So What Exactly Is Going On Here?

"Eh?"

Hearing Kurumi's answer, Fiore froze for a moment. But before she could say anything else, her vision blurred, and Kurumi whisked her away from the battlefield.

"Yoshino, I'm leaving it to you!"

"Okay, Sister Kurumi!!"

Hearing that voice, Fiore was surprised to see a girl in a green coat approach from the side, adorable as a French doll. She raised her right hand, then brought it down forcefully.

"Zadkiel!"

At the girl's call, a giant rabbit emerged from the ground. Fiore then watched as the girl leaped onto the rabbit's back in a few quick bounds. She stretched out her hands and fused them with the giant rabbit's. Then the rabbit charged rapidly toward the Golem in the distance.

Biting cold turned into a beam of pure white light that erupted from the rabbit's mouth and blasted toward the Golem. Everything swallowed by that white beam turned to ice. Even the "paradise" beneath the Golem's feet suffered the same fate. The once-thriving botanical paradise was completely frozen in the blink of an eye, and the Golem's movements began to slow. Hard ice crystals rapidly appeared, spread, and expanded across its body.

Like shackles, they began to hinder its movements.

"I never expected you to possess such power."

CASTER, standing on the Golem's shoulder, was clearly somewhat surprised as well. But he soon began chanting under his breath. Magic circles formed one after another around him, and with his movements, brilliant light began appearing across the frozen Golem's body. Clearly, CASTER seemed to be activating something...

But the next moment, CASTER suddenly raised his hand. A circular defensive magic circle swiftly formed, but unfortunately, it was too late.

Whoosh!!

A black iron arrow flashed past, effortlessly piercing CASTER's unfinished defensive magic circle and plunging into his chest. CASTER lowered his