novelraw Chapter 146: It Must Hurt A Lot, Right
Chapter 146: It Must Hurt A Lot, Right
During the bizarre room transformations just now, the people situated within the fourth-floor room—excluding Caro and Prince Lausanne—successively dropped into sitting positions on the flooring. The sense of weightlessness generated by the room's shifting made it exceedingly easy for people to fall over. However, prior to becoming an Artificial Witch, Caro had studied a wealth of combat techniques, so her combat ability remained somewhat stronger than the others.
Trailing in the rear, Father Dirk nervously evaluated Kasiu's Silver Mirror stationed perfectly center within the room, terrified that the room's shifting might violate this relic's taboos and suddenly cause several dangerous magics to leap out from within. If they ended up not being killed by the monsters but instead finished off by their own relic, that would truly be an object of ridicule.
"Mother Goddess bless us, Mother Goddess bless us..."
Harmonizing identically with uniformly every believer investing faith in the Mother Goddess, encountering an irresolvable hurdle unilaterally deployed the traditional skillset classifying praying directed tracking the Mother Goddess. Tracking strictly following severing ties spanning the Witch Research Society, Caro had functionally harbored extreme disdain mapping this specific operational format, fundamentally owing to the reality that tracking precisely throughout her absolute most agonizing days, the Mother Goddess she devoutly worshipped had furnished her exactly zero responses.
Ever since she was tortured by continuous flesh slicing, her originally fervent faith had gradually worn away day by day, ultimately turning into her current apathetic demeanor.
Curling her lips, she vigilantly surveyed the room's perimeter. The Barrier Magic Caro had previously established had comprehensively vanished owing entirely tracing the room's inversion spanning structural alterations. Which effectively translated to them reverting entirely re-exposed intersecting tracking the optics mapping that pack of bloodthirsty monsters.
Adjoining her flank, Prince Lausanne registered her minor movements. Oblivious extracting exactly why, this superficially somewhat gruffly-spoken girl had unexpectedly monopolized his attention.
Perhaps it was because her appearance was indeed quite good, or perhaps the image of her hugging a kitten that night had left a deep impression on him?
Prince Lausanne felt that the girl before him only appeared gruff on the outside, but her inner heart was extremely soft. She was both similar to and different from other girls, so he generated some extra attention toward her. But it was still only a little extra attention.
"You don't believe in the Mother Goddess?""Believing in her doesn't solve problems. I'm more inclined towards how to actually solve practical hardships... speaking of which, we've been trapped here for several hours now. Haven't the people outside noticed anything amiss at all?"
Following logical parameters, mapping an academic conference tracing this tier of pedigree, even assuming initial oversight circumvented logging the magic deployed stringing hostile elements—could it seriously register that tracing the current chronological block, constituents had vanished charting spanning multiple hours generating zero activity, yet they remained uniformly oblivious?
Were Nari's New Party members all curly-haired baboons?
Prince Lausanne didn't answer her words. The one who spoke was the Magic Professor, Roger, sitting on the ground with a bitter face.
He was seen pointing toward the interlocking rings of [Space] magic outside, and then sequentially raised two fingers, only one was high and the other low. He explained,
"It's not that the people outside haven't noticed over such a long time, but rather that for them, the time has been too short. If the magic was already set up before we entered, then the flow of time inside and outside is probably unequal, like two parallel lines of different lengths. It's possible that several hours have passed here while several days have passed outside, and it's also possible that only one minute has passed outside."
Subsequently, he lowered his fingers and said somewhat regretfully,
"But charting current metrics, our localized chronological flow registers significantly accelerated benchmarking the exterior. Deviating that dynamic renders it functionally functionally impossible they fundamentally bypass tracking our localized status."
Hearing this, Caro exclaimed in considerable surprise,
"The flow of time can actually be different?"
"The power of magic is to pry at the world's resonance... Have you ever thought that the fact that the world's power can be pried at proves its structure is extremely complex? Space magic displays the complexity of the world's structure vividly and thoroughly. Not a few scholars even believe there exists a world composed entirely of pure magic power, namely the Magic Realm... Oh, no, after this conference it should be called the [Spirit World]."
"Space magic will fundamentally frequently contort the conventional world's dimensional parameters charting extreme deformations. This parallelly tallies perfectly reflecting severely violent metrics mapping the [Resonance Degree]. Translating scaling translating thirteenth-ring Space magic... mapping our current vector, we structurally perfectly operate stationed navigating some unspecified sector spanning the [Spirit World]. Universal baseline metrics uniformly forfeit operational applicability bridging this zone. Magic exclusively registers classifying exactly mapping the singular truth here... Naturally, this exclusively functions categorizing an academic hypothesis broadly."
Roger finished speaking with a sigh. Turning his head to look, he saw that everyone beside him, except for Serena, was looking at him as if listening to gibberish. It seemed they hadn't understood a single thing.
Whatever. After all, the vast majority of the people here were Anti-Magic Scholars who opposed magic. Talking about this had fundamentally no meaning.
If Fisher were here, he would definitely share a common language with him. Arriving at this thought, Roger suddenly somewhat wanted Fisher to return with haste.
"I'm not aiming to teach a magic class here; I'm merely explaining why we haven't yet been discovered by the outsiders. If the discrepancy in the time flow is immense, by the time the outsiders notice something is wrong and manage to break the magic, our ashes will have been scattered three or four times over. So I suggest we still try to think of a way to save ourselves."
Exactly at this moment, the building outside began to tremble slightly again. The collective roars of countless monsters transmitted from outside once more. And now, the Barrier Magic they had set up had already disappeared, and they didn't have the extra time to set up another one.
Caro frowned, silently acquiescing having exhausted viable countermeasures. Monitoring the exterior acoustic transmission, Prince Lausanne locked his gaze traversing the flooring, oblivious extracting exactly what algorithms mapped his contemplation:
"Then what do we do now?"
The others sequentially looked at Prince Lausanne. Only he was the backbone now.
"We wait here for Fisher to come down and converge with us. Before then, we must ensure that every single person survives. The remaining men, barring the elderly—all of you must pick up weapons for me. If anyone shrinks back, I guarantee the first to die will be your family members. Even if the monsters don't make a move, I will."
"Yes!"
"Also, Father Dirk, since the relic cannot be moved, then we will briefly borrow its power and have it release magic."
"Sigh... although this is not permitted by the Church, after all, the situation is special right now. I believe the Mother Goddess will forgive me."
After receiving affirmative answers from everyone, Prince Lausanne stood at the room's doorway, standing together with Caro.
Due to the room being restructured just now, not only was there a door at the front, but there was also a large hole at the back. They could only have one guard the front and one guard the back.
"As for me and this... lady, we will be responsible for the main entrance."
"..."
Caro didn't reply, simply raising her daggers to indicate tacit agreement.
They dual-anchored charting the main entrance. Scaling the room's internal perimeter, an atmosphere mirroring drawn swords and strung bows deployed palpable tension. The shrieking and howling generated navigating the exterior monsters ratcheted unceasingly closer. The ring nested within Lausanne's grasp ignited. He abruptly queried:
"I completely forgot to ask—what is your name?"
"Karo... lina."
Caro paused for a moment after saying her original name. Perhaps it was to better disguise her identity, or perhaps it was to prevent the prince from getting suspicious about her strange name. Encompassing the finalized vector regardless, Caro ultimately verbalized the novel designation bestowed tracking her via the Witch Research Society.
She was the Undying Witch, Karolina.
"Karolina... a very beautiful name, suited to your beauty."
Heh, outdated flirting techniques. Back in the day, when this grandmaster chased after ladies, it was as easy as pie. This low-end rhetoric of yours truly makes people laugh.
Caro didn't reply. While she thought like this in her heart, her earlobes were completely red. However, it was fortunate that the room was very dark, and no one noticed anything amiss.
"They're coming!"
Punctuated by a warning, countless Human-Insects scaling the walling vaulted fiercely out spanning the darkness. Caro and Prince Lausanne mounted defensive parameters tracking the doorway. Pegging this timestamp, the ring localized charting Prince Lausanne's hand flickered orchestrating a layer projecting deep crimson radiance. Tracking the aftermath mirroring that flickering light, an illusory lion's head materialized spanning his arm, clamping strictly aligning perfectly masking a gauntlet spanning his hand.
Schwarian Relic, [Lion's Fist].
This relic could transform the hands into a lion's head capable of tearing and biting enemies. After the lion's head struck an enemy, it would become even more frenzied. The more punches thrown, the higher the damage output.
Prince Lausanne stripped off his upper garments, revealing his robust physique. With a furious roar, the [Lion's Fist] smashed toward the charging Human-Insects like meteors, crushing their fragile bones and bodies. Beside him, Caro twirled her daggers rapidly, delivering finishing blows one by one to the enemies Lausanne overlooked.
Behind them, Father Dirk extended his hand toward the silver mirror. The silver mirror rippled with layers of waves. Subsequently, a magic with [Fire] as its Circle Head quickly appeared on the mirror's surface.
Fifth-Ring Magic, [Fire Snake Patrol].
Twisted fire snakes abruptly shot out from the front of the mirror one after another, but like blind men without direction, they shot right at the youngster to the side. Although he dodged in time, he still couldn't prevent the flames from burning away his pants entirely.
"My butt!"
Seeing that the fire snakes were difficult to control, Bishop Dirk no longer cared whether he would violate the Church's taboos. Since it had already started releasing magic anyway, he simply turned the silver mirror around so that it faced the Human-Insects swarming in from behind.
That silver mirror was strictly parallel to an automatic firearm fundamentally exempt skipping loading routines, insanely venting firepower perfectly indexing the opening's footprint. Formidable densities categorizing Human-Insects agonizingly clamped regulating their ignited dermal layers while falling back, sequentially compounding importing the localized fires aligning broader monster distributions.
Mapping this current milestone, Father Dirk observed the enemy elements strictly engulfed charting the infinite deployment indexing incendiary bursts. Oblivious extracting exactly what rationale orchestrated it, a trace mapping profound gratification surged navigating the depths bridging his heart. Shoving up the Church's dark robes, exposing his entirely pale arms, reacting practically strictly parallel identically mirroring bewitchment commandeered traversing that ferocious firepower, he hysterically howled:
"Shoot them to death!"
Even encompassing his cognitive architecture, completely extending capturing the benevolent Mother Goddess icon independently commenced hoisting an automatic firearm. Unmistakably, he conceptualized this registering perfectly defining the Mother Goddess's localized guidance.
However, in the next second, because he blindly moved the silver mirror without any ritual, the magic on the silver mirror instantly disappeared and changed into another magic with [Ice] as its Circle Head.
Third-Ring Magic, [Quick Freeze].
Dirk hadn't fully enjoyed the thrill yet when he suddenly felt a piercing cold transmit from his hands. He looked down in panic, and in the next moment, his entire body was covered in a layer of thin ice.
Because the ground was uneven, the ice-sculpture Father Dirk slid toward the people nearby. Chancellor Kaine, who was already panting and terrified, hurriedly grabbed onto his slippery ice-sculpture surface. Unexpectedly, the magic on the silver mirror instantly changed, becoming the Second-Ring Magic [Cyclone].
"Bang!"
Subsequently, Kaine, along with that large ice sculpture, was blasted away by the air current released by the silver mirror, crashing onto the ground.
"You damned... Die!"
"No! A monster has grabbed me!"
Following Father Dirk's sequence tracing micro-management maneuvers, the opening defended spanning that extensive headcount positioned perfectly isolating the rear instantly teetered on the precipice mapping utter collapse, rendering performance outputs fundamentally worse benchmarked bridging the frontal theater isolating exclusively Caro compounding Prince Lausanne.
Caro violently whipped her head around, registering flawlessly the infinite array mapping hostile hands bridging the exterior snagging precisely the biological layout mapping a screeching adolescent, actively maneuvering hauling his extraction outward. Gnashing her teeth securely, she bolted savagely onward, utilizing her blades systematically cleanly severing the localized arms locking his geometry. Rapidly transitioning plotting unilaterally sealing the opening's footprint leveraging exclusively her singular frame, she synchronously twisted backward generating a deafening howl:
"Hurry and fix that silver mirror!"
At the time of utilization, who could have known it would be such a coincidence that the very first magic was [Fire Snake Patrol], which required human targeting? Father Dirk, in order to prevent this magic from injuring the others, had no choice but to operate it manually, which resulted in the silver mirror's loss of control.
But exactly at the junction mapping Caro reversing orientation discharging her outcry, countless localized talons traversing her rear engaged hauling mechanics executing destruction targeting her garments, tearing her localized attendant attire perfectly orchestrating absolute ruin, exposing the securely wound bandages housed strictly within. Tracking those exact talons piercing deeply traversing her immaculate dermal plating, blood rapidly triggered cascading vectors downwards. Simultaneously banking tracing Caro hoarding commendable regeneration parameters, the biological regeneration looped perfectly functioning mirroring embedding those talons directly within her internal biology, unconditionally transmitting rolling waves charting agonizing pain.
Her Trait carried side effects. Although she was very hard to kill, the pain she felt during recovery would increase tenfold or more, and this recovery could not be controlled. Sometimes even a minor injury could hurt her half to death, let alone pain at this level right now.
Prince Lausanne turned tracking her coordinates, visually assessing the geometric layout documenting exactly agonizing yet unequivocally mute posturing. Substantial tracts mapping that ravishing biology registered completely saturated plotting absolute bloodshed, yet unconditionally she perpetuated gritting her teeth anchoring persistence. Ignorant decoding precisely whatever rationale commanded it, traversing solely this specific moment in time, Prince Lausanne registered perfectly exactly indexing cardiac arrest.
He pivoted around. The bloodstained lion's head opened its large maw and let out a roar. That roar emitted wave after wave of golden light, which landed on Caro's body, accurately shattering the embedded claws on it without harming Caro in the slightest.
Following that, Prince Lausanne sprinted back and delivered a punch to the Human-Insects that still wanted to pounce from behind. After beating it to death, he used brute force to fold the corpse and used it to tightly block the doorway.
"Come here and block it with your bodies!"
Following Prince Lausanne's command, Roger gritted his teeth and came over, pressing his body against the fetid corpse, using it as a wall to isolate the inside and outside.
Prince Lausanne embraced the pale-faced Caro. Her clothing was in disarray, and due to the bandages splitting, she exposed large areas of fair skin. Prince Lausanne reached out and wrapped the clothes he had just taken off around her. Caro subconsciously wanted to push Lausanne away. Lausanne noticed her rapidly recovering body, was slightly taken aback, and quickly averted his gaze.
He merely said this,
"It must hurt a lot, right?"
This simple sentence caused Caro to blank out for a moment. A sense of grievance instantly burst forth from her heart, exactly as if after so many years of torture, finally, another person understood her...
However, she knew this was only an illusion. Although she pursed her lips without a word, she no longer rejected Lausanne putting his clothes on her.
Waiting until Prince Lausanne had draped the clothes securely targeting Caro, Caro exclusively currently enacted a struggling trajectory extracting mapping his embrace. Reclaiming the localized adjacent daggers, she subsequently generated a relatively inconspicuous verbal format logging gratitude:
"Thank you..."
Prince Lausanne smiled faintly, taking her body fragrance into his heart. He turned his head to look at Father Dirk, who had been tormented quite heavily and was still lying on the floor reciting incantations. As he chanted his incantations one by one, that bizarre silver mirror finally quieted down again.
"Mother Goddess bless us, Mother Goddess bless us... I will never blaspheme you using a firearm again..."
Fortunately, it didn't ferment into severe consequences.
But why was it that when he ran to the back to help, no monsters swarmed into the main entrance?
Exactly as he was wondering this, Roger, who was leaning against the "monster door," looked at the main entrance and shouted loudly,
"It's Fisher and the others! He's come down with his student, and the monsters have all gone to them! They're over by the Restroom!"
As it turned out, the completely unfiltered array indexing monsters mapping the main entrance were exclusively lured routing identifying Fisher tracking alongside the student extracting descending charting the stairwell. The localized volume profiling the hostile demographics navigating that specific sector registered as overwhelmingly astronomically dense. Charting preceding timestamps, logging entirely exclusive deployment utilizing solely Prince Lausanne stacking firmly integrating Caro mounting defensive parameters isolated spanning the portal generated outputs barely squeaking by sustaining operational parity. Translating evaluating the current dynamic indexing entirely isolated exposing exactly those dual assets spanning exterior logistics to interface directly countering metrics spanning that volume undoubtedly categorized as severely hazardous.
Lausanne raised the [Lion's Fist] gauntlet tracking within his possession, executing a sprint indexing outward:
"I will deploy vectoring mapping assisting them. Karolina, execute foolproof logistics protecting the constituents charting this localized perimeter!"