Chapter 102: Hilda VS Soldier Predicament [3]

Hilda had always kept two cards up her sleeve; cards she always wanted to keep hidden, if possible. One was her precious Relic, Batalla Occidere. And the other...

Clap!

Was her Gift.

The moment she clapped her hands, the two paper slips between her palms fused, forming into a much larger Talisman, which she immediately tossed in the Soldier’s direction.

’{Fire Blast}.’

A ball of flames manifested from the Talisman, larger than its precursor, the {Fire Bolt}. It was dense and packed with red-hot flames, waiting to burst out in a fiery explosion!

The Soldier watched as it flew at it with threatening speed.

It raised an arm in defence, predicting that the palm of its hand would be enough to stop it. And it would be right, but not without a cost.

BOOM!

The moment {Fire Blast} hit its armoured palm, it exploded with immense force. The flames from it quickly slipped past its palm and engulfed its entire arm.

"Grahhhh!" The monster let out a distressed roar as it backed away, exiting the dense smoke created by {Fire Blast} and coming out with half an arm.

After putting out the flames burning its stump—

Clap!

—The Soldier quickly leapt to the side.

BOOM!

A cloud of flames erupted where it had been standing, followed by a small pillar of smoke as flame-covered debris fell from the sky.

The Soldier sneered slightly at this.

As it was about to move again, it sensed something in the air. Something...

Crackle...!

Electrifying.

’{Lighting Blast}.’

Before it could process this sensation, it was suddenly hit with a powerful shock, which blew it a dozen metres back. The plating that protected its chest was completely destroyed, with the flesh underneath even suffering from a moderate burn.

Scratch. Scratch.

The Predicament scratched at the bits of plating left on its chest with the tips of its fingers and watched as they crumbled off.

It snorted, then raised its head to look at Hilda, who was nonchalantly walking through the flames she had caused with a devilish grin.

{Convergence} was the name given to Hilda’s Gift. It was an ability that allowed her to place an invisible mark on anything she touched and cause it to converge towards a marked location, in an attempt to fuse with it — if she willed. There were no limits to how many marks she could make.

Unfortunately, like most powers, there were always some downsides.

Clap!

Hilda fused another pair of Talismans together.

{Convergence} only worked on objects she had marked 10 minutes prior. And required her to clap her hands whenever she wanted to activate it.

Fortunately, she was perfectly fine with such downsides.

’{Binding Ring}.’

Hilda tossed the Talisman and caused it to manifest as a gentle ring of light. It first phased through the Predicament’s legs before constricting and pulling them tightly together. She then did the same thing for the Predicament’s upper body and tightly bound its arms to its sides.

The Soldier began to furiously resist the restraint, trying to shatter the rings by spreading its limbs. At first, the ring began to slowly crack, but that soon came to an end.

Hilda slipped out four Talismans from her Inventory and imbued them with her Vitality.

’{Binding Bolts}.’

She then threw the Talismans at the arms and legs of the Predicament, watching as they quickly transformed into bolts made of light and pierced into the Soldier’s limbs — forcing them still in the air.

Once the Soldier was restrained, Hilda gathered a large amount of Vitality into her hands, then clapped.

Clap!

And the moment she did that, the rubble around them began to shift. From small rocks to broken weapons to even pillars of metal — everything that Hilda had touched throughout this entire fight had begun to mysteriously float in the air.

Everyone who saw this was dazed, looking aimlessly at the floating objects in the sky. Even Nadia was no different, watching in awe and amazement.

They were then shocked as the objects began to quickly move towards the Predicament, brutally bashing against its restrained body.

BAM. CLANG. BAM.

A horrid symphony of noises rang out during this process before soon ending.

The Soldier, still restrained with Binding Spells, was now also trapped inside a dense ball of rubble; it was now completely restrained — with no way out.

Hilda’s face was now slightly pale, having just used a ridiculous amount of Vitality. But she wasn’t done yet!

"This shall be my final attack. Und it shall be extravagant!" She withdrew four Talismans from her Inventory and fused them into a sheet the size of an A4 sheet of paper.

Hilda then began to draw out the Spell on the Talisman, using four different properties of Spiritual Manuals.

’Spirituality of Overwhelming: {Flame Wave}. Spirituality of Exploiting: {Lightning Bolt}. Spirituality of Repositioning: {Forward}. Spirituality of Enduring: {Strengthen}...’ The culmination of four different properties of Spiritual Manuals gave birth to a powerful Spell!

The Talisman held in Hilda’s hand began to glow radiantly, releasing four different colours respective to their Spirituality: red, blue, white, and green.

Licks of flame and arcs of electricity seeped from the Talisman, clashing with one another before fusing into something much brighter... and hotter.

Hilda’s remaining Vitality quickly disappeared with the completion of the Spell.

With a hazy look in her eyes, she wasted no time in aiming her Spell at the Predicament, wedging the Talisman in between her fingers.

Once she was certain of her aim... She bursted out laughing and roared jubilantly, "{SCORCHING RETRIBUTION}!"

In that instance, a column of white-hot plasma bursted out from the tips of Hilda’s fingers, travelling with immense speed and melting the ground.

It quickly reached the ball of rubble and swallowed it instantly, like a gluttonous beast, melting through the concrete and metal with pure ease. The Soldier, who was still contained inside, was swallowed as well, forced to bathe in the fiery plasma.

After the rubble and Binding Spells were destroyed by {Scorching Retribution}, the Soldier made one last-ditch effort to reach Hilda — pushing itself towards her, like it was braving through a heavy storm.

Though it didn’t last long. Even with its thick skin and dense plating, along with its powerful regenerative ability, it couldn’t withstand the scorching light that engulfed it.

As its body began to melt away, the monster let out one last roar of defiance. Unable to accept that this was how it was going to die!

Unfortunately, no one would hear such a cry over the roaring sound of plasma.

Soon, it perished, leaving behind only ashes that were quickly swallowed by molten concrete.

The bright light from Hilda’s {Scorching Retribution} quickly died out, as the plasma beam soon fizzled away.

All that remained as proof of its existence was a wide, molten line stretching dozens of metres in front of her.

The Predicament that threatened them all was now gone. And in its ashes, a new victor appeared.

Hilda let out a shallow breath as she looked up at the moon.

As of this moment...

The Devil’s Child — Hilda Hertel — had emerged victorious over the Predicament!