Extra's Abyss-Chapter 34: Rift[4]

Meanwhile, Ericka was holding her own; just when she was occupied guarding against three fallen rank attacks, another one sneaked up behind her to land a devastating attack.

As the attack landed, a metal rod pierced through the ice bear, splashing green blood over the snow.

The other rankers soon arrived to take over, taking on the injured ice bears. Ericka nodded at the other rankers while she flew towards Catherine, intending to support her.

Entering the Azure Domain, she marveled at it, the concept she aimed for after reaching the S rank, refocusing on the battle.

Ericka used her mana sense to find Catherine; her golden wings formed behind her as she sped through the domain while maneuvering through the harsh weather inside and upon nearing the centipede monster.

She glanced at Catherine, who was facing off against a frenzied primal rank monster.

Taking the time, Catherine was stalling the centipede; she began to construct a large-scale light magic spell, having noticed the dark mana pulsating from the monster.

Layers of magic circles began to form; soon seven intricate layers of circles were fully manifested, interlayered with each other, radiating a holy aura, and lighting up the surrounding space.

She called out to Catherine, "Hold it still for a second!"

Catherine had noticed the bright light from afar, and hearing Ericka's words, she nodded as her hands lit up, forming several purple magic circles.

From each magic circle, lightning chains burst out, rapidly circling the centipede and coiling around it as they held him still.

The chains lit up as a large amount of lightning coursed through the monster's body, paralyzing it for a few moments.

In a frenzied state, Moss struggled to break free of the chains, his instincts overriding his reasoning.

Ericka's magic circle flashed, disappearing from her and reappearing above the centipede, expanding in size. Intricate patterns within the magic circle began to move as it absorbed Ericka and the surrounding mana.

Catherine immediately conjured a six-layered blue magic circle, sending it towards the monster.

From the magic circle, large amounts of ice formed and began to extend outwards, circling the centipede in a wall and trapping it.

A grin appeared on Ericka's face, increasing her mana output to the limit; the large magic circle above began shining as large amounts of light elements began to form.

In a few seconds, the spell finally unleashed a destructive light beam straight down towards the centipede, the entire white landscape was brightened up with a golden radiant light, and the azure domain dispersed.

The large light beam covered the entirety of the monster; its exoskeleton broke down within seconds as the repulsive dark energy running through it began to dissipate into nothingness while souls in them were being purified.

"Ahh!" A loud anguish echoed through the space, filling the air with cries of agony as the centipede finally regained its senses.

The next second, a large explosion burst out from within the ice wall, destroying a part of it as a shadow flashed rapidly, heading towards the sky above the train, where a small crack was present.

Catherine was a little late to react, as she chased after it, "I will take care of this!" Her words lingered in the air as she raced towards the crack.

Ericka nodded at her, her face pale from being drained of mana completely. She descended down towards the ground, letting out a tired sigh, "It's really too exhausting to use an S-rank spell."

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Noctis was already on his legs, standing outside the train and observing the centipede flying rapidly towards the crack in the sky with a green blur chasing after him; the centipede had shrunk in size; he was half of his original size.

Just then, Noctis noticed the crack flash as a group of people appeared; his eyes widened as his eyes darted back to the centipede, who was already approaching the crack; its crimson eyes flashed, opening its mouth.

"Huh, wait? Why nowww!?".

Noctis had noticed the green blur chasing the monster increase in speed, but he could see that Catherine wouldn't be able to make it in time.

"She wouldn't make it in time; I've got to do something and fast."

He looked at the crack, the people, the centipede, and Catherine, his mind racing to come up with a variable that he could change.

'Shit, I don't see anything, damn it.' Noctis's eyes moved quickly; sweating, he tried out several changes yet yielded the result he wanted. Just then he saw the mana bursting out of Catherine's back, leaving a green and purple trail. His eyes lit up as he came up with an idea.

"Mana output, I hope this works out—no, this has to work," he muttered, activating his unique skill.

'Change- Increase Catherine's mana output by two times, and as for the drawback- her mana consumption increases by five times.'

Noctis's body immediately flashed a bright light, a jagged dark mana covered his body underneath, and both of them disappeared instantly.

[Drawback accepted with changes]

Closing his window quickly after a glance, he turned his attention back while holding his head a little, feeling a slight headache.

In the air, Catherine's mana output doubled instantly as she felt her mana decreasing at a rapid rate, appearing instantly in front of Moss. Her rapier glowed, thrusting straight ahead a surge of wind blasts burst out, knocking the centipede back.

Moss stumbled back, surprised by Catherine's sudden appearance. He let out a screech of pain and anger as he once again clashed head-on with the S ranker.

The group of people who had just appeared through the crack, their faces pale white having been very close to death just a few moments ago, steadily landed on the group as they shook their fear for now and went on to help with the Fallen Rank Ice Bears.

Noctis sighed, looking over at his mana pool, which was almost halved.

[Mana: 800/1500]

In the distance, he observed Ericka resting a bit away from the battle, completely drained from casting her S rank spell.

'It's just a matter of time before Aunt reaches S Rank, As for her...', his eyes fell on the silver-haired woman pushing back the centipede.

He decided to ponder over it later on; now he was still here in the midst of a battle.

It hadn't been a few minutes when the crack shook again. Noctis first thought it was support, but after he glanced at his watch, he noticed only 35 minutes had passed since they entered the rift.

"And which fucking idiot decided to enter a Rift?" Hiss eyes twitched, noticing a small figure appear, and began falling down to their death.

Noctis rubbed his forehead, feeling a slight headache.

"I got him, don't worry," he quickly called out to Catherine, since she was about to lend a hand to help.

Noctis ran towards the train, jumping up while constructing a wind spell in his mind and forming it around his legs.

Landing on the train's roof, a magic circle fully formed around his legs, Noctis leaped upwards as small wind currents lifted him higher into the air.

He quickly intercepted the falling figure midway through the fall. Noctis used his wind magic to slow their descent while observing his surroundings.

Making sure it was safe, he looked at the figure in his hands and said some reassuring words, "You are saf--- "

cough cough

He choked on his words, eyes widening, looking at the familiar boy, black hair with white streaks and a pair of silver-grey eyes. Wasn't this the commoner main character from the game?.

He held the words that were threatening to come out of his mouth.

Just to confirm, Noctis pulled up his status and prayed silently.

[Status]

Name: Rei Feyrith

Rank: F+

Resonance Elements: Elunara (A), Eonix (B)

Unique Skills: Temporal Life Guardian (T), Chosen One (??)

By now Rei was staring at Noctis, with a grateful expression, having been saved.

While Noctis stared blankly ahead, as if he had seen a ghost.

"Nox, get out of there!" A loud voice brought him back to his senses only to see a large centipede heading towards him with its mouth wide open. frёewebηovel.cѳm

The world stood still as it turned monochrome in color in Noctis's vision, letting out a mental sigh.

Over the several months under his aunt's training, he has attempted to use the skill on her, but without success except for minor changes like making her drop a spoon, similar in cost to altering his own actions on a large scale.

He came to the conclusion that he couldn't change a high-ranker's major actions with his current mana, but today this self-rule he made up was broken by helping Catherine increase her mana output.

'I will need to check this out later, but for now, let's see if this works.'

'Change—the centipede misses, drawback—auto,' This was another thing he found out: he could let his own skill decide the drawback, although it's risky and he wouldn't even know what it is unless he sees it happening.

[Insufficient Mana]

'Change—Increase Catherine's mana output; Drawback—Auto,' He hoped this would work.

[Insufficient Mana]

He Quickly went through several changes yet none worked in his favour.

Noctis knew his time was almost up, 'This is my last one, please work.'

'Change—Increase my mana output to ten times, Drawback— Auto.' Knowing it was a risky plan, he had to do it.

[Accepted, Drawback successful set]

Instantly the world had its color back; the familiar bright light and black mana flashed and disappeared.

Noctis immediately held out his left hand to his left side and let out all of his remaining mana at once.

His hand swelled up, his skin tearing apart due to mana being released in large amounts.

A burst of mana exploded out of his left hand, the force shooting him and Rei like a cannon as they escaped the jaws of the centipede.

Both of them shot towards the ground; silver mana flowed out of Rei, enveloping them and decreasing their speed, but it didn't last for long as he was still in F rank.

Noctis and Rei landed on the cold, snowy ground with a loud thud, tumbling and rolling in the soft snow for a few seconds before finally coming to a halt.

Noctis winced in pain, feeling his left palm burning and throbbing and a severe pain attacking his head as he passed out.