"Pfff—"
Rolling across the ground with Anno in her heavy plate armor, Charles felt as if his arm was about to snap and his back was severely burned. Ignoring his own pain, he twisted, gritted his teeth, and began incanting: "Create or Destroy Water!"
Create Water/Destroy Water—a fourth-level spell!
Rage burned in his chest. Since this worm was hellbent on its own destruction, he would go all out and try every means to bring it down!
Whoosh—
Two hundred liters of ice water rained down, but it wasn't from his incantation; Hattie had already finished casting her spell from afar.
She now hovered in midair, her expression cold and resolute, unphased by the trembling earth. She continued her incantations relentlessly, so torrents of ice water drenched the monster's body.
Next came Charles's own turn, conjuring another two hundred liters of freezing water, all pouring down on the Chthonian.
Farther away, Willo ignored her injuries and joined in with the same incantation. Still farther off, Nidalee shifted to her human form—naturally, as a druid, she too could cast this spell. Their spellcasting abilities, though, were more limited and only produced first-level versions, conjuring a hundred liters of ice water each to strike the Chthonian.
Elsewhere, though thrown to the ground, Danche had not been struck by the monster's main attack and was not badly hurt.
When he looked for his kin, however, he saw the middle-aged half-orc warrior's body—half-charred, lying among broken stone and utterly lifeless.
"No! Uncle—!"
Danche felt as though a great hand had clenched around his heart. He was young, inexperienced in death—until now, he'd only witnessed serious wounds, never true loss.
In that moment, to see his own uncle fall tore him apart with fury. Eyes red, he roared at the Chthonian, "May you die in agony!"
Before the words left his lips, he was already charging the beast, reckless, fearless: "Geyser!"
Snatching up the everflowing water bottle Charles had given him, Danche began chanting the activation command, and a heavy torrent of one hundred liters blasted into the beast.
"Geyser!"
"Geyser!!"
"Geyser!!!"
He bellowed, repeating the command over and over. Unlike Charles's Create Water, which required spell slots, the everflowing water bottle needed none—just the command word and a limitless flood poured forth.
He washed the Chthonian from head to tail, dealing it tremendous agony. For that moment, Danche even felt grateful to Charles—if not for receiving the bottle, he could only watch his uncle die and do nothing.
Chthonian, your life is mine.
That thought consumed him as he charged closer, maximizing the water's effect. He was about to activate a fifth time when, with a wild twist, the Chthonian's tentacles lashed out—
BANG—!
Danche, caught utterly off guard at such close range, was struck by a tentacle and sent flying. His animal hide armor was instantly scorched to a crisp and the skin beneath severely burned.
The real terror, though, was the Chthonian's raw strength; Danche spun through the air, crashed into a stone, and blacked out, unconscious.
The everflowing water bottle tumbled from his grasp and temporarily out of play.
"Danche!"
Seeing this, Willo cried out in anguish—every life lost cut her to the core. Charles, meanwhile, silently thanked him for his courage and the precious time he'd bought them.
And the space to attack.
Charles resumed casting, summoning more and more ice water.
Above, Theresa floated untouched by the earthquake. She didn't know Create Water, so she fired guiding bolts at the Chthonian, her damage barely less than anyone else's.
Suddenly, her brow furrowed—she sensed the worm was nearly dead. Using her precognition, she quickly turned and called to Charles, "Master... Priest, you should be able to purify it!"
Charles froze—of course he knew, Chthonians, like witches, were anomalous beings. Since witches could be purified, so could these worms.
But... such a colossal creature with heat like magma...
How many Purification Points would it earn him?
Worth the risk? Or not?
He wavered, torn between greed and fear, and Theresa urged again, "You can do it!"
That settled it—greed won.
Such a rare opportunity! He went for it.
Abandoning spellcasting, Charles summoned his longsword and sprinted forward. "Hattie, draw its attention. I'll purify it!"
At once, Hattie slowed, conjured water before her and shoved it at the Chthonian—demonstrating damage and drawing its wrath.
The giant monster took the bait, writhing toward Hattie. At that moment, Charles ran in, shed his shield, grabbed his sword in both hands, and leapt onto the creature's body, stabbing downward—
Sssst—
Longsword pierced the Chthonian's hide; softer than expected. But the hellish heat surged up at once. Wasting no time, Charles unleashed his core ability: "Purified!"
Buzz—
Milky light flowed into the worm, and its body started to dissolve. At that very moment, with temperatures exceeding a thousand degrees, his body began to burn with unimaginable agony.
"Absorb Elements!"
He quickly called the spell, a magical vortex absorbing most of the energy, but even so, being in contact with the Chthonian's lava flesh was sheer torture. His own skin began to char, the pain tearing through his mind with unspeakable torment.
As something even darker threatened his body and soul, the Chthonian became more desperate, sensing the source of the agony—the tiny human clinging to its back. In a frenzy, it rolled over, intent on crushing Charles.
"Well—!"
That hot, yielding flesh scorched him; he felt his face burn, his hair almost ignite. The monster's weight was crushing, but distributed enough not to break him outright—heat was the true danger.
Scalded all over, his face severely burned—nearly disfigured!
Whoosh—
At last, having survived the last torment, the demon-polluted, maddened Chthonian could no longer endure. Its immense body dissolved into pure white light, fully purified, no trace remaining—forever gone.
"Priest!"
"Charles!"
"Mr. Charles!"
Nidalee, Anno, and Willo each cried out, all three dashing for him.
Nidalee paused halfway and began chanting healing nature spells. The other two rushed to his side, Anno using paladin healing, Willo casting Cure Wounds to pour healing magic into his body.
"Hah—"
As Charles drew near the Chthonian, he'd inhaled a lungful of superheated vapor—his lungs felt scorched alongside his skin.
But under threefold magical healing, his wounds rapidly improved; his burnt face scabbed over, his alveoli regenerated, and he could breathe again, restoring strength to his body.
Gasping deep breaths, he finally found his voice, "I feel much better, really."
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