"Vwoooooooo!"
The Ghoul let out a thunderous roar.
It seemed to be enraged that its nest had been disturbed. Although the creature clearly loathed the brilliance of "Sunshine," the light didn't appear to be doing significant damage; its fury far outweighed any pain it felt.
As the creature stomped toward us, Ren of the Poison Moth and Sylpha stepped forward to block its path.
"Stay back, Lloyd!"
"Please, leave this to us."
Well, I suppose I should let those two handle the fighting for now. There were a few things I wanted to test, anyway.
"In that case, you two should use these."
I handed them weapons I had forged with Radiant Armament—swords made of pure light. I gave Sylpha a pair of long swords and Ren a pair of daggers, both of them dual-wielding.
"This is... a magical blade? I had no idea such a thing was possible."
"Whoa, it’s so light! And it feels incredibly solid, too."
"It’s an application of Holy Magic. I want to see how well they hold up in a real fight."
"Understood. Let’s go, Ren!"
"Right!"
Taking their stances, Sylpha and Ren charged at the Ghoul.
"Shaaaaaa!"
"Whoops!"
The Ghoul swung its razor-sharp claws downward, but Ren avoided the strike with ease.
"You mustn't dodge, Ren."
"Huh!?"
Ren blinked in surprise at the sudden correction.
"If you simply evade, we cannot experiment with the sword’s capabilities. You must receive the blow to verify its durability. ...Like this."
As if giving a demonstration, Sylpha parried the Ghoul's next attack with her sword of light. With a clean slice, the claws were severed the moment they made contact with the blade.
"Vwoooaaaah!?"
"The sharpness is superb, and the strength is more than sufficient. This is a magnificent weapon, Master Lloyd."
"I’m glad to hear that."
If Sylpha gave it her seal of approval, then it was safe to say there were no issues with its utility. I picked up one of the severed claws to examine the cross-section. It bore faint char marks. Since the light had burned the slimes earlier, it seemed that Holy Magic generated intense heat.
"I see. So you want to know exactly what those swords of light can do."
Watching Sylpha’s fighting style, Ren nodded to herself.
"I've got it! Then you probably want to see what happens when I coat the blade in my poison, right?"
"Can you do that?"
"Probably. I’ll give it a shot!"
Ren focused her energy, and a black mist began to swirl in her palm. It was absorbed into the sword of light, staining the blade a deep, vibrant blue.
"Oh, impressive, Ren. You’ve learned to control your abilities that well?"
"Ehehe! It's all thanks to what you taught me, Lloyd!"
Ren puffed out her chest with pride. A sword of light was essentially a mass of mana created by Radiant Armament. Therefore, mixing in mana from a different system would naturally cause it to take on a new form. I suppose you could call this a type of Synthesis Magic.
It made sense that a similar phenomenon would occur by directly blending different types of mana, even without relying on rigid spell formulas or incantations. It was a flexible approach that only someone who wasn't a traditional mage could come up with.
Still, it couldn't be as easy as she made it look. One would need an incredibly deep understanding of their own power to weave it into mana that had already been manifested into a physical object. It seemed the daily lessons I’d been giving her on spell formulas and mana control were finally paying off. I was genuinely impressed.
"Okay, here I go... Teiyah!"
Ren’s slash landed squarely on the Ghoul. It sent the creature flying, but it didn't seem to have much effect.
"Wh-What? But it cut through just fine a moment ago...?"
"It’s likely because your poison mixed with the Holy Magic and muddied it."
Unlike most other forms of magic, Holy Magic was subject to very strict constraints. It was an extremely delicate system; simply tampering with the spell formula or adding foreign elements could cause its potency to plummet. By mixing in her poison, Ren had inadvertently stifled the purification effect of the Holy Magic, preventing it from dealing any real damage to the undead creature.
"Muu... it didn't work..."
"On the contrary, that gave me a very interesting idea."
I manifested my own sword of light using Radiant Armament. As I channeled my mana into the blade, it began to turn a dark shade of purple.
"The same as before...? But Master Lloyd, won't that just be a repeat of what Ren did...?"
"Just watch and learn."
I thrust the purple-stained sword of light into the Ghoul. Immediately, dark cracks began to spiderweb outward from the wound.
"Ga... ah...!?"
The Ghoul let out a strangled cry of agony. Before our eyes, its body began to crumble away like parched earth.
"Wait, why...?"
"I synthesized it... but I only used the specific property of Poison System Magic."
Every type of magic has unique characteristics. Fire spreads, ice chills and solidifies, and wind covers vast areas at high speed. Poison has the specific property of spreading gradually from the point of contact until it consumes the whole. I had isolated that single property and applied it to the sword of light.
Used this way, it didn't negate the essence of the Holy Magic.
"I see... I suppose you could call it 'Holy Poison.' To think Holy Magic could be utilized in such a fashion... I must admit, human magical intuition is remarkably advanced. Or perhaps it is only Master Lloyd who is this extraordinary..."
"Holy Magic was originally cooked up by the gods to give 'em a leg up against the Demon World. It's plenty strong against us, but because of that, nobody ever bothered to get creative with it. It just stalled out. But if you let Lloyd run wild like this, we're lookin' at some scary-fast progress... If info on this evolved Holy Magic ever makes it back to the Celestial Realm, the guys in the Demon World are gonna be foamin' at the mouth. Well, not that it matters to me—I'm the one who's eventually gonna hijack this body, after all-ssu."
Jiriel and Grimo were muttering to each other about something. Regardless, it was clear that Holy Magic had potential applications quite different from standard magic.
"On! On!"
I heard Shiro barking in the distance. It looked like it had finished herding more monsters toward us.
"Hmm? That's strange..."
I felt a slight sense of unease as I waited for whatever was coming down the tunnel. However, the one who came racing out wasn't a rat—it was Shiro.
I wondered what had happened, but my question was answered a second later.
"Vwoooaaaah!"
A massive horde of Ghouls came bursting out after it.
"Reports of Ghoul sightings have been coming in from all over the city. It stands to reason that there would be a significant number of them down here in the sewers."
"Y-You mean there are even more of them!?"
Surrounded by the sea of Ghouls, the two girls began to back away slowly.
Personally, I was delighted to have so many new test subjects, but this was getting a bit risky. With Sylpha right here, I couldn't use any large-scale attack magic, and if we fought them normally, my Breeze Barrier might fail.
If that happened, my clothes would get dirty. And that was something I wanted to avoid at all costs. I needed to rethink my strategy.
"Oh? What are Lloyd and the others doing here-aru?"
As I was considering my options, a voice called out from one of the tunnels. Peering out from the darkness was Tao.