Chapter 723: Secret of the Living Statues

Chapter 723: Secret of the Living Statues

Harmona, Zaydra, and Keith stare up at the statues of Tyrant Zeth and Tyrant Sasha, completely rebuilt through magic.

“They didn’t rebuild themselves immediately upon taking damage, which means there is a limitation to this magic,” Harmona says.

“How do we figure out that limitation?” Zaydra asks, gritting her teeth. “Destroying them over and over again would be a waste of energy!”

Both statues slam their fists down. Harmona, Zaydra, and Keith barely jump out of the way just in time.

“We don’t have a choice!” Harmona shouts.

Keith transforms into his demon form, grinning with excitement. “Hell yeah! Let’s get at it then!”

Zaydra playfully smiles at Keith. “I’m eager to see just how much your training has improved you.”

Keith grins even more. “Watch this!” He flexes his arms. His arm muscles bulk up, protruding further. His arm veins pop out more, skin tightening around them. Despite bulking up, his arms keep good proportions to his body.

“Nice,” Zaydra says. “Your physical strength must have taken a big leap.”

The Tyrant Sasha statue attempts to pound Keith, but he jumps over its fist, straight for its face. With his biceps pulsating, he slams his fist straight into the statue’s face. The punch does nothing.

Zaydra frowns. “Oh, come on! That’s it!?”

Keith grins with even more excitement. “I’m not done yet!”

Keith’s biceps pulsate harder, seemingly pumping energy directly into his fist. The veins in his fist bulge as energy shockwaves ripple from it, due to the incredible power being pumped into it. The shockwaves crackle with power, expanding outward above, to the sides, and below. He screams as he pushes his fist harder against the statue’s face. After a few moments, his fist starts breaking through, blasting more and more chunks out of it.

Zaydra stares in awe. “I’m actually impressed! You must have trained really hard to make these gains in a short time!”

Harmona snaps her fingers to gain Zaydra’s attention. “Zaydra! Let’s focus on the other statue!”

“Sorry!” Zaydra shouts.

The Tyrant Zeth statue tries to stomp them with its foot, but they dive out of the way to avoid it.

“I’ll break you to pieces again!” Harmona screams as she launches up toward the statue’s face, her hands and arms charging with magic energy.

“Allow me to help with that!” Zaydra screams as she too launches up toward its face.

They release a strong blast of pure magic energy from their palms at point-blank range, gouging through its face until it's blasted into small pieces. They finish their attacks by kicking its abdomen on their way down to the ground. The kicks provide enough force to knock it over fully.

Meanwhile, Keith’s attack has fully blasted through not just the Tyrant Sasha’s face, but also its entire upper body as well. He grins as he lands on the ground, charging up energy for another attack.

“Have some more! Demonic Burial Cannon!!” Keith screams with excitement as he releases a large beam of red energy from his two hands. The red beam barrels straight into the statue’s lower body. The statue’s lower body is no match, shattering as the beam continues its straight path. With nothing stopping it, it blasts into a building, destroying a large chunk of the first floor, before finally dissipating. Mortals run for their lives, driven to fear by Keith’s attack.

“You idiot!” Zaydra yells. “Don’t just go unleashing devastating beam attacks without thinking of the consequences!! You probably just killed mortals!!”

Keith widens his eyes as he clenches his teeth, guilt overcoming him. “You’re right! I’m sorry!”

Harmona stares at the shattered pieces of the statues. “We’re about to find out if we’ve made any progress on killing these statues permanently.”

Unfortunately for them, the pieces of the shattered statues begin to rumble.

“Nothing, huh…” Keith says with a groan.

“What do we have to do!?” Zaydra asks with frustration.

Harmona doesn’t say anything. She continues to watch the rumbling pieces, her eyes heavily focused as if she is watching for something in particular. The pieces start floating, and her eyes narrow more in her focus.

She thinks to herself. “I think I understand now. I can feel it. There is a source magic within the pieces. A central control unit. If we destroy that control unit, the statues will fully die, even if we don’t destroy them. Kurt would easily be able to detect which piece has the source magic. I can’t do that, but I can detect the general area.”

As the pieces of the Tyrant Zeth statue put themselves back together, Harmona’s gaze turns to laser-sharp focus.

“That’s it!” She shouts.

Zaydra turns her head. “What’s it?”

“I know how to defeat these things!” Harmona confirms.

“How?” Zaydra asks, slightly confused.

Keith scratches his head. “Yeah, nothing was different.”

Harmona explains. “There’s something called a ‘source magic’ powering these statues. Both statues have a piece inside them that controls them. We have to destroy the exact piece that has the source magic, and at least for the Zeth statue, I have determined its general location. It’s in its left thigh. We have to focus on that part.”

“What about the Sasha statue?” Keith asks in reply.

“I will have to watch that one put itself back together to determine that.”

The statues finish rebuilding themselves, ready to continue the battle.

“Keith! Keep the Sasha statue busy while Zaydra and I finish off the Zeth statue!” Harmona orders.

Keith pumps his fists and charges up his magic. “You’ve got it!”

Harmona turns her head toward Zaydra. “Since I can’t detect the exact piece with the source magic, we’re going to do a continuous attack that keeps tearing at that general area. We’ll do a combination attack.”

The Tyrant Zeth statue slams its fist down, trying to pound them. They jump back to dodge.

Turning her head toward Harmona, Zaydra asks, “What do you have in mind?”

Harmona forms a basketball-sized meteor in her left hand. “You’re going to apply a Raging Aura effect to this meteor.”

“What!? But you can use Raging Star Mode!” Zaydra exclaims. “Why do you need my help for that?”

“My Raging Aura would begin to shatter the meteor immediately,” Harmona replies. “Since your raging aura would not immediately touch the meteor, you can place it around the meteor instead of directly on it.”

“But I’ve never ‘placed’ my Raging Aura around an object that was not my own before.”

The statue rushes after them and continuously tries to pound them, but they dodge every single one by continuously jumping back.

Harmona grits her teeth, “You’ve never had a reason to try that before! But trust me, this will work! You will need to maintain your own portion of the aura at the same time!”

“That sounds hard!”

“It is, but it’s the only way to destroy the source magic without risking mass mortal casualties by obliterating it until not even dust is left!”

“Fine!”

Zaydra activates Raging Star Mode as she and Harmona jump to the left to avoid another pounding attempt. The fist hits the outside wall of a building, partially destroying it.

Standing next to each other, Zaydra holds her hands close to the meteor.

“Just imagine yourself pushing forward, but without actually doing it,” Harmona says.

“So, is that like the exact opposite of Raging Star Zothena, where we condense our raging aura?” Zaydra asks.

“Yes, exactly! Instead of condensing, you’re pushing outward.”

They once again jump back, dodging another pound attempt.

“Knock that statue over to give us enough time to do this!” Harmona orders.

Zaydra forms a Raging Shooting Star in her hand and launches it at the statue, blowing into it and knocking it over on its back.

“Now’s our chance!” Harmona shouts.

Zaydra holds out her hands next to Harmona’s meteor. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Her raging aura extends out and wraps around the meteor without touching it.

“Stay with me so it remains intact!” Harmona demands.

Zaydra nods.

The statue stands back on its feet, but it has no time to react as Harmona and Zaydra jump toward its left thigh and thrust the Raging Aura Meteor straight into it. The aura breaks parts of the thigh away, allowing the meteor to fit inside.

“Now!!!!” Harmona screams.

With determination, Zaydra clenches her fists, causing the raging aura to condense around the meteor. The meteor bursts into more raging pieces, leading to a series of tiny explosions within the statue’s left thigh. By the time the series of continuous explosions ends, there is nothing left of the statue’s left thigh, not even dust. It collapses, this time for good.

Harmona and Zaydra smile victoriously.

***

Back in the dark room.

Still too dark to make out any details, the strange man leaves the room and makes his way down an equally dark hallway, still holding the slightly glowing vial of purple goop.

“I think I know exactly who should entertain our rude guests,” the strange man says to himself.

He comes to a stop and turns to face a door. Opening it, he walks inside, greeted by the sounds of disgusting groaning noises. Each groan sounds like rot, despair, wheezing, and zombie-like.

“It’s time I let you out for some exercise, you miserable creature.”

As Harmona, Zaydra, and Keith make progress on defeating the statues, a strange man has no intention of letting them do as they please! Just what creature is he letting out?

Chapter 723 END

To be Continued in Chapter 724: Desperate Statue