Another world, Celeste

Chapter Seventeen, pt 3

Luna approaches us and explains the situation, "My lord, that monster revitalises every time we try to purify it. It would seem the black mana is sustaining its life force and if this continues, I'm afraid the monster's body cannot hold much longer."

After hearing what Luna is saying, I turn my head to observe the fight and notice the tainted monster's body is slightly trembling like it's internally struggling for command.

"Yes, I noticed," says Lord Sol while keeping his focus on the fight between Roy and the tainted monster. "And the source?"

"The spirits are containing it within the bounds of this clearing," answers Luna.

"If you've thought of something, do it quick. This one gets tougher and more resilient as time goes." Roy talks to us while keeping his eyes on his opponent.

The tainted monster is about to move away from Roy and charge at us, but Roy forcibly tugs its body backwards by pulling its tail.

"Where do you think you're going? I'm not done with you yet."

However, that only makes the tainted monkey monster angrier.

"Before we do anything further, we need to restrict its movement even more."

Lord Sol looks at me as he says so then at Bane. The Great Wolf and I exchange looks and he steps forward, growling at the tainted monster. Now that the tainted monster's path is blocked by Roy and Bane, Lord Sol shares his plan with Luna and me.

"Iris, I need you to shoot mana arrows precisely at this points."

Then, Lord Sol instruct Luna to stand nearby the charred tree stump. I position myself a few feet away from Luna while Lord Sol stands between us and the tainted monster.

"On my lead."

Lord Sol cast magic into the ground and the unseen shadow of the charred black stump attaches to the sole foot of the tainted monster arises as black mist. When Lord Sol swiftly detaches the black mist from the tainted monkey monster, I use earth magic to uproot the charred tree stump down to its roots where the black mist is oozing out. Spirits materialise from beneath the soil and contained the charred tree stump from touching the ground. While Lord Sol handles the scattering black mist, Luna takes over from me and begin the purification process.

After that, I retrieve my bow from storage and wait for Lord Sol's signal while aiming light mana arrow at the target. When Roy push back the tainted monster, Bane attacks from behind. When the tainted monster takes a side-step towards an unguarded space, I release one light mana arrow to the ground at its feet. The tainted monster snarl in rage, eyeing all three of us and send two large-sized fireballs flying at Roy and me. Since my objective is to set up the trap, I quickly dodge and use the smoke from the blast to my advantage. The Great Wolf Bane and the tainted monster continuously release attack magic towards each other.

Meanwhile, I discreetly move around and release a second light mana arrow to the ground and a third, fourth, fifth and at the sixth, I shout at Bane.

"Bane! Come back!"

Bane invoke a strong gust of wind and successfully block the tainted monster's sight and return to my side soon after.

"Well done, Iris."

The smoke from the large-sized fireballs clears and Lord Sol and Roy comes out unscathed. I look behind them and see that Luna has already finished dealing with the black mana. The tainted monster, looking out of breath since its additional source of strength is gone, once again charges towards us and Roy punches it. The tainted monster staggers backwards and without wasting any more time, Lord Sol cast the spell. Brilliant light shines from the light mana arrows in a circle with the tainted monster standing in the middle of it. The light engulfs everything within the circle, causing the tainted monster to shriek painfully. I flinch at the sound. When a glimpse of black mist flies out of the tainted monster's body, the light shines too bright that I have to look away.

I don't know how much time has passed, but it feels too long. Lord Sol steps forward once the light dissipates entirely. On the ground lays the body of the monster, unmoving. After receiving a confirmation nod from Lord Sol, Luna runs to the monster and examine its condition. She turns around and shakes her head. I stand on the spot and observe the monster chest slowly moving while producing weak sound. When the monster's eyes lands on mine, its trembling hand rises towards me. I don't know what comes over me, but it's the same when I heard the painful cry of the rhinoceros magical beast awhile back. Before anyone could stop me, my feet move towards where the weak monster lies and grasp its trembling hand tightly.

"It's alright. You can rest now."

I softly say and release a quarter of my sealed mana, spreading 'Serenity' as far as it can reach. With one last sound, the monster closes its eyes wearing a peaceful sleeping face. The atmosphere turns solemn with tears I hold back are now running down quietly.