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「Guh… that was unexpected…」

After being swept away by the strong gale, the man was flung against the broken down stairs at the end of the Ancient Circular Gate. He used one of the steps as support as he lifted with wobbly feet, his face contorted in pain and his body posture unstable..

「Seems that worked a bit.」

Mira said as she picked up the mist sword that had fallen off his hand, throwing it to the other side.

His armor had been able to nullify a Dark Knight’s attack, as well as Pegasus’ lightning. It was easy to conclude that it had a strong defense against elemental attacks then, which made it nearly impenetrable.

But sturdiness alone was not enough to face Mira, it took much more than that to take down one of the Nine Wisemen. No matter how hard the armor was, or rather, because it was so resistant, the wearer would receive a considerable amount of damage by being flung to the ground inside it.

「Oh hey, it seems they’re done over there.」

Mira was looking a bit to the side, where Pegasus had just used his hind legs charged with lightning to kick the golem to pieces.

「I didn’t think it would end like this… guess I got greedy and missed my window to escape.」

There were still low thuds from hoofs that could be heard. The man gave into his pain, falling to his knees as he watched how his golem was turned to dust. His eyes had a slight hue of resentment mixed with awe, which he looked at Mira with.

「I can see why having such powerful tools can cloud your judgement.」

Mira slowly approached him as she spoke, but soon after she was stopped by Pegasus. When the winged horse saw Mira’s arm covered in cuts from the earlier gust of wind, he hurried to spread his wings and cast a healing light on her.

「That’s enough, thank you.」 She told him as she leaned down and used her fully healed arm to pick up the spirit sword. 「This is quite something as well.」 she scowled at the man before throwing it behind her as well.

「So I was too cheeky huh, I guess you’re right.」

The man chuckled in resignation, seeing that not only Mira had powerful attacks, but also the means to heal herself. He crawled up the steps, taking hold of the vase at the top and peering into it. It was filled with many specks of light flying around like fireflies.

(There isn’t much…but I guess I have no other options left. It should be enough to kick things into motion though. I’ll have to inform them about our change in plans.)

He mulled over his current situation, as well as what to do afterwards as he stashed the vase inside a bag fastened to his hips. Then he slowly raised his right palm and focused mana into it, raising a golem.

「Mm? This one looks different from the earlier one.」

The newly formed golem looked more animalistic, as opposed to the humanoid one from before. But its limbs looked thin and without claws, making it unlikely it was created to attack her.

Mira pondered what the reason behind it was while Pegasus stared at it warily. The golem walked on four legs approaching the man.

「This one is meant only for easier transport.」

As he spoke, the golem walked up to the open coffin next to the stairs and tucked itself in it. The man closed the lid after that and slowly struggled to fasten it to his back and stood up.

「I don’t know what you’re planning, but you won’t leave this place so easily.」

There was a five meter tall slanted rocky wall surrounding the Ancient Circular Gate. The man headed towards it and calmly began climbing it, which Mira looked at with her Magic Eyes.

(Hmmm… I see. Looks like I’ll have to hurry a bit here, and it’ll be rougher than I expected.)

The Magic Eyes’ curse was negated by the spirit armor, but as she kept imbuing it with it, the armor was slowly overtaken by the curse, making the man’s movements more sluggish.

The man seemed to notice something was happening to his body, which made him look up at the sky in frustration before taking one step forward and turning around.

「You know, you still have time if you want to run away.」

The man said that as he took out a small silver tube from his belt, holding it up so Mira could see it. His face did not look threatening, instead looking particularly calm, like a man ready to discard everything for an heroic deed.

「What’s that?」

Noticing the change in his attitude, Mira stood still and looked at the silver tube. It was around the size of his thumb, a thin string dangling from one end of it.

「This is called a fuse.」

The man smiled eerily, holding the string coming out of the fuse with his other hand and pretending to pull on it. In a way, that was a warning for Mira to stay away.

「A fuse? And what do you plan on doing with it? It won’t be of much use without any explosives lying around.」

While she had never encountered one herself, Mira had heard about fuses before. Fuses were only worth their value when paired with suitable explosives. So a fuse alone would never be enough to cause an explosion. Mira knew that much, so her questioning eyes moved up and down looking all over the man’s frame, seeing if he had any concealed explosives.

Noticing that, the man smiled even more widely.

「Oh but there are, explosives that is.」

He looked down at the ground 「This entire place is soaked with the Spirit King’s power」 he continued, raising the fuse a bit higher.

「And this is a spirit bomb’s fuse.」

He concluded his explanation. His face was brimming with confidence, showing just how powerful that bomb could be.

「A spirit bomb..?」

That term had a rather unpleasant ring to it, which made Mira glare at the man. At the same time, the worst possible scenario played through her head.

「Yes, precisely. A bomb full of spiritual power, or in some cases, made of spirits themselves.」

He seemed very interested in Mira’s reaction, the corners of his lips twisting upwards even more as he spoke, pretty much provoking Mira.

「Are you serious?!」

Her worst assumptions became reality. Hearing the man speak as if spirit lives meant nothing, treating them like tools, Mira exploded in rage. The man sneered at her reaction, prodding her by pulling the string out. At the same time, he smirked gleefully.

「Tell me how powerful it feels afterwards!」

Before Mira could jump away, the man threw the fuse to the ground. The silver pipe bounced up with a slight metallic click, small white sparks coming out from both ends.

As soon as Mira saw that, she instinctively summoned three Holy Knights, evolving them into Holy Lords and forming a strong defense around her.

Not a second later all the air around her seemed to get vacuumed out, a high pitched ringing filling her ears as her eyes were blinded by a white light.