The golems had received the command, but Erilsa was the first to move. Raising a gust of wind in her wake, she lunged toward Azazel. She slammed into his body with terrifying might, enough to shake the cave itself.

  Thanks to her quick thinking, however, Azazel’s constraints were immediately lifted, and Verity could finally move, as could his companions.

  They were not yet out of the woods unfortunately.

  The golem which seemed to be the strongest remained immobile, for now, but the rest moved without wasting a moment. Their arms liquefied, transforming into swords, spears, axes and even weapons resembling guns.

  Then, all hell broke loose. All drew their respective weapons, and a hurricane of sparks flew throughout the chamber as golems, demons, humans, and even a spirit, fought a three-way battle.

  “[Heaven Cutting Slash]!” Felicia shouted, aiming her blade toward three approaching golems.

  Felicia’s sword energy tore through two of the golems, splitting them in half, but before she could even shift her attention, their bodies liquified and re-attached as if nothing had happened.

  “Damn…” She whispered under her breath.

  Felicia soon heard a voice in her mind. ‘Felicia.’

  She was startled, but still remained composed enough to fend off a golem wielding an axe approaching from the right. ‘What is it!?’

  Erisla transmitted her thoughts as she engaged in a furious battle with Azazel. ‘Victory lies in the runic inscriptions below you. I’m fairly certain they served as a warp gate once upon a time…’

  Felicia’s eyes widened. ‘So we can escape!… But how do we activate it!?’

  ‘...I’m unsure, but the Mage should know…In any case, you must hurry, the lower-ranked demon will be heading for you at any moment now…’

  Felicia whipped her head to Hoshino who was struggling against the golems as the magical elements she wielded, light and wind, had little effect against their heavy bodies of steel.

  “H-Haha…! It seems I have met a worthy opponent! Feel the wrath of Justice! BEAM!” She exclaimed as a beam of light pierced a gunslinging golem’s face, only for the hole to mend itself moments later.

  Hoshino clicked her tongue and flew higher into the air using her wind magic.

  “Hoshino!” Felicia shouted.

  Hoshino shifted her attention to her Knight of Joy and smiled awkwardly. “Ah! Worry not, my Knight, I am not fleeing, simply a momentary retrea–”

  “I need you to activate the warp gate below us!” Felicia interrupted.

  Hoshino raised an eyebrow, and looked down. “...Sorry?”

  Felicia decapitated another golem, but its body was already stitching itself as she spoke. “The strange symbols on the ground! They’re for a warp gate! Activate it! You should know how to!”

  Hoshino blinked. “A-Ah…Yes! Um… certainly! An easy task!”

  With a simple spell, she descended and a powerful gust of wind pushed the surrounding golems back a few steps. Hoshino pressed her hands against the inscriptions etched into the cold stone floor with a clueless expression on her face.

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  ‘Activate the warp gate!? Does she think magic is all-powerful!? How the hell am I supposed to do that!?’ Though her outward facade had not cracked, Hoshino’s thoughts were in disarray.

  She tried to sense the mana in the runic inscriptions, and although she did feel ‘something’, she didn’t have the slightest clue as to how it worked. ‘In the first place, dwarves are extinct! Their runic magic is a dead framework! No one uses it anymore!! Ahhh! What should I do!? I can’t look uncool here!’

  Thankfully, she had read a book on it when she first entered the Empire’s First Mage Tower alongside her master.

  A beginner’s guide to the most basic runic letters and their purpose.

  It’s usefulness was…limited.

  ‘Wait, I recognize this one!!’

  One of the letters etched into the stone clearly said ‘Mana’, and while all ‘systems’, the equivalent of a spell for runic magic, required mana, needing to inscribe the rune for it suggested this particular one required large amounts of it.

  As she scanned the other inscriptions, she also recognized the rune for ‘Location’, but she had no clue as to how it could be used.

  ‘Still, isn’t that enough? I just need to supply mana to this system and something will happen, right?’ She thought, before a grimace formed on her face. ‘That…or we all die horrible deaths because I messed with something I don’t understand…’

  “Hoshino!” Felicia shouted, splitting a golem in half from top to bottom.

  Hoshino straightened. “Haha! Rudimentary magic!” She nodded, pretending to perfectly understand the spell. “But of course! I shall handle this, guard me!”

  She placed both hands on the inscription, and guided the mana in the air toward it, praying for something to happen as beads of sweat rolled down her temple.

  Suddenly, the golem who had been standing still all this time, the strongest of the bunch, finally moved. Though it possessed no mouth, a mechanical voice resonated from it.

  “Unauthorized user detected. Exterminate priority target.”

  In a flash, it lunged toward Hoshino.

  But it did not reach her.

  Marco raised his fist. “First Fist - Mountain Splitting Strike!”

  Verity thrust his spear. “Nine Hells Spearman Ship Seventh Stance: Violence - Absolute destruction!”

  Felicia lifted her sword. ‘Nameless style - Tidebreaker!’

  And Midnight became one with the shadows. ‘Twilight style - Twin Fangs’

  Though they had not been part of the conversation, the others had been listening and they quickly understood that Hoshino needed to be protected at all costs.

  A quick sense of Deja Vu overcame Verity, but he quickly tossed it aside.

  The four attacks came crashing down the golem, but instead of evading or counterattacking, it simply endured all of it, its skin not even cracking. Then, circuits glowed its body which seemed to be made of something even stronger than steel, and it released a shockwave that pushed them all back.

  It was instantly clear. ‘This…isn’t something we can beat…!!’ Verity thought.

  Regardless, he spun his spear and grit his teeth. If he couldn’t do anything to stop the golem, then he would at least die trying. Verity steeled his resolve and prepared to lunge at the golem once more.

  In the next moment, sharp claws tore through the golem’s neck, completely bypassing its seemingly impenetrable skin and sending its head rolling to the ground. “Maggots crawling everywhere.” Bel said as he clicked his tongue. He was still upset that he could not help his Lord in the battle against that damned spirit.

  Though it pained him to admit, their clash was far beyond his level, and he still reeled in pain from the single blow Erilsa had landed on him.

  ‘Lord Azazel will be content if I get rid of this trash first, I’m sure.’ He thought.

  “Class B threat detected. Switching priority target. All but a minimal number of units are to exterminate the new priority target.”

  The golem’s head turned toward it, as did all of the other golem’s heads. The synchronicity was almost eerie.

  Bel clicked his tongue. “There is no pleasure in shredding these hunks of steel. I’ll finish this quickly.” The sigil on his forehead pulsed. “Lacerate.”

  Verity and his companions watched with a dumbfounded expression as the battle between the golems and Bel began.

  Now, only a handful of golems hostile toward them remained, and that they could handle until Hoshino finished whatever it was that she was doing.

  Felicia held her sword with both hands, faint interest as she glanced toward Bel. “...He looks strong…Maybe if I just slip past the golems I could…”

  Verity slowly turned his head toward her. “Don’t even think about it.”

  She sighed. “Yes, yes. I know.”

  Midnight let out a dry laugh. “I can’t believe you’re in the mood to make jokes. Especially with two demons right in front of us.”

  Marco and Verity both looked at each other, a look of understanding between them. “She’s not joking, is she…” Marco said.

  “Probably not…”

  “Ah!” Hoshino yelped.

  Four pairs of eyes turned to her.

  “I-It’s nothing! Nothing at all! All should be in order in ten minutes or so!”

  Her thoughts told a different story. ‘Did I just get zapped!??’ She shook her head. ‘Ah! Who cares!? Worst case scenario we all die, and there won’t be anyone to remember if I fail!’

  In a way, she steeled her resolve as well, and poured all of the surrounding mana into the bottomless well that were the magical inscriptions.

  The battle to defend Hoshino resumed.

  ‘Seriously, hasn’t something like this happened before…’ Verity pondered, but he wouldn’t be given any time to dwell on it.

  Marco would have won the state wrestling championship last year but he had a medical emegency. Although he's of the optimistic type, he's still convinced someone spiked his water with laxatives.

  Hoshino has given her wand five different names because she keeps forgetting the last one. It is now named 'True Sparkly Staff of Might, Brillance Justice and Indomitable Radiance.'.

  then Justice...?"