Chapter 1556

Seeing the enemy disappear, Xia De did not even think; he turned and swung the black wooden staff in his hand backward. Standing upon the earth, with the added blessing of the "Power of the Red Dragon," this strike actually sent the monster that had abruptly appeared behind him flying away.

"As expected, it can't compare to the neighbors. Back at St. Deran Square, it was I who went flying... Do things of this sort all have identical opening moves?"

【When you use Lagley's Leap, the opening move also appears behind the enemy.】

The monster that had been sent flying used its four arms to support its body and rise within the fog. The upper body on its back let out a hiss similar to a wild animal toward Xia De, then it vanished into the fog once more, only to appear behind Miss Pharmacist. Although the Eleventh-Ring Sorceress had never encountered anything similar, she had already discerned the opponent's attack method from Xia De being attacked just moments ago.

Without needing Xia De to remind her, the Pharmacist dodged the pounce, then lifted her skirt and kicked the monster, which was continuing to lunge forward, in the body. The movement looked somewhat comical, but it truly sent the burning, mutated corpse flying toward the front-left. Miss Pharmacist's strength was immense; apart from Xia De himself, he had never seen any other Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi display such great strength in battle—High-Ring Warlocks generally used curses and sorcery to fight. "Thunder Spear!"

The thunderbolt then pierced the chest of the monster, which could not maintain its balance after being struck, stringing together its burning front half and the abruptly appearing rear half. Immediately following, the Thunder Spear exploded, and the thunderbolt submerged the monster's body.

Yet, when the lightning vanished, the monster, whose body was constantly convulsing, actually did not die.

"Is the attack intensity insufficient?"

Xia De asked suspiciously, but Miss Pharmacist did not cast a spell herself to deliver the fatal blow; instead, she let Xia De continue: "I'm afraid it's not that simple, Mr. Watson. Continue attacking it."

He held the long staff vertically in his hand and spun it once; a black sphere that seemed capable of absorbing light appeared at the hooked tip. The Shadow Sphere flew toward the monster, which was paralyzed by the lightning. The corrosion of the pitch-black shadow even extinguished the flames on its body surface, and the petrification marks from the abdomen hit by the Shadow Sphere spread rapidly toward its entire body.

Miss Pharmacist looked at Xia De with surprise and suspicion once again. She certainly recognized "Shadow Sphere" as a basic sorcery, but she had never seen a Shadow Sphere with this kind of effect:

"The sorcery has undergone at least one sublimation."

Yet, although this strike was effective, the corpse's injuries recovered rapidly, and the upper body of the rear half that was not on fire struggled desperately to shake off the petrification; it still had not died.

"Is this thing immortal? I'll try again with holy water."

Xia De became interested. After casting "Light of Imprisonment" to ensure safety, he wanted to try new methods, but he was stopped by the sorceress at his side:

"Don't waste the holy water. Ring Warlocks must fight with knowledge and wisdom. I think I know how to deal with this thing. Its appearance is related to the power of space. Since we cannot kill it, we can only banish it."

"Banish?"

In the "Book of Malphas the Demon," there was quite a bit of knowledge regarding the banishment of demons. Generally speaking, to banish a certain individual, first, that individual must have the possibility of being banished, meaning the opponent itself comes from outside the material world.

When Tifa visited the ophthalmologist Alfred with Xia De last autumn (Author's Note), she had once cast a spell to banish the lower-level demon "Secret Servant" from the Dark Domain, and Xia De had only been in contact with this type of knowledge for a few weeks, so he could not yet cast spells as conveniently as Tifa:

"I can banish it, but I need to know its true name. No, not the true name of the deceased, but the true name of this monster."

Xia De said immediately.

"Mr. Watson, are you some kind of Witcher from somewhere? This isn't a demon."

"If this thing were a demon, things would actually be much simpler."

Thus, Miss Pharmacist shook her head:

"There are already enough secrets on this island; let's hope there aren't any demons. I'll banish it." Xia De then took two steps back. Since meeting this sorceress, he had never seen her cast a spell seriously. Banishing a monster like this shouldn't be something one can do just by stomping their feet twice.

"Don't step back; you help set up the ritual. You should know the basic ritual for expelling sub-spatial creatures, right?"

As she spoke, she tossed Xia De a small bottle filled with coal-ash-like powder; it seemed she had made up her mind absolutely not to get close to Xia De.

Although Xia De had been a Ring Ringed Ringed Shushi for less than a year, because of the various knowledge given by the Witch Echo and the Tree Father, his knowledge system, while incomplete, was very deep. He knew the rituals for expelling sub-spatial creatures, whether ancient or modern.

Originally, he had thought about directly taking out the knowledge from the Witch Echo to test it, but when he started, he still drew the ritual foundation learned from St. Byrons.

During this time, Miss Pharmacist took out some bottles and jars. Two bottles were poured directly onto the monster that was temporarily locked to the ground by 【Light of Imprisonment】, and the rest were drunk by her one by one.

It was clear that the taste of those potions was not very good, because when she drank them, her beautiful brows furrowed once again.

"Alright, that's good; your hands are very steady. Oh, I didn't realize you were actually from St. Byrons Comprehensive Academy." Just by taking a glance at Xia De's results, the sorceress knew the origin of the ritual. This time, she finally let Xia De step back a little—of course, not too far, to prevent getting lost in the fog:

"Remember, if I show any strange behavior in a moment, you don't need to pay attention to me. If I try to attack you, you go to the boat first and wait for me."

"What?"

Xia De asked suspiciously, and Miss Pharmacist smiled at him:

"If you are willing to lend me your staff, the spellcasting should be more convenient."

This was a common ability of "staff" type weapons. Before the Battle of Randall Valley, the staff prepared by Miss Aurora had the same effect.

"It's not that I don't trust you, but apart from me, this relic is just a wooden stick in anyone else's hands."

Xia De said. Of course, the 【Staff of Yggdrasil】 was also useful in Luweiya's hands. Although Xia De did not know how the original Luweiya obtained this relic, or if this relic was manufactured by her in the first place, now, apart from Luweiya herself and Xia De, whom she recognized, no one else could use this staff—this was what the long-haired girl had said intermittently when the two were entangled in the dream.

The sorceress did not ask further and turned to begin casting the spell. As the ritual foundation on the ground glowed, she chanted the incantation. She seemed not to want Xia De to hear the content of the incantation, so the sound was a "buzzing" that could not be distinguished at all.

As the light on the ground brightened to the extreme in the fog, Miss Pharmacist crossed the index and middle fingers of her left and right hands: "Banish!"

Xia De immediately sensed that the unstable space around them had developed larger cracks, and then the monster trapped by the Light of Imprisonment "sank" into the ground bit by bit; this was actually entering another space. By the time the monster completely vanished, Xia De also felt that the "Light of Imprisonment" had failed because the distance was too great.

The banishment ritual was very successful, and that high-ring sorceress finished casting the spell, standing with her back to Xia De without saying a word. Xia De watched her vigilantly, and after waiting for half a minute like this, the latter said with somewhat low spirits:

"Don't worry, I'm fine. What I said earlier about not being able to cast spells at will was not a joke."

She turned to say to Xia De, her face showing no signs of fatigue, but "she" reminded him softly:

【The spirits and elements on her body have become chaotic; she is shifting toward an "out of control" state.】

"Miss Pharmacist, I think you really need to rest. Let's leave here first. Actually, in your physical condition, you shouldn't have proposed coming to the island with me. If I were some bad person, what would happen if I took advantage of you being not quite right to harm you now?"

"But Grandma Natalie told me to help you as much as possible; Grandma helped me a lot in the past. Furthermore..."

The sorceress asked Xia De suspiciously;

"Even if I were not quite right, do you think you could beat me?"

Although she tried to gain the upper hand in words, Miss Pharmacist's mental state did not improve because of this. She also knew that she should indeed rest for a while, so she and Xia De followed the path they had come from, from the Edwards mansion to the town.

【Small hill】

There were still many places on this island that Xia De had not seen, but he had already memorized the most important "family tree," so on the return journey, he did not propose investigating other places again. Next time, he could completely come to the island himself to check other content.

Returning from the Edwards family mansion to the pier, if one walked quickly without stopping, the entire journey would take less than half an hour.

They soon passed through the town and entered the small woods in front of the pier. While walking on the small path in the woods, Xia De and Miss Pharmacist speculated about how those two people had come to the island earlier.

The sorceress was not in a good mood for conversation, but she did not think her steamship would be destroyed. And unknowingly, the thick fog around them became larger and larger. When Xia De and Miss Pharmacist noticed this and stopped walking together, both felt a sense of dizziness.

At that moment, it seemed as if the entire world, except for themselves, had rotated. The fog was so thick that one could not see any objects beyond two meters, and their sense of direction was completely lost after that dizziness.

Because Xia De had the 【Space-Time】 spiritual rune, he adapted quickly, while Miss Pharmacist, who was already in a poor mental state, crouched down while holding her head. Xia De wanted to help her, but even in such an uncomfortable situation, the sorceress still loudly stopped him:

"Don't come near me!"

She struggled to adapt to the current situation and explained to Xia De through gritted teeth:

"Coming to the island this time, we really hit bad luck. This is a special situation that often occurs on the island; those who come to the island completely lose their ability to perceive space."

"Although the fog is thicker, we are still on the small path in the woods under our feet. If we continue walking forward, won't we still be able to find the pier?"