Knocked Out

…

Seeing his arm getting corroded, Scias quickly gets the talisman from before.

"Huff… What a waste to use it for this…" Scias griped.

Shortly, Scias closes his eyes and raises the talisman in front of his face. Surprised to see her friend beginning to chant, she immediately screams, "W-Wait, Scias!"

"…huh?"

Scias cancelled his incantation instantly.

"I may be unable to help that much, but let me heal you!"

"…" Scias got trapped in his wavering thoughts again. "…You want to overdo y-yourself again?"

Nina reasons out, "If that talisman is so important, then keep it! I may not have that much of mana energy, but I believe I can cast a few more magic spells. Trust me!"

Hearing her words, Scias, not for long, he decided, "…Fine. Don't force yourself!"

"Hm. Leave it to me. Please let me down," said Nina.

…

"Damnations, these demons are freaking powerful. Though, they're not as powerful as that Dragonian, they're still a pain in the arse," thought Marco while avoiding many spines shot by the demon he's fighting.

Suddenly, the crab-haired demon struck him from above, but luckily, Marco managed to dodge him in time. The ground the demon struck is in craters as a result of his immense power.

"Yeeesh, not gonna let myself in his bash. I'll be scraped meat."

"Your voice sounds confident now. Don't you realize that you have no chance of winning, human?" the demon asked arrogantly while preparing to assault again.

"I know. But even so, I don't want to be beaten without putting up a fight," Marco stated with confidence. Perspiration runs down visibly, however. Despite the confidence, he still fears of being killed.

"Is that so… Well, too bad you're going to die, pretty soon. And it will be a painful one. Let's ready the magic, my friend," asked the demon to his brethren.

"You ain't serious about using it here, don't you?" the demon reassures.

"Hee-hee…" the demon grinned scarily.

"What are you up to, huh?" Marco stated while holding his gun. He had loaded his gun without the demon noticing him, threatening the demons.

"This human… his sleight of hand can be a fatal obstacle for us…" said the demon as he analyzes. His eyes scrolls down and sees the human's arms twitching slightly. "…But that won't matter, I suppose. Because…"

The two demons stood back to back while staring at Marco. Together, they say, "Die!"

Shortly, and happens almost instantly, the ground rumbles like earthquake, surprising everyone including the demons Scias is fighting.

"Oi, oi… you can't be freaking serious to utilize them here, do you?" the demon grinned widely. "It's time," the other demon stated.

Slowly, they form a magic circle in magenta color. The demons that back to back also generate a magenta magic circle but larger. As they chant in a scary voice lines, the shadowy creature that surrounded the three now rotates like a whirlpool of black fire.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! You can't be frickin' serious about this! That's… dark magic!" Marco yelled out loud. He sweats greatly now. He senses a massive fear running through his veins.

The whirlpool now grows taller as if it is forming a gigantic wall of blackness. It is an eerie sight to see. Purple streaks of dark magic covered by thickets of shadow wall as tall as 20 meters high, anyone might faint if they couldn't stand the terrifying play.

Nina, who was just succeeded in mending Scias' corrosive injury, got astounded as she saw the whirlpool of darkness that rose into a wall that looked more like a hurricane.

"What is… that…?" she said fearfully. "Y-You can't b-be serious…" said Scias stutteringly.

Suddenly, deafening distorted screeches penetrated everyone's ears, causing a great nauseous, headache, and might turn someone insane. The masses of shadow swirling around them as it slowly destroy them psychologically.

"Yeeeheee-heeehehe-hehehe… they really done it, hahahahaha!" the demon near Scias laughed out loud uncontrollably. "You fools are totally dead, dead, dead!" the demon taunted.

"I'm looking forward to see your chunks of hands, legs, bodies, and your heads flying around the Typhoon of Darkness!" he added scarily.

"…Grrgh…" Scias crouches down, dropping Nina to the ground. "S-Scias…?"

"…Aaaaaaaaaaargh!" Marco screamed shortly. "These voices… they're even… w….orse… than the ones I've been through before…"

"G-Guys… what happened to you two…?" Nina's eyes wriggled in fear as she saw her friends got tortured by the magic that she alone couldn't feel the effects.

"Scias… Marco… please hang on…!"

Liquids of saliva and their noses are running wild as a result. Shortly, the tenseness of the dark elemental magic caused them to bleed from any crevice within their body.

Strangely, Nina doesn't suffer any internal physical or psychological damage at all. As if the dark magic was intended to tear apart Marco and Scias specifically. The demons who realized this got astounded.

"So, you can actually resist it, huh?" the demons stated. But quickly, he remembered that the human lady was a mage, thus impossible if not affected. The demon realized this and declares it in a threatened fashion.

"—No, you didn't resist the Typhoon of Darkness. What are you?"

Curious, he then analyzed her in a quick glance. "Ah… so that's how it is."

The demon saw Nina's aura being far inferior and vague than the others. Her aura is so little until the dark magic cannot infect her in any means.

"The Typhoon of Darkness was meant to contaminate mana energy within an individual. The greater they have mana in their body, the greater the effect of this magic. But you… you barely even have mana energy. What have you done?"

"ERK! Bro! That chick must've been the one!" said the demon who loves to swear a lot.

"Your meaning?"

"Dumbass, she must've been the one who caused the curse to dissolve."

"…! You mean she did it singlehandedly?" the other demon got shocked. "That's impossible, even the villagers altogether didn't have the adequate power to destroy the curse that Lord Dantalion created. How come a single human being such as her, could undo his work by herself?"

"Who knows? She must've been very, very powerful until the point that the curse got reversed. Ain't that the possible thing? Now she's dry out of mana energy, she cannot be affected by Typhoon of Darkness."

"…I hate to admit, but that's the only logical explanation. But still… what medium did she use until the curse is gone completely?"

…

"Marco! Scias! MARCO! SCIAS!"

Multiple times she called their names, but it appears Marco and Scias couldn't hear her.

"I… I will not let you two die here…! No, I won't!"

Nina clasped her hands as if she's praying. She prayed to her heart's content. Shortly, her body glows in a blinding dot of light as if a single star shining solely on an empty space. The wall of darkness that swirls around them still rotates crazily. But she didn't halt her process.

The demons, either the activators or the observers are all shocked to see her.

"What is she doing?!"

"You're joking!"

"That can't be?!"

"S-She is?!"

Nina's tear run down slightly to her cheeks. "Please don't go… Marco, Scias…"

"Marco, Aily… I'm sorry. I'm very, very sorry."

…

Nina remembered during their recovery from their battle against Ordan, the Green Minotaur of Areda. As they were healing, Nina was scolded big time by Aily and Marco for using magic forcefully.

"Why you risk your life like that, Nina?"

"That's right, sis… if you die, I won't forgive you, you know? Who else am I going to live with if you die?"

"I-It can't be helped, you know? If I don't do it, everyone will die. It's… better this way."

"…"

Marco and Aily in that time couldn't reply to her words. Her words were right. But hardly, they accepted the fact that… she used her life energy to cast magic.

When someone ran out of mana energy, they can no longer use magic unless they recover from the battle first. However, there was a secret ability that allowed someone to continuously cast magic but at the cost of their life energy. Keep using magic with life energy, keep on using it, and they will stop automatically once their life energy was drained completely.

Such ability… can only be used by several amounts of people… that are willing to risk their lives for the safety of their families, partners, comrades, friends, and all those they love and cared for. The determination needed to use the ability… is far beyond compare.

Nina's life has been drained about five times in her lifespan until now. Three times she used her life energy to cast major magic spells to save her family, and two times she used it to save her friend and her most lovely sister. If counted correctly… her life has been decreased by thirty years.

And now…

…

Nina, without her cane or anything as a medium, she casted out another major magic spell.

"Purify!"

Shortly, but with certainty, the glowing light like a twinkling star now focused on her clasped hands, emitting a much brighter light as if it the pinnacle of everything. The light shined so brilliantly until it penetrates the curtains of shadow that swirled around them like hurricane. And as a final result, blood oozes out of her veins. However, she retains her consciousness this time. She ultimately calls out to her friends.

"Marco! Scias!!! WAKE UP!"

Suddenly, a thunderstorm struck into the eye of the shadowy hurricane. It clustered like rainstorm of lightning, storming directly at the demons.

"GRRRR!"

"AAARGH!"

"OOOAARGH!"

"SHIT!"

Thus, Marco stands up, followed by Scias.

"You don't have to use your life energy for that, you know…" Scias stated. "…Yeah." Marco added in a disappointed voice.

"I'm sorry…" said Nina in remorse. "I… I just don't want to lose you."

"Yeah, we'll talk about that later, for now… we must spam as many magic as we can."

"Uh." Scias nodded.

The demons that just regenerated from the lightning injury got surprised, "What are you talking about, ah?"

"Hey, if you think we're just lying down on the soil weeping in pain, then that's where you demons got wrong! We can still hear you. You said that if we have lesser mana energy, then we'll be fine, right?"

"…They what?"

"It won't matter you fools. You still won't win against us in any way."

Marco confidently smiled, "Can you say that again after getting struck by lightning, mate?"

Marco claps his hands and generates a yellow magic circle that emits lightning from it. It expands wide enough as he chants and finally releasing it into his targets.

"Thunder Spike!"

The demons try to avoid them, "HAH! You'll miss this time, fool!"

"Lines of Fire." Scias casted a Level 1 Fire magic. He is generating an elongated thread of fire that tangled at least two demons. The rest of the demons managed to avoid his magic attack.

But… they lost their focus to the thunder magic and thus got struck by spikes of lightning wholly.

"Again, Scias!"

"You got it."

Relentlessly, Marco and Scias used multiple combinations of magic. Marco casted over and over, while Scias tried to combine along with Marco's pattern of attack. Together, they bombarded the demons endlessly. Sparkling thunders and soaring flames can be seen through the thicket of the dark hurricane.

The demons retaliated with all their might. Knowing their danger, Marco used himself to bait every of their attacks to hit him while he performs Thunder Step most of the time while avoiding getting into the hurricane of shadows.

After relentless amount of combined attack, Marco unconsciously stands beside his buddy and cast altogether with him. With the last ounce of mana energy, both of them activate Level 3 of their respective elements and unexpectedly formed a new magic:

"Firestorm!"

A big fireball swallows the air upwards as lightning swirls around it as it courses through the eye of the hurricane. The demons try to avoid it by spreading widely. Unexpectedly, the fireball explodes violently and caused a titanic explosion, releasing heat waves to its surrounding while the thunder discharged into all directions as if it has unlimited strikes.

The demons manage to survive the blast and still in one piece.

"Grrr! Don't get ahead of yourselves, filthy humans!"

"Altogether, now!"

"You're asking for it, human!"

"I had enough of this damnation! Don't mess with us, humans!"

The hurricane gets wilder, but it has little to no effects now to Marco and Scias. The two stand near Nina side-by-side. Both of them have officially run out of mana energy. They can no longer cast magic for the time being.

The demons bear resentment greatly to the humans. They decided to use a supreme magic to destroy both the humans and the entirety of the region in a single strike. The demons formed a four pointed star purple magic circle with each of them representing each points of the star. Together, they channeled mana energy and readied it to be unleashed simultaneously.

"For Lord Dantalion,"

"We will,"

"Destroy,"

"The entire land!"

Marco, Scias, and Nina realized that even though they've done everything to destroy the demons, they still couldn't win.

"…Goodness, isn't this just… great? If I can't even defeat these guys… how can I even reach the Grand Altar?" Marco stated.

"…So this… is as far as we go…?" Scias wondered. "We… don't have a chance, huh? I haven't even…"

"…I'm sorry, Nina. I… am not powerful enough to deal with them." Marco apologized.

Nina smiles sincerely, despite the blood oozing out of her slowly. "Hm! It's okay. I am forever happy to know you two. I really… thanking… you…"

As the demon accomplishes their chant, the magic circle gets brighter. From the top of the hurricane, together they cast the supreme magic of dark element.

But instead of successfully cast the magic, all of them dissolve into nothingness.

"W-Whaaaa….?!"

"T-This… This is?!"

"NO WAY!"

"H-Holy magic?!"

Shortly, the hurricane dispersed spectacularly, revealing a 25 meters tall cage made out of light. Any dark element within the cage gets nullified into completely nothing.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

"LOOOORD DANTAAALIIOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGHHH!!!"

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGH!"

…

Finally, the demons have gone from the face of the earth. Their presence has been erased. This phenomenon confused the party, who got astounded by the magic that seemingly look like a direct judgment from the gods.

From the sunset sky, a person with a pink hoodie and mostly peach-colored clothing dropped down and landed swiftly on the ground. The person walks closer to the party silently. Their body is filled with visible aura of holy element as if they a prophet. But no, it's not a prophet. The person is, in fact a True Holy Elementalist.

With solemn voice, Marco asks first hand. "Who… are you…?"