What in the world was going on? This wasn't supposed to be how it went.

Luccoka the Conflagration was feeling faint. Why? Because she was being overwhelmed by a single, moon forsaken summon and a swarm of blades that the skill user wasn't even paying attention to.

Just who in the world was this man? All she recalled about him was being informed of Oru and Bobopahn's deaths apparently caused by Andihar Dayarunar, Gul Ougi, and then this guy. Eik Magnasen.

As far as she could tell, this man had just kind of turned up out of nowhere. She had dug around for some answers and found that he had actually been to Luna before abducting their Oracle—a transgression that still sent her blood into a boil—just a few years ago. But what didn't make sense was that he had not been an S-ranker back then.

But he clearly was now.

As a matter of fact, he hadn't even seemed to be an A-ranker yet, given the fact that he had apparently been brought to Luna by some half mad man who himself had been A-rank at the time. For a reason about which she had been unable to find anything but unreliable rumors, the Oracle had summoned him directly to her chambers where they had discussed… something.

Shortly thereafter he had fled, and after a couple of years, the Oracle had stopped appearing in public. Luccoka had gone to Luna herself to see what was going on, but Qarr the Pillar had refused to enlighten her.

Qarr… the rotten bastard. He never failed to seize an opportunity to display himself as standing near the hierarchical peak of Moon Shall Swallow. What a load of shit that was. She was Luccoka the Conflagration! A Great General of the Moon, just like Qarr! They were supposed to be equals and yet he dare dismiss her and keep her from seeing her Lady?

All of these thoughts raced through Luccoka's mind as Eik Magnasen shot toward her at speed she was just able to see coming. But actually reacting was a different matter.

Gritting her teeth, she redirected the beam of laser-like flame at Eik, allowing the damned dragon to rip into her back as it passed by her at unbelievable speed. But the man reacted smoothly, small spheres of glittering blue forming in the air beside him and instantly exploding and thrusting him bodily out of the way, narrowly dodging the beam.

He flew out of the way a couple more times before jetting past her ear, but by the time she turned around to follow him with her eyes, he had already put his feet on a solid plate and detonated another cluster of crystal spheres, completely reversing his trajectory.

Before she could get her focused flames on him again, his palm slammed into her throat and carried her off the rooftop. Her hand came up to scorch his face but he seized her by the wrist, hissing with pain as the radiating heat burned his hand painfully.

A dozen needles sprung from his palm and directly into her throat and neck allowing for the poison to be injected freely through their hollow lengths. She croaked as her skin began to glow brightly, temperatures rising rapidly. Eik was about to let go, his fingers blistering, but before he did, she exploded like a solar flare, ripples of fiery waves surging over him.

She continued to fall downward while Eik was thrown back up again. Smoke swelled off her body for a moment before it dispersed, her skin white hot and blazing. It was a skill that looked remarkably like Olivia's Corporeal Flame which turned her body into an inferno. But she could only maintain the effect for a brief period before having to cool down.

Whether this S-ranked fire mage had the same kind of limitations on her skills, Eik didn't know but even if she did, it would probably be significantly longer than Olivia's. He couldn't expect her to run out of steam anytime soon.

She screamed shrilly as another explosion tore out of her, shattering a dozen buildings around her and thrusting Eik even further away, the heat worsening the burns on his skin. She seemed to be in terrible pain, as if her own flames were harming her from the inside out.

He threw a spear but a gout of flame seemingly considerably hotter than before destroyed it mid air, while the shards from Apocalypse Canvas burned up before they could even make contact. The boosted Profound Toxic dragon had also decided to keep its distance for now although it continuously spat globs of liquid toxin at the woman.

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The potency of her counterattacks was such that most of it was blown apart before it could hit, but what did sizzled vigorously but didn't evaporate and continued to flow over her body. Fiery aura cracked out but even that wasn't enough to disperse the Profound Toxin as it slithered relentlessly into her wounds.

Seeing that, Eik sent torrents of liquid toxin after her. With a tail of flames trailing her, she soared skyward, rapid bands of toxin chasing her like birds of prey. Going into a wide arc, she dove for Eik in an attempt to force him into close quarters, but he went into a careful retreat putting distance between them and the Alliance troops nearer the city wall.

She desperately tried to avoid the tidal wave-like waves of toxin washing over her, but there was simply too much moving too fast for her to dodge it all. The unfortunate truth was that Eik Magnasen was stronger than her.

She was going all out to finish him off, the pain of swallowing hot coals searing through her, but she could tell that he was still playing it safe to reduce collateral damage.

Well, if that was the case…

Abruptly, she did a one eighty and rocketed in the direction of the rest of the Alliance troops, hurling enormous balls of flame into the distance heading straight for the fighting armies.

"Fuck!" Eik hissed and pumped everything into high gear as he zipped after her, the residual heat left behind as she moved wafting into his face. Mentally he roared at full lung, hoping dearly that he would make it. A grin split his lips when more than twenty Profound Toxic beasts—the same ones that had carried emaciated prisoners away—leapt into the sky like dogs jumping for a frisbee.

The mid air blasts as the fireballs collided with them made it feel as if the sun had moved closer to the planet. If anyone was killed, it would be an extreme minority compared to what could have happened if they had been allowed to reach their targets.

"What the fuck are you thinking, you crazy witch?" Eik howled, quickly approaching her. "Your own damned allies are down there as well!"

She laughed maniacally as she glanced over her shoulder, five more fireballs already forming in her palm. "That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make! Are you?"

Snarling, Eik's hand flew up, fingers curling as he directed a mass of toxic liquid to envelop her completely. In a moment she unleashed another high-energy explosion, dispersing it all in a moment. But Eik had vanished when she looked again.

She barely had a fracture of a second to think before he materialized out of the poison she had just sent flying, right in front of her face. His eyes were hard and decisive as he drove a long, slender blade through her chest, toxin pouring into the wound in abundant quantities.

In that same moment, a massive pressure suddenly settled over her as her head lolled back, her consciousness beginning to fade. Her eyes wandered skyward where a terrifying sight widened them to dinner plates. She tried speak, but all that would come out was a wet gurgle as blood flooded her throat.

She couldn't tear away her gaze. And the titanic blue king stared right back, his glowing eyes piercing all the way to her very soul. Could it be…? Had the Great Lord finally descended upon reality once more?

A faint smile touched her lips as blood ran down her chin. Their mission was a success! Hah! These Nidafjeld bastards had struggled in vain as she had always known they would. Pathetic.

The moment felt as if it stretched into eternity, until a voice ripped her from her reverie. "I guess the big guy came out inadvertently, huh?" Eik Magnasen muttered to himself, following her gaze upward. "It's something I only learned recently. I think he is supposed to represent me. I'm the Monarch of Toxin, y'see," he explained, drawing a crown in the air above his head with a finger like the crown floating above the Monarch's head. "I'm the king," he grinned.

Confused, she stared at him. "N-No…" she managed. "That… can't…" Eik's blue skin had practically been boiling but now her blaze was beginning to splutter and lose its heat. The soothing cool of Panacean Quintessence was already flowing over him.

Eik shrugged. "Sucks to be you."

"My… My Lord," she rasped breathlessly, eyes seeking the visage of the Monarch above once more. "My Lord, please. Demonstrate your disapproval of—" she said but was interrupted by a fit of coughing but suppressed it with something akin to anger but her voice was still frail from injury. "Demonstrate your disapproval of this filthy infidel! Smite him and display your divine wrath!"

The azure Monarch simply stared at her. She stared back in silence.

"Send me a finger heart full of love," Eik said to the avatar. A massive, ghostly thumb crossed a ghostly index finger, obeying the order perfectly. "See? He's my friend, not yours."

"N-No… No way," she gasped.

"Yes way," he said as blue enveloped her like ferrofluid around a metal cube. Weakened, she tried to deploy both aura and flame to get it off her but it cause little more than ripples as the substance constricted around her without mercy and more and more gathered.

Quickly reaching an impressive five meter across, Eik sent the spherical prison shooting straight into the air at speed and watched as it nearly touched the clouds above, quietly hovering for a second. His fingers which had been curled in a claw now tightened into a fist, the toxin reacting violently.

Like when he had annihilated the A-rankers at the other cult base just recently, the earth shook with the boom overhead. In the center of the explosion, flames briefly danced through the air before dying and leaving no trace of the mage.

Eik hopped into the air as the dragon passed between his legs and caught him on its shoulders, carrying him off toward the Alliance troops.

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