Chapter 22: Chapter 99 – Mirror Hall

“Duck!”

Miria dodged a vertical slash coming from an Animated Armor and quickly jumped to the back while making a bridge after Suanori’s call reached her ears. A storm of very sharp-looking leaves flew over her body in a furious cloud, heading for their opponent. It passed above her perfectly the moment she finished her move, letting her safely raise herself without slowing down.

Selene was already there to cover for her and used a condensed spiritual orb to push the enemy away, unfortunately creating only shallow scratches in its chest plate. The Animated Armor staggered and glared at them. At least that was what they got from its posture since it didn’t have any eyes.

Before it could launch another attack, all the leaves that had snuck into its armor through the huge gaps and glued themselves into it from inside started glowing brightly. The monster got quickly covered in a myriad of little sprouts and tendrils that began greatly restricting its movements.

With their opponent significantly slowed down, Miria and Selene had a much easier time trying to slide their weapons into the gaps between the floating pieces of metal to aim for the always-moving core. It still was a challenge, but not as hard as when the monster could properly defend itself and launch its own attacks.

They struggled to nail the source of the Animated Armor’s power; Miria used her enchanted shorstwords and Selene used a spiritually condensed katana. Seeing the constraints that Suanori had put on it getting gradually ripped faster than they regenerated, the fox lady decided to try a different approach.

“Hold it down for a moment!” she shouted to her feline friend and placed both hands on the Armor’s back.

Miria hastily caught both flying gauntlets under her armpits and pushed some more mana into her Physical Strengthening. Even though the monster had no physical body, it was strong as hell and she could do this only thanks to Suanori’s spell slightly inconveniencing it.

Selene began gathering and condensing spiritual energy inside the Animated Armor, increasing its pressure more and more. Reaching the point where she could barely contain it, she nodded mentally at Miria and they both quickly jumped away.

Suanori seemed to realize what was cooking up with the high density of mana that started going out of control the moment the girls stepped back and quickly raised a solid wall of earth in front of them.

A loud screeching of thousands of tiny blades scraping over a metal surface reached their ears behind the cover, accompanied by a huge flash of blue light and a powerful explosion that made the floor tremble.

Looking around the edges of their respective walls, they saw the monster with most of its armor comically bulged outwards, almost bursting open at a few points. An uncountable number of cuts and slices scarred the surroundings and the earth barricades Suanori had created had been ground halfway in.

The Animated Armor staggered forward and all the pieces fell onto the floor with a loud clunk, losing whatever held them together in the air. There was no way its core survived such a ferocious explosion of spiritual energy. The girls stepped out of hiding and examined the remains.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can collect for Master… Again…” Miria sighed dejectedly.

Selene chuckled and patted her head. “I’m sure he would appreciate seeing us unscathed more than us bringing in some ingredients while getting hurt in the process.”

“You are right.” Miria nodded with a warm smile and turned to Suanori. “Should we continue?”

“How are you girls faring? Need a break? You don’t have Asterios to replenish your energy now,” she asked.

“Don’t worry, Suanori! We have been making sure not to overspend and use as few techniques as we can! And... Well… We don’t really need to rely on Master to regain it all the time… But… Ummm…”

Selene brushed through Miria’s hair with a mischievous smile. “What she is trying to say is that it’s usually just an excuse to act a little lovey-dovey with Master, fufufu~”

Miria’s cheeks grew rosy as she moved her gaze to the ground. Suanori smiled faintly seeing her reaction that pretty much confirmed the fox lady's words and started walking forward, passing the duo.

“Alright. Let’s go then. The earlier we regroup, the earlier you can ask for some more mana.”

Selene chuckled again and Miria’s face turned a shade redder. The shy pantherkin quickly regained her composure and they followed Suanori, refocusing on their task again, which was protecting the woman and reaching their master safely.

After defeating the Animated Armor, the path they were following led them towards a bigger area. The moment they stepped into the square-shaped room, both the entrance and the exit immediately got sealed off by thick black metal bars.

Suanori turned around and approached the gate behind their backs. A purple circular formation lit up over it from their side, preventing her from even touching the barricade. She examined it for a moment and sighed, glancing at the girls again, who were keeping an eye on the insides of the chamber, ready for anything to happen.

“Looks like this seal is designed to drain spiritual energy on contact, which renders most skills and techniques useless against it, including the ones the three of us use. We are trapped,” she informed them.

“That’s not good. Master said not to peek over the walls or we’ll get hurt. What now?” Miria asked, still keeping her guard up.

“I don’t think this trap is meant to just hold us here forever. Since no monster appeared, there must be something to this room. This whole maze is like a huge Trial, as Asterios said, so this might just be a puzzle room,” Suanori shared her thoughts with them.

“Let’s examine these weird towers then. While being extra careful, of course,” Selene suggested and they all nodded.

As she said, they weren’t in an empty chamber. Numerous short pillars spanned over its stone floor, around a person’s height. Each of them had something akin to a partially see-through oval mirror attached to the top with two metal arms.

Miria tried to touch one of the slightly dark surfaces and her finger went through it, surprising her greatly, and causing a small ripple to travel over the weird ethereal membrane. She felt no resistance when poking through it. She looked around, but nothing happened as a result of her action.

Meanwhile, Selene noticed that they could rotate the weird mirrors, both vertically and horizontally. She started looking through hers while spinning it around, trying to find some clues or hints to the reason behind the existence of these small pillars.

“All as one and one as all, the light shall travel through the mirror hall. As dense as the densest fog, the path shall lead through the rising smog. Shall the path stray away, your only choice to kneel and pray. Join the dead will the living, shall too bright be the bridging.”

Both of them turned to face Suanori as she read some text engraved on one of the walls. Miria and Selene approached her and glanced at the metal plate too.

“Is that a riddle on how to get out?” Miria pondered.

“Seems like it,” Selene answered. “I assume we have to lead some light through the weird mirrors? But where to?”

Suanori pointed to the side and they followed with their gazes. A big round gem was embedded into the stone surface just by the gate that would be their exit if it wasn’t covered by a complex array and locked tight.

“The next question is, what light? Is there a source somewhere here? Or do we have to create it?” Suanori rubbed her chin while walking closer to one of the pillars.

“I can try with my spiritual fire,” Selene suggested.

Not finding any other options, the other two backed away with their guards up and let her create a small flame that emanated blue light. Selene nodded at them and brought it close to one of the mirrors and… nothing happened. She tried the same from the other side but the result did not change.

“Maybe it has to be a specific one?” Miria thought out loud.

Selene then started walking between all seven towers and bringing the flame closer. After the next four tries, they were beginning to think about the riddle again, sure that they must have missed something. But, during her sixth attempt, one of the surfaces lit up and a pillar of blinding light shot out from the other side, aimed at the wall.

“Looks like this is the starting point,” Selene commented.

“Should we try aiming it at the crystal?” Miria asked.

Suanori instantly shook her head. “No. The riddle says something about all being one. This is just a guess, but we might have to use all of them or something will happen. Try pointing it at another mirror, Selene.”

She did as instructed and rotated the top towards the nearby obelisk, trying to aim the light at the dark surface. The moment all of it was directed at the other oval with nothing leaking outside of its rim, another beam of light shot out of it, continuing the path. But, it looked weaker and slightly less blinding than the first section.

“Ah! I know!” Miria jumped up in excitement. “It says that we have to tone down the light before it reaches the crystal, using these mirrors, right?”

Suanori nodded. “This might be it. And I guess it’s our best bet currently.”

They then told Selene to move the first beam away from its current target and she started pointing it at the other six. One by one, they checked the brightness of the light and chose the weakest before continuing the path, repeating the same process of elimination forward.

You are reading story Rise of the Weakest Summoner at novel35.com

Finally, after around ten minutes, all of the beacons had been lit, and only aiming the last mirror at the crystal was left. Everyone prepared themselves for the worst and Miria finished the path. The instant she did, the gem started glowing increasingly.

Assuming that it was charging, they smiled at each other. But, the crystal suddenly turned black. Moreover, the path of light quickly switched to the same color too, segment by segment until it reached the first mirror, starting from the huge gem.

All the hair on Selene’s and Miria’s bodies stood up and they instantly boosted their senses and physiques to the max. The former lunged towards Suanori and scooped her off the floor a second before all of the obelisks started spinning, still spitting the black light from one end. One of the beams passed right through the spot where the Guildmaster had been standing.

Using her spiritual platforms, Selene jumped around in all directions and axes, dodging the ominous rays of darkness, focusing her all on evading the energy beams that gave her goosebumps for whatever reason.

Her eyes caught the sight of Miria dancing between and under the black lasers, barely avoiding any contact with them. Selene got a little too engrossed with her friend’s state and almost jumped into one of the beams, but managed to tilt her body barely in time. 

Part of her dress was caught by it and her eyes widened at how fast it disappeared, decaying into nothingness quicker than she could blink, leaving just some ash behind. Fortunately, whatever it was, it didn’t spread further.

After five minutes of this dance with death, the beams finally slowed down and gradually turned off, returning the pillars to their initial state. The big gem also turned back to light grey, as it had been originally.

Miria and Selene dropped to the ground, panting erratically. They had pushed themselves to their limits while evading. Selene had to reach for the third stage of her Awakening since she had Suanori in her arms and didn’t want to risk it.

“What did we… haaah… do wrong?” she asked, lying on the floor on her back and gasping for air.

No one answered her. Neither Suanori nor Miria knew what to say. They both were sure their interpretation of the riddle was correct. But now, they were back to the starting point. They could avoid the punishment for making a mistake, but it would drain them a lot if they were stuck in a loop until they figured things out.

They waited for a moment so that the beastfolk girls could catch their breaths and stood up again. Many pieces of Miria’s and Selene’s clothing were damaged by the black rays causing anything to decay at an unthinkable rate. Even the walls had multiple streaks of slightly crumbling stone over them now.

“So, what now?” Selene asked, arriving in front of the starting mirror and confirming that it shot a white beam again after she brought up her spiritual fire in front of it.

“Ah!”

Both she and Suanori turned to look at Miria, who suddenly gasped in surprise. They found her playing with another pillar, looking through the dark surface while turning it around.

“I get it now! The mirrors are the fog! When you look through one, the other ones seem to have a different density, being darker or lighter! And there is some weird smoke around the darkest one! I guess that’s the smog, right? And the order seems to be different from how we directed the beam previously.”

The other girls went ahead to check that out and Miria was right. Barely, but they could spot some visual effects around one of the other mirrors when looking through the dark surface of their ring.

“I was wondering what that part about fog and smog was. With this, I guess all the sentences are covered,” Suanori said.

“Sorry…” Miria apologized; her ears dropping down. She was the one to suggest their previous strategy and felt bad for not noticing this earlier.

“Don’t be. I think all of us thought the same when the beam of light turned weaker. And, if you are right about this, you would be the one to contribute the most to this puzzle. Let’s try it and leave this room. We have wasted quite some time here. Asterios might already be waiting for us.”

She smiled faintly and nodded. They all took their positions and began the second attempt at clearing the room. Miria started checking the mirrors before Selene lit them up and she positioned them correctly with Suanori’s help. They made sure everything was like it should before the foxkin brought up her spiritual flame.

They watched anxiously how the beam of light shone from one ring to another, gradually turning weaker and weaker, even more than during their previous attempt. A specific combination must have been the key to solving the puzzle in its intended way.

Finally, the very faint pillar of light reached the crystal on the wall and it started filling up again. They readied themselves for another wave of spinning beams of black destruction, with Suanori standing close to Selene, and waited. The gem turned white, glowing brightly, and… the formations on the gates disappeared with the sound of glass breaking.

Everyone sighed in relief and they all chuckled at each other.

“Let’s go. We need to catch up.”

Just as they were going to leave after nodding to Suanori’s words, they heard the sound of stone scraping against stone behind their backs and quickly turned around. A differently shaped pillar rose from the ground in the middle of the room, looking more like a pedestal.

Noticing something lying on top of it, they sent Selene to see what the thing was. After reaching the pedestal, she found a medium-sized thin silver ring. She quickly realized that it had the same membrane as the mirrors. Assuming that it was a reward for the challenge, she warily picked it up.

Nothing unexpected happened and Selene was able to get back to the others, showing them the weird thing. They agreed that this must be some kind of an artifact and hid it away, for now, to verify its use later, focusing on meeting up with Asterios.

According to the image Umbra had shared with them, they weren’t that far from the center now, just a few intersections.

Unfortunately, it didn’t show if there were any dangerous-looking monsters on the path so they still had to tread carefully, especially after their recent encounter.

Fortunately, they didn’t stumble on anything too serious and the girls dealt with some Jiangshi, Death Cavaliers, Death Knights, and more of the flying bone weapons, with the tough opponents being usually alone. 

Of course, many more traps riddled their path, but none were as elaborate as the complex room with the puzzle. They could tell that there were many more of such locations when checking the image from Umbra, but they could avoid them with some effort, definitely much less than trying to beat the challenges.

Finally, less than an hour later, they saw the corridor leading to the area with the cathedral and hastily approached its edge, very cautious against any last-moment traps or ambushes. They had already experienced a few after taking a turn.

Verifying that the passage looked safe, they made their way into the small plaza. Miria instantly started glancing around but didn’t find Asterios anywhere in sight and quickly turned gloomy. She knew he was okay through their bond, but she was really looking forward to meeting up with him already.

“Damn. I ran as fast as I could and you girls still beat me here. I guess that’s the advantage of numbers for you.”

Her ears perked back up when her favorite voice reached them and she immediately turned towards its source as a wide smile began rising on her face.

“Master! We have arrived just—… now?”

Miria paused when her eyes landed on Asterios. She knew it was him, but the appearance of the man standing in the entrance to another passage was one she had never seen before and it caused her to freeze for a moment. 

All the visible skin over her master’s body was covered in ominous purplish lines, including his face, which had very sharp feral angles now, and a pair of fox ears and three tails were somehow part of his appearance.

She was quickly brought back from her stupor when a monster in the form of a black phantom wielding a giant scythe materialized behind Ast’s back, already swinging its weapon down.

“Watch o—”

She stopped her lunge forward when the violet blade reached Ast’s shoulder and… passed through his body with no resistance, which surprised even the wielder. Ast’s figure then dissipated into black smoke, shocking everyone greatly, especially Miria.

The wraith suddenly screeched loudly and exploded in a puff of violet mist, revealing Asterios with his hand surrounded by blue spiritual flames, tightly closed around its core from behind, which he shattered a moment later.

He smiled at her. “Finally. That guy refused to show up for like fifteen minutes now.”

Miria just stared at him with her mouth agape, completely not knowing what to think. After her brain finally caught up with everything, she smiled back at Asterios and stepped forward.

 

You can find story with these keywords: Rise of the Weakest Summoner, Read Rise of the Weakest Summoner, Rise of the Weakest Summoner novel, Rise of the Weakest Summoner book, Rise of the Weakest Summoner story, Rise of the Weakest Summoner full, Rise of the Weakest Summoner Latest Chapter