If it weren’t for the tense situation, Fia would have definitely stopped to admire this breathtaking view.
But right now, she didn’t have that kind of luxury.
Because the Moon Dragon’s barrage had pierced through the ceiling and reached the ground, even the temple above was now split in two by the Moon Dragon’s attack, collapsing one after another with the sound of cracking walls.
What made things even trickier was that, despite releasing a massive amount of magic all at once, the Moon Dragon hadn’t lost its fighting power.
Fia had just landed in a safe spot when the Moon Dragon smashed through the ceiling, chasing right after her.
Its castle-sized body crashed heavily onto the ground, shaking the earth so much it was hard to stay standing.
“Big sis, he’s coming after us!” Liti shouted, clinging tightly to Fia’s neck.
“Liti, go find Anastasia first.
Leave this to me.”
Even though Liti’s light body was almost weightless, there was no way Fia could fight while holding her.
“Okay!”
After putting Liti down, Fia was alone again.
She looked up at the Moon Dragon, who was at the peak of its rage—its heavy breathing was so loud that Fia could hear it even from dozens of meters away.
Is this the start of phase two? Fia felt a wave of annoyance.
It made sense for bosses in games to have a second phase—if a boss didn’t, and players could just take it down easily, that would be unreasonable.
But in real life, all Fia felt was that it was a pain.
When I get back, I have to get Claire to teach me “Enchanted Blade” and “Flight.”
For now, I’ll just have to make do with my fists.
Thinking this, Fia pressed her hands together, her delicate features showing a fighting spirit.
“So? Want to keep going?”
“The child of god disguised as the elven princess—” The Moon Dragon’s words suddenly cut off.
He raised one claw to his head, and his voice shifted from an AI-like synthetic sound to that of a mature man.
“Absolute Evil, you deceived me, ugh…”
What’s he doing? Fia tilted her head, a question mark practically floating above her.
Looking closely, one of the Moon Dragon’s eyes was blood red, the other blue—a pretty bizarre sight.
It was like two souls fighting for control of the body.
As if trying desperately to suppress a rampage, the Moon Dragon’s body trembled violently, and he spoke with difficulty.
“Elven princess, quick, destroy the chaos on me, there’s no time, the Unsinking Moon… the Unsinking Moon is about to break free… hurry!”
“Hey—”
“Hurry up!!!”
As soon as he finished urging her, the blue eye that symbolized the Moon Dragon’s sanity was once again swallowed by blood red.
He threw his head back and let out a roar that shook the sky.
So the Moon Dragon who just spoke to me was the real one, and now this Moon Dragon has actually lost his mind to something else? Destroy the chaos on his body, does that mean…
Following the Moon Dragon’s upward motion, Fia’s gaze focused on his chest.
Back underground, she’d already noticed that the Moon Dragon had an external heart made of chaos hanging from his chest.
Fia had always thought it was some kind of symbiotic thing, but judging from what the Moon Dragon just said, that wasn’t the case.
The reason the Moon Dragon could regain his senses for a moment was probably because that external heart was damaged.
When he burst out of the collapsing underground space, the chaos heart took a hit, and now it was gushing out black, blood-like chaos.
But what did he mean by “the Unsinking Moon breaking free”? Fia instinctively looked up—the Unsinking Moon was still hanging over the city, looking no different from usual.
Better deal with the chaos on the Moon Dragon first, then ask what’s going on.
With a clear plan, Fia leapt toward the Moon Dragon.
Seeing that Fia was unarmed, the berserk Moon Dragon immediately swung a claw at her, trying to smack her into the ground.
Too bad Fia was ready for this.
Because of that purple magic shield, her spells couldn’t do much damage to the Moon Dragon, but that didn’t mean he was completely immune.
Fia alternated between “Psychic Shock” and “Flame Storm,” using the explosions to forcefully interrupt the Moon Dragon’s claw attack.
But the Moon Dragon wasn’t putting all his hopes on his claws.
As the dust from “Flame Storm” cleared, Fia was met with the dragon’s breath again—but this time, it wasn’t fire, it was a chilling black mist.
Back in the underground fight, Fia had seen this black mist before—anything it touched would sizzle and corrode like it was being eaten away by strong acid.
Even though “Nanomachine Body” would keep her from dying from the corrosion, the pain was still no joke.
Thinking quickly, Fia, unable to change direction in midair, began chanting at top speed.
“—‘Ice Bullet’”
A fist-sized chunk of ice shot toward the breath.
But that wasn’t Fia’s real goal.
“Super Calculation” broke down the structure of “Ice Bullet” in a flash, and with that info, Fia quickly created an “Ice Bullet” under her feet.
A massive ice ball, three meters in diameter, gave Fia a foothold.
Using it, she jumped straight up in the air, barely dodging the breath, then used another “Ice Bullet” as a platform to dive diagonally down at the Moon Dragon.
Of course, that still wasn’t enough to be safe.
To keep the breath from coming after her again, Fia set her coordinates right above the Moon Dragon and summoned the biggest “Ice Bullet” she could.
If direct magic didn’t work, what about a physical attack summoned by magic?
A blue iceberg nearly thirty meters wide, like a meteor, crashed straight down on the Moon Dragon.
Before the Moon Dragon could react, the two collided.
Boom!
Fia’s punch earlier had a similar effect, but since she was so small, people watching from afar couldn’t really tell what happened.
Now, though, the massive, meteor-like iceberg was impossible to miss.
Fia could even hear the distant paladins gasping in awe, and even caught the word “Dragonslayer.”
Smashed by the iceberg, the Moon Dragon’s body sank hard, the ground groaning in pain as spiderweb cracks spread out from him.
The horns on his head snapped clean off under the weight of the iceberg, the sharp sound echoing across the plaza.
Then, the whole city of Aurora rang with the Moon Dragon’s furious roar.
A black sphere appeared in the Moon Dragon’s mouth again.
Can’t let him use that.
With courage rising in her chest, Fia poured all her strength into her right fist and lunged at the Moon Dragon’s jaw.
No mercy—she was going for a knockout.
If the iceberg just made the Moon Dragon’s body sink, then this punch, with all of Fia’s strength behind it, sent the Moon Dragon rolling to the side like he’d been hit by a sledgehammer.
His massive body tumbled from the force, and his jaw, where Fia struck, made a crisp cracking sound as the bone broke and shifted out of place.
Fia took the chance to jump toward the external heart on the Moon Dragon’s chest.
It was at least three or four meters across.
Up close, the heart formed by chaos was honestly disgusting.
The “blood vessels” made of chaos twisted and tangled, piercing through the moon dragon’s skin and connecting with the flesh inside its body.
Sensing someone approaching, the chaos began to crawl up Fia’s legs.
She clicked her tongue, bent down, and pressed her right hand against the surface of the heart made of chaos.
At this distance, the deep purple membrane on the moon dragon’s body could no longer block her magic.
Fia channeled mana into her palm.
‘Flame Storm’—boom! A pillar of fire, much smaller than before, shot out from the dragon’s chest, and the heart made of chaos was instantly blown to pieces.
At the same time, the moon dragon collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily, its ominous crimson eyes gradually returning to a rational deep blue.
“Hey, what were you about to say—”
“B-behind you!”
The moon dragon forcibly interrupted Fia, and right after, Fia suddenly felt a sharp sense of danger above her head.
The ground grew bright, and a familiar purple glow reflected in her eyes.
She stopped paying attention to the moon dragon in front of her and turned her head, looking up toward the source of the purple light.
Unsinking Moon.
The purple that had once shrouded Aurora City had now gathered together, and the Unsinking Moon hanging in the sky was emitting a strange, bewitching light.
Beneath the Unsinking Moon was the gray-haired girl Fia had seen earlier atop the moon dragon’s head.
The gray-haired girl on the ruins had fallen into the same abnormal state as the moon dragon, her eyes a mindless crimson, and a mass of chaos forming an external heart on her chest.
Now, the girl was raising her staff high, chanting a spell in a magical language Fia couldn’t understand.
She was controlling the Unsinking Moon, and her target was Fia.
Fia couldn’t help but feel a bit troubled, but she didn’t panic.
The elf princess died under the Unsinking Moon’s attack because she didn’t react in time and wasn’t as fast as the Unsinking Moon.
Fia was completely different.
Not to mention the existence of ‘Nanomachine Body’, even if her stomach was blown open, she wouldn’t die.
With her speed surpassing the speed of sound, the Unsinking Moon’s attack would have a hard time catching her.
Of course, if she could stop the Unsinking Moon from firing, that would be even better.
Fia leapt toward the gray-haired girl, calmly thinking things through.
This girl was only at the second rank and didn’t have the moon dragon’s tough body.
Using ‘Flame Storm’ or ‘Psychic Shock’ would certainly stop her from controlling the Unsinking Moon, but she’d definitely die from Fia’s magic.
That left only one option.
Not ‘Ice Bullet’, but ‘Torrent’.
Almost at the same time, a purple spear formed by the Unsinking Moon appeared.
Once ‘Torrent’ was fired, she’d dodge in another direction.
With the Unsinking Moon’s speed, there was no way it could hit her.
Her brain quickly calculated the escape route, and a massive vortex surged up in front of Fia.
But reality always has surprises.
“Dofilia, get out of the way!” Anastasia’s anxious shout rang out beside her.
Fia’s heart skipped a beat.
Anastasia had always blamed herself for surviving unscathed when the elf princess was badly wounded by the Unsinking Moon.
Now that the same scene was happening again, Fia didn’t even need to think to know what Anastasia was about to do.
Luckily, it was still within her ability to fix.
Taking Anastasia with her at supersonic speed wasn’t hard.
Just in terms of strength, even if Anastasia was a near-fifth-rank warrior, she couldn’t compare to Fia, who could punch a dragon flat.
Before Anastasia could shove her aside, Fia braced herself and grabbed Anastasia, hoisting her onto her shoulder before she could say a word.
But it wasn’t over yet.
Above the descending Unsinking Moon, a silver light even brighter and more dazzling than the Unsinking Moon itself appeared in the starry sky.
When Fia saw the figure standing behind that silver light, she couldn’t help but click her tongue.
Claire.
It was Claire as she’d never seen her before—horns and a tail, silver hair and a snow-white dress billowing in the wind.
No longer like an elf under the moonlight, but a cold, chilling girl with crimson eyes, like the death god of the moon.
The silver light shooting down from the sky came from Claire’s hand.
The lightning-like silver beam struck the Unsinking Moon, and after a brief pause, the sound of ice shattering echoed in the air.
The Unsinking Moon, as if unable to withstand such immense power, began to crack with black lines visible to the naked eye.
In less than a second, the silver light pierced straight through the bottom of the Unsinking Moon.
The purple spear in midair also shattered.
But the remaining silver light didn’t disappear—it kept going, heading straight for the gray-haired girl below.
Even the tiniest bit of that energy was something the gray-haired girl could never withstand.
Fia couldn’t let Claire’s hands be stained with blood because of her, especially since the gray-haired girl was under chaos’s control and was likely innocent.
That was why she hadn’t used ‘Flame Storm’ on her.
With her mind made up, Fia poured more mana into ‘Torrent’.
A dragon-like water tornado slammed the gray-haired girl away, and almost at the same time, Fia, with unprecedented calculation speed, unleashed maximized ‘Elven Fire’, ‘Wind Blade’, and ‘Ice Bullet’ in quick succession, placing them in the path of the silver light.
The exploding firestorm dimmed the silver light a little, but its speed didn’t change.
Next, ‘Wind Blade’ slammed into it from the side, weakening it further.
Finally, a thirty-meter-wide ice sphere blocked its path in midair.
Like a needle through paper, the silver light pierced the ‘Ice Bullet’ with ease—but that was just the beginning.
After the first ‘Ice Bullet’, more and more massive ice spheres appeared, as if they cost no mana at all, stacking from the sky all the way to the ground in the span of a single breath.
Piercing a single sheet of paper is easy, but when the layers pile up, it gets much harder.
Just as Fia expected, by the time the silver light was about to hit the ground, it had lost most of its power.
In the end, it couldn’t even break through the last layer of ‘Ice Bullet’ and was completely snuffed out, as if it had never existed.
“Whew.”
With the crisis over, Fia lowered her raised right hand and let out a long breath.
That should be it.
—Or maybe not? The strange cracking sound from the Unsinking Moon drew everyone’s attention.
Whether it was the paladins trying to escape in the distance or the ordinary townsfolk who had no idea what was happening, everyone looked up at the Unsinking Moon hanging in the sky.
And then.
Crack.
The Unsinkable Moon suddenly shattered under everyone’s gaze.
Centered on the temple, an invisible wave of magic spread out across the entire city.
People felt a gentle breeze brush their faces, followed by pale purple specks of light falling from the starry sky, turning the world into a dream.
“Eighth-tier forbidden spell, ‘Judgment of the Gods’…” The Moon Dragon’s frightened whisper sounded behind Fia.
Eighth tier, huh.
No wonder Claire said she could handle Anastasia with one hand.
Fia couldn’t help but look up at Claire in the night sky.
Even though she looked like a demon, all Fia saw was beauty.
Claire really was a demon, but only the kind that stole her heart.
Good thing she was a little stronger than Claire, or she’d probably be feeling inferior right now.
Thinking this, Fia smiled to herself, raised her left hand, and waved at Claire in the sky.
