Blazing red.
An endless expanse of blazing red stretched as far as the eye could see.
Under the surging eruption of crimson inferno, the vast space—which had punched through several chambers and even occupied the surrounding passageways—was completely illuminated by firelight, transforming into a raging sea of flames that set piles of rubble and shattered stone ablaze.
Now, the temperature in the air had risen at an alarming rate, becoming so scorching that even the surrounding atmosphere seemed visibly distorted by heat, yet the wildly writhing tentacles were entirely unaffected, twisting freely within the flames like enormous fire serpents dancing through a volcanic blaze.
As the instigator of it all, Corrupted Spirit Alaya stood atop a crimson magic circle, calmly watching the direction where Riezel had been engulfed by flames, the smile on her face never changing from beginning to end.
"Hm?"
Suddenly, Alaya let out a soft sound of surprise.
*BOOM!*
In midair, from within the lightning bolt that had just been swallowed by the crimson lotus flames, a streak of fire suddenly burst forth, violently tearing through the sea of flames as it broke the sound barrier and charged toward Alaya at astonishing speed.
"Not even a scratch?"
Alaya seemed slightly surprised.
Yes.
Riezel was completely unharmed.
Thanks to the skill effect of Pioneer of the Sun, which greatly reduced damage from light- and heat-based attacks, even a direct hit from Alaya’s magic had failed to injure him in the slightest.
Not even the violent lightning and blazing flames from before had managed to leave a single burn mark on his body.
"Sun Breathing - Tenth Form - Beneficent Radiance!"
A cold voice rang out across the burning battlefield as flames descended from above.
*Whoosh!*
Riezel emerged from within the swirling inferno, unleashing a spiraling slash downward toward Alaya.
At this moment, the blade of Hermit was wrapped in scorching flames like the sun itself, resembling a radiant orb blooming before the enemy’s eyes as it released blazing slashes from all directions.
*Swish!**Swish!**Swish!*
Riezel’s fiery slashes cleanly severed the tentacles surrounding Alaya, igniting their severed ends as burning fragments scattered through the air. Yet the flaming slashes themselves continued forward without losing momentum, pressing onward toward her.
Facing the incoming threat, Alaya, though surprised, remained completely composed.
"Pierce, spear of lightning—"
Her alluring lips parted as she began chanting magic, and then the same phenomenon as before occurred.
*BOOM!*
Lightning flickered wildly around Alaya like countless lightning serpents rampaging through the air, violently colliding head-on with the incoming flaming slashes.
*BANG!**BANG!**BANG!**BANG!*
Amid explosive impacts, flames and lightning clashed repeatedly, sending violent shockwaves sweeping through the surroundings before canceling each other out and vanishing into scattered sparks.
"Moan, mighty earth—"
Tilting her head slightly, Alaya watched as Riezel advanced toward her like a blazing sun descending from the heavens, the corners of her lips curling upward as she chanted once more.
"!!!"
A warning blared in Riezel’s mind, prompting him to activate chantless teleportation magic without hesitation and vanish from his original position.
*BOOOM!*
Almost simultaneously, a gigantic meteor descended from the sky and slammed into the spot where he had stood just a second earlier, shattering the ground with a deafening crash—the violent impact instantly blasted apart the surrounding terrain, sending broken rock and rubble flying in every direction.
Protected by her tentacles, Alaya—standing at the epicenter—remained untouched by the shockwave and flying debris.
Riezel, meanwhile, instantly appeared in the distance, his brows tightly furrowed as he observed the destructive scene before him.
’So she doesn’t need to complete the full chant to cast magic?’
Clearly, the rapid activation of three consecutive magic spells had already made that obvious.
It was unbelievable, difficult to accept—yet undeniably real.
"What I did is called simple chanting."
As if seeing through Riezel’s thoughts, Alaya smiled and explained.
"Like a mage’s concurrent chanting, high-speed chant, or even super-high-speed chant, this is another technique of invoking magic. Just as the name suggests, you don’t need to recite the entire incantation to activate it."
"Magic cast this way isn’t as powerful as fully chanted magic, but the advantage lies in its speed."
"Even among spirits, only a small number of elites can use this technique. Even that Great Spirit Aria can’t do it, you know?"
Alaya spoke in a playful tone, as if proudly showing off a treasured toy she found amusing.
"You seem capable of activating magic quickly as well, though it doesn’t look like simple chanting."
"Is it chantless fast-attack magic? But it doesn’t quite seem like that either."
"Hmm, the magic you use... I’ve never seen anything like it before..."
As she spoke, Alaya lightly tapped her cheek with a finger, appearing genuinely curious.
As a race born with magic, a spirit who had lived for thousands of years—and devoured many monsters and even members of her own kind—would naturally feel intrigued by Riezel’s abilities.
If it had been in the past, she might have eagerly studied it, but now, having fallen into corruption, she quickly abandoned the thought.
"Whatever. No matter what kind of magic or power it is, once I eat you, it’ll become mine anyway."
Alaya slowly licked her lips again, her scarlet eyes filled with unsettling greed.
"Not just you. All the adventurers currently fighting in this ugly dungeon will be devoured by me and become part of my body."
"Once I’ve consumed all of you, I’ll head to the surface—to Orario—and devour every living thing in sight."
"Everything in this world will merge with me."
"That’s why, give up resisting."
As she spoke, Alaya raised her hand, and countless tentacles stirred once more, tearing through the air as they shot toward Riezel with sharp, piercing sounds.
"Sun Breathing - Sixth Form - Burning Bones, Summer Sun!"
Riezel immediately raised his black blade and swung it rapidly, releasing a rotating vortex of flames that swept forward like a fiery wheel and severed the incoming tentacles one after another.
"Flash, rays of light—"
Alaya cast her magic at the perfect moment, unleashing a torrent of light from a white magic circle that surged forward like a divine pillar connecting heaven and earth, crashing toward Riezel with overwhelming force.
"Sacrament - Wheel Mirror!"
Riezel responded with a defensive spell.
A rotating magic mirror instantly appeared before him, blocking the incoming radiance while rapidly absorbing it before reflecting the attack back toward its caster.
In an instant, the reflected light struck the mass of tentacles that had instinctively moved to shield Alaya, colliding violently with the wall of vine-like appendages formed by countless tentacles.
*BOOOM!*
A violent explosion erupted instantly, flames and light bursting outward in all directions, yet it still failed to reach Alaya—nor did it alter the faint, eerie smile on her face.
"Freeze over as though the eternal permafrost—"
"Run wild, darkness—"
"Flash, rays of light—"
"Pierce, spear of lightning—"
Alaya suddenly unleashed four magic spells of four different attributes in a single breath.
Blue, black, white, and gold magic circles appeared one after another before her, releasing blizzards, dark currents, radiance, and lightning that swept toward Riezel like overwhelming natural disasters.
All of these magic spells were cast using the simple chanting technique she had mentioned. By her own explanation, they should have been significantly weaker than fully chanted magic.
Yet the sheer force of these magic spells was not inferior in the slightest to the magic Riezel had previously seen from Demi Spirits using full chants—in fact, they even seemed faintly stronger, which was deeply unsettling.
Whether it was the blizzard capable of freezing everything in its path, the overwhelming radiance, or the violent dark currents and lightning, each magic spell was massive in scale, easily capable of swallowing an adventurer group consisting of several dozen people.
Riezel could only manipulate his magic mirror to stand before him, absorbing and reflecting each incoming magic spell one by one, sending them back along their original paths to crash into the vine-like wall in front of Alaya, blasting the tentacles composing it into countless fragments that scattered through the air.
In the end, this back-and-forth exchange of magic ravaged the ground, carving enormous trenches into it and fracturing it into jagged cracks beneath the impact of multiple powerful magic spells.
"Triplet Maximize Magic - Reality Slash!"
A sharp glint flashed through Riezel’s eyes as he released three slashes that cut through space itself, tearing apart the dust and magical turbulence in their path as they sped toward Alaya with overwhelming killing intent.
"O atmosphere, shield me—"
Alaya chanted briefly, and a golden magic circle expanded beneath her feet, raising a barrier inscribed with mysterious runes that firmly protected her.
’That magic...’
A transparent gleam flickered in Riezel’s eyes as his expression shifted slightly.
With his current level of magical expertise, he could naturally discern the true nature of many magic spells. At this moment, he realized that this seemingly ordinary defensive magic was not as simple as it appeared.
*BANG!*
*BANG!*
*BANG!*
Sure enough, when the invisible slashes capable of cutting space struck the barrier, they failed to slice through it and were instead violently repelled before dissipating into nothingness.
’...Anti-magical energy magic?’
Riezel’s heart gradually sank.
So-called anti-magical energy magic referred to magic specifically designed to counter magical energy and magic itself.
Just as his Sacrament - Wheel Mirror and Magic Destruction could directly affect magic—either nullifying or reflecting it—anti-magical energy magic functioned similarly.
With such magic in place, any magic Riezel cast against Alaya would likely be resisted and rendered ineffective. In that case, even his time magic would probably be useless against this Corrupted Spirit.
"What’s wrong?"
Unaware of Riezel’s inner thoughts, Alaya spoke with the same innocent, smiling expression as always.
"Aren’t you going to keep attacking with that strange magic I’ve never seen before?"
It was clear that Alaya was enjoying this situation.
Needless to say, her composed demeanor suggested only one thing: she had not yet used her full strength.
After all, she was the King of Monsters that Dionysus had claimed could rival the ancient Nidhogg and the modern One-Eyed Black Dragon.
It should be noted that the One-Eyed Black Dragon had annihilated both the Zeus Familia and the Hera Familia. Even a combined force of Level 9 and Level 8 adventurers had been unable to defeat it.
If Alaya truly stood on equal footing with such a being, then her strength likely exceeded Level 9.
Such a powerful opponent was not someone Riezel could confront at his current stage.
"Looks like I’ll have to really go all out..."
Riezel’s eyes flickered as he murmured under his breath.
Several rings appeared in his hand, one after another, causing subtle fluctuations of magical energy to spread through the surrounding air.
===
[A bonus Chapter for every 300 Power Stones.]
[Support me and read next Chapters early at: /VALRRR]