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Itski showed the emblem of the third knight order to the gatekeepers of Fort Paniccia and was let in, and then he went to meet the fort’s castellan.

They had already met in the past when the teleportation gate was installed there, so the castellan recognized them and swiftly gave them permission to access the gate. But before leaving, they were invited to the dining hall so they could eat and replenish their mana first.

“…”

Itski was deep in thought as he ate.

Necroslave could limit the free will of the resurrected body when it was activated. If that limit was set to a low level, then more of the person’s strategies and skills would be regenerated, but it also increased the risk of things backfiring against the caster.

But if that limit was too strong, then the resurrected body would struggle to adapt during fights.

The limiter on Ophelia was on the weaker side, and from the things Itski had heard while they escaped, she had once been a very powerful sorcerer, so he was afraid that she would break free and turn on him.

He did not know how powerful their pursuer was, but that created the perfect opportunity to get rid of her.

(I also wouldn’t want Leti to get the wrong idea if I brought her back.)

All things considered, he had made the right choice. Just as he reached that conclusion, he noticed many soldiers running around.

“What’s happening?”
“Do you think the enemy managed to catch up?”
“I really don’t think they’d be able to get through Ophelia so quickly.”

Dominic also looked worried. Wanting answers, Itski called over one of the soldiers.

“Sir, there’s monsters approaching the fort. We’re getting ready to fend them off!”
“I thought this fort was built far from monster dens, so usually only a few strays wander around here. Are there a lot of them?”
“No, just one. But it’s an unknown type of monster, so we’re staying vigilant!”
“An unknown monster… Ah, sorry for keeping you here. Good hunting.”

Itski thanked the young soldier for holding off his duties to answer, and then wished good luck for him.

“Thank you, sir! I’ll be on my way then!”

Itski sat down again after the soldier left, and Dominic looked at him worried.

“Itski, maybe it’s best if we leave soon.”
“Yes, I was about to suggest the same.”

(This really feels like a death flag. I don’t want that soldier to die, but I also don’t really feel like helping.)

Natalia fell down after taking critical damage. Her sub-arm was in pieces, Black Hawk and White Viper were falling freely, and all she had managed to keep hold onto was Blue Hound.

She had lost control over Celaeno’s wings as they burned and left an orange trail behind her, almost making her look like a shooting star. But even then…

“I’m not done yet…”

She muttered that while spreading her body to increase her air resistance while she fell.

“Ultimate limiter released. Sorcery Core at maximum output.”

She became free from her remaining shackles.

There was a burst of mana, manifesting as glowing blue particles around her body, which put out all the fire and then produced enough thrust to stop her fall. But that exacerbated the damage on her body, with cracks appearing everywhere, emanating blue light.

Natalia paid little attention to that, and instead took flight, shooting up while leaving a blue trail behind her.

Even her face was cracked, but she had not lost her will to fight. She had a reason to keep fighting, even if her whole body broke down. She even redirected the mana meant to regenerate her body, focusing everything only on defeating her opponent.

“I can keep going, I still got a chance…”

She held tightly onto Blue Hound as she rose up, while taking out Steel Silk from her magic storage and wrapping it around her body to close up the cracks.

“Oh, so at least you’ve gotten strong enough to not give up yet. But I’m not going to hold back either…” Ophelia muttered in glee while looking down at Natalia rising up, before many magic circles opened up around her. “Now, show me everything you’ve got.”

A rain of bullets and arrows of magic began to stream out from the magic circles. Natalia instantly calculated the path each projectile would take, twisting her body to evade them, or use barriers to block those that could not be dodged.

“Then I won’t hold back either.”

Natalia’s body seemed to become blurry before copies of her appeared all around her. She had not used illusory magic too often in combat, but since her control over magic had improved over time, they were no longer static images but actually moved alongside her.

Seeing that, Ophelia let out a sigh and continued to attack.

“Why would you ever use a spell you haven’t mastered in combat? Anyone with experience can detect even the smallest discrepancies , visually or from mana radiation. On top of that, you haven’t even recreated all of the mana particles coming out of you, and that you’re the only one in a defensive stance.”

Just as she said, Natalia’s clones did not include all of the cracks riddling her body, or the blue particles shooting out of Celaeno. On top of that, the clones did not react to the incoming attacks, taking them head on, while Natalia herself was using barriers or twisting her body to evade them.

Trying to include all of that in the clones would exponentially increase the mana required to create them, not to mention that it would take an immense amount of concentration to control them. That was one of the many reasons why illusory magic was such a niche spell in combat.

Besides, their numbers would mean little if…

“You’re completely surrounded, they won’t help you at all.”

There was a burst of blinding flashes all around Natalia, which were shortly followed by loud explosions. Just like earlier, they were the middle level spell Air Burst.

With no direction to escape, the air pressure around Natalia became constricting as the explosions closed in. But then, a light blue mass shot out from within. A shot from Red Cassowary, which had remained safe as it had been kept within Natalia’s magic storage.

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