For Anemus - To the Limit

Athena's group headed towards a large clump of crystal pillars that Gion indicated and looking down on, Athena thought it resembled the Super***'s fortress of so******, where the mana was relatively calmer, but as dense as the others.

*I don't know if I can name these big guys, so I won't do it out of concern.*

Athena and her nymphs flew on Kima's back while Gion, transformed into a purple wyvern, flew beside them, and saw dozens of things that looked like an insectoid snake that emerged and submerged in the sand around the crystals.

"Gion, what are these things?" Athena asked feeling a little repulsed.

"They're desert kanias. They like crystals."

"Kanias? That didn't exist three hundred years ago."

"Of course they existed, they were in the darkest parts of Sigma, but after the sea disappeared, they adapted to the desert."

"How am I going to get to the crystal?"

"Fighting! How else did you think? Actually, this is quite a distance, let's land." Gion said and dove for the sand.

Up close, Athena could see the true size of the pillars and be speechless. The crystals that players used were just sand in comparison.

"Well, now I'm going to explain to you how you're going to do it..."

After explaining, Gion waited for Athena to walk away and created a magical barrier that would protect whoever was inside it from intruders and the heat of the sun and desert.

Athena looked at Anemus who refused to look back at her and smiled as she turned and faced the kanias.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell her anything?" Gion asked as he sat in a chair made of sand and sipped something that might or might not, be juice.

But when Anemus looked at Athena, she could no longer say anything. Athena was facing five of those nasty insectoid snakes and was coming farther away.

At first Athena thought it might be easy, but when she shielded the acid spit with her shield, the shield quickly crumbled.

"No! I like that shield!" Athena said and was soon attacked by another spit and dodged jumping on one of the kanias.

The kanias had neither scales nor skin. They had the appearance of snakes, but they also had antennae and their exterior was a cockroach-like exoskeleton, dark brown in color and smooth and slippery.

Athena stuck her sword where she thought the monster's chest was and ripped it to the ground. Not a drop of blood came out of the thing, instead it was a white goo with some green balls.

"Urgh! I didn't know inside a kania was like that. Disgusting." Gion commented and set his glass aside on the sand table. "She's actually doing well."

When Gion said this, Athena was hurled away by a surprise attack from the buried tail of one of the animals.

Athena rolled, got up and already had to dodge another jet of acid, however, she was too slow and a little splashed on her boot and then her foot.

"That must have hurt." Gion commented and fell silent when Anemus made a scary face.

"Aaaaaaah!!!! Enough of that! {Demon Storm}" Athena yelled as she pointed her sword at the area where the monsters were.

"Oh! She freaked out." Gion and Anemus said.

"What is that?" Fotia asked.

Red clouds covered the sky with black rays that hit the ground mercilessly and set even the sand ablaze.

The rain of lightning was short-lived, but when the clouds dispersed, the short time had been enough to clear the place, leaving only stinking ash and flames that were beginning to fade into place.

"She used a lot of mana. She won't make it, if she goes in there now, she's sure to die." Anemus said.

"I don't doubt it." Gion nodded nonchalantly.

"And you won't do anything?"

"Why would I?"

"Athena will die!" Anemus yelled.

"Athena is going to die?" Fotiá asked, almost crying. "Anemus, is Athena going to die?"

"N-that's not it. It's just a force of expression. She'll be fine."

"Truth?"

"Hm!" Anemus smiled hiding her concern.

Athena breathed fiercely, the use of all her mana wearing her out too quickly. She was feeling like she'd been running all day and she'd tripped, grated and started running again.

And when she thought would be quick to recover, it was actually too slow. Her Mana hadn't even started to recover when from the sand emerged what she least wanted to see at the moment.

"Aaaaah! A boss now?" Athena complained.

"Will you help now?" Anemus asked. "If not, let me out and I'll help!"

"No, it is not."

"Why?"

"I want to see how far she's willing to go for you." Gion said and smiled leaning back in his sand chair.

The kania this time was the size of four elephants huddled together and had three heads on top of long necks and arms protruding with black claws attached to a kink the others didn't have.

Acid dripped from their mouths like gooey cascades and their eyes, instead of being cockroach, were like those of snakes.

"My luck has been screwing with me lately." Athena said with a crooked smile.

The three heads shook at once, Athena was prepared for what was coming, the other kanias had the same habit before spitting acid.

When the kania spat out his acid at once, Athena was running towards him. The monster seeing this, swallowed the acid and then a toxic mist spread around.

"Will help?"

"Not yet."

Gion watched the fight with attention and anticipation, while Anemus was gnawing in grief as Athena appeared above the toxic fog, flying toward the middle head with a pained expression on her face.

Anemus smiled in relief, but soon her face turned pale.

Seeing that Athena was right in front of his eyes, the kania used his paws and in a single blow threw Athena against the pillars of mana crystals and then spat his acid towards the woman.

"NOT!!!!!" Anemus despaired and Fotiá, who was biting her own blouse unable to bear the tension, burst into tears.

"Ah~ I guess I shouldn't have waited so long." Gion said.

Anemus turned and glared at the druid and was prepared to die there as long as she ripped off an arm from Gion. But then something surprising happened when Anemus was about to cast his most powerful mage.

A sinister column of green and purple fire erupted from where Athena should have been, burning the entire monster and engulfing everything around the place where Gion had raised the barrier.

The flames passed through the yellowish transparent wall of the barrier forming demonic expressions, as if inside the flame there were several demons laughing.

Kima shrank back into place, wrapping himself around Fotiá and Anemus to protect them or because he was flushed with fear, and Gion felt shivers with every smile he saw.

"She survived..." Anemus felt relieved and smiled hopefully.

"Heh~." Gion was also impressed.

When the flames stopped, the ground around the barrier was gone, leaving only a tall, thick glass tower holding the ground under the feet of Gion, Anemus, Fotiá and Kima.

In the distance, Athena was standing within the mana waves of the mana crystals and her body emanated a pure white aura seen, and even Fotiá who couldn't see the mana, she could see it.

When Athena was hurled at the crystals, her armor began to absorb the crystals' pure mana and activated a protective bubble, defending Athena from the kania's acid attack.

Athena began to breathe and absorb all that mana, feeling her lungs and other internal organs and skin burn but not burn like fire, it was like she was being ravaged by a fever so high it was roasting her from the inside out.

At first Athena despaired, but then she remembered that she was in a fight and unraveled all that power as she absorbed more and repeated this for another ten seconds or so, until she got used to it.

When Athena went to meet the group, Gion could see that Athena's mana was the same as someone he knew a long time ago. A mana that wasn't evil or benign, it was just power.

As she approached, Athena smiled at Anemus and Fotiá and then fell like a log in the sand, unconscious.