Chương 214

The screeching echoed from the crevices, the ceiling, and the faults in the cavern walls, surrounding them with a cacophony of sounds that left no doubt about how deep the trouble they were in truly went. Technically, they had accomplished what they set out to do. The canister was confirmed destroyed, and although the Matriarch had become corrupted, she would eventually be able to overcome it without another source of Silence, such was the power of a tier three monster.

However, it didn't seem like their hosts would give them any chance to retreat, and Orion disliked their chances of outrunning the spiders in their own habitat. The geode chamber was teeming with them, so many that the walls seemed to bleed crystal spiders, as hundreds spilled out of the darkness, clattering against the stone like a fierce rain of broken glass.

"Get closer!" Orion shouted, enhancing his voice to cut through the noise. With the dampening field weakened due to damage to Matriarch's web, the ambient mana had rushed back in, allowing for such luxuries. Dorian didn't hesitate to take the lead, slamming his tower shield into the ground and roaring as he drew deeply from the restored Field. His [Hard Light Barrier] erupted into a blazing wall of golden hexagons that stretched across the width of the tunnel entrance they were backing into.

The first wave of the swarm hit the barrier like a tidal wave. The impact was strong enough to buckle it, but the Hard Light held, causing the leading spiders to be crushed by their own kind into shards of clear quartz and purple ichor.

"Give us a few seconds!" Orion ordered, stepping back as Luna and Selene took their positions behind Dorian's shoulders.

"I've got it!" the boy grunted, carving trenches into the stone with his boots as the sheer weight of the swarm pressed against the shield.

"Now! Light them up!" A sweeping beam shot from Luna's wand, slicing through the front line of the swarm. Selene, meanwhile, dropped precise [Silver Bursts] on clusters of spiders just before they could gather too closely and risk breaking through Dorian's barrier. Unfortunately, there were simply too many for them to kill like this. And even worse, the Matriarch had recovered. The beast shook off the disorientation from her destroyed web and hissed, clicking her mandibles furiously.

Orion nearly expected her to charge straight through her brood to break the shield—and she would do just that, given the vast power difference between her and Dorian. Instead, she reared back, and the only sign of her plan was her swollen abdomen pulsing with grey light.

It didn't seem like it would be a quick affair, since the spider had only just moved into tier three, but given how much power she was channeling into the spell, Orion knew that if they were hit with it, even Pauline's shadows might not be able to save them.

"She's producing more venom," Selene warned him, even as her light magic punched through another cluster. With his mind racing, Orion looked around the cave, and then an idea came to him, something that could help change the balance. The Silence was in the web, he determined, his mind shifting into a state of icy clarity. That means that the natural quartz of this geode must be a good conductor. With the web gone, the crystals are inert, and they seem to be of pristine quality. Essentially, perfect optical prisms.

Space warped around his hand as a [Gravity Cannon] formed, but instead of targeting the swarm of smaller spiders, he aimed at a cluster of shattered stalactites on the ground. A pulse of concentrated gravity slammed into the debris, launching three massive quartz shards high into the air. With a flick of his wrist and a tiny pulse of [-g], he embedded the shards deep into the ceiling at precise angles.

"What are you doing?!" Luna shouted over the chaos of battle, her beam faltering as she began running low on mana.

"Focus on the big one before it completes its spell!"

"Trust me!" Orion yelled back. He needed more nodes for what he had in mind, and he had little time, given the brightening light in the Matriarch's abdomen, but he believed he could do it. As if to mock him, the giant spider suddenly changed tracks, summoning a small amount of the light it had gathered to unleash a highly pressurized beam of her venom. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

It struck Dorian's [Hard Light Barrier] a moment later, effortlessly carving through the swarming spiders. The sheer kinetic impact alone was enough to crack the shield and push Dorian back, but it was the alchemical anti-magic that immediately started to eat away at the spell's matrix that became too much. Dorian screamed and dropped to one knee as the golden hexagons flickered, turned grey, and withered away.

They were saved from destruction only because several spiders fell in their path and took the venom in their stead.

"Damn you!" Luna yelled, sending her beam to hit the Matriarch's face, but the Tier three crystal carapace simply refracted the light, scattering it harmlessly against the walls. Selene thankfully had the presence of mind to cast her own shield to stop the spiders from swarming them, but it was clear they couldn't hold out much longer like this.

"Keep her busy!" Orion commanded as he manipulated the gravitational field around the cavern. He shattered another stalagmite, embedding four more quartz shards into the surrounding walls. The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. The refractive index of pure mana-quartz is approximately 1. 54, so if I loop the light through, the amplitude will build with each reflection.

It was a principle he'd studied thoroughly when developing his [Slow]-ed crystals, and considering the gap in expertise between him and the Matriarch, he needed all the help he could get. The swarm was already crawling over Selene's silver barrier, despite Dorian's attempts to push them back with his shield and Luna's repeated purges.

"Orion!" Dorian grunted, baring his teeth in a rictus of strain.

"She's gathering power again! The barrier's not going to last!" The Matriarch shrieked in triumph, as if she understood the desperation in his voice, if not his words. Her mandibles parted as the grey light pulsed in her throat for a second, killing blow. Orion knew this one would unleash all her gathered power, and even his own defensive magics wouldn't matter much before its sheer destructive force. But his preparations were done. Seven nodes, accurately aligned, cleared the way for the counterattack.

"Luna! Selene!" he roared, leaving no room for debate.

"Stop firing at the swarm! Luna, hit the crystal shard embedded at your two o'clock! Selene, the one on the ceiling above it! Max output, keep it up as long as possible! Do it now!" Neither of them hesitated. They trusted him completely by now and knew he must have had a plan behind his strange behavior. Collaborative magic is one of the most powerful disciplines in the Sanctum. I am nowhere close to the level needed to wield power like Mom and Candra against Behenien, but I believe I can manage this much.

Luna pivoted, aiming her wand at the piece of quartz Orion had embedded in the right wall, and poured the last of her energy into a blinding orange beam. Selene mirrored her, sending a stream of silver energy into the ceiling node. It was the moment of truth, and Orion could only hope his initial assessment of the local quartz's quality was correct because, if it wasn't, he'd actually have to bring the ceiling down and hope Pauline could hide in her shadows.

The orange and silver beams hit the first crystals, splitting into three separate beams each, which ricocheted instantly to the other nodes Orion had embedded across the cavern. Those beams hit the next prisms, refracting again, bouncing back and forth in a flash. That was when Orion pulled everything he'd stored in the CC out, bringing his index fingers and thumbs together to form a diamond.

"[Infinite Laser: Prismatic Override]." A beam of violet light shot from his hands, hitting the central node he had placed directly behind the Matriarch, and the cavern burst into a blinding cage of solid light. Dozens of blazing lasers in multiple colors crisscrossed the geode chamber, forming an inescapable grid. Because the beams were trapped in a perfect refractive loop, they fed off each other, increasing their thermal and kinetic output with every bounce.

What started as Tier 1 and Tier 2 spells quickly intensified, the energy multiplying within the closed circuit until the air began to screech, ionizing into plasma. The swarm of crystal spiders didn't even have time to react. The laser grid swept through the cavern, turning hundreds of heavily armored arachnids into smoking cubes of ash and molten glass in a single flash. The Matriarch, caught in the center of the field, tried her best to escape by unleashing her own spell at the cage.

Pressurized venom swept through the cave, hitting as many crystals as possible and melting many into slag despite their inert nature, but by then, the entire geode was reflecting the lasers. Her Tier three carapace, which had effortlessly deflected Luna's direct attacks, was suddenly hit by intersecting beams of amplified, highly focused plasma coming from hundreds, if not thousands, of different angles at once.

Her screech of anger and pain was cut off as her massive body fell apart in perfectly cauterized segments. By then, the only one still able to supply power to the superstructure was Orion, who cut off the mana feed with a grunt of effort. It took several seconds for the trapped lasers to finally extinguish themselves, after which the cavern was plunged back into darkness, lit only by the glowing lines carved deep into the stone walls and the burning remains of the swarm.

Orion let out a long, shuddering breath, feeling his hands shake as the adrenaline crash hit him. His body ached with a deep burn, but for once, he didn't feel out of it as he usually would after unleashing such a spell. System Notification +2 Attunement +3, 200 Exp +5, 504 Exp …... +198, 200 Exp Level up! Level up! Luna slumped against the cavern wall, sliding down until she hit the floor.

"I have exactly zero energy left. If a stiff breeze hits me, I'm going to pass out."

"You did perfectly well, take a moment to rest," Orion assured her, walking over to the smoking remains of the Matriarch. Honestly, I don't think this could have gone better. Obviously, our victory here was only so one-sided because of the specific environment we're in, but I doubt any other team without a Magistra could have done better, and even then, I have my doubts. He needed to be cautious.

The creature was dead, but the concentrated Silence venom inside its core remained a significant danger, so he retrieved the alchemical containment bag his mother had given him from his coat. Using a localized gravity field to avoid contact with the boiling ichor, he carefully removed the intact venom sac and the strange growth he had come to expect. He sealed the bag tightly, tying the drawstrings, and thanked his lucky stars that he didn't have to carve through the incredibly tough carapace himself.

"That's two," Orion announced, turning back to his squad.

"And considering how tired we all are, I think that's enough for today. We need to report back to the Observatory and hand this over to Mom anyway. They need to update this peak to a higher rank."

"Ah, before that, there is something else we need to take care of," Selene stopped him, and he had to blink, tilting his head.

"What is it?" He asked, genuinely baffled. She smiled and tilted her head toward their two friends, who looked like children being handed a new toy despite their obvious exhaustion.

"They just hit the level cap," she explained, and Orion's mouth dropped open.