Yes. Altera smirked. She glanced at Jareth, who had just finished destroying his circle and floated back next to them.

“What now?” Jareth asked. “Per Ragna’s decree, I’ll listen to your commands as if Ragna had given them.”

“We have to destroy it now.” Before, she and Grendel had failed. With so many Champions gathered at one spot, they might succeed this time. “Hit it hard, hit fast. Don’t use metal weapons and avoid the sludge.”

“…sin…hu…man…sin…dead…dead…dead…dead…all…dead…” More words escaped the abomination’s skill.

Did it matter what it tried to say? They fought to protect all humans. The syllables couldn’t distract them since the abomination would destroy everything. She didn’t hate it for this. It deserved to live even if she couldn’t allow it. She wished to protect; it to destroy. Their goals opposed each other diametrically, leaving her no choice.

Ice covered Altera’s partisan and coated it in a layer of Mana that should protect it from the sludge as she commanded it back. Clutching her weapon, she beat her wings and rushed to Ragna. “You need to coat your swords with ice, or that sludge will eat the metal.”

“If it eats through metal, how’s the facility still standing?” Ragna arched her brow. “What’s your partisan made off?”

“Different Orichalcum-Steel-Alloys.” Altera raised her eyes as the realization raced down her spine. Ragna was right. It didn’t eat the metal. The sludge devoured the Orichalcum. “But wouldn’t the Orichalcum door be gone already?” She paused to answer her own question. “No. The metal’s pure, unlike my Sigdrifa. It needs more Mana to destroy it. But why is it eating Orichalcum?”

Could it be?

She spread her wings and summoned an array of icicles and frozen feathers that levitated around her. Immediately, the boar skull shifted its head to Altera, proving her theory. The abomination reacted to Mana.

She always knew that Orichalcum possessed a connection to Mana, but that it was made of Mana? How was that even possible? Just what was Mana?

A geyser shot up, bringing Altera’s attention back to the battle. Sludge sprayed around. Altera evaded them, and a bullet from Lutz eliminated the fountain. Only some of the feathers and icicles had it eaten.

“Everyone! That abomination’s a Manaphage. It’s attracted to Mana.” Altera’s voice rang through the area. “I’ll distract it with my Mana. At my command, attack at once. We can’t let it reactivate the circles.”

Altera flew backward, creating more and more icicles in the process, and the abomination followed her. Everyone else scrambled, taking position within the far corners of the area as they left her and the enemy in the center.

Its body extended like a snake, and a wave of sludge vomited it like a deluge. Masses of ooze built upon the ground. Its volume increased by the millisecond until it all streamed at her. Activating the Fehu rune, she jetted out of its way, and the stream devoured her icicles.

Almost. Altera raised her partisan like a staff, pointing its head at the abomination. A white orb built upon its tip, accumulating her Mana. “Now!”

A beam of ice as wide as Altera’s wingspan erupted from the partisan. At the same time, Ragna attacked with a salvo of blades she had constructed from a sphere of water. Jareth threw multiple bombs while streams of flames burst from Grendel’s mouth. Bedivere launched her spear like a javelin. It bristled with electricity, and her shadow raced toward the abomination. Lastly, Lutz fired a volley of Mana spheres from his rifle.

All attacks conglomerated at the abomination’s center – its boar skull. Multiple elements made of Mana hit the enemy at once, too fast that it could absorb them. Their particles mingled, the bombs detonated, and an explosion spread. Steam and smoke covered the area, taking everyone’s sight.

“Did we make it?” Altera coughed. She couldn’t smile. Not yet. Her instincts told her to be cautious until she could be sure that the abomination was gone.

Smoke and steam still obscured her view.

Please Twice. Let that be the end. She beat her wings, creating a gust of wind that blew the smoke away. Slowly, it dispersed, allowing her to overview the area, and Altera’s eyes widened.

“That can’t be.” Her body shivered as she stared at the abomination.

Its body twisted within the center as if nothing had happened. No. That didn’t ring true. The abomination had grown in size, and the sludge bubbled and spread further.

Altera gulped.

Could it be? It had absorbed all their attacks. Now, it might have as well accumulated all the Mana through the Jeran rune from the beginning.

“That’s a tough one.” Bedivere’s voice jumped a few notes, her spear back in her hands.

And laughter chilled from the skull. “Fiction. Reality. All meaningless.” Its voice haunted the hall. “The center of lies is before us. We all cease. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.” And around it, three circles appeared. Each of them displayed a rune: Jeran, Ansuz, Isafa.

“Shit,” Ragna growled. “What should we do? We’re at square one, and that thing’s gotten stronger.”

“Nothing. You’re done for.”

Everyone turned their head to the eastern exist from where the words came. A woman in a Vaixian military uniform leaned against the wall, blood tainting its white cloth.

“Braunsteiger.” Lutz spat the woman’s name.

“Thanks to Werden, I could escape from that cowboy head.” A weak chuckle escaped as she struggled to stand. “But it’s all good.” She raised her arm, holding a cylindric plastic container with a crimson Jeran rune written on its surface. “It’s our victory.”

She crushed the cylinder. The circle displaying the Jeran rune started to glow, and the sludge’s bubbling increased in tempo and noise.

Crap. Altera’s eyes became open wide.

All of the abomination’s accumulated Mana was going to release at once. She had to do something,

Altera activated all her runes at once. The abomination’s body bulged and whistled like a boiling rock. Steam extended from all the activated Mana, and then it exploded. Sludge sprayed everywhere, its masses flooding the area, submerging every centimeter in ooze.

Barriers of thorn stakes and ice rose from the ground before the sludge could hit her friends and teammates. And in quick succession, Altera created another one that stood in place of the former once the sludge had absorbed it. And another layer. Layer after layer, she summoned. The Fehu accelerated their growth beyond their maximum until an endless supply of walls guarded her companions against infinite sludge streams.

But whereas Altera could protect her friends, that very same barrier left her isolated and defenseless. She had cut off any way of escape. Not that she would have run away. She had a job to do.

Altera stood firm, ice coating her wings, armor, and weapon. She took a deep breath and stared at the sludge as it torrented on her. The Fehu run flared up, and Altera beat her wings. Her speed increased. She cut through the ooze, replenishing any ice that dissolved.

Sludge latched onto her body, gluing her to the flood. Altera activated her runes again and again. Her wings tore from the sludge, and rivers of blood rushed from her eyes. Altera paid it no mind. She flew further, swung her partisan, cut through the Jaran rune, and dissolved it.

Her eyes skimmed through the sludge until they found the other rune circles glowing amidst the pitch-black. She dashed into the sludge and cut them within seconds as well. The runes were gone, and the sludge fell to the ground.

Altera descended to the floor, ooze covering her from head to toe. She didn’t care and looked around. The abomination was gone, leaving behind puddles of goo. And her companions had survived as well. With her barriers, she was able to protect them all.

Altera exhaled and huffed. Wings and armor dissolved to light, and the ice she had summoned burst. Her legs started to shiver, their strength vanishing. Her surroundings turned into blurs of colors, and the temperature dropped.

Ah, right. She had used up all her Mana. How long did she have to live?

Cold started to fog her mind, her thoughts driving into euphoria. A thousand things consumed her brain, and then nothing – just bliss.

In the distance, howling resounded with her soul. What kind, she couldn’t discern. Perhaps Moon Moon resonated with her in these moments. What a good boy.

Was she dying? She couldn’t know. If she was, it didn’t feel so bad. Her body still shivered, freezing in a cold that might or might not exist. Yet, her brain seemed to jump in joy. Still, if she died, she wouldn’t see her friends again. She would never laugh and cry with Ragna. That, she would regret. It was too bad.

Circles of light surrounded her, and snow rained as she stumbled. In the blur, her brain recognized how they shimmered in the air. Her legs walked without direction. It didn’t matter where she went. She kept moving forward until her legs gave out.

Altera smiled, and then she fell.

Yet, she never hit the ground. Something was holding her. Altera raised her head, the blurriness covering the person. Noises Altera couldn’t understand reached her ears. Perhaps, they were words.

A wet and warm touch brushed over her lips, something was coiling around her tongue, and saliva ran down her throat. Warmth drove through her veins, mixing with her blood. She could feel Mana pulsating from her soul – enough to keep her organs from failing. Moon Moon’s presence resonated with her again. His joy overlapped with her feelings.

What was going on?

She didn’t understand what was happening to her. She had never experienced this sensation before.

The blurriness in her surrounding disappeared, and her mind cleared up. She could see clearly. Ragna was locking her lips with her. Mana poured from her tongue into Altera’s throat like water, and Ragna ended the body contact, a trail of saliva following her.

“What…What was that?” Altera’s voice became as low as a whisper. She straightened her body and stood with her own feet.

“I shared some of my Mana with you.” Ragna’s tongue brushed her upper lip, and a satiated smile appeared on Ragna’s face. “It’s one of my abilities.”

“With a kiss?” Altera cocked her head.

Right. Back in the Rising Forest, she had done the same.

Ragna nodded. “Sorry. I couldn’t exactly ask you, and I didn’t know any other way.”

Altera lowered her eyelids.

She didn’t look sorry. Not that it mattered. Ragna had saved her life. So, what if she had taken her first kiss, or that it didn’t feel unpleasant? She had to focus on the situation.

Altera turned her head to her companions. “Are you okay?”

“It’s all fine.” Grendel was the first to come forward. His fragmented armor still covered his body and concealed most of his face. “But the door’s open.”

Altera gulped.

That was bad. But with the abomination gone, nothing should disturb the Sea Mither. Perhaps inside was a mechanism that could replace the Orichalcum door.

She walked further toward the door, and when her eyes peaked inside the Sea Mither, they grew wide in shock.

“Wh…What?” Altera’s body shivered as it stiffened. Her hands moved to her shin, and her lips trembled at the sight inside the Sea Mither. “What the Hel?”