The property of "light," apart from being able to illuminate all things, also brings "scorching heat."
In a certain sense.
The so-called "light" actually refers to the "sun," and for that very reason, light-attribute magic is able to simulate it.
This was what Lefiya believed.
Especially.
Having heard Isagi tell of that star called the "sun" out in the cosmos—an unimaginably scorching, gigantic fireball whose surface temperature was enough to vaporize everything in an instant.
How terrifying, how magnificent.
[Magic is the extension of imagination.]
And so, at this very moment, Lefiya was going to create a sun.
Now.
The glowing sphere was there; all that remained was to add a flame to it.
"O proud warriors, O archer corps of the forest. The encroaching plunderer stands before you—take up your bows."
[Fusillade Firebolt].
Burning streaks of color once again cut across the firmament, adding a blazing hue to this cavern lit by pure white.
Then they blended and merged together.
Those several thick fire dragons coiled around the light orb that had been floating in midair, swelling it forcibly several times larger. As it became unbearably dazzling, the entire cavern also rapidly rose in temperature.
The giant trees and vines relatively close to it even began to ignite, swiftly charring black into carbon.
"Phew."
Borrowing the power of Haruhime's level-boosting magic.
At this moment.
Lefiya, sustaining this blazing, fiercely burning sun, had already pretty much given it her all.
The light orb hung frozen in midair, accumulating, expanding, growing ever more dreadful as the elf girl continuously fed magic power into it.
And as for what came next.
That would depend on Isagi and Ais.
The sun would not move, so naturally it could not possibly catch up to a BOSS this fast.
To make it land a hit, they would have to forcibly "deliver" the opponent to it.
"Clang clang clang clang clang clang clang!"
The interwoven sound of metal on metal always lagged considerably behind the cold, frigid gleam of a blade slicing through the air.
Isagi had already switched the [Moonlight Greatsword] for the [Blade of Myriad Bones].
Even without the [Sword Saint Secret Art] skill granted by the "Land of Reeds" character card, with Haruhime's level-boosting magic he could already keep pace with his opponent.
Indeed.
Together with Ais, that was enough to suppress the opponent.
The girl wreathed in a golden breeze constantly used her magic to interfere with the BOSS's movements.
Whether it was swinging its blade, moving about, or even trying to open its mouth to speak or to continue chanting magic.
The wind opposed it in everything.
The resistance formed by the airflow, or a sudden tailwind from the opposite direction, made its speed lurch from fast to slow, so that its consciousness simply could not match up with its body's movements.
As far as combat went.
Whether too fast or too slow, neither was a good thing.
A body that was overly sensitive or one that lagged behind would both leave a person feeling uncomfortable and nauseated.
But this alone was not enough to control the opponent's actions, let alone suppress it so that it could not move, and then deliver it into that burning "sun" off in the distance.
Therefore.
Isagi and Ais still needed outside support.
But not from Ryuu-senpai and Tiona—they still needed to stay by Lefiya and the others' side to stand guard.
The Dungeon would never speak of anything like fairness; though it was BOSS-battle time right now, that did not mean other monsters wouldn't come barging in.
In fact, at this very moment, quite a few monsters around the girls were already stirring, restless—not to mention those "traps" that existed there to begin with, disguised as tree trunks, flowers, and blades of grass.
And so what Isagi summoned at this moment was—
[Teardrop Big Bro]!
Though the puppets he could use were gone, this one could still come out and keep fighting.
Pitch-black slime once more oozed out from the gaps in the boy's giant-wolf armor, and in the blink of an eye it congealed in midair into a completely identical humanoid form, likewise spreading its wings, likewise gripping a longsword. In an instant, it joined the battlefield, launching an attack at the monster before it.
Now it was three against one—the advantage was even greater.
More importantly.
Teardrop Big Bro wasn't afraid of dying.
Abruptly, seizing the opening as the BOSS swung its blade, the pitch-black [Soul Teardrop] suddenly lunged forward, paying no heed at all to that jewel-gleaming blade, and slammed straight into the opponent's embrace.
And it was precisely by seizing this opportunity that Ais switched weapons, exchanging her original [Despair] for the great hammer used by hunters.
Charging, charging, charging.
That exaggerated giant hammer—larger than the girl herself by who knew how much—spewed out a riot of multicolored streaming light, like a missile readying itself to ignite and accelerate.
In but an instant.
Suddenly, it landed right behind Teardrop Big Bro.
Accompanied by the howl of the wind, the pitch-black [Soul Teardrop] completely enveloped the BOSS before it, and with the smash of the great hammer, off it went, hurtling toward the sun hovering frozen in the midair distance.
"Nice shot!"
In an instant, the scorching firelight swallowed up Teardrop Big Bro and the BOSS together.
And at the perfect moment.
Lefiya directly detonated the magic she had been painstakingly sustaining all this while.
The already chaotic magic power suddenly poured forth at a tilt, emitting an unbearably blinding radiance—so much so that even the members of Loki Familia and Freya Familia exploring elsewhere in the dense forest at that moment had their vision washed entirely a ghastly white.
Then, the blast wave of the explosion spread outward.
It even sent Isagi and Ais flying all at once, until they barely steadied themselves only after several hundred meters.
That deafening, ear-splitting, enormous roar likewise only just managed to reach them at this very moment.
Lefiya's magic was growing more and more terrifying.
Having leveled up to Lv. 6, the elf girl, with the boost of her skills, had simply become a "gun turret" terrifying to some sort of extreme.
As of now.
This was Lefiya without anything beyond the crude finishing move that was [Explosion Magic].
She had not yet learned the "super magic" of Riveria or Alfia—the kind of trump card one would not lightly use.
If she did learn it, Isagi did not dare imagine what that would look like.
"Did we get it?"
Together with Ais, he swiftly returned to their original spot.
Then, regrouping with the girls, they began walking toward the direction where the magic had just exploded.
In the air, an unbearably sweltering high heat still lingered; the blades of grass underfoot would even give off a crisp "crunch, crunch" sound when stepped on.
The farther forward they went, the more the ground showed traces of pitch-black charcoal scorch marks.
Until at last.
They finally arrived at the center of the explosion.
Isagi found several scraps of a robe, as well as a snapped-off blade.
Among the fragments of that unbearably black, deep longsword, where the blade's edge had been, there still gleamed a glaze-like, multicolored radiance.
But search as he might, he could not find the BOSS's corpse from just now.
Not even a Magic Stone.
So it wasn't dead, but had run away?
A BOSS could actually flee?
Isagi twitched the corner of his mouth, feeling somewhat exasperated. Fortunately, an item had dropped onto the ground—
And it was Lefiya who found it.
For some reason, this girl's ability to clean up a battlefield was simply far, far stronger than everyone else's.
Could it be she had some special skill too?!
"Isagi, hurry over here and take a look!!"
The elf girl was still brimming with energy at this moment, calling out to him while, together with the other girls, she studied the iridescent, brilliantly streaming "gemstone" in her hands.
____
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