Project Seraphina [LitRPG, Magitech, GL]
3.40 The Third Ascent VI

Twenty-two more of these Boreal Snowbeasts, plus the two from before that are still alive and kicking. And they’ve got us surrounded. For the first time in some time— since the cultists, really— I’m not entirely sure how we’re supposed to overcome this fight. I really don’t want to have to tap into [Seraphina Overlimit]; doing so is going to mean that the next floor— which is going to be even more difficult as it is— will be borderline impossible. I need the Experience and levels and additional strength from this fight if we’re to have any chance against the fifteenth floor.

But I’m not sure what tactic is best. They’ve got us surrounded, so I can’t go with any sort of area-of-effect spell. That’s just asking to cook all of us with it instead of our enemies. Well, maybe not, but I don’t want to aim a spell at all of us; it was already bad enough accidentally striking Chloe with an errant burst of lightning during our first trip here. I’m sure as hell not even going to consider actually aiming a [Giant Fireball] anywhere near her, even if she asks me to.

An idea comes to mind as I think through my options. I have a [Luminous Barrier] array in my repertoire, and I’ve been able to modify it into [Lightning Barrier] without too much trouble. The glyph of [Fire] is more similar to [Light] in shape and size than it is to [Lightning]. Although, that isn’t going to be enough on its own, and I certainly don’t want to leave the [Sanctuary]. Could I–

Yes, I can. I have my [Repulsion] glyph and my [Expansion] glyph. It’ll be difficult, but with [Intermediate Glyph Manifestation], I can work in quasi-parallel. [Repulsion] and [Expansion] will create a powerful outward force in all directions, allowing me to, in effect, throw my [Flaming Barrier] once I’ve generated it. I see no reason why this won’t work, but I’ll need good timing to avoid catching the others in the blast.

I get to work with the [Repulsion] an [Expansion] array first, using the rest of my mental energy to throw a message to Chloe.

“Chloe, I’m about to fire a massive sphere of flame outward from me. I don’t know if you want to try to heal everyone after the blast goes off, or if you all want to try to fly up and escape it. Or if you have another idea of how we’re going to deal with all these beasts?”

Chloe grunts. “Can’t… Barely holding spell. Keeping monsters out!”

As soon as she mentions keeping the monsters out, my mind jumps to the roar of the snowbeasts and the giant snowballs attacking Chloe’s spell from all directions. Each attack evaporates on contact, though not without first leaving a crushing dent in the barrier. But even those attacks, strong though they are, pale in comparison to the physical punches and kicks the monsters are launching upon the [Sanctuary]. With each of those, I hear a sound like shattering glass and see the dents and cracks on the walls, each of which is papered over and re-formed in the next instant

Throughout it all, I feel Chloe’s pain, how she winces and grunts and strains her mind and body alike to maintain this protective shield around us. How she pleads for mercy and protection, offering what she can to give us these precious seconds to plan and prepare ourselves for a counterattack.

That’s who she is on the deepest, most fundamental level. She is a healer, a protector, a guardian, a voice of care and compassion. Where I can be stern and unflinching, willing to do what needs to be done in this dirty world we live in, she is soft, embodying humanity at its kindest and best. And though she is a healer and a protector herself, that does not mean she does not need someone to protect her. Especially because her desire to do so often reaches the point of being self-sacrificial.

I will do that for her. Especially because it wasn’t her desire to rush through here.

“Lindsey!” I shout. “I’m about to start my spell. The instant it launches, grab Chloe and you three get the hell out of here! Break in whatever direction you think best!”

“Got it,” Stefan says, throwing two more infernal flame raptors toward a duo of snowbeasts charging the barrier.

Meanwhile, Lindsey starts firing [Explosive Arrows] with reckless abandon. Her movements are stylish and deft, full of twisted acrobatics that defy physics, making use of [Wind Step] in ways more creative than I could imagine. She dances upon the curtains of Chloe’s [Sanctuary] as though it were made of solid matter, ducking in and out of the barrier which allows us free passage yet thwarts all enemy advances. And every attack, even those launched in a split second while moving faster than any human ever has before the System, strikes true.

They don’t incapacitate the creatures, but they do blunt their momentum. They still crash into the [Sanctuary], leaving a dent as big as my face, just barely not breaking the whole thing. And I feel the pain of it. I feel Chloe’s pain as my own, but I set it aside. Right now, what I can do for her is to make her pain go away at the source. And I will.

The first half of my array is complete, the glyphs of [Expansion] and [Repulsion] woven together in a new, far more complete manner than I’ve been able to construct up until now. It still doesn’t match the elegance and beauty, and certainly not the complexity of the elemental barriers; how can I hope to accomplish that as a mere novice [Glyphcaster]? But it’s in a class of its own compared with the arrays that, to this point, have been crude and unsightly by comparison.

Now, with that glyph stored in the back of my mind, I focus my attention on constructing the [Flaming Barrier] array. Because of that same complexity, it is far more difficult to Manifest the glyph into my mind. Each rune, each individual stroke weighs harder on my mind than the previous one. It’s all I can do not to break, especially when I can feel Chloe’s pain as well, compounding the agony assailing me. But I will persevere and overcome. I will endure and survive and come back stronger, just as I was created to do.

Though that doesn’t really matter to me. Even if my creators wanted something different for me, this is still what I want to do. I want to protect, in my own way, just as Chloe protects in hers.

With that, the final pieces of [Flaming Barrier] are locked into place. I feel the warmth, the energy, and the raw power of the glyph even before I began to activate it. This will work. I just need to trust the others to do their parts and get themselves to safety.

One final step. Combining the two halves of the spell. And though it isn’t quite as difficult as constructing the [Flaming Barrier] itself, doing so while keeping four glyphs and nearly four hundred various modifying runes is… Far from the easiest task I’ve attempted today.

Twenty-two seconds. That’s how long it takes. To an onlooker, it’d be less than the length of a short commercial break on television. In the midst of battle between two parties with levels all around forty, it feels closer to an afternoon. And for those titans who reach the universe’s pinnacle of power, it might as well be an entire lifetime.

My vision goes blurry and dizzy. My [Archangel’s Gaze] deactivates itself, the strain on my mind too much to maintain it. The roar of the battle feels like drills in my eardrums. I want it all to just stop. I want these monsters to just die already.

I scrunch inward, gathering power at my core. My body is wreathed in flames that burn everything except for me, my cybernetics, and the possessions directly on my person. The light is so intense, that it outshines the [Sanctuary] which is now rapidly fading.

The damned creatures sound so proud, their bellowing war cries only further inflaming me. They might be intelligent, like an animal, but in the end, they’re just constructs. Just a goddess-damned trial to overcome. I will win!

I let out my own war cry, releasing all of the pain and anger, and more importantly, letting Stefan and Lindsey know that it’s time to make a bat out of hell. The snow at my feet melts, then evaporates. My wings keep me aloft through sheer willpower alone. I have one chance.

I release the spell. Every bit of myself launches outward in a hemisphere of roaring inferno. The snowbeasts, previously laughing and proudly boasting about their next meal, are caught in the blaze. It doesn’t just burn their fur or cook their insides. It utterly incinerates them, one and all, all the while the snow around me vaporizes with a sizzle of flame.

For a single second and over two hundred yards, the sphere of magmatic energy flares out, before finally starting to dissipate. At my feet is rocky, earthen soil. Dry soil, and ash, and bits of bone that litter the once frozen land. Soon enough, the cold will return, and it will do so with a vengeance. But for now, I drop to a knee, completely spent. I should wait for the System notification, confirm the kills, but… Even if there is one still around, I haven’t the mental strength to move, much less try to fight. I’ll have to rely on the others…

Where? I didn’t… No, I feel Chloe’s presence. Our bond is still active, though she’s every bit as exhausted and inactive as I am. And if she’s alive, that means Lindsey must’ve grabbed her and gotten her and Stefan to safety.

I breathe a sigh of relief. Even if one of those damn things escaped my blast and manages to land a cheap shot on me, I trust that Lindsey and Stefan will see Chloe safe and sound.

A distant roar echoes through the floor, then only silence. It wasn’t the sound of a human, which means that one of those monsters is— or was— still alive. But no longer. It’s been put out of our misery for good, and finally, that long-awaited System notification sets in.

[Your party has slain 24 Boreal Snowbeasts (Levels ranging from 40 to 42). You have gained a boosted 218,595 Experience.]

[You have gained enough Experience to reach Level 44 (From 42). [Strength] +2, [Speed] +2, [Vitality] +2, [Mind] +2. Please assign free stat points (Remaining: 8).]

I add three points to [Mind] and a point to [Vitality], then two points each to [Strength] and [Speed]. I might be moving more into an offensive magic class, but I do still need a good mix of the other stats, as other, still recent events have shown.

[Maximum Health increases by [Vitality] x 2 + Current Level + Rand[1,3] = (229, 233)]

[Maximum Ether increases by [Mind] + Current Level + Rand[0,2] = (177, 178)]

[Level: 44; Experience: 1,247,100; To Next: 94,420]

[Current Stats: [Health]: 5,181 / 6,005; [Ether]: 376 / 4,348]

[Current Stats: [Strength]: 110 (Base: 56); [Speed]: 104 (Base: 53); [Vitality]: 182 (Base: 93); [Mind]: 262 (Base: 134)]

[Your [Glyphcasting (Rank XIX)] has upgraded to [Glyphcasting (Rank XXI)].]

[Your [Intermediate Glyph Manifestation (Rank I) has upgraded to [Intermediate Glyph Manifestation (Rank III)].]

[Your [Ether Bullet Barrage (Rank XI)] has upgraded to [Ether Bullet Barrage (Rank XII)].]

[Your [Angel’s Grace (Rank IV)] has upgraded to [Angel’s Grace (Rank V)].]

[Your [Intermediate Ether Manipulation (Rank XV)] has upgraded to [Intermediate Ether Manipulation (Rank XVI)].]

I struggle back to my feet, looking around in my desperation. I conjure all the strength I can force out of myself, all for the purpose of confirming that Chloe is safe and sound. My wings fail to keep me aloft. My legs feel like pieces of gelatin. My nerves and veins both feel on fire, and my heart and [Ether] core alike are struggling from the strain of what I just put myself through.

But when I hear the sound of a huff, and turn around to see a nodding Stefan and a grinning Lindsey carrying a sleeping, but mostly uninjured Chloe, I feel as though I’m on the peak of the highest heaven. I take her in my own arms before sitting on the dirt, letting her rest in my lap. We survived. We won. And for the next little bit, at least, we can enjoy the respite that follows a battle triumphant.