[Gaia Spear] and the End

Back to the boss room.

As Falan had Lanti buy him time, he stopped using quick single-shot spells.

Instead, he began using Concurrent Chanting, reciting short-range area spells.

Meanwhile, Artemis plunged deep into the monster horde.

With every sweep of her arm, a swath of Black Scorpion Monsters was annihilated.

The problem was that within this womb-like space, Black Scorpion Monsters were being born far too quickly.

Even if a large group was wiped out at once, newly born ones soon filled the gap.

This was extremely unfavorable for the invading team of twenty-two.

Especially for the Artemis Familia, who mainly relied on arrows and close combat.

Now, aside from Falan, that bug-level dark mage, they had no other large-scale firepower.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—darting between the Black Scorpion Monsters, Artemis gradually closed the distance to Antares.

Several times, her arrows dealt Antares severe wounds.

Yet she could not help frowning grimly, because Antares's regenerative ability was now far too fast.

Without using divine power, she feared she would be unable to deal any effective damage...

"Forget it. I've already used it so many times along the way..."

Along the way, due to certain factors, she had used divine power to heal Falan.

Though Artemis was normally very disciplined, her self-restraint had gradually weakened.

For example, in her current situation, she no longer cared much about the covenant established by the gods.

After all, compared with Antares, who was difficult to eliminate without divine power, and those merely verbal rules—

when weighing what mattered more, gods like Artemis had their own judgment.

In the midst of battle, faced with the scorpion tail sweeping sideways at her, Artemis fired an arrow straight through the base of Antares's tail.

With divine power imbued in it, Antares could no longer regenerate as it had before.

At the same time, the divine power brought the world's rejection, and the Black Scorpion Monsters began appearing more frequently.

But Artemis did not pay much attention to that. The Black Scorpion Monsters were already appearing at an abnormal rate.

Even if she was rejected because of it,

how much faster could the Black Scorpion Monsters possibly appear?

Besides, Artemis was also gambling. She was betting that the number of Black Scorpion Monsters within this Ancient Altar was limited.

If they could quickly clear out these reinforcements, her Familia members could come forward and support her afterward.

Drawing an arrow, firing it, drawing another, firing again—while relying on her close-combat skills to continuously evade within the Black Scorpion Monster horde.

"This is bad..." After such prolonged, intense combat, even the battle-hardened Artemis made a mistake.

And in that instant of carelessness, Antares opened its mouth to swallow her whole.

"Ten seconds... Thanks, Lanti..."

[Gaia Spear!]

With those four short words, Falan hurled the short staff in his hand toward Antares in the distance.

At the same time, he kept grumbling inwardly about that stupid goddess. They could have slowly worn down the Black Scorpion Monster fodder together,

then surrounded Antares together. But she simply did not trust adventurers like them and charged in alone.

The short staff, gleaming silver, shot rapidly toward Antares.

Although it was shaped like a short staff, it began spinning as it flew, slowly taking on the form of a spear.

This was the sole skill left behind by Gaia in this short staff: [Gaia Spear!]

Even though this Spirit Weapon had only one use remaining, it was still a supreme strike released at the cost of the Spirit Weapon, residual divine power, and the like.

The short staff shot forward, and Antares's body was pierced through by the [Gaia Spear].

Then Antares's body began to shatter. At the same time, so did the Black Scorpion Monsters in the room...

"It already self-destructed? Fine. At least... it really worked..."

Otherwise, even Artemis, a goddess, would have been swallowed by Antares. He and the Artemis Familia members would probably have died here as well, since Antares might have been able to use the abilities of those it devoured.

"It's over."

"Yeah, it's over..."

Having madly overdrawn his magic power, and with Night Mode already gone, Falan passed out.

After all, continuously maintaining Concurrent Chanting for so long while casting large numbers of wide-area spells had already been exhausting.

Not to mention that, in the end, he had forcibly used the Spirit Weapon [Gaia Spear].

"Everyone, you've worked hard. To celebrate the end of this mission, everything's on me."

"Woohoo!"

At the camp, the adventurers erupted into cheers.

Because Hermes, the senior god, had voluntarily offered to pay for the celebration.

Naturally, Falan was currently lying in a tent, since his injuries were quite severe.

It was not just magical exhaustion. By forcibly using [Gaia Spear],

Falan had noticed nothing when he threw it, but now they had discovered that the muscles throughout his entire body had been torn apart.

"I told you, Falan, you're too reckless. You knew you weren't strong enough, yet you still forced yourself to use it."

"I couldn't help it. Artemis, you were about to be swallowed..."

Falan turned his head away as he replied to Artemis.

At this moment, the original reverence between him and the goddess was gone, at least in private.

"All right... Thank you. Back then, you were just like a hero from a story."

"A hero? Even a goddess longs for heroes?"

"More or less. After all, a goddess is still a girl."

Artemis answered with a radiant smile, then used her divine power to gently heal Falan.

After all, the divine power within [Gaia Spear] had torn apart every muscle in Falan's body.

Perhaps [Gaia Spear] had won them this mission, but the damage it caused had been proportionate.

Naturally, Falan considered such losses minor.

After all, if he had not thrown that spear, everyone might well have died within the ancient ruins.

The tent gradually fell quiet. The boy lowered his head and slowly rested, while the goddess girl bent over and slowly healed him. It was like a painting, and it signified the complete end of this mission.

Because if the anomaly had not yet been resolved, they would not have had so much time to rest. Even with Falan injured, the others would have had to continue fighting.