
Before anything happened, Aria helped Annabelle adjust her golem, IV One, so that both arms were aimed properly. It held two loaded crossbows.
Annabelle had her imbuement prepared and would only need a moment to have both fired at the corrupted’s neck and head.
Perfect.
Everything else was up to her.
A thundering bang rocked the labyrinth as a golden light shot from Aria’s pistol. Before the sound even faded, a barrier rippled across the corrupted’s head.
It didn’t even crack. Perhaps Earth magic had an auxiliary effect of strengthening barriers.
Despite how loud her pistol sounded, Aria’s gun wasn’t that powerful - especially against magic barriers. The bullets weren’t anything special beyond the mechanism used to make them fire.
Unaffected, the corrupted turned while taking a few calm steps backward. That was the expected reaction. The corrupted didn’t seem to care that it had been shot at.
Making another bullet took too long and too much mana, so Aria dismissed her pistol after pulling the trigger.
In its place, her golden threads took only three seconds to draw a crossbow.
Annabelle had two swords floating before her poised to launch at the slightest opening.
But fighting like that wasn’t the plan.
Whatever apex sigil the corrupted had seemed to give her a deep, powerful connection to the earth around her. It reacted and moved faster than even Aria’s peak.
Running in there and hoping for the best wasn’t an option.
Aria pulled the trigger on her crossbow.
The bolt launched into the room, but a chuck of earth exploded through the ground before her finger even fully pulled the trigger.
Her bolt was easily stopped without even fully piercing the rock. It dispersed into a golden mist, leaving only a hole in the rock wall.
“That is ridiculous,” Annabelle muttered. “The earth definitely has a life of its own and is moving by itself to protect her.”
“Agreed.”
She activated her Aura Sense, and a golden light briefly shined in her eyes. Once it faded, she saw the powerful grey aura of the corrupted and a faint trace of brown deep within.
But that wasn’t what she wanted to see.
The rock wall itself had a light glow made dull grey due to the corruption.
It was similar to Annabelle’s imbuement, but the glow was more intense and much deeper—like the earth had an aura of its own deep within.
“Here I go,” Annabelle said.
Aria nodded.
Annabelle’s sword soared into the room and twisted around the rock wall, flying at the corrupted from the left.
But it was once again intercepted by a lightning-fast rock wall. Her sword pierced into it up to its hilt and stopped completely as stone debris clattered against the wooden floor.
As expected.
“The aura is still on the original wall—you were right.”
The aura on the first wall didn’t fade, even as Annabelle’s second attack was blocked. Both walls had that aura.
“So our plan should work!”
“Yes.”
It was quite a straightforward, almost brutish plan, but it was a decent option.
The ground within the room began to rumble, the vibrations even extending into the hall as rocks began to rise and form around the corrupted.
What would she do?
As long as Aria didn’t enter the room, there was nearly zero threat.
Expectedly, one of those rocks launched monstrously towards Aria’s head.
It rocketed through the air, but she expected its trajectory and briskly moved away.
But it kept going, flying and exploding at the distant wall.
“So powerful!”
“I can still predict where it’s aiming,” Aria assured.
Those slight adjustments didn’t escape her eyes.
Once again, a rock whizzed past her and exploded at the distant wall.
Well, it could get annoying.
“Are you ready?”
“Hand.”
Aria complied, and a black ring quietly whirred above her opened palm as she moved so that the corrupted’s own earth wall prevented her from firing rocks at her.
Slowly, a black light formed a sphere in Aria’s palm. That was a crystal ball, another heart Annabelle intended to use to experiment with golem creation.
But there was another usage.
The ground rumbled again as the earth walls shot into the ground right as the black light dispersed, showing a pinkish crystalline ball.
“Listen,” Annabelle spoke gravely and quickly. “The moment—the very second—I do this, the ball will explode so violently that you will not go unharmed!”
“I know.”
But that was also the only way for them to overcome the indomitable defense the corrupted had in its room.
Aria could fight without worry once they shut down that power.
Minor injury was of little concern.
She formed another bolt in her crossbow.
“Okay, I’m starting.”
Simultaneously, Aria upped her enhancements to their maximum. She briefly considered going up a stage in her new, merged ability—the one Annabelle called Demonification. But, there would be side effects, and they could be worse due to the merger.
Although she was curious what it would look like. Was it really turning her into a demon? Shade abilities were reminiscent of that, but maybe it was just her human interpretation that made it become like that.
She cleared her thoughts and prepared to charge into the room. Power flooded into her body as her enhancements ran.
A second later, Aria had to dodge another rock aimed at her head. Her eyes never left those projectiles, watching for every adjustment made.
But she needed more time before it decided to launch all of them at once.
Another second.
Aria pulled the trigger on her crossbow, the golden bolt launching into the room.
Once again, it was only stopped by a fast wall shooting from the earth below. But that created another pause as Aria adjusted her position and created another arrow.
The crystal ball in her palm began to emit a bright black glow, one that overpowered its pink color. It emitted a whirring sound as Annabelle slowly filled it with mana.
Annabelle was focusing intently—Aria could tell based on the mana moving. One wrong movement and the crystal would kill them both.
A second passed, and the rock wall immediately fell to another rock whizzing past Aria. But, again, it went how they expected.
Black light shined from the crystal, something that was only possible with those crystals—those hearts. They could hold and store mana for long periods and could even be used to create technology.
However, Annabelle discovered a problem unique to her.
And that problem was her purity—but that problem was their solution.
“Ready—charge!” Annabelle grunted. “I’m... I’m losing control!”
Aria treated those words like the firing of a gun. If she had waited even a moment longer, the corrupted would have all her rocks launching like a machine gun.
She dashed into the room as fast as she could, kicking off the wooden floor and nearly instantly crossing the precipice.
The ball began to glow so brightly that Aria couldn’t even look at it.
“Throw!”
It all happened in a moment—a moment that felt like time froze.
First, Aria pulled her crossbow’s trigger at the corrupted to distract it. The wall moved better that time, only rising to block the bolt and lowering immediately after—it was learning.
Simultaneously, Aria launched the crystal ball upward with all her strength. It moved even faster from Annabelle’s imbuement, too. Since it wasn’t targeting the corrupted, it went unimpeded long enough to reach its destination. Boulders flew to meet it, but it didn’t matter.
But she felt something heavy hit her lower side.
A rock.
It had launched right as the wall lowered and hit her perfectly, causing her barrier to immediately crack.
She ignored it as the explosion rang.
The crystal detonated in a violent burst of light and destruction, a wave of force tearing through the room and ringing the silent chamber.
But the real target was the ceiling. The innumerable crystals dotting the ceiling shattered under the blast, the crystalline structures breaking apart into sharp, glittering shards that began to rain down.
Chunks of rock from the walls and ceiling dislodged, collapsing downward in an avalanche.
The shockwave rippled outward, sending shards of rock slamming into Aria and driving her back.
Her cracked barrier flickered dangerously, nearly giving way. She raised an arm to shield herself from the heat and debris, her boots skidding against the stone floor as the shockwave still pushed her down.
In the center of it all, the corrupted’s apex sigil did precisely what they expected it to do. A deep, resonant pulse filled the air, and the rain of the majority of the destruction froze mid-descent.
Most of the shards and every major fragment of stone and crystal hung in the air, surrounded by a grey glow that suspended them before they could collapse.
The rumbling ceased as the room seemed to be frozen in time, rocks and crystals floating in the air, barely stopping them from being buried alive.
Aria’s breathing came quick and shallow, her body tense at the sheer power. The corrupted stood at the heart of the chaos, her dull, grey eyes locked on Aria even while her ability worked tirelessly.
“I-it worked… it actually worked,” Annabelle whispered. “It’s holding… everything!”
But Aria was in a dangerous spot.
One good impact would both shatter her barrier and grievously injure her.
Her hand tightened on the sword she created mid-explosion. She took a step back, then another, retreating toward the room’s entrance.
The corrupted didn’t move; her focus was consumed by maintaining control over the suspended debris.
Their plan worked.
In her left hand, her threads quickly formed another bolt.
Annabelle’s second sword hovered gently beside her, and the corrupted’s ring of rock seemed to be heavily slowed.
As expected, the Apex Sigil could get overworked.
There was simply too much above that it needed to hold on to, lest the crystals burry the room and destroy everything within. Including the mural that it seemed to care for.
Both times Aria walked in, the corrupted would take a few steps back like it needed to stand guard.
It was in noting that behavior that a plan was born, one that assumed they could just make the corrupted’s apex sigil work overtime.
But it also gave the corrupted a powerful weapon—an armament of crystals that it could make rain upon them.
And the seconds passed quickly.
“Now’s the time!” Annabelle exclaimed. “I’m activating IV One!”
Aria nodded.
“Now,” she said, charging into the fray once more.
Perfectly timed, too—a crystal shard slammed into the ground where she once stood.
But Aria reached the corrupted’s platform in an instant.
The corrupted’s control over the suspended crystals was taking a toll - but its ring of defensive rocks moved to block any approach.
Aria closed the small distance between them, her golden katana flashing in an arc toward the corrupted. Along with her slash, she whipped her left arm around and fired her crossbow, sending a bolt toward its shoulder.
As expected, the rocks reacted. The ring moved precisely, intercepting her blade and the bolt in two separate locations.
Stone shards flew as her enchanted katana shattered like glass as it pierced through the rock.
In the same breath, one of the spinning rocks smashed into Aria’s side.
The blow hit her barrier with a crack that reverberated through her body before it shattered.
“Aria!”
The force sent her stumbling back, a light pain flaring up her arm as the broken rock grazed her bicep, tearing into the fabric of her sleeve and leaving a shallow gash. Thankfully, Annabelle already had Hyper Enhancement activated.
Resisting it was simple.
“Annabelle—”
“I know! Activating IV One!”
The corrupted didn’t notice the golem’s actions—its focus remained locked on Aria, its defensive rocks preparing for another strike.
And Aria obliged.
She pulled the trigger the moment her threads formed the crossbow bolt and simultaneously threw a golden dagger that only took a second to create.
Both were stopped.
But then, a sharp, sharp twang sound echoed from the hallway.
The golem—stationed just out of the room—had pulled the trigger.
Two bolts flew with precision and unimpeded. The ground rumbled, but no Earth wall rose to block their instant arrival.
One landed on her neck, earning a crack and a ripple. The other pierced, shattering the barrier like glass as it hit the corrupted’s forehead. It didn’t pierce all the way, but that didn’t matter.
It was over.
The rocks that had hovered protectively around it dropped to the ground with dull thuds. The suspended crystals and debris began to tremble as the corrupted staggered, blood seeping from its head.
“Flee, now!” Annabelle shouted.
Aria was already moving before Annabelle even finished, a single burst of action sending her sprinting out of the room.
She was fine.
Immediately after, the magic that had held the crystals and rocks in place disappeared, and everything came crashing down at once.
Crystalline shards rained to the ground in a destructive rain. Heavy rocks followed, thudding against the floor with deep, echoing bangs, some shattering on impact, others bouncing across the room.
The air was filled with the cacophony of destruction—cracking, shattering, and the dull, heavy thuds of rocks hitting the ground.
A final, resonant crash shook the room as a large piece of one of the pillars slammed into the floor, sending a cloud of dust into the air.
The once-stable room was now a mess of crystal fragments and scattered debris, the aftermath of a violent collapse.
Aria simply watched from the hall as dust and rock settled.
“We… we did it,” Annabelle muttered.
Somewhat miraculously, the back of the room—the corrupted’s body and the mural—were mostly unharmed, save for a few pieces of rock jammed into the wall.