Chapter 87, Association President, Dorothy (2)
They were people we had definitely killed once already.
We had burned them so thoroughly that there hadn't even been any need to confirm the kills.
I could roughly guess how they were now standing perfectly fine on two feet in front of us.
They must have used some kind of Mystery.
I didn't know whether they had truly resurrected or whether they were just illusions, but even if they had come back to life, it wasn't all that surprising.
Though resurrection seemed more likely.
In a world where invincibility-type Mysteries and death-regression Mysteries existed, there was no way resurrection-type Mysteries didn't.
I tried to take Lucy out to figure out how they had revived.
In the end, I couldn't.
Whoosh!
A thin blue line grazed the back of the hand I had slipped into my clothes.
A burning pain flared, and blood trickled down my wrist.
“Trying to gather information with a detection-type Mystery and counter me! Good idea, but did you think I'd just let you do that?”
Dorothy laughed and stabbed her staff into the air as though dotting a point.
At the same time, a blue line was drawn along the path of the staff.
The range of the attack itself was small, but its power was extremely threatening.
I couldn't even guess how strong its penetration was.
Seeing it slice through the marble floor as easily as tofu told me I definitely didn't want to take a direct hit.
A dangerous ranged attack coming from far away.
If we wanted to stop it, we'd have to somehow close the distance.
But there was almost no delay between attacks, so merely dodging was already difficult.
Countless blue lines rained toward us.
We couldn't keep dodging forever.
I was also worried about our stamina, and about the Demon Worshipers doing something suspicious in the distance.
We needed to turn the situation around.
I exchanged a glance with Lee Yeonhee beside me, then bent my knees.
My right hand touched the ground.
Sticky flames flowed down my hand, spread across the floor, and extended in every direction.
Crack!
Dorothy didn't miss the opening and attacked, but Arlin's defensive magic blocked it.
The barrier shattered with the sound of breaking glass.
Blocking a single attack was enough for me.
I began moving the flames that had seeped through the ground.
Rumble...
The earth shook.
At the same time, pillars of fire erupted one after another from all over, rising as if they would pierce the sky.
But that alone couldn't deal meaningful damage.
Dorothy used some mysterious method to avoid harm, and among the roughly ten Demon Worshipers, only one died from the attack.
That was fine.
I hadn't expected much from this strike in the first place.
I only wanted a small opening.
And the situation flowed exactly as I wanted.
The moment Dorothy and the Demon Worshipers focused their attention on me, Lee Yeonhee spread her wings.
She kicked off the ground and shot into the sky in an instant.
Normally, the ceiling would have blocked her.
But the pillars of fire had already punched holes all over it.
Lee Yeonhee flew through one of those holes and left the exhibition hall, ascending into the blue sky.
Her figure was wrapped in such brilliant light that I could barely see her.
The same was true for our enemies.
Dorothy swung her staff toward the sky, but not a single blue line reached Lee Yeonhee.
“...How annoying.”
They didn't just fail to hit her.
They couldn't even graze her.
The light was too intense for Dorothy to properly aim.
In the end, she gave up on Lee Yeonhee and began targeting us again.
Dorothy's attention shifted from Lee Yeonhee back to us.
That was her mistake.
Fwooom!
A massive spear of light shot down from far above, leaving a thin glowing trail behind it.
It was so bright and radiant that it looked as though someone had carved the sun itself into the shape of a spear.
Like heavenly judgment, it struck Dorothy.
Perhaps because the attack had been completely unexpected, Dorothy was pierced through without offering any meaningful resistance.
Her mouth opened soundlessly.
Then the spear exploded in a burst of light.
Dorothy's body was torn apart.
Pieces of flesh flew through the air in wide arcs like baseballs thrown with full force.
Even while watching her corpse scatter, we shifted our attention toward the Demon Worshipers.
They were holding their dark red books open and muttering something.
I didn't know whether Dorothy had actually died from that attack, but at the very least, we had gained an opening.
I immediately opened Lucy and searched for the Mystery that could have resurrected them.
There were two recently added resurrection-type Mysteries.
[Scq207, Doll That Dies in Your Place]
[Upon death, one part of the doll is consumed and you revive.
The doll has six total parts, the face, two arms, two legs, and torso.]
[Scq802, Dream Fragment of the Dreamer, Revival]
[One of the fragments of a shattered dream belonging to a certain dreamer.
It is one of the three dreams the dreamer desperately wished for, and this fragment contains the dream of revival.
When used, it revives those who have not been dead for long.]
One could only be used by a single person.
The other could revive several people.
Naturally, the second one seemed to be what had revived the Demon Worshipers.
Dream Fragment of the Dreamer.
