Chapter 63: The Tables Have Turned (2/2)

”Chanting, although complex beyond measure due to near infinite permutations of language, is fundamentally simple. Think of it as a formula. Put forth the necessary mana along with the correct chant and a known outcome is produced. Typically mages spend much of their early years simply memorizing....”

Mike could hear the sounds of battle starting, the rattling of arrows leaving bows became constant. Inhuman screams rent the air. Thankfully the Gluttony Demon was still far away.

”Victor! Focus! We don't have time for a lecture!” Mike said with urgency.

”Right, right. Unfortunately, I don't know many elemental chants, but with your mana I believe even a simple fireball will be an instrument of destruction. Now listen carefully, and repeat after me.”

He drew himself up, and spoke from deep within. ”I let thee free. Dance in your fleeting brilliance, and sing in your eternal fury, [Fireball]. If you put forth enough mana, and give it direction, the chant should do its work.”

[Seems easy enough.]

Mike lifted a hand, pointed at the approaching demons, and started muttering under his breath. ”I let thee free. Dance in your fleeting brilliance....”

Victor was still lecturing while he was doing so. ”Now it is very important to pronounce every syllable correctly. I know chants sound like a string of nonsense, but even the slightest mistake can...”

”....eternal fury, [Fireball]. Hm, what?” Mike asked Victor distractedly while a small ball of fire formed in his hand and was launched towards the demons, almost of its own accord.

The flame zipped over the barricade and traveled past the first few dozen of the lesser demons. The fighting seemed to halt as virtually every person stopped what they were doing to watch it, both adventurer and demon alike.

After it reached the middle of the intersection, it seemed to disappear. For a brief moment, Mike thought the spell must have failed.

There was a sudden burst of blinding light.

A concussive blast of air knocked most of the adventurer's off their feat, as a wave of heat and dust swept over the barricade.

Charred demon bits rained down on the prone defenders.

Mike got back to his feet, ears ringing. After a few moments his hearing returned, and he felt clearheaded enough to survey his surroundings.

There was a cloud of dust hanging over the area, but it had already cleared sufficiently to show that everything in the intersection, including the intersection itself had been obliterated. A crater almost 30m in diameter was the only thing that remained.

Rubbing his head, Mike looked around at the others, and was met by blank, open-mouthed stares.

He smiled in what he hoped was an apologetic manner, ”Hehe, whoops.”

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”HAHAHAHAHA-”

The thunderous crack of an explosion from the eastern side of town interrupted Andromeda's cruel laughter.

She had been facing a pair of greater demons, although she wasn't knowledgeable enough to say what kind.

They had been roughly 4m in height from their cloven-hoofed feet, to the top of the curled horns emerging from their vaguely humanoid heads. Mottled black and red skin covered thickly muscled limbs, and pairs of membranous wings emerged from their backs.

Between their abyssal-forged battleaxes that could cleave through normal metal like paper, and their ability to wield Advanced Fire and Darkness Elemental Magic, even a single one of these demons could easily destroy a small city.

They lasted about three minutes against The Crimson Disaster.

The demons had initially managed to land a few sneak attacks, and it looked as if they might present a real challenge for the Rank 9 adventurer, but that was until she finished Synergizing with her summon, an Elder Oni.

From then on the demons didn't stand a chance at all.

Andromeda dropped the demon arm she had torn from one of her attackers onto the roof of the half-ruined building. She had already finished beating its owner into a bloody paste with it.

Light from distant fires glistened off the pair of long, black horns that currently grew from her forehead, as she stared in the direction the explosion had come.

”Looks like someone is having fun over there. Too bad I can't join them.” She sighed dramatically.

”Oh well, better start getting to the bottom of this mess. I'm going to have to make them regret messing with my city.”

She grinned maniacally, before jumping to another rooftop.