"I'm sorry," Liora asked, "you want me to do what now?"
She stood on the top of a large hill, the makings of a magic circle beginning to form around her.
At the center with her was Elyra, an elven woman with shoulder-length deep blue hair. She wore an ornate robe that seemed to thrum with stored mana.
Liora had been helping draw out the circle before Elyra grabbed her and pulled her aside.
"This magic circle is a ritual meant to allow group chanting of high-rank magic," Elyra said. "It needs three parts. The anchors, being all of us chanting and focusing the magic. A linker, being someone with a positive magical affinity to the target spell. And the caster, who actually has the knowledge and mana for the spell."
Elyra looked toward the city.
"The other high-level mages are fighting against the attackers, so you're the highest-leveled person here with any affinity to the fire element."
"Fire element?" Liora asked. "I'm a Wind Mage, not a Fire Mage."
"Yes," Elyra said, "but wind is a complementary element to fire in the same way that water is a negative element. It is not a one-to-one match, but it will work."
Liora turned.
In the distance, magic flew through the air while people ran through the streets.
Towering over the city skyline were two prominent figures.
Both stood taller than any building around them, with one a head taller than the other.
Even from here, the presence and terror emanating from them could be felt.
One had charcoal-black scales thicker than the walls of a vault, two sets of arms, and a large white sprawling crack expanding from its chest. A row of three sets of eyes ran along its draconian snout.
Even now, Liora found herself glancing down toward the announcement that had appeared when she saw the massive black-scaled disaster.
You have encountered Potential Son of Blue Zilla, Godblight.
You have gained 50,000 XP for encountering a creature above A-rank.
Your maximum possible damage cannot harm Zilla.
System advisement for user survival:
Run, because the gods won't risk answering your prayers.
Across from him stood a figure wearing a massive yellow hoodie.
Horns and scales covered the sides of their face, while spines shot through the back of the hoodie, leaving holes where massive amounts of extreme heat radiated out.
Heat cracks spread from their body as a massive, blinding beam of heat and force rocketed from their mouth and struck Zilla.
The beam caused the massive draconic lizard to stagger back slightly.
The hooded figure sprouted a webwork of cracks across their body.
Then a pulse of green energy surged over them, and their wounds closed as if they had been healing for months.
However, just as fast as the figure in the hoodie healed, Zilla's wounds seemed to heal as well.
"Okay," Liora said, pointing toward the ferocious battle, "and how exactly will this do anything to something like that?"
Elyra turned, as if only just noticing the fighting in the distance.
Then she turned back.
"You are not dealing with it," Elyra said. "We are basically supporting Alaster so he can get his best shot at Zilla."
At that, Liora raised an eyebrow, thinking back to the out-of-breath kid who could barely carry the skeleton-looking hungry woman.
"Uh," Liora asked, "how exactly is a teenager, no matter how strong, supposed to take on a creature literally called a Godblight?"
"Because that teenager is the contractor of the Spirit King of Fire, Cataclysm," Elyra said. "And in terms of raw destructive power, he is hard to match."
Elyra began leading Liora toward the center of the formation, closing her into the glyph pattern.
"Wait, huh?" Liora asked. "What's a Spirit King?"
Elyra did not stop drawing as she explained, eyes still down on the circle.
"As people grow, they will often see that the damage their skills deal is different. For example, fire becomes flame, which becomes solar later on. In the same way, your wind element becomes gust, and then gale."
Her hand moved steadily.
"A Spirit King is a being that stands as the keeper of the hidden fourth tier of an element. For fire, it goes from Solar to Nova. For gale, it becomes Hurricane."
Elyra glanced up.
"Alaster is the key to one of the greatest firepower sources of the modern day."
Liora stared in silence.
Internally, she cringed, remembering what she had mumbled about him while helping carry the bone woman.
Before Liora could argue or say anything else, there was a loud crash nearby.
Everyone turned.
A very interesting sight greeted them.
A group seemed to be clinging to a massive, twelve-foot-tall red crab with one claw larger than the other, a white underbelly, and a left hand with fingers instead of the crab-like appendage on the right.
Hanging on his back was a scorpion man, as well as a shorter girl.
The smallest of the ragtag group tumbled from the crab's back with a yelp. She barely managed to soften the impact with an incredibly amateur roll before scrambling back to her feet, only to immediately trip over a rock and face-plant into the dirt.
She lifted her head with a pained groan, brow furrowing as she looked between her party and the looming battle in the distance.
Her eyes widened.
She sprang to her feet and whirled around to face her party.
"I haven't even been gone for a day!" she roared, violently jabbing a finger at the lizard. "What the actual fuck is that?"
The crab let everyone down, then shrugged.
"Oh, that's Zilla," he said in a surprisingly raspy voice. "I was gonna kill him before some guy stopped time, rescued him, and complained to us about ruining his plans or research or something. Then he used a purple rock on him, and that happened."
The crabman paused, as if remembering something.
Then he turned back with a raised eyebrow.
"You were there when we fought him in the sewers. Did you lose your memories twice in a day? You literally intervened in my duel with Zilla after he didn't die the second time and was about to cause that retaliatory attack that almost killed me."
As the others climbed down around them, one of them was suddenly surrounded by a strange dark aura.
The man's head was mysteriously covered by a great helm with an ornamental visor. Blacker than night itself, it created a stark contrast with the radiant crimson emanating from where his eyes should have been. Upon his head sat a crown of jagged iron, instilling a sense of dread in anyone who dared look upon it.
When Liora looked into his eyes, all she could see was anger too terrifying to be caused by a single man.
He seemed to be barely holding back the incredible power of his red-tinted aura. He was clad in jagged obsidian plate armor that looked as if it had been forged in the deepest hells and instilled a feeling of boundless dread.
There were no scratches or dents upon it.
As if he simply did not get hit at all.
In his right hand, he effortlessly held a heavy ritual scythe that gave off the feeling of death itself, large enough to behead a dragon. He wore a tattered cape, further adding to his mysterious and stoic image of a peerless warrior.
His whole armor was covered with chains that jingled with his steps, promising no escape to his enemies.
And when he spoke, it was as if the world itself failed to process his voice. Every word was layered with soft whispers and baritone echoes. When he grew angry, his words shattered glass and burst eardrums.
Liora blinked a few times.
Her thoughts returned to normal.
Then a system message appeared.
L%nt@rn has used some plusality to alter the perception of character: Aris.
Ob$s@7ver has facepalmed.
L%nt@rn rereads what they have done and dry heaves from embarrassment.
*ud^ci$y cackles while watching L%nt@rn.
V(5l looks at Lantern with an expression of pure horror.
E8c!l comments about a "skill issue."
45 players have taken 2 psychic damage from secondhand embarrassment.
L%nt@rn has taken 4 psychic damage.
In the past, Liora may have commented on that.
Maybe even begun to question her reality.
However, considering she was standing inside a magic circle with a twelve-foot talking crab, while strange muffled and redacted beings took damage from secondhand embarrassment, and in the distance a massive guy in a yellow hoodie elbow-dropped a lizard that could apparently hurt gods, she had come to a simple realization.
It was best not to ask.
Liora looked past the messages to the last member of the group that had just landed.
They looked to be a spider halfblood wearing a fancy suit and walking around with a centaur-like build, with a thorax and eight legs while still having a humanoid torso, fangs, and spider eyes. A layer of thin black fur covered them like fuzz.
The spider turned to them.
"Well now," they said, "let's at least make sure you all are a bit more warded than this. Culu, you're up."
From nearby, a figure in a blue robe wielding a wooden staff tipped with a hammerhead floated over and sighed.
They spent the next minute constructing a series of runes outside the magic circle.
Much to Liora's annoyance, she could not see what they were doing.
When they finished, a large transparent dome rose around everyone.
Several people touched it, as if unsure it was really there.
Liora turned, unsure whether she was supposed to thank them or not.
Then a portal opened.
More people stepped through it, including a little white fox Liora recognized.
Beatris saw her and ran over, only to be stopped before crossing into the center.
"Beatris," Liora asked, "what's going on? Where are the others?"
"Everyone is okay for now," Beatris said. "The others said they were going to help grab people in the city who haven't evacuated yet. I came here to see if I could help."
Liora wanted to ask her more questions.
But they were cut off by the sound of someone playing music on a violin and the violent noise of trees being uprooted.
As Liora turned, she heard someone call for the chanting to start.
Since she was in the middle, her part had not yet come.
That meant she was able to watch as everyone ran to their positions.
Past them, she saw the massive crab standing without his weapon drawn.
Before him, the trees exploded.
Strange creatures rushed out.
They resembled a mix between tortoises and ogres, with towering muscular builds, reptilian heads, and large durable backplates like shells.
As they ran, the girl slammed her hand down.
Raw mana seemed to swim through the ground.
Suddenly, the solid earth took on properties like liquid, trapping several of the creatures.
However, what made Liora's eyes practically pop out of her head was not what the girl had done.
It was that it was not magic.
She had taken mana and forcibly used it to affect aspects of the ground, changing its properties to resemble liquid.
It should have been impossible from both a theoretical and practical level.
And yet Liora saw her do it.
Her eyes shot toward the crab.
He raised his guard.
Five of the hulking beasts, no shorter than him and if anything slightly taller, swung down at once, raining blows over him.
The crab cocked back his arm.
Had Liora not seen it herself, she would have mistaken the impact for a cannonshot.
His arm moved so fast that sound boomed around him.
Three of the beasts flew backward, tearing through several trees before collapsing dead.
Liora watched her announcements, waiting to see what skill he had used.
Nothing came.
Her eyes drifted up.
She realized.
That had not been a skill.
That was just physical force.
Liora's eyes drifted to the others in the group.
For the time being, most seemed content to wait and watch, aside from the figure in armor.
They held out a hand, grasping a golden chain that formed before them.
When they yanked, the sky seemed to shatter.
A massive towering figure of an angelic woman descended in battle armor.
Even the most dutiful chanters fell silent as they looked upward.
Then the announcement came.
Rejoice.
Ereshkigal, the right hand of Magnetina, has arrived.
Some fell to their knees.
Others tried to resume praying.
However, as Liora looked around with a nervous smile, all she could think was one thing.
So this is power.