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Chapter 126: Renryth (4)

"...?" Upon distancing himself from the old man post-attack, Shinto glanced over towards his system notification in slight confusion. "...the judgement of great evil is shaking?"

[ The judgement is moving between 'Lesser Good' to 'Greater Evil'! ]

"...what's going on?" Still confused about the rising notifications that he was receiving, Shinto shook his head of the thought as he had no time to ponder on the idea. Soon after, his eyes turned towards his front, where the man was lying on the ground.

"Cough..." Frey let out a cough as she slowly got up from the floors of the room. The attack from the old man had brought her health down to 60%, however, it wasn't as painful compared to the earlier burst of magic. "...did we do it?"

"...what do you think?" From the side of Frey, Ethaniel slowly stood up from the ground as well. "There's no way for the damage currently dealt to be enough. We didn't even land a single hit on him," he clicked his tongue, whilst gripping onto the hilt of his sword tightlyIn preparations to enter into battle again.

"...just to fall from my attacks and Reru's... It wouldn't be this easy to defeat him, right?" Shinto frowned at the odd sight. Although his Divinity Skills buffed by [ Sanctum Brilliance ] dealt moderate damage respectively, the damage was nowhere enough to even cut off 10% of a bosses health.

Even when taking into account Reru's and Kon's attacks on the old man, the damage that was added up wouldn't be enough to bring down the old man. Thus, something was up.

"He's just lying there..." Kon muttered out in uncertainty. "Do we still go in for an attack whilst he's down?"

Against any normal enemy or boss under normal circumstances, one wouldn't wait for their opponent to get up. But instead, they would try to end the fight while they were at their weakest.

However, in the case of this scenario, going all out without limit to defeat the opponent would be uncalled for. This was because of the possibility that after the fight, the group wouldn't be able to achieve their goal, which was to have Raina learn the arts from Renryth.

"Renryth's power shouldn't be this weak..." Reru muttered to himself in caution. "Just what is this?"

"...could it be because of the curse that's in effect on the old man?" Rustly answered unsurely.

"The curse that's in effect..." Shinto pondered on Rustly's words for a few seconds as he soon slowly distanced himself farther away from the man in question. "If that's the case... Renryth might still be fighting against Sanke who seems to be trying to control him."

"He's still battling against the curse?" Frey raised her brow. "How would you know that?"

"I don't. It's just an assumption," Shinto stated. "But... If it's true, then we have to find a way to snap him out of it."

As the group conversed with one anotherThey heard a burst of small laughter coming by the front. Quickly turning over to the direction, they noted that the old man was standing up.

"Keke..." his laughter continued. "You think you can peacefully discuss like that?"

"Ugh... He got up," Ethaniel clicked his tongue. "I guess it's round two..."

"I underestimated this guy's willpower even after taking over his mind," Sanke scoffed. "Well, it's not a problem. If I can't use his power to the full extend then..." Moments after he spoke out the words, his hand enveloped in a dark aura as it soon spread out across the fields. Seconds later, skeletal rats and purple slimes started to rise from the ground.

"He's finally resulting to this?" Reru seemed to be frowning. "If he starts spamming magic spells again, I won't be able to put up my shield until another few minutes."

"My walls can't hold against his large scale attacks..." Rustly muttered out. 

"..." Shinto deeply thought to himself as he glanced over to his back, seeing Raina who was still behind the remains of the statue. Soon after, he saw that the undead summoned by Sanke were making their way over to her. "I think there's a way to end this fight. But... Firstly, Frey," Nodding his head, his eyes then turned to Frey who was busily fighting off the monsters. "Come with it."

"H-Huh?" Frey mumbled out in confusion as she punched the skeletons leaping towards her. "To where?"

"To Raina," Shinto stated as he took out the necklace and soon threw it over towards the direction of Ethaniel, who barely caught the sudden item thrown at him whilst he was fighting.

"...?!" Ethaniel raised his brow in great confusion as he saw the necklace in his hand. "What gives?!"

"I'll leave it to you guys to stall the enemies and Sanke," Shinto gestured at his group as he soon leapt forward over to the direction of Raina.

"Ack- Hey, wait up!" Frey cried out as he hurried behind Shinto.

"...?" Ethaniel frowned at the sight of the two retreating back as he still had a dumbfounded expression on his face, however, unable to have a say in this, he turned towards Rustly with a sigh. "You slimes and Kon, do whatever it takes to prevent that bastard from shooting attacks over to the back."

"You think that'll be easy?!" Rustly cried out.

"Just use your damn wall!" Ethaniel stated as he pushed his blade forward, quickly slashing at the skeletal rats and slimes.

"...tch. I hope that human knows what he's doing," Reru muttered out as he sent multiple spikes of slime around the area.

...

Making their way through the room, Shinto and Frey were busily knocking the enemies out of the way as they reached Raina who was still busy chanting out spells against the enemies.

However, shooting out her elemental spells, the enemies that she targetted swiftly evaded.

"Ugh..." she frowned as the enemies that dodged her spells closed the distance with her. Just as she was about to be attacked, a figure hurriedly pushed forward and slammed the enemy away.

"Raina!" Shinto shouted out as he reached over to her, whilst doing so, he shot out multiple mana sparks. "You okay?"

"Ahem... yeah," Raina nodded her head. "Why are you two back? Are we retreating?"

"No," Shinto shook his head. "I've got a plan that might snap Renryth back to reality. But, I need to confirm something with you."

"Confirm what?" Raina questioned.

"You haven't casted Flames of Etheral yet, right?" Shinto asked.

"No... I didn't have enough time to chant out the spell," she stated. "What about it?"

During the events of when the group was making their way over to the old man, Raina had tried to cast the spell, however, just as she was about to finish, she was quickly interrupted by the undead that popped up out of nowhere.

"Hmm... then," Nodding his head, Shinto then asked. "What's the current details of the skill?"

"My current details?" Raina tilted her head as she shared the skill with Shinto.

[ Degraded Flames of Etheral (Lesser) ] [ 600 MP ] [ Cooldown: 30 Minutes ]

By the arts of the great Etheral that burns through the darkness, shoots out a small pure flame as it reaches a target, quickly dealing 850% of fire magic damage to them.

*As this is a lesser form of the skill 'Flames of Etheral', many effects of the skill will not be in effect until further notice.

...

"...hmm, no changes from last time?" Shinto tilted his head.

"Yeah... It's not powerful enough to defeat Sanke at this state." she sighed. "Even if I used it now, there's not going to be any changes.

"Right... But, I think there will be a change," Shinto stated.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"...the effects of Flames of Etheral was something that could be used to defeat Sanke if mastered, right?" Shinto reasoned. "Which meansThe skill should have properties that propel or subsidies the curse."

"Hmm... so what you're saying is that..." Raina muttered to herself. "If we use this now even at this stage, we'll be able to snap him out of it?"

"It's a chance, but... the only option," he stated as he turned to the busy group fending off against the attacks of Sanke. "...let's try it."

"H-Hey... Guys?" Frey cried out. "Are you done discussing? If so... Mind helping me?!"

"In any case... Cast the spell while we cover you." Saying the things needed to be said, Shinto stood as he continued sending waves of basic attacks onto the enemies, slightly pushing them back. With his lack of resources left he could only opt for the option of attacking normally.

"..." In reply to Shinto, Raina turned towards the old man as she murmured out the chants of the lesser version of Flames of Etheral.

...

At the front of the room, the group frantically dodged against the barrage of attacks coming from all sides.

"Ugh..." Ethaniel clicked his tongue. "How long will Shinto take?"

"Do you think I know?" Rustly questioned whilst putting up a wall that blocked a shot of magic protruded out from Sanke. "I don't have time to properly think if we're tight on timing!"

"The attacks coming from Sanke is lesser than before, but it still does a good portion of damage..." Reru analyzed. "I'd say, you and Rustly would only last for one more minute if this keeps up."

"Bah..." Ethaniel clicked his tongue as he held onto his sword tightly, quickly sending off a flash of light over towards his surrounding area.  "I'll fall when I want to fall and now isn't the time."

"Grr... You, still helplessly resisting against me..." Sanke mumbled out as he pushed out a dark aura of magic over towards the group. "But no matter. They'll soon fall."

"Agh...!" Ethaniel gritted his teeth as he couldn't dodge against the attack.

"Okay, you know what? Scratch that. The next hit you'll fall," Reru stated.

"Tch..." Shaking his head and repositioning himself to fight back once again, he heard a cry coming from behind him.

"Move out of the way!"

"...?" Turning towards his back, he noted a bright flame was making its way fast pace over to his direction. In the next moment, Ethaniel swayed to the side as it revealed the old man.

"What the...?!" At the sight of the sudden flame making his way towards him, Sanke couldn't react in time as it hit him. Soon after, he fell to the ground as the flames lingered on him. "...this is?"

[ The judgement of 'Greater Evil' is shaking! ]

[ The judgement has been changed to 'Lesser Good'... ]

Moments after the flame stayed at its spot, the old man let out a piercing scream that resounded through the room.