Is he... a god?! Philo thought, her breath catching in her throat as she stared at the terrifying torrent of energy radiating from Haruto's transformed body.
The magic leaking out of him was dangerously unstable, pulsing with such violent intensity that the surrounding stone pillars began to fracture. Philo watched in absolute horror, her instincts screaming at her.
At this rate, his power is going to blow this entire floor wide open! Layer 5 is going to completely collapse!
Before she could even blink, Haruto thrust his hand forward, unleashing a dense, swirling void of pure darkness—a massive black hole-like singularity that expanded at a terrifying speed. With a single, devastating shockwave, the attack slammed directly into Daisy, instantly knocking her unconscious and sending her crashing hard to the ground.
Philo froze, panic gripping her chest. This is bad. If I stay here, I'm going to get buried alive! I need to move them both somewhere capable of withstanding this kind of apocalyptic power—fast!
Acting on pure instinct, Philo tapped frantically at the holographic tablet built into her high-tech gauntlet, rapidly calculating coordinate grids through the abyss layers. She locked onto Layer 80, an isolated, hyper-reinforced deep zone.
With a swift motion of her hands, she channeled her proprietary spatial-transfer magic. A blinding flash of digital light enveloped the cavern, instantly teleporting both the unconscious Daisy and the unstable Haruto straight down into the frozen expanses of Layer 80.
When the light faded, Philo materialized alongside them into a freezing, snow-covered wasteland. The icy air bit at her face, and right nearby, a pack of massive, ferocious snow-monsters began emerging from the blinding blizzard, sniffing the air with hostility.
Thinking fast, Philo swept her hand through the air, flashing her digital interface to deploy a high-tier holographic barrier.
She targeted the largest, most ferocious alpha monster in the pack, hacking its neural pulse and instantly binding it to her system as a tamed combat pet.
With a commanding gesture, the giant beast let out a low roar, holding the rest of the hostile pack at bay.
Knowing Daisy was in critical condition and exposed to the brutal freezing elements, Philo quickly pulled her heavy, deep-green hood down low over her face to completely conceal her identity. Masked and hidden from view, she stepped forward through the howling snow, striding directly toward where Daisy and Haruto lay.
Philo leaped lightly onto the back of her newly tamed snow-monster, riding the massive beast forward as it padded silently across the frozen tundra of Layer 80. As she drew closer, she saw Haruto still hovering near the epicenter of his destructive surge, frantically trying to re-summon and stabilize his volatile black hole technique.
A chill ran down her spine for a second, but as she observed him closer, her expression shifted from fear to deep analytical realization.
Wait... Philo thought, narrowing her green eyes. He has an absurd amount of raw energy, but his magic control is completely immature. Who is this guy? Walking around with this kind of ridiculous power without any proper refinement... Ah. I see it now. He isn't inherently god-tier or polished. This is pure, raw emotional resonance! It's violent, volatile, and easy to unravel if you target the emotional core.
Without wasting a second, Philo raised her hand, spinning her fingers in a fluid arc through the freezing air to cast her high-tier tech-magic.
A shimmering cascade of digital code washed over the area. In a matter of seconds, Haruto's massive black hole spell was forcibly intercepted, its dark energy deconstructed piece by piece into streams of literal binary code—0s and 1s—before dissipating completely into thin air.
With the source of his turbulent spike neutralized, Philo targeted his emotional resonance directly, hacking into the turbulent feedback loop and forcefully reverting his transformation back to normal. His stark white hair and crimson eyes faded, returning to his signature half-black, half-white look and mismatched gaze as he collapsed, completely drained.
Just as Philo reached out to tend to Daisy, her tamed snow-monster let out an aggressive rumble, picking up an icy scent. Making the fallen Daisy for an enemy threat, the giant beast reared back, conjuring a cluster of jagged, razor-sharp ice spikes and aiming them straight down toward Daisy's chest.
"die!" Philo shouted, waving her hand sharply.
But the beast was already mid-swing, launching the deadly icicles hurtling downward.
Before the spikes could pierce her, a sudden blur of motion cut through the snow. Haruto, barely conscious and entirely battered, dragged himself forward, throwing his body directly between the falling ice and Daisy to shield her.
Philo's eyes widened in alarm. No, no, no! You can't die here! If you get killed, Lilith's terrifying wrath will come straight down on my head—plus, you're not even a real threat anyway.
With a flick of her wrist and a flurry of digital keystrokes tapped into her gauntlet, Philo intercepted the airborne ice spikes mid-flight. Just like before, the deadly projectiles instantly broke down into lines of 0s and 1s, dissolving into harmless digital mist right before they could touch them.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Philo stepped firmly between the monster and the two fallen kids, lowering her deep green hood just enough to keep her face hidden as she prepared to handle the situation.
Philo hopped down gracefully from the back of the snow-monster, her boots crunching softly into the deep snow as she walked over to check on the unconscious Daisy, who was lying nearby in the frost.
The freezing winds of Layer 80 howled across the desolate snowfields, but the icy gale felt distant compared to the chaos spinning in Philo's mind.
She stood over the two fallen figures, her luminous green eyes fixed on Haruto as he weakly draped himself protectively over Daisy. A thoughtful smirk touched her lips. If he's throwing himself in front of her like that to take the hit, it means there's a direct connection here. I can't just kill Daisy—not if she matters to him.
Deciding to drop any hostile intentions, Philo took a few measured steps forward, her high-tech boots crunching softly into the frozen powder. She stopped right beside Haruto, leaning down slightly with a light, breezy tone. "Hello there."
Haruto blinked, his mismatched eyes wide with confusion and exhaustion as he tried to push himself up from the snow. "Who... who are you?"
Philo completely ignored his question, her gaze drifting lazily over his features before a teasing giggle slipped past her lips. "Wow, you're actually handsome!"
"Hello?" Haruto repeated, his voice cracking slightly as he tried to regain his composure and figure out what kind of lunatic had just dropped into the middle of nowhere.
Philo glanced down at the unconscious, shivering form of Daisy resting against the snow. "Oh, is this Daisy? That's unfortunate."
Haruto realized with a jolt that Daisy couldn't see or hear her—she was drifting deeply in and out of consciousness, her eyelids fluttering weakly, completely oblivious to the stranger standing right beside them.
Philo's tone suddenly shifted, turning sharp and interrogative as she looked back down at him. "Did you do this to her?"
Haruto swallowed hard, wincing as the residual pain of his unstable magic pulsed through his chest. He answered quietly, "Yeah... but by mistake."
The girl giggled, an airy, mocking sound that carried across the frozen wasteland. "By mistake! My bad. I suppose she's become your prey today."
"I don't understand!" Haruto shouted, frustration spiking through his voice as he tried to shield Daisy further. "Why are you even here?!"
"You didn't kill her, so you're at least a bit strong," Philo said smoothly, completely talking right over him as if he hadn't spoken at all. "But that spell you tried earlier? It was sloppy and completely uncontrolled.
If you want to survive down here, you need to practice. Don't waste your potential. So we will meet again... because I also wanna fight you at your best."
Before Haruto could demand answers, Philo raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
Wait... without any magic shielding him right now, he's feeling the full, fatal backlash of the environment! At this rate, he's going to freeze to death and die right after I just saved him.
Scrambling to her feet, she quickly tapped her gauntlet and activated a secondary emergency teleportation protocol, sending Haruto and Daisy away from the lethal freeze before it could claim them.
As the spatial distortion faded and Haruto and Daisy vanished from Layer 80, Philo stood alone on the freezing snowfields. But a sudden wave of unease hit her.
Left by herself in the vast, howling snow desert, Philo let out a long breath that turned immediately to mist. Suddenly, the deep snow around her shifted as a pack of massive, predatory ice-monsters began closing in from every direction, their glowing eyes locked entirely on her.