Harvey and Chikala

"Found it!" On the tenth floor of the Silent Spiral, the sorcerers engaged in an aerial battle amidst the raging blizzard. Flapping their gold and silver wings, they wove through endless hail and driving snow, evading the frost miracles Olewa hurled at them. Olewa did not even unfold his void wings. Instead, the swirling frost condensed beneath him into platforms of crystalline ice, allowing him to leap through the air like a jumping spider as he pursued Yaxiu and his companions—a swarm of frantic flies! Sheltered within Igola's Sanctuary, Gwen clung tightly to the Swindler, starlight pulsing incessantly within her eyes. Though the Silent Spiral could generate boundless spatial anomalies, this was ultimately just one of its floors. An entrance and an exit were guaranteed to exist within this grassland! Yet the prairie was simply too vast. Worse, Olewa's Frost Sanctuary whipped up a blizzard that blanketed the entire realm, drastically cutting visibility. With Olewa hunting them down like a rabid dog, scouring the expanse for the fog door proved agonizingly difficult. The Starry Eyes sorcery spirit could dramatically extend one's visual range, but every pulse exerted severe strain on the retinas. Five flashes were her safe limit; every flash beyond that degraded her vision. Only on the ninth flash did Gwen finally spot the distant fog door leading to the next floor. Just then, a hysterical roar ripped through the blizzard, sounding as though someone had crushed their own teeth to dust. It was no figure of speech. Everyone suddenly felt an agonizing jolt in their molars, as if a chisel had been driven straight into their dental nerves! In the next instant, frost crept across their skin. At that moment, their Sanctuaries were rendered utterly useless. And as the frost spread, their thoughts grew sluggish—this was a frost miracle capable of freezing the mind! *Clang!* A brilliant blaze of light suddenly pierced the Sanctuary, instantly melting the frost on everyone's skin! A three-winged sorcery spirit perched atop Chikala's shoulder, radiating a dazzling, warm glow that dissolved the white rime clinging to them all. The Firelight sorcery spirit! Chikala's ultimate trump card! While most of his fire miracles relied on the Firelight sorcery spirit to extend their reach and widen their area of effect, channeling the spirit on its own was enough to neutralize the vast majority of water miracles! Though they had narrowly survived, Olewa's second salvo was already upon them. The moisture trapped within their Sanctuaries condensed at terrifying speed, ready to detonate into shards of ice that would rip their flesh to ribbons! They had encountered this attack multiple times already. Under immense pressure to survive, everyone had quickly gained experience in shrinking their Sanctuaries. The smaller the Sanctuary, the fewer ice crystals formed within it; compressing it flush against the skin could even ward off the blast entirely. Igola, however, had to shield Gwen. His Sanctuary needed to cover two people. Only by pulling Gwen tight against him could he barely compress his Sanctuary to its absolute minimum! A barrage of ice crystal explosions went off. Each took only minor damage from the detonations themselves, but because of the Damage Chain, everyone's injuries rebounded and stacked upon one another, leaving every single one of them battered, lacerated, and drenched in blood! That was the horror of the Damage Chain. Even if their Sanctuaries could dampen the Damage Chain to sixty percent of its full effect, if all five of them took 10 points of damage, they would each suffer an additional 6 × 4 = 24 points of amplification from the chain! If they focused their fire on Olewa and dealt him a total of 10 points of damage, they would each suffer 6 points of damage in return—which amounted to 30 points across the five of them! In standard combat, numbers brought advantage. In the War Trial, the exact opposite held true. If a battle erupted here, the side with more people was guaranteed to suffer the greatest losses! Of course, attacking them did not come without a price for Olewa either. As Yaxiu and the others were wounded, Olewa was severely battered by the Damage Chain as well. Yet frost swiftly sealed his wounds, leaving him seemingly unfazed. Water sorcery was naturally suited to healing. Although Olewa specialized in frost—a secondary branch of water sorcery—how could a legendary sorcerer possibly lack restorative means? With their destination secured, the group scattered across the sky, preventing Olewa from targeting them with another area-of-effect strike as they took a wide detour toward the distant fog door. For some reason, Harvey lagged slightly behind, immediately making him Olewa's sole quarry. Before long, the fog door loomed on the horizon. Chikala let out a breath of relief. "Extinction Pope" Olewa Warcraze exerted far too much pressure on the orc—Chikala had grown up hearing legends of Olewa's terrifying feats! To be precise, the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary and the War Temple were bitter rivals, and Chikala had grown up hearing tales of Olewa slaughtering Calamitous Fire sorcerers. It could even be said that Olewa had risen to prominence by trampling over the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary. Rumors had once circulated that Olewa chose to specialize in water sorcery for the sole purpose of extinguishing the Calamitous Fire! Even if Olewa's mind had shattered, he was still an insane legend! If anything, that made him even more dangerous! Every cell in the orc's body screamed at him to run! Yet just as they drew near, Chikala saw Yaxiu and Igola halt right before the fog door. Nearly beside himself with panic, he urged, "Keep running!" "Harvey!" Yaxiu shouted at the top of his lungs. "Why aren't you running?!" Chikala looked back and saw that the necromancer was not heading toward the fog door at all; he was actively luring Olewa toward another sector. Harvey did not answer Yaxiu's shout, but Olewa snapped his head around a full one hundred and eighty degrees to glare at them. In that split second, a ghostly claw ripped across Olewa's throat, immediately causing corrosive wounds to break out across Yaxiu and the others' necks as well! Harvey offered no verbal reply. That strike was answer enough. "Olewa will chase us into the next floor." Igola's expression was grimly composed, his eyes fixed on the figure in the blizzard. "We can't let him follow us. Someone has to stay behind and deal with him." "Can't we lure him to the next floor and gang up on him?" Yaxiu pressed frantically. "The curse of the War Trial binds us, but it also restricts Olewa," Gwen explained. "Olewa may be mad, but he isn't stupid. His combat instincts haven't dulled. He recognizes the existence of the Damage Chain, which is why he hasn't tried to land a lethal blow on us from start to finish—even though he had plenty of chances." "He has either inflicted constant light injuries or tried to restrain us, which is why we've held out this long. If we move on to another trial where the Damage Chain no longer suppresses him, he'll likely unleash the full, unbridled power of a legendary sorcerer. At that point, there's no way we could survive against the madman hailed as Senluo's greatest legend." "And yet, in the War Trial, we can't gang up on him without dying first. That makes the choice clear: one person has to stay behind in the War Trial to hold him off." "Besides," Igola added, "we came here to save someone. We can't afford to waste time here." Yaxiu did not hesitate. He wheeled around in the air, loosing a Heart Sword to pull Olewa's attention onto himself. "Harvey, take the others down to find Tamashi! I'll hold this lunatic off!" "Don't be an idiot." Harvey lashed out with another ghostly claw at Olewa. Though the strike missed, it successfully drew the creature's aggression back onto himself. "Look at Alice," the necromancer said. Yaxiu focused his gaze, quickly catching on. "Alice isn't hurt?" "The Damage Chain doesn't affect Alice. Once she and I merge, it won't affect me either." Carrying Alice on his back, Harvey darted through the air, weaving through a chaotic barrage of Olewa's ice lances. "I'm the one best suited to stay behind and settle this. You only want to hold him off; I intend to kill him." "Go. Don't get in the way of me collecting a legend's corpse. Your lingering presence only makes me hesitate to embrace Alice, lest you be tainted by death as well." Yaxiu stared blankly at the distant necromancer. He knew this was no time for hesitation, but— "Does it have to be you?" Igola and Gwen flew over, calling out from a distance. "One of the three of us has to stay," Harvey replied. Yaxiu understood at once—Chikala and Gwen! Gwen was one thing, but Chikala was a Fire Sanctuary master, and an enslaved one at that! Cruel as it was, if someone had to be chosen to take the risk and face Olewa, the orc Sanctuary master was clearly the best candidate! Yet would Chikala ever agree to stay? The most important clause of the slave contract forbade deliberately sending him to his death! If Chikala judged this to be a guaranteed demise, he was fully within his rights to disobey. Even if they intentionally left the orc behind, he could simply lead Olewa right back to them rather than willingly drawing the monster away to die. Faced with the threat of death, nothing Chikala did would be beyond reason. Therefore, whoever held the line against Olewa could only be chosen from the three of them. And just as Harvey said, he was indeed the most suitable candidate. But leaving him alone to face the greatest sorcerer in Senluo... "I'll stay with Mr. Harvey." Right then, Chikala flew up beside them and spoke up on his own accord. "I'm a Fire Sanctuary master, which happens to counter Olewa's frost sorceries. As for the Damage Chain, I have a way to resist it. Even if I can't be of much help, I certainly won't hold Mr. Harvey back." Both Yaxiu and Igola looked at Chikala in surprise. The Swindler narrowed his eyes slightly, then gave a decisive nod. "Good!" Without lingering any longer, Igola and Gwen turned and flew straight for the fog door. Taking a deep breath, Yaxiu cast one last glance at Harvey amidst the blizzard, the necromancer's dark skin standing out starkly against the white snow. The cult leader called out, "I—or my corpse—will be waiting for you down below. Catch up quickly!" "Then I shall look forward to it with great hope," the necromancer replied with a faint smile. Once Yaxiu's trio crossed through the fog door, Harvey regrouped with Chikala amidst the howling snow. Realizing some of the flies had slipped away, Olewa seemed irritated. With a feral roar, the air surrounding Harvey and Chikala began to freeze rapidly, threatening to encase both of them within a solid sphere of ice! Chikala flicked his wrist, casting forth a plume of black smoke. The moment the smoke brushed against the ice, it ignited it. The mist produced by the melting ice only fueled the smoke's density, allowing the black fumes to consume the ice sphere with elemental absolute dominance. Miracle: Fireworks. Harvey cast a slightly surprised glance at Chikala. The orc chuckled. "For a very long time, Lord Olewa was the Calamitous Fire Sanctuary's primary hypothetical enemy." "You didn't have to stay," Harvey said. "Igola might hold a grudge against you, but unless faced with a mortal crisis, he wouldn't casually discard you." Chikala gave a sheepish grin. "Not at all. Lady Alice is my master, and Mr. Harvey is Lady Alice's master. I truly wish to help..." "Suit yourself." Harvey turned his gaze toward Olewa, who was leaping across the ice platforms like a hunting spider. "You mentioned having a miracle to resist the Damage Chain? You can unleash it now." Harvey drew the rotting Alice into his embrace. "For I am about to cross the Curtain of Death." "Though this body is cold flowing fire, it still longs for the moment it burns out." A cacophony of ghostly fire flared, fusing the two into one. Not even the howling blizzard could hold back this bizarre, unnatural revenant. The dim blue ghostly fire cast a dreary, grayish hue across the swirling snow. The snow on the ground began to 'wither'—not melting, but seeping into the earth, dead. Miracle: Cold Flowing Fire! At the same time, Chikala stood tall, raising his arms out to his sides. Cross-shaped flames erupted from his back like an executioner's stake binding him. Immediately after, raging fire burst from within his body, transforming him entirely into a burning effigy undergoing execution! His flesh and blood burned away in an instant, leaving only blackened bones engulfed in blazing fire. The surrounding snow and ice instantly vaporized into steam! Miracle: Purgatory Execution! Olewa seemed to sense the shift, a note of manic excitement creeping into his guttural growl. He swept up the surrounding frost, whipping the blizzard into a vortex centered upon himself, hurling a tempest of ice crystals and jagged icicles toward the two of them! Harvey's right arm morphed into a colossal dragon skull, deep blue flames churning within its maw. The fire enveloping Chikala grew ever more ferocious, igniting his hands into roaring torches! Ghost King Shackles: Dracolich Bone Fire! Miracle: Purgatory Roar! The deep blue fire of death, the dark red flames of purgatory, and the all-freezing blizzard collided in a thunderous clash!