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Chapter 292 – All-Heaven Festival Contest Final Stage “Demon King Castle Bloody Field” (14) / Upheaval

292 – All-Heaven Festival Contest Final Stage “Demon King Castle Bloody Field” (14) / Upheaval

When I heard that Panacea had reached the realm of White Sorcery, the first thing that crossed my mind was my own Black Sorcery.

But I can’t use it.

Not yet.

Besides, this is a fight as a Support-class.

It’s foolish to think that I’d be fighting here with just my own power, considering we have the three Four Great Spirit Contractors on our side,

No, there’s another person.

“Destroyer” Fran.

She steps forward from among the other three and goes for Panacea all by herself.

If the intuition of the “Destroyer” is telling her that she’s “strong regardless”, then that move will probably lead her to victory.

I don’t think she’s wrong either.

It’s common knowledge that Wizards are weak in close combat, and Panacea’s combat ability isn’t actually all that high.

She may be great, but she won’t suddenly become physically stronger.

Driving a Wizard into a close-range combat is a simple effective way to deal with them, just like Altreed had done with me.

Therefore, Fran deliberately steps forward.

Now she is different from before, moving purely by instinct.

She’s probably thinking about her own “value as a piece” in this battle.

Though getting close enough to Panacea to force her into close quarters may be the right thing to do, she might still have an ace up her sleeve.

In such a scenario, between herself and all three of the Four Great Spirit Contractors, it would be better if she were to be taken out — the loss for the team as a whole would be less impactful.

Her actions tell me that this might be what she’s thinking about.

This probably wasn’t her thinking that this was her time to shine.

Immediately after her move, all four battles on the adventurer’s side would be stirred on a grand scale.

◇

The “Destroyer” Fran goes for Panacea, who is located at the very back end of the enemy adventurer party.

But in order to do that, she first would have to slip past the “Sacred Knight” Maximillian.

Normally that wouldn’t be so simple, but…

Right now, the four adventurers on our side are battling it out with “Silver Bow” Orion, and on top of that, he also has to protect his own teammate, the “Good Witch” Rogestilla.

It’s a very busy scenario for the “Sacred Knight”.

Even so, he reacted to Fran’s advance… Or at least, he tried to.

A wall of ice suddenly rose to prevent him from reaching Fran.

It was the “Frost Hero” Bella’s magic.

I suppose she temporarily left Ewan in charge of dealing with Orion’s arrows and went off to help Fran with her advance.

Such a thin wall of ice wouldn’t be too hard for Maximillian to break through, but its main function is to restrict his movements for even a second.

And a delay of even a single second could have a fatal effect on his current work.

Should I go protect Panacea, even if that means putting the teammates I’m protecting now in danger?

「Don’t worry, I’m fine.」

Hearing Panacea’s voice, Maximillian immediately made a decision.

He’d focus on protecting Orion and Rogestilla.

「Come here, Fran. I’ll give you a hug.」

「…I’ll destroy you.」

「If you do that, then Auntie will fix it all up, don’t you worry.」

A sudden burst of speed in a low posture that leaves would leave even a four-legged beast behind.

With Fran’s current momentum, it would be better for anyone to get run over by a carriage than get in her way.

And the two came into contact… an Avatar exploded.

「Wha…」

The one who shouted that was Wraith.

It’s only natural.

After all, the Avatar that exploded was the one his childhood friend had been using.

If I hadn’t been paying attention, I wouldn’t have noticed it. I might not have been able to see anything if not for my eyes having been trained to some extent through the combat guidance I received from Furcus.

But the three Heroes must have been able to see it clearly.

First of all, Fran’s attack was successful.

Half of Panacea’s body had definitely been blown away… and immediately after that, she finished regenerating.

It’s a level of Healing Magic that could very well be called “Immortality”. Something only attainable by Slimes, who can instantly regenerate any damage done to any part of their bodies other than their cores, or high-ranking Vampires with the “Semi-Immortal” Job.

Such a spell must have been prepared in advance as well.

And considering the fact that Panacea is a White Sorcerer, there’s only one thing that could have made Fran’s body disappear.

An unbearable amount of Healing Magic must have been poured into Fran’s healthy body.

But how did Panacea manage to pour enough Magical Energy to make “Destroyer” Fran’s Avatar explode… Ah.

Panacea had regenerated her body from the upper body downwards.

Healing magic doesn’t regenerate clothing, so she ended up being half-naked.

She had been wearing a typical White Sorcerer’s long robe, so all she had to do in order to reduce her sense of discomfort was to close the remains of her clothes in front of her.

The average spectator will never know what happened.

Anyway, the fact that she started regenerating from the upper half of her body means that the part that suffered damage was her lower half.

In other words, her Magical Energy organ had been saved.

「I’m imitating you again, Lem.」

The “Destroyer” was just strong.

It would’ve been too hard to try to avoid being taken out by Fran’s sheer power.

Therefore, she accepted it.

Fran remained strong. Fran’s attack remained unavoidable.

Instead of resisting the nature of the “Destroyer”, she embraced it and used it against her.

Panacea punished Fran for destroying her.

She had made it possible by circulating White Magic within her Magical Energy organ.

So you just saw it once and recreated it?

Did she actually reproduce what I did to Altreed, but with White Magic?

If that’s the case, then she would have been able to build up a lot of Magical Energy into her own body without alerting Fran about it.

It’s as if Fran had punched right into a bomb.

An amount of Healing Magical Energy too overwhelming for a healthy human being coursed through her entire body, causing it to explode.

And another terrifying fact comes to light because of that.

Gathering the amount of Healing Magical Energy necessary to destroy an Avatar needs time.

And in the meantime, she had set up a pre-made continuous recovery effect onto Hector and kept her “Full Resist” active at all times to ward off my own Black Magic.

She managed to gather all that Magical Energy while being limited by the necessity to pour enough of it into those other actions.

Now that Fran has been taken out by that, we won’t fall for that trick anymore.

So from now on, she will use White Magic without gathering Magical Energy.

In other words, up until now, she had been supporting her allies with a limited amount of Magical Energy.

Now that that limit has been lifted…

She increased Rogestilla’s thinking speed to allow her to construct magical formulae faster, Hector’s attack power to increase the weight of his swordsmanship, Orion’s speed to increase his bow’s fire rate, and Maximillian’s overall physical ability to increase the effective range of his ability to protect his allies.

And then… they were instantly set back to normal.

「Hmm?」

Panacea seems confused by this.

「That’s right, Pana. You didn’t know about him.」

Panacea had thought highly of the Black Sorcerer Lem.

That’s why she thought that there weren’t many Black Sorcerers like Lem in this world.

No wonder Lemegeton was able to weaken his allies with Black Magic as much as she had made them stronger with White Magic.

Such a thing was surely only possible for Lem, who had already been defeated.

The moment Fran crashed into her, Panacea’s “Full Resist” was interrupted for a brief instant.

The act of circulating unfinished magic requires the caster’s full awareness, and it’s only natural that everything else would be interrupted, even if it was only for a moment.

Panacea must have thought about strengthening her allies first before recasting her “Full Resist”.

It made sense. If we were just aiming for Panacea herself, then she’d be able to make that move in time.

And even if she didn’t, White Sorcerers are Support members. Her job was to make her allies stronger.

Actually, Maximillian stood before the three Heroes, making the most use of his momentary buffs.

「Here I am.」

Aerial pulls out his Holy Sword, slashing at Maximillian, but he blocks it with his shield.

Wraith and Fenix ran past them without hesitation.

Both of them can fly, but it’s not a good idea to do it now.

The reason for that is that a magnificent magic battle between Rogestilla and Michel was unfolding.

Fireworks are constantly going off overhead, making it impossible to fly.

「What is your role in taking the enemy on? Has the “Storm Hero” gone soft?」

Maximillian keeps his usual stern face, but his voice is slightly softer.

「Who knows? Maybe defeating you is more exciting.」

「Hmph, I’m glad to hear you say that.」

Good management of magic is necessary when there are many enemies to defeat.

We can’t use our spells haphazardly, since we’re working with a finite amount of Magical Energy.

With the three Four Great Spirit Contractors on our side, even if the enemy before them is a member of a legendary party, they can win by pushing hard enough.

However, brute forcing their way through would consume a great deal of Magical Energy.

With literally the strongest in the world standing behind him, such consumption of Magical Energy could be called arrogance.

Using one’s Magical Energy without reservation would mean that they mistakenly believe that they can fight this battle against the Demon King to the bitter end.

Precisely because they are not like that, the three Four Great Spirit Contractors are fighting while taking how much Magical Energy they’ll need in order to win into consideration.

Having to use “Sky Garden” meant just how much we recognize Panacea’s power.

But more than that…

「I’ll freeze her-…」

「No, we’ll cut her down.」

Fenix interrupted Wraith’s sentence.

We could trap Panacea in ice, but we probably won’t be able to take her out after that.

Cutting down a frozen opponent takes a lot more hits, and even though something like that can certainly do the trick, it wouldn’t look good.

This event isn’t about killing each other. It’s about entertainment, so we need to pay attention to that as well.

Thanks to Fellow’s live commentary, the spectators should be able to understand that both sides are in a situation where they need to focus on taking out the other’s White or Black Sorcerer, but even then, we have that limitation.

Also, if Fenix were to try to burn her down with his flames, he’d probably not be able to kill her unless he uses a lot of firepower.

And in the unlikely event that Panacea survives, her clothes most certainly won’t, so she’ll have to continue participating while naked.

That won’t do either.

In terms of both Magical Energy management and visuals, it would be better to have a Hero defeat her from the front.

「To be approached by two handsome men at my age… I wonder if I’ve reached my peak of popularity.」

「Ahaha, you’re gonna make your husband cry.」

He may be laughing, but there’s something sharp about his voice. Has Fran’s defeat stirred him up a little?

At this point, I could dare to target Maximillian and the others with Black Magic, and force Panacea to use her wide-ranged “Full Resist” and encourage further consumption of Magical Energy from her, but…

No, I’ve already decided on what I’d do next.

I unleash multiple Black Magic spells toward Panacea.

She repels it with a very short-ranged “Full Resist”.

Fenix wraps his Holy Sword in flames, and Wraith does the same with his cold air.

Even if she strengthens herself with her own White Magic, she can’t escape from both Fenix and Wraith.

If the former Demon King’s army and the legendary adventurer party had fought together, the battle would have been tougher, but that wasn’t the case.

Therefore, the world’s best White Sorcerer falls here.

「Even if it’s a single blow from a Holy Sword, I-…」

Fenix slashed from the bottom left to the top right, and Wraith slashed from the bottom right to the top left.

Yes, Panacea.

If it’s you, you can do it.

You can heal yourself even from a slash caused by a Holy Sword.

And if you were to stay on the battlefield even for a little longer, you’ll draw in the pieces called “Heroes” and the Chief of Staff of the Demon King’s army toward you, and that also helps your own allies.

Even if the former Demon King’s army didn’t think they were fighting together, Panacea considered them all as allies and tried to help them by forcing our forces to focus on her.

I know that very well, which is why we’ll end that right now.

Panacea’s Healing Magic does not activate.

「What-…」

How to break through her “Full Resist” and cast Black Magic on her?

I had already found the answer to that question.

It’s compound magic.

A single magic spell created by multiple casters.

I had woven my Black Magic into the flames and cold air that Fenix and Wraith had wrapped around their Holy Swords.

If it was simply a state of Magical Energy as it normally is when I cast it, it would be repelled by “Full Resist”, which is in the same state of Magical Energy.

But once it becomes essentially the same as a magic attack that deals damage, that stops being the case.

“Full Resist” doesn’t protect the caster from damaging spells, such as those that create flames or ice.

That’s why I mixed Black Magic into their flames and cold air, ensuring that Panacea would be slashed by two Holy Swords wrapped in it.

Casting Black Magic on her successfully by dodging her “Full Resist” in such a way in order to disturb her extraordinary level of magic skill…

We had already been able to show this composite magic here at the Festival earlier when I mixed in my Black Magic into the rain Wraith had created.

But the one who had shown to be able to do this was Lem.

And of course, it is extremely difficult for two separate human beings, each with their own consciousness, to create a single magic attack.

It’s not just about having a high level of magic skill. Both an extreme level of concentration and trust between those involved is absolutely necessary for something like this to work.

That’s why, at this moment, we strike her down while her guard is down.

Panacea doesn’t know that Lem is Lemegeton.

She can’t even expect Lemegeton to be able to weave compound magic with Fenix and Wraith.

As she starts to vanish, her eyes find my own.

「You got me…」

「We had no other choice. It’s what we had to do in order to take you down.」

Looking satisfied, she gave me one last smile before her magic particles scattered.

Thus the “Great Saint” Panacea, who had reached the realm of the White Sorcery, exits this stage.

And at about the same time, the remaining three battles on the adventurer’s side also seem to be coming to a conclusion.