Purification Magic

Hikaru picked up the black stone with a piece of cloth, and it stuck like tar. The fact that it didn’t smell like anything was eerie. He could feel the cloth corroding as it frizzled. It didn’t look like it would last long.

Similar stone lay scattered on the ground all the way ahead, deeper into the miasma—thinner now than it was yesterday. What a pain, Hikaru thought.

「You’re up, Paula.」

「Okay.」

With her hand on Hikaru’s shoulder, Paula nodded. After getting some proper sleep at dawn, they left in the afternoon and came to this place—the home of the sleeping Evil Drakon.

Hikaru had his Group Obfuscation on, with Paula’s hand on his left shoulder, and Lavia’s hand on the other.

「O’ God who art in heaven, in thy name I ask for a miracle. Here is unholy ground. By your blessing, purge this place of impurity—」

Her body glowing steadily, Paula reached out her hand.

「Oh…」

The black sticky substance on the stone Hikaru was holding turned into white powder. As he tipped the cloth, the powder fell softly, leaving only a stone and a piece of cloth with a hole on it.

「Incredible. So this is Purification.」

Paula told Hikaru about the existence of the spell last night.

「There is a magic spell called “Purification” that can be used by high-ranking clerics. I heard it’s used to cleanse the place when performing a large-scale ritual. I don’t know what kind of effects it has. All I know is that it’s always done in some formal setting…」

Purification wasn’t used to clean mud off a body or as a substitute for disinfection. It was magic to exorcise evil. Evil existed in this world, but was only encountered rarely. There wouldn’t be evil in a place where the Church performed rituals as well.

Eventually the spell became a mere part of rituals. An antique, so to speak—displayed only for its beauty. That is what Paula was testing right now.

Of course, it was necessary to raise Paula’s Holy stat from 4 to 6 before she was able to use Purification. Yet that still wasn’t enough to cast it. As with every spell, Purification required an incantation, but since only high-ranking Clerics could use it, Paula didn’t know what she needed to recite.

「Great job, Lavia.」

But Lavia knew about it. She came across an old priest’s notes in a secondhand bookshop in Vireocean. While on the ship, she read the incantation and memorized it.

She loves incantations and signature phrases, after all…

Lavia contributed a lot this time. With Purification, they could sneak up on the Evil Drakon by cleansing their path. The spell would be their trump card to approach the creature with Stealth.

Hikaru was wondering how the Evil Drakon sensed the incoming Flame Gospels. One possibility was that it had the same Mana Detection as Hikaru. The drakon wouldn’t have noticed the moment Hikaru fired the revolver as the spell would still be in the range of his Stealth. But far enough, and the spell would fly out of range. What if the Evil Drakon noticed the Flame Gospel then?

Another possibility was that the miasma itself could be a sonar. They were lucky that the miasma had become thinner from yesterday’s roar.

If it was the former, then there was no problem. Mana Detection couldn’t pierce through Stealth or Group Obfuscation. As for the latter, the only option was to walk as slowly as possible to not disturb the miasma. Either way, it was necessary to purify their path.

For a moment, Hikaru thought Lavia would puff out her chest in pride and wear a smug look.

「H-Hikaru…」

But instead, she was pointing her trembling finger ahead.

「Wh-What?!」

Hikaru turned his head to where she was pointing and let out a yelp. He was too focused on the stone in his hand to see his surroundings. There was white sand all around them in a ten-meter radius.

Paula gave a weak laugh.「I think it was too effective.」

Damn right, Hikaru thought as he sighed. Not only was there white sand, the miasma itself had vanished.

The theory that the miasma acted like a sonar was thus eliminated. Otherwise, the Evil Drakon would’ve woken up. Scared me for a sec.

All they did was test the Purification by picking up a stone nearby. Paula also put very little mana into it. How wide would the spell’s effects be if she cast it with all she’s got?

「All right, let’s try this again. I’m counting on you, Paula.」

「Okay!」

Hands on Hikaru, Paula began casting Purification. They moved slowly, as she needed time to cast the spell. But Hikaru was sure this was the sure-fire way to defeat the drakon—charging straight with Stealth.

The wakizashi, Hikaru’s most powerful tool, would be their trump card. If they couldn’t defeat the Evil Drakon with it, the only choice would be to withdraw. That is, if they had the chance.

Even now Hikaru was not sure about taking Lavia and Paula right next to the enemy. However, the girls meant what they said last night.

Man, why am I so doubtful? I already made my decision.

Hikaru was that terrified of the Evil Drakon. More so than any opponent he’d ever faced before.

Lavia frowned, perhaps from inhaling miasma. Hikaru’s throat burned a little. Even with Paula’s Purification, the miasma came back. They were still near the edge. It would only get more intense the further they went.

Hikaru nodded, and Lavia nodded back, indicating she was fine.

Paula kept casting Purification. From above, it looked like a white line ran through this land of black and gray. Fortunately there were no flying dragons. It was a good thing that they moved out early.

After about an hour of continuous spellcasting, Paula was nearing her limit.

Hikaru already set Paula’s Mana capacity to 12, and Magic Principle, the stat that optimized mana consumption, to 2. She had no points left. Even though her Mana capacity far exceeded that of the average person, consecutive casting of high-level spells still took a toll on her.

The sky was growing dark, their surroundings turning gray. Right after every Purification, Hikaru and Lavia took deep breaths, but Paula had to keep chanting, which meant she inhaled more miasma.

「Paula…」

「I-I can still go on… How far are we?」

「About half the distance we’ve traveled so far.」

「I see.」

Paula gave a pained smile. But they couldn’t possibly stop now. They could run straight to the Evil Drakon from here, but it was still too far if Paula were to keep up the spellcasting.

Maybe this was a bad idea, after all.

Lavia squeezed Hikaru’s arm tight.「Have faith in her.」

She’s right. The only thing left to do is to trust Paula.

Sweat dripping down her pale face, Paula continued to chant, panting heavily, leaving a long trail of white line behind them.

The miasma wasn’t the only reason for the darkness around them. The sun was starting to set. They would be surrounded by pure blackness once night came, with no way to tell which direction they were headed.

「H-Hikaru-sama…」

「Yeah.」

「D-Did I… do fine…?」

Hikaru caught her as the last of her strength left her body.

「More than fine.」Their vision was limited, but Hikaru could sense its presence.「You’d be the reason for our success once we kill this thing.」

A towering black figure loomed before them. Hikaru didn’t even need to use Mana Detection to know that it was the Evil Drakon.

Paula managed to bring them all the way here.