"Your comrades have all gone up, but you stayed behind."
"Do you think you can handle me alone?"
Jelut wore a mask that hid his face, but his mocking voice was enough to imagine his expression.
Hope let out a light laugh, her fingertips twitched, "My intuition tells me it's safer to keep you here; after all, even Erusha hasn't spotted you, and a surprise attack from you would be troublesome."
Heh, clever.
Jelut's figure flickered like a phantom in the shadows, "The Moon Drop ceremony has reached its final stage; I can't let you interfere. Since you've chosen to stay... stay here forever!"
Before the words finished, Jelut's silhouette vanished, and in the next instant he appeared behind Hope's side, a cold, magical beam shooting toward the back of Hope's heart like a poisonous snake.
Not bad speed.
Hope didn't turn her head, flicked her wrist, "Wood Form: Wood Flow Wall."
A solid wooden wall sprang up instantly, easily blocking the magical beam, but the cat head atop the wall left Jelut puzzled.
If he wasn't mistaken, the carved cat head was that talking blue cat from earlier—could there be a deeper meaning?
The 'deep meaning' is that next door, Kakashi's Earth Flow Wall has a dog head; having copied the skill, Hope had nothing else to carve, so she simply put Habie's cat head on it.
Hope snapped her fingers, and the wooden wall behind erupted with dense spikes, as if to pierce Jelut all over.
At the same time, thick vines sprouted from the ground around, unexpectedly entangling Jelut's feet.
These were magical seeds Hope had scattered when she first entered the underground to prevent accidents, rapidly growing under the 'Plant' magic.
His movement was restrained, and a deadly attack loomed.
Jelut merely snorted coldly, "Child's play."
A flash of light erased the spikes, vines, even the wooden wall; only a few magical vine seeds fell at Jelut's feet, which he crushed.
"What kind of magic is that?" Hope frowned. The magic she just unleashed vanished in an instant; unknown magic is the most terrifying.
Sensing Hope's wariness, Jelut's masked face curled into a smile, "Do you think the dead deserve to know so much?"
"Hey, did you think you had me?"
"Wood Form: Gun Forest."
Hope, as if defying fate, swung her hand and a barrage of wooden spears erupted from the ground, together with wildly growing magical plants engulfing Jelut from all sides.
Yet before the opponent's bizarre magic, Hope's spells vanished again in an instant.
Only this time, a focused Hope observed clearly.
Looking at the magical plant seeds on the ground, he smiled faintly, "Your magic didn't make mine disappear; it reverted my magic to its pre-cast state."
"Is it a time-based magic? Not bad."
Seeing the greedy glint suddenly flare in Hope's eyes, like she were looking at a priceless treasure, Jelut felt an inexplicable chill and unease.
He instinctively stepped back, "We've only fought two rounds, and you already deduced my magic type. Impressive observation."
"But what's the use?"
"No matter how clever you are, you'll be dead soon."
Jelut raised his hand overhead, the instantly completed magic circle blazed, "Yesterday reborn, future light and shadow!"
The underground chamber began to quake violently; the once flat ceiling erupted with countless stalactites, breaking neatly then reforming perfectly.
The floor was covered in ice, melting rapidly into water before instantly freezing into a dense field of sharp ice spikes.
Above, a 'stone forest' rained down like a storm.
Below, ever‑shifting ice spikes could erupt at any moment.
The falling stalactites and underground ice spikes seemed animated, their attack paths becoming cunning and bizarre, striking from above, below, front and back, sealing off all of Hope's escape routes.
The trickiest part was that these terrifying spells didn't come from the present; Jelut had summoned them from the 'past' and the 'future.'
In other words, with enough mana, his attacks could loop indefinitely.
For Jelut, sustaining the past‑future magic cycle consumed only a drop of mana.
A high mana cap means he can do as he pleases.
Watching Hope struggle to weave through the dense falling rocks and ice spikes, Jelut's lingering unease finally dissipated.
After all, she's just a nameless foot soldier; why would she unsettle him?
'Mastering both the Wood Form and Plant magics and blending them flawlessly, your future will surely shine brightly.'
'But it's a pity, meddling is the very reason you deserve to die...'
Jelut hadn't finished speaking when the cornered Hope had nowhere to run; a thick, long ice spike pierced his body, and falling sharp stones shattered his arm.
A brutal execution began.
But Jelut couldn't laugh, because the 'Hope' being executed didn't shed a single drop of blood.
It turned out to be just a fabricated duplicate!
'Oho~'
'Finally catching on, huh?'
A mocking voice came from behind; Jelut's heart startled, his fingers clenched, and a burst of future-time magical energy surged backward instantly.
Amid the explosion, he heard a sound tearing through the air.
A fist magnified infinitely within his vision.
The powerful punch wind seemed to tear even the air; with such force, Jelut couldn't defend in time, so he could only take the blow squarely with his face.
Bang!
His body slammed into the stone wall; the intense dizziness prevented Jelut from maintaining his magic, and he slumped down the wall onto the ground.
'As expected, your magic can't affect a human body.'
Hope retracted her fist; before the opponent could summon past‑and‑future magic, she had already replaced herself with a wooden clone and fled at light speed using 'Divine Foot.'
Jelut felt half his face swell, glaring at Hope with fury; how could he forget she's a Fairy Tail mage, and close‑quarters combat is that guild's specialty.
What a lapse.
Although he's not adept at melee, he still had a chance to turn the tide; his magic could be cast instantly.
But in the next instant, Hope's fist precisely shattered Jelut's unfinished magic circle and seized his hand.
'Hehe, Jelut, let's have a hug!'
Hope forcibly lifted Jelut into mid‑air, and while his feet were off the ground, she slipped behind him, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist and then exerted a powerful squeeze.
Intense pain surged; Jelut felt his waist being crushed as if those massive hands would snap it.
'Ah—!'
A woman's scream echoed through the underground chamber.
Just as Hope was about to finish the classic 2D move 'Embrace the Sister Kill,' she froze, wondering where the woman's voice came from, yet her grip strength didn't waver a bit.
Hope was actually petty; the opponent's magic was clearly trying to kill him, and now he was sure to retaliate fiercely.
Suddenly, Hope felt the person in his arms begin to change: his hair lengthened, the short stature grew tall, and the cloak turned into white robes.
Most striking was the once flat chest suddenly swelling into two peaks.
What the hell, it's a woman?!
Looking at the limp, masked 'Jelut' in his arms, Hope's mind was full of question marks.
Now the 'Embrace the Sister Kill' actually grabbed a real girl, but she's a bad woman.
Seeing the bad woman faint, Hope set her down and reached to remove her mask, but the next moment the woman turned into a flash of light and abruptly vanished before him.
'Hope, I remember you.'
'The grudge of today will be repaid a hundredfold in the future!'
The bad woman's voice came from outside; she seemed to have fled far away.
Hope wore an indifferent expression; he wasn't interested in chasing her anyway, the reward was already secured, and who would get revenge next was anyone's guess.
[Ding~]
[Host has encountered extraordinary power — Lost Magic 'Arc of Time']
[Analysis complete — Estimated time to unravel 'Arc of Time' is 51 days]
Heeding the system's prompt, Hope spread his wing magic and flew up through the opening above Deliola's head.
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