But by the time he realized what Gauss had chosen to do, it was already too late, because Gauss had already blinked to a spot not far in front of him.
"You—!"
The shocked and furious Fisher still wanted to say something.
But Gauss had already unleashed a storm-like barrage of Magic Missiles that shut his mouth—on a very physical level.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The Magic Missiles slammed into the shield he had barely managed to conjure, bursting into terrifying halos of light.
Fisher, after all, still had the foundation of a Level 9 Caster; skills like Magic Shield had practically become instinct.
But this clash of spear and shield did not last long.
His shield managed to block several Missiles in succession, but against Gauss’s seamless barrage that filled the sky, his shield was simply far too frail.
In the blink of an eye, the shield was on the verge of collapse.
"Bang!"
With a crisp explosion.
The crystal-like shield in front of him shattered with a roar.
Then even more Missiles locked onto his entire body and streaked toward him.
He tried to cast Flying Skill to dodge in an emergency, but for some reason his whole body suddenly felt an inescapable sensation, as if he had been locked onto.
Very soon, the Missiles swallowed him whole.
The Magic Missiles Gauss wielded now were far from just some ordinary 1st Ring Spell.
If you underestimated their power because of a stereotypical impression of Magic Missiles, you were in for a world of hurt.
The magic halos dispersed.
Fisher was already in utter disarray.
His Magic Robe had first been pierced by the Water Arrows condensed from Holy Water, then subjected to a round of saturation fire from Magic Missiles; it was now in tatters, making him look like some vagrant.
He hurriedly layered several shields over his body.
Fisher felt his whole body trembling.
He had known Gauss’s strength was not ordinary, but he hadn’t expected it to be this terrifying.
Just a single, most basic Magic Missile had forced him into such a miserable state—it was simply unbelievable.
He shot a glance at Gauss and decisively chose to keep fleeing.
The two of them, in a chase-and-escape, kept trading Spells.
Of course, Fisher was almost completely suppressed; Gauss’s attacks always landed on him with unnerving Precision. Even when he tried to dodge in advance, they would keep homing in on him as if they had eyes.
Meanwhile, his own attacks were more like a pointless waste of Magic Power.
As for escaping—that was even more of a delusion.
No matter how fast he flew, Gauss always seemed able to steadily hang right behind him.
It felt more like Gauss was toying with him.
After the two of them flew more than ten kilometers, one ahead and one behind, Fisher felt his body and mind growing more and more exhausted, his Magic Power nearly spent, and his heart sank into despair.
Gauss completely ignored any of his pleas for mercy, only showering him with all sorts of Spells.
"Tss!"
In flight, he accidentally tugged at a wound again; in an instant, red blood soaked through his clothes, which now hung off him like straps.
Fortunately, he kept pouring vial after vial of blood potion down his throat to cling to life, or he would likely already be dead.
But even so, the situation was still extremely grim.
Life-restoring potions couldn’t be taken in large quantities over a short time, or the burden on the body would be too great.
Under the double pressure of drugs and flight, Fisher felt his mind and body both pushed to their absolute limits.
Originally, he had planned that, at worst, before he died he would drag Gauss down with him, using his own life and remaining Divine Power to seriously wound Gauss.
But he didn’t know whether the other side had some kind of mind-reading or what; Gauss remained extremely cautious, always hanging a certain distance behind him, bombarding him solely with long-range Spells.
Fisher felt unbearably stifled.
He couldn’t win if he fought, he couldn’t escape if he ran; now he couldn’t even self-destruct before dying to make the other side pay a price.
He felt his eyelids growing heavy.
"Damn it, keep your eyes open!"
Feeling his consciousness start to blur, Fisher immediately forced himself to stay alert.
While he wasn’t paying attention, in the gap when the Missiles shattered his shield again, a Spell effect slipped through.
"Confusion Skill!"
This Tier Four Spell took hold on Fisher.
Under normal circumstances, the Spiritual Power of a Level 9 Caster was not something this Spell could easily affect.
But after Gauss’s deliberate attrition, Fisher had already been driven to the end of his rope; the moment the Confusion Skill’s Magic Power entered his body, it was like a spark meeting tinder—impossible to stop.
"Who am I?"
"Where am I?"
"So sleepy... should I go to sleep?"
"Ha~~"
Right on its heels, a 2nd Ring[Hypnosis Spell]also spread through his body.
Under this combo of moves, Fisher quickly fell into a deep sleep. Since he was in the middle of Flying Skill, he suddenly lost control of it and his whole body plummeted straight down.
Seeing that he was about to smash into a pile of flesh, the kind-hearted Gauss hurriedly flew over and cast his own Flying Skill on him.
He couldn’t let him die yet; at the very least, he had to wait until he finished investigating the situation—then killing him wouldn’t be too late.
Gauss controlled Fisher and brought him down quickly.
Seeing Fisher already sleeping like a baby, he immediately began asking the questions he cared about.
Under the effect of the Hypnosis Spell, the unconscious Fisher answered everything without the slightest reservation.
"..."
After confirming he’d gotten enough intel, Gauss gathered up strands of water as fine as a spiderweb.
"Water Manipulation."
"Thousand Threads Severing Realm!"
Soon those glowing water threads began rapidly slicing around him.
"Shhh-shhk-shhk!"
It was just like tossing flesh and blood into a meat grinder.
In no time at all, Fisher was chopped into tens of thousands of pieces.
In the blink of an eye he was dead beyond dead.
The last trace of Evil God energy in his body was also erased by the Holy Power infused in the water threads, and after a burst of eerie black smoke rose up, it was completely annihilated.
"Commander Level Demon killed, Evil God’s Servant *1."
"Gained Divine Factor 0.05%."
"Current Divine Factor: 2.7%."
"Huh?"
Gauss’s eyes lit up at once; he hadn’t expected the illustrated compendium to have already stripped the man of his human identity, reducing him to a mere monster.
And on top of that, he’d gained another Divine Factor?
0.03% wasn’t much, but linking it with the intel on Fisher and his status as an Evil God’s Servant, Gauss felt he had vaguely stumbled onto a stable, promising path.
"Vesperilia..."
Even this name seemed to become oddly pleasing in his eyes.
"Right, Albena’s side."
After using Burning Hand to incinerate Fisher’s minced flesh until nothing remained, and confirming he was thoroughly gone without a trace, Gauss quickly flew back the way he came.
Fisher’s subordinates also seemed to possess the same kind of evil energy as he did. It was much weaker, but hey, even a mosquito is still meat.
By the time Gauss returned to the original battlefield, the Red Dragon Team had already gained the upper hand.
Even though Luna’s condition wasn’t at its best, she was, after all, the former vice-commander of Gray Wolf’s Fang, a Level 9 Warlock. Together with several other veterans of similarly impressive strength, plus the original high-end combat power of the Red Dragon Team, even if those captains were empowered by some special force, they were still at a disadvantage.
Even if Gauss hadn’t come back, in at most another ten minutes, they would have been able to kill those captains.
However...
"Leave it to me."
The familiar voice descended from above.
Albena and the others instantly let out a breath of relief.
The sense of security Gauss brought was simply overwhelming.
In stark contrast to the Red Dragon Team’s reaction were the captains of Gray Wolf’s Fang, whose hearts sank into an icy abyss.
No, no, this is bad!
Gauss’s smooth return meant Fisher had already been defeated.
Just a moment ago they had indeed felt the power in their bodies rapidly draining away. They just hadn’t expected Gauss to come back this fast.
"Trying to run?"
Gauss looked at one of them and raised an eyebrow.
He cast Water Manipulation and condensed the Holy Water into a great bow.
"Whoosh!"
Without bothering to aim much, that blue-gold arrow shot out and precisely pierced the energy cluster in that captain’s chest. Then the Holy Power, boosted by Magic Power, erupted in an instant.
"No!"
Flesh and blood exploded, leaving a deep pit several meters in diameter in the ground.
Faced with such a fierce killing method from Gauss, the others didn’t dare delay any longer. They exchanged a glance, then bolted off in completely different directions.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
Every one of Gauss’s attacks left a crater in the ground, and with each crater came another enemy’s death.
"Gained Divine Factor 0.02%."
"Current Divine Factor: 2.72%."
The five subordinates under Fisher together contributed 0.02% of Divine Factor.
Gauss closed his eyes. In the unseen depths, he could feel that mysterious mass of energy inside him growing stronger, and his mastery of the recently acquired Power of World Rules [Precision] shard deepened as well.
These claws of the Evil God had to be slain.