"Oi, old man, stop the trial, or else people will die!" Yami shouted, but the priest had a grim expression.
"I can't use my spatial magic; something is blocking my magic from activating properly," the priest replied.
"Tsk!" Taking out his sword, Yami was ready to make a cut in the walls, but before he could do that, the roof was sliced apart, revealing two silhouettes floating in the air.
"GET READY, CHARLOTTE!" Yami screamed. A shockwave erupted as Yami's Dark Slash and light swords clashed mid-air.
The mana in the air grew heavier as the two figures in the air became clear.
Rhya and Licht from The Eye of the Midnight Sun.
"We meet again, fellow captains of the Clover Kingdom! Last time, we couldn't fulfill our mission, but this time, I hope you don't interfere," Licht said, creating more light swords around him.
"You can stand by if you want; we will leave after getting the magic stone," Rhya said, imitating Licht and creating more light swords.
'Eye of the Midnight Sun... This complicates things,' the priest thought as he made eye contact with his wife.
Instantly, dragon-scale-like armor made from the blessing of Leviathan appeared on the bodies of all four of them as she joined her hands.
"I can't wait and let our people die... Captain Yami... Captain Charlotte, please be our lance; my husband and I will be your shield and healer," the priest's wife said.
"So you choose to fight... so be it. Prepare to die for your sins, you filthy humans!" All the light swords around Licht shot toward Yami and Charlotte.
**********
The view of the trial was broadcasted to the entire underwater city, spreading fear and panic.
The barrier that was supposed to protect them had a giant hole and was taking time to reform due to the use of forbidden magic.
The soldiers and the guardian of the temple, getting beaten up mercilessly, were too hard to watch.
At the same time, mages of the Eye of the Midnight Sun blended into the crowd and rushed toward the main temple to search for the magic stone.
As soon as the mages stepped into the temple, they felt their vision blur as their surroundings started to turn purple.
Purple poisonous smoke started to seep out of the floor and give rise to black snakes that started to wrap themselves around the mages.
No matter how much the mages tried, the snakes kept coming back and biting them, injecting poison into their bodies.
Slowly, the mages started losing control over their magic due to the effect of poison.
Within a few minutes, all the mages were down.
More snakes wrapped themselves around the mages, forming a cocoon-like structure as the surroundings started to become normal, revealing a person with a creepy smile.
"I knew people would attack this place... I wouldn't let my friends have any problem while they take on the enemy," Gordon murmured while smiling.
**************
Vetto held the guardian of the temple by the head as broken bones stuck out of his body.
"YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE STRONGEST AMONGST ALL THESE ANTS?! WHAT A JOKE!" Vetto said, kicking the corpses on the ground, turning it into a bloody mess.
Boom!
Before Vetto could do the same to the guardian, he was hit with an explosion while his fingers were sliced apart, taking away the guardian from his hands.
Vetto's smiled as he looked at the two Black Bulls members standing at the opposite ends of the chamber.
Magna had multiple balls of flames floating around him, while he had a bat in his hand.
Luck had an armor of lightning around his body while he created a small barrier of
lightning around the fainted guardian.
Both of their bodies were bleeding from the surprise attack from Vetto, but the determination in their eyes gave Vetto joy.
He would enjoy turning those determined eyes to despair.
"COME! ENTERTAIN ME!"
[Mana zone: Lightning lance]
Luck became litigating itself as he tried to strike Vetto's chest, trying to create a hole, but Vetto crossed his arms, blocking his attack.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The fireballs Magna condensed turned into daggers, stabbing themselves into Vetto's back and exploding.
Although it didn't do any damage to Vetto, it surprisingly broke his reinforcement mana armor.
Boom!
Ignoring Magna, Vetto punched Luck, making him crash into the wall.
In a fraction of seconds, Vetto was near Magna and punched him to the ground.
Luck made claws of lightning and dashed towards Vetto, scratching his back, but it only damaged his armor and did no real damage.
Vetto didn't turn around, but spikes emerged from his back, striking Luck. [Beast Magic: thorn of porcupine]
Luck kicked the ground and ran around the walls, shooting projectiles toward Vetto, but it only created cracks in his armor.
Mana covered Vetto's legs as he jumped towards Luck. Luck used every close combat trick he knew against Vetto while dodging his attacks. He knew that taking one attack from him would be over for him.
Magna kept on shooting fireballs toward Vetto while Luck attacked with a combination of close and long-range attacks.
His most powerful attacks were either blocked by a shield appearing near him or got destroyed with Vetto's attack.
Manga and Luck broke Vetto's armor multiple times, but they were unable to cause any real harm to Vetto.
A lightning trident formed behind Luck and shot toward Vetto.
A giant red claw appeared in Vetto's hand, destroying the trident.
Magna shot another fireball, which got divided into many parts to attack Vetto, but they already moved from the path and gave a punch to Magna.
Magna staggered and coughed up blood.
Luck created more weapons and shot towards Vetto, but the head of a monster formed on Vetto's hand and shot a beam of compressed mana, destroying his attacks and hitting Luck.
He kicked the ground and reached near Luck instantly, grabbing his legs, and slamming him near Magna.
"DO YOU FEEL DESPAIR!! NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, IT IS USELESS," shouted Vetto, releasing more bloodlust.
Setting aside the broken debris, Luck and Magna stood up, dragging their broken bodies.
"Despair, you say..." fire formed in Magna's hand.
"If we ever felt despair, I would be ashamed to call myself a Black Bull," Luck shouted as lightning cracked in Luck's hand.
Luck utilized the mana zone to his fullest and condensed it for a single spell, while Magna absorbed as much natural mana as he could, fueling his attack.
[Combination magic: fire-lightning exploding volt.]
Boom!
The combination of their attacks broke all of Vetto's defense as their hands stabbed through Vetto's stomach, creating a hole.
Instead of struggling, Vetto smiled as the injury slowly started to heal.
"DO YOU THINK THIS IS ENOUGH TO KILL ME?! I GAVE YOU INSECTS THE CHANCE TO STRUGGLE, AND THIS IS WHAT YOU COME UP WITH! PATHETIC!"
"We never meant to kill you... we were just buying time," Magna said as multiple mirrors condensed around Vetto, shooting beams of mana at him, while a portal transported Luck and Magna to one corner of the chamber.
Red strings wrapped around the bodies
of Luck and Magna, stopping the blood and keeping their broken bones in place.
"Seems like we were on time," Vanessa said, stepping out of Finral's portal.
"Good job holding Luck, Magna... let us handle this now," Gordon said, stepping out of a portal.
Boom!
A figure of Rhyno appeared around Vetto, blocking the beams.
Spikes erupted from Vetto's body, destroying the mirror.
[Cotton Magic: Strike of the cotton guardian]
Two giant sheep condensed around Vetto and punched him, but Vetto punched back, destroying the sheep.
[Transformation magic: cotton to fire]
A blue-haired girl stepped into the room and stood beside Gauche.
But the cotton-like body parts of the sheep turned into exploding fireballs.
The girl was Grey.
Due to her social anxiety and other factors like low confidence, she most of the time hides her approach by taking different forms, but due to the attack of the Eye of the Midnight Sun and the trial of the temple, she was running out of mana, making her revert back to her original form.
More sheep of cotton formed around the chamber and jumped at Vetto, while from one corner, Asta absorbed Gauche's mana with Demon Dweller sword and slashed towards Vetto.
This time Vetto felt something different... his injuries were not healing.
Destroying all the mirrors and sheep again, Vetto stared at Asta, especially his Grimoire and the Demon Dweller sword.
Two more portals opened up as sound waves hit Vetto's ears, trying to destroy his eardrums.
"What do you think you are doing to my Squad Members!?" Noelle's voice reverberated in the chamber.
Vetto's smile grew wider as he watched the entire squad of Black Bulls surround him.
"HAHA! THIS IS GETTING INTERESTING! SHOW ME HOW MUCH YOU INSECTS CAN STRUGGLE!"