Chapter 37: She, Fighting Alone

"Are you alright?" Milaswein snapped back to reality upon hearing the voice.

Rich in experience and having weathered many a storm, she sprang from the bed instantly to support Wang Yu, who was nearly drenched entirely in blood.

"Would you believe me if I said I was fine?" Wang Yu found it rather strange at times that people always loved to ask, "Are you alright?"

Even when the other party clearly looked far from alright, it was done without malice, more like a habit.

Gazing at the young man before her, covered in shocking, gruesome wounds.

For a moment, Mila could not connect this dying fellow with the one who had shouted at her through the crystal ball, and who had suddenly burst out of her mental space while she was meditating.

The mother of Avya stood somewhat dazed, and Wang Yu’s brow furrowed.

"Don't just stand there, I still have to go help Avya. Hurry up and cast whatever spell or witchcraft you have that can heal or lessen injuries on me first."

Mila snapped out of her daze once more upon hearing her daughter's name. Indeed, now was not the time for hesitation; though she did not know what had happened, this fellow was surely trustworthy!

"My condition..." Mila began to speak.

"I know, your witchcraft and spellcasting levels are heavily suppressed due to a certain illness. It's fine, give me whatever you have!" Hearing her opening, Wang Yu knew what Mila wanted to say and cut her off directly.

"Alright." Mila wasted no words and began to channel void energy and mana.

Simultaneously, Wang Yu's hand fumbled inside a hidden pocket of his leather armor, pulling out a handful of broken glass shards before finally retrieving two intact potion bottles.

He ripped the cork off one and poured it straight down his throat, while the other was emptied onto his most severely injured calf...

It seemed to carry a degree of destructiveness, as Mila saw the veins on Wang Yu's calf bulge violently, and his neck flushed crimson after gulping down the potion. Yet, Wang Yu's face remained expressionless, as if nothing were amiss.

In truth, both remedies were emergency medicines that would drastically stimulate the body, especially the nerves.

An excruciating, terrifying agony was their hallmark; many who used these two drugs did not die from their wounds, but rather shocked to death from the sheer excess of pain.

Spinel Cardiotonic, for internal consumption, worked by directly ingesting the magic crystals of magical beasts; the specially formulated potion would carry these fine crystalline dust particles into the body to autonomously patch the ruptures in the blood vessels.

The absorbable nature of the magic crystals also ensured that they would not remain in the blood vessels to cause permanent damage after use, but the entry of foreign matter into the body brought immense torment.

Acid-Melt Regeneration Concoction, for external application, was made from specialized jungle slimes; essentially, it allowed the slime treated by the medicinal liquid to consume the flesh around the wound, and then converted the slime into temporary flesh to fill the gap.

The specially treated slime provided excellent sterilization and hemostasis during use, and could even serve as temporary muscle.

Afterward, using the matching agent could promote wound healing with exceptional results, though the agony of having one's flesh devoured goes without saying.

Calmly ignoring all the pain coursing through his body, Wang Yu quickly tore sheets and cloths from Mila's bed to bandage the other bleeding areas.

Mila seemed to be preparing a very complex art. After all, she was a Grand Mage and a Grand Witch; even if her strength was greatly reduced by her illness, she could still find a loophole by relying on her extraordinary knowledge and solid capability.

Void energy and mana gathered simultaneously in Mila's palms. Under Wang Yu's unclosed perspective of the Inward Eye, multiple void runes and mana circuits could be seen superimposed upon one another.

They were all very low-level and basic witchcraft and spells, but they were vast in number, arranged together into a complex structure.

Mila focused entirely on the orb of light gradually taking shape in her hand.

Having tended to his wounds and regained some mobility, Wang Yu stood up, and she shoved the cluster of light into his chest.

Afterward, her face turned pale, and she collapsed weakly against the bed.

The weakened Mila explained briefly to Wang Yu, "This composite spell superimposes over a dozen first-ring spells: three first-ring Winds of Resurgence, four first-ring Powers of Invigoration, four first-ring Abundant Energies, and five first-ring Reviving Fleshes."

"I superimposed them through a special structure, so the effect should match a third-ring spell..."

But before she could finish, Wang Yu had already rushed out. Explanations held no meaning; he would not expect time to wait for him, for chasing time was his habit!

The special superimposed spell, close to a third-ring effect, took hold inside Wang Yu's body, as the life force provided by the mana ceaselessly repaired his battered frame.

His heartbeat grew powerful once more, his hurried breathing stabilized significantly, and his combat aura, which had begun to weaken due to the decline in life force, began to surge once again...

Running through the pitch-black rainy night, beneath his feet were the corpses and blood left behind from the previous battle. The never-stopping knight ran upon the dark, lightless sea, rushing toward the only isolated island of light in this darkness—the mansion at the center of the estate.

……

"Boom!" A violent sound of impact echoed from inside the mansion as a sturdy brick wall was easily smashed open. Bricks cascaded down and dust rose everywhere, obscuring the situation inside.

Suddenly, a gust of wind arose out of nowhere, sweeping away the dust ahead. Avya’s figure ran out from within, her aristocratic ceremonial gown covered in dust, with tears large and small marring the once pristine and glamorous clothes...

"Huff, huff..." The girl ran with all her might, seemingly evading something behind her. Emerging from the dust was another colossal figure.

Massive muscles attached to Decathlon’s body like grotesque, external fixtures. An enormously vast and heavily muscled upper body was incongruously spliced together with a plump lower body that was utterly minuscule by comparison.

It looked as if an adult's upper body had been forcibly attached to a minor's lower body. If not for the face embedded within the muscle-wrapped upper body, squeezed and deformed, which was unmistakably Decathlon's, no one would have known that this was Avya's uncle.

"You cannot escape..." A bizarre shriek bellowed from the monster's mouth. Yes, this thing could no longer be called human; monster was the most fitting term for it.

"Boom!" Replying to the monster's screech was a fireball hurled by the girl from the corner of the corridor, slamming straight onto the muscle-wrapped upper body.

"Hiss-aooh!" Emitting a non-human roar of fury, a large chunk of the flesh on its upper body was blasted to pieces, and a pitch-black scar enveloped almost the entire upper torso.

Decathlon's skull was also blasted such that his eyebrows and hair were reduced to ashes, and his eyeballs turned a turbid gray, instantly destroyed by the high temperature that penetrated his eyelids.

"Useless...!!!" A furious and hoarse roar erupted from Decathlon's ruined head.

In the blink of an eye, the charred skin was seen peeling off continuously, and the damaged areas wriggled visibly to the naked eye. Growing in defiance of the law of conservation of mass, fresh flesh sprouted from the original ruin.

Normal, or rather, abnormal skin forced its way out from beneath the charred scars, the gray-black eyeballs were pushed out of their sockets, and new, bloodshot eyes bulged from within.

In less than a minute, the massive wounds blasted by Avya's fireball were fully restored, save for Decathlon's face, which was now devoid of hair and looked like a smooth, boiled egg, hideous and disgusting.

A twisted expression of fury appeared on the hairless face, and resentful words crawled out from that visage.

"I said... you cannot escape! Within my domain, I can find you wherever you are, you damn... Av... ya? Ahhhhhhhh!"

Casting a cold glance backward, Avya, who had used the fireball to buy time, panted heavily. Thank goodness she had followed Wang Yu's advice to train her physical endurance, otherwise she would have been caught earlier...

"Huff, puff," she breathed heavily with what little strength she had left. Paying no heed to the soreness and numbness in her legs, she forced herself to keep running.

As to how Decathlon had turned into this state, Avya had her own doubts.

Earlier, when the piercing whistle sounded outside, Decathlon had launched a sneak attack on Avya, and she had directly used her modified spell, Will of iron?Modified, to block that sword strike.

Immediately following that, an Ice Arrow had pierced through the chest of the unreacting Decathlon.

It was true that Avya was a kind and well-behaved girl, but that never meant she would be weak in battle.

Perhaps she might have been before, but after meeting Wang Yu, she would be no longer.

Given a choice, rather than using the Ice Arrow, which was currently her only instant-cast spell due to her capabilities, Avya would have preferred to use a Fireball to ensure the kill.

Unfortunately, her strength was not yet there. Decathlon, his chest pierced by the Ice Arrow, first wore a look of utter disbelief, and then, with his trembling hand summoning the last ounce of strength before death, he pulled out the evil idol hidden beneath the table.

"Give me power... Great Undying..."

"Pfft." Swifter than Decathlon was Avya's Ice Arrow; the second Ice Arrow smashed Decathlon's head to pieces, and the evil idol dropped to the floor.

Yet, the aberration seemed to have already begun at that moment. The girl's witchcraft talent was exceptional, and her sensitivity to the void was extremely high.

She quickly sensed the anomaly in the surroundings. The concentration of the void around them was rising rapidly, which was different from the ownerless, high-concentration void generated by a naturally disordered void tide.

Avya could feel that this was the void domain of a certain existence; she even found it difficult to draw void power from it.

If Wang Yu were here, his atrocious void affinity would have left him entirely unable to even replenish void energy.

And that colossal muscular monster had crawled out right from atop Decathlon's "corpse."

Avya indeed believed she had killed Decathlon, but afterward, she realized her mistake.

The evil god Decathlon worshipped seemed to have altered Decathlon long ago; destroying the head could not truly kill this fellow.

After the void began its aberration, Decathlon's body also commenced its squirming.

Surging muscles erupted from his frame, fueled by the void energy that poured into him, providing the endless power required for his rapidly proliferating flesh.

A twisted monstrosity of muscle stood where Decathlon had once been, its flesh-encased head radiating a deep, seething malice and brutality.

Avia felt no fear; her sorcery possessed a destructive force far beyond Wang Yu’s, and she unleashed a searing fireball directly at the beast.

Though her spell obliterated more than half of the creature’s body, the void energy within the chamber instantly flooded its form, triggering a frenzied regeneration.

Her rate of destruction could not keep pace with the rebirth of that gore, and with no other choice, she fled.

……

Returning to the present, the girl, whose stamina was only marginally better than an ordinary person’s, was already gasping for air after the long flight; had she not been trained, her situation would be far worse.

She remained composed, even as matters spiraled toward a grim conclusion.

The monster seemed to be adapting to her attacks; where once a fireball could shatter half its body, it now showed a growing resistance after repeated strikes, the shrinking windows of time she could buy serving as proof.

Dashing through the corridor and into a room, she reached for an open window, but an invisible barrier, seemingly empty air, blocked her hand.

It was useless; this barrier appeared to envelop the entire estate, and her repeated attempts to find a breach had yielded nothing.

Just as Avia prepared to move on and try again, a thunderous roar erupted from the ceiling above.

In an instant, the sturdy ceiling shattered into a cascade of brick, mortar, and debris.

A massive stone table smashed through the ceiling, its sheer destructive force terrifying to behold.

Disaster—the monster truly could track her location within its domain; her previous attempts to hide had all failed, and now, she knew for certain.

Amber light converged, and the magic circuits on her twin-star gauntlets completed in a heartbeat: Spell—Will of the Bedrock!

It was not the modified version; a shield of earthen light appeared above Avia, the elements of the earth rising to form an impenetrable bulwark.

"Boom!" The stone table collided with the earthen shield, shattering the defense instantly, though the table itself broke in two and slammed into the floor, pulverizing the ground.

"Ugh!" Avia let out a muffled groan; along with the table, a deluge of ceiling debris had fallen, including a stone shard tangled with a splintered wooden beam.

The jagged wood pierced her calf—the only part of her body left unprotected—and blood flowed instantly as agony flared.

"Nngh..." The girl gritted her teeth, the pain nearly rendering her unconscious.

"So, is this the sensation Wang Yu endures? My own suffering seems pale in comparison to his."

Even in this hellish moment, her thoughts turned to him; if she was nearly fainting from this, what of the agony Wang Yu felt when he was battered beyond human recognition?

"Aaaah!" The girl cried out, but the hesitation vanished; ignoring the tearing of muscle as the wound widened, she pulled the wooden stake from her leg, blood streaming down.

Immediately, she invoked Arcane—Restoration; as her mental energy and void power drained, the gruesome wound began to reverse like time flowing backward, returning to its pristine state within moments.

With tears of involuntary pain still in her eyes, the girl scrambled to her feet—it was not over yet.

Just as she feared, seconds after she moved away from the hole in the ceiling, a massive figure descended from above.

The muscle-bound frame possessed an impossible weight, cratering the floor and kicking up a cloud of dust.

Before the figure fully emerged, a voice boomed out—strangely, it was not the vengeful, insane rasp of Decathlon, but a voice she had never heard before.

"An interesting arcane power. I shall accept this offering..." The voice carried a sinister weight, and as Avia heard it, a chill gripped her, and her very mental space seemed to ripple.

It was no illusion; she realized at once that the void was indeed fluctuating in rhythm with the words from the dust.

The one controlling this flesh was no longer her uncle, Decathlon, but rather... the evil god he worshipped, or perhaps, a projection of that deity in the physical realm.

She had not expected that the arcane power which had drawn the gaze of an evil god in her childhood would attract another’s attention now; there was a cruel sense of destiny in it.

The "presence" of the evil god exerted immense pressure on Avia, and she began to understand why some would choose to worship such entities.

How effortless this power from the god was; her uncle Decathlon had not even been a squire, yet now, it was questionable if even a formal knight could contend with this form.

Though, as for the price paid—it was doubtful if her wretched uncle even existed anymore.

Refusing to surrender, the girl’s eyes hardened, and she gathered another fireball; her mana was running low, but she would not stop, no matter what.

The concentrated fireball pierced the dust and slammed into the monster, the heat and shockwave dispersing the haze to reveal the truth beneath.

Avia’s pupils contracted—the monster stood unscathed.

No, not unscathed; she could see the muscles rippling, the motion of wounds knitting themselves shut.

But it was too fast; the damage was so slight it barely registered before the flesh was whole again!

"It is futile. Things from outside the void can never truly destroy us..." The low, alien voice echoed from within the creature.

The muscles writhed, transforming into serpentine coils that surged toward her; the body, now thoroughly possessed by the evil god, was many times more grotesque and powerful than when Decathlon had wielded it.

The flesh-serpents lunged at Avia, and without hesitation, she invoked Spell—Wind’s Blessing, consuming a sliver of her remaining mana as a breeze carried her into a sprint.

She ran swiftly, though her breathing grew labored; the prolonged exertion and the mental toll of her spells had brought exhaustion to the fore.

Yet, the monster in pursuit forced her to keep her wits about her. Give up? Impossible.

Could only the void harm this thing?

The girl’s eyes flickered, and she drew a small dagger from her pocket; if it were this, perhaps it could serve as a vessel for her unfinished rite...

Just then, as Avia sprinted through a corridor lined with windows, a thunderous explosion erupted ahead.

The window, supposedly encased in an invisible barrier, shattered along with the wall itself, and an object streaked through the air like a blur—a hammer?