The spell took the form of a small storm as it swept through everything in its path towards the homunculus. The stone pillars and floors were disintegrated and scattered by the sharp wind. But even as she took the spell head-on, the homunculus only received light scratches across her skin.

Desir’s forehead crumpled in dismay. It wasn’t just the homunculus’s defense was terrifying. ‘… She isn’t fighting back?’

The homunculus had yet to move even an inch. All the while, she had continued to gather mana and imbue it into herself.

Desir had figured out the homunculus’s intention.

‘She is going to rely on her defensive ability, and eventually counter-attack with that super-massive spell… if you can even call such an attack a spell?’

The homunculus was apparently that confident that Desir’s party would be unable to cause her any substantial damage.

These white flash attacks were apparently the result of compressing an enormous amount of mana into a ball, and lobbing it at the target like some kind of crude missile.

Desir measured the concentration of mana within the homunculus. Instantly, he felt the blood drain from his face; the homunculus would likely have the required mana within a few minutes.

‘This is dangerous.’

As long as the required amount of mana was present, the homunculus was able to circumvent causality and fire off the spell immediately; without the need to calculate, form, and invoke the spell. There was no time left. Desir felt a sudden sense of urgency in his mind.

“Adjest!”

“Leave it to me.” [Ice Empress]

The cold air from the Center of Ice began to converge on Adjest, sharply lowering the surrounding temperature. At the same time, her hair was dyed white.

Adjest approached the homunculus in an instant. The physical abilities of Adjest, who had invoked her imagery magic and one of its derived forms, Ice Empress, was above the level of a Bishop Class.

[Magic Sword: Ice Wave]

The homunculus grabbed the sword that arced down at her neck, using only her bare hand. Although her attack had been blocked so simply, there was no agitation visible in Adjest’s expression.

“… … !?” *Freeze*

The hand of the homunculus, still grasping the blade, began to freeze. From its left hand to its shoulder, in a mere moment, had frozen solid.

There was a slight change in the homunculus’s indifferent face.

The homunculus attempted to seize control of the sword.

But Pram was one step ahead of her. *Crash*

Pram’s rapier pierced through its frozen arm.

Even though one arm was nearly shattered, the homunculus did not stop preparing to fire its magical attack.

With a little more patience, the white flash would be complete, ready to blow away the entire guerrilla army before it.

However, the chained attack of the Starling Party was more powerful than the homunculus anticipated.

Romantica sniped off the homunculus’s entire left arm, or at least the part of it that Pram had left behind. It didn’t even have a chance to defend itself. As it raised its other arm, the swords of Adjest and Pram smashed into the remaining right arm of the homunculus.

Next up was the neck. Adjest and Pram’s swords, along with Romantica’s rifle, aimed for the neck of the homunculus.

It was at this point that the movement of the homunculus changed. Realizing that their combined attacks exceeded her own defense, the homunculus stopped preparing its wide area attack and began to deal with them in earnest.

It controlled causality. Eliminating the consequences of injury, she returned to the state she was in before taking on those attacks.

With its arms restored, the homunculus took a step back, dodged the incoming attacks, and stared at the Starling Party. In the time it took one to blink, she had formed a shining sphere right in front of them.

Desir knew very well what this was.

A mana storm.

An attack that omitted all of the required steps of invoking a spell, and skips right to unleashing a fully formed attack that was more a wave of compressed mana than any normal kind of spell.

This one had far less power than those white flashes that had decimated so much of the Allied Forces’ troops, but it was still not something negligible.

‘I expected you to use that attack.’

In preparation for the homunculus using that attack, Desir had been stealthily calculating his own spell since the start of the skirmish. Desir had seen other homunculus using this attack, from his most recent excursion into a Shadow World.

[Flame Storm]

Desir’s spell that had the power of a Sixth-Circle spell completed instantly.

Desir’s magic and the homunculus’s mana storm were launched at each other at the same time. *Boooooooom*

There was a deafening explosion; shockwaves spread out in all directions. The ceiling of the upper part of the fortress in Jormungand, famous for its robust construction, started to crumble and collapse.

“What a shame. I would have completed it in just another minute or two.”

As Desir tried to invoke his next spell, a clear, resonant voice came from the dust cloud. “You are a few times stronger than the greenhorns I’ve been dealing with up until now.” Desir was greatly embarrassed.

‘It can talk?’

That was amazing.

The homunculus they had faced a hundred years ago was just a mindless monster. But the agitation only lasted a brief moment.

‘… The fact that the monster in front of us is our most threatening enemy remains unchanged.’ Desir finally invoked the spell he had been preparing.

Something like scales had begun to sprout from both hands of the homunculus. Mana at the scale of a Seventh-Circle magician, which had only been used in artillery-styled strikes previously, was now being weaponized in its battle against the Starling Party.

‘We’ve achieved the desired outcome of halting its wide-area attacks. All we have to do now is hold out until our allies arrive.’

The homunculus kicked against the ground. The floor hollowed out under the force of that kick. Its speed and range of movement was transcendent. In a mere moment, it had massively shortened the distance to Desir.

*Kaaang*

Adjest stood in the way of it. Her sword collided with its fist. Surprisingly, it was Adjest who was pushed back.

She was pushed back, even though she had improved her physical ability to the absolute limits of humanity, through the use of Ice Empress.

And that wasn’t the end of it. The homunculus kicked the sword, then pivoted mid-air and sent a barrage of kicks that would connect with Adjest from top to bottom.

Adjest read their trajectories and managed to deftly avoid them.

At the moment it landed on the ground, the homunculus launched another kick towards Adjest’s right side.

Adjest stopped the kick by bringing her sword into a vertical position, and bracing it with her other hand.

The homunculus launched these devastating attacks purely using the power of her own body. The sheer force it could produce was simply overwhelming.

A Second-Circle spell bought a short reprieve. The top floor had been trashed in no time at all. Adjest’s appraisal of the homunculus could be defined in a single word.

‘Strong.’

It was incomparably strong in comparison to the homunculus she had fought in the Shadow World.

Come to think of it, the homunculus at that time was just a mere monster with a strong physical ability. Therefore, it was enough to dispose of it before it managed to gain experience.

But in front of her was a homunculus that had mastered human martial arts as well as gained significant experience from many battles. All the shortcomings of the past had been addressed.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Had the other party members not assisted her, Adjest would have been overpowered by the homunculus in no time at all.

The strategy the Starling Party employed to deal with the homunculus was simple.

Pram and Romantica would assist from the side, while Adjest, who was now the strongest member of the party, faced the homunculus head on.

And Desir would occasionally launch massive attacks in an attempt to over power it. [Parie Arund]

The magic he developed was cleverly decided upon when Desir was pondering the existence of the homunculus… The homunculus had to be controlled by a power stronger than itself. Otherwise, there was nothing stopping it from running wild.

The party’s strategy relied on a clever, yet delicately formed balance.

But that was all it was, in the end. Although Desir’s party was doing well, it was not enough to beat the homunculus.

In order to kill the homunculus, it was necessary to destroy the homunculus’s body and force it to use the power of causality, but it was so strong that they could not do any significant amount of damage to it.

It was a fight where it seemed neither side had a clear advantage.

But Desir remained positive.

‘Of course, as long as we can just hold out, we can still win.’

If they dragged things out, the Western Guerrilla Forces would arrive to reinforce them.

Desir calmly attacked the homunculus, trying desperately to analyse and figure out the pattern behind its behavior. Figuring out why it blocks some attacks, defends against others, and ignores the rest. Analyzing what exactly it is thinking.

This was Desir’s forte, and although the situation sounded grim, Desir had a slight advantage. He had received a small hint from Zod about how it responded in face of a power stronger than itself.

Based on the combination of Zod’s hint, his own analysis, as well as copious amounts of practice, contingency plans had been derived.

[-Pram, to the right.]

Desir delivered commands to Pram via communication magic. *Crack*

Pram’s sword shattered the right half of the homunculus’s rib cage.

Pram’s attack managed to slip through its defenses, since it was in the middle of an exchange with Adjest. The homunculus was simply not able to respond to such a well timed and placed attack.

As expected, the homunculus restored its condition through its control over causality.

Desir’s instructions continued. [-Adjest, frontal transverse cut.]

He calmly grasped the behavior of the homunculus. The homunculus had no choice but to continue restoring its body, relying on its innate ability to meddle with causality.

The rate at which the homunculus was forced to invoke its power over causality was growing faster and faster.

The flow of attacks from the Starling Party also became smoother and smoother. What started off as an unsteady and undignified reactionary cooperation had gained a deadly and devastating rhythm.

Pram’s sword cut the homunculus’s shoulder again. “… … … ”

The homunculus was trying to say something.

The mouth that drew the outline of words, moved incredibly slowly. They couldn’t hear it too well, since it used such a small voice, almost muttering. All of the Starling Party members stopped moving and watched the homunculus. The tension in the air increased as it slowly mouthed additional words.

“… time to take one of them out… ”

Adjest began to recite what few words she lip read.

The Starling Party felt a brief sensation, as if time slowed to a crawl.

And…

*Clink*

The defense capacity of their Clothes Lines was instantly halved. At the same time, Pram’s little body was unnaturally lifted into the air. Before the Starling Party could comprehend the situation, Pram was forcibly launched through the air. His body skipped across the floor like a rock and plunged deeply into the wall behind him.