VIP Chapter 509: Their Counterattack (3k)
Zero Demon City, 215th Floor.
“Bombard them! Give it your all! Blast this place to kingdom come!”
From the reflection in the mirror, Iaar could see Sylph’s eyes turning redder and redder—something she had witnessed in Liya before.
Perhaps it was a type of…
Witch’s indignant rage?
It wasn’t just about being rough with magic, but touching something more fundamental, making her utterly lose her temper.
Iaar tightly gripped her shield, tucking her fluffy tail further behind her skirt, afraid it would get burned.
Just standing here, she could feel the ground’s temperature was much higher than before.
But…
Iaar clenched her shield.
Since Will told her to defend this spot, this temperature was nothing. She had to hold off the woman before her.
She glanced to the side.
About 30% of the mirrors had been breached; she had protected most of them.
Sylph, along with her main force, had entered this world of mirrors.
“Ice Array: Third Form (Attack)… Wait, the attack… it suddenly stopped?”
Iaar was about to intercept another attack, but when she looked up, she found that the previous screen-wide attack, which had been utterly inefficient, had suddenly weakened considerably.
“…Truly useless. With your level, you think Mr. Carver would even spare you a second glance? Stop joking around.”
Sylph’s scolding voice carried over.
“Miss Witch, please! You need to understand something, we… our magic power is also limited.”
“Frankly, we’re just hired by Mr. Carver to work for him. Not everyone needs to climb to the top… Hmph…”
Iaar poked her ears out from behind the mirror, trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.
“Hmph, then let me do it.”
“You should have done it long ago! This team was your idea from the start!”
“If you hadn’t insisted on showing off, who would have agreed to accompany you to clear a dungeon that’s fundamentally impossible… that could even cost us our lives.”
Among the mages, Iaar seemed to hear quite a few words of caution.
She had initially thought the mages who entered here were a united front, especially under Sylph’s control; they should have been willing to serve Carver wholeheartedly…
But the situation now seemed completely different from what she had imagined.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up—all of you, shut up—”
Sylph interrupted them.
“M-Miss Sylph, I… I think we can still negotiate. Why do we absolutely have to clear Zero Demon City…”
Iaar, not very good at reading the mood, felt this might be an opportunity for her to interject!
If she were like Liya, outwardly tough but easily persuaded, maybe she could dissuade Sylph?
“And you… why are you defending here?”
“Because Will wants me to.”
“We’re even then—”
As if venting, Sylph threw a ball of fire, hitting the mirror Iaar was hiding behind.
“Because, because if I succeed, I… I can sit at the table with Will again and watch him eat my desserts—he might even pat my tail and praise me for doing a good job…”
Iaar felt that Sylph’s attack was less threatening than before.
She thought she might have persuaded Sylph and continued speaking.
“Alright, shut up and stop talking.”
“But, from what I understand, if it were Carver, he wouldn’t do something like this, right? After all, I’m also from the Hysterm Family, Mr. Carver… the old master probably only likes…”
Boom—
Iaar had to pull her ears back to avoid the sound of the explosion from this barrage.
She hadn’t even realized the other party could attack with such speed!
“…Huh?! Wait, wait, wait, weren’t we just talking fine…”
“Say that again?”
“Say… say what?”
Iaar picked up her shield, understanding that her mental focus truly couldn’t afford any slack, and intently stared forward.
“Say it again, he *will never* look at me again?!”
Iaar looked at the reflection in the mirror, and she saw…
Sylph’s hair, starting from the tips, gradually turned a brilliant red that Iaar was very familiar with, the color that witch often displayed…
A dazzling red.
“I-I-I-I don’t think I said that!”
Even more terrifying…
Behind Sylph, she had borrowed nearly ten staves from her team, floating behind her like some sort of “sword formation.”
…What in the world is this?
She had heard that swordsmen with more swords had a wider attack range and were more powerful.
This was her first time seeing a mage wielding so many staves at once…?
At the same time, Iaar felt the surrounding air becoming more scorching, hotter, and circulating towards her position.
“Hmph…”
Iaar began to silently chant the spell of time stop, preparing to cast it the moment Sylph attacked, and at the same time protect the remaining mirrors.
But…
Compared to these…
She still didn’t understand why the opponent had suddenly gone all out like a startled cat!
Did she say something she shouldn’t have?
Eh…
But no matter how she thought about it, she seemed to be earnestly persuading the other party to give up.
“I don’t think that’s what I meant—”
Iaar hid behind the mirror, praying that Treya would finish quickly, and also…
That Will would win his battle against Carver.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zero Demon City, 225th Floor.
Liya floated in the air, struggling, but still picked up the heavy metal staff in her hand.
Half of her hair had turned red, and her eyes looked as if they were bloodshot.
“Eighth… eighth round of bombardment.”
For her alone, it was too difficult to truly act like a dungeon BOSS and hold off a team with two “S Rank Shield Saints.”
Although the skill level of these two was far from Iaar’s, who could withstand Iron Dragon’s attacks for several rounds.
Her magic circuits screamed within her blood, and at the same time, she could feel her magic reserves were about half full.
Flames engulfed the “army” steadily advancing beneath Liya’s feet. Even though she conjured a thick enough wall of fire, it was difficult to stop their forward momentum.
It had to be said that Grace was indeed one of the very strong adventurers.
She was also a former teammate of Carver.
She could so acutely discover the method to clear the dungeon.
“What’s the matter, little witch? You seem to be struggling. Why not retreat obediently?”
“You think this is my limit? How naive. How could a witch’s limit be just this little bombardment?”
“The person you like hasn’t responded to you, has he? Look, even like this, the one you trust hasn’t given any reply, and even asked you to help your love rival…”
“Shut up—!”
Liya’s next bombardment struck the Shield Saint on the left flank.
It sent him flying.
The power of a bomb fueled by a witch’s rage was absolutely reliable.
“Heh.”
But Liya chuckled. She quickly calmed down, not provoked by the words.
“Because you haven’t truly gained Carver’s love, you don’t understand, do you?”
“What… what don’t I understand?”
“Even after being by his side for nearly twenty years, he never seems to feel your emotions. Nothing about you gets a response…”
Grace, an elf with a rather cool temperament, listened to Liya’s rather “vivid” description, her eyes narrowing so much that a wrinkle formed at the corner of her eye.
“Do you know what you’re saying?”
“I don’t know who this Carver who wants to kill Will is. But as species who ‘live a little longer,’ I can clearly see the resentful aura about you.”
Liya said this, dodging a round of arrows fired from below in mid-air.
If she stopped for even a moment, such attacks would be fired at her.
She wasn’t trying to chat; using this “clever” method of talking with her mouth could give her magic circuits a slight respite.
“If you saw even a trace of hope for his love, you wouldn’t be so full of resentment, standing before me in a way you know will get no response from him.”
Liya proudly flipped her twin tails.
She understood.
If she had to be a proper dungeon BOSS, the most important thing she needed to learn was—
Taunting!
Taunt them until the adventurers were forced to attack you, taunt them until they wanted to tear you apart, taunt them until they fought with their lives—that was it!
“What are you… what are you so proud of?! Don’t tell me you…”
“Of course.”
Liya aimed her staff, now equipped with a new crystal, at Grace, who had not finished speaking.
Grace wanted to dissuade Liya with a few words.
That was impossible.
“He has indeed responded to me every time. And… the current him exists because of me… No, because of us.”
The ninth round of bombardment, concentrating her magic, erupted on the ground once more.
On the ground, which had already turned into scorched earth, Liya could smell a pungent odor even from such a height.
“So, to embrace him in the future world, I will hold you off here.”
Explosions rang in Liya’s ears.
However…
The more she acted as this dungeon’s BOSS, the more Liya felt something was wrong.
This wasn’t the BOSS room, but apart from the blocking castle, it was eerily quiet.
It was hard to imagine a completed dungeon having a floor that was almost an empty gate… Where had all the demons that were supposed to be stationed in Zero Demon City gone?
“Hmph… Treya, damn you! You’re incredibly slow. Do you know that after this place is cleared, they’ll enter your empty BOSS room and pillage everything?!”
After Liya’s latest full-power bombardment ended, she thought this in her mind.
“You’re an old woman who’s been single for who knows how many years, yet you still want to prove you understand love better?”
Grace’s rage was ignited, and she shouted this out.
Awaiting Liya, besides this sentence…
Was an ice arrow piercing the clouds, coming with a cold trail, having broken through the smoke of the bombardment.
“!? ”
Liya’s circuits whirred to their fastest. Dodging was impossible, but using an instant-cast flame to block it was barely feasible.
Screech—
An arrow grazed against her right arm.
She instantly felt pain.
“How much longer can you hold on, little witch disguised as a BOSS?”
