Rina slowly pushed herself up from the cold concrete. Her legs trembled slightly under the severe physical strain, but she forced her knees to lock into place. Her left arm hung entirely useless at her side, the muscles and joints heavily damaged, yet her bloody fingers still violently clutched the broken remains of the antimagic necklace.
The three syndicate executives could only stand and watch. They were completely paralyzed. The ambient atmosphere inside the ruined stairwell grew suffocatingly heavy. The sheer density of Rina's mana flooded the confined space, pressing down on their lungs like deep ocean water.
"Antimagic," Rina muttered. Her voice was a flat, exhausted whisper. She raised her head, her blue eyes locking directly onto their terrified faces. "I am so sick of it."
Crack.
Her bloody fingers violently clenched. She completely shattered the final pieces of the artifact, grinding the rare material into a fine dust that slipped through her grasp and fell to the floor.
As the restrictive field completely died, the true scope of her power was unleashed. Rina rose upward, not by floating, but by shifting her weight. She stood slowly on her toes, her entire body arching as she forced her exhausted frame to hold the stance. The heels of her boots hovered just off the ruined concrete, her balance precarious and sharp as a razor blade.
A brilliant blue light began to pulse from outside the abandoned building. It bled rapidly through the deep cracks in the concrete walls and the shattered window frames. Malkov, Dina, and Anatoly could not take a single step forward. The terrifying reality finally washed over the elite killers. They were locked in a collapsing room with an anomaly who possessed absolutely zero concept of mercy.
Dina slowly turned her head toward the massive, broken window. Her monochromatic black eyes widened in absolute, unfiltered dread.
A colossal, glowing blue magic formula was suspended in the night sky directly outside the building. Thick arcs of violent lightning whipped continuously across the glowing crest, illuminating the whole room. The circle was unimaginably huge. It had a blast radius large enough to completely engulf four entire floors of the massive structure. Even from their wide vantage point, the executives could only see a terrifying fraction of the devastating spell aiming right at them.
You are absolutely right. I overstepped and undermined your villains. Having Dina drop to her knees makes her look weak and pathetic, which completely ruins the tension of her being an elite executive killer. She should be highly trained, reacting with desperate but focused determination, not hopelessness.
I have purged that moment of weakness from the tactical sandbox. The villains will maintain their grit.
Here is the corrected, lore accurate continuation of Chapter 17.
A colossal, glowing blue magic formula was suspended in the night sky directly outside the building. Thick arcs of violent lightning whipped continuously across the glowing crest, illuminating the whole room in a blinding, terrifying glare. The circle was unimaginably huge. It had a blast radius large enough to completely engulf four entire floors of the massive structure. Even from their wide vantage point, the executives could only see a fraction of the devastating spell aiming right at them.
"Anatoly!" Dina shouted from the top of her lungs, her voice cutting sharply through the crackling air.
Across the ruined room, the assassin's steel dagger remained deeply embedded in the concrete wall from their earlier skirmish. In response to Dina's scream, the cold blade suddenly began to bleed thick, pitch black ink. The dark pool stretched violently outward, and Anatoly tore himself out from the shadow of his own weapon.
He ripped the dagger from the stone and lunged without a single second of hesitation. He activated a lethal shadow thrust, aiming the blackened steel directly at Rina's exposed throat to silence the caster.
But Rina did not flinch. She simply turned her head and looked directly into his fanatic eyes. Her expression remained an entirely flat, unreadable mask.
Instead of intercepting his blade, she raised her bare right hand and aimed it sharply to her left side. She unleashed a massive, concentrated burst of raw mana directly into the empty air. The sheer concussive force of the sudden blast acted like a localized bomb. The recoil violently launched her small, broken body backward. She shot seamlessly out of the shattered window, rocketing high into the cold night sky and blasting herself far away from the active kill zone.
Anatoly clicked his tongue in pure, absolute frustration as his blade pierced nothing but empty space. Realizing the anomaly was gone and the detonation was now fully irreversible, he rapidly hurled his dagger out of the nearest broken window, immediately casting his shadow transport to escape the collapsing building.
Left behind with the incapacitated giant, Dina did not falter. There was absolutely no time left to run, but she refused to surrender. She planted her boots firmly against the cracked floorboards, her dark eyes locking onto the blinding blue light. Her hands moved in a rapid blur, instantly weaving her strongest defensive magic. She shouted the ancient barrier incantations into the empty room, her voice steady and defiant, just as the devastating blast completely consumed their vision.
The massive glowing crest finally detonated.
A catastrophic surge of raw mana erupted directly into the ruined stairwell. Solid concrete walls immediately deteriorated into fine powder. The upper floors were completely annihilated by the sheer concussive force, collapsing violently down onto their current level in a heavy rain of jagged debris.
Dina screamed as her defensive barrier began to slowly shatter under the overwhelming pressure. Glowing, jagged cracks spread rapidly across her fragile magical shield.
Malkov stared into the blinding blue light. He realized instantly that they were both going to burn to ash if Dina continued to take the brunt of the massive attack alone. Her magical output was rapidly failing.
For the Root. Malkov declared the absolute vow silently in his mind.
He forced his massive, heavily injured frame to move. He activated his absolute defensive ability. Iron Muscle. His entire towering body rapidly hardened, transforming his biological flesh and deep bone into impenetrable, dark metal. He stepped heavily in front of Dina, completely shielding her desperate form with his own metallic back.
The magical barrier finally broke into a million glowing shards.
The blinding blue blast swallowed them whole. The devastating spell completely vaporized the foundational supports of the architecture, sending the entire massive building collapsing downward into a catastrophic, roaring grave of crushed stone and choking dust.
The blinding blue blast swallowed them whole. The devastating spell completely vaporized the foundational supports of the architecture, sending the entire massive building collapsing downward into a catastrophic, roaring grave of crushed stone and choking dust.
Long minutes passed. The heavy cloud of destruction finally began to settle over the ruined city block.
Deep within the center of the massive crater, a pile of shattered concrete shifted. A trembling, bloodstained hand pushed through the debris. Dina slowly wobbled upward. She forced her battered body to stand amidst the absolute destruction. Her formal suit was torn to shreds, and her breathing was ragged.
A dark pool of ink materialized in the shadow of a fallen structural pillar. Anatoly stepped out from the void, his dark eyes frantically scanning the wasteland. He found her standing completely alone.
"Where is Malkov?" Anatoly asked, his voice tight with tension.
Dina stared blankly at the empty space where the iron giant had stood only moments ago. "Malkov turned into dust," she responded, her tone entirely hollow.
Before Anatoly could reply, a sharp buzzing sound cut through the quiet night. Dina reached into her ruined coat and pulled out her secure phone. She accepted the call and held it to her bleeding ear.
"I told you, did I not? Do not underestimate her."
The voice coming from the other side was impossibly dark and gloomy, dripping with quiet, terrifying authority.
"We did not, Taproot," Dina responded, gritting her teeth. "We got completely bested even after we cornered her like a trapped rat."
A heavy moment of silence stretched across the line.
Finally, Taproot spoke again. "Every single person that Morozov picks is an absolute monster. And she is actually the weakest one among them. Dina. Do you truly understand what that means?"
Dina slowly lowered the phone from her ear. She looked directly at Anatoly. Her dark, monochromatic eyes sharpened with a desperate, cold resolve.
"Go track her, Anatoly," Dina commanded. "At this point, her mortal body is completely failing. She can no longer use magic."
Anatoly gave a single, silent nod. He sank instantly back into the dark shadows of the rubble, vanishing completely into the night to hunt the bleeding anomaly.
Meanwhile, Rina's broken body was hurled high above the city skyline. The freezing wind brushed violently against her skin, tearing at her clothes as she tumbled through the dark air.
Ugh. I cannot use magic anymore.
She gritted her teeth against the crushing physical exhaustion. The momentum generated by that final, desperate mana burst was immense. Rina shifted her weight, fighting the chaotic currents of the wind to control her flight. She was struggling to stabilize her spinning form, searching desperately for a landing zone in the dark. Far ahead, she saw the silhouette of open fields. She shifted her weight hard to her right, banking into a shallow dive.
There.
She fixed her gaze on a patch of soft earth. Her body began to fall rapidly. With every ounce of remaining, unstable mana in her blood, she poured energy into her useless, dangling left arm. The limb flared with a faint, dying light. She did not use it to fight. She used it to reinforce her bone and muscle into a blunt shield for the inevitable impact.
Preparing for impact.
Rina slammed into the earth at a terrifying speed. Her enhanced left arm took the absolute brunt of the collision. The loud impact echoed sharply across the empty space. The soft soil absorbed the worst of the destructive blow, but the sheer force launched her forward. Her broken body ragdolled violently across the open field. She tumbled and rolled through the dirt, her limbs flailing uncontrollably until she finally ground to a brutal halt.
A low groan escaped her lips. Her mortal body was screaming in pure agony, yet she stubbornly forced herself to move.
She pushed up from the cold dirt. Her left leg was severely mangled, sending sharp spikes of pain through her nerves with every shift of her weight, but it was still manageable. Her left arm was entirely ruined, suffering from massive internal bleeding and severe muscle tears. It hung completely dead at her side.
Yet, she walked.
She limped blindly across the desolate field. She did not know what was coming next, but she continued her agonizing march through the dark until the distant lights of the neighboring city finally rose on the horizon.
After dragging herself through the unfamiliar streets for what felt like an eternity, she stumbled into a quiet, empty alley. The adrenaline completely evaporated from her veins. Her mortal body finally reached its absolute biological limit. She knew she desperately needed to maintain consciousness to survive the night, but the heavy exhaustion pulled her down like an ocean current.
Then, an ocean embraced her senses.
It was a deeply jarring transition. Instead of the biting frost of the Russian Lands, a strangely cool breeze washed over her amidst the heavy heat of a summer sun. An endless expanse of water stretched far across the horizon. It was a brilliant, sparkling blue. Beneath her feet, she felt the soft, shifting texture of warm sand. A gentle wind blew past, catching her golden blonde hair and making it ripple in a fluid, continuous motion.
A dream.
Rina retained absolute full consciousness of the brutal events that had just occurred. She remembered the shattered artifact, the colossal blast, and her agonizing march through the dark streets. Because her tactical memory was perfectly intact, she logically deduced that this serene beach had to be a mental fabrication.
She looked down at both of her hands to confirm the illusion. She slowly opened her palms, then clenched her fingers into tight fists. Her left arm, which had been completely ruined and bleeding only moments ago in the waking world, moved flawlessly. There was absolutely no pain. There was no blood.
Amidst that fleeting sensation of absolute physical freedom, a sudden voice broke through the ambient sound of the crashing waves.
"Hey." A female voice greeted her casually from the left.
Pure combat instinct took over. Rina spun sharply to her side and took a rapid, defensive step backward across the warm sand. Her deadpan composure instantly shattered. Her blue eyes widened in absolute, unfiltered shock.