Crash!
The impact sent Acheron careening into a tree, her body spinning out of control as she fought to regain balance. She skidded across the ground for thirty meters, rocks and debris shredding her clothes and tearing at her skin. Pain exploded across her back as she finally came to a stop.
"Argh!" The cry tore from her throat.
Tons of system notifications flickered across her vision.
[Structure damage detected: Three broken ribs!]
"Yeah... you don't need to tell me that... ack!" Acheron spat blood onto the ground as she slowly and weakly pushed herself up with her trembling hands.
Far ahead across the field, Alackster stood in the same position he was in when the fight started; he had not moved an inch. Arthur and Jamie were launching spell after spell. Alackster lazily dodged some of them while waving his hand slightly to nullify others.
His intention was clear as day.
He was toying with them.
...
Ten minutes ago when the fight started, Acheron charged through the middle, casting different spells simultaneously. Jamie and Arthur did the same, flanking him from both sides.
Alackster raised his hand to yawn then waved it, a huge wave of wind wiping the three Anaxagoras siblings out of his line of sight in an instant.
They recovered and went charging in again and again. However, they were not charging recklessly. Acheron had given her siblings instructions to keep on charging, even though the chances of beating him were basically zero... although Acheron had a plan.
Arthur and Jamie's Mirror Guardian did not activate for the reason that Alackster bore no ill intentions towards them, at least not yet. He blocked most of their attacks while using some back against them.
...
Acheron got up to her feet, bending her neck enough to hear a crack. She was thrown a few feet away by her own spell.
'As expected, he's too strong...' Acheron thought to herself. Every spell he cast did not produce a single word from his mouth. It seemed he was unique in that aspect also.
Furthermore, in the last ten minutes, he had used seventeen different barrier spells, just to show his dominance, and his movements alone showed he wasn't even trying, yet he was still tossing her and her siblings around like rag dolls.
"Ex de lumine..." Acheron chanted a simple healing spell on herself. One of the spells she acquired from
[Divine Light (C) spell is activated]
[Healing 50% of the host's injuries]
Acheron wiped blood off her face, charging towards the battlefield.
Stellar watched through her eyes. She was confused about what Acheron's plan was; even though she could read her thoughts, she still couldn't quite get what it was.
「 Why are you attacking recklessly? 」Stellar asked with a neutral expression, portrayed in Acheron's mind.
Acheron smiled and answered as she moved. "I am trying to fulfill the conditions for the ✮ Song of Ophelia ✮"
Stellar's face widened with shock. 「 You want to summon... 」
"Yes."
The ✮ Song of Ophelia ✮ spell which Acheron took from the academy library. At first, the spell chant may seem harmless and confusing, but it was the exact opposite.
The spell has three conditions needed for it to be used, and it was written in poetic form as the prologue of the original spell book, which was burnt to ashes, but a page was saved—the spell page.
A truly terrfying spell.
However, to cast the spell, you must fulfill the conditions set out in the prologue, and it went as follows:
"For every wound the caster bears, The target's flesh shall know despair. Pain given must be pain returned, Until both souls have equally burned."
It meant that to be able to perform the spell, the caster must suffer a lot of injuries from the target without dying.
The target must then feel the equal pain inflicted on the caster, binding their souls in the melody of pain.
Acheron had predicted every single moment leading to now since the moment she stepped into the academy.
'Spells'
A list of spells appeared in front of her as she neared Alackster.
[Light Affinity]
» Glint (D) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
» Sacred Arrows (B) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
» Light that Burns the Sky (A) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
» Redemption (B) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
» Shimmering Redemption (A) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
» Grand Redemption (S) - ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
» Divine Light (C) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
[Darkness Affinity]
» Shadow Crafting (B) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
» Downcast (C) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
» Shadow Friends (B) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
» Lost Souls (A) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
» Dark Goblin (C) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
» Viper Lock (B) - ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
She focused on the last one on the list.
❰ Viper Lock ❱
⤷ Summon the mark of a snake on the target's body which will immobilize them for three minutes. ⤷ Chant – "Vipera virus accipere imperium!"
Arthur and Jamie were almost out of mana. Constant casting of large-scale spells had drained them both physically and mentally.
"Step back!" Acheron shouted as she materialized one of the sacred arrows and threw it at Alackster.
With his usual smirk on his face, Alackster still didn't move from where he was standing, raising his hand slowly as the arrow came at him with intense speed.
"You Anaxagoras don't seem to get it, do you...?" He caught the arrow with his bare fingers. "I am—"
Just then, the arrow exploded into a large beam of light, covering the whole area, blinding everyone.
In that split second, Acheron whispered a chant as she got close enough to Alackster to touch his chest.
"Vipera virus accipere imperium!"
Upon saying the chant, a cobra tattoo began to engrave itself on Alackster's arm, making him feel the burning pain as it pierced deep into his skin.
"Argh!" He screamed in agony. His vision was still blinded.
"Just kidding..." He opened his eyes, the blinding light vanishing in an instant.
Acheron went a few steps back. She knew the blinding spell wouldn't have held him for long.
Alackster looked at his arm where the tattoo was engraved and smiled. "Petty tricks..." He used his other hand to hold the arm with the tattoo and imbued so much arcana energy into it, it dispersed immediately from his skin.
"Nice try."