The star-shaped polyhedron began to rotate faster, its edges glowing brighter with each passing second as countless smaller sigils unfolded from its surface like petals of light.
"W-Wait... what kind of magic is that!?"
Lulune screamed, instinctively ducking as the air itself began to vibrate.
Riveria had once described advanced large-scale magic as commanding the environment.
What Judas was doing went far beyond that.
Magic pressure flooded the area so densely that even seasoned adventurers felt their breathing grow heavy, as if the air itself had thickened.
The star exploded outward.
Thousands upon thousands of razor-thin beams erupted in every direction, branching like a constellation come to life.
Light rained down.
Each beam curved mid-flight, homing with impossible precision as they carved through the charging sea of green.
Violas were pierced clean through, their bodies erupting into showers of spores and sap before they could even hiss.
Viscum were bisected from top to bottom, their massive trunks collapsing in silence before disintegrating entirely.
The dungeon floor was painted white by light.
Explosions chained endlessly as laser after laser struck, ricocheting, splitting and multiplying... never once touching the people standing behind Judas.
The monsters never even reached the halfway point.
In less than three seconds...
The horde was erased.
The shaking stopped.
The light faded.
What remained was scorched stone, steaming craters, and nothing else.
Once again, everyone was left speechless by what they had just witnessed.
"What did I just see?"
"Tell me I'm dreaming."
The members of the Hermes Familia rubbed their eyes in disbelief.
'Such power... although it still falls a bit short compared to his original strength... it is still impressive.'
Kaguya thought as her gaze lingered on the back of Judas' head.
'A wide area annihilation spell that fires precision lasers at numerous targets simultaneously... what a terrifying magic.'
'A perfect spell for dealing with large numbers all at once.'
Filvis thought as her eyes drifted to Lefiya standing beside her, whose own eyes were sparkling with open admiration.
"Amazing..."
Lefiya muttered, almost to herself.
Even Revis took a step back, a bead of sweat dripping from her chin.
"What the... they were wiped out just like that?"
She looked around frantically, searching for any survivors among the horde, and found none.
'It can't be... this wasn't supposed to happen.'
In her mind, Revis had planned everything out carefully.
From their previous encounter, she already knew that killing Judas... let alone defeating him... was going to be near impossible on her own.
That earlier charge had been nothing more than her bloodlust getting the better of her.
Her real plan was the army.
The largest force she had ever commanded, deployed to wear Judas down layer by layer.
Between the sheer number of monsters and the added burden of keeping the weaklings around him alive, she had intended to wait... to strike the moment his concentration slipped and his mind reserves ran dry after dealing with the horde.
'His real strength lies in his magic. Take that away and he's done.'
'No matter how monstrous he is... he can't have an infinite supply of magic power.'
That was what she had believed.
But now...
'He still has more in reserve!?'
Revis clenched her fist until her knuckles turned white.
What she didn't know when she created this plan was that Judas had leveled up since their last encounter, expanding his pool of magic power considerably.
On top of that, his development ability [Spirit Healing] slowly refilled his reserves over time, supplemented further by his EX-rank MAG stat.
The rank of the development ability was low and the recovery wasn't too game changing... but it was enough to guarantee that in terms of total magic power and regeneration, Judas sat only slightly below Riveria.
'Though... that spell alone consumed over thirty percent of my mind pool. It is a short activation spell, but its consumption is no different from a long one.'
Judas assessed himself quietly, feeling [Spirit Healing] already beginning to chip away at the deficit.
'About ten to fifteen percent faster than usual.'
He lifted his gaze to Revis.
'I suppose it's about time I finished this.'
Just as he took a step forward, his instincts suddenly screamed danger.
A blur tore past Alise, Kaguya and the others... moving so fast that none of them could even process it.
『Energy Blade』
Judas spun around to find a figure had already closed the distance.
splrk
The sound of flesh being torn apart.
"Judas!"
Alise and Kaguya's voices rang out simultaneously.
Judas coughed up a mouthful of blood as a hand punched clean through his chest.
At the same moment, his energy blade found its mark... driving straight through the attacker's throat.
'So fast... I could barely react!'
His arms moved on instinct.
He decapitated the head from the attacker's body and in the same motion severed the arm embedded in his chest.
But the attacker grinned.
He grabbed his own severed head and reattached it without hesitation, then drove a powerful downward punch straight toward Judas.
Judas threw himself clear as a deafening crash shook the ground where he had just been standing.
"Judas!"
Lefiya's face had gone completely pale.
Everything had happened so fast that it was only now that the people around them were catching up to what had just taken place.
Alise and Kaguya moved immediately, planting themselves in front of Judas with swords raised.
"Judas, are you alright?"
Alise asked, her eyes fixed on the enemy.
"Yeah... I can manage."
Kneeling on the ground, Judas pressed a hand to his chest, the taste of iron heavy on his tongue as he began healing himself.
As the dust settled, the face of the attacker came into full view.
"Olivas? How?"
Asfi exclaimed, her expression wide with shock.
"Hehe... this strength... this power... hahaha it's so addicting! Hahahaha!"
Olivas burst into uncontrollable laughter, his expression twisted with madness as he clawed at his own face, fingernails digging into flesh and tearing bloody grooves across his skin.
"He's lost his mind."
Kaguya muttered with a frown.
"He looks completely different from before... and he even managed to break free from his restraints."
Alise said, her expression tight with wariness.
His skin had turned ashen gray.
The whites of his eyes were pitch black.
Whatever had stood before them earlier was a distant memory compared to what Olivas had become now.
'What the hell happened to him?'
Even Revis was caught off guard.
Just from the pressure rolling off of him, she could tell that Olivas had grown significantly stronger than before... stronger, in fact, than even herself.
"Ah... the looks on your faces are lovely. I'll make sure to remember every single one of them... even after you're all dead."
Olivas spoke, his voice several octaves deeper than before, his face splitting into a wide, unhinged grin.
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