daniel might as well be a mouse in the corner, which is advantageous to him. Though, that also means he is relatively helpless to defend himself from the battle of titans, and he can only move as quickly as he can with his own goals while hoping his allies can keep the devastating attacks of both themselves and the fiend away from him.

Veiranoei, a similarly relatively weak gatonine, runs to Daniel, stumbling as the ground shakes. He’s kneeling for stability as he searches his magic bag for the container he needs.

After a great deal of experimentation, Daniel confirmed that, as long as they’re shielded with lead or other dense materials with comparable shielding properties, he can store radioactive materials within the void bags, which would normally be disabled by the countermagic of those same elements. Or, at least, the atomic decay of their natural state of being.

“Daniel!” cries out the gatonine knight who recently joined Daniel’s family in name. She stumbles into him, and he catches her when an explosion of superhot flames impact the petrifying cold of a powerful ice ray, exploding violently from the dramatic difference in temperature.

Rifle shots echo within the cacophony, drowned out with ease by the explosions and roars of the magic attacks raining in all directions onto the monster, only to be ineffectual against its natural keratinous armor.

Veiranoei desperately grips Daniel, tears streaming down her face through the mud and dirt on her cheeks. “D-Daniel! I-I’m… I’m scared! D-D-Do something!”

“I’m working on it,” replies Daniel, a little sharply only from the heightened urgency of the situation as he finds the lead container he needs, marked with a yellow and black rifle crosshair. “Do you know what it is!?” asks Daniel over the clangorous brawl.

Losing herself to her tears, Veiranoei nods. She chokes out desperately, “It-It-It’s… Ya-Ya-Yaul-...” She descends into sobs as she clings to Daniel, and he murmurs, “Yaulwembor…” No wonder it’s a legend…

Yaulwembor, the mighty legendary dragon of Mattarglos -whether sentient or not- sweeps its tail brutally across the battlefield, slamming into Hekate’s and Doephluev’s combined barrier, which shatters. The two are thankfully blasted backwards by mana backlash, rather than the cataclysmic impact of the tail, and they tumble across the ground.

Abandoning magic, Neith transforms into his dragon form, giving him the full size and weight his true being grants him.

He lunges towards Yaulwembor, tackling the titan, but the latter manages to catch him and slides backwards, bringing the pair to a stop. They viciously claw at each other, trading merciless blows amplified by magic elements that explode and cast shrapnel -in the cases of ground and ice magic-, as well as stray streamers of fire and lightning with every devastating impact.

It quickly becomes clear, however, that the mythic fiend is faster and stronger than Neith, as his scales and blood are being sent flying, while he has barely left a scratch on his opponent.

It’s when the tide is shifting slowly that it abruptly falls to Yaulwembor’s advantage.

The ancient calamity vanishes in a swirl of black and violet energy, causing Neith to over-swing and stumble in his draconic form. The same flash of smoke-like energy appears behind him, and Yaulwembor reappears, already in a blindingly fast pirouette that clubs the grey knight with a thunderous boom and slams him into the ground, shattering the solid portions of the ground and splashing dirt, mud, and gravel like little more than water. Neith is momentarily incapacitated in a crater larger than his already massive body, and what trees and shrubs were in the area are mostly toppled from the violent disruption of the land.

Senn and Vaergraes try to coordinate a binding spell, but Yaulwembor roars and extends its foreclaw hands. Magic circles with complex spells appear for each one, and the two humanoid mages recoil, startled by whatever they see in the spell glyphs of the enemy.

Vaergraes switches to a defensive barrier, while Senn waves her staff, generating more of her own spellbinding enchantments.

The air seems to shatter with the rapid flashing lights of a two-way mutual barrage of magic spells that seem capable of erasing a city if they were to go astray. Senn only focuses on the attacks that will hit her and Vaergraes, who are the only two in the immediate line of fire, and explosions, disintegrations, and fires erupt behind them in a wide arc, devastating much of the forest.

Again, what feels like an eternity has only been a couple of minutes at most with the ferocity of the endless onslaught. Daniel has a piercing round loaded already; one with a sharmelkolle core inside of a copper coating, since sharmelkolle is so hard, it strips the rifling and is unlikely to obtain any of the spin necessary for accurate flight. It’s designed to penetrate dragon scale and bone, as well as the same for a feldrok, in case they ever meet enemies of the two powerful races again. Sharmelkolle is also tough enough -being virtually truly indestructible- that it can penetrate most barriers if enough force is behind it, so it’s the ideal ammunition for similarly nigh-impenetrable targets.

Once more, Yaulwembor proves to be surprising and dangerous when it casts a spell that reverts Neith to his humanoid form, and the titan grips him tightly, squeezing with all of its might. Neith struggles and groans in pain, but he is a dragon, thankfully. He hasn’t been crushed yet, but time is running out.

Daniel takes aim, locking the bolt forward.

This particular rifle has been through a lot with him. He killed Morthybargaron’s brother, the ‘Red Knight’ at Fort Peony as well as a drake, the ‘Green Sage’ at the dattakorien village where Baeka lived, the Feral Feldrok, ‘Lugrae’ as he has been dubbed. The mechanic even wounded Neith with a glancing blow when they first encountered each other.

It’s still extremely simple in design, but has a lot of firepower, especially with the properly rifled barrel he gave it once the Citadel became available to him.

Daniel takes a breath, steadily watching as Yaulwembor shields itself from another barrage of attacks from Senn using its humongous scale-armored wing. The multi-element magic assault rumbles and claps with thunder like a rapid bombing during an air raid, all dedicated to one target. Senn is trying to control the scale of her magic, since she has to balance her own mana reserves with doing damage to Yaulwembor without annihilating her allies and the forest around them. Wounds appear on the rainbow dragon’s wing, indicating that it CAN be harmed, but it’s taking an absurd amount of devastating force to even faze it.

Daniel times it with Yaulwembor positioning to cast another spell, using its tail seemingly obliviously to swipe at Hekate, who is trying to flank it from behind. She reinforces herself, vanishing in a shockwave of mud and water where the tail slams down on her.

The Emperor of the Fievegal winces. He’s optimistic that Hekate can withstand an attack that she knows is coming, but she’s not invincible. He can’t allow himself to believe that, or she’ll die.

The mechanic exhales slowly, pulling the trigger swiftly, but steadily.

The mythic titan of Mattarglos legend seems to freeze, as if sensing the shot, but it’s too late.

KABOOM!

Thunder and fire erupt from the barrel of the rifle as it kicks backwards like a horse. Veiranoei yelps and scrambles away from Daniel instinctively, which frees him up to continue his own attack.

The bullet shreds flesh from its snout roughly halfway between its nostrils and eyes, causing it to howl in pain as it falters, bucking its head to the side, which disrupts its magic retaliation on Senn. It stumbles on its feet, using its tail to balance, and Hekate springs up from under the mud, dazed briefly, but having survived being hit.

Without any hesitation from the first shot, Daniel yanks the bolt back, ejecting the smoking steel shell. He quickly dumps the lead container he withdrew from his void bag earlier onto the ground, revealing a specialized bullet with yellow and magenta painted in two quarters each around the conical projectile of the bullet. It’s dangerous to even handle these bullets, as the polonium core is highly radioactive.

But, it’s also extremely effective at nullifying magic even in small amounts.

“{Daniel, release me, now!}” Kaeralegier’s voice, the goddess bound to Nemaisol, calls out to Daniel urgently via telepathy.

The human mechanic trusts her with his life. She hasn’t let him down yet, and he’s not about to ignore her now.

He instantly grips the scabbard and hilt with each of his hands, pulling the sword ever so slightly apart.

Yaulwembor whirls its head around to face Daniel with a hellish glow in its mouth that spits forth like a bullet. Rather than a stream of demonic fire, as with the normal breath attacks, this incandescent magic missile streaks through the air like a plasma bolt from a sci-fi weapon.

Nemaisol’s area of effect is larger than usual, protecting both Daniel and Veiranoei by disrupting the magic holding the spitfire together. Flames still wash over the human pseudo-sorcerer, which he can feel briefly even through his highly-protective sharmelkolle armor.

The ancient terror is just about to attack again when a full force lancing dragon breath comes from its own palm. Neith managed to force enough air into his lungs to launch a counter, even with Yaulwembor squeezing him mercilessly.

Daniel is just about to feed his polonium round into the chamber when something -perhaps an instinctive paranoia, dumb luck, or maybe even a higher power- causes him to glance behind him, where a wake is approaching.

Without thinking, he does the only thing that comes to mind; he turns to Veiranoei and throws the rifle at her long-ways. It weighs about fifty pounds, even as simplistic as it is, giving it plenty of heft to catch the gatonine off guard and take her to the ground when she instinctively tries to catch it thinking it’s nothing more than a staff.

The lake erupts water at them once more when a mantarouck bursts out, lunging at easy prey distracted, but also away from the frightening presence of Yaulwembor.

And of course, it’s not just any mantarouck, but the graetcheth mantarouck itself; Rohgattabor.

Unfortunately, Luceniel hasn’t been able to switch, since it definitely needs to meet certain conditions to provide the protections that it does, and Daniel is easily snatched by the monster’s foreclaws this time. He already dropped the polonium round, but he has bigger problems to deal with now, doing his best simply to brace himself. His armor protects his body from the beating it takes being snatched by a praying mantis-like striking arm, which clamps down on him as the colossus retreats into the water just as suddenly as it had burst forth.

The depths of the lake rapidly close in, and the wayward Earthling barely manages to gasp in a breath before he is submerged. He’ll have -if he’s lucky- probably something close to thirty seconds. He notices the light elemental following him faithfully. She’s panicking, trying to think of a solution, since water is not her forte. He had hoped she could shift back into the water elemental, but there could be some sort of time-related or mana-recovery stipulation.

And, Daniel doesn’t have enough time to think too hard about it. He draws Nemaisol, nearly fumbling it as the light fades from the rapidly increasing depth of the water. He winces in pain, losing some of his lung capacity with the sound, as his ears threaten to burst. He manages to swallow his spittle, which breaks the differential for now -and narrowly so-. His ears still ache, but he might survive.

With the magic blade in hand, Daniel spears it into the claw, wrenching it as much as his pinned posture will allow. The lake monster snaps its claw free, recoiling and banking away from him as it drops him, though Nemaisol sticks and is yanked away from him.

He was hoping just touching Nemaisol to it would shock it, but maybe it’s because the polonium grenade disabled its mana, it effectively behaves the same as Daniel.

Regardless, Daniel sinks like a rock to the silty lake floor, stirring up muck in a big cloud as he lands. He scrambles up to a kneel, activating his magic bag as his lungs start to burn. The mechanic eases his breath out slowly to try to buy himself some time. He’s already down to his last seconds, meaning he has no time to delay nor to consider how foolish his action is going to be.

The faux sorcerer finds and withdraws the wind blaster; a magic rifle-like weapon that uses wind crystals to fire a concentrated high density pressure pocket of wind magic. He notices shadows swirling around him; hunting and looking for the right moment to strike like sharks.

He is in their true homefield now, where the aquatic superpredators have the advantage even without magic.

But, Daniel comes from a world where problems are solved with tools.

And, he has the perfect tool for the situation he has found himself in.

***

Neith exhales his full-tilt fire breath with everything he could muster, having been forced to inhale as deeply as he could against the crushing force of the legendary monster’s iron grip. Magnir was sent to investigate the mysterious and powerful beast topping the list of fiends plaguing Mattarglos, and he arrived in a desperate high-velocity flight to engage an invisible being.

That can only mean this monster is Yaulwembor, or another beast just like it.

Regardless, the grey dragon’s full power fire breath is enough to peel flesh and scales even from the seemingly-impervious monster, until one of Daniel’s mithril bullets pierced clean through the draconic terror’s snout and disrupted its attack.

Yaulwembor reacts to the flame lance scorching and wounding it as it snarls. It cups its free left hand in front of the magically enhanced incinerating jet, only for the meat of its palm to begin to burn, distorting the color of the flames as licks and embers spark and race off in every direction.

Neith, of course, is a living being with a finite lung capacity, aided by the fact that he’s extending that time with a slow exhale compensated for by wind and fire magic as parts of the enhancement.

He keeps the immolating stream going, since the pain and agony are keeping Yaulwembor’s focus on him, rather than anyone else. It must be working, because she tries to squeeze him tighter in her palm. But, the grey Einherjar won’t surrender; not when he is finally reclaiming his over-spent and wasted life.

Yaulwembor’s foreclaw disintegrates under the assault, and Neith pants as the titan roars.

Just as he’s taking another breath, though, the ancient draconic avian slams him into the ground by punching, briefly dazing the grey dragon. Still, he manages to try to exhale a new fire stream, but he cries out as his body goes rigid; the result of lightning magic coursing through him from the colossus.

He is left slumped in her grip, panting, when she finally ceases the electrical assault. Even with his own armor, which resists magic, Neith is taking a beating.

And, during that brief moment of respite, Yaulwembor generates several more magic circles around itself, even without words of chanting or equipment to generate the spells. The glyphs are of an ancient dialect that Neith doesn’t recognize off hand, but the effect becomes clear instantly; the few wounds that Senn, Neith, Daniel, Doephluev, Hekate, and Vaergraes have managed to inflict with their combined power all heal right before Neith’s eyes, including the disintegrated foreclaw.

Spirits and Ancestors… How much mana does this creature have?

A new set of magic circles appear above the two draconids, and this one Neith recognizes. It’s a series of five magic circles, each littered with glyphs generating various functions for the spell, including power, concentrating magic, expanding the range, and identifying the target for the magic spell.

Gunfire explodes through the air in a pair of golden-flecked streams, pelting the monster and causing it to recoil and howl in anger; the shuttleis firing its cannons at Yaulwembor.

At that moment, Hekate appears on the large hand’s finger next to Neith. She calls out, “Brace yourself, Neith! I’m going to barrier us both, and-WAAAAHHHH!”

Neith can only brace himself as the young feldrok Empress clings to his neck. He and she are launched through the air by Yaulwembor, who threw Neith as a near-ballistic projectile towards the shuttleas it strafes, banking out of the way of the incoming attack. The heavy 20mm rapid fire cannons of the shuttle have a great deal of range, especially on a stationary target, allowing it to have kept distance.

Regardless, Yaulwembor isn’t finished. Just that brief opening is enough for it to vanish in a puff of black smoke and purple mana.

The pilot of the shuttle punches the throttle, lurching the aircraft forward as it accelerates just in time to avoid the draconic avian when it reappears behind the shuttle, slashing its claw as blood flings through the air.

Neith catches Hekate as she screams, and he holds her firmly. She’s afraid of heights, which is a little surprising considering how much raw power is packed into her tiny body and the fact that she’s a feldrok, but it’s understandable, since the dragons treated her poorly her entire life until Daniel destroyed the balance of power.

Because their flight path is now directly towards Yaulwembor, who threw them moments before, Neith positions to land against the draconic monster’s chest, kicking off of it mere slices of a second before it teleports again, once more trying to assault the shuttle.

The pilot rolls skillfully, avoiding the creature and leading it back underneath the imposing magic circles being generated by Senn, Vaergraes, and Doephluev in tandem, given the surge of mana coming from the three.

Alone, each one of those three, as well as Hekate or Neith, could generate the spell maybe once. Together, they’re sharing the load, since everyone has spent so much mana so far.

Neith summons his wings to catch flight and allow him to safely carry the young feldrok girl back into the battle.

***

A little while before and on the ground, Sir Helbeit of the Stalvaltan Grand Duchy stumbles out of the lake water onto shore with Sir Resken. The two knights have been mostly dead weight in the battle that started when Yaulwembor spotted them in spite of their stealth spell, and then lost interest in them when one of the dragons -most likely Neith- breathed a firebreath of his own.

The Rohgattabor subjugation team lead by Daniel was already in the midst of battle with the beast and had it pinned down. Now, it is all they can do to try to avoid being maimed by the monster while launching whatever attacks they can in the lightning-fast blitz occurring.

KABOOM!

Helbeit flinches, and he notices Resken stumble as well. He was looking in the right direction by coincidence and saw the true power of the dragon slayer turned Dragon Emperor.

A long blast of smoke and fire erupts from a strangely shaped staff summoned forth from the world Divine Summons come from. And, with a single blow, a massive wound is blasted across the face of the dragon-like being known as Yaulwembor.

It can be harmed, and Daniel’s non-magic weapon did so.

However, the ancient draconid retaliates with a spit of fire that explodes violently, somehow not incinerating Daniel and the gatonine woman most recently added to his harem, Dame Veiranoei, if Helbeit heard correctly.

Just then, as the two knights are trying to find a way to re-engage, Daniel seems to shove his mysterious staff at the gatonine knight near him, and like it were a body, the motion topples Veiranoei onto her back when she tries to catch it.

With the suddenness of a lightning bolt, Daniel vanishes in a colossal splash of water, and the same wounded mantarouck the group was fighting, Rohgattabor, snatches him into the depths of the lake.

“Lord Daniel!” calls out Resken. The shenwulf knight saw it as well, then.

“We need to get over there!”

“What are we supposed to do against that!?” shouts the shenwulf knight, who is stronger in magic compared to Helbeit.

The human knight studies the battlefield for a moment. The landscape is drastically altered thanks to the titan clashing with Daniel’s companions, who each seem to possess cataclysmic levels of power on their own.

Even now, the grey dragon Neith manages to disintegrate Yaulwembor’s hand with his firebreath, but it’s still not enough to harm it, as the monster simply heals itself with magic in seconds.

The shuttle distracts it briefly, and it’s then that Helbeit notices Daniel’s staff, which Veiranoei abandoned and has since started to panic as she searches the surface of the lake.

“Daniel’s staff!” shouts Helbeit. “We need to retrieve it!”

“We don’t know any of his spells!”
“Don’t you remember!? Duchess Wenlianna said it isn’t magic! It’s a weapon!”

Helbeit breaks into a run, and Resken curses under his breath, falling into step right behind his companion. He shouts, “Have you ever used one of the demon staves, Helbeit!?”

“No! But, I’m willing to learn! And failing that,...” The human knight glances at the others. Gwenesphia and Treia, specifically, are using demon staves of their own, though their rate of attack is much higher than the one Daniel just used, trading off firepower for speed. Even before Daniel wounded Yaulwembor, their staves were doing little damage to the monster.

Helbeit slides in the mud to come to a stop, his relatively light armor for the expedition with Magnir still threatening to pull him over with its weight. He crouches at the strange oar-shaped weapon, glancing in the sky as Yaulwembor teleports again, engaging the shuttle it already pursued through magic translocation once.

The battle is chaotic, and Resken warns, “H-Helbeit! Look!”

The human knight looks at his partner, and then up at the sky where he’s pointing.

Sure enough, there is a series of magic circles that Stalvaltan Guardsmen are taught to recognize, since there are only a handful of mages in the east that can use such a spell, but when used, it could mean instant death if the soldiers aren’t aware of their surroundings.

It’s easy to feel the direction of the mana pressure radiating off of the three mages casting the devastating spell, holding it in air because of Yaulwembor’s teleportation, only for the shuttle to guide it back in.

“Move!” Resken tries to pull Helbeit to his feet just as he’s gripping Daniel’s staff, and both are surprised by the weight. No wonder Veiranoei was toppled by it. It must weigh forty if not an easy fifty pounds.

The shenwulf briefly loses his footing, and Helbeit catches him.

Lucky he did. Resken’s boot scuffing through the mud and pooled water reveals a shining steel object with a multi-colored yellow and purple tip.

A similar object nearby is almost identical except for it has no tip.

The second one, Helbeit recognizes with ease. He was part of the airship team after Muindis returned from the Citadel with only Daniel’s jacket, but Helbeit was there when a messenger brought in a strange metal tube found at Peony when the otherworlder disappeared.

It is the string needed to propel a dragon-slaying arrow forward.

And of course, if there are two strings, then the one with the arrow is what the knight needs now.

As he reaches for it, though, he feels profoundly weak, as if his soul is departing from his body.

What… What is this weakness? Did another gloom spell pass over us?

The human knight glances at his companion, who is casting specialty water and ground magic to grant them stable footing. They'll need to flee to avoid the coming spell from the two demons and the elf.

No… It must be this arrow. Daniel chose it for this… thing. Whatever this gloom arrow is, I'll have to endure.

Helbeit plants his feet so he has leverage, and he grips the gloom arrow and demon staff. Again, he feels weak, just like that mysterious day when everyone in the kingdom seemed to lose their mana at the same time.

But, he is a knight of the Stalvaltan Grand Duchy. He has no opinion on the matter involving the Grand Duchy allying itself or even submitting itself to the rule of the Fievegal. He swore an oath to the Stalvaltan household specifically, as both a Guardsman and a knight.

“RrrRRRAHHH!” roars the human knight as he summons all of his physical strength to obey him. It never occurred to him how much he relies on mana in even everyday activities, especially those requiring strength. The small shred of idle curiosity remaining in his mind hopes to make a mental note to request whatever this gloom arrow is made of from Daniel in order to create a new training regimen.

In the present, though, there is a monster that needs slaying and a spell that will attempt to do just that about to be deployed by three of the most powerful mages in the known world.

Yaulwembor is just entering the target zone, relentlessly pursuing the shuttle, which narrowly weaves through the air to avoid slashes, magic attacks, and teleportation like a songbird pursuing a fly.

Helbeit calls out, “Go! Run!”

“Your footing!”

“No time! The girl! Go!”

Resken, following alongside as the human knight runs, spots Veiranoei, who is calling out for help. She’s dangerously close to the water, in spite of the fact that Daniel was just snatched.

The shenwulf knight knows what to do, though. He has the sure-footing spell active on himself and is unencumbered by his light armor. He sprints ahead of Helbeit towards the gatonine woman, while Helbeit makes as much distance from the epicenter of the impending calamity as he can gain.

Resken indelicately tackles Veiranoei, scooping her onto his shoulder as he changes his angle to join Helbeit, sprinting at full tilt with the startled gatonine on his shoulder. “Wait! Daniel…!”

“No time! Brace yourself!”

A terrible hum fills the air as the mana in the atmosphere coalesces at the center of the top magic circle, combined with the raw energy being provided by the three mages. They are in perfect sync with each other, as if they choreographed the spell a thousand times, in spite of their formerly different factions.

The sky flashes as the collected mana is accelerated by each magic circle and amplified as it travels downwards.

Directly towards Yaulwembor.

The ancient dragon looks up, but it’s too late.

The mana drops in a beam of light, and the titan vanishes in a chaotic whirl of fire and light.

Arguments can be made about what the most powerful magic is, and Rikuto’s void artillery is definitely on that list. However, the single most powerful and destructive spell ever cast by mages, spellbinders, wizards, and sorcerers under their own power has to be this; the hybrid air and fire elemental spell simply called explosion.

Helbeit is only a few yards behind Resken and Veiranoei, since the extra weight of the demon staff and the lack of mana are almost more burdensome than carrying a whole person in armor.

The explosion spell, which is at least a thousand feet across, doesn’t care. The shockwave throws all three of them to the ground as mud, rocks and flaming foliage are blasted past them.

The human knight scrambles to reclaim the staff and its arrow, bracing against the recoil wind created by the spell as some sort of reclamation. He bolts to his feet to keep running.

Helbeit only takes the time to glance back when he reaches Resken and Veiranoei. The shenwulf is pulling the gatonine knight up, and behind them, seen is easy to define; devastation.

Trees burn, smoke rises high into the sky, and a seemingly-invulnerable monster has been knocked from the air, slamming into the ground as the flaming wreckage of the shuttle falls from the sky. It’s a terrifying sight, and Senn drops to a kneel, supporting herself with her staff while Doephluev and Vaergraes pant.

Yaulwembor snarls, writhing against the exposed dirt and mud in the crater left by both the explosion spell and the draconid’s impact with the ground immediately afterwards.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

The ancient fiend roars as it springs upwards, smoke swirling from its scales while mud sprays away from it.

Vaergraes casts one more spell, and a monster of her own appears, though it’s still tiny compared to Yaulwembor.

It looks somewhat like a cross between a human and an insect, but much, MUCH more frightening.

More accurately, it looks like what the demon encyclopedia, which Stalvaltan Guardsmen have to study, depicts as a Death Knight, though it’s even more elaborate than what the sketches showed.

Regardless, the monster scoops up the three women and whisks them away narrowly as Yaulwembor’s foot comes down, cratering the soil and rock even further and quaking everyone into a stumble.

Kera’tai, who was further behind the three, also gets picked up by the Death Knight, but they’re in the ancient terror’s sights.

Three of the most powerful mages in the history of Zenkon have exhausted most, if not all, of their mana, and they’ve barely put a scratch in the beast.

***