Chapter 352

Chapter 352: Chapter 352

Seeing their companions destroyed one after another, the surviving Corrupted Spirit clones became even more frenzied.

"Hahaha! Die! All of you, just die!"

"I’ll smash every last one of you into paste! Meat paste!"

As their hysterical screams echoed across the 60th Floor, one female Spirit face on each of the two remaining flesh pillars began chanting simultaneously.

"Come, come, come—shell of the earth, treasure of black iron, radiant star-forged hammer. By the covenant of creation, I command you: overturn, burn the heavens, shatter the earth, raise the bridge, join heaven and earth as one. Descend, axe of the heavens, calamity of destruction—"

"Meteor Shower."

Brilliant magical light shot straight upward, and the vast ceiling of the floor was suddenly swallowed by intermingled darkness and radiance.

An enormous quantity of magical power condensed into a single point before countless meteors wreathed in black light appeared overhead.

And because two Spirit faces had performed the spell together, there were more than twice as many meteors as during Kiriya’s previous battle against a Corrupted Spirit clone.

The instant they manifested, the Magic accelerated them to terrifying speed.

If that entire barrage reached the ground, all but a handful of the adventurers gathered below would die on the spot.

"We’re screwed! I’m going to die here!"

"No! I was planning to get married after this expedition!"

"Damn monster! Did you really have to make it this ridiculous?!"

Members of both the Freya and Loki Familias went pale, cursing inwardly as the black meteors began their descent.

Then a cold, commanding voice rang across the entire floor.

"Afterglow—Instant Prison Azure Dragon Rain."

Only then did the adventurers realize that Kiriya had appeared among them at some point.

His Dragon Fang Sword was already moving, unleashing countless brilliant slashes toward the sky.

Ever since their previous battle against a Corrupted Spirit clone, Kiriya had been specifically preparing for this possibility.

After destroying the immature Nidhogg, he had kept close watch on every remaining Spirit face, knowing that any one of them might attempt another large-scale annihilation spell.

The instant that familiar black magic formation appeared overhead, he used Flying Thunder God to position himself directly beneath the descending meteor swarm.

Then his sword light surged upward like a meteor shower flowing in reverse.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM—!

The massive black meteors looked impossibly dense and heavy, yet before Kiriya’s domineering Afterglow slashes, they were as fragile as tofu.

One after another, they were cut apart in midair, while the tremendous force behind his strikes also stripped away most of their downward momentum and prevented the fragments from becoming a second wave of lethal debris.

"That man really does never stop surprising people."

Riveria let out a helpless laugh.

"Yeah. Even an old bastard like me has to admit the gap keeps getting wider."

Gareth stroked his beard and laughed heartily.

"He really has gotten stronger."

Ais stared at the fading sword light overhead, visibly impressed by the attack.

"W-We survived..."

"Thank the Goddess!"

"Idiot, thank Sylvan! He’s the one who saved you!"

Quite a few adventurers collapsed onto the ground where they stood, sucking in deep breaths with lingering terror on their faces.

They had come terrifyingly close.

One moment later, and many of them would have been saying goodbye to this wonderful world for good.

The relief of surviving something like that was almost overwhelming.

If circumstances had allowed it, more than a few of them probably would have thrown themselves at Kiriya and kissed him on the spot.

The female adventurers were even less subtle.

Their eyes practically burned as they stared at him.

Powerful, dependable, willing to protect everyone around him—and handsome on top of all that.

Who wouldn’t want a captain like that?

If a little romance happened along the way too, that would be even better.

Wasn’t that more or less how the girls of the Hestia Familia had ended up around him?

Before long, more than a few jealous and envious looks were being directed toward Jeanne, Ryuu, and Esdeath.

"Achoo!"

Ryuu suddenly sneezed.

She had no idea who was talking about her behind her back, but this was hardly the time to worry about it.

The Corrupted Spirit clone had just unleashed an attack dangerous enough to threaten everyone on the floor.

It could not be allowed to live any longer.

"This next attack will finish you."

Ryuu murmured the words under her breath and began chanting.

"When duty has been fulfilled, the scales shall return to balance..."

Seeing Ryuu simply standing there and chanting, the female Spirit face seemed almost baffled by her apparent stupidity.

It immediately sent numerous tentacles whipping toward the elf.

Before they could touch her, brilliant starlight erupted around Ryuu and formed an unbreakable barrier.

That was one of the most outrageous properties of Astraea Record.

During its invocation, the Magic granted her a brief period of absolute protection.

Ryuu continued chanting, her words flowing faster and faster.

"Fortress of order, crown of purity, flame that banishes evil. In the name of the Goddess, carve a path across the heavens and scatter the footprints of stars upon the earth—

"Justice shall flow without end!

"Astraea Record!"

Once activated, Astraea Record allowed Ryuu to call upon the Magic once wielded by her fallen comrades.

The first ability she chose was the signature enhancement Magic of her closest friend, Alise Lovell.

"Agaris Alvesynth."

Blazing fire enveloped Ryuu’s body.

Her speed and strength increased explosively, and as she charged forward, monsters and tentacles alike were cut apart and burned into blackened fragments before they could slow her down.

The Corrupted Spirit sensed the danger immediately. It sent more tentacles to intercept her while simultaneously erecting several layers of magical barriers in front of the flesh pillar.

It was already being cautious.

Unfortunately, caution would not save it.

Because Ryuu’s next attack could not be stopped by an ordinary magical shield.

"Gokou!"

The signature Magic of Kaguya Gojouno allowed five slashes to appear instantly at any locations the user envisioned.

In other words, the attacks were spatial cuts whose trajectories could neither be read nor predicted through ordinary means.

Inspired by Kiriya, Ryuu had gone even further.

She incorporated the principles of Afterglow into Gokou and made all five spatial slashes converge on exactly the same point.

Gokou + Afterglow + Agaris Alvesynth.

A finishing move powerful enough to leap beyond her normal level and kill a Level 7 opponent.

Shhk! Shhk! Shhk! Shhk! Shhk—!

Pure flame and light tore through the flesh pillar simultaneously, cutting through every layer of corrupted tissue before burning what remained to ash.

The Spirit did not even have time to scream.

It simply vanished from the world.

...

Ryuu was not the only person enraged by the Meteor Shower.

Esdeath was furious too.

The sadistic general had originally intended to enjoy her fight properly and use the Level 7-class opponent to temper every aspect of her abilities.

Until that point, she had indeed been having an excellent time.

Then the creature had suddenly ignored their duel and unleashed a floor-wide area attack.

Whether the Loki and Freya Familia adventurers lived or died meant little to Esdeath. She barely knew most of them.

But making her look bad in front of Kiriya?

That was serious.

This monster had officially earned itself a death sentence.

"If you don’t want to play properly, then we’re done playing."

Esdeath brought her hands together as though holding an invisible sphere.

A dim light appeared between her palms before rapidly expanding outward until it seemed to encompass the entire 60th Floor.

"Mahapadma."

In an instant, time and space froze.

The battlefield fell completely still.

Esdeath could even see the crazed smile frozen across the Corrupted Spirit’s face, and the sight alone made her feel disgusted.

She calmly walked through the motionless world until she reached the enormous green flesh pillar, then drove her sword straight into it.

"Absolute Freezing Air."

With Battle Intent Furnace still pushing her physical and magical attributes far beyond their normal limits, Esdeath’s freezing power had undergone a tremendous increase as well.

The cold she released now possessed enough force to freeze virtually anything it touched.

Even a Spirit, a species naturally gifted with extraordinary magical resistance, could not withstand temperatures like these.

The freezing air spread from Esdeath’s blade through every layer of the pillar, penetrating from the surface all the way to its deepest core.

Within moments, the entire structure had been frozen completely solid.

Then—

crack.

The enormous pillar shattered from within.

When time resumed, the once-arrogant Corrupted Spirit clone disintegrated into countless fragments of ice and disappeared from the world without even having the chance to resist.