Arpious of the Planes

"Okay, I think I know the strategy to get out of this predicament,"

And that was to continuously use [Apocolyptic Weapon Swing] and [Forbidden Magic: Hermes] over and over again.

…

"HUFF HUFF HUFF… These things won't let up," I mutter to myself before checking my status once again.

[HP: 691/700  MP: 71/500  SP: 42/500]

Judging from how long I've run, I'm almost back to the room, but the space between us is getting tighter even with this new strategy… seriously, phasing through walls… that's some bullshit…

My new strategy worked for a while until I looked back after a few minutes and saw that the wave of gargoyles was basically right in my face once again.

I continued to do the same strategy repeatedly, and then when I looked back, they were even closer than before, shocking me and slightly inducing panic.

Anna kept begging for me to let her go, so I didn't have any dead weight, but in reality, Anna was so light that I forgot she was there most of the time.

After a few more minutes of confusion, I finally found out how they were closing the gap quickly. And they might've even been doing it since the beginning… they were swimming through the walls.

Using my senses, I noticed that some gargoyles near the bottom of the horde were diving into the patterned stone walls. And then they would be out of my sensing range, which caused a lot of confusion to set in.

But as soon as they came out of the wall right next to me and some even partially swimming in the stone, my confusion was lifted.

"What a cheat," I mutter.

Suddenly, I felt Annas grip on my shoulders loosen, making me jolt my head back.

What I saw made me seethe in anger but also start to cause immense worry to sink in… Anna had fallen from my back, but it was a conscious decision as she warmly smiled before getting knocked unconscious due to hitting the hard stone floor.

I was currently flying in the air pretty high, so the drop looked life-threatening.

tsk

This time I made no conscious decision as my body reacted on its own.

Stopping in my tracks while still in the air, I immediately use [Forbidden Magic: Hermes], which put an even greater strain on my muscles.

I could almost feel my body creaking like a machine that hadn't been oiled in centuries. I didn't feel any pain, but I could definitely feel an overwhelming tension that started to develop in my muscles, making it hard to move and even breathe.

As soon as the slowed time disappeared, I reappeared next to Anna's unconscious body.

The gargoyles instantly reacted to my panic and smiled widely before lunging at Annas body, knowing she was my weakness as of now.

I gritted my teeth to try and suppress the tension that jolted through my muscles before picking up Anna and running in the opposite direction.

I tried to use Hermes again, but just like a machine with no oil, my body locked up, causing me to fall to the ground.

My only body parts slightly responding were my arms and hands, who still tightly gripped onto my weapons, so I swung my weapons towards the savagely running gargoyles.

Kekekekeke

Their laugh made a vein bulge on the side of my head, causing my swings to become even more powerful, wiping out a massive wave of winged stone goblins.

SHING SHING SHING

As I held Anna closely towards my body, I swung wildly at the gargoyles who surrounded me from all sides.

[Apocolyptic Weapon Swing]

I used one more skill-enhanced weapon swing to conserve some stamina so I could actually move a bit more, but in the end, the weapon swing only gave me a split-second breather that didn't help in the slightest.

After only 30 seconds of struggling for my life, I lost all feeling in my arms, so with the last of my mana, I activated [Divinity Domain (.05/100)] and [Forbidden Magic: Medusa].

I tried to stop myself from doing this multiple times before just so Anna wouldn't die from the after-effects of my uncontrollable skill, but it seems I have no choice… It sounds cringy as fuck like I'm about to enter my final form…

As I slightly cringed from my words despite my desperate situation, a gray mist exploded from my body, causing all the gargoyles around me to petrify into one massive dome-like shield.

But the shield didn't last for long as it slowly started to crumble into tiny pieces of rock.

My black hair turned gray, my nails turned gray, and my eyes turned gray. I felt like the embodiment of petrification once again.

My massive dragon wings, which I was using to shield myself from some attacks, had been shredded to pieces, but the remaining parts still turned gray.

And finally, parts of my skin were petrified and seemed like they could cave in at any moment in time.

Kekekekeke

Even though one-eighth of the entire group of gargoyles was wiped out, they still laughed their ass off at my pitiful state.

And even though the domain was protecting me for now, eventually, an inevitable doom would come as I couldn't move my body anymore.

[HP: 529/700  MP: 0/500  SP: 12/500]

My mana had been exhausted, causing my domain to stop and my forbidden magic to reel back into my body.

"Shit," I mutter.

But as soon as a gargoyle latched its jaws onto my arm, a massive blast of wind shattered it into pieces.

"Mistress, please stand back," I hear a familiar voice say.

I looked up and saw Anna slowly standing up while gritting her teeth.

It seems all the ruckus and intense bloodlust that the gargoyles emitted forced her to wake up, which might've been an effect of my high luck.

A light of hope had appeared, but it quickly disappeared as soon as it came out.

Anna was struck in the back by a gargoyles' punch and another one bit down into her arm, immediately ripping it off.

It was a nice try…

SHING

Suddenly, something had cut the gargoyles around us in half. And then more swings of a blade ripped through the air, creating just a slight bit of room to breathe.

"Finally, we found you. Mistress, please don't worry, as we can take it from here," I hear another familiar voice say before I was swept up from the ground.

Looking up once again, I saw Amelia and Bella with their swords in hand, sweeping us up from the floor.

I only smiled slightly before feeling my head go limp.

[Day 74]

"Mistress… Mistress…"

A faint voice woke me up, and as soon as I opened my eyes, I was greeted by 2 massive red wings and a pair of wolf ears.

"Uhhh… I can't move my body," I groan after failing miserably at trying to sit up.

"Mistress, please try to stay still; otherwise, your wounds will open up again," I hear a familiar voice say, and when I turn my head, I see Bella.

Turning my head in the opposite direction, I see Amelia sitting next to me and Anna lying on the ground not far from where I currently was, covered in tightly wrapped vines and leaves.

"Food," I mutter.

"O-oh, yes, we have prepared some food, and though it isn't the best it should fill your belly," Amelia says, sitting me up in her lap and bringing a wooden spoon to my mouth.

"I-I can eat it by myself! Don't try and feed me!" I shout, blushing in embarrassment.

I'm not a kid! What are these girls thinking!

I try to reach for the wooden spoon but fail as I could barely even twitch my arms or hands, making my maids slightly giggle before bringing the spoon even closer to my mouth.

"Please, Mistress. Just bear with it for now before you die of starvation," Amelia says as I weakly open my mouth.

How shameful…

[Gained the following skills]

[Weak Celestial Bone Dive]

[Weak Celestial Bone Creation]

…

[Gained the following title]

[One with the Earth]

…

Those are some interesting skills…

As the spoon enters my mouth, liquid with weird soft chunks flowed in. It was entirely bland and even left a gritty feeling in my mouth as I opened my mouth for another spoon full.

"This is a soup made entirely from a gargoyle. The meat-like chunks are from their brain, which is still made of stone, but it's actually a softer part of the body so that you can eat it. While the liquid is made from their blood," Amelia explains.

Gargoyles have brains and blood? I didn't know that... I always thought they were entirely stone and ran off a core or something.

"*munch* *munch* *munch* Where did you learn all of this?" I ask Amelia while chewing on the gargoyle soup.

"A lot of stuff has happened ever since we split apart, but I'll tell you later as I don't want Mistress stressing while she should be recovering," Amelia says.

I look around and saw that we were back in the same dome-like room before leaving to get food.

[HP: 581/700  MP: 359/500  SP: 284/500]

"*munch* *munch* *munch* Huh? *munch* *munch* *munch*  I didn't get mana sickness?" I mutter to myself.

"When you drop to 0 for your mana, you aren't guaranteed to get mana sickness. Even though it is common, it's not a 100 percent chance… I'd say it's about 60 percent," Amelia explains.

"I see… well, at least I'm alive,"