Everything stopped.
Everyone and everything around me froze.
All my comrades, the monsters, myself. We were all petrified in place like statues.
My Fifth Circle fusion spell that was about to strike the chimera had stopped completely before the creature. Even arrows hovered motionlessly mid-air.
It was as if time itself had halted.
From what my vision was able to capture, this phenomenon was also happening throughout the other battlefields with the rearguards, not just on the rise.
This reminded me of when we completed the fifth floor mission, our first Quintal Trial.
Except that us, heroes, were also frozen this time. I could not even open my mouth.
Moreover, our mission in the twentieth floor was not completed yet.
The chimera had yet been subjugated.
What was happening?
Thump!
A resonance.
That same terrible resonance which once frightened the warden.
It appeared again!
[Interference by foreign power detected!]
['Wings of Malaikat (F-)' is activated!]
Something within my chest pulsed. It was not my heart I sensed.
Suddenly I felt something that was restricting my senses, which I did not even realized in the first place, began to loosen.
A notification window appeared before me.
[Server error!]
I remembered this appearing during the Quintal Trial attempt by the Fourth Advanced Scout.
The scouting attempt turned for the worse after its emergence.
Just what happened back then?
What was happening right now?
[Haaa… How boring… This isn't going the way I imagined it at all!]
A woman's voice suddenly echoed from above.
It was not one that I recognized.
[A boss stage is supposed to be hard. Especially the twentieth floor. It should not be cleared so easily like this.]
The stranger's voice echoed again.
She seemed to know the workings of the forged land.
Who was she?
[A pro master?Five 4-star heroes? Three with decent seals? No deaths? On the freaking twentieth floor? What a slop! They're breezing through the boss stage too well it made me sick!]
I scanned the environment that my locked line of vision allowed me.
Eventually I found a vague figure hovering among the clouds.
I could not see the figure very clearly, but I managed to spy a text hovering about them.
[SS▩SH黑⊙∈※ Lv.???]
An undiscernible name.
Even so, I already knew she was not an ordinary being.
Was she our ally, or our foe? Or something even worse than the latter?
[Let's see here… How can I make this mission more exciting?]
As she said those words, I could feel the fabrics of space-time being distorted.
I had never sensed something like this before.
Such power…
Such control…
Bending the fundamental laws of nature with such whim…
What kind of being possessed this complete dominion over reality?
[Tch! It still pisses me off that my authority in this backdoor account is limited. But those two free-loading bitches owe me at least some good entertainment. I should be allowed to fix their shoddy outsource work and turn this mission more watchable!]
Her words implied that she could alter what was happening in the mission.
This woman had the power to influence the forged land.
She might even be involved with its creation.
What was such a transcendent being trying to do with our trial?
[Should I nerf the statues' buffs like last time? No. That might had been enough for those 3-star losers. But these annoying 4-stars will be able to tough it out.]
Last time?
She had done something like this once before?
Could it be when--
[Hmm… Yes… If I do it like this… Then… Hahaha! Yes! This will work! It will be MUCH more exciting this way!]
The air around me vibrated constantly.
Everything was shifting in ways I could not explain.
What was this mysterious woman doing?
[If I do this much, then I won't be able to interfere with the missions in this account again. Such a shame considering what is waiting for these toys in the higher floors. You don't get many accounts with this insane difficulty, after all.]
She did not seem to regard us, heroes, very highly.
Definitely not an ally, then.
If she spoke the truth earlier, then we should be glad that she would not be involved with us after this, whatever it was she was trying to do right now.
And what she said last confirmed one of my theories of the forged land. But that should be the least of my concerns at the moment.
[No matter, though. A lot of work is coming my way anyway. That fifth subject should finally arrive soon and I'll be occupied dealing with him. Hahaha… He should be plenty of fun to toy with.]
The vibration in the air began to settle.
More notification windows emerged before me.
[Loading…]
[Restoring…]
As the woman's presence was dissipating, she spoke one last time with ominous voice.
[Alright, then. Let me show you what a real mission looks like.]
Her presence vanished and the vibration completely stopped.
Another notification emerged.
[Restoration Complete!]
[Reconnecting to the server. We apologize for the inconvenience.]
Once the notification disappeared, everything around me unfroze.
Reality resumed and our Quintal Trial continued.
Boom!
My Fifth Circle assault struck the chimera.
The powerful conjuration devoured the beast within its electrifying flame.
Despite the intense assault, my spell was not able to vanquish the Cursed Abomination.
[This monster is resistant to magical attacks!]
Impossible!
Magic no longer worked against it?!
Just what had that wretched woman done?!
[Master, the Goddesses' blessing has been suppressed!]
[All heroes' stats have decreased by 25%!]
[All enemies' stats have increased by 25%!]
[The power of the Cursed Abomination has been granted to all enemies!]
[Fallen enemies have been reanimated!]
SCREECH!
The chimera's flesh suddenly began to regenerate. Its wounds were rapidly closing. A new lizard head began to grow out from its bloodied stump on the chimera's severed tail.
It started to heal itself and undo all our progress.
This would not do.
[Maha Varuna Haljantarr]
A stream of electrifying water burst forth from my palms and struck the chimera.
The deadly water enveloped the cursed beast in a spinning sphere and scorched the creature with its intense electric current.
But my magic could not further wound the chimera.
[This monster is resistant to magical attacks!]
It rapidly regenerated its entire body, including restoring its third head, surviving my second fusion spell against it.
SCREECH!
"Hey, what's happening?! Why is the chimera healing itself again?!"
Shanny shouted.
My other comrades were just as confused as her.
Did they not hear the mysterious woman earlier? Possibly.
My own seal might be the reason I was able to be aware of the time freeze.
"A powerful enemy just restored the chimera's power!"
I told my comrades.
"New enemy?! Should we hunt them down?!"
Jonah asked.
I shook my head.
"We can't do anything to that foe! But we still need to figure out a way to kill the chimera!"
"Serafina! The minions are acting strange!"
Devisha suddenly shouted at me.
I immediately turned to the veiled woman fighting off a horde of Dark Spawn.
She forcefully swung her battle axe through the horde, severing their torsos from their waists.
But the Dark Spawn did not die.
Their severed torsos suddenly grew new pairs of legs and they rose back on their feet, ready to fight again.
Unbelievable…
The minions could also regenerate!
[Serafina!/Great Mage!/Southlander!/Daywalker!]
All the party leaders suddenly reached out to me.
[Serafina! The dead enemies are coming back alive! It's like the tenth floor! But now they won't stay dead after we kill them the second time!]
Zecht reported.
[I've never seen something like this, daywalker! I cut their limbs and severed their heads! But their entire body would heal again as if they were never hurt!]
Graihan said.
[The enemies are suddenly getting stronger while my comrades and I are getting weaker, Great Mage! It's becoming difficult protecting ourselves, let alone guarding the altar!]
Djhotti added.
[Even I am having problems fighting this battle, southlander! Nothing works against these enemies! What should we do?!]
Ulrica asked.
I turned to see my comrades trying to battle the chimera.
Jonah's spear could barely scratch the chimera's flesh. While Darius exploding arrow only agitated the creature.
[This monster is resistant to physical attacks!]
[This monster is resistant to magical attacks!]
Our assaults managed to break through the chimera's defense to a small extent. It was not completely immune to our attacks.
But thanks to its regeneration ability, we basically had done nothing to damage the chimera.
"Try holding on as long as you can! Abandon the altar if necessary! Use Power Potion to restore your strength! Party 1 will find out a way to kill the chimera and finish the mission!"
I instructed the party leaders.
[Understood!]
After their replies, I immediately reached for another mana potion from my dress and gulped it down.
Consecutively casting the two high-level fusion spells earlier had taken a toll on my mana vessel.
I needed to carefully allocate my mana now. Or I would collapse from mana overflow before I could take down the chimera.
SCREECH!
The three-headed beast let out a terrible scream.
It continued summoning its minions now that it had recovered.
Jonah and Shanny continued attacking the chimera, but none of their attacks could injure it.
[This monster is resistant to physical attacks!]
Darius and Devisha rapidly attacked the minions with exploding arrows, obliterating them to bits.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
But the minions' fragmented remains would combine, reattaching themselves together, and completely restored the creatures to their unharmed state.
[Mutated Dark Spawn Lv.17 x???]
[Mutated Night Terror Lv.19 x???]
[Mutated Deathbringer Lv.25 x???]
My comrades and I braced ourselves to endure the great challenge before us, knowing not how we would survive this trial.
I did not know how we would complete this mission.
But we certainly would not survive it unscathed.
['Gharand (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]