Chapter 364: Pawns Who Are Superior to the Queen (Unedited)

Kritsana put more of his focus into spellcasting. He had expected the famous NPC like the Slime King to try something, though he never imagined the slimes’ reinforcement would turn out to be an ordinary Knight-Rank player.

Rank doesn’t necessarily portray combat strength. However, there was no way a Knight Rank player would possess enough health points and energy reserves to survive against his magic attack.

One of the advantages belonging to the magic type is that the caster doesn’t need to divide their concentration to cast a spell on top of another unless the spells are continuous. Thus, Kritsana could easily activate the item skill, Spirit Slave, without worrying about the constant consumption of Sovereign of Grave Keepers and Twin Fish’s Domain.

Regarding summoning magics, they are largely divided into two categories: Direct summoning and lifeform manifestation. Direct summoning refers to the action of summoning either a monster, a part of a monster, or the abilities of a monster. The said summons must exist somewhere in the past or present. Most summoning magics belong to this category, including Sebastian’s Red Skeleton, Juntrathep’s Guardians of Light, and even Montra’s Dragon Soul.

As for the lifeform manifestation, people oftentimes confuse it with direct summoning or even think there is no difference between the two. It is a misunderstanding, however. Compared to summoning, manifesting a magical lifeform can be either a stronger or a weaker choice depending on the user’s rank.

The skills related to lifeform manifestation are rare. While they look similar to pets, they are completely different. There is neither the concept of Affection Level nor Satiety. Their power is directly tied to the user’s, being equal or even stronger, though their rank would advance as far as the user’s. The examples are Beelzebub’s Entomomageia, Sila’s Level 1,000 Lord Rank Berserker, and Kritsana’s Level 1,000 Emperor Rank Spirit Slave.

With that in mind, Kritsana knew he could leave this group of intruders to his Spirit Slave. Still, just to be safer, he activated the item skill from the ring on his left pinky. It was a powerful defensive spell that would continuously consume his magic power after he triggered it, so he tended to avoid activating it unless he thought it was necessary.

“Holy Grail.” A white orb appeared and hovered around Kritsana. With this item skill, he could split a portion of his health points and magic power to be kept separately. Whenever he died, as long as the skill was still active, the portion would automatically return and revive him. For psychic type, the result of this skill is rarely different from Psychic Dividing Life. For magic type, however, the skill is considered powerful. It is extremely useful when using in conjunction with some spells that require the caster to sacrifice their own life. While it may seem inferior to other direct revival spells such as Dragon Heart, it is more versatile.

“Reverse Cosmos.” Right after Kritsana had poured 90% of his health points and magic power into the Holy Grail, he activated another item skill from his right ring finger, refilling the previously lost health points and magic power in an instant. The skill allowed him to revert the values of his health points and magic points to a past action ago, regardless of the action being spellcasting or suffering from an attack.

The deepsea was so silent that the sound of fish swimming through water was noticeable. Kritsana was now ready. He sat still, calmly waiting for the incoming invaders.

***

Francine couldn’t be sure whether she was sweating since she was underwater. One thing she was sure of, however, was the fact that her body was shaking in fear. The giant spirit that was swimming toward her was obviously not a monster. She could neither form a mental connection nor inspect its level, only felt immense pressure from it. Once its blue eyes locked onto her, her body became cold, refusing to move. Only after Quasar had swum around her that she regained her ability to move.

“Don’t just stay still and get hit by its spell like that. You will die foolishly otherwise.”

Quasar dragged Francine away. Djinn simply shifted its gaze following them but didn’t hunt them down. Its main priority was to protect its master, so it couldn’t leave too far from the spellcaster. Quasar knew Djinn’s active range by relying on one of her magic skills, derived from the Flow Reading skill.

“Seeing a non-talking monster doesn’t mean it can’t use skills. It just chants in an incomprehensible language,” warned Quasar. Most people think that having to say a spell’s name aloud is one of the magic types’ biggest weaknesses, so they tend to underestimate magic-type monsters and make a mistake when fighting ones.

The Water Net spell, used by Djinn, was difficult to be spotted underwater, so Francine was tied unknowingly. Quasar noticed the spell from the change in ambient mana, not its appearance, so she used her power to break Francine free from the constraint.

“There is no other choice. Release the limiter you put on my power now if you don’t want to die,” Quasar said as she observed Djinn’s movements.

Sensing the seriousness in Quasar’s voice, Francine released the limiter on her pet, making the blackfish regain her full power. In this state, Quasar was significantly stronger, but she would be more likely to refuse Francine’s orders.

Their bodies were pulled toward Djinn by his manipulation of water currents.

“Gigigi! It acts in the same manner as Leviathan, just like when I hunted him with that bastard. Could it be that all water-element creatures are dumb?” Quasar became more like herself.

A long time ago, Quasar and Mammon once had a showdown against Leviathan, one of the Seven Deadly Sins. For Mammon, he joined the fight in order to find a chance to steal a Hidden Gift from the Demon of Envy. For Quasar, however, it was to teach the dragon—who looked down on her, calling her a baby fish daring to fight a water dragon—a lesson. By the end of this lesson, the dragon would learn to realize that even the Lord of Seas was amount to pathetic worm in front of her.

Leviathan was an elite dragon, possessing fraudulent abilities. It was a cyan-scaled dragon with light and transparent fin-like wings. It had a certain spell that allowed it to spilt its body up to no limit. Upon being split, its clones would adapt themselves to environments, gaining their own uniqueness. Each of them became a new monster. Some of them might even become psychic types or qi types. On top of that, the real body possessed another skill called Water Clone Scale, which had an ability similar to Quasar’s, enable it to swim through ambient mana to arrive at any of its clones, who scattered all over the Monster Realm, and take over the clone’s life.

At that time, Mammon and Quasar combined their strength. They ambushed, laid traps, and deceived the dragon—tricking Leviathan’s real body into taking over the clone who they had captured beforehand. The clone was weak and on the verge of dying, so they had an enjoyable time torturing the Demon of Envy. Unfortunately, when they were about to deliver a final blow, the dragon managed to run away. It didn’t dare to call Quasar a baby fish a second time though.

Black mana dissolved into the sea. Dark and light elements are not only mutually exclusive but also fundamentally superior to the other six elements. The dyed part of the sea compressed and formed into an anglerfish, its size even bigger than Djinn. It opened its mouth, showing numerous sharp teeth, and flew toward Djinn at the speed comparable to bullet.

Djinn relied on its overwhelming power to compressed mana into a water-element wall, thick and wide. It momentarily splitting the sea apart.

The giant anglerfish dissolved as it banged against the wall, dyeing the sea on its side. The wall became dimmer as well. Ten thousand of small fish emerged from the disappearing anglerfish, swimming systematically. They lined up, forming a harpoon-shaped formation.

Amidst the darkness under the sea, Quasar’s voice rang out from every direction.

“Penetrating Shadow Fish.”

A mid-tier spell was cast, but its power was enhanced by Quasar being Francine’s pet. The swarm of fish spun their bodies, easily penetrating the wall. It was to be expected since the spell had the property of penetrating defense.

Against the dark-element spellcaster, one should choose to dodge the attack rather than blocking it. However, the effects of most spells are predetermined. Djinn’s current main duty was to protect its master. Guarding its master took priority. It didn’t understand the concept of evasion as the attack might bring harm to its master.

Apparently, Kritsana misunderstood. Seeing Francine coming at him underwater, he guessed the woman’s abilities must be water-related and countered accordingly by manifesting the water-element Djinn. However, the truth was that Quasar was more excel in the dark element. Her defense might be poor, but her offensive ability—especially against the enemy who refused to be evasive—was a different story.

In regard to the offensive capability, the dark element is number one.

While the fire element is generally more powerful, more continuous, and deals a wider area of effect, the dark element is armed with penetrating attributes, curses, and some rituals that the user may sacrifice a part of themselves to obtain greater power.

Djinn counterattacked using undercurrent waves. It is normally easy to pinpoint a spellcaster’s location. However, Quasar blended her existence with the surroundings, rendering Djinn unable to specify her exact whereabouts. His attacks went through a black veil of the sea without touching Quasar.

Numerous tiny fish transformed into small daggers, bombarding Djinn. There was a large gap between their rank, however, so they only left a few scratches—which were healed in almost no time.

“A Hundred Nightmares.” Quasar cast a curse that she often used against superior opponents. Djinn’s vision, along with the color of its scales, became dimmer. It was affected by the curse that reduced the target’s resistance against dark-element spells every time they were hit by them. Once they were attacked over a hundred times, their defense against dark-element spells would drop to zero. From then on, even their energy reinforcement would be useless.

It is the curse that preys upon qi types and magic types who are overconfident in their high energy reserve, mainly protecting themselves using energy reinforcement while neglecting defensive equipment. As far as Quasar saw it, this Djinn didn’t have a single battle gear.

Still, Djinn possessed high health points, powerful attack power, and high regenerative ability. Compared to Quasar, who had lost a big portion of her magic power, it still had an overwhelming upper hand. It cast a spell, using the cleansing property of water-element magic, to gradually cleanse the curse from its body. The effectiveness of the curse slowly weakened.

In order to turn the fateful defeat to victory, Quasar deemed a high-tier spell necessary. With her rank being lower and she was unable to borrow power from ambient mana, however, she didn’t have enough mana reserve to cast a single high-tier spell in her possession.

Magic-type skills demand the highest energy consumption rate compared to the other two. Mana reserve of magic-type beings grows exponentially when their ranks are promoted since spells of higher tier naturally require several times more mana. It was technically impossible for Quasar, who was at Marquis Rank, to cast a high-tier spell purely from her mana reserve.

Quasar’s clone, made of Mana Shell, swam past Djinn. The giant spirit was a loyal guardian, so it ignored petty attacks from several tiny fish of darkness and reached its hand to block the clone’s path.

Cladding its claw with magic power reinforcement, it pulled the clone toward its palm using water currents, then crushed its target into bits.

Blackwater poured out from the crushed body, seeping through Djinn’s scales and permeating its skin. The sinister mana tried to harm the target from the inside. However, Djinn simply clad its body with magic power reinforcement. Its eyes shone with light-blue glow. Using the property of the water element, it drove the impurity inside its body away in one go.

It possessed a tremendous amount of mana reserve, so losing an insignificant portion of it to cleanse its body was not a problem at all.

“Gigigi! Thanks, you dumbass! You really fought like an open book.” Quasar, in a human form, was actually floating above Djinn. She extended her hand and compressed the mana that Djinn used to drive her curse away. Contaminating the enemy’s power was her forte. She absorbed and used it as if it belonged to her. The amount of mana might be negligible for Djinn, but it was enough for Quasar to cast one high-tier spell.

“My name is the Eclipse Fish, who is forever up to no good. I shall sacrifice my flesh and blood to the Goddess of Betrayal and Disloyalty, asking her to bestow me the power of curse and pain. Together, they shall merge into the evil weapon of wickedness, severing bonds and laws, swaying a mortal’s mind to become unfaithful, releasing them from an empty and meaningless promise. Bond-Severing Lone Evil.”

When mentioned in the chant, the terms ‘flesh and blood’ often referred to health and magic points. Quasar’s health and magic points immediately fell to one unit. It was the risk the caster of this spell had to carry when the spell had yet to accomplish its task. The compressed mana in her hand transformed into a small dagger that silently emitting devilish energy. Its appearance seemed extremely dangerous even from a naked eye. Quasar soon enveloped her body in the darkness of the sea, hiding her presence.

A high-tier spell was too dangerous, so Djinn switched its approach, refusing to reserve its power. From its analysis, being on the offensive was the best defense at this point in time.

Oceanic Water Nets.

Chaotic sea waves surfed from every direction. Quasar gently dodged them in a calmly manner. Her principle was somehow different than Mammon’s. She didn’t always disparage her opponents during decisive moments during battles. Instead, she was the type to calmly wait until the right moment when she stabbed them in their backs. The time when she got to see their distorted faces and listen to their swears was exactly the moment she would laugh malignantly.

Their personalities might be comparably wicked, but Quasar personally took a liking of the taste of stabbing her targets from behind. This trait also conveyed through her fighting style.

Seeing the sharp drop in Quasar’s health points, Francine was worried. Quasar’s magic points remained at one unit, meaning she was practically defenseless. It also meant she couldn’t enhance her physical abilities to move better. Still, her movements that swam past Oceanic Water Nets were extremely smooth. Quasar relied on neither speed nor skills but her eyes and keen decision-making ability. She was capable of seeing ambient mana, so she knew the range and timing of Djinn’s spell. She predicted the attacks and narrowly dodged them, letting Oceanic Water Nets fly past her body less than a centimeter away.

This was Quasar’s style to use the purely offensive dark-element spell, Bond-Severing Lone Evil. If the caster of the spell was someone else, they would have sought a way to seal the opponent’s movements or delay it first. Only when the timing was right that they would unleash the spell.

Francine’s body was imbued by white qi. Using qi against magic power is not a smart idea, so she focused Fluffy’s qi on enhancing her movements. She brought her agile body to the opposite direction of where Quasar was going, trying to divert Djinn’s focus from the blackfish.

Looking from a distance, it looked as if both of them were two fish swimming playfully against water waves.

Francine’s movements were severally poorer than Quasar’s. While Quasar could perfectly evade the waves, some attacks hit Francine. Even a small cut decreased her health points by a third, prompting her to quickly circulate qi to recover it. There was an attack that almost crashed directly on her. Fortunately, Luaid managed to redirect its path using Psychic Manipulation.

Since they had to save the last use of Luaid’s skills against Kritsana, Francine decided to order Luaid to push her toward Djinn using Psychic Manipulation.

It was a risky move with a low chance of survival. However, they believed in each other despite their time spent together being so short. Francine activated Psychic Impact, also strengthening her body using qi, to leap at Djinn, flying past water nets.

The distance between her and Djinn being closer made Francine suffer from mana around it. The pressure coming from the mana alone was enough to kill a Marquis Rank monster without contact. The bones in her body made terrifying creaking sound. Blood spilled from her mouth, the inside of her ears, and the corner of her eyes. If she didn’t have Quasar’s Mana Shell protecting her, she would have died instantly.

Racial Skill — Mega Flare.

A beam of the sound wave was shot from Francine’s palm, vibrating through the sea, in the same manner as an arrow. It hit Djinn but left it with only a small injury. The difference between their ranks made it so that Luaid’s attack was ineffective even if it hit the target directly.

Still, it was enough to provide Quasar a little bit of an opening, allowing her to narrow the distance from fifteen to one meter.

Quasar was fundamentally a fish, so she was more immune to water pressure than Francine. She could withstand the pressure for a few seconds in order to deliver an attack. The small dagger in her hand moved smoothly. It stabbed deeply in Djinn’s rib.

In that particular moment, Djinn became completely motionless. The mana around him dispersed away. Its bluish scales turned black. Both its body and animated soul were tainted by the power of darkness.

“Gigigi! This kind of animated spell has a certain weakness...” Quasar couldn’t finish her sentence as she coughed up blood.

“Seal Quasar.” Sensing that Quasar was at her limit, Francine quickly recalled the little girl into her bracelet. As for Djinn, the mighty spirit, its body was torn apart like a cup of glass.

Quasar communicated with Francine through mental connection, ordering her to cling on Djinn’s body before it flew back to its master at high speed.

Quasar’s anti-summoning spell has the ability to corrupt summons or magical lifeforms with a curse, turning them against their summoners.

The stronger their summoners are, the more powerful this spell becomes.

What Quasar had intended to explain was: Unlike pets, animated spells such as lifeform manifestation tended to create creatures that their existences were separate from the caster. At the very most, they would only notify the caster when they were disappearing. Thus, there was no way for Kritsana to be aware of the state his Djinn had become.

Quasar’s spell also concealed Djinn’s killing intent. It was no different from the small dagger held by a close friend, thrusting the caster behind their back. Djinn flew past Kritsana’s detection domain, transforming itself into hundreds of blades, bombarding its master.

“Ugh!” Kritsana didn’t sense danger, so he didn’t put up his defense. The blades stormed to his body, prompting him to cast a healing spell to preserve his life. As a result, the flow of mana he had been pouring into spellcasting weakened temporarily.

It was the moment that Luaid had been waiting for.

Racial Skill — Slime’s Roar.

A sound wave violently echoed underwater, disturbing the flow of mana. The Slime Kingdom was freed from the attacks at that moment. On the other hand, however, it also meant Kritsana was released from the state he had to pour his focus onto spellcasting.

Quasar’s spell and Luaid’s skill might be powerful, but they weren’t enough to take away Kritsana’s life.

Without Twin Fish’s Domain, Kritsana was no longer capable of breathing underwater. He knocked the end of his mage staff against the ocean floor, pushing the mass of water away, showing a hole in the middle of the ocean.

It should take the Slime King a couple of minutes to arrive at this place, and that period of time was more than enough for him to kill a player of Francine’s level a thousand times.

“How interesting. There is a low-rank player capable of defeating my Djinn. It seems my information is outdated. I didn’t expect players in this era to be so strong.” Words of praise came out of his mouth. He said them with sincerity. They were his parting gift to Francine before he would remove her from the war with her death.

“Soundless Lightning.” Merciless flashes of lightning bolted toward Francine. The spell’s casting and traveling speed transcended any spell she had encountered. Normal Soundless Lightning generated one lighting strike, but four of them emerged from Kritsana’s mage staff. Each strike contained enough destructive power to deplete Francine’s health points twenty times over.

Buzz—! CRACK!!

The lightning bolts flew soundlessly, but they made a deafening sound upon impact. Francine shut her eyes close, believing that she had died. When she reopened them, however, she found that all of the attacks missed her. Behind her back, there was a white robe man touching her shoulder.

“Thank you,” said Divine, who had just come out of a temporal portal together with Poluk and Viola. As for the Slime King, he stepped out from a different portal, standing behind Kritsana’s back. They both had left their psychic marks on Luaid beforehand, allowing them to leap through space and arrive at the scene in an instant.

Kritsana didn’t expect such a quick arrival from the Slime King and his Guardians. Francine’s life and death was no longer matter.

Divine pulled Francine back, pushing her past the temporal portal. As the portal was closing down, the last scene she saw was Kritsana crossing his dagger with his mage staff. The bracelet on his wrist broke apart. His rings shone dazzlingly. Meanwhile, the four strangers vanished at the speed she couldn’t follow their movements.

The portal closed. Francine found herself sitting in the Stone Forest, surrounded by slimes. Still, she heard the sound of explosions, caused by intense battle, from the north of the island despite the distance being several kilometers away. The whole island vibrated lightly. A tsunami washed away the entire harbor, sinking it completely. It was a catastrophic event as if the Island of Beginnings was coming to an end.