Chương 212

The moment Orion's call left his lips, Selene released a blinding wave of light from her wand, while Luna pushed herself to form a scorching orange beam. The twin spells easily pierced the hyper-spinning wind of the barrier as he created an opening, hitting the Ancient Treant right in its exposed core. The wood, weakened by constant contact with the canister, burst with a thunderous crack, showering splinters into the vortex.

A split second later, the compromised canister also ruptured with a metallic thwump, and a dense cloud of liquid silver expanded violently, trying to absorb the ambient mana of the forest. It slammed into the inner wall of the centrifuge, and Orion's arms immediately buckled under the immense pressure difference. It felt like trying to hold back a bursting dam with his bare hands. He pushed more mana into the spell, ignoring the sensation of the CC heating up.

His magnum opus it might have been, but it was becoming increasingly clear that, for the threats he was facing lately, it was nearing its limits. That's for later. More importantly, he realized the wind wouldn't break it down. The alchemical toxin was too concentrated and too heavy to be reduced to inert dust by sheer friction alone, and he couldn't just disperse it into the environment. The Silence was too destructive, and the only effective method of destruction had been through tier four magic.

Wait, there is something like that around. With a grunt of effort, Orion adjusted the spell's shape. He tightened the sphere's base and suddenly opened the top, turning the containment vessel into a vertical funnel. The hyper-rotating air instantly turned into a vacuum cannon. The immense pressure at the bottom violently pulled the concentrated Silence gas upward, shooting it into the sky as a tightly coiled pillar of silver smoke.

It vented miles into the stratosphere, far above the mountain peaks, where the high-altitude winds would safely disperse the toxin until it became nothing more than harmless particles. His mother had cast a tier four spell to shield the army from the extremely dangerous environment that existed that high, and while he had been protected by her spell, he remembered all too well how hard it was just to exist in that space.

The Silence would be brought even higher up by the winds, where its alchemical makeup would be torn apart. It wasn't an easily repeatable solution, but in this particular case, it was by far the best idea he could have come up with. Orion held the chimney effect for ten agonizing seconds, making sure every last wisp of gas was pushed out of the crater, before finally cutting the mana supply.

The howling wind took a few more seconds to finally die down, and by then, Orion had collapsed back into the snow, gasping for air as his vision swam with dark spots. +1 Attunement +123, 300 Exp Level up!

"Holy crap, you actually did it," Dorian breathed, jogging over and offering an armored hand.

"Barely," Orion wheezed, accepting the pull-up. He wiped the blood from his upper lip with the back of his sleeve, from where his nose's capillaries had burst from the intense effort.

"The density of that gas was higher than the samples we found in the sewers. If that had touched us, I don't think we could have kept going." At least this time I'm not about to collapse. Every level up makes that less likely, though I admit my track record isn't great. Luna was already at the edge of the crater, using her wand to carefully extract what remained of the corrupted core from the shattered remains of the Treant.

"It's still tainted," she reported, bagging the grey-veined crystal with a grimace.

"But the air feels cleaner already." Orion nodded, taking a moment to let his body relax, breathing in and out. The oppressive hum of the corrupted forest was beginning to fade from the Field, replaced by a more natural mix of elements, and he finally unclenched.

"What's that?" Dorian suddenly asked, pointing his gauntlet toward the horizon. Through a gap in the heavy pine canopy, they could see the jagged peaks of the Silvermount range. High in the distance, where only the strongest witches dared to go, the storm clouds were violently tearing open, though this time, it wasn't because of the winds. A massive silhouette rose against the gray sky. It was a nightmare of jagged ice and shadow, with too many wings and a maw that seemed to swallow the light around it.

Even from miles away, the beast's size was terrifying. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. It was not a dragon, thankfully, but an elemental that had taken a similar shape. That's not much better, especially if it, too, is corrupted. Can monsters of that level even be corrupted? I would have thought anything beyond tier three would be too resilient for it.

Hovering before the monster was a small flash of blinding silver light that could only be a Veil Priestess, judging by the sheer amount of power she was summoning.

"Do you think that's your mother?" Luna asked in awe. Before Orion could answer, the speck flared, and a pillar of cosmic force—a mixture of blinding holy light and the absolute black of a spatial void—descended upon the monster. The peak beneath its shadow vanished as it struck. It was erased from reality in a flash, briefly turning the twilight sky into a blazing noon.

The monstrous silhouette disintegrated instantly, consumed by a spell beyond mortal understanding, and Orion knew this had to be one of the most powerful magics his mother could summon. It was majestic and terrifying, but a small part of him couldn't help but compare it to Seraphina's wrath against the harpies. She had acted as if she were swatting away an annoying fly, yet the power she'd wielded was even greater than that. Still, it was quite the spectacle, and the teenagers could only stare in awe.

Just a minute later, a gentle, unexpected breeze stirred the pine needles nearby, serving as the only physical sign of a mountain's destruction reaching their lower altitude. Orion adjusted his glasses, staring at the flattened plateau where a peak had once stood. And to think he felt powerful just minutes ago, having successfully contained a deadly alchemical weapon and defeated a high-level Treant.

"We have a long way to go," Dorian muttered, voicing Orion's thoughts perfectly.

"Indeed," Selene agreed softly. She turned away from the sky, her silver eyes refocusing on her immediate surroundings.

"But while the greats are fighting their war, we must fight ours. The next canister is not that far from here. We just have to climb through those rocks, and we'll reach a cave." Orion shook off the lingering awe and pulled out his map, checking it against the direction Selene was pointing, and saw that, indeed, there was a tunnel system there.

"Did you get a vision?" he asked. Selene snorted.

"No, I just remembered the map." A laugh bubbled up from Orion's throat, and he shook with mirth before gathering himself.

"Alright, I guess that works too. Let's just be careful; fighting in a cave is quite different from being out in the open. Using spells indiscriminately might bring the ceiling down on you, so be sure to time them well." They hiked for about twenty minutes, leaving the dense pine forest behind as the terrain became steeper and more rugged. The temperature steadily dropped the higher they climbed, forcing them to use more mana on their warming charms to combat the biting cold.

Eventually, they reached a dark stone outcrop, and behind a veil of frozen vines was the entrance to a cave. There was no breeze inside, which suggested this particular tunnel was probably not well connected or had experienced a cave-in, but after only a few minutes of walking, Orion forgot all about that.

"Whoa," Dorian muttered.

"Whoa indeed," Luna concurred. The cave's interior was stunning, with a gentle blue-and-purple glow from unspoiled mana quartz that could have made it a natural wonder. However, after the initial awe wore off, Orion noticed several concerning details. Jagged crystal formations protruded from the walls and ceiling, glowing with a familiar grey light. As Orion stepped closer, a sudden, bone-deep chill swept over him, and his warming charm flickered, sputtered, and died.

"Hey," Dorian grunted, shivering as his own charm failed. He raised his arm, trying to summon his shield. A few golden hexagons sparked into existence, then instantly dissolved into the air.

"My magic is slipping." Orion signaled for them to stay back and stepped away from the entrance, casting his charm once again and sighing as warmth gradually returned. He then engaged [Hypotheticism], staring at the glowing grey quartz.

"It's somehow become an amplifier," Orion realized, his breath fogging heavily in the freezing air.

"The natural crystals in the cave must have absorbed the Silence leaking from the canister and are now broadcasting the anti-magic field. It's acting as a localized dampening zone."

"Is it toxic?" Selene asked, and he gave her a curious look. She shrugged.

"You know I can't See things well when the Silence is involved." He hummed and then shook his head.

"No, it's not in the air. It's resonating through the crystal growths, dampening the Field, but we can still breathe freely."

"So we can't cast inside?" Luna asked, wrapping her cloak tighter around herself.

"We can," Orion corrected, "but any spell that interacts with the external Field—like a warming charm, a projected shield, or a sustained elemental effect—is going to be immediately stripped away by the ambient Silence. We'll have to prepare in advance if we want to be ready for anything that might be guarding the canister." Not to mention the possibility that this one, too, had been integrated into the environment, and this time, there would be no redirect into the stratosphere.

But he didn't need to tell his friends that. They might have been young, but they had enough experience by now to understand how dangerous this kind of work was. And considering how close Luna and Dorian are to tier two, I suspect they would mutiny if I told them we had to call it off. It wasn't like they were being overly reckless anyway.

He could tell from the ambient mana outside the cave that this place couldn't support too powerful a creature, and while the environment would make everything more difficult, he believed in their chances. And we have backup. Once everyone had finished their preparations, which for Orion involved setting up several Slowed spells in different crystals and adding a couple more to the CC so he could react quickly if something unexpected occurred, they finally stepped across the threshold again.

The cold was instant, piercing through their cloaks and settling into their skin. The ghostly grey light of the corrupted crystals cast warped shadows across the cavern floor, and the absence of sound, which had felt welcoming outside, became unsettling. Part of it was that the environment was creepy enough on its own to make the human mind imagine dangers at every turn, but Orion had learned to trust his instincts, no matter how much that might have once annoyed him.

If some part of his subconscious was gathering clues and making a risky assessment, there was a reason for it. Humans have evolved to respond quickly to hidden threats, and although sometimes that leads to paranoia spiraling out of control, I don't think a monster-infested cave is the place to let my guard down. It wasn't long before that fear was confirmed. Deep within the cave, something shifted. The sound it made wasn't that of wood or flesh, but a grinding screech of glass scraping against stone.

Orion narrowed his eyes, peering into the depths as the temperature dropped even more.