"It's best not to," Amano Yuuma said, her brow furrowed in thought. "If we fail, the situation might become even more complicated."
Ethan sprawled out on the ground, his limbs spread wide. "But we can't just stay here indefinitely either."
Mitelt tentatively suggested, "Should we try digging a hole?"
"Sure, you dig, and we'll supervise."
"Ah? Me digging alone?" The Fallen Angel maid asked incredulously. "Wouldn't it be faster if we all did it?"
"As a maid, isn't this something you should be doing for your master?"
After a teasing remark, Ethan stared idly at the cloudless blue sky. "Instead of digging a hole, why don't we just try a large-scale attack and see if we can destroy this place?"
"But if we provoke the barrier, it might attack us..."
With no consensus, the four continued to sit in place after a long discussion, taking no action.
It wasn't until Kalawarner swayed, her face pale, that Ethan and the girls belatedly realized how long they had been trapped.
"We can't stay here any longer; we must find a way out."
Ethan supported the tall, curvy body of the blue-haired onee-san and spoke seriously. "The three of us are A-rank and can sustain our life functions as long as we have Magic Power, but Kalawarner can't."
"Warnee..." Mitelt looked at her worriedly. "It's all my fault. If I hadn't..."
Ethan rolled his eyes at Mitelt, grumbling, "That's enough with the useless talk. You'd be better off digging that hole; maybe we will get out."
The atmosphere for a tragedy was instantly ruined. Mitelt glared at Ethan angrily, but seeing the weakened Kalawarner in his arms, her anger immediately deflated.
"Ah! I get it! I'm going to dig a hole right now!"
After shouting in a fit of self-abandonment, the maid girl ran to the side and began furiously attacking the ground.
"Yuuma, try attacking the edge of the barrier."
Ethan instructed Amano Yuuma, "Even though we can't see or sense it, it should be exactly three hundred meters away. If that doesn't work, try using a large-area magic attack."
"Okay."
Amano Yuuma unfurled her black wings, instantly transforming from a pure girl into a fiery Fallen Angel wearing black, sensual leather.
At this point, she no longer worried about causing a chain reaction. She could endure the wait, but Kalawarner couldn't.
As Amano Yuuma and Mitelt desperately tried to break through the barrier, Kalawarner lay in Ethan's arms, looking dejected.
"Uesugi... I'm just causing trouble for you all. It's my fault for being too weak..."
Ethan was exasperated. Did I not just chew out Mitelt enough?
"Shut up. If we're going to blame anyone, we can't blame you."
Ethan hadn't intended to be the comforting older brother, but seeing Kalawarner on the verge of fainting from hunger, he offered some solace.
"If Mitelt hadn't gone wandering unnecessarily, we wouldn't be trapped here. If Yuuma hadn't brought you along, you wouldn't be trapped. If I hadn't found this place, the three of us still wouldn't be trapped."
When it came to sophistry, Ethan feared no one. He skillfully swapped concepts, leaving the blue-haired onee-san speechless.
Looking at the dazed Kalawarner, he softened his tone. "You rest well for a bit. We might need your help later."
Kalawarner didn't know what the weakest among them could do, but she obediently nodded and closed her eyes to rest.
Finding a clean spot, Ethan gently laid Kalawarner down, then joined the efforts to break the barrier.
He walked over to the edge of the hole, which was already over ten meters deep, and looked down. Mitelt was still frantically digging, her beautiful black-and-white maid outfit now stained with dirt, yet she didn't stop.
Digging a hole three hundred meters deep was no easy task; the deeper she dug, the more strenuous it became.
"Mitelt~ Keep up the good work!"
After encouraging the dusty Mitelt, Ethan turned and walked towards Amano Yuuma.
Compared to digging a hole to break the barrier, he felt that directly destroying the entire area had a higher chance of success.
"Yuuma, what's the situation? Any changes?"
Amano Yuuma dispelled the black magic circle in her palm and shook her head. "No. Attacks vanish once they cross the barrier. The same goes for attacks toward the ground or the sky."
"Is that so... Then we really have to try large-scale destruction."
While his Martial Art was better for single-target combat, Ethan's magical talent, though ordinary, had allowed him to master a few simple large-scale spells with the help of dual cultivation.
He coordinated with Amano Yuuma, avoiding Mitelt and Kalawarner at the center, and began to launch attacks from the edge of the barrier.
"Disturbing dust, travelers of confusion, the roar of the earth, the calling of the stars..."
"Evil thoughts, chaotic rebirth, wild darkness..."
As Ethan chanted the incantation, arcs of crackling lightning began to appear around him.
As the magic circle gradually completed, he snapped his eyes open and bellowed, "Appear! I summon in the name of divine thunder! Thunder of Extinction!"
Rumble!!!
Thick bolts of lightning materialized under the massive surge of Magic Power and struck down fiercely.
Earth and stone flew, trees snapped, and scorched craters appeared on the ground.
Ethan maintained his Magic Power output, devastating the strange area over a wide expanse.
On the other side, Amano Yuuma was also chanting a spell, though she was using a large-scale Light-element spell, which had slightly less destructive power than the Thunder-element one.
With the two cooperating, the strange space was visibly altered at an alarming speed. Soon, nearly one-third of the environment was completely unrecognizable.
Just then, Ethan and Amano Yuuma's vision blurred for an instant, and then everything reverted to its original state.
If the magic circles hadn't still been active and the attacks hadn't ceased, Ethan would have suspected he was dreaming.
He stopped the flow of Magic Power. The magic circles dissolved into light particles in the air, and the violent lightning disappeared.
Ethan frowned and rejoined Amano Yuuma. "This is troublesome..."
"I've never heard of such a strange barrier either," Amano Yuuma was equally worried. "Although we weren't attacked by the barrier, it automatically restored itself. Is someone maintaining it from the outside..."
"Impossible."
Ethan firmly denied Amano Yuuma's conjecture.
"If someone were maintaining this barrier, how terrifying would their strength have to be?"
"Forget maintaining it, just setting up a barrier this large would require at least A-rank peak strength. Not to mention this strong containment effect; it likely requires an S-rank or higher mage to deploy."
Amano Yuuma thought for a moment and nodded. "You're right. Besides, what would they gain by keeping us trapped here?"
While the two were thinking, Mitelt flew over, looking utterly despairing.
"Lady Raynare..." she pouted, distraught. "The hole I dug suddenly restored itself for some reason."
Ethan and Amano Yuuma exchanged glances. It seemed that not only were the areas they attacked restored, but upon reaching a certain level of damage, everything within the barrier was reset.
Seeing the adorable little maid on the verge of tears, the two tacitly decided to change the subject.
Amano Yuuma comforted her. "It's alright. If it restored itself, it restored itself, as long as you weren't buried inside."
"Mmm..." Mitelt nodded. "It's strange, though. When the hole disappeared, I was immediately teleported back to the original spot, even though I hadn't dug three hundred meters deep."
Seeing that her attention had been successfully diverted, Ethan added, "The distance might be shorter underground. It looks like digging won't work either."
Mitelt asked doubtfully, "Is that true? Do I not have to dig anymore?"
"That's exactly right, absolutely right. No need to dig."
After confirming the 'no digging' rule three times, Ethan immediately shifted to another topic. "Since we can't find a way out, I'll first try to help Kalawarner break through to A-rank. Once she breaks through, we can afford to wait for rescue."
Ethan didn't know how much time had passed outside, but if he remained unreachable, Rias would eventually find a way to look for him.
Given enough time, she would surely find this location and might even bring Koneko and others along.
Ethan didn't believe this barrier could trap so many people at once, especially S-rank Rias.
The barrier might auto-repair, but if the entire area was wiped out simultaneously, how could it recover?
Rias's power was fully capable of doing this. When it came to destruction, she was an expert.
With Magic Power infused with the Power of Destruction, obliterating this entire area would be easy.
Taking it a step further, even if Rias couldn't solve the barrier, if she were trapped for a few days, the Gremory family would undoubtedly send stronger people to search.
With the presumptive heir inexplicably missing, it was highly possible that Rias's older brother, one of the current Devil Kings, would personally intervene.