Chapter 332: Rift

Ona's reaction was swift—she raised her hand and fired off a magic missile, the magic stone in her grip hurtling away with it.

The pale-blue magic missile trailed a wake behind it, shot past the stone gate, and slammed into the rock wall of the passage they'd come through, blasting apart both the magic stone and the rock face along with it.

Riiip!

With the shattering of the magic stone, the golden flesh-woven crown that should have appeared did not.

Instead, those deep-pink fragments embedded themselves in the wall and began to shift and spread as if alive.

Then a black-purple rift tore open within the range of the fragments, and a damp, fishy wind rushed head-on toward the group.

"An otherdimensional rift."

The Star Spirit Hayley said.

"Attention, everyone—something is tearing at the spatial barrier, even at the cost of destroying the crown."

The rabbit-kin Ona said gravely.

What Sharon had done was sever the soul link between Scarlett and the crown and preserve Scarlett's life; the half of the soul that had already been absorbed was beyond her power to recover.

Judging from the cosmic creature Phantom Mushroom they'd encountered earlier in the passage, even with only half a soul's energy inside, the golden flesh-woven crown might still be able to open a rift.

The magic stone should have been sealed away along with its function of opening rifts.

But as things stood now, clearly something intended to use this chance to slip across onto the continent.

While the rift had not yet fully formed—

The four mages chanted in succession.

Hayley layered 【Otherworld Protection Bubble】 and 【Otherworld Resistance】 on everyone, so they wouldn't be hit by the complex negative environmental effects of the otherdimensional space.

Dimia, meanwhile, cast 【Interstitial Domain】—an area that drastically weakened cross-planar spells and abilities.

Sharon had spent too much mana and mental energy in the ritual just now and was unable to cast any powerful spells.

She barely managed a 【Teleportation Seal】, and Rod pulled her behind him.

The effect of 【Teleportation Seal】 was not bad—the rift's rate of expansion immediately slowed down considerably.

But it was limited to slowing.

The last to finish casting was Ona.

What she had prepared was also an eighth-tier spell no one else present could cast—【Spatial Lock】.

Invisible mana oscillated and roared, pressing in toward the rift; the black-purple gap was instantly forced to compress and gradually shrink.

Even that damp, foul-smelling fishy wind was shut out.

"Sorry, I'm really not good at anything outside mental-type spells—I'm only at about seventy percent of normal effectiveness."

"That should be enough. The rift is contracting."

Hayley observed for a moment.

The effects of 【Spatial Lock】 and 【Teleportation Seal】 were both very evident; the unstable planar turbulence had calmed, and the entire rift was steadily shrinking—surely it would close completely in no time.

"Something slipped out!"

Rod suddenly barked sharply.

A pure-black longsword split out from his hand, and like a splash of ink, he flung a great swath of black slime mucus to the side.

But the mucus didn't land on anything; instead, an inconspicuous clump of spores lingered in midair for half a second.

"It's not an invisible Phantom Mushroom—it's something else. It can turn into spores."

Rod warned.

And that clump of spores had set its sights on him, rapidly spreading and swelling to fill the entire passage in a riot of colors, charging straight at him.

Sharon, her face deathly pale, stepped in front of him and gritted her teeth as she cast a spell to cover for him.

What kind of spirit warrior needs a mage to block for him?

"Just rest properly."

He yanked her behind him in one motion; Rod's arm blurred, and 【Devotion Body Sword】 was already drawn.

A massive pink-purple crescent of flame—【Heart-Flame Adhesion】 layered with 【Grudge Pain Hate Fire】—swept head-on into the onrushing spore clump.

Fssssssh—

The spore clump was burned away by a small portion and recoiled in shock.

Rod pressed the attack relentlessly, advancing with the golden sword blazing with billowing flames in his hand.

Ona had to maintain the spell 【Spatial Lock】, striving to seal it as quickly as possible, and so could not spare her hands or feet.

But with Rod acting as vanguard and harrying the enemy, the mages in the rear were free to cast spells again.

After a brief chant—

Dimia's 【Sandstorm】 swept up Hayley's 【Fire Brand】, forming a yellow-sand storm laced with exploding fireballs.

Rod's attacks had little effect on the spore-form enemy; the terrain here was wide open, so he couldn't pull off the same trick he'd used to seal Mushroom-Man Noah last time.

He decisively yielded the position, letting the wider-area spells handle it.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Orange-red fireballs burst open within the yellow curtain, one after another.

A high-pitched, furious shriek rang out in response.

The multicolored spores drew together, dense enough to reveal a strange humanoid shape, then used their solidified bodies to tank two 【Fire Brand】 blasts and forcibly burst out of the sandstorm.

It was a humanoid creature over four meters tall, composed of rotting fungi and twisted flesh tumors, its entire body layered with withered, bark-like mycelium.

Its four limbs resembled enormous tree roots, their surfaces covered in rough bark and sharp fungal spines.

Its head was abnormally large, with several twisted, tentacle-like mycelia growing from it.

At this moment, the mycelial layer was covered with dense, tiny blood spots and cratered pits, clearly damage caused by magic sand and explosions.

Green pus oozed from the wounds, emitting a suffocating stench.

Interestingly, a blood hole in the chest of this cosmic creature was billowing black mist, certainly not inflicted by them.

The creature did not look at the spellcasting mage; instead, its eyes, wide as bronze balls, glared viciously at Rod.

It chattered gibberish that was utterly unintelligible.

Rod, gripping the 【Tremor Soul Blade】, instantly understood its words:

—"Ros's lapdog, do not think to ruin my master's good deed."

Ros?

Rod remembered this was the powerful entity worshipped by that group of dark elves in the Horror Arena.

At that time, the spider leg piercing the sky from Yun Chen remained deeply impressed in his mind.

It appeared this one's faction was in an adversarial relationship with Ros.

Then why did it mistake me for someone of Ros's?

"Fungal Lady Zugu Zugu Moyi?"

Oona, holding a long staff circled with pink crystal ornaments, continued casting spells while exclaiming in surprise.

"Gorgon? The loyal enforcer of Fungal Lady Zugu Zugu Moyi?"

Sharon frowned and said.

"What is this?"

Rod voiced his question.

Why did it sound as if it were some well-known character?

"You do not know Fungal Lady Zugu Zugu Moyi?"

"I do not."

"Well, since you are a Spiritual Warrior, it is normal that you have not paid attention to the Gem City Magic Daily."

Sharon, grasping to restore the magic within her body, said:

"Besides race-type cosmic creatures like the Horror Beasts, unique powerful species also exist within the extra-dimensional space; they themselves constitute a single population, with no other cosmic creatures resembling them, therefore they have their own names—like Fungal Lady Zugu Zugu Moyi, and the Fungal Warrior Gorgon before your eyes."

Rod froze.

The four words 'unique' spoken by Sharon echoed in his mind.

Some thoughts in his heart instantly connected.

He bared his teeth in a grin.

His mood was joyful.

The Spiritual War Soul needed a reference of unique appearance; it was not asking him to fabricate a new species, but to hunt down these named cosmic creatures and replace them in the form of a Spiritual War Soul!

(End of this chapter)