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Originally, a spell refers to releasing a spell wave and replacing the domain, which influences it, with the caster’s main strength, thereby engaging in the ripple formation drawn by the natural spell wave and the resulting spell phenomena. Therefore, it was generally agreed that a caster interfering with another’s spell, though not entirely impossible, was an extremely difficult and perilous act.

Moreover, intervening in the continuous spells conjured by multiple spellcasters was out of the question.

‘Yet, this boy not only does it effortlessly but also coordinates the combination, linkage, and timing of each spell. Just how far does this boy’s spell capacity reach?’

Brantley, who was no lightweight as a spellcaster himself, was dazzled by Conra’s display as a Druid and Alchemist, which shone even brighter than his prowess as a warrior.

Though Brantley himself was no less of a monster in the eyes of other spellcasters.

The sight of Brantley, alongside his sister Iida, sharing the burden amidst the chain of spells focused on Conra, was enough to evoke respect for the Somz family among the spellcasters.

After gaining enlightenment in formations, Brantley and Iida could parallel control over spells without being constrained by their own main strength.

Originally, skalds were adept at visualizing spell phenomena through rune letters, turning the metaphysical comprehension of supernatural spells into tangible, everyday symbols. By making the complex simple and the difficult manageable, they naturally gained an advantage in spell control.

Intervening in the flow of spells focused on Conra and sharing the burden was a feat made possible only after adding parallel control, enlightened by Qi Men Dun Jia, to their spell control abilities.

‘To do such a thing and still have the mental capacity to assess the battle situation or converse with each other…’

‘Monsters… They are truly monsters.’

Other spellcasters, sweating profusely just from supplying spells in turns without rest, looked at Conra, Brantley Somz, and Iida Birgitt Somz as if they were witnessing incomprehensible anomalies.

Meanwhile, Conra, who had been carefully observing the restoration of the formation’s energy, suddenly curled his lips into a smile and said, “By the way, this means we can speed things up a bit.”

“Speed up? Hmm, how so?”

Iida Birgitt Somz, recalling the hunting method of the Spell Eater she had just heard from Conra, showed a mix of interest and anticipation. Brantley Somz was no different.

“Indeed, then from now on…”

“Yes. As mentioned earlier, we need to increase the speed of linking spells.”

Increasing the speed of linking spells meant the speed of supplying spells had to be even faster.

‘What!?’

‘Faster than now!?’

‘We’re already pushing our spell sockets to the limit!!?!?’

“Come on, everyone, let’s push a little harder! Thanks to this boy, we don’t have to face that spell devourer directly, right? If we can’t handle this much, what will become of our northern spellcasters’ pride?”

Brantley Somz encouraged those around him with a still lively voice, but his encouragement did little to boost the morale of the surrounding spellcasters.

“Huh, it seems the spell supply speed is slowing down a bit? Everyone, just a little more effort. If your spell sockets get overloaded, we won’t hesitate to use our family’s elixirs. You all know that using an elixir to recover an overloaded spell socket increases its capacity and durability, right?”

Iida Birgitt Somz added a word. At this thunderous statement, the spellcasters’ faces turned pale.

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Originally, in Sophia’s previous world, formations were a systematized combination of military tactics and geomancy.

Here, geomancy refers to reading the flow of energy through Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, along with the Nine Palaces and Eight Winds, to predict and influence fortune and misfortune, thus formations were developed to control the fortune and misfortune in battle.

Their essence is none other than thunder. Originally, a person’s fate is determined by heaven, but to obscure heaven’s eyes and rearrange earthly phenomena and fortune according to one’s will is the true meaning of formations, hence they are also known as Qi Men Dun Jia.

Previously, the sudden appearance of the Spell Eater had disrupted the army’s morale and broken the formation’s flow, but thanks to Maria’s ingenuity, the formation’s flow had restarted and was now gaining momentum without hesitation.

The formation’s inherent mechanism expelled disruptive and ominous possibilities while attracting and amplifying favorable ones, creating a virtuous cycle that only grew stronger.

Now, even without special intervention, the movements of each brigade naturally aligned to support the formation’s flow.

Thus, without anyone commanding, the large army coordinated seamlessly, leaving no room for monsters to pose a threat.

The ghostly monsters that had possessed soldiers and tried to dismantle the army were already expelled by the restored March Brigade’s momentum, and the monsters in the brigades’ paths were thoroughly isolated, defeated, and weakened by the formation’s pressure.

It was around this time that Karl and Maria realized they were ready to hunt the Spell Eater.

“From now on.”

Familiar with the shared perception of Heart Sword and Wu Xin Dong, Karl stood his sword upright after cutting down a monster. All the necessary power, strategy, and fortune were perfectly aligned at this moment. Though unsure, he felt that anything he aimed for now would succeed. This intuition settled in his consciousness.

The optimal path he needed to take. All paths leading there were smoothly arranged like flowing water. Not taking that path would be foolish.

“Yes. Then now…, let’s go.”

Maria couldn’t have missed what Karl had realized.

Through the formation’s flow, her perception revealed an indescribable scene. The endless paths branching out were overwhelming even to her, who was accustomed to such sights.

Ignoring the overwhelming feeling, Maria finally found the path she had been searching for. Unlike the other paths that seemed to stretch endlessly, this one was fragmented and misaligned.

‘If not now, such a path cannot be saved. It’s a path that can only be used at this moment.’

Originally, her martial arts pursued a flawless technique, a continuous flow guided by an impeccable compass. Thus, theoretically, she could perform martial arts unhindered within the limits of providence.

But that also meant she couldn’t take paths beyond providence. In reality, Maria’s sphere of influence didn’t even show such fragmented paths.

‘But now?’

Now, she could take it. With the brigade’s movements and the ability to see not just the path of Wu Xin Dong but also Heart Sword, she could force her way through this rough and fragmented path.

Finally, Karl and Maria decided to advance towards the Spell Eater, relying on the insight provided by their combined perception of Wu Xin Dong and Heart Sword, and the formation’s inherent flow.

At this moment, the formation’s flow also began to move. After several stages, the brigade, backed by the force surging within the formation, marched towards the red mist. Three brigades occupied the positions of heaven, earth, and man, naturally heading towards the Spell Eater.

‘As expected. Its reaction is slow.’

Despite the intense changes around, the Spell Eater’s reaction was oddly sluggish, making Karl narrow his eyes.

Naturally, the Spell Eater, a formless lifeform that feeds on spells, reacts sensitively to its prey but is somewhat dull to other stimuli, a common trait among such lifeforms.

Without mystery, such formless lifeforms are invulnerable, and most mysteries are either artificial or natural spell systems. It’s needless to say how such lifeforms react to surrounding stimuli—they become dull and insensitive.

Until now, that had been fine. But now, it worked against the Spell Eater.

The pressure from the formation was undoubtedly real, and it could interfere with supernatural, conceptual elements without form or shape.

The brigades, moving in arcs from three directions, gradually switched their positions of heaven, earth, and man, pouring the formation’s pressure generously towards the red mist.

――――!!!!!

{□□□□―――!!!!!}

A soundless, scream-like cry echoed.

The Spell Eater, overwhelmed by the March Brigade’s relentless advance, shrank back and let out a cry spanning audible and inaudible frequencies.

If ordinary people heard that sound, they would surely hallucinate and go mad. The Spell Eater’s cry contained such high-level power and mystery.

But coincidentally…,

“It’s reacting properly! Let’s pull out more strength!”

“Match your footsteps! Align your center of gravity with your torso and spine! Synchronize your heartbeat and breathing!”

Coincidentally, among those aiming their swords at the Spell Eater, not a single one was weak enough to cower.

Kung――, ha!

Dozens, hundreds of steps and breaths became as one. The resulting emotional unity transformed their energy into a pressure akin to that of a colossal creature.

As the formation’s pressure began to press down on the red mist, the spell barrage targeting the Spell Eater also changed.

Crackle, crackle! The sound of thunder. Initially drowned out by surrounding noise, it soon erupted into a fierce roar like a thousand birds flapping their wings.

Patsutsutsuts――!!!

Countless sparks began to appear in the air. The fierce sparks were soon drawn into the center of the space where they originated, coalescing into one.

After repeating this several times, a bright thunder sphere condensed. It was none other than Spell Thunder, a special spell medium summoned to wield large-scale thunder spells.

Soon, the spells corresponding to the five elements—earth, water, fire, wind, and void—ceased. Instead, endless thunderous roars filled the air.

From the Spell Thunder floating in the sky, endless chains of colorful lightning spells poured down. The seemingly infinite lightning strikes branched out in chains, targeting the mouths, hands, and eyes hidden within the red mist. The scene resembled a net made of lightning.

While the Spell Eater, crouching under the formation’s pressure, greedily devoured the spells. The red mist forming its body, half pressed by the formation’s pressure and half rising towards the Spell Thunder, became a massive pillar of mist.

This confrontation continued for a while. The three brigades, occupying the positions of heaven, earth, and man, switched positions again, increasing their occupancy and pressure over a space, while the Spell Thunder in the sky fueled the lightning net enveloping the Spell Eater. The Spell Eater continued to devour the lightning chains.

An anomaly occurred just as the three positions were about to switch again.

As the spatial pressure from the formation increased again, the Spell Eater, frantically devouring spells, seemed to slow down. Suddenly, something began to flow out of its countless mouths.

“Squad leader! That monster’s condition seems off!”

“What? What do you mean? No… indeed…?”

An undeniably abnormal sight.

What flowed out of the Spell Eater was none other than elements. Water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, light and darkness, the vitality of plants and animals, ether—elements the Spell Eater had devoured but failed to digest began to regurgitate.

Not only that.

As it began to vomit elements, the red mist swelled and shrank irregularly, resembling an animal suffering from severe indigestion, gasping in pain.

Eventually, it even stopped devouring the lightning chains and tried to shrink its domain to avoid the spells, clearly indicating something was wrong with this seemingly invincible spell lifeform.

That’s when it happened.

‘Now…!’

Karl and Maria, who had been closely monitoring the Spell Eater’s condition, finally detected what they were aiming for. It was a colorless crack irregularly traversing the red mist.

Invisible to the naked eye, it couldn’t hide from the heightened perception of Wu Xin Dong masters and Heart Sword masters, especially with the added sensory acuity of a well-trained Spirit Entity.

Though the cracks weren’t consistently connected, for a formless spell lifeform, wounds could always be sealed. But that wasn’t important to the two.

What mattered was that the creature now had a ‘vulnerable spot,’ and they had the skill to exploit it and the capability to do so.

In an instant, the fragmented path seemed to smooth out, connecting seamlessly in their minds.

‘Open the path!’

The reaction was immediate. Karl Hector Meyer, with his highly elevated consciousness, finally took a step. That step contained the essence of Karl’s lifelong swordsmanship…

He staked everything on this step. His sword, a pure will breaking strict rationality, a sword that could defy providence, would open the path with a single step determining life and death.

At that moment, those with heightened Spirit Entity perception could see it. A colossal sword of will, invisible to the naked eye, reaching the sky. The overwhelming pressure made people feel as if their bodies were freezing.

Without hesitation, Karl swung the colossal sword of will in a diagonal slash. He didn’t use tricks like reversing causality or invoking multiple slashes simultaneously. It was just a clean, diagonal cut. The path of the slash cleanly crossed the crack etched into the red mist.

‘Advance!’

Meanwhile, Maria, having emptied herself to near void, reached a state of complete dissipation with her Spirit Entity.

Her martial arts pursued a flawless technique, a continuous flow guided by an impeccable compass. Thus, theoretically, she could perform martial arts unhindered within the limits of providence.

But just as fullness must be emptied, complete emptiness must be filled to be useful. Like water filling a hollow to form a pond, Maria’s emptied body began to fill with unprecedented energy. It was the energy of the formation, activated by her calculations.

The essence of formations is to rearrange the flow of spell waves through the arrangement of objects, defying the law that spell waves precede phenomena and objects, and even obscuring heaven’s eyes to control fortune and misfortune.

The massive flow of the formation, derived from this defiance of providence, began to erupt through Maria, drawing the most suitable and perfect technique.

Bang!

In a moment of perfect balance, the force spiraled from the girl’s shoulders. Her palms clashed once, then immediately after.

Whoosh, a gentle push with both palms. A miracle occurred.

In an imperceptibly short moment, causality infinitely gathered in the micro and macro worlds. Unseen providence preceded intent, casting a predetermined blueprint…

The next moment, the invisible crack in the red mist widened as if torn apart.

With the wound gaping, what followed was obvious.

Whoosh!

Gushing wind, water, fire, gravel, dust, intangible ether, flashing thunder, and colorful spell lights.

From the cracks torn by Heart Sword and providence, these elements and spells erupted uncontrollably. The fact that elements and spells, which previously only regurgitated through mouths, now flowed out through cracks meant one thing: the Spell Eater had been dealt a fatal wound.

As evidence, despite the Spell Eater’s desperate attempts to close the cracks and stop the flowing elements, the elements’ momentum showed no signs of abating.

“Ah……”

Those who witnessed the colossal slash of Heart Sword and the tearing strike of providence were all left dumbfounded.

Of course, neither Karl’s slash nor Maria’s strike were within ordinary perception, so no one present fully understood what had happened.

But when witnessing something grand or moving, people feel something even if they don’t fully understand it.

The warriors present were no different. Though they might not fully grasp the realms of Heart Sword or Wu Xin Dong, they were warriors who had lived with weapons and strife. Instinctively, they sensed the transcendent and profound martial arts beyond their perception.

While the warriors were stunned, the Spell Eater wasn’t completely dead yet. Though critically wounded, its tenacious life force kept it barely alive.

But that was all. As if waiting for this moment, someone who had foreseen this situation and prepared a final move finally unleashed it.

{Taran sy’n ysgwyd y foment, trechu drygioni! (Thunder that shakes the moment, defeat evil!)}

Crackle, crackle! Patsutsutsuts…….

A spell chant resonated through the port area. Simultaneously, the Spell Thunder in the sky began to descend like a meteor. Initially in the form of a sphere, it elongated and thinned as it fell, transforming its shape.

Finally, it took the form of a spear. The Spell Thunder, initially falling slowly, accelerated as it descended, piercing the ground at the speed of light.

In its path was the dying Spell Eater. Normally, the spell would have been devoured by the Spell Eater, but for some reason, the thunder spear pierced the Spell Eater without resistance.

The moment the thunder spear pierced the Spell Eater.

The red mist swelled like a balloon, then burst with a brilliant light and roar, deflating like a popped balloon.

 

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