Concurrent Chanting Unleashed, the Difficult Final Step

"Move out!" Artemis said again.

This time, she was no longer as gentle as before; there was more severity in her voice.

After all, the situation within the ancient ruins had become this urgent.

These Black Scorpion Monsters would gradually adapt and evolve through battle with adventurers.

This abnormality had only appeared recently. If they pushed in and destroyed Antares, they might still have a chance.

But if they waited until Antares became stronger, its ability to adapt and evolve would continue to grow.

Then even if they dragged every adventurer in Orario here, it would be useless.

"I said move out. You all heard me, right?!"

"Yes, Lady Artemis."

Letsha, the captain at the front, dragged herself to her feet despite her battle-weary body.

The remaining dozen or so people also picked up their weapons with effort.

"Falan, have you recovered?"

"Yeah." Falan nodded without saying much.

Artemis's words had affected him as well.

As a modern man, Falan knew he was selfish. In order to survive, he could even be somewhat unscrupulous.

That was why he had fit so well into Orario's society. But now—

Falan realized that he was not as selfish as he had imagined. There was still some hot blood in him.

Especially when he watched the Artemis Familia knowingly do what could not be done, his heart was deeply shaken.

[Dark Spirit, I am the Child of Darkness and possess the Fourfold Authority of Darkness—]

[Intersecting Space, Radiance of Destruction, Hourglass of Recovery, Recording Brush.]

[I hereby proclaim: Dark Spirit, become a sudden torrential rain, become blades of darkness. Fall! Fall!]

[-Dark Spirit, gather, gather. I am the King of Darkness; bring me victory at this moment.]

[I proclaim once more—]

[Dark Spirit, gather into clouds of arrows. Let the mad downpour scatter! Fall!]

[-Dark Spirit, I am the King of Darkness. Destroy all poisons for me!]

As they advanced into a large chamber, Falan began rapidly chanting for what he did not know was the how-many-th time.

There were simply too many Black Scorpion Monsters. If they kept relying on the Artemis Familia members to fight them in close combat—

It would be far too slow. They might even end up trapped in the mire as a party that had ventured deep into the ancient ruins.

At that moment, Falan used the technique of Concurrent Chanting to cast two large-scale spells at once.

This was the method Falan had thought of after his fighting spirit was ignited, and it was proving quite effective.

The first wave was a continuous rain of swift, sharp arrows of darkness, piercing through the shells of the Black Scorpion Monsters one after another.

It was followed by another wave of darkness arrows with a wider attack range and specially added targeted words.

Before long, the Black Scorpion Monster horde was torn apart several times by those two spells.

The Artemis Familia adventurers were no slower. Seizing the chance while the Black Scorpion Monsters had been scattered—

They prevented the creatures from gathering again and shattered them one by one through the wounds that had been torn open.

"We're going to win..." Looking at the Black Scorpion Monsters that had been wiped out, as well as the door standing directly ahead, Falan could not help saying it.

After all, this method of having magic clear the way before Artemis Familia adventurers stepped in to encircle and destroy the enemies was perhaps faster than before.

Moreover, the Black Scorpion Monsters had mainly evolved to defend against powerful attacks that could break their shells, which was why his [Dark. Blade Rain] and newly created [Dark. Arrow Cloud Downpour] could achieve such great results now.

The goddess standing beside him spoke. "No, we're still far from victory, Falan. Don't let your guard down."

"Yeah, I know..." Only then did Falan suddenly remember why he had come here in the first place.

"Right, Lady Artemis, do you know about Spirit Weapons?"

"Yes. So-called Spirit Weapons were items forged into weapons by the spirits of the native gods and by some gods who sacrificed their divine power over a thousand years ago, when we gods were still unable to enter this world, in order to destroy those monsters. Why do you ask?"

"..." Falan fell silent for a long while. So that was why Hermes had been so surprised back then. "In that case, Lady Artemis, do you know how to break their seals? If we had that Spirit Weapon, we might be safer when dealing with Antares inside."

"No." Artemis shook her head. "Did Hermes not tell you? A Spirit Weapon can only be called a Spirit Weapon if there is a spirit within it. Now that more than a thousand years have passed, the gods have entered this world one after another."

"The spirits of the native gods either became weak after sacrificing enormous amounts of power to seal monsters like Antares, or the people who worshipped them turned to serve the descended gods, causing them to gradually lose their faith. Unable to heal their wounds, they faded away."

"Do you think any god would still pay attention to the items they once invested in? Even if they did, those so-called Spirit Weapons would have long since decayed with the times, losing their original function as Spirit Weapons."

"..." So it was just a collectible. Then what about that Prompt Tone? It had once said it could break the seal, so was that...?

Perhaps not choosing to break the Spirit Weapon's seal back then had been the right decision.

After all, as Artemis had said, in this era, Spirit Weapons probably had greater collectible value.

"Lady Artemis, we've eliminated all the monsters."

"Mm." Everyone's gazes gathered on the hunting goddess.

Artemis slowly walked toward the door ahead, step by step.

This was the seal representing the western Four Elements, the one with the attribute of fire.

Whenever abnormalities emerged from World's End, the things that ran out from there would first be scorched by the energy behind this door and burned alive. But now that the seal had been broken, it was merely a door.

"Has everyone rested enough?" Artemis asked calmly. Based on the information they had, the core monster inside was Antares. The unknown was the most terrifying thing in this world.

"Lady Artemis, as the saying goes, delays breed change. We worked so hard to push our way in because we were afraid the monsters would evolve beyond our ability to handle. Rather than rest and hesitate at the door, we should hurry in and fight the monster."

Lanti's words earned nods from everyone. They had indeed advanced this far and were only one step from the finish line. If some other problem arose because they rested now, that would be terrible.

As the door was pushed open, a revolting sight came into view.

This place seemed to be inside some monster's body, filled with countless blood vessels converging together.

There was a massive black scorpion. Judging by the Black Scorpion Monsters they had encountered along the way—

It, or rather, He, was Scorpius of this world—Antares.

"Prepare for battle."

"Yeah." *21

Antares at the very back opened his eyes, and from the womb-like walls, countless Black Scorpion Monsters hatched.

Caught off guard, Falan began gulping mana recovery potions while madly chanting [Clear!]

After all, he had been able to repeatedly use Concurrent Chanting to sweep through monster hordes before because there had been a safe distance between them. Now, the moment they entered the room, they were surrounded by monsters. He had no time to worry about the efficiency of casting spells.

Because right now, aside from repelling these endlessly surging Black Scorpion Monsters, there was only one other option—behead Antares first...

"This is bad..." Falan saw that Artemis, just as he had expected, could not bear to watch them fight these Black Scorpion Monsters while injured and exhausted, and was preparing to rush forward to behead Antares herself.

"What a foolish goddess... You're exhausted too..."

"Can't be helped. Lanti, buy me five seconds."

"Alright."

[Dark Spirit, swift arrows, pierce through!]

[Dark Spirit, restraining thorns, bind them!]

For a short time, Falan continuously cast brief three-word spells, coupled with the technique of Concurrent Chanting.

Although the mana consumption was even greater than that of quick single-cast spells—

He successfully enabled the Artemis Familia to suppress the encircling Black Scorpion Monsters for a short while.

"Foolish goddess... It looks like my Spirit Weapon can really only be used as a one-time weapon..."

While concurrently casting spells to suppress the monsters, Falan endured the pain in his mind caused by mana depletion.

He forced himself to activate the development ability of Darkness. Since they were in an enclosed space, it was much easier to use than outdoors. Of course, even "easier" was not easy for Falan, as he was already on the verge of passing out from mana depletion.

"Lanti, notify your captain. Tell her to buy me ten seconds."

Grasping the short staff that was a Spirit Weapon, Falan tried to communicate with the so-called spirit.

Not long ago, after hearing that this thing had more collectible value than practical value, Falan had truly intended to treat it as a collectible.

No divine power had been infused into it. All he could gamble on now was whether the god who had created this Spirit Weapon was free to watch over it.

A scepter represented authority. Although civilizations had not been connected in their early days, the concept of a scepter was unexpectedly common. In ancient times, reproduction was the most important matter for every people, so those who held scepters were all women. This was also the beginning of female societies.

As he continuously received information about this Spirit Weapon, Falan finally understood exactly who the god behind this short staff was.

"Should I say it's no surprise this is a world centered on western mythology..."

She was a goddess from Greek mythology, second only to Chaos, the god of chaos. It was said that she had given birth to gods such as Uranus and then, with Uranus, gave birth to the Greek pantheon. And this short staff truly had only one use.

Still, one use was enough...

Because I only had one purpose: to use this short staff—

To take down the huge Black Scorpion Monster before me!