697 – [Ritual of Immortality]

Skeletons of black flames pile onto Jornes, pressing down onto her. Her stone body burns and cracks.

I hold tight onto her foreleg with my teeth, and claw at her head. Her lower jaw chips off, scattering fragments of stone.

I’m near my limit thanks to [Hellgate]. I can’t afford to let her get away.

Jornes points her free foreleg towards me, a suspicious white glowing from her claws.

『[Empath].』

Burning pain shoots through me. Her aim must be to create an opening to escape through the shock from returning the damage with [Empath]. But, I hold firm and glare back at her.

『Too bad, Jornes.』

[Hellgate] consumes both my HP and MP. [Empath] won’t do as much against an opponent that has already lost HP.

For normal magic skills, the amount of damage dealt and the MP cost are proportional. But, as [Hellgate] uses HP as a cost, the damage it can deal far outstrips its MP cost. Under normal circumstances, that isn’t much of an advantage, but against Jornes, the HP cost is useful.

[Empath] can’t return all the damage to me, so she can’t use it to create a chance to escape. The wide area of [Hellgate] makes it ideal for breaking through [Resist] and [Mirror Counter], so it is a perfect for this situation.

I clench my forefoot into a fist and punch Jornes’ head. Her neck snaps off in its entirety, and a huge crack runs though her body.

The foreleg I’m biting into tears off, freeing Jornes. She tumbles chaotically though the air, missing her head and an arm. At the same time, [Hellgate] fades as I become unable to sustain it.

Breathing heavily, I heal with [Autoregeneration]. I watch as the broken Jornes manages to right herself in the air. Because of the recoil from [Hellgate] and the [Empath] damage, my body is at its limit.

But, Jornes must also be at hers. She had to have put most of her remaining MP into that [Gravidimension]. She also has to spend some to heal, so she has to be almost out now.

Jornes’ body is wrapped in white light.

I see a large head, a single wing, a mirror, and a giant wheel. She’s returned to her abbadon form. She probably doesn’t enough MP to maintain [Angel Mirror].

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[Jornes Liarm]
Species: Abbadon
Condition: Spirit
Lv: 150/150 (MAX)
HP: 1443/9802
MP: 297/6253

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Now that she’s so low, there’s probably nothing she can do. She doesn’t have enough MP left to even heal properly. She has complete physical immunity thanks to [Karma Mirror], but she’s fatally slow in her abbadon form.

She’ll shoot [Ruin] a couple times, then be entirely out of MP. That, or she’ll try to survive as long as she can with her magic counters. Either way, it should be easy to finish her off now she can only choose offence or defence.

I continue to glare at Jornes for a while, but she doesn’t show any sign of moving. I guess she’s chosen defence. That, or she’s waiting for an opportunity to attack when I attack her. There’s no way I would fall for such a simple strategy now though…

『[Curse Knight]!』

The knight I produce gallops through the air, arcing towards Jornes’ side. She still doesn’t so any sign of moving.

While my [Curse Knight] is flying around Jornes, I prepare my second magic. [Gravidon] would be overkill. [Holy Sphere] is plenty. If I can catch with either [Curse Knight] and [Holy Sphere], Jornes’ HP will hit zero for sure.

『[Holy Sphere]!』

A sphere of white light flies in a straight line towards her. The [Curse Knight] flies in from the side, while the [Holy Sphere] shoots in from the front. Even if she blocks one of them, the other should be enough.

Jornes doesn’t block either. The [Curse Knight] and [Holy Sphere] explode, enveloping her in a pair of blasts.

I feel a moment of relief, but I haven’t received the experience point notification. I see Jornes emerge unscathed from inside the blasts.

…Those two hits should have easily done over a thousand damage.

Jornes has a lot of strange skills. Apparently one of them activated.

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[Jornes Liarm]
Species: Abbadon
Condition: Spirit, Immortal
Lv: 150/150 (MAX)
HP: 1/9802
MP: 272/6253
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Immortal…? It’s the first time I’ve seen that condition. But I think I know which skill it must be from.

【Characteristic Skill [Ritual of Immortality]】

【When an attack would reduce the user’s HP to zero, the user is instead reduced to a single point of HP, and the immortal condition is conferred.】
【While in the immortal condition, the user has complete immunity to status conditions and damage from magic attacks in exchange for the rapid loss of their MP.】
【While active the user in completely unable to move, and it cannot be cancelled until their MP reaches zero.】

…Lethal damage only brings her down to one HP, and she has complete immunity to magic.

If she didn’t already have immunity to physical damage, it would be a rather pointless skill. But now it’s entirely impossible to damage her.

Although, I still don’t see how it is useful for her. Her MP is already in precarious situation, and she can’t move at all now.

Even if it gives her time to use some other skill, I don’t think it’s much of a threat. All I have to do is fly away and wait, she’ll be rendered completely helpless. From what the skill description said, she should be down to 1 HP and 0 MP in a minute or two.

…Though there’s no way it’ll be that easy. I can’t imagine she used it without a plan.

『…It’s probably not vain struggling… So what is she doing?』

A clunking sound comes from Jornes. As I look, I see the wheel on her back beginning to stiffly rotate. Its movement quickly speeds up, becoming smoother and faster.