The Breaking Decision

'At least 16 people.'

Mikhail assessed the dire situation with a calm expression.

As difficult and impossible the current scenario was, he didn't feel any fear or nervousness coursing through him.

His body? Maybe. But his soul and mind? No.

Maybe it was the effect of the battles in his previous life.

In any case, the problem had turned out to be much bigger than expected.

There were at least 16 people in front of him around and behind the wormholes.

All of them were dressed in oversized black robes with golden runic patterns embroidered on them.

Their arms and faces were both covered so he couldn't even see who was controlling the monster's charge.

Much less their faces.

'It's going to be impossible for me to handle them all at once if they are equal to my strength or a little less.'

The only slim hope he could see was if they were all Magus-ranked.

But that was pretty much impossible.

'If they were, they wouldn't be able to control all these monsters.'

Their control over the monsters was impeccable. To the point that not a single one dared to even attack them.

As soon as they got out, they charged straight to the gates.

'This is a little problematic.'

As much as he wanted to kill them right here, Mikhail knew that it was impossible.

It wasn't the main goal anyways.

The first goal he had to achieve was to close the gates.

There were two ways to balance out the mana frequencies and close a gate.

One, obviously, was to eliminate the people or sources that were disturbing them in the first place.

Or second, was to balance out the mana disturbances with your own mana frequencies.

The second one was basically a myth.

The reason for that was that it was almost nearly impossible to do it besides a few rare instances in history where people were able to do it.

To explain, every attack that a magus did basically had a mana frequency to it.

The frequency behind that attack was determined by at least a thousand factors in the attack.

Speed, shape, density etc.

So to intentionally shape out an attack to match the mana disturbance frequency was almost unheard of.

You needed extreme mana control to be able to do that. And an insane amount of precision.

A slight miss could cost him big time.

The number of gates would contribute to the difficulty in any other case, but not here.

It was because all the gates had been produced by a single source.

So all of them were operating at the same level.

All Mikhail had to do was balance out the frequencies for a sufficient time until the gates would successfully shrink and shut down.

Of course it was easier said than done.

There was only way for him to balance out the frequencies of his attacks to the wormholes.

It was to make an oath.

An oath with a Dominique present right in the area.

He didn't know if Celine would sense it from that far in the battlefield.

He didn't even know if she could sense Otharis.

But currently, it was his best chance to get done with this matter besides fighting them.

'The problem is..'

Mikhail would need to make a high sacrifice and consequence to be able to tune his attacks down or up to match the holes.

The sacrifice in an oath was the condition you made for the oath. 

It could be giving up something temporarily, an objective or anything.

And the consequence was of course the penalty for failing the oath.

One of the main differences between the two was the comparison.

The consequence always had to be greater than the reward.

'There's no other choice.'

He could only hope that Celine wouldn't sense it.

Mikhail raised his hands.

"In the name of God Of Oaths, I solemnly swear to not move out of range from the foes during the whole battle, remaining locked to the restricted area."

Just like always, he felt the chains start to bind in his heart.

"As a compensation, all my mana attacks or spells shall be tuned to the specific frequency of the wormholes even if the disturbance level changes."

The chains almost covered his heart when,

As he feared…

TUCK!

The chains suddenly halted, not moving forward.

'As I thought, the sacrifice isn't enough.'

He needed to sacrifice something more.

"As an additional sacrifice, I swear to not use my Aqualis element during the whole battle while limiting my Norvalis spells to Magus rank only."

'Yes.'

He felt the chains moving again.

CLINK!

'Finally.'

It worked.

Now the final phrase.

"This oath has been signed under the name of God Of Oaths, and I, as the Oathkeeper, shall abide by it."

Mikhail felt the chains connect together in his heart, sealing the oath.

It was complete.

Now for the moment of truth.

Mikhail remained in his position for a few seconds, holding his breath.

If what he feared was true, then any second, she would arrive at his location.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Mikhail could even hear his faint heartbeat in the tense silence, despite the loud charge of monsters in the distance.

It was as if all sound had died out for him in the moment.

A few seconds passed by.

'Surprising.'

Fortunately, there was no change whatsoever.

'Seems she didn't sense it from that far.'

Or it could be something else.

Currently however, he had no time to think about that.

He had already wasted 2 minutes.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself down and balance himself, Mikhail raised one of his guns.

It was already loaded.

The distance from the trees to the group in the distance was certainly far.

But Mikhail took his aim to the nearest one.

It would still be impossible for the average shooter but Mikhail had been using guns as a kid.

Especially the ones strapped to his waist.

The guy wasn't that tall and from what he could see, he wasn't playing that much of a role as well.

He just stood there, gazing into the distance.

'Maybe he's a guard.'

As much as he would like to shoot the important ones in the distance, this was the only option he had.

'Better than nothing.'

Taking aim, Mikhail positioned his gun just slightly above the head.

He couldn't see the person's face from here.

On the other hand, Mikhail started to perform hand signs again from his free hand.

"Cindralis."

The spell diagram appeared in front of him again.

"Fumivex."

The second node on the diagram lit up, joining the line to the first one.

"Morphis."

The third nod lit up, lighting the whole spell diagram ablaze.

"Cindralic Morphis."

And then…

BOOM!

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