"YOU ARE SURROUNDED! LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS OR BE SLAUGHTERED!" Caterina's voice booms through the entire fortress at the same time that three new [Gate] scrubbers overlap, then the soldiers by the walls begin to react, but I have no time to waste right now.

I [Equip] a large blue gem about the same height as Hana, and I notice a hefty drain on my MP just to cast that spell, then I use [Redirect Mana] on the gem, causing a suffocating torrent of Water mana to pour out of it.

The emellanat of the cage melts instantly, and the now red-hot metal splashes down around me, my [Wind Armor] and [Rainbow Shield] protecting me from any droplets, then I cast [Dust Storm] throughout the entire room, blinding everyone, and summon the girls at the same time that I [Equip] my helmet.

My Storm is instantly interrupted, but the spell still lingers for a few more seconds, and with Alissa, Yunia, and I using our [Sense Presence], it gives us the perfect cover for cleaning this room of the Wicked filth.

"MOVE, AND YOU'RE DEAD!" I roar, then I cast [Rush] and dash towards the leader. The mages start casting spells, but the room is now flooded with Water mana, disrupting Fire magic quite heavily.

Alissa goes for the soldiers who are too stupid to protect themselves, quickly dispatching them with arrows shot through the slits of their visors.

Hana engages the largest soldier among them, but he's still blinded by the dust, so she manages to shove a sword into his throat with ease.

Roxanne pulls out the golems and tries to explode the head of a mage that's chanting, but the [Dead Zone] in his robes saves him from an instant death, so she just casts [Ice Lance] instead and quickly finishes him off.

Ciel casts [Wind Storm] and shreds another mage who was casting something.

Lina uses [Rush] and caves in the head of a third mage.

Dragon-Aoi squashes the nearest mage just with the weight of her body.

Yunia [Rush]es another soldier and ends him in one strike.

The golems pull out emellanat shackles and necklaces for the three unmoving mages and collect their staves with [Telekinesis].

As I reach the lead mage, I sense him throw something towards me, and [Battlefield Perception] triggers, so I activate [Wind Shield] and try to dodge it.

I feel the enchantment drain a large amount of my MP, then something hits my shield and hurls me back across the room as the sound of an explosion makes my ears ring, and everyone is thrown to the floor from the shock wave.

My back crashes against the door and cracks it, but my armor is fine, and the padding absorbed most of the impact, so I don't feel that much pain aside from the shock, allowing me to immediately [Heal] myself and [Rush] the leader again.

Roxanne aims the next [Explosion] at him, but his [Dead Zone] and her dizziness makes her aim quite a bit off, and she misses him almost entirely, though Alissa still hears his scream of pain.

The dust clears, and I see a writhing wall of vines before me covering the wounded lead mage and pulling him away towards safety.

I cast [Earth Bullet] and get in one last hit on his face before he's out of reach. Even with his wounds, he's still far from being incapacitated, so we need to chase him ASAP.

I stop before the wall and use [Searing Blade] to cut open a path, but the writhing mass immediately starts covering the opening. I think we need more firepower to destroy the wall completely before it's safe for us to cross through it. I don't want to risk the girls getting crushed by the wall because we were too reckless.

The room suddenly bursts into flame as the last opposing mage manages to finish a short spell, so Roxanne and Aoi have to focus on dousing the flames before they can overwhelm us.

I turn around and cast [Torrent] around me as I dash towards the mage and drive my sword into the back of his head without hesitation.

We quickly finish off the last of the soldiers, then we focus on the writhing mass of vines, which now covers most of the walls of the room.

Alissa is tracking the escaping mage, but he's still well within range of her [Sense Presence], so we have plenty of time.

"Following him seems like it'll be difficult. Let's leave this room while we can," I suggest through [Bind], and the girls agree.

The golems are responsible for keeping the surrendered mages safe, so they use [Telekinesis] on the prisoners to bring them along as we burst out of the room through the cracked door.

Alissa detects the Celestial Horns above us, cutting an opening into the roof, then the tree trembles as something heavy hits it at the bottom.

The lift isn't working, so we just destroy it and use [Fly] to reach the floor with the last mage, a garden of dangerous-looking vines and exotic plants.

"YOU ARE SURROUNDED! LAY DOWN YOUR WEAPONS OR BE SLAUGHTERED!" Caterina's voice booms once again through the entire fortress, and this time, it seems to be coming from the inside of the tree.

"Golems! Cut open a path for us!" I order.

They drop the prisoners on the floor and [Equip] huge saw blades which they then spin and throw ahead of us, cleanly cutting down the flora where they pass. The blades open a path through the nasty little forest and reveal a mansion at the center of a lake.

We immediately [Fly] forward, but one of the prisoners suddenly shouts, "Watch out! They're territorial!"

Then we see the large, tooth-filled maw of a man-eating Venus Flytrap rushing towards us.

Roxanne explodes it, and Hana cuts through its stalk, but then more maws shoot towards us along with vines that have poisonous-looking flowers growing on them.

Fucking distractions!

I summon a wind, a nature, and a fire elemental-wife. The first two protect us from the deadly flora while the last one razes this infernal place to the ground.

We catch a whiff of a very large [Fire Magic] spell being cast in the mansion, so we hurry to get past the forest because we don't have a lot of time.

"Watch out, his home is well-defended!" The same prisoner warns us again.

Then [Battlefield Perception] triggers before we can even register what's coming, and the uncomfortable fact that my [Wind Shield] was easily pierced rings alarm bells inside my mind, so I cast [Earth Wall] in front of me, but even that isn't enough as a javelin pierces through the spell, my enchantment, my blessings, and even my armor, and stabs me in the lung. The shock wave of the impact makes my bones tremble, then we're shaken violently as the boom of the ultrasonic javelins catches up with them, but I'm not the only one who's been hit.

Aoi and Ciel lurch violently and are thrown back as two other javelins strike them in the chest, then I look down and see a glowing red gem on the shaft right behind the blade of the javelin, which is thankfully not fully embedded into my chest, and the realization of what it could do sends a shiver running down my spine.

I use [Searing Blade] to cut through the javelin at the blade and quickly back away while the girls and the golems all cast spells on the other javelins to try to yank them out of our two wounded wives.

The red gem glows and bursts with flame as the enchantment activates, erupting with a wall of white flame so hot that it burns my eyes and almost cooks me inside my own armor.

YOU WRETCHED BASTARD!

The two other javelins are also successfully removed before the enchantment activates, averting a repeat of what happened to Roxanne in our first fight with these Wicked scum.

I cast [Telekinesis] on the part of the javelin's blade that's still buried inside of me and pull it out, then we form into a single file and continue forward as I heal myself, but Aoi and Ciel hang back for a moment since their wounds are deeper.

"Wounds?" I request a report from the girls through [Bind].

"Simple, we'll be fine!" Ciel responds while Aoi simply growls in anger.

Alissa focuses ahead, her eyes searching for the source of the javelins, and she finds three small holes in the wall of the mansion ahead of us.

CRUSH THEM!

"[EXPLOSION]!" Roxanne screams, and the facade of the mansion is blown into a cloud of dust and steam, then she casts the spell a few more times to make sure that the javelin shooter is completely destroyed. If they're made of darksteel, it's possible that they could survive a few of her spells.

The tree trembles repeatedly as our men make multiple new holes in it and pour in, then the muffled sounds of battle start to become noticeable to us.

As we reach the mansion, another defensive measure triggers, and uncountable jets of dark red flame gush out of the mansion in all directions like flamethrowers, sticking to everything they touch, and blocking our approach as [Abyssal Fire] consumes everything, even Okross.

I summon five fire elemental-wives, and they forcibly extinguish the flames with relative ease since enchantments don't have a mage protecting the spell from being interrupted, but it still costs us precious seconds.

Then the Wicked leader's spell finishes, and everything goes white.

"[STAR]!" Roxanne shouts through [Bind], and a scalding heat washes over all of us, making our prisoners scream in pain.

"IS HE SUICIDAL?!" Ciel shouts in disbelief.

"HE'S A FIRE MAGE, HE CAN SURVIVE THIS!" Roxanne explains.

"I CAN GET THROUGH THIS!" Hana shouts in anger, but I stop her from rushing in.

"YOU CAN WEAKEN THE SPELL! DISRUPT IT!" The helpful prisoner shouts again.

"WEAKEN THE SPELL!" I shout through the connection.

"LAND! HIDE UNDERGROUND!" Lina shouts, and we follow.

I summon Ciel and Aoi so that they can help us, then I summon five more fire elemental-wives to disrupt the spell and five light elemental-wives to [Heal] us, nearly consuming all of my MP; Alissa uses [Mana Arrow] to flood the spell with disruptive mana; Roxanne casts [Explosion]s inside the spell, then casts [Water Spirit] to attempt to control the heat; Ciel keeps us all from melting with a flurry of [Heal]s along with her [Holy Spirit]; and Lina, Aoi, and Yunia create walls of dirt to shield us with continuous [Earth Wall]s, though the barriers almost instantly melt into a red-hot liquid.

I re[Equip] the large blue gem from before and pull out the rest of its mana, which I then send into the [Star].

Hana's body starts to bulge with muscles as she pushes her [Draconic Body] to the limit, then her endless anger reaches the maximum that her mind can contain, and she pours the overflow into her words as she roars, "I'M COMING, YOU OLD WRINKLED COCK! I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF WITH MY BARE HANDS AND MOUNT IT ON A SPIKE! I'LL HUNT DOWN YOUR CHILDREN AND MURDER THEM TOO IF THEY'RE WICKED! I'LL WIPE OUT YOUR ENTIRE LINEAGE SO THAT NO MORE SCUM LIKE YOU CAN TAINT MY LAND! REMEMBER THE NAME HANAFURIA RYDER, THE ONE WHO SHALL END YOUR WRETCHED EXISTENCE!"

Suddenly, the [Earth Wall]s stop melting, and the scalding heat drops noticeably.

"THAT'S IT!" I shout as I [Equip] Patrono and give it to Hana, then she bolts out from behind our cover.

"RAAAAH!" She thunders as she charges forward, her unprotected, draconic wings set aflame by the intense heat, but it's not enough to destroy them. Then the fire covering them turns green as her emerald scales glow from the heat and the power she's pouring into them.

She crashes through a black, charred wall as if it were made of toothpicks and finds the Wicked mage, who's now hiding inside a small bunker made of darksteel and glowing with magic.

The [Star] follows her closely, but it's too late. Hana swings Patrono and cuts through the bunker as if it were made of paper, then the spell ends, and the heat is extinguished in an instant.

"You are now level fifty-eight," the announcer's voice echoes in my mind.

Hana collapses on the floor, suffering from extreme burns, but the light elemental-wives and I are instantly beside her, and we use as much of our "Magic Power" as we can, trying to heal her as fast as possible. I unsummon everything but the light elemental-wives to give myself more MP, but I still run dry and have to let Ciel finish the job.

Hana's armor is scorched, her hair is partially burnt, her scales are warped, and the gold of the enchantments has started to melt, even though she had the effect of the [Reinforce] Blessing spell, but we thankfully get her back up to 150 HP, and being the tough bitch she is, she's ready to fight some more.

We still have more Wicked to purge, so after making sure that the damn Wicked mage is dead, we move on towards where the fighting is still going on.

 

One of the Celestial Horns finds us, and we deliver the prisoners to them, then we fly down the tree to help the rest of our men. The problem with dealing with the Wicked is that they know that they're going to die whether they fight or not, and so, since they're already deeply immoral people, they have no problems with fighting to the death just so that they can take a few of us with them. The Wicked even force their comrades to fight by threatening to kill them if they surrender, so things quickly turn into a bloodbath.

We fly through the floors, quickly finishing off the small pockets of resistance we find and liberating the innocents, who then get whisked away towards safety by the Horns. But there are so many scum among them that our weapons become bathed in elven blood as they refuse to surrender gracefully.

There's definitely way more than just twenty percent Wicked working in this circle of magi.

Fire starts to spread everywhere, caused both by us and by the enemy, making me glad that we're going down as the smoke goes up, but it still forces me to use an air-Alissa to keep us from suffocating. Non-flammable wood does exist, and it's almost everywhere here, but almost isn't enough to stop magical fire.

We meet up with more of the Horns as we continue down and add them to our group, then we suddenly encounter a silver blur stabbing everything in its way.

The blur stops before us and reveals the spindly, grinning elf.

"Silvano!" I shout angrily at him.

"My Lord! I've carved a path back down to our men!" He happily replies, his arms open wide as he saunters forward, though he suddenly freezes up when he realizes that we aren't pleased with him.

"Where are your men?!" I sternly question him.

He sobers up and sheathes his swords. "They're with the Captain, carefully dealing with the stragglers while I carve a path for them."

The dragon is currently in control of my body, so I scowl and give him the full brunt of my draconic rage. "You abandoned your men! If any of my Companions die, I'll have your balls cut off and displayed to the entire Lordsguard!"

"Yes, my Lord, I'll return to them right away," he stiffly replies, then immediately becomes a silver blur again as he runs with his tail between his legs.

I expected some recklessness from him, but certainly not anything as stupid as this stunt. Perhaps he was just pushing it, seeing how far he could go, but that was definitely too far.

We continue on, and when we reach the labs, we meet up with a squad of Companions and Templars scouting the area, and they report the situation to us. It seems that things are a bit complicated as the researchers have taken hostages and are threatening to blow everything up if we don't let them go.

It's a futile attempt, but it still gets us to stop the slaughter for the moment so that we can work out how to deal with them. Even if we don't find a way to save all the hostages, the Punishers have no qualms with sacrificing a few to end the situation. The hostages are complicit in working with the Wicked, so they don't get much sympathy from the Punishers.

But a plan quickly forms inside my head, and I give Alissa and Yunia a smile. It's time for our two sneaky-oriented members to shine.

I put fifty points into [Illusion Magic], giving me the spell [Invisibility], and cast it on both of them, which also makes them blind since all light is diverted around their bodies, then I give each of them a Holly and link the monster's vision with the girls', allowing them to see again.

It does require me to focus on consciously keeping their senses linked, so it isn't the perfect solution, but hey, it works.

The two of them work together and clean up the entire lab, except for the big, main area, which has way too many Wicked for them to kill in one go. It's also the main refining area for their bombs, so it'd make a big boom if something were to go wrong there, and I'd like to preserve the lab so that we can steal their research.

My MP wouldn't hold up if we went with giving everyone [Invisibility], so we improvise.

We close off every entrance that leads towards the main area with airtight seals made by earth-Linas, then I get Alissa to capture the air around a fire and use [Alchemy] to duplicate it endlessly. Hopefully, she's creating more carbon monoxide instead of just breathable air.

Just to speed things up, I hide three Dream Eaters in a room and tell them to produce as much sleeping mist as they can. The creepy, floating masks are just perfect for this situation.

Then Alissa and I walk towards the Wicked scum with an air-Alissa to keep us safe and a few magical butterflies on our shoulders to serve as distractions.

They've barricaded the entrance, so I stop before the piles of trash and rubble and announce my presence, "I'm Royal Crown Lord Wolf Ryder, and I'm the one responsible for this attack, so I believe you wish to negotiate with me?"

"The pisser is here!" The Wicked guard at the entrance shouts, and a commotion stirs up behind them.

After a few moments, a voice rises above the others, "Send him in!" The gruff man orders.

"I won't be coming in; we'll negotiate from here!" I shout back. There's no way that I'd risk Alissa getting wounded by willingly letting ourselves be surrounded.

The grumbling becomes loud again, and I hear someone complain, "If he won't accept even a little risk, then it means that he doesn't want to negotiate!"

That's kind of true, though I don't agree with their reasoning, and it's not good for our plan if they start to think like that.

"I want the knowledge you have here, but I won't risk my life for it!" I shout back.

"Don't give him my research! It's my life's work! Don't let a damn pisser steal it from me!" A researcher shouts as his voice cracks, but then I hear his muffled cries as the Wicked add him to the number of hostages.

A scarred, ugly elf appears, the owner of the previous gruff voice, and snarls at me, "Do we have your word, Lord Wolf Ryder, that if we keep the lab intact, you'll spare us?"

I raise an eyebrow and share a look with Alissa. "A Wicked person like you wants me to swear to the Gods?" I ask in disbelief.

The man laughs heartily and replies, "If it works on you pissers, then why not use it?"

I narrow my eyes as I watch him. If he wants to abuse my goodwill, then I'll be just a bit cruel in return. "How many people do you have that need a pardon from me? "

He scowls angrily and barks, "You won't grant it to us all?"

I shake my head pompously and raise my voice just a bit. "Of course not. The secrets of this lab might not be worth letting that many Wicked go free."

I'm pretty certain that I spoke loud enough for the ones behind the gruff man to have heard it clearly, and I get my confirmation as they start to shout and argue with each other, buying us precious time.

The gruff man continues to stare at us, at the butterflies, specifically, now completely mesmerized by them, which is exactly what we needed since he seems to be the one who got them working together, so his inaction allows their infighting to escalate without restraint.

"You just want to get us killed! Tell us how many you will spare first!" Another voice rises above the others, and the gruff leader snaps out of it temporarily.

"Yeah! You tell us first!" He shouts angrily.

Well, he's got me there. I have no idea what to reply with.

I ask the girls for help and remain silent for a few seconds until Lina makes a good suggestion. "I also don't know how much knowledge you have in the lab; I can't bargain without knowing what I'll be getting in return," I firmly assert.

"You're welcome to come in and inspect the lab," the leader replies with an evil grin.

I remain silent as I stare at him, stalling for as long as I can, then I notice the leader starting to sway as his eyelids droop tiredly.

I sigh dramatically and facepalm, feigning tiredness. "Alright, just give me a count of how many researchers you have. One researcher for one spared life seems like a good deal, no? But don't fret, as we can still bargain later on for more pardons with whatever else you have in there."

The gruff elf spends an awkwardly long moment thinking about it, then he nods and barks to his men, "Count the damn scholars! We'll trade them for your filthy asses!"

The girls give the signal, and our men start getting into position, then we just wait until we hear the first thud.

"Hey… the fucker passed out," a weak voice cries out.

"It's the smoke. If he wasn't so fat, he'd have lasted longer," another appeases the first.

Then a second thud follows.

"Hey… another one."

"My head hurts…"

"Headache…?" A skeptical voice asks out loud.

Alright, let's end this farce.

Then I give the signal, and we act out one of my favorite memes, to the collective dismay of the wives.

"FBI, OPEN UP!" I shout and cast [Torrent] on the barricade at the same time that the rest of the wives blow holes in the walls, opening up a few more paths into the main refining area, then we rush in and start blasting.