My feet fell to the ground as the cavern lit into a kaleidoscope of colors. Runes of every color lit up both the floor and walls. Though weirdly enough the ceiling had nothing around it but empty groves. Furthermore it was all plain, like someone had whitewashed it to prepare it for something else.

I could feel the idle aether that seemed to suffuse the place, it wasn't immediately noticeable but when I started to sense around I felt it. The way that the aether seemed to be drawn from the outside and into here only to be deposited in caches that littered the whole room.

My head rose to the sky as I saw Aoif and Delta fall, well it was more like Delta fell to the ground and Aoif was placed down but that was beside the point. Delta's dress was ruffled but that was the extent of the damage that had been done to her by the fall.

Compared to what I had endured when I fell it seemed unfair but I couldn't begrudge Delta for taking care of Aoif, she was her summon either way.

It wasn't even a problem that I was injured as with a silent application of aether the wound was healed though I idly noted that it seemed slower.

"Hm.." I hummed as my head perked up again from my thoughts. A voice had echoed into the chamber just like a whisper into the ears of our own. Effusing the whole of the room I felt as the vibrations translated into words.

"I welcome you."

The same voice that I had conversed with earlier and stabbed in the heart said, it was one of supreme smugness. One that seemed to have supreme confidence in themselves even to a point of arrogance.

Though how he could feel the strength of all three of us and still be this confident was beyond me. He had seen the way that Delta had dispatched his servants with even more ease than I. He must have seen how relaxed she was and how easy it was for Aoif and I together to get through his defenses yet despite this he was still confident.

If it wasn't so stupid I would have applauded him for having that much confidence.historical

"It seems that you have passed the initial defenses," The glowing runes that sufficed the whole room glowed in all colors of the rainbow. "Though I'd like to see you get passed this"

With that the voice disappeared, various elements and objects thrown at us. Instantly though they disintegrated as a hail of bullets shot down every single thing that had been thrown towards us.

My eyes could barely track as every effect was suppressed under the hail of bullets that Delta had sent out. Hell, I couldn't even see when Delta had had the time to bring her rifle out and reload at such a speed that she was able to negate and destroy everything that had been sent at us.

The balls of fire, pillars of lightning, even esoteric effects that I could not discern the effects of were destroyed. Nothing was spared.

More shots fired out when I had thought they were done. However apparently Delta had deemed it necessary to break the room around us.

Everything was in shambles, the runes that had once stood proudly against the white washed walls were reduced to nothing but rubble.

It felt anti climactic, for it to end this way. Not in a final battle that ended in me or Aoif killing this man but in Delta shooting a hail of bullets in her annoyance.

And I could tell it was annoyance, just look at her face. The slight twitch of her lips, the narrowing of her lone eye. Though the most obvious tell was her demeanor, the relaxed pose that she seemed to carry through everything was gone. It was replaced by one of a tapping foot, a clenched hand, tensed muscles.

Everything about her screamed annoyance though to someone that didn't know her it would seem normal.

My hand reached to my forehead. They messaged it while my mouth sent out a sigh. Although the battle was over we still had to capture that mage and I didn't want Delta to interfere. However I doubted whether or not she would agree to let me do this seeing as how dangerous he could be.

"You can"

Delta had appeared in my face, her eye staring into my own.

As if to elaborate her voice sounded in my mind.

"Aoif would ask and I wouldn't go against her"

I just nodded at this, my glare no longer aimed at her but at the room around us. I needed to find where he was hiding out for there was no way that he wasn't somewhere near.

Unless he had an inordinate amount of time to just dig out such a chunk of this castle and the ground around it then I may actually be wrong but I doubted it.

This place was so heavily guarded that I couldn't even tell if I would have been able to survive without Delta's help. However, that didn't mean that I couldn't face that mage. This was all made with prep time. Time that I was not going to give him.

Which was why I needed to find him soon. Before he had the time to make any preparations. Though speaking of preparations I needed to prepare my own. If he was able to use whatever it was that sealed the aether in my body from being used for me then I would need to reinforce myself before the mage had a chance to do that to me.

So while I was looking around I idly reinforced my body. Green light sufficing every muscle that I could reinforce. Pretty soon my whole body was reinforced to its limit.

It was about that time that I found where he was hiding, an explosion of flames breaking against the already prepared barrier of mine.

Finally the cowardly mage had shown himself. Of course it was after so much of his base was blown up by us, well mostly Delta but I had contributed to some of it and if it was up to me I would have done all of it.

However that wasn't the point right now. Now I needed to focus on the actual mage. His hood that had obscured his face upon our first meeting was now blown away by the intense wind that had been caused by the shots fired by Delta.

I could finally actually see what he looked like and I was surprised. It wasn't a he at all but neither was it a she. It was a better monoker for it as it was not human like at all. Neither did it have any distinguishing features that would set it to either sex. Its face was a mix of a pale beauty and a handsome man but it didn't have an Adam's apple. It didn't even have any breasts or even a chest. It was like a plate of plastic that was formed in the shape of the perfect being.

Whatever this thing was, it was not natural. It was made by something and for it to grow to this power. Enough that I had difficulty hunting it despite my power as a tier 3, its creator was most likely as strong if not stronger than it.

Those thoughts were torn from my mind as the thing attacked me, the spear staff combination poised to gauge my eyes out. Of course I was already ready for this. I had prepared beforehand and analyzed the patterns of our previous fight.

It seemed as though this thing liked going for the eye as nine times out of ten the target of its attack was going to be my eye. It was that exact statistic that I had preemptively created barriers around both of my eyes that were supercharged in return for their power.

It was a significant drain on my reserves, to be able to block the attack of this being but it was worth it as the surprise of me not only disregarding the attack but advancing gave me the chance to bring Memoria up and slash the things head clean off.

However it had dodged, the cloak around him had fallen off and taken the hit. It obscured my vision.

The only thing that saved me from death was the pinging of a bullet against the spear he held.

The force of the bullet was enough to break the staff which it did. A snap echoing through the room as the mage looked on.

Shock was apparent on its face but it quickly recomposed itself. However it didn't do it fast enough as it backed up only to have its hand cut off.

Blood spurt from the stump. A scream of bloody pain echoed out as it closed its eyes in pain.

How it had gotten this far without a pain tolerance, I did not know, but I wasn't going to waste my chance.

Green aether sufficed my being as the idle aether that I had suppressed in the air showed itself.

I raised my foot and kicked off a barrier that I had generated. It gave me enough speed that I was able to reach the neck of my opponent in but a moment. Before it could even react it was dead, its head cut off.