Above the Dazzle Star Lake in the dark night, the battle between the Mirror Moon Golem manipulated by Aldrich and the two Eight-Pointed Nest Scarlet members was still ongoing. After finally using various methods to force the Mirror Moon Golem to abandon maintaining the Storm Cage, Gothsmore finally helped her companion, Bo Ade, successfully escape. After successfully rescuing Bo Ade, Gothsmore flew towards the Mirror Moon Golem without stopping.
Facing Gothsmore flying rapidly from a distance, Bo Ade, who had just escaped and was panting heavily, couldn't help but be stunned. After hearing clearly what she was saying, his expression became grim, and then he muttered.
"Armament? I understand..."
Saying this, Bo Ade activated his Spirituality, causing his still weakened body to once again turn into blood mist, transforming into a patch of crimson mist. However, this time, after Bo Ade's body turned into blood mist, he did not choose to spread widely in all directions, but instead did the opposite and contracted inward. The mist that originally formed Bo Ade condensed into a slender, rod-like object. Finally, when all the blood mist had contracted and solidified, what appeared was a scarlet axe-spear.
After Bo Ade condensed into the Scarlet Spear, he automatically flew rapidly in the direction Gothsmore was flying from. As the two approached, Gothsmore reached out and directly gripped the shaft of the scarlet axe-spear. Then, a dark red hue began to spread rapidly from the part Gothsmore was holding. Soon after, it spread throughout her entire body. This dark red, peculiar substance, after a period of deformation, transformed into a suit of armor and directly armed Gothsmore, turning her into a noble female knight wielding a spear.
Facing the actions of Gothsmore and Bo Ade, Aldrich was already prepared. He first had the Mirror Moon Golem unleash a rain of invisible wind blades towards them, and then had the Mirror Moon Golem swiftly throw a punch towards Gothsmore.
The invisible wind blade storm quickly enveloped Gothsmore completely, but under the protection of the blood mist armament that Bo Ade had transformed into on her body, she was not harmed by it. Wind blades of this level could be perfectly defended and blocked by the blood mist armor. And when the Mirror Moon Golem's fist came crashing towards her like a giant wall, Gothsmore exerted herself to perform a maneuver, dodging the Mirror Moon Golem's fist. Then, seizing this opportunity, she swung the scarlet axe-spear in her hand, slashing towards the golem's arm that had extended in front of her.
In Gothsmore's hand, the blood spear that Bo Ade had transformed into rapidly elongated, and its blade part also expanded rapidly, instantly becoming a giant spear blade much larger than Gothsmore herself. Gothsmore, holding the exaggerated giant weapon like this, fiercely slashed onto the Mirror Moon Golem's arm. Amidst a roar and rising dust, the axe blade of the blood axe-spear carved a large opening in the giant stone arm.
After successfully cutting into the golem's giant stone arm with the massive weapon, Gothsmore immediately began to output her and Bo Ade's Spirituality without stopping. Under the powerful corrosive ability of the "Shadow" enchantment, countless fine cracks began to spread and crack in all directions from the wound on the golem's arm that was struck. The sturdy rock crumbled into tiny fragments inch by inch. The speed at which these cracks spread was very fast, seemingly capable of completely eroding this section of the giant golem's arm and causing the arm to break without much time.
"Having the entire person fully armed to enhance the strength of another person, is this the Scarlet Thorn Duke's tactic in cooperative combat? Not only can it make ordinary attacks massive, but it can also cause such powerful'Shadow' erosion... It really opened my eyes..."
Seeing this situation, Aldrich immediately activated his own "Stone" Spirituality, strengthening the sturdiness of the golem's arm section, which barely managed to suppress the spread of the countless cracks. Then, Aldrich had the Mirror Moon Golem swing back, using its giant arm to violently knock Gothsmore, who was at close range, flying.
Although Gothsmore's body instantly endured a powerful impact, because of the protection of Bo Ade's blood mist armament, her entire body was not smashed to pieces. Only the blood mist armor was shattered, but these shattered blood mist armor fragments, after briefly floating, reassembled on Gothsmore's body, piecing together into a complete new suit of armor. After Gothsmore stabilized her figure in the air, she, wearing the brand new blood armor and gripping the blood axe-spear in her hand, continued to charge towards the Mirror Moon Golem.
Afterward, Gothsmore became entangled in fierce combat with the Mirror Moon Golem. After possessing Bo Ade's blood mist armament, Gothsmore reversed her previous disadvantage. The blood mist armor greatly enhanced Gothsmore's defensive capabilities. Not only did it almost ignore the damage from the wind blades, but even if she was accidentally grazed by the golem's punches, it could resolve most of the damage and then restore itself. In addition, the giant blood blade axe-spear significantly increased Gothsmore's damage to the golem. The more powerful corrosive ability allowed the golem's entire body to be effectively breached. Coupled with Gothsmore's inherent mobility, her situation when facing the Mirror Moon Golem improved significantly.
Aldrich controlled the golem to constantly fight Gothsmore. In his eyes, Gothsmore was much more difficult to deal with now. Not only was the golem's attack difficult to deliver a fatal blow to Gothsmore, but Gothsmore could constantly swing the blood axe-spear and slash at the golem's body. These slashes, which carried high corrosion, required Aldrich to expend a considerable amount of Spirituality to suppress their effect, otherwise, the entire golem would not be able to last long under Gothsmore's attacks.
During the battle, Aldrich's brows furrowed slightly. He couldn't help but reach into his trench coat pocket, then grabbed a handful of things from it and placed them before his eyes. When Aldrich's previously clenched hand opened, he saw fine quicksand slowly sliding down from between his fingers, turning into dust and drifting into the air. What remained in Aldrich's hand were only three small stone-carved chess pieces: a knight, a rook, and a bishop. Among them, nearly two-thirds of the volume of the small stone carvings of the knight and rook had turned into quicksand and scattered into the air. In his hand, only one bishop piece was temporarily still intact, but it also had many fine cracks.
All these signs indicated that Aldrich's Spirituality was beginning to gradually become strained. As a severely incomplete Golden, he was far less spiritually abundant than Gothsmore and Bo Ade, two complete Scarlet members. Relying on superb skill, Aldrich had astonishing efficiency in using "Stone" Spirituality, but even so, the Spirituality consumed by golem transformation and driving such a large shrine was still enormous. Now, in order to suppress Gothsmore's erosion, Aldrich had to spend more Spirituality to strengthen his defense, which caused his already scarce Spirituality to be consumed even faster.
Although Aldrich could control the Spirituality stored in the shrine to a certain extent, the majority of this Spirituality was "Shadow," and there was relatively little "Stone" Spirituality. When Aldrich transformed the shrine into a golem, the shrine's own "Stone" had already been almost completely consumed. Now, the Spirituality maintaining the golem primarily came from himself.
Although the situation on the field was currently in a stalemate, with Aldrich even holding a slight advantage and suppression, this situation would not last too long. Aldrich's Spirituality reserves were rapidly decreasing and approaching the safety threshold he had set for himself. Once this value was reached, Aldrich would have to stop manipulating the Mirror Moon Golem. And judging by the current situation, the speed of this Spirituality decline was very fast. Aldrich could not guarantee that he could hold off Gothsmore until Dorothy completely finished the ritual.
To conserve Spirituality, Aldrich began to actively limit the Mirror Moon Golem's performance, shifting from offense to defense to buy more time, and this change was quickly noticed by Gothsmore.
"Haha! This guy is slowing down! Keep going, Bo Ade!"
She laughed proudly, and then Gothsmore began to quicken the pace of her attack, swinging the giant blood axe-spear and hacking at the Mirror Moon Golem piece by piece. The reversal of the battle situation made Gothsmore's laughter become unrestrained. Under her frantic assault, Aldrich's Spirituality was being rapidly consumed.
Just then, a sudden anomaly occurred on the scene. In the dark night sky, an orange-yellow bright star appeared. Then, this bright star became brighter and brighter, finally turning into a thick pillar of raging flames that descended from the sky, rapidly striking towards the direction where Gothsmore was located below.
Gothsmore, who was originally attacking the Mirror Moon Golem, immediately sensed that something was wrong. At the last moment, she dodged at high speed. After that, she saw a two to three meter thick pillar of high-temperature flames descending from the sky, narrowly brushing past her and crashing into the Dazzle Star Lake below, directly boiling the surrounding lake water. Due to the close proximity, the high temperature of the flames caused Gothsmore a searing pain.
"What! This is..."
Just as Gothsmore was inwardly surprised, more and more pillars of raging flames descended from the sky. Upon seeing this, Gothsmore dodged one after another. Although she evaded the direct attack of each flame pillar, she found that the descending flame pillars showed no sign of disappearing. Instead, they remained in place, slowly forming a cage of flame pillars around Gothsmore, seemingly attempting to trap her inside.
Upon seeing this, Gothsmore immediately thought that it was not advisable to stay here for long. She immediately flew rapidly towards the largest gap in the unfinished cage of flame pillars. As she was about to fly out of this unfinished prison, a stone fist like a giant wall came smashing towards her. Gothsmore, caught off guard, turned back to dodge. Although she avoided the Mirror Moon Golem's attack, she also missed the last chance to escape the cage of flame pillars. When the last flame pillar descended, she was trapped within this cage.
"This intensity of Spirituality flame... how could it appear here..."
Looking at the cage of flame pillars surrounding her, Gothsmore murmured with an expression of disbelief. Just then, a greater crisis was approaching her. From the top of the cage of flames, in the sky directly above Gothsmore, an orange-yellow star lit up, and its light became increasingly intense, as if another flame pillar was about to descend there.
Finally, what descended from the sky was not a flame pillar, but a meteor! A meteor of raging fire that was thicker and larger than the original flame pillars! Within the prison space restricted by the flame pillars, the meteor of raging fire, dragging a long tail of flames, descended vertically from the sky, rapidly falling towards Gothsmore who was trapped in the prison. Upon seeing this situation, Gothsmore couldn't help but widen her eyes.
"Heavenly fire... Saint!"
Gothsmore gritted her teeth and murmured. Facing the fire meteor that was about to smash into her face, Gothsmore glared fiercely at the cage of flame pillars not far away. Then, she gripped the blood axe-spear in her hand, transforming it back into a shield, and charged straight towards the wall of this fiery prison, holding the shield.
Rather than directly taking a full-power fire meteor hit, Gothsmore chose to physically break through the flame cage. At least this way, she would only suffer burning damage and not impact damage.
After making a decisive decision, Gothsmore charged straight through the wall of raging flames, holding her shield. After paying the price of being enveloped and burned by the raging fire all over her body, Gothsmore finally rushed out of the wall of fire.
Just as Gothsmore was painfully releasing blood mist to extinguish the divine flames, the rapidly descending fire meteor in the sky seemed to have consciousness. Upon seeing Gothsmore escape, it actually began to adjust its direction of descent. After making a significant turn, it continued to charge towards Gothsmore, dragging a tail of raging flames. Seeing this, Gothsmore didn't bother to extinguish the flames on her body anymore. Instead, she performed another emergency maneuver, attempting to evade the fire meteor that was charging towards her again and was almost at her doorstep.
Ultimately, Gothsmore successfully avoided being directly hit head-on by the fire meteor, being instantly pulverized and vaporized by the high temperature and pressure. However, as the fire meteor rapidly passed by her, it also grazed her. It was this single contact that the immense energy still knocked Gothsmore far away, throwing her directly towards the shore of Dazzle Star Lake, where she fell heavily onto the bank. The fire meteor, on the other hand, crashed diagonally onto a hill next to Dazzle Star Lake.
"Boom!!!"
Immediately, fire erupted, and the earth trembled. Amidst a tremendous explosion, the hilltop struck by the fire meteor was instantly reduced to nothing. Instead, in a sky full of dust, a large, reddish, high-temperature molten meteorite crater appeared. In the center of the meteorite crater, a figure was slowly standing up.
Thick, standardized full plate armor in the style of the Church, a fully enclosed helmet with wings and sun wheel decorations, and a long sword burning with raging Scarlet flames in his hand. A tall and robust heavy-armored knight slowly stood up in the center of the meteorite crater. Behind him was a cloak made of special material. On the cloak, intricate and sacred patterns were embroidered, the kind of Decoration that could only appear on the robes of high-ranking Church clergy.
Former Holy War Army Knight Commander, now Archbishop of the Prit Diocese, Francesco, after hearing the urgent report from the advance investigation team sent out not long ago to the heretical ruins, immediately rushed towards Glamorgan using his abilities without stopping. Now, he has finally arrived at the scene.
On the other side of Dazzle Star Lake, on the lakeshore, Gothsmore, with her blood mist armor in tatters, large areas of her body charred black, and nearly half of her clothes burned away, stumbled to her feet in the small pit she had created. She gazed at the distant hilltop that had disappeared due to the raging flames and the tall Mirror Moon Golem that still stood on the lake's surface, her expression filled with extreme bewilderment and anger.
"Why... why would a Heavenly fire Saint appear here?! Did that little Sister report it to her superiors? But even so, it shouldn't have arrived so quickly!
"Good... good... one after another... This time, even the old Fanatics have directly intervened, haven't they? You... don't think I'm easy to mess with!"
As she spoke the last words, the confusion in Gothsmore's tone gradually disappeared, replaced by more anger. Although she was currently facing at least two Scarlet Tier strong enemies, she had no intention of backing down. She was confident in her ability to handle everything in front of her, because she was not an ordinary Scarlet Tier... but a Witch, the Spider Queen's Witch.
With this identity alone, even if two more Scarlet Tiers came now, she would have no fear!
'Originally... I just wanted to solve the problem with my extraordinary abilities. It seems that won't work... Damn things, you forced my hand!' Gothsmore thought to herself. Then, she slowly closed her eyes and began to pray silently.
"Deep Web Queen, feared by all living beings, God of Shadow and murder, Lord of torment and pain, Bloody Madam... I, Gothsmore Akic, your most loyal servant, your Witch, your doorway to the present world, I now pray to you.
"Please enlighten me, and I will become a hole leading to your nest. I... crave for your power to flow through me..."
...
Inside the mirror moon statue, within the stable gyroscope space, Dorothy continued to sit cross-legged before the mirror moon statue that belonged to her... or to the Mirror Moon Goddess, silently completing her ritual.
Finally, after the candles around the magic circle flickered on and off, a purple halo appeared and disappeared on the "enlightenment" magic circle. Streaks of purple light swept across the cover of the ""wen hai hang zhi"" placed in the center of the magic circle. Its nature had undergone some kind of change in an invisible way.
Dorothy, sitting by the magic circle, looked at the ""wen hai hang zhi"" before her. After picking it up and stroking it, she murmured after sensing the deep changes within it.
"It succeeded..."
Another ritual was completed. Under Dorothy's own promise to herself, in her identity as Aka, she bestowed a blessing upon the ""wen hai hang zhi"", making it a divine item, a divine item of "enlightenment".
Now, Dorothy's second ritual has been successfully completed. The six divine items required for her promotion to Scarlet Tier have been gathered, not one less.
Now, it is time to begin the final ritual!