Looking Forward to Another World

Fortunately, the battle against the Autonomous Guardians progressed in an orderly fashion.

Whether it was Riezel and Lizbeth or Raven and Nibald, they continued to inflict wounds on the Autonomous Guardians, gradually tipping the scales of victory in their favor.

”Magicians! Fire all at once!”

Kaiser’s side finally made their move, as at his command, the twenty magicians among the knights of the Mavros family sprang into action, unleashing their fully channeled magic.

Evidently, these twenty magicians all seemed to have compatibility with the Transformation System, allowing them to use offensive elemental magic, so the moment Kaiser gave the order, a barrage of various elemental magic was fired.

In that instant, flames surged, high-pressure water jets shot out, lightning crackled, and razor-sharp wind blades whirled, all striking the Autonomous Guardian that Raven and Nibald were fighting.

Under such a bombardment, even with END surpassing Level 7 individuals, the Autonomous Guardian started to waver.

Naturally, this was mainly because Raven’s Rebellion and Nibald’s magic had already inflicted too many injuries on the Autonomous Guardian, plus the magicians specifically targeted the most visible injuries with their magic. Otherwise, with its high END, a bunch of Level 4 magicians wouldn’t have been able to harm it at all.

However, two unexpected events occurred at this moment.

First, Raven and Nibald took longer than expected to bring it down.

Second, the Autonomous Guardians from inside the city arrived much faster than anticipated.

*ROOOAAAAAARRR—!!!*

Suddenly, several Autonomous Guardians charged out from the city, roaring as they rushed forward and hurled massive stone spears toward the city entrance—their sheer force broke the sound barrier as they streaked toward Lizbeth, who was locked in battle with two others.

”Eh?!”

Perhaps too focused on dealing with the enemies in front of her, Lizbeth only noticed the incoming stone spears when they were already dangerously close, her eyes widening as she let out a startled cry.

”Wall of Protection From Arrows.”

At the crucial moment, Riezel made his move as he cast a magic spell that disrupted flying projectiles, altering the air currents around them. Consequently, the stone spears wobbled in the turbulence, ultimately missing Lizbeth and instead crashing into the city entrance’s walls, blasting massive holes into them.

*ROOOAAAAAARRR—!!!*

However, as if provoked by some unknown force, the Autonomous Guardians charging from the city paid no heed to anything else as they stormed forward and threw a devastating punch toward Riezel and Lizbeth, powerful enough to shatter the very ground beneath them.

”Master!”

Lizbeth instinctively called out.

”Greater Teleportation!”

Riezel teleported directly in front of Lizbeth, grabbed her by the shoulder, and cast another teleportation magic, moving her to a safer location. However, because of this, he was left alone, completely surrounded by multiple Autonomous Guardians, subjected to a barrage of punches from all directions.

Considering their immense fists and high STR, even among the top of Level 7, Riezel didn’t want to take a hit head-on, so he decided to explode—not metaphorically, but literally.

”Maximize Magic - Nuclear Blast!”

A blinding light erupted from Riezel’s body, expanding like a detonated nuclear bomb in an instant.

*BOOOOOM—!!!*

With an earth-shattering explosion, the flash swallowed everything in its wake, causing the city entrance, the walls, and the Autonomous Guardians to be blown apart, their massive bodies disintegrating within the blast.

”Another Tactical-Class Magic?!”

Feeling the tremors in the ground and air, those outside the city gate groaned in distress.

It was understandable for them to feel this way.

Nuclear Blast was, after all, a 9th-Tier Magic.

However, although it was an offensive magic, its raw power wasn’t particularly strong simply because it was a composite attribute magic—half fire attribute and half blunt attribute—making its damage relatively weak even among 9th-Tier Magic.

Regardless, this magic still had three advantages.

One, it posed an exceptionally high threat to skeletal undead since they were most vulnerable to fire attribute attacks and blunt attribute attacks.

Two, its area of effect was massive, ranking among the largest across all magic in Tier Magic. Using terms from the world of Danmachi, it would be classified as a wide-area annihilation magic.

Three, anyone caught within its range, whether enemy or ally, would suffer from multiple abnormal status effects like poison, blindness, deafness, confusion, panic, and more. On top of that, it produced a powerful knockback effect, capable of blasting even enormous, mountain-like creatures into the air.

It was exactly for this reason that Riezel used this magic—to blow away the Autonomous Guardians surrounding him.

Unfortunately, Riezel himself was also within the blast radius.

One of Nuclear Blast’s flaws was that it didn’t differentiate between friends and foes, so even its caster couldn’t avoid its effects.

However, standing at the very center of the explosion, Riezel surprisingly remained completely unscathed.

How?

It was because Riezel had resistance to fire attribute attacks and abnormal status effects.

As for blunt attribute attacks, as long as Riezel cast ’Body of Effulgent Beryl’ beforehand—a magic that nullified one instance of blunt damage—he could completely negate it. Furthermore, as long as he could nullify the blunt damage entirely, the forced knockback effect wouldn’t trigger on him.

Meanwhile, his enemies not only had to endure the full brunt of Nuclear Blast’s damage and effects, but since half of the magic was fire attribute, his skill, Pioneer of the Sun, doubled its power.

What was the result?

When the massive explosion erupted, not only were the massive bodies of the Autonomous Guardians blasted away, but even the knights outside the city mistook it for Tactical-Class Magic. Even the city entrance, along with the surrounding walls, was blown apart, leaving behind a scene of utter destruction.

As for Riezel, he stood at the center of the explosion, completely unharmed and unfazed.

”Triplet Maximize Magic - Vermilion Nova!”

”Triplet Maximize Magic - Reality Slash!”

Not stopping with Nuclear Blast, Riezel, showing no mercy, immediately unleashed two magic spells at once, causing three half-destroyed Autonomous Guardians to be engulfed in crimson hellfire, while three others, struggling to rise, were sliced in half by three-dimensional slashes tearing through the air.

In that instant, the crimson flames melted the three half-destroyed Autonomous Guardians, while the other three, who had barely managed to stand, were split cleanly from head to toe—their massive bodies collapsed to the ground, splitting apart in opposite directions.

*Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!*

*Whoosh!* *Whoosh!* *Whoosh!*

At that very moment, whether it was the three Autonomous Guardians that had been burned to ashes or the three that had been sliced in half, a glowing crystal shot out from each of their bodies.

As soon as the crystals appeared, they immediately flew toward the center of the city, as if they were desperately trying to escape.

”Don’t even think about running!”

Riezel instantly cast teleportation magic, appearing in front of each crystal one by one, and with a swift grab or firm grip, he caught them all.

*Buzz!*

*Buzz!*

Letting out a series of humming noises, the crystals struggled, but the moment a crimson wave surged from Riezel’s palm as he held them, they suddenly quieted down as if surrendering.

’Not bad for something autonomous...’ Riezel thought calmly, no longer as surprised as he had been before. ’They may not have much intelligence, but at least their survival instincts are decent.’

Unlike before, he had no intention of letting these Autonomous Guardian Cores escape this time, so he tossed them straight into the storage space of the Dimensional Magic Cube.

After thinking for a moment, Riezel immediately used ’Silent Magic - Time Stop’.

”———”

Time across the entire world froze in an instant, plunging everything into silence.

Riezel moved through the frozen world, stepping past the half-destroyed city entrance before seeing Raven and Nibald still locked in battle with the Autonomous Guardian guarding the city entrance, while above their heads, a barrage of magic fired by the Mavros family’s magicians filled the sky.

Riezel briefly glanced in their direction before shifting his focus back to the Autonomous Guardian that he had frozen into an ice mountain.

”Delay Magic - Reality Slash.”

Riezel timed the activation of Delay Magic before his figure flickered and reappeared above the Autonomous Guardian’s head.

Before long, the time magic wore off, and the world sprang back to life.

*Swish!*

At that exact moment, a space-cutting slash shot forward, slicing through the ice mountain and the frozen Autonomous Guardian within, cleaving it cleanly in half.

*Whoosh!*

Like the others, a crystal instantly shot out from the Autonomous Guardian’s chest, but it was not only larger than any crystal Riezel had encountered so far, but it also moved at an astonishing speed, quickly soaring high above the city in an attempt to escape.

”Time Stop!”

Riezel activated time magic again without hesitation, freezing the world once more before flying to the crystal, reaching out his hand and firmly grasping it in his palm.

A moment later, the time magic lifted.

*Buzzz!*

As soon as time resumed, the large crystal in Riezel’s hand suddenly struggled with surprising force.

”Stay still!”

As usual, Riezel used Decomposition Magic to intimidate it, and once the large crystal was scared into submission, he stored it in the storage space of the Dimensional Magic Cube.

Of course, all of this happened without anyone noticing.

”Master!”

Lizbeth, who had been teleported away, flew back using the flight magic Riezel had cast on her.

”Sir Raven!”

Nibald, unaware of anything unusual, called out to Raven as he restrained the Autonomous Guardian he and Raven were fighting with his magic.

”Got it!”

Raven raised Rebellion, unleashing the Dark Abyss Sword Style before a fusion of dark light and a mysterious aura surged, empowering the greatsword in his hands as he slashed toward the Autonomous Guardian’s head.

*Pu-chi!*

In that instant, the Autonomous Guardian’s head was sliced off, soaring into the air before crashing to the ground, motionless.

*Whoosh!*

From the severed neck of the Autonomous Guardian, a large crystal appeared once again, shooting toward the city at high speed.

Little did it know, Riezel was already waiting.

”Greater Teleportation!”

Riezel used teleportation magic this time, instantly moving in front of the large crystal and grabbing it.

Now that both Autonomous Guardians guarding the city entrance, along with several ordinary Autonomous Guardians from inside the city, were taken care of, their cores all fell into Riezel’s hands, becoming his spoils of war.