The four of them huddled in the very center of the circular plaza, every eye fixed on a different direction, their heavy breathing clearly audible in the dead silence.
"They're here..." Ansu warned in a cold voice.
As the sound of the war drums grew more rapid, countless demon undead surged forward silently.
Ansu had been focusing his mind for a long time, and he was the first to blast a Fireball toward those creatures.
The flames erupted, and the blinding light instantly engulfed the front row of the undead, blowing their rotting bodies apart as a pungent stench of burning flesh filled the air.
However, that gap vanished in an instant as more undead stepped over the remains of their companions and continued to swarm forward.
"We're dead, we're really dead..." Eddie's voice carried a fearful sob.
Those undead spirits, their eyes burning with ghostly green light and bearing an eternal curse, seemed infinite...
Eddie slumped to the ground in despair, no longer even raising his gun to resist, his spirit nearly broken.
They were indeed dead... Ansu numbly cast one attack spell after another, but the numbers of the demon undead only seemed to grow.
Ansu subconsciously glanced at Celia, who still had her eyes tightly shut and had not yet made a move.
She seemed to be performing some kind of... 'meditation' ritual that he couldn't understand, and at this moment, her body was slowly floating into the air.
Ansu intentionally saved his remaining mana and pulled the 【Mage Killer】 from his waist, then rushed in front of the terrified Eddie and snatched the lever-action rifle from his hands.
Aside from his own 'special weapon', the weapons carried by the team were all alchemical firearms designed by Professor Duncan, which was why Eddie, a regular person, had been able to follow the team to the very end.
With the rifle in his left hand and the revolver in his right, Ansu began to frantically pour firepower into the surging demon undead.
Every time he ran out of bullets, his Mage's Hand would quickly reload the weapons, and the firepower he unleashed alone was even more terrifying than the entire team's at the start.
But even so... it still had little impact on the overall situation.
Shooting the head off another undead, Ansu panted heavily in exhaustion.
The living corpse versions of the demon soldiers were manageable, but there were also more translucent ghost soldiers surging here that didn't even have physical bodies; even if he blasted a group with magic, more would simply refresh in their place...
Ansu looked up urgently at Celia.
The witch had finally made her move.
Ansu immediately felt that she was frantically absorbing all the stray mana in the air, and even the magical fire on the ignition pedestals flickered violently.
Professor Duncan looked up in shock. "What... what is she doing?"
Ansu didn't know what she had just done either, but Celia's mana indeed became abundant, and when she finally opened her eyes, a terrifying magical force like a storm caused space itself to twist violently, tearing apart all the undead that approached the group...
Celia looked down coldly at the ground, having already become a pure killing machine.
Wherever her mana reached, the demon undead were torn into fragments by the dozen, dissipating into the air, and the boundless ghostly green light even dimmed for a moment...
"I think I understand..." Professor Duncan stared upward in amazement. "She's using her own body as a mana relay station, not even needing to construct complex spell models... magic is being released so easily... Heavens, can magic really be used this way?"
Professor Duncan became more shocked the more he watched. "No, no... I'm wrong, this isn't even magic!"
"She's just using the most pure, violent, and chaotic raw mana... without any conversion. Is Hailey... is she insane? This is suicide!!"
Hearing Professor Duncan say this, Ansu looked up at Celia in the air with surprise and concern.
Because she was constantly enduring the violent raw mana, the black cracks on her body spread wildly like growing tentacles, soon covering her entire body.
Celia's arms and calves were rapidly cracking, and foul black blood continuously dripped down; meanwhile, those dark red eyes became increasingly dull and lifeless...
At this moment, the young witch was indeed burning her life away...
"Everyone is mad... everyone has been driven mad..." The despairing Professor Duncan had actually become much clearer in his mind.
He looked down at Eddie, who was already in a daze, and chuckled bitterly. "Ansu, is it too late for me to regret... I'm truly sorry for this child. We've ended up like this all because of my greed..."
"If you feel regret, then take Senior Brother Eddie out of here alive!" Ansu stuffed the lever-action rifle into his hands. " I can barely even cast Mage's Hand anymore. Reload for me!"
"Alright... alright!"
Professor Duncan took the lever-action rifle, his expression becoming one of absolute determination.
...
The violent raw mana tore through the air, and the thunderous gunshots from the triggered alchemical bullets were constant...
Time passed agonizingly minute by minute, and even Ansu's finger on the trigger began to grow stiff and tremble...
But the battle never ended.
As one wave of undead died, a new wave would refresh; the sound of war drums echoed continuously deep underground, and the ghostly fire in the eyes of those endless undead spirits grew more piercing, as if mocking the world of the living with the utmost malice.
Why hasn't it ended yet......
Even with such a grand performance of slaughter, is the god still not satisfied? Just how long is He going to sleep?
Ansu looked at the mangled corpses of Professor Duncan and Eddie not far away, and the sense of despair in his heart grew deeper...
Even though Celia was persisting, even paying the price of burning her life, Ansu still felt that this simulation... was going to end in failure...
It wasn't that he didn't believe in the witch, but he really didn't know where the turning point was...
Because he hadn't even touched the edge of the demon army's treasure, especially that 'ancient magic inheritance', so naturally, his core plan could not be realized, and everything following it would have to change strategy...
Lost as to how to break the deadlock next, Ansu put down the alchemical revolver that had run out of bullets and sighed deeply.
This simulation should be over, right...
"Ansu! Don't give up!!"
Celia seemed to sense Ansu's negative emotions, and she shouted loudly with a raspy, harsh voice, "Did you forget! You promised me that we would survive together!"
Ansu had clearly promised her!
That he would stay with me forever! So that I would never be lonely!
She hadn't given up even while risking her life, so how could Ansu just give up like this!?
"I..." Ansu let out a helpless, bitter smile.
The witch didn't know this was just a simulation; to her, this was their reality.
"This is not the end of fate! This is not our conclusion!!"
Celia forced herself to endure the tearing sensation throughout her body, her beautiful face twisting in pain, but those dark red eyes were always filled with the determination to never give up.
"Ansu! Believe me! We will definitely live! We will definitely live until the end!!"
I must survive together with Ansu!
Otherwise...
Celia could not imagine such a future, a future without Ansu...
She could not accept it!!
The mana surge around her became even more violent, and the undead army was being destroyed with crushing force as Ansu quietly gazed at those blood-red eyes that were always watching him.
"Alright, I promise you."
Then...
I'll fight to the very end, to the end of my life, with the witch.
Celia's determined and firm gaze constantly lingered in Ansu's mind, which also caused his thoughts to calm down again as he began to reconsider this never-ending 'sacrificial ritual'.
In his 'previous life', Celia had maintained her sanity throughout endless battles because of extreme hatred; this almost terrifying obsession had even drawn the gaze of the evil god.
But this time the situation was different; Celia had not blackened, she had not suffered the betrayal of her teacher, so naturally, she didn't have such extreme psychological activity...
In fact, during the first half of this trip, the witch had acted as if she were on vacation...
Because his existence had become the most stable anchor in her heart, this small boat caught in the surging storm always had a warm harbor to rely on.
Because she had me.
And she only had me...
Ansu stared blankly at Celia, who was burning herself in mid-air, and a thought suddenly occurred to him.
Huh?
I have a plan!
Ansu suddenly had a stroke of inspiration and seemed to have found a good way to break the deadlock...
How about... I die for a bit first?
Ansu suddenly wanted to try... an 'exit plan' he had pondered before; if he feigned death for a while now, with Celia in this state, she shouldn't have much sanity left to check carefully, so the success rate of the plan should be very high.
That's right, feign death for a bit.
Then trigger the witch's bone-deep hatred to make her replicate the blackened state from the original plot... that way...
The evil god might really be startled and wake up, giving this place a glance...
And if he could obtain the god's recognition, and the demon army's treasure and magic inheritance really appeared here... Ansu could use his method of mastering 【proficiency】 just by flipping through them to light up various skill icons like adding items to a shopping cart.
According to the original plot's path, there was a high probability he could find that soul black magic of the old crone, or the corresponding solution, because the blackened version of Celia had escaped that way back then!
Plan successful!
Ansu looked around; the current battle situation was also developing in a direction favorable to him, because Celia was about to reach her limit.
The violent mana storm disappeared for a brief moment, and the boundless demon undead were once again surging toward him.
The final moment had arrived.
"Damn it! I'm going for it!!" Ansu gripped his rifle in reverse and swung it ferociously at the heads of those demon undead.
Celia watched in horror as Ansu was submerged by the undead and let out a heart-wrenching scream.
"Ansu!!!"
Rate on N.U.
