Upon entering the central area, Rudger's group immediately split in two.
Trina, Chris, and Belaruna went to support the people fighting Andrei while Rudger and Casey stayed behind, sneaking around to avoid being seen by Andrei.
Casey unfurled a cloak of water to block out prying eyes, and the others drew Andrei's attention to them.
'Demonic power.'
Rudger sensed a dangerous power from the black aura that Andrei emanated and could see why his master had insisted on checking the underground.
His master would be interested in the demonic power.
Of course, the power was still sealed away in the World Tree, and it wasn't enough for Grander to make a move, so she settled for dropping hints.
'Whatever it is, we need to destroy everything related to the experiment while he's distracted.'
To that end, he moved away from Casey.
"Are you sure?"
Casey looked worried, wondering if her struggling colleagues needed backup.
Now that they were alone, her tone had reverted to the way she usually spoke with him.
"They'll be fine. There are two Masters, and even if Andrei Semov uses demonic power, they won't be outmatched."
"……Yes. I suppose so. We'll do what we have to do."
Casey watched the warlocks bustle about with determination and also glanced at Rudger from time to time, but didn't ask him anything directly. Given the circumstances, there was no time for idle chatter.
"Let's go."
"……Yes."
Rudger prepared his magic and Casey joined in.
In a flash, the spell was complete, and the magic unfolded in a matter of seconds. At the same time, the curtain of water around Casey lifted, revealing the two of them.
The Warlocks and Liberators felt the sudden surge of magic and realized that the enemy had reached them but it was too late.
A massive blast of fire magic spread out like a fan, rippling across the laboratory like a tidal wave.
The wide range meant the power was not concentrated enough to kill, but it was enough to damage the incubators and experiments that produced the chimeras.
"Stop them!"
"This must be protected!"
In the midst of the crisis, the liberators and warlocks chose to fight instead of flee.
Those who had already undergone body enhancement procedures threw themselves into the fray, pushing back the flame waves.
During this brief interlude, the wizards completed their spells and unleashed defensive magic.
The first Liberators to throw themselves in were burned to a crisp, but their defensive magic allowed the rest of the group to remain protected. The flames of Rudger's fire did less than half of the damage he had originally aimed for.
'Throwing themselves into the fire without even caring if they get burned.'
They were fanatics but this was only the first attack and Casey Selmore was the second to move.
Following the wave of flames was a thin blade of water curved like a crescent moon. The water strike contained a great deal of magic in itself, slicing through anything in its path.
The defensive magic shattered, and the water blade began to shatter the incubation facility.
The transparent glass tubes were sliced open and chunks of unfinished chimeras and Experiment Second flesh spilled out onto the floor, along with the unidentifiable liquid inside.
"No!"
"You bastards!"
At the sight, the Liberators lunged at Casey with bloodshot eyes but Casey's attack didn't end there.
While a normal wizard would release their magic once and that would be the end of it, she is a single-attribute elemental wizard so once used, water could be reused again and again.
At Casey's will, the blade of water returned like a boomerang, spinning around her with terrifying speed.
The Liberation soldiers who were about to charge at her were stopped in their tracks by the power of the strike they had seen earlier.
That momentary hesitation gave Casey a chance to counterattack as the water blades clustered in a single place, forming a dozen cannons.
Casey stretched her hand out in front of her and pointed, causing the cannons to spew water instead of fire.
The massive water cannon blasted the Liberation Army members in one fell swoop, destroying the few remaining incubators.
"Damn it! Release all the remaining experiments!"
"Ha, but they're still in the coordination stage……!"
"We don't have time for that, so release them now and protect Third at all costs, even if it means throwing your body!"
At this point, it would have been easy to lose faith but the Liberation Army and the Warlocks were fired up and ready to fight back.
They knew they were no match for these two and they knew it, but they never backed down.
In the case of the warlocks, it was the satisfaction of knowing that their ultimate experiment was finally complete and for the Liberators, it was out of hatred, wanting the means to kill their loathsome enemies to be complete.
It was far from a feeling of conviction but it was the same in that it set their hearts on fire.
The poorly coordinated experiments rose to their feet and lunged at Rudger and Casey.
Their forms were incomplete, their bodies disintegrating in real time but at least they were able to grab their opponents by the ankles.
"I think that bought them enough time!"
Casey shouted to Rudger, not taking her eyes off her foes.
Rudger would take the first blow, Casey would take the second, and Rudger would once again take the third.
"What's taking a guy who's so fast so much time……?"
Casey was about to shout when a blinding flash of light appeared behind her. It was the kind of light that makes you dizzy even when you're not facing it.
If she had been looking at it from the front, she would have been blinded in an instant. In fact, the chimeras and test subjects that had been moving towards them stopped in their tracks, eyes glazed over in pain.
At the same time, massive amounts of magic began to mix with the light, creating an explosion of light.
The beams of light stretched out in all directions, transforming into countless spears, leaving a pure white trajectory behind them. It was an enhanced version of the light magic Rudger had used to sweep the chimeras from the ground, a spell that contained more mana and pierced enemies with greater power.
Fifth-level light magic [Angel's Ladder] was more like a laser than a spear. It was so fast that enemies couldn't even see its shape.
By the time they saw the attack, they could only watch as the white trajectory had already pierced through their bodies.
The same could be said for the warlocks, who instinctively unleashed their defensive spells in response to the unusual amount of light but their magic was helpless in the face of a spear of dense heat created by a single point of concentrated power.
It was not an attack that could be dodged while blinded.
The light pierced through everything like a heavenly punishment for their misdeeds.
The chimeras and Seconds in the line of fire fell. Soon after, the rational subjects, the liberators who were helping them, and finally the warlocks all fell. It was a sight to behold, with flashes of light and people falling like dominoes.
Even Casey, who was about to ask what the hell he was doing, was speechless at the sight before her.
"This is why……it took me so long."
At the same time as she felt unnecessarily nervous, he realized that the man she'd seen three years ago didn't show all he was capable of.
'He didn't even use the black shadow he used to fight me.'
He can use light magic while wearing shadows. How many different elements could this man manipulate?
'All of them? No, no, no, not all of them.'
She could count the number of single-attribute elemental wizards on one hand, let alone an all-attribute wizards. Such a thing was truly the stuff of legends and myths.
Casey shook the thought from her mind and checked the situation.
None of the enemies were still standing from the three surprise magical attacks.
Most of the cultivation equipment and test chambers had been destroyed, and what was left was barely holding its shape but there was one test tube still intact.
Unlike the others, it was a huge glass tube filled with red liquid instead of green and inside it, a man lay still, his eyes closed.
The fact that it hadn't been shattered in all the commotion was due to the warlocks' desperation to protect it even at the cost of their own lives.
Rudger saw it, too, and began to gather his magic once more.
'This must be the most dangerous experiment Hans ever told me about. So far it has not been broken, but that is the end of it.'
With no one to protect it anymore, he wanted to destroy it before it was finished.
"Son of a bitch!"
Andrei shouted from a distance, and a stream of black energy flew toward Rudger who seamlessly switched from offensive to defensive magic.
Andrei's black arm and Rudger's hexagonal magic barrier collided.
'What…….?'
Why was Andrei Semov here?
Does this mean that Trina, Passius, and the others have fallen?
Rudger's questions were answered the moment he saw Andrei's condition.
The figure of Andrei facing this way was a sight to behold, to say the least.
White frost and the marks of battle were carved into every inch of his body.
The fight wasn't even over yet, and Andrei was glaring at Rudger like he was going to kill him.
"You can't touch that!"
The moment Andrei realized that Rudger was destroying the laboratory, he flew here and never looked back.
Masters Passius, Trina, and the others unleashed a barrage of attacks to capture him but Andrei had come all this way by devoting himself to dodging and blocking only those attacks that were truly lethal, allowing the rest to pass.
Even with the modifications to his body and his access to demonic powers, the pain was still there and in order to endure such pain, Andrei had prioritized the test subject.
He was truly enraged that they tried to destroy his lifetime of experimentation so Andrei unleashed the demonic power he had partially suppressed.
"I'll kill you all!"
The severed arm regenerated, as did every wound on his body.
The blackness that had engulfed only one arm spread to Andrei's entire upper body. Some of it split and merged with his ragged clothing to form a black robe and as the black robe fluttered, countless yellow pupils sprouted from it.
The pupils shuddered and shot out dark waves. It was an attack that shook the opponent's mind and could not be easily blocked by any defensive magic.
At that moment, Casey stepped forward. She unfurled a thin membrane of water, which stretched into two layers, then more than ten in an instant.
The waves traveling through the medium of air were greatly reduced in power each time they passed through a water barrier.
After passing through ten layers of barriers, the power of the waves was considerably reduced from what it had been at the beginning. Still, the demon's power was terrifying, and Casey could feel her head throbbing as she unleashed the barrier.
A multitude of piercing sounds and images began to play in her mind as hallucinations, confusion, and fear appeared.
With all the negative emotions building up, Casey yelled out.
"Now!"
The cry was directed at Rudger, who answered the call.
He finished the spell in almost an instant through the source code, then shot it toward the test subject at breakneck speed.
It didn't matter that the power was low since it was enough to destroy the test tube.
"Impossible!"
Andrei didn't take it lying down so he quickly conjured up a formula and spread a layer of defensive magic around the test tube.
The violet barrier of magic succeeded in blocking the magical bullets fired by Rudger.
'Demonic power and mana? They're literally two different things.'
Just then, reinforcements arrived.
While struggling with Casey, Andrei was slashed in the back by a blade made of compressed aura.
"Damned Imperial dogs!"
Despite the direct hit from a Swordmaster aura blade, he did not die and only a single trickle of black blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
His modified body, protected by demonic powers, had long since transcended that of a human.
Even if his heart and brain were destroyed, he would not die, and the source of his regeneration was an endless surge of demonic power but there was no one here who felt discouraged.
Their first and foremost goal was not to kill Andrei, but to stop his experiments with demonic power.
'Now.'
With reinforcements here, Rudger had bought himself another minute, and he used his magic once more.
"No way!"
Andrei made the magic barrier more solid. He concentrated on strengthening the barrier, even as his body was being slashed by the sword, so that it would be impenetrable no matter what magic Rudger used but his eyes widened as Rudger's magic unfolded.
Rudger's magic had passed through his barrier and appeared in front of the capsule containing the test subject.
"What?"
Andrei muttered in vain for a moment as Rudger's completed spear of light shattered the capsule and pierced the heart of the sleeping test subject inside.