Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

The eastern continent, also known as the ‘land of sand and fire’, was the birthplace of various anti-magic methods such as [Magic Resistant Skin], [Antimagic Cocoon], [Counterspell Barrier] and many others. Of course, having the core technique to resist magic doesn’t suddenly turn one into a proper antimage. Antimages have to follow a certain set of training, study on how mages react to various situations, and design various countermeasures should one fall into the clutches of a mage.

After all, mages might not have the best physique, but mages have the best mind.  The most troublesome mage is not the one who had an overwhelming cultivation base, but the one who had prepared sufficiently against you. It just happened that mages who have a strong cultivation base have a great foundational knowledge to prepare against various situations.

Yes, even the best antimage could be defeated easily by a mage as long as the said mage prepared sufficiently and it needs to be said that mages excels in making arrangements. In mages dictionary, knowledge is power, and some truly powerful mages could turn their knowledge into tangible power.

Then, what was the best weapon to counter mages?

Projectile weapons would be deflected by specialized magical barriers or the most common [Mage Armor] spell, needless to say melee weapons who forced the user to get close to the mage to deal damage. Even the dumbest mages know the importance of keeping distance, there are countless ways to toy with martial artists with melee weapons. Furthermore, mages will often hire or accompanied by teammates – cannon fodder, to protect themselves from harm.

Taking the mages visibility or choking them by smokes, underground ambush, near instantaneous movement techniques, attribute-altering weapon specialized to destroy magical barriers and one of the most effective of all – continuous summoning of cannon fodders to exhaust mage’s spell resources; all sorts of methods are developed to fight against mages.

One day, a brilliant idea to fight against mages popped up: instead of using human resources, why not use a magical pet to attack?

Of course, magical pets might be lacking in intelligence and enslavement-path methods were already famous for battle of attrition, thus, the use of magical pets developed into various ways.       

With that said, there was a unique clan in the land of sand and fire that developed a special breed of lifeform to counter mages.

< This girl possessed a type of Metal Slime > Sumire’s brain was wounded so her thinking process was delayed, but she managed to recognize the weapon in Mordred's hand.

Indeed, it was a magical pet-slash-weapon that could in limited sense, act as a steed. Originally, it was an antimage weapon developed by a clan in the eastern continent but the refinement technique of metal slime was decoded by the Great Archmage with his [Apex] refinement-path attainment.

It was common sense that metal hindered the transfer of mana, and special types of metal could be refined into the perfect Antimagic material. If metal slime could change into various types of weapon with various attributes, then metal slime could become the perfect weapon for antimages.

However, if one considered that mages are adept at dealing with disadvantages, it was merely a matter of time before a version of metal slime that could cast magic spells was born. Although the original blueprint for Antimagic Metal Slime is still in the possession of a certain clan in the land of sand and fire, the fact that the Great Archmage could refine his own version of metal slime meant mages only lacked the proper guidance.

Since that was the case, it wasn’t extremely rare for cultivators to possess a metal slime as a pet. Uncommon or rare, yes, but it wasn’t unprecedented.

Sumire saw the gunlance-type assault railgun that the metal slime transformed into started charging electric current. According to her knowledge, slime is a transformation-path lifeform so it wasn’t weird for it to take the form of a weapon, but isn’t railgun and its variants are the specialty of Murasaki Clan from Galatreon? Furthermore, it seems like the slime could cast spells?

A dangerous thought bloomed in Sumire’s mind, but she suppressed it instantly. < We mustn’t make this girl our enemies > was the result of her quick judgment.

While the weapon in Mordred’s had released a dangerous lightning-path undulation that took a fragment of her attention, Sumire was focused on the thing that consumed Nyx’s corpse.        

It was a 2.5-meter-tall bone golem, with its right hand transformed into a large bone sword and its left a 2-meter-tall door-like spiked bone tower shield. The former Nyx transformed into an elegant knight whose bone armor is pure white. From a distance, everyone could feel the faint undulation of tempered mana crystals.

“This is… Nyx’s 2nd form? Hey, summoning a bone power armor is cheating!” Sakuya complained while being amazed.

Indeed, Nyx was encased in a bone power armor fueled by tempered mana crystals, the goal of Violet Sword Blaze in coming here.

A pair of purple soulfire ignited on the power armor’s slit-like eye socket, Nyx’s golem screamed soundlessly as it attacked Sakuya and Shirogane with his bone blade. Unknown to them, the silent scream was a wisdom-path sound attack aimed at Sumire.  

In an instant, Shirogane released a full-powered attack. The giant katana and the bone blade made contact with each other, but Shirogane’s expectations were shattered. She thought that she could sever the bone blade directly, but not only was the strength behind the blade far stronger than her, it was also imbued with physical enchantment sufficient to stagger her.

Shirogane’s great katana was deflected through overwhelming force. Nyx wouldn’t want to waste the opening he created, the bone blade hand morphed into a bone lance to gain range advantage as it tried to pierce Shirogane.

Fortunately, a fist cladded in fiery flames deflected the bone lance and a tri-bladed lance laced with electric current hit Nyx’s back, saving Shirogane from gaining a new hole in her body. Sakuya’s attack contained a simple spell which placed a rune imprint on the target, further damaging the bone lance in a penetrative micro explosion while Mordred’s gunlance released its payload the moment it hit the target.

Boom! Under the dual explosion of fire and lightning, Nyx’s figure was stunned for a brief moment, but after the dust settled, the tiny cracks on the bone armor were recovering at a rate visible to the eye. This was possible thanks to [Group Chat] transmitting everyone’s thoughts and Sumire who commanded Sakuya to take the best action. Sumire was strategically supporting the team.

< Estimated power level… 1 red star. Everyone, the golem is an unknown rank 1 undead, please proceed with caution > Alanis shared her finding through [Group Chat] as her eyes glowed in prismatic light.

“Tsk.” Sumire expressed her desperation at her report.

Nyx was a legendary mage, there was no doubt about it. When the bone golem ate Nyx’s corpse, her passive soul detection method could see the transfer of soul, inferring that Nyx’s soul is either controlling the bone golem or stored within it. Since the bone golem was powered by tempered mana crystals, its active time could be incredibly long. Even though she merely saw an exchange of attack, she calculates that it was impossible to defeat Nyx in his 2nd form with their resources alone.

The difference between rank 0 and rank 1 was incredibly large. Her team could fight against one under the condition of sufficient preparation. In this case, fighting against the kobold has exhausted some spell resources, and ‘killing’ Nyx exhausted them even more.

Sakuya have almost depleted her spell resources and Sumire’s enslavement-path spells are useless against this bone construct. Shirogane might be a good fighter, but the bone armor seems especially resistant against sword attack. As for Kurogane… his vital sign in Sumire’s ID Card indicates that he was in a life-threatening wound, it’s only a matter of time before an invisible wasp takes him away and disqualifies him from the 2nd stage of the hunting festival.

The only person that might have a chance of dealing effective damage to the bone golem was Wild Savage with his warhammer, but receiving his support at this exact moment was just wishful thinking.

‘Were my decision wrong?’ While the others were barely suppressing the bone golem, Sumire was having an internal crisis. ‘I shouldn’t have brought my team to this place. Even though I know we were facing a former legendary necromancer, I scammed them so that they would willingly fight for me. I am a horrible human being.’ Sumire almost cried under the weight of her sin. She had scammed her team multiple times, but this time was too much.    

She wanted to suppress the tears in her eyes before realizing something, ‘Wait, how can I be so weak and indecisive. This is…I am under the influence of a wisdom-path attack!’

Sumire was frightened. This was a former legendary mage; how can she underestimate Nyx. At that instant, she activates a countermeasure against wisdom-path attacks by ‘flushing’ her sea of consciousness, turning her into an idiot who can only salivate uncontrollability and stare blankly at her surroundings.

“Oi purple hair, what is wrong with you?” While engaging in melee combat with Nyx, Mordred noticed Sumire who suddenly turned into a retard and call her out with his feminine voice.  

< Oh no, the captain is under a wisdom-path attack. She couldn’t support us strategically now > Alanis who can’t participate in the battle with the rank 1 bone golem can only share intel passively. Since Sumire can only stand there like a retard, she took care of Sumire’s physical body so that she wouldn’t be hit by stray attack.

< Damn it, I was about to propose to activate our team’s trump card > Sakuya complained, but her fist never stopped dealing damage to the relatively slow bone golem.

Sword force can only leave an insignificant scratch on the bone armor. The explosive runes placed by Sakuya lack qualitative damage to break the armor, and gunlance isn’t actually an ideal weapon to fight against a heavily armored target. The three main combatants could barely suppress Nyx, while the rest are literally next to useless as they would be dismembered if they get too close and ranged attack merely wasting resources.

“This isn’t going anywhere; Nyx’s golem is a tough nut to crack. Do you have any trump cards left?” Sakuya asked Mordred after her 21st explosive rune cracked the golem’s right hand which took the form of a trident. It was also her last rune imprint; she couldn’t attack with explosion anymore.  

“This +3 enchanted weapon is my trump card!” Mordred admitted honestly. He stabbed a random rock to show Sakuya. When the gunlance made contact with the rock, it turned into fine dust. Mordred only shows it once before continuing stabbing Nyx in hard spots.

“I… see…” Sakuya can only grudgingly accept. She was underestimating Mordred, never in her wildest thought that she was doing much more than herself. In that random attack, Sakuya noticed when his gunlance merely touched the rock, it transferred large amounts of damage. In other words, although his weapon looks inefficient against the bone golem, thanks to the +3 enchantment, his attack dealt more damage than her.  

“I have another form, but I can only maintain it for one attack. After that, I have no more weapons.” Mordred said.

“Then, let’s do it. We’ll give you an opening. Shirogane, prepare for [Sword Blaze]! You, protect me!”

“You can call me Shion.” Mordred instantly switches places with Sakuya. She took a few steps back after ordering Shion, Mordred’s current self, to protect her. She produced the last dregs of her spell resources that she saved for the team’s trump card and used it to deal with the current problem.

Noticing the increasing fire-path undulation, Nyx’s golem tried to attack her with full might while Shirogane and Mordred tried their best to defend her. The two-minute casting time put a heavy burden on the others.

Shion was supported by Ramiel’s crossbow bolts, which annoys Nyx greatly. While passively accepting small damage from the bolts to lower Ramiel’s guard, the golem transformed its right hand into a bone-rifle that spew [Death by Piercing] repeatedly. Unlike Nyx who uses his own distal phalange, the golem was not limited by it. In two second, a dozen [Death by Piercing] projectiles pierced Ramiel’s torso and one penetrated his right eye. If not for Seraphina’s quick reaction of erecting a defensive root shield on time, he would’ve been deader than dead.

At the same time the defensive root shield protected Ramiel, Shirogane’s sword force cracked the bone-rifle barrel. A [Death by Piercing] projectile was currently being propelled by the magic spell, but due to the interference, the projectile hit the bone-rifle barrel instead, exploding it in poisonous bone powder.

Nyx’s golem didn’t regret exploding the bone-rifle as it could slowly recover its right arm despite the slow speed. As if thinking it wouldn’t be enough to overpower the two annoying flies, the bone golem’s left arm connected to a bone shield transformed into a large greatsword. It was too large, too thick, and too heavy to be called a greatsword. It would be more fitting to call it a lump of bone mass. On the other hand, its broken right arm turned into a small blade with a hook-like “L” shape.

After the brief change of weapon, the bone golem combat style changed into that of a berserker. Due to the large amount of bone mass used to create the huge greatsword, it was heavy and difficult to control. Each attack turned his sense of balance away, giving Sakuya and Shion a large opening. However, after the first attack, the two main combatants could not utilize the openings made due to the golem’s queer fighting style of staying low to the point of near-crawling.   

Using its hook-like right hand, the golem forcefully changes its center of gravity after each attack, allowing it to quickly recover and use its own large mass as a form of attack.

With a large thud, Shirogane coughed blood as her body was slammed by the bone golem. The damage was quite high as her chest armor cracked. Although she could still fight, the strength of her upper torso weakened noticeably. That one attack could potentially kill Shirogane but the bone golem’s weight was insufficient after being used to regenerate so much. Shirogane leaped backward after standing up, while a large sword crushed the place where she was.

Shion’s combat style was also unique. Despite not having visible weakness, Nyx’s golem was having a hard time every time she stabbed its joints. The bone golem could regenerate endlessly as long as it has sufficient bone mass and energy, but joints and other parts that move a lot are inherently fragile. When it cracks, Nyx’s golem has to fix them quickly lest they break down while fighting.  

Furthermore, Shion was petite. The gunlance in her hand allows her to attack the bone golem while keeping moderate distance. If she couldn’t approach it, she’ll shoot a lightning projectile and if the bone golem’s attention was occupied by Shirogane, she’ll stab it in the most vicious places such as crotch, leg joints, neck, even the empty eye socket of the bone golem, an obvious experience in dealing with heavily armored opponents.

Yamamura who had been waiting for an opening, finally got his chance when the bone golem’s great sword left hand missed Shion and its shorter hook-blade right hand cracked under the attack of Shirogane, disabling its ability to forcefully change its center of gravity. The golem was currently hunched; it hasn’t recovered its posture for defensive maneuver when Yamamura swiftly put an explosion potion on the golem’s neck by standing on the golem’s back.

Before Yamamura managed to get out of its back, the golem grew a spine tail which penetrated his stomach and threw him to the wall like a common trash. Thanks to the arrow-like tail edge, most of his internal organs were ruptured and littered around the floor, there was no need to check his vitals through the ID Card, the fact that he can only twitch his legs is the best proof that he was dying.

Seraphina was surprised at the development, she used another root shield to hide his body and drag away from the field so that she can proceed with emergency treatment until the invisible wasp comes to take them away.

“Damn it.” Sakuya cursed under her breath as she saw the sudden change. Of course, the explosion potion detonated which dealt a significant amount of damage, but the golem recovered the damage shortly. What makes her frustrated is the fact that the golem grew a spine tail. With it, there was no need for the golem to use its hook blade right hand to alter the center of gravity. It can directly do that with the spine tail.

This caused the two main combatants to be under more pressure than before. The golem’s right hand had recovered slightly, allowing it to change into some sort of bone-pistol that spewed a smaller caliber of [Death by Piercing] at Sakuya.

Shion blocked it by shooting her own lightning the moment a [Death by Piercing] projectile was shot, not only denying the spell but also damaging the bone-pistol. However, that wasn’t a long term solution. In due time, it will eventually regenerate and create a more durable bone-weapon that’s harder to counter.   

“It’s done!” Sakuya finished the spell as a red ball of light manifested on her palm. Just as she was about to release the spell, a hand patted her shoulder.

“Let’s finish it together, we can activate our trump card.” Sumire said as her moth produced a large amount of black dust. She had recovered slightly, allowing her to support her team.

“Perfect. I’ve finished my part; we can synchronize as soon as you’re ready.”

“Right, we should do it right now.” Sumire condenses the black dust that her moth produce into a dark purple ball. Sumire combined the purple ball with Sakuya’s red light, contaminating it into bright-red purple. The two activate the spell as it traveled towards Shirogane in a blink of an eye.

“Rank 0 compound killer move, [Violet Sword Blaze]!” Shirogane broke her silence as she screamed in delight. Her broken chest armor was filled with liquid fire burning in dark purple flame. The half plate on her body turned into a full plate as her physical spec went overdrive.

“Interesting…” Shion muttered as she let the powered up Shirogane to delay Nyx’s bone golem. She took several leaps backward towards the end of the room. “I need two minute, hold tight. Activating rank 0 killer move, [Misaka Mikoto]!” Her gunlance slowly turned into a large sniper-type heavy railgun with a 2-meter-long body that slowly accumulated power.

On the backline, the two girls were trying their best to hold on. The source of the Violet Sword Blaze team’s name was actually its ultimate killer move. Shirogane’s physical body and martial skill was the foundation that allowed her to fight against a true rank 1 existence as a rank 0. Sakuya’s fire-path Mage Armor spell was core of this move, not only augmenting Shirogane’s physical body in a fiery armor that protects her from harm but also allows her to cause fire-path damage in combination with her sword attack.

As for Sumire, she was the one who got rid of Shirogane's weakness of being easily influenced by emotion. Her participation also contaminated the red fire into purple fire, which was a combination of wisdom-path and fire-path methods that burn the opponent’s body physically and incinerate their telepathic thoughts.   

If someone were burnt under this purple fire, they wouldn’t feel a thing as the telepathic thoughts which respond to pain were being incinerated! They would continue fighting as if their body was fine, but their perception of the environment would dim as more senses are being destroyed by the purple fire.

For someone stupidly durable like Kenji, the more he was burnt in this purple fire, the less telepathic thought he could produce. In the end, he’ll be a retard that allows his own body to be burnt to a crisp without retaliating.

This ultimate killer move, unfortunately, has a limited amount of activation time. Sumire needs to constantly supply the telepathic thought that burns the target’s telepathic thoughts as well as synchronize with Sakuya so that their methods do not conflict with each other. Since the two aces of the team turned into useless baggage, it was the main reason that it can only be used as a last resort.

After several exchanges of attack, the bone golem was ignited in purple fire. Its movement became noticeably slower but there was a serious lack of qualitative physical damage to destroy the bone golem. Despite having the sharpest attack of all team members, Shirogane’s fiery sword force could not dismember it no matter how many times she attacked the same spot.

Of course, the golem isn’t completely helpless either. It changed back it's useless super heavy sword into a semi-circular shield, blocking most part of its body from Shirogane’s attack. Within his golem, Nyx quickly understood that the augmented Shirogane could only hold on for a short time, and time is the only thing he had so he stalled as best as it could. He focused on fighting against the purple fire that burns telepathic thought.

Sumire’s eyes and ears bled as a result of over drafting her brain. She was already wounded, but she kept pushing herself to the limit. Various blood vessels in her brain have already ruptured, the migraine she felt could make others faint but she persists. “Shion, quick!” She rushes as Shirogane uses a full-powered attack, splitting the golem’s bone shield into two to give Shion an opening.

“It’s done.” Shion coldly replied. In her hand, the sniper-type heavy railgun has accumulated enough power. In her sea of consciousness, she was exchanging telepathic thoughts with Kasumi.

‘Nyx’s two-layered wisdom-path sound attack managed to force Sumire to desperation, forcing her to choose the most idiotic decision of flushing her sea of consciousness and her passive wisdom-path defenses with it. With that, the last condition has been cleared. Kasumi, how’s the chances of [Misaka Mikoto] penetrating Nyx’s golem defenses without destroying his soul?’

< 51%, as long as Nyx followed our plan >

‘That’s good enough, crippling Sumire was the last condition of this plan. Let’s get this done.’ While exchanging telepathic thoughts with Kasumi, Mordred, or in this case, Shion, activates a spell through her weapon.

“Rank 0 lightning-path killer move, [.50 Caliber Ultramagnetic Round]!”

Of the three categories of railguns, heavy railguns have significantly higher discharge limits than assault railguns. Despite not using the 4-meter-long barrel [Misaka Mikoto] due to the lack of slime mass, the current sniper was already powerful enough to produce an attack at the peak of rank 0.

Shion wouldn’t be that stupid to replicate her previous deed of instantly killing a powerful beast with sonicround enhanced by various metaspell augmentations, it would give a lot of clues for wisdom-path cultivators. Instead, he refined a minute amount of Kasumi’s slime mass into an ultramagnetic round for direct physical damage.

It would consume the slime mass permanently as ultramagnetic round is fundamentally a different material than the metal that made up slime mass but he was willing to trade it with a future in human society.

With that said, a .50 caliber ultramagnetic round was shot through [Misaka Mikoto]. Due to the sheer speed, the ultramagnetic round burns the very air, leaving a trail of blue plasma fire that penetrates the golem’s weakened defense.

Boom! Thunderous explosion resounded within the underground chamber. The sound wave was encased by the walls, bouncing multiple times as echoes. Everyone except Shion lost their hearing for a few moments.

Since the attack was so powerful, [Misaka Mikoto] exploded into small bits of searing hot weapon parts, electric sparks jumping amongst each other. It was true that Shion can only use it for one attack because she no longer has a functional weapon for a short period of time, Misaka Mikoto couldn’t handle the burden of that ultimate attack.

“Did we get it?” Sakuya canceled the synchronization, dispelling the team’s killer move. In that brief activation, her spiritual force was drained, she became extremely sleepy. She wants to find a hole that she can rest her body in and then sleep to recover.

Since Sakuya was drained, then it was worse for Sumire. Her vision was dark, various blood vessels in her brain have ruptured, including one related to the nerves responsible for connecting the eyes and brain. Thus, she was temporarily blind. Even so, she waited until her hearing recovered to investigate.

Amidst the broken bone matter, liquid plasma fire, and a bunch of other bone wreckage, a semi-translucent apparition kicked a pile of tempered mana crystals, scattering it. “Damn brat.” The apparition was a tall, handsome elf donned in phantom mage robe.  

 “3rd form? Are you a secret boss or something?” Sakuya complained under her breath. < Captain, what should we do? > She transferred telepathic thoughts to Sumire in hope for instruction.

Sumire instantly recognizes the apparition, ‘A high elf banshee?’ her thought was aroused before being cut by the apparition.

Nyx put his right hand to his chest as he muttered a chant. The temperature of the underground chamber lowered significantly as he unrestrained his killing intent.

“DON’T LET HIM FINISH!” Sumire screamed frantically, ignoring her image as a coldblooded strategist. If her gut feeling is correct, then he would use self-mutilating technique to cast a large area-of-effect spell or something far more dangerous than the bone golem.  

Unfortunately, it was too late.

“Rank 1 necro-path killer move, [Death by Misplaced Trust]”.

The apparition exploded into a soul spear that was too fast to intercept. Sakuya noticed the ethereal spear aimed at Sumire. She instantly chooses to use her body to block, but it changes direction as if evading Sakuya. “NO!” Sakuya made a last attempt at blocking by trying to grab the soul spear, but the soul spear was ethereal. It passed through her fingertips as she felt the searing pain of her soul being ripped apart from that simple glancing hit.

Sakuya suppresses the excruciating pain from her right hand and glances to her back in horror. The soul spear reverted into the Nyx in ghost form once more, overlapping with Sumire’s figure.   

“Banshee?” Sakuya recalled a type of undead whose racial talent is possession. She immediately tried to come up with a solution. “My Bright Sun Gold is barely enough for half a spell. There’s no time to waste; I need to do it quickly!” She started chanting a purification magic spell despite her unstable condition.

“You’re too slow.” Shion approached Sumire as she made complex hand seals. “Rank 0 pyo kuji-in (channel seal) ninjutsu, [Antimagic Fist Seal]!”

Her fist shrouded in dark light, dissipating Nyx’s ethereal form on contact but it was too late. Sumire has already lost consciousness.