Chapter 63: The last Altar (5)

Steven stood in the empty cave, already restoring the magic seal on his body.

As he had to watch Merency disappear through the staircase upstairs, or whatever she currently was.

Her mana still indicated that her other half was the one taking control at the moment, but the mana seemed to grow weaker with each moment as if it was limited to a maximum reserve.

Meaning if she used all of it, the true Merency might return, and if help hadn’t arrived until then, the students could very well be doomed to death.

Having finally redrawn his seal, he hurried to the exit of the monument, leaping up the hole Merency had burned down here; he stood in the middle of the small hut.

He could feel multiple manas clashing violently in the church, but to his luck he was still able to sense everyone alive and decently well.

The biggest problem was that, even in combat, he could feel the mana of the finger fully relaxed as if she still wasn’t taking things seriously.

’’What is taking Elizabeth so long? The finger could’ve escaped easily by now.’’ He whispered to himself, trying to find their magical connection, but it was completely silent.

The finger was probably still using her mana and mind hexes to intercept signals outside.

Turning his head only away for a second, he missed the entire church exploding into pieces, as a giant flame pillar formed in the middle where it stood.

Dodging the debris Steven made sure nobody would be able to see him as he hid behind the hut, reducing his presence as much as possible.

As he continued inspecting the fight, he was unsure if he should intervene on either side.

Merency was holding the arm of Calostie, trying to break it into pieces, as Lucy tried to use a marble shard filled with mana to stab the finger to death.

But just as she was about to hit Calostie’s throat, an image of Steven lingered; the finger just stood, hesitating just a moment. Lucy was sending her arm crashing into the ruin, her arm being pierced by an iron rod.

Trying to rise, suddenly a dozen of Calostie stood in front of her, each holding the head of one of her classmates and even her own.

As fear spread through Lucy’s body, she let out a deceiving scream, wanting to scramble backwards but could only press herself against his cold rock.

"Lucy, starpasser, your time is over; just surrender, and I promise I will make it be over quickly.’’ Calostie’s voice echoed through each of her throats as she started to move closer to Lucy.

Wanting to run away, Lucy pulled the iron rod from her arm, stumbling backwards as Calostie only approached slower.

No, it couldn’t be; something in front of her was wrong. She just couldn’t tell what. No, it felt more like her mind was telling her everything was fine.

Only her body instinctively tried to resist her fear.

"LUCY." Calostie’s voice felt like it was crawling up Lucy’s body.

As she finally realized something, the dozens of Calostie standing in front of her had empty eyes.

Only one Calostie in the distance, standing next to Merency, still had a single golden eye.

Finally seeing her enemy, she took a step back, ignoring all the illusions of her mind, as the air started charging up.

Multiple lightings were sending from finger to finger until he had gathered enough power, as the real Calostie still didn’t seem to pay any attention to her.

Lumiel rose from the ground with only minor bruises; the healing from Merency had truly done wonders to his body, allowing him to fight once more.

But even then, did this girl seem much more powerful than anyone he had faced until now, maybe even stronger than Steven was?

As Lumiel stepped towards Calostie, his vision darkened completely, plunging him into total darkness.

’’Another mind game? Can’t you fight like a man for once?’’ Even when he couldn’t see anything, he had a memory of Calostie having been standing just a moment ago.

Sending a fire disk flying forward, he hoped to break her concentration on him, but before his attack could land on its target, he could feel a light tap on his shoulder.

Turning his head, a giant golden eye was flying next to him, staring at him impatiently.

Jumping backwards, he hit his back against a wall he could see; he let out a pained groan.

’’Why are you running away? I thought you wanted to fight me head-on?’’ A voice spoke directly into his head as the darkness vanished.

Revealing Calostie standing just where he had come from, looking bored at the ground. As her head snapped up, staring at him.

’’Or are you just scared? Like the little kid you are?’’ Her voice was an obvious provocation, but he didn’t care.

"Oh, you’re going to regret this, you little fucker." As a smile formed on his lips, how did she dare reveal herself to him?

He was going to kill her for her recklessness as the wind around him became more violent, strong enough to blow away whole houses.

But then it stopped, the entire wind, as it became utterly quiet. Only a small buzzing sensation was felt in his hand.

He had taken all the power of the wind, forming it into a single blade; as just a slight wind it released on accident cut the stone below like it were butter.

Calostie stared at him, fear visible over her whole face, as she took a few steps to the side, just next to an iron rod on the floor, which was smeared with blood.

"Who was running again?" he spoke.

As he finally fired the blade,

It flew with unimaginable speed.

Cutting anything in its path, turning it into dust, and sending it in the air.

Until it hit its target, which didn’t even try to avoid it.

As a smile formed on Calostie’s face, replacing any worry.

Only then did he feel like something was wrong.