PREPARING FOR BATTLE

Cancel Potion should be taken before each round. During this stage, affiliated enchanters can provide the participants with the enhancing spells from a standardized list, limited to three per round.

—Six Color Olympics Regulations

The door was kick open and the Elementalist clicked the mechanism on her glove to unleash a vast stream of flame into the courtyard. The ignited Violets ran back, cries of pain stuck in their throats. Sacred threw off a few of the Cursed with his protective aura and pointed at one of them. “In the back, right corner! His mutation is the most dangerous, so focus on weakening him. I’ll help!”

Debuffs weren’t Jun’s strongest suit, but in his spell kit there was one that made the enemy more vulnerable to Celestial magic. Jun stretched his hand forward, and streams of crystal white energy burst from his palm. The rays illuminated the yard in several directions, making most of the Violets blind. While they were disoriented, Sunny threw her disks and cut off the heads of two Cursed with one blow. She bounced back and caught her boomeranging weapons on their way back, then jumped on the third one in a spectacular pirouette to slash open his chest. Yui felt a heat wave right next to her: Niji’s fireball swooshed past the Amber and swept two more zombies off their feet.

“Oi, don’t hit me, baka!” the girl barked.

The surviving Cursed rushed to Sunny. She was spinning like a dancer, brandishing her deadly chakrams so no one could reach her, but one of the Children managed to knock the girl down with a ranged thunderstrike. Dammit sent a pillar of healing power to Yui, and that caught the attention of their opponents. Three Violets altogether cast elemental spells towards the medic, yet the translucent fox jumped down from the roof and absorbed their magic with its nine tails. Then it attacked one of the Cursed and tormented the victim with its teeth, providing some distraction.

“You should’ve told us that Hitomi’s here,” Sunny sniffed and cut another Viol’s throat.

“I told her to stay back. Hey!” Dammit screamed up top. “We had a deal, remember?”

The Azure was still relaxing on the roof visor, legs crossed. “That deal was about me, not my pets.”

“Cheeky.” It sounded more like a compliment from him, though.

Meanwhile Niji tried to wave off a very aggressive Violet, but her arcane strikes didn’t diminish his determination in the slightest.

“He has strong magical defense, Niji!” Sacred shouted, having managed to shackle the enemy with dryad’s roots only on the fifth try.

“Got that already!”

The Elementalist grabbed her gun, and the captured Violet was awarded for his perseverance with a shot in his head. She spun around and then fired at the next one—Niji always hit best when she had almost no time for aiming.

Apart from the Cursed who laid unconscious because of blood loss, there was only one left alive, the toughest one. Sacred began his chant:

“Lost child, we acknowledge the pain you endure. Cursed by the Mother of Light, you are doomed to bear the burden of Her wrath for all eternity, and your punishment is the retribution for the vanity of your ancestors. Hence liberate yourself, once innocently defiled, from the clutches of the abyss—and witness your true fate! May the Light guide your way through the darkness!”

A stream of divine light fell upon the monster. Everyone squinted at the excessive brightness of the Exorcist’s magic. However, the Viol wasn’t purged and stood there intact, just staggering a little in a stun.

“Absolute magic defense… impossible…” Dammit stared at the survivor in total amazement.

“A random effect from arcane threads,” Sacred suggested. “They’ve certainly leveled-up a bit. We are lucky that his folk are easier to deal with.”

Niji wasted the remaining clip in her attempt to shoot the Viol, but he deflected all the bullets with the magic shield. The noise of the shots angered the villain, and with terrible roar he turned both Niji and Sacred into stone. Dammit tried to remove the curse straight away, but Sunny was thrown aside by the enemy with a blow that could break a spine, so he switched to helping her instead. The kitsune assistant, exhausted by the battle, lost her last remaining strength and disappeared. Dammit had no mana left, and the situation started to get dicey.

However, a pistol shot rumbled from the side of the manor—and the mages just froze, watching how blood splashed from a fresh wound in the Viol’s chest. Then he fell backward, dead once and for all. As the stone curse faded out, Niji and Sacred collapsed free from its grasp.

“Haydeeeee!” Sunny squeaked in delight, still sprawling on the ground.

Everyone turned to the archivist, who was standing on the porch of the mansion with an old-school revolver smoking in her hand. The Lackluster looked the same as usual: disheveled hair and round-shaped glasses, with the ominous moon reflection that fitted in there perfectly.

“Sheesh, and there goes my anti-magic bullet,” she grumbled. “Goddess’ mercy that wasn’t a total waste. I planned to shoot you; whoever has started all this noise.”