Trouble With The Church IX

"Did you hear that?"

"What? The sound of an angry beast roaring, and also what sounds like the earth splitting? I think the question you should be asking instead is if somehow someone didn't hear that?"

Ammine looked at Falte like she wanted to punch him.

"What? It's not like what I'm saying is wrong. Who isn't able to hear that?" Falte had a point. It was so loud that the sound even caused tremors which they could feel from here. He wouldn't be surprised either if he saw a giant monster standing somewhere in the distance.

"We should stop getting distracted and hurry." The two demons looked at the person who said that. Messa was standing right in front of them with the same expressionless face.

"Your voice is back," Ammine noticed.

"Somewhat."

Messa had not been able to speak for some time due to her throat being too dry and sore.

"Anyways, we should hurry," she repeated again to the two. "I sense a powerful aura at where the base is." Messa had the best magic sensory out of all of them and could perceive magic up to a kilometer away. And while it did get weaker the further away it is, her ability to do so is one of the best out there.

Her magic abilities were overall top-notch and she was second in line to take Tornon's position if he ever stepped down or perished. That was why Ammine wanted to get her out of the prison as soon as she could when she heard that she was in there. But even if it weren't for that, Ammine would have saved her anyway since she was important to her.

"I'll search over there," Messa pointed at one of the corners they still haven't touched yet.

"Wait, you've already finished searching that entire area?" Falte looked back at the column of broken-down houses where she had been searching. It was twice as big as their area and yet she finished it before he and Ammine could finish searching this area. Talk about efficiency.

"There wasn't much."

"That's still impressive. By the way, can you really not sense it?"

Messa shook her head.

"Ugh, what a headache." From what Kies told them, the fragment should have magical properties which meant that they should be able to sense it. And Messa, who was the best at sensing magic should at the very least sense it a little. But yet, even she couldn't feel any traces of magic here. "Did he give us the wrong place?"

"It might be some form of crystallized magic," Ammine told him.

"Hmm... You have a point, but it's still a headache."

If it was crystalized magic, then it wouldn't emit an aura and that was the reason why they were having such a hard time trying to find it. But if it were crystalized magic then how did Kies know that it was somewhere here? Ah, whatever, all he needed to do was find it. He wasn't the one fighting against the church by himself right now.

"This thing... what does it even look like?" They should've asked Kies about its appearance before they left. He regretted not doing so since it made their search all that much harder. For all he knew, they might have found it but tossed it aside because they mistook it for a piece of rubble or some normal stone.

"Can you shut your mouth and just look for it like the rest of us are?" Ammine said to him in an agitated voice.

"I'm looking, I'm looking!" Falte growled. "Gah, whatever." Arguing with Ammine would get him nowhere. He might as well shut his mouth and just keep looking.

***

Kies managed to close the distance between him and the light giant until he was practically right under its feet. He was now close enough to attack it but he wasn't sure if he wanted to. Would his wind magic do anything against something that was made purely of light?

There was only one way to find out. Kies shot a wave of Wind Blades at the giant's feet and watched as it dissolved when it hit the light. The answer was no. Kies vaulted to the side as the giant's foot came stomping down on him. The ground around him rumbled and cracked where the foot landed.

Kies shot another wave of Wind Blades at the foot which still had no effect. He then moved away from the foot as the giant lifted it up again and stomped it down on where he is. Kies looked up and saw that he wouldn't be able to dodge in time so he held out both his arms and shot a blast of wind to propel himself out of the area.

His back slammed into the wall of a nearby house, knocking it over but maintaining his balance. It was a neat trick to escape from situations like that and he just recently thought of it during his fight against the avatar, but he definitely needed to work on it. Kies jumped away from the house as the giant's foot crushed the entire thing.

Kies ran clockwise around the giant and continued trying to bring it down with his attacks. The church's mages were gone and he couldn't see them anywhere which led him to believe that they were really inside the giant. This meant that he didn't need to worry about having to take on both the giant and them at the same time.

Kies ran a couple more circles around the giant before it suddenly got angry and let out a ferocious roar. The roar stunned Kies for a moment and he looked up just in time to see the giant's big stomach come falling down on top of him. Kies used the winds to propel himself out of the area but the avatar's body was too big and he couldn't completely make it out in time. His left leg got caught and almost got crushed, but luckily, the avatar bounced up a little after colliding with the ground and this gave Kies enough time to pull it out before it could fall back onto his leg.

Kies couldn't feel his leg at all but it still seemed to be working fine. It responded to him and Kies backed away from the avatar, bracing himself for its next attack. That's when the light giant suddenly started to dissolve. Kies watched as it melted until there was nothing left. Its body soaked into the ground almost like water.

Wait... Where were the mages? Kies turned his head all, trying to find where the robed people were. Surely they haven't left when their target was still here. So where were they? As if to answer his question, a ray of light descended from the sky and a dome appeared around the slums, trapping him and everything else inside.

Following the ray of light, people in white robes emerged from behind the houses and surrounded Kies. There was his answer. The avatar they summoned was only a distraction. This was their real intention, to trap him in and surround him so that there was no way he could escape.

---

Grammar errors, story errors, other errors, and advice, email flightless05@gmail.com

Thanks!