The two rogues sprinted across the uneven terrain, ignoring the Guardian’s flailing limbs. They were heading straight for the Obelisk, which was now embedded in the shoulder of the rising fungal colossus, like a jewel set in a crown, and was clearly very important, given their haste.

  On the other side of the Guardian, Kael pulled something from her pack, something Nick hadn’t sensed until then, indicating that the bag was actually a finely crafted spatial artifact. It was a jagged piece of metal that seeped a sickly power, which he easily recognized as psychic.

  Oh no, you don’t!

  "Stop them!" Nick ordered, pointing his staff. "Don't let them touch that stone!”

  He didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do, but it was clear she believed it would give them the upper hand, and if there was one thing he’d learned from this adventure, it was that no psychic artifact was safe.

  "The giant mushroom is a bigger problem, Nick!" Malik yelled, dodging a falling boulder.

  "If they activate that artifact, we won't have a problem because we'll be dead!" Nick countered. It must be something that would let her control it. That, or something even worse.

  Kael herself only seemed driven by determination to see her mission through, but he couldn’t ignore the possibility that she was merely an unknowing pawn of the Hones and hadn’t been told what would happen should she successfully disrupt the ritual.

  He slammed the butt of his staff into the mud. “[Call of the Void].”

  He didn't aim at the Guardian, instinctively knowing it could continue pulling from the dungeon faster than he could absorb its strength. Instead, he aimed at the ground in front of the sprinting rogues, pushing the spell’s matrix hard to make a subtle but powerful change.

  Let’s see if the stability that Hod gave my soul allows for as much control as I thought. It represents the capacity to comprehend and articulate divine truths, so this should be possible.

  Altering the expression of a powerful spell like [Call of the Void] was no easy feat, but fortunately, he could keep the bulk of it intact and only apply pressure on its tangible effects, turning them more solid at the cost of sacrificing some of the pull.

  Spectral darkness, the materialization imposed by his soul upon the spell, erupted from the mud, grasping at their ankles. The rogues stumbled, their enchanted boots flashing as they fought against the hold, but the magic quickly weakened when faced with the pull of Nick’s soul, forcing them to depend on their skills alone.

  "Cover fire!" Kael screamed.

  The mage in her party spun around and shot a bolt of pure fire directly at Nick, clearly recognizing him as the most dangerous member of the group.

  Ord stepped in front of the blast, his tower shield catching the fire with a hiss before dispersing it as his defensive skill activated.

  "They're traitors!" Monte shouted as he drew his rapier. “Only death awaits traitors!"

  The depression descended into absolute chaos.

  The Guardian stomped, sending a wave of spikes shooting up from the ground. Raphael warped space to deflect them, while Yvonne and Malik hacked at its legs to bring it down, only to be stymied by tumorous growths that kept sprouting, covering the wounds.

  Meanwhile, Kael’s team was effectively flanking them, using the boss’s rampage as cover to push toward the Anchor.

  Nick stood at the center of the madness, his mind racing. He faced a Guardian trying to eliminate them, an enemy team possibly aiming to interfere with the dungeon’s Greater Ritual, and his own team caught in the crossfire.

  Victory must be achieved at all costs, Nick thought, with the concept of [Nezach] burning in his mind. This is the test. We can’t just stop them and retreat. We need to win.

  He looked at the Guardian, then at Kael, then at the pulsating Anchor embedded in the monster’s flesh.

  "Raphael!" Nick shouted over the roar of the beast. "Can you get me there?"

  “To where?" Raphael yelled back, blasting a rogue with a gravity well.

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  Nick pointed at the Guardian’s shoulder, right next to the Obelisk. "On top of the damn thing!"

  Raphael looked at him like he was insane. "You want to get on top?"

  “I need to get to the Anchor first!" Nick gritted his teeth, feeling his instincts flare. Even if he hadn’t believed Kael was trying to affect the Greater Ritual without knowing what she was doing, he wouldn’t have tolerated her interference. "Get me up there, I need to disrupt the ritual."

  Kael saw them plotting. She raised her artifact, its violet light intensifying and keeping the mycelial growths away from her. "Don't let him near it!" she shrieked.

  Nick snapped a [Jet Stream] in her direction, too annoyed to bother explaining how foolish her attempt was, but she dropped to the ground just in time, letting the spell sail harmlessly overhead.

  The psychic light intensified around her again, drawing more on her mana but granting her abilities far beyond what even a seasoned adventurer should possess, and he decided he couldn’t waste time like that.

  He sent another barrage of [Spirit Blasts] charged with his annoyance in her direction, forcing her to step back from the Guardian before turning to Raphael, who looked very much like he’d rather not send anyone without melee combat abilities that close to the monster, but didn’t have the time or energy to argue.

  Space warped, and Nick didn’t even hesitate, giving the senior apprentice a thankful grunt and stepping through.

  It wasn’t as smooth as Tholm’s teleportation or as effortless as his own flight, but when it came to magical ways of traveling, bunching up space wasn’t the worst he’d gone through. It was definitely fast, since Nick reappeared on top of the obelisk a moment later, as if he’d always been there.

  He didn’t waste the chance, swinging the Shard down and channeling the full power of his will through it in the shape of a [Spirit Crunch].

  The spell came together in a moment, but it lacked none of the power and hunger, as the battlefield held all the emotions it needed, and Nick’s own spiritual abilities were being supported by the growing Tree of Life in his soul.

  The colossus twisted, something in its network sensing the new presence where there had been none, but by then, it was too late. Nick’s spell had reached the obelisk and started shredding through the intricate network of magic connecting it to the rest of the Greater Ritual.

  In that brief moment, as his magic fought and succeeded against the ritual’s, Nick managed to catch another glimpse of its entirety and was pleased to see that the damage he caused didn’t just drain the power reserves, like the death of the white wolf and the destruction of the cave paintings had, but was also weakening a significant part of its structure.

  If it had been a human mage behind it, he would have already considered the job done. No mortal could sustain a Greater Ritual under those conditions.

  But just before the connection broke, he felt a powerful force gripping what was left of the magic and keeping it together through pure willpower.

  It’s not over yet, he thought, and since it was in the privacy of his mind, he didn’t feel too bad about the spark of excitement that realization brought.

  It wasn’t often that he had the chance to study the work of a master ritualist, especially on this scale.

  Then the colossus howled, and he suddenly had more urgent matters to attend to.

  [Crest of the Thunderbird] flared around him just in time to catch the massive limb that reached up to him, but it couldn’t do much against the sheer force of the impact, which sent him smashing into the ground.

  Layers of fungal and mossy growth erupted around him as the kinetic energy moved into the ground, unable to reach his body thanks to his shield, and Nick took the opportunity to turn up the heat on the Guardian.

  [Bolt of Wrath] formed in an instant, driven by his anger at being betrayed once more by those he had saved. That righteous fury echoed across the battlefield, eclipsing every other source of light for a moment before erupting into a blinding crimson glow.

  The spell roared into existence, deafening in its power and so formidable that it disrupted most minor spells within its range. It struck the Guardian with enough force to send the towering construct flying, lifting it off the ground for a moment before it smashed against a moss-covered wall, where it was pinned.

  Nick kept channeling through the Shard, unloading all his pent-up emotions, feeling them roar through the mana, echoing off each other and feeding into a miniature version of the Spiritual Storm he’d crafted above the grassland once.

  For several seconds, he was just a conduit. [Crest of the Thunderbird] filtered out all outside stimuli, creating the perfect environment for the merge of spiritual and elemental arts to converge into one. He felt like he was reaching some kind of peak, a level of understanding that would lift him above and beyond.

  A discordant note screeched through his moment of enlightenment. Sickly purple mana slammed into his shield, disrupting his spell and, more importantly, the achievement he was about to reach.

  It lasted just a moment, but it was enough for Nick to shout in complete frustration as he felt the understanding slip away from him.

  He turned, his eyes blazing with crimson mana, and found the source of the interference.

  Kael’s hand was still extended toward him, gripping the spike tightly as her skin blistered and turned red from its excess power.

  It was clear she wasn't a mage, since she couldn't channel the artifact’s power and was actually harming herself more than him.

  He doubted she cared much about that, though, since she was currently missing her head.

  A thin pane of spatial mana had come between her skull and neck, breaking their connection and stopping her channeling before she could cause more damage than she already had.

  Nick spotted Raphael behind the woman, clearly having used the chaos to approach her unnoticed. He appeared conflicted, as if he had wanted to capture her for interrogation, but the situation had left him no choice.

  He gave a curt nod of thanks, too angry to say anything properly. Then, Nick turned back to the colossus, finding it where he’d left it.

  The massive Guardian was pulling itself back together even now, growing new fungi to cover the holes [Bolt of Wrath] had caused, but Nick didn’t even need [Empyrean Intuition] to know it was weakened.

  The physical part of his spell was easy enough to heal from for such a construct, but it could do very little for the spiritual damage, except pull more and more from its network.

  Yet even that only added more soul to the whole, not filling the jagged wounds, and the dungeon was more focused on keeping its ritual intact. Compared to the flood of power it had initially granted, only a trickle now came through.

  Kael’s teammates were clearly shocked by how quickly everything had changed. They gave another look at where their leader still stood and where her head had tumbled to, before deciding that it simply wasn’t worth it anymore and turned around.

  “Don’t let them,” Nick growled, and he sensed Raphael nod.

  With that issue resolved and trusting his fellow apprentices to handle three mid-level adventurers now that they no longer had to worry about psychic artifacts, he turned to the Guardian.

  The Shard cast an eerie dark light on his face as he began channeling [Call of the Void] once more, but unlike the previous time, when he had tried to wield it to disrupt and had used a very light touch, this time, Nick only focused on its yawning hunger, feeling it grow as it resonated with the budding Tree of Life in his soul.

  Eternity sounded like a tasty snack.

  45+ chapters: