Supreme Monarch

—Back at the Darkin Mountain Range.

As the sky that had swelled up like some sort of gigantic balloon that had been filled to the utmost with water gave way. A sudden and heavy downpour came upon the mountain range and unlike a natural downpour of rain that would be occasionally accompanied by hail and thunder, this had decided to swap out the water for spiked hail completely as the rain had been frozen in the sky and they fell in an area that expanded more than 3,000 meters of their current location.

Everything happened in an instant. Without any time to react, Izabel watched the sky fall in a sudden wave of hail and lightning. The massive range of more than 3,000 meters meant there was no escape as she just stood there hoping to defend herself from this. 

Lightning descended on the mountain range in a devastating storm that almost destroyed several mountains and hills. However, some of those mountains were not actually ordinary mountains and Izabel could almost sense the approaching danger. While her instinct told her to flee, she did not have the time to worry about that right now as the magic barrier was her priority if she wanted any chance of accomplishing her goals.

However, while Izabel could easily resist the hail and lightning without issues, the ones that maintained the barrier were not so skilled. This was a large area Spatial suppression barrier that required more than ten mages to cast and the maintenance cost a massive amount of energy that the mages couldn't supply on their own so several devices powered by magic crystals were set up around the barrier and mini barriers were erected there.

However, the continual barrage of hail and lightning did not give Izabel any hope that the mini barriers could withstand the attack even though they were meant to defeat the magic device. Without hesitation, the chaos aura around Izabel intensified as she dashed towards one of the exits of the barrier.

Seeing her opponent retreating, Rain did not bother chasing after her as she could barely stand so she ran back towards Liz with the last of her strength. While Liz tried to restrict the amount of hail and Lightning that came at her, there was really no way to stop a friendly fire and thus she had to defend herself from the rapid storm which was also tasking for her.

There were four locations that housed a device that powered the suppression barrier in each cardinal location and three of Izabel's men were tasked with maintaining and it within the safety of the mini barrier. However, within the span of three seconds, two of them had been desolated by a barrage of lightning making the main barrier unstable.

Izabel was able to save one of the devices but before she could move to save the last, Kazko who was lurking at the edge of the barrier all this time managed to escape after a section of the barrier collapsed for a moment and he immediately destroyed the last device with his skill, •Lacerating Slash•

While the mages that maintained the barriers were pretty strong, they were currently too distracted by the sudden storm and thus had failed to stop him. 

With only one device left, the barrier could not maintain its balance and thus collapse. The moment that happened. The storm that came suddenly, disappeared just as fast as it appeared. Everything had only lasted for a little over ten seconds and with the suppression effects of the barrier gone, Liz could move more freely now.

"We need to leave!"

Rain yelled as she reached Liz who wholeheartedly agreed. She was sweating profusely even though it was currently winter and the temperature outside was in the negatives. Most of her wounds were already healed but it didn't seem like she was completely okay and that was not just because of a low stamina state from the overuse of secret techniques.

Before Liz could look further into this, her skill ended and the moment the storm stopped, the entire mountain range, or at least as far as they could see, trembled.

"Damn it."

Izabel cursed as she sensed them move. It didn't seem like they had enough time to capture their target— who was currently distracted— before they came but Izabel didn't think it would be wise to let them leave here alive.

*Rumble *Rumble *Rumble 

As she contemplated her next move, the rumbling of the ground intensified and soon.

*Goudou. Goudou!

They moved.

Several mountains or maybe it would be more accurate to call them hills located some distance from them had rolled around and stood up, shaking off the rocks, dirt, snow, and vegetation that had covered them in their resting state over the years. 

They were all at least 500 feet tall and while not necessarily taller or as tall as actual mountains, their size and presence were still very imposing. 

Their bodies were made of rocks and dirt although some of them were still covered in snow. The lump of rock on the top of their bodies severed as their heads as it had two sockets that had glowing white orbs in them and severed as their eyes.

Their eyes moved around and looked at them as they had sensed the source of their disturbances and they all moved towards them with Clear malice.

*Goudou. Goudou...

Every one of their steps caused tremors to occur in the vicinity and since they were more than five of them, their foot stops stacked and each one caused a mini earthquake as it severed to awaken even more of them.

They were slow but their feet were long and they covered m a considerable distance in one step so they would arrive before them in less than a minute.

Izabel frown as she thought of what to do. This might've been part of the blonde demoness plan when she used such a massive range skill and although it was very risky, she had to admit she would've done the same if she had been in her shoes.

It wasn't impossible for her to kill a mountain golem but by the time she killed one another would take its place and soon the silver wyverns would join the fray making that a miserable experience for her.

"Fuck. Plan B then."

Not caring anymore about the other devices and her other men, the chaos energy that surrounded her disappeared and the amulet glowed as a large magic circle appeared under her and the two mages in light armor that stood behind her as they all immediately teleported from the mountain range, device and all.

Kazko on the other hand was preparing to face the two magic users dressed strangely in black leather armor with very few braces as they pointed their weapons at him.

However, everything changed at the arrival of the mountain golems as the two mages panicked and ran away, leaving behind their damaged device. That was indeed the wrong decision as Kazko did not miss his opportunity.

•Lacerating Slash•

He dashed forward and swung his blade. A red streak of sword aura slashed through both mages as they were split in half and died instantly. Kazko then had to figure out a way to evade the mountain golems but first, he should return back to the girls to see if they were fine.

Liz on the other hand had just used a spell to create an ice board that she then cast the spell, "Gravity walk" on as she placed Rain on it. After an inspection, it would seem the Disintegration aura had only been pushback by her healing skill but her lack of any resistance after using up her stamina and pushing herself too far had caused it to continue destroying her from within.

Even with the healing scrolls she had, she had only succeeded in delaying the inevitable and thus she needed to take her back to the castle for Erin to purify her as that was her only hope.

Placing Rain on the ice board, Liz used the spell "Fight" and hurriedly flew out of the mountain range without holding back. As the spell Gravity walk was a transport spell, anything it was used on would automatically trail behind the spell caster by a few feet. (Something Tyler had been unaware of when he had first used the spell.)

She soon met up with Kazko on the way and although she was tempted to not stop for him as she was in haste, she still took the time to pick him up on the board as well as they flew towards the exit of the mountain range.

However, if one could so easily escape the gaze of mountain golems, they would not be such a fearsome creature even with their complicated magic resistance and high physical Attack resistance.

|Magnetic Pull.| 

As though the force of gravity had changed, an invisible force suddenly began to pull Liz and her Ice board back towards the horde of mountain golems. At first, the force was not that strong as she could still resist it and fly away even though her flight speed had been somewhat reduced.

However, as more and more of the mountain golems used that same skill on them, her flight speed had reduced to that of a crawl. 

"Not now."

Liz said angrily as she tried to force her way out of the skill's range but before she could even do anything else. One of the mountain golems picked up a rock that was at least the size of a small house and hurled it at them with immense strength and speed.

Its aim was true as the rock flew at them with great precision as though guided by a laser. Liz frowned as she quickly cast the spell wall of ice but judged it would be insufficient and double cast it once more. Creating three large and sturdy walls of ice in the sky. 

Just as she had thought, the massive boulder had completely destroyed two of the ice walls and only barely stopped at the third. Kazko who had wanted to stop the boulder with his skill was suddenly relieved he hadn't tried as he had greatly underestimated the strength of a single mountain golem.

"Annoying."

Liz grew anxious and impatient with each passing moment as she saw another mountain golem pick up another boulder and hurl it at them. Several more mountain golems also did the same and more than five boulders flew rapidly towards them.

"Ice fortress."

No longer holding back herself, Liz cast one of the highest defensive magic she could as sheets of pure crystal clear ice lined up in the air and rapidly formed a massive fortress of ice around them. The sturdy ice fortress was able to withstand the power behind the five boulders that slammed into it, the fortress disappeared almost as fast as it came when its work was done.

Still floating in the air like a goddess of sorts, Liz touched the artifact iris tear once more and the temperature in the mountains immediately cooled down to near absolute zero which in turn, slowed down the movements of the mountain golems. Even Kazko was shivering at this point.

Not stopping there and not wanting to give the golems any chance to retaliate, she immediately cast a spell to top off her grand icy performance.

"Max Overtier Magic - Blistering Glacier."

It hadn't been snowing up to this point but the moment she cast her spell, it did, and like a mountain glacier, an extended mass of ice formed from the snow falling and combined with the ones that had already accumulated on the mountains and moved.

Unlike an actual mountain glacier though, it moved with a speed that made it look like an avalanche on crack, most of which were descending from the high mountains.

The mass of ice soon slammed into the horde of mountain golems that were already close to them at this point and although they were practically immune to Magic attacks, there was still nothing they could do about the accompanying effects of such elemental magic attacks as most of the trip and were swallowed up by the glacier while the others were restricted in place and thus could not move further.

After exhausting almost all her mana, Liz wiped the sweat off her face and immediately flew away with the ice board floating behind her.

However—

Their numbers and resistances were not the only reason why the Darkin mountain range was such a dangerous place. Another reason was also that mountain golems were one of the most persistent monsters in the world and once they were disturbed, they would stop at nothing to kill their opponents.

The moment Liz turned around to leave, all three mountain golems that were still above the ice turned their heads to face her.

Their eyes glowed brighter and a purplish-white beam of energy shot out from the eyes of the golems at her.

•Paralysis Beam•