The instant Roland finished speaking, he casually swept his hand forward.
-It was too late.
Although the contraction of the AT Field around Roland had allowed the planet's raging tide of elves to advance triumphantly, for some reason, this thought suddenly arose in Cairneas's mind.
This was not a conclusion his reason had reached, but more like an answer supplied by the planet's subconscious, which he still had not fully mastered.
The moment this thought arose, the omnipresent Cairneas began taking remedial action. All manner of upheavals in heaven and earth began unfolding before that seemingly insignificant figure who nevertheless left him unable to breathe.
Before Roland's hand descended, Cairneas had already placed most of his power in the path of his opponent's attack.
But neither the distortion of spacetime nor the planet's malice stopped Roland's movement. Amid the air's mournful cries, he swept his hand down, and all the chaos before him shattered with a wail, facing the oncoming rush of a movement that barely qualified as an attack.
And so-
Cairneas stared in astonishment at the abruptly collapsing tide of magic. Having become Gaia, he no longer had a physical body. Until the power of Blacksmith disappeared, he should have remained formless and intangible, living and dying with the planet.
Yet the sensation of his chest being pierced still surfaced in his mind, while his body's agonized screams rang incessantly in his ears.
But more frightening to Cairneas than this meaningless phantom pain was the change taking place in him.
Squelch...
The sound of something being pierced came from the tide of magical power composed of elves.
Then, as though some surging power were rampaging within, thick blood mixed with black fragments resembling organs spilled from that dazzling, illusory flower, leaving shocking streaks of blood upon its sacred