The first thing that caught the eye was the massive blood moon spanning half the sky.
Miaoyue was no longer standing on her blood blade; she sat atop that distant, hazy moon, casually playing with her fingers as her dangling legs swayed slightly.
Countless asteroids appeared around the moon, crashing down only to be replaced by more. It was a relentless cycle of manifestation and destruction.
Numerous surrounding stars continuously emitted and converged starlight, bombarding the mana threads and the puppets of various sizes being manipulated by them.
Magical weapons of all shapes and sizes materialized from the void, with swords, spears, and halberds raining down upon the ground in a chaotic torrent.
As the Saintess of the New Moon, Miaoyue possessed a mana pool and spell potency far beyond that of ordinary people.
However, Miaoyue’s precision in spell control was not particularly high. she had always struggled to master abilities like Area Shield or Tracking Spells; this wasn't a matter of effort, but a lack of innate talent.
Even with basic Divine Healing Arts, Miaoyue had studied for ages and couldn't even cast a proper Lesser Heal, let alone a Full Resurrection. If she got hit, she couldn't even restore her own health.
Consequently, once an enemy closed the distance, Miaoyue—unable to release wide-range spells effectively—would find her hands tied. Since she couldn't skillfully manage shields or tracking magic, her defeat would only be a matter of time.
—Hiso knew this too.
That was why the Phase 2 he and Little Yue had researched together was born: to solve this very problem.
If she couldn't control mana precisely, then she simply wouldn't.
She would open with the Forbidden Spell Gravity Reversal, forcing everyone in the area into an anti-gravity field and a vacuum environment where they had nothing to push off of.
This would be immediately followed by the Forbidden Spell Void Form, replacing her health bar with her mana bar and transforming her body into a state of pure mana.
Finally, the Forbidden Spell Genesis would recreate the elements of earth, fire, and wind to forge a giant moon. This moon increased mana regeneration, spell power, and casting speed, while cleansing all status ailments every second. Miaoyue herself would then relocate directly to the lunar surface.
Once these three Forbidden Spells were cast, Miaoyue was fully 'activated.'
Within the range of the giant moon, she could cast spells without any incantation time.
Forbidden Spell: Starfall, Forbidden Spell: Full Moon, Forbidden Spell: Seven Stars, Forbidden Spell: Moon's Treasury, Forbidden Spell: Starlight Shield, Forbidden Spell: Comet, Forbidden Spell: Quasar...
Even if an attack managed to reach the moon, it would be blocked by the endless layers of the basic spell, Particle Wall.
She was like a crown princess seated upon a lunar throne, looking down with disdain upon any rebels who dared to invade her domain.
—The bombardment of consecutive Forbidden Spells would not stop until the New Moon Witch exhausted her mana.
Back then, even before performing the Moon Rite, Miaoyue could already sustain such a barrage for a day and a night.
Five hundred years had passed; Sophie couldn't say for sure what Miaoyue’s current mana reserves were like.
Coupled with the various survival-oriented general traits Sophie had ground out for the heroines...
The Hero’s stats were undoubtedly high; in terms of pure DPS, she was even higher than the Witches.
But if she wanted to eliminate a Witch quickly...
Unfortunately, the initial goal of every Destined Crown’s development was to be 'able to hold out until Hiso arrives to save them.'
Either you broke their bodies during a non-combat phase, or you didn't.
Now that they had both activated their final forms, what else could be done?
There was no need to worry about the fight lasting forever, though. To prevent the heroines from getting stuck in a loop due to taunt or rage effects, Hiso had prepared a Forced Calm skill that would trigger after three days.
Once that skill activated, the Destined Crowns would enter a Sage Mode where they’d realize that fighting over jealousy was meaningless, and they would go their separate ways.
This was also the safety net Hiso had prepared for himself back then, lest he be caught 'cheating' by one of the Destined Crowns during the plot. It prevented him from being relentlessly hammered by an enemy he couldn't stop. After all, they were all his girls, and Hiso would never lay a hand on them.
He only had to wait for the Forced Calm to kick in, then step forward and use his expert Galgame veteran linguistic skills to coax them. Once they were appeased, it would be over.
Though, in the end, he had never actually needed to use it.
Using concise language and omitting her own involvement, Sophie explained her understanding of the Witches' mechanics to Kaila in simple terms.
“The best way is for us to just run. Leave Solitude, go to the snowfields, the desert... wait for them to finish fighting and then come back,” Sophie said earnestly.
As soon as Sophie finished speaking, before Kaila could respond, Servant A let out a sound of sudden realization.
“No wonder every time you challenge a Witch, Miss Hill tells us to go pick up your beaten-down body three days later. So there really is a Forced Calm mechanic.”
Kaila’s eyes widened. “What... beaten down? That was... resting after battle!”
A flush quickly spread across her usually expressionless face.
“A duel... can’t be called being beaten up. When it comes to a Hero, can you really call it losing?”
The girl’s blush spoke louder than any words.
She then began muttering incomprehensible things, like “I clearly won but then her health suddenly refilled,” “they all dodge around like eels,” “after finishing one phase there’s a Phase 2, and after Phase 4 there’s a Phase 5,” and “they even drink potions to heal while fighting.”
“Exactly... exactly,” Sophie said quickly. “I believe you have potential, Miss Hero. Let’s make a tactical retreat for now. Once I’ve designed a training regimen for you and you’ve completed it, we can come back and handle these Witches, how about that?”
Rate on N.U.
