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However, after giving it a moment of thought, Fini decided against doing so. Aside from it being completely unnecessary, rather than wasting time like that, it would be far better to end the battle early and secure the experience points.
Facing the now-invisible Karnilla, Fini focused his mind, preparing to use the Golden Ars Magna to track down her elusive traces.
"Rain!"
From out of the previously clear sky, a light drizzle abruptly began to fall. Fini carefully observed his surroundings. By tracing the trajectory of the falling raindrops, he quickly discovered an anomalous area suspended in the air.
"Heh, so you can fly too!?"
Fini let out a cold sneer and aimed a blast of Explosion Magic directly at Karnilla's concealed position.
Karnilla's expression immediately shifted. The moment it suddenly started raining from the sky, she sensed that something was wrong, so she hastily took flight in an attempt to avoid Fini's line of sight. Unfortunately for her, she had still been discovered.
Seeing that her position was already exposed, Karnilla no longer bothered to maintain her invisibility. She revealed her true form, raising an energy shield to block the incoming attack once more, and then fixed her gaze on Fini as he flew toward her.
"Hmph, I suppose I underestimated you a little."
Karnilla stared at Fini with a solemn expression on her face. After muttering those words, she utilized what appeared to be a telekinetic ability to forcefully snatch the weapons right out of the hands of several Asgardian soldiers on the ground below. She then manipulated these armaments, hurling them viciously toward Fini.
Intermixed among this barrage of physical weapons were several transparent blasts of energy.
Fini did not even attempt to dodge. Instead, he simply propped open his water shield to effortlessly block the incoming attacks. At the same time, firmly grasping the Breath of the White Dragon in his hand, he fired off his Explosion Magic to launch a fierce counterattack.
At this moment, the light rain continued to drizzle continuously. Down on the ground, the Asgardian soldiers were locked in a brutal slaughter against the Norn soldiers and various other extraterrestrials. Meanwhile, high up in the sky, Fini and Karnilla began a relentless exchange of heavy firepower.
Neither of the two combatants bothered to evade. They stood directly opposed to one another in mid-air. Karnilla kept her energy deflector shield actively deployed, launching energy blasts while simultaneously using her telekinesis to drag all sorts of random weapons from below to hurl at Fini.
Fini's approach, on the other hand, was far simpler. With his water shield securely in place, he solely utilized his Explosion Magic, firing off blast after devastating blast in rapid succession.
Because he was worried about accidentally injuring his allies, he didn't even bother performing a full and serious incantation. He merely used the Golden Ars Magna to buff his attacks, occasionally muttering a casual line of the chant just to slightly amplify the destructive power.
This awe-inspiring and shocking spectacle was so intense that it even caused the warring soldiers down below to temporarily halt their fighting, staring up at the sky in foolish bewilderment.
The two of them continued this relentless bombardment against each other for a full ten minutes.
Karnilla's energy shield turned out to be far more durable and resistant than Fini had initially imagined. Conversely, the defensive capabilities of Fini's water shield vastly exceeded Karnilla's own expectations.
Ultimately, it was Karnilla who was the first to halt this relentless exchange of attacks. The primary reason was that the soldiers under her command were beginning to crumble under the pressure and could no longer hold their ground.
After all, within Fini's allied faction, aside from the regular Asgardian soldiers, there was also a powerhouse like Thor. The God of Thunder was tearing through the enemy ranks as if playing a hack-and-slash game, slaughtering his way through the crowds with unmatched ferocity.
Karnilla's expression turned rather grim. She knew perfectly well that this rebellion had already failed to a certain extent—unless she could somehow manage to eliminate Fini right here, right now.
Looking at Fini, who was clad in his pale blue armor, Karnilla ceased her offensive barrage and suddenly spoke up. "You are not an Asgardian. Why exactly have you chosen to help them?"
"All we want is our freedom!"
Hearing Karnilla's words, Fini also paused his attacks. He gazed at her indifferently and replied with a single, blunt sentence: "I'll help whoever I want to help. It's none of your damn business!"
Had this been before the battle actually started, Fini might have hesitated at least a little bit upon hearing such a statement. However, now that the fighting had already commenced, there really wasn't much left to be said on the matter.
War inherently lacks a clear-cut right or wrong. Since he had already made the choice to assist Asgard, it was absolutely impossible for him to betray them halfway through, unless some extraordinarily special circumstances arose.
However, the situation currently presenting itself was clearly not within the scope of something that would cause Fini to 'defect.' Furthermore, based on the intelligence that Asgard had gathered and shared with him the previous night, Karnilla was evidently not a good queen in the first place.
If she were, the entirety of Nornheim would have risen up in rebellion, rather than just a fragmented faction that had to rely on the intervention of outsiders for help.
Upon hearing Fini's harsh retort, Karnilla's face grew even more unsightly. After taking a quick glance at the chaotic battle raging below, the thought of initiating a temporary retreat began to sprout in her mind.
From the shifting expressions on Karnilla's face, Fini could easily discern her intention to abandon the fight. A wave of anxiety instantly gripped his heart. He hadn't even gotten his hands on the experience points yet! How could he possibly just let her run away?
"Are you planning to run away already, you piece of trash?!"
Fini deployed his long-lost art of taunting. In truth, this was a move he had previously used against Surtur as well. The initial effects had been absolutely astonishing, though unfortunately, by the end of that encounter, even his secret techniques had proven ineffective, let alone a simple verbal taunt.
However, this was the very first time Karnilla had ever been subjected to such blatant mockery. Her resistance to it was exceptionally low, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the taunting effect was simply outstanding.
The moment Fini finished his insult, her somewhat sallow complexion flushed a deep crimson almost instantaneously. Her eyes locked fiercely onto Fini, and she revealed an expression so utterly savage and distorted that it actually gave Fini a slight fright.
And with that, the battle was violently reignited.
After fighting for such a prolonged period of time, the immediate vicinity surrounding the two combatants was now entirely devoid of living people, leaving nothing but corpses scattered about. Realizing this, Fini began to seriously consider ramping up the sheer destructive power of his Explosion Magic.
Maintaining his water shield, Fini tightened his grip on the Breath of the White Dragon and locked onto Karnilla, who was currently pouring out her energy in a state of sheer frenzy. Exhaling a soft breath, he finally began to chant.
His crisp and clear voice slowly echoed across the chaotic battlefield:
"I am a mage,"
"One who has mastered the absolute limits of magic,"
"In the name of Explosion Magic,"
"I shall incinerate all things to ashes,"
"Explosion!"
Worried that Karnilla might try to escape once again, Fini didn't drag out the incantation for too long, completing the magic in rapid time.
The brilliant crimson magic circle, entirely unique to Explosion Magic, flared up with a frantic, blinding light. The sheer intensity of it caused Karnilla, who was in the midst of venting her absolute fury, to experience a slight change in expression.
"Boom!"
Flames instantly engulfed the sky. Accompanied by a deafening explosion, a ferocious pillar of fire blasted directly into the energy shield that Karnilla had hastily propped up.
Fini didn't harbor any delusions of defeating Karnilla with this single strike alone. At the exact same moment that the Explosion Magic bombarded her, the Golden Ars Magna followed closely on its heels.
"Hammer!"
An oversized, gargantuan replica of Mjolnir abruptly materialized right above Karnilla's head. The sheer absurdity of the sight instantly left Thor—who couldn't help but look over in worry from a short distance away—completely dumbfounded, standing there as stiff as a board.
"Crash!"
Although Karnilla's shield had narrowly managed to block the blast of the Explosion Magic, it was already teetering on the absolute verge of collapse from the overwhelming force. Upon being met with the subsequent impact of the oversized hammer, the shield instantly shattered into pieces right then and there.
Unable to defend herself, Karnilla was smashed directly from the sky, plummeting all the way down into the solid ground under the crushing weight of the hammer.
This was, after all, still Asgard. Therefore, the moment the massive hammer slammed Karnilla into the ground, it immediately vanished into thin air. Up in the sky, Fini couldn't help but let out a small sigh of relief, panting slightly.
Thor stared blankly at the actual Mjolnir resting in his own hand, and then looked back toward the spot where the giant replica hammer had just vanished. If it weren't for the fact that Karnilla was still lying at the bottom of a deep crater, he would have almost thought he was experiencing a hallucination.
Fini slowly descended from the sky and rushed straight toward the crater. There was not a trace of joy to be found on his face, because he had just checked his internal system and discovered that he had not received any experience points whatsoever.
This starkly indicated that his previous, devastating attack had failed to render Karnilla unconscious or completely drain her of her combat capabilities. The battle was far from over.
Right as Fini arrived at the very edge of the crater, a tremendously powerful surge of energy abruptly erupted from the very bottom of the pit. Fortunately, Fini had never once relaxed his vigilance. He immediately shot back up into the air, narrowly dodging the blast.
Following closely behind the energy surge, Karnilla flew out of the crater. Her hair was completely disheveled, and she looked thoroughly battered and wretched; yet remarkably, she didn't appear to have sustained any serious, life-threatening injuries. Her eyes locked in a death stare, glaring murderously at Fini hovering in mid-air.
(End of Chapter)