Loki sucked in a sharp breath, her crimson eyes going wide and round, the usual teasing tilt of her mouth gone entirely. She pointed at that raging blizzard, her voice shaking:
"Hey, hey, Demeter! Is this... is this really how you teach your kids to fight?"
"This, this is way too ridiculous!"
"This is Orario! The front gate of Babel! Not your backyard garden!"
"Keep this up and you'll probably blow Babel itself sky-high along with everything else! Then we'll really be the laughingstock of the Heavens!"
It wasn't just Loki hopping mad. Even the usually composed Astraea and Artemis wore rare looks of utter stupefaction.
"Demeter, this is..."
Astraea pulled her winter cloak tighter around herself, her brow knit. She opened her mouth and then closed it again, her expression full of conflict and helplessness.
Compared to her hesitant friend, Artemis was far more blunt. Expressionless, she delivered the fatal blow:
"Demeter, there's no way your familia's getting out of a fine and a disciplinary action this time."
"Sigh, lucky for you your coffers run deep. If it were our familia, we'd probably just declare bankruptcy on the spot."
The moment Artemis finished, the perpetually cash-strapped gods like Loki and Astraea all turned to Demeter in unison, their eyes a complicated mix of envy and a touch of sympathy.
Demeter's smile froze.
All I wanted was for you to show off a little in front of my friends, make me look good, and indulge my tiny bit of vanity.
Who told you to go drop an AoE on the whole city?!
The thought of the sky-high fine the Guild was about to hand out made even Demeter, who sat on vast tracts of land and had money to burn, feel a sharp ache in her chest.
She really was rich, true enough...
But that didn't mean she was willing to let the Guild fleece her!
Not far behind the gods.
The Mages of every race, led by Riveria, all stood frozen in place, staring blankly at the scene before them slowly turning into a world of winter, as though struck by lightning.
The elf Mage of Artemis Familia looked toward Riveria, her voice strained:
"Lady Riveria, that technique the Shadow of Sorcery just used, could it possibly be..."
The royal elf, leaning on one of the Five Supreme Staves, wore a complicated expression:
"Circle Linking, Inherited Chanting, Linked Chanting..."
She murmured under her breath, each term pushing against the limits of what she thought possible.
"This, this is clearly the high-level technique you must master to cast the ancient Great Magic... and today, of all things, I witnessed it with my own eyes in a young human Mage!"
Great Magic... that was the strategic-grade ritual magic that belonged solely to the ancient elves and Spirits. Beyond requiring several top-tier Mages casting in concert, it came with a tremendous price: at the lightest, a shortened lifespan; at the heaviest, the self burned away entirely, reduced to ash.
The conditions for casting it were so harsh that the vast majority of casters were left no choice but to give up before they began.
"But... judging by the range and power of this blizzard, the spell itself still falls within the category of conventional magic. It's just..."
Riveria drew in a deep breath of the freezing air, awe stirring in her eyes:
"Through these all but lost techniques, he has raised the magic's range, area, casting speed, and final power... all of it beyond the limit!"
As she spoke, Riveria looked once more at Leon's back, arms flung wide, and her gaze grew impossibly complex.
"Orario's got itself one hell of a young man..."
On the stretch of North Street not far from the Adventurers Plaza, the fighting had ground into a stalemate.
Loki Familia's main force had taken heavy losses under the Spirit Soldiers' fierce assault. Apart from the Lv.5 Gareth and three veteran Lv.4 members, only the remaining Lv.3s and a handful of Lv.2 one-trick specialists were still gritting their teeth and hanging on.
And just as the situation hung by a thread...
A blast of bone-cutting cold wind howled past, and every movement on the battlefield, the Spirit Soldiers included, ground to a halt.
"What is this...!?"
Everyone's eyes went wide as they turned toward Babel, now transformed into a pure white world.
"Wh-what's going on?"
Basram was just as bewildered, completely unable to understand... why his proudest creations had suddenly turned so sluggish.
It was like watching high-ping players lag out.
"What the hell?"
"Just a little interference from some magic and they're already breaking down?"
"Don't tell me the completion rate wasn't high enough? Damn it... too rushed after all, the tuning never got finished..."
Gareth and the others sharply caught the lag and stutter in the Spirit Soldiers' movements.
He shot a glance at Basram's ugly expression and narrowed his eyes:
"The temperature change is interfering with his control over the Spirit Soldiers. Looks like there's a problem with the link between that crozier controller and them."
"Seems his half-baked technique isn't quite up to snuff."
"Gareth, this is our chance!"
"Aye, let's go!"
Basram heard their exchange loud and clear, and his whole face flushed crimson:
"Damn you all...!!! How dare you bunch of savages look down on me!"
Gareth said nothing, only swung his blade with everything he had.
"Fuck!"
Adventurers Street, Guild Headquarters.
A flurry of frantic footsteps drew nearer, and the new arrival kicked open the luxurious doors of the Guild Master's office with a crash!
"R-report!"
"G-Gu-Gu-Guild Master, sir...!"
"S-something terrible's happened!"
Royman shot a glance at the gilded doors, now thoroughly wrecked, his brow twisting into a hard knot, and fixed the bursting-in staffer with a grim stare:
"If what you're about to say isn't worth the price of that door... then pack your things and get out this instant!"
The staffer who'd rushed in was bloodless, even his lips trembling:
"Guild Master, the front line... something huge has happened on the front line!"
Royman cut him off impatiently:
"Didn't we already send the centrist factions to reinforce them!? What's gone wrong now!"
The staffer pointed a shaking hand out the window, his voice full of terror:
"It's, it's, it's Demeter Familia's Shadow of Sorcery! He... he, he, he set off a massive wide-area annihilation magic... inside the city!"
"What?????"