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“Even if there’s this many of them… Thousand Thorns!!”

Crim held out her hand, prompting countless crimson thorns to break through the ground and impale enemy after enemy.
That spell, with more power and covering a wider area than the Hemomancy spell Thorn Blood, was the Sanguimancy spell Thousand Thorns, which effortlessly pierced through the armors of the knight ghosts charging at them.

“…Lycoris!”
“You can count on me. Peacock Launcher, Shoot!!”

Following Crim’s orders, Lycoris knelt in place, aimed her Magius Gun Blank Easel, got her three floating Support Devices to act in unison, and switched everything to the highest power output.
The change extended the gun’s barrel, and a secondary grip dropped down. She firmly grasped it, holding it with both hands as she fired countless light bullets in a sweeping motion.
The bullets spread out like the feathers of a peacock’s tail, swaying left and right as they teared through the enemies held in place by Crim’s thorns of blood.
All the enemies nearby were wiped out, and then…

“We’ll open the way, Thundersword!”
“Leave it to us, Holy Judgement!”

Frey lowered his hand, and Freya smashed the ground with her mace, sending enormous swords of lightning and light forward, mowing down the enemies in the narrow passage ahead, clearing the path forward and…

“Aww, there’s almost nothing left to do!”
“Calm down, Hinagiku. That just goes to show how strong everyone has gotten.”
“Master! I’ll go clean up what’s left!”

The frontline, Hinagiku, Kasumi, and Setsuna marched on. The other players tried to follow too…and in the blink of an eye, the second wave of enemies were gone too.

***

“They’re insane…”
“They’ve been farming too much.”
“It’s like the enemy is made of paper…”
“The enemies here can’t be that weak, can they?”

The players nearby began mumbling.
They were astonished by the power of the Lua Cheia guild.
And…that was not the only reason why Crim’s group was standing out so much.

“Yo, Demon Lord. It looks like you’re in peak performance here.”
“Hm? Ah, Elmir… If I had to say, is it just me or isn’t everyone else behaving oddly?”

A familiar face approached her.
The guild Silver Wings had risen to the position of being Lua Cheia’s aide, and Crim asked their leader, Elmir, about something she had noticed on the way there.

“Ahh… That’s probably this area’s effect. Apparently the miasma floating around keeps giving them debuffs.”
“Debuffs from the miasma? Is that certain, Elmir?”
“Yes, but luckily it’s nothing too extreme, though the deeper they go the worse it gets… You don’t have any issues?”

Crim’s group, and Elmir’s Silver Wings were both completely fine, so they tilted their heads in unison, until the answer arrived from someone else.

“If I had to say, I’d wager it’s because of all the Relics we’re wearing.”
“Ahh…I see, so they had such a hidden property too.”

White Lily butted in, explaining things for Crim and Elmir who nodded in agreement.
Their equipment had been blessed by the Sephir’s, the first emperor’s heroes, so it stood to reason that they would resist the miasma plaguing the old capital of the empire.
Elmir and White Lily had also been part of their party as they challenged Absolute Realm Castle of Seyfert, so they wore Absolute equipment as well.
Because of that, Crim and her friends all had a stronger resistance to the miasma…and then something else came to mind.

“Hm wait… Miasma?”
“Why…do I feel like I’ve heard about something similar before…”

Crim and Freya began mumbling as they tried to remember.
They went back two months earlier, to their vacation…something in their memories there…

“I see, it’s not so bad that we can’t fight, but it doesn’t feel the best.”
“Hm? Sorleon?”

Nord Glacier had mentioned they were not feeling the best and took a step back, taking their time to catch up. Their leader Sorleon approached now, swinging his two swords.

“In that case… Julia?”
“Yes, should I?”

The young girl following closely behind him…Julia, answered nervously, clasping her staff firmly.

“I’m sorry but…please do it.”
“Mhm, right away.”

She clasped her hands in front of her chest, like she was praying, and closed her eyes.
Then…a blinding light came from her back, shining brightly in the valley filled with miasma.
The source of all that light was right behind Julia… Six golden wings, their shine spreading around in an instant and cleansing the valley into a purified sanctuary.

“Ah, I remember now!”
“It was Julia…and the cleansing power of Winged Light!”

Seeing that, Crim and Freya finally connected the dots and remembered everything.
The other players nearby also began raising their voices, noticing that the debuffs vanished all of a sudden.
Their shock quickly vanished, as they realized they could fight without restraint and charged ahead with newfound courage, passing Crim and the rest to fight the new wave of monsters approaching.
Seeing that brought much relief to Julia, who let out a long sigh, and Sorleon gently placed his hand on her head.

“Good…everyone can fight again. Julia, you did really well.”
“Th-Thank you Leon!”

Julia looked delighted to be praised by Sorleon, who nodded at her, and then held out his hand to stop Lua Cheia from moving forward again.

“Crim, you should wait a moment. You’re all strong enough to hold out on your own, so try to save your strength in case something happens. We’re barely getting started here.”
“Hmm…then I shall take thine advice. We’ll stand back and protect young Julia.”
“I would appreciate that. I’m sure everyone else will also be glad you’re not snatching everything yourself.”
“Thank you very much, Crim.”

In the end, Lua Cheia followed Sorleon’s suggestion and they all lined up right behind Julia, who still had her wings spread out.

“Alright, I should get back to the frontline now.”
“You know, this might be the last moment of action you’ll be seeing for today, Crim.”

Elmir and White Lily were also going back to the fight. After seeing them off, Crim looked at Julia again.
Hinagiku and Lycoris had already run up to walk alongside her, chatting and laughing happily together. Setsuna soon went to join the rest of the younglings there.
That brought a smile to Crim, who watched them with a gentle look…and then Crim glanced at the frontline again, where many players were pitted against the numerous monsters, making sure they were holding up without her help.

…Thanks to Julia’s purification powers, the area was no longer noxious to players, who advanced steadily without the help of Crim and her group.
Sometimes they had to band together to take down a larger monster that wandered into their path, moving through the long mountain pass, inching closer to the center of the continent… An hour passed like that.
At the end of the mountain pass, they encountered…the likely source of all the miasma plaguing the air, a rift in the air…