(What silence… What emptiness… Though it was necessary… The risk was too high…)
As he advanced through the enormous hallway atop Kaiser, Erik couldn't help but let out a silent sigh while looking ahead with slightly unfocused eyes, retrieving a healing potion from his bag. It had only taken a minute to shatter a relationship of nearly 20 years, more than enough time for someone as emotionally distant and asocial as him to genuinely grow attached to another person.
As if sensing its master's emotions, Tiberius, in his small form, climbed onto Erik's shoulder and began rubbing his head against him. Erik, with a faint smile, extended his right hand to pet the little wolf while conjuring runes around himself. As the runes emitted a soft green light, healing him little by little, Erik took the healing potion and then announced, his voice sounding slightly better.
"There are 8 Golems at the end of the hallway. To prevent more from gathering, I'm going to pick up the pace. This will be the last encounter before reaching the formations."
"Then stay in the back after a black fire explosion, Erik. You don't look well." Tomás, on the platform beside Erik, commented in a serious tone while closely observing the state of the young man with starry hair.
Erik's appearance was far from his previously neat and elegant style. Now, the young man looked pale, covered in blood, with slightly dimmed eyes. Moreover, his hair, once as black as coal and adorned with stars and galaxies, now appeared withered and dull, to the point that its starry pattern was barely visible.
"Perfect, let's do it that way." Erik nodded calmly, then gave an order while pulling another healing potion from the storage bag at his waist.
"Kaiser."
At his master's call, Kaiser was immediately surrounded by electric arcs before shooting forward at high speed. For his part, Erik took another potion, then gritted his teeth and conjured two new runic circles as thick beads of sweat began to roll down his forehead.
Soon, the group finally spotted the golems in the distance down the hallway, now numbering 9, as one more had managed to emerge from the wall. At that moment, a fireball and a sphere of darkness shot forward at high speed, causing a sonic boom. Just as they reached the golems, who were about to unleash beams from their fists, the fireball and darkness sphere collided, triggering a massive explosion.
"Mages, aim upward! Ethan, confuse them! Bikereas, with me!" In that instant, Tomás ordered with a firm voice, then kicked Myst's platform, visibly cracking it.
As Tomás shot forward at such a high speed that he even disappeared from sight, the other four young knights also kicked Myst's platform and darted after him. Meanwhile, the mages on the upper platform prepared their spells, aiming upward, just as Zoe, riding Hiyori, arrived beside Erik with her hand on her katana.
"I'll be your guard, Erik."
"Thanks, Zoe."
Erik replied with a calm expression as the runes around him intensified, practically surrounding him with a greenish halo, while he reached for another healing potion. At that moment, Zoe looked Erik up and down and asked with a serious voice tinged with traces of concern.
"Are you feeling okay, Erik? You look pretty worn out. I've got some healing potions here."
"I've still got enough, but if I run out, I'll count on you."
Erik replied with a small smile, to which Zoe nodded seriously before turning her gaze back to the front, her right hand firmly on the hilt of her katana, ready to fight at any moment. For her part, Hiyori, seeing that the star-haired young man didn't even bother to look at her, couldn't help but let out a low huff before completely ignoring him.
In the explosion zone, which was filled with smoke obscuring visibility, several figures suddenly shot upward, piercing through the cloud of smoke. Already waiting for their moment, Elara, who was at the forefront of the group of mages, pointed her staff forward, and the magical circles in front of her fired a rapid succession of fire arrows.
In sync, the other mages unleashed various elemental projectiles that struck the figures directly, piercing them at different points before exploding. At that moment, Tomás's voice echoed from the center of the smoke cloud.
"The black fire really weakens the golems significantly! The path is clear!"
"Let's go!" Erik quickly ordered while leaning his body slightly forward, prompting Kaiser to start running, surrounded by lightning.
Soon, the group of knights and Ethan climbed back onto the platforms beside Erik, at which point they could see various pieces of strange blackened metal and shards of crystal flying from different directions into Erik's hands.
"The golems?" Ethan asked, somewhat curious, as he watched Erik store everything in his storage bag. The star-haired young man nodded and explained calmly.
"Yes, the black fire is something I only recently discovered, so I know little to nothing about it. I want to start by figuring out why it's capable of weakening the golems."
"Now that you mention it, I've never seen the collision of two spells create something like that. How did you manage it?" Ethan asked, visibly curious, after taking a mana recovery potion. The young people in the area, including Tomás, couldn't help but pay attention, equally intrigued.
"I have no idea, actually. When I was fighting the hunters to enter the garden, I collided a fireball and a darkness sphere, and the power was impressive. So I went closer to look at the crater and discovered the black fire."
Erik explained while carefully examining a piece of black metal after taking another mana potion. Then, Erik looked up at the high ceiling of the hallway and continued in a reflective tone.
"But I really don't understand why it formed. It's not the first time I've collided elemental spells, but nothing like this has ever happened… According to Ebonique… my contracted spirit… the black fire is close to the first step in creating a perfect synergy, so that strange property might come from there…"
"…If it's a perfect synergy, then that exaggerated power makes sense. From what I've heard from my master, perfect synergies are truly terrifying." Ethan commented in a somewhat uneasy voice, choosing to ignore the shift in Erik's tone when mentioning the dragoness.
"They are. My masters achieved perfect synergy and showed it to me once… It's pretty frightening." Erik remarked with a somewhat ironic smile, but he quickly shook his head and looked at Ethan, adding seriously.
"We've arrived. Start activating the formation to hide us."
"Chen!" Ethan quickly nodded with a serious expression and turned to call out to Chen Ming loudly. The young man immediately nodded with a serious expression and began performing hand signs.
Meanwhile, Ethan conjured several runes that spread through the space, while a small group stayed in front of him, forming a kind of fractal hexagon the size of a hand. At that moment, a dense, dark, illusory fog filled the area before disappearing into nothingness, at which point the 'vice leader' of the Bikereas asked while Tomás looked around seriously.
"Will it work…?"
"Let's hope so."
Erik commented in a low voice while ordering Kaiser to start ascending into the air and taking another potion from his bag. The wolf quickly created clouds of lightning, forming a staircase. Meanwhile, the others remained completely silent, their gazes fixed on the walls, visibly tense and nervous.
After all, although no one dared to ask so as not to affect morale, each and every one of them knew there was no guarantee that the formations could hide them. In fact, the odds were against them.
After all, the golems had been able to detect them when Ethan hid them with illusions. Not to mention that this strange black labyrinth didn't seem simple at all, and the ruin itself had even managed to leave legend-level beings defenseless.
As she wiped the cold sweat from her forehead, Elara watched as the golems slowly emerged from the walls until they finally detached completely. At that moment, they took a couple of steps forward and began looking around. As her fists clenched tightly, Elara heard a subtle swallowing sound but couldn't tell where it came from, as her gaze was focused on the golems to the point that she didn't even blink.
After looking around for nearly a minute, the golems began walking down the hallway in groups, allowing everyone present to let out a gasp of pure relief as their bodies lost all strength. As all the mages collapsed onto Myst's platform, Elara began to feel her eyes sting, at which point she heard a subtle sob not too far away.
Turning to look, Elara found Christine on the ground, tightly hugging her staff as tears began to stream down her cheeks. This seemed to spread to Frank, who rubbed his eyes hard to discreetly wipe away tears, a smile forming on his face. A very similar situation to what Chen and the others were experiencing.
Looking down with tears clouding her eyes, Elara could see Tomás spreading his arms before giving Erik a big hug, which, for some reason, brought a smile to her lips. But that smile quickly faded when Erik coughed up a large mouthful of blood, his complexion growing significantly paler as all the runes around him vanished instantly.
"""Erik!!"""
Tomás, Elara, and Zoe shouted in unison, at which point Elara leapt from the platform with worry and fear written across her face. Upon shouting, Tomás widened his eyes slightly and turned to look at the golems while reaching for the sword at his waist. However, upon seeing they remained as before, he let out a sigh of relief and soon refocused on Erik.
"Erik, what's wrong with you?!"
Zoe asked, nearly in panic, just as Elara landed on Myst's platform using a jet of fire from her feet to soften the fall, speaking urgently while hastily creating a magical circle as the wolves howled in pain.
"He's overexerted his body and is going into cardiac arrest! We need to resusci—"
Elara's words were cut off mid-sentence when, to her absolute shock and that of everyone present, a runic circle the size of a palm formed in front of Erik's chest, right over his heart. At the same time, Erik, clinging to consciousness with all his strength, raised his right fist and struck his chest hard, directly over the runic circle, which released electric arcs.
At the moment of impact, Erik trembled for a few instants before taking a deep inhalation, then drink a healing potion and breathing heavily as he spoke in a broken voice. This caused everyone to stare at him as if they were looking at some kind of strange animal in a zoo.
"…I'm fine… I relaxed for a moment… But I'm okay now…"
"You're not fine!"
Elara shouted, her voice on the verge of tears, and quickly activated the magical circle, which released a soft light and began healing Erik. At the same time, Elara grabbed Erik's wrist and circulated her mana through his system, at which point her eyes widened in disbelief. She brought her free hand to her mouth to cover it, her jaw dropping at what she discovered.
"What happened?!" Zoe, on the brink of panic, asked while shaking Elara's shoulder. The pain from Zoe's incredible strength gripping her shoulder snapped Elara back to reality, and she commented in disbelief and pain.
"How did you end up like this…? No… Why did you push yourself to this extreme…? You've nearly completely destroyed your mana circulatory system, and your body is a wreck… Now I understand why you were taking so many healing potions… The potions are only delaying the total decay of your body… They can't heal you…"
Upon hearing Elara, Zoe, Tomás, and the others present widened their eyes in disbelief and looked at Erik with expressions that screamed they weren't willing to believe what they heard. At that moment, Erik spoke between deep breaths while conjuring runes around himself, which began to emit a greenish light.
"It's not that bad… I can still use magic."
"Even in something like this, you're a monster… A normal person would have died long ago…"
Elara commented as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, while the others felt a deep emptiness in their stomachs, a lump forming in their throats. For his part, Erik took another healing potion, then sat up straight on Kaiser and began petting the saddened wolves with his hands, commenting in a calmer, more regular voice.
"I'm a bit injured; it's not a big deal. Actually, I have a solution, and I have an idea to get it." Erik turned to look at Tomás, who gazed at him with an expression full of solemnity, respect, and gratitude, and commented with a small smile.
"And I'll need your help for it, Tomás, so I hope we can come to a good agreement."
***
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