90 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[14:49]
['Tamo (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
With the help of our two golems, my comrades managed to reduce the knights into less than 10.
However, another drum of heavy footsteps soon echoed from deeper within the temple.
[Knight Golem Lv.12 x16]
More knights poured into the circular chamber, replacing their fallen comrades.
But my own comrades did not waver against the enemies.
They kept on eliminating the ones that tried to reach the dome where I was trapped on.
80 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[12:38]
['Ashta (★★)' has fallen into the state of panic. All stats decreased by 50%!]
More knights entered from the deeper section of the temple.
Boom!
Darius welcomed them with his exploding arrows. Preventing their many numbers to grew even more.
70 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[10:17]
['Kori (★★)' has fallen into the state of despair. All stats decreased by 80%!]
['Rhyss (★★)' has fallen into the state of despair. All stats decreased by 80%!]
More knights poured into the room.
Each of my comrades were fighting five to seven knights at a time.
['Darius (★★★)'s Basic Archery has levelled up to level 5!]
['Darius (★★★)'s Eagle Eye has levelled up twice to level 3!]
['Trudy (★★)'s Basic Sword-Shield Technique has levelled up to level 5!]
60 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[09:39]
['Kori (★★)' is on the brink of death. Her life is in danger!]
['Shanny (★★)' has gone berserk!]
Shanny leaped to the crowd of knights and tore through their ranks with the erratic swings of her blade.
Cloud dust and rocky rain formed everywhere she charged, eliminating the number of knights rapidly.
['Shanny (★★)'s Basic Sword-Shield Technique has levelled up to level 6!]
50 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[08:52]
I was finally halfway done.
Now that I had fully grasped the arrangement of the rune, I could untangle the knots faster.
Shingg!!!
The statue suddenly glowed brighter.
[Power of the Wings is being unleashed!]
[Awakening guardian.]
The whole room was suddenly filled with great light from somewhere above.
It took us a few seconds to realize the glow came from above the gates we entered.
Thud!
Something big just landed on the room, sounding cracks on the solid floor.
Thankfully the light dissipated soon enough before we noticed the lander too late.
[Guardian of the Wings Lv.17]
The huge knight statue had now indeed become alive.
It moved its stone surface as nimble as how a human knight would.
The knight then raised its giant sword, as if offering it for the heaven.
The sword glowed with the similar brilliant light from earlier.
[Guardian of the Wings is rallying his army!]
[All enemies have gone berserk!]
I sensed greater auras coming from the dozens of knight statues my comrades were facing.
Their swings and steps had more force to them than before.
['Kori (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! Her fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Maddock (★★)' is on the brink of death. His life is in danger!]
['Luan (★★)' has fallen into the state of panic. All stats decreased by 50%!]
40 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[08:07]
The guardian suddenly turned its gaze toward me. Slowly approaching my position as it raised its great sword.
My two golems hurriedly dashed across the vast room and leaped to stop the knight.
Slash! Crash!
With one singular motion of its great sword, the guardian destroyed the two golems along with their cores, easily penetrating the shield I put in place.
"Serafina!"
Trudy shouted as she witnessed the golems' destruction.
The woman ran toward the guardian and deflected its great sword away with her shield as the blade was swinging toward me.
The guardian's attention was now fixed on her and the woman raised her weapon to keep it that way.
['Rhyss (★★)' is on the brink of death. His life is in danger!]
30 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[06:51]
Trudy fought against the guardian with all she had.
But even then all she could do was to avoid or parry the guardian's assaults.
The enchanted knight was too skilled and powerful for Trudy for it to leave her any opening.
[Enchantment over!]
[Party 1's agility and stamina have returned to normal!]
Had it been Jonah or Shanny, though, things would be slightly different.
But those two along with Darius were still busy fighting off the smaller knights constantly flooding into the room.
I needed to hurry and dispel the barrier as soon as possible.
['Maddock (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
20 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[05:23]
"Argh!"
Crimson blood sprayed across the room.
The guardian managed to cleanly slice Trudy's shield arm off.
Fortunately, Trudy did not let herself collapse.
She only staggered a few steps back and kicked her feet off the ground, just in time to avoid the guardian's follow-up assaults that would separate her head from her shoulders.
['Trudy (★★)'s Pain Resistance has levelled up to level 2!]
The guardian was about to launch another offensive move toward Trudy.
But a wild figure leaped to the air and forcefully kicked the guardian back.
A short spear soon landed to its torso and exploded into a fiery blast.
Though the explosion did not even scratch the guardian, the huge knight was pushed few more feet away from us.
Shanny and Jonah immediately positioned themselves in front of the wounded Trudy and the vulnerable I.
They had left Darius to fend off the dozens of smaller knights by himself.
['Rhyss (★★)' has returned to the Goddesses' embrace! His fighting spirit will be remembered forever.]
['Ashta (★★)' has fallen into the state of despair. All stats decreased by 80%!]
10 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[04:17]
Almost there.
While Jonah and Shanny kept the guardian occupied, Darius held off the knights pouring in from the two other gates leading deeper into the temple.
The 3-star archer was skilled but the statues managed to inflict wounds to him.
['Darius (★★★)' has been inflicted with bleeding. His stamina will be reduced for a period of time.]
Boom!
Despite his injuries, the archer dealt with their overwhelming numbers by using all of his exploding arrows.
['Darius (★★★)'s Rapid Fire has levelled up to level 4!]
Trudy dealt with one or two that got past him.
With only one arm, she managed to barely intercept the knights before any of them could reach me.
['Luan (★★)' has fallen into the state of despair. All stats decreased by 80%!]
5 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[03:42]
I felt the last of the knots loosened.
My mana was entangling the remaining knots all at once.
The barrier was barely maintaining itself.
['Serafina (★★★★)'s Intermediate Enchantment has levelled up to level 5!]
['Serafina (★★★★)'s Intermediate Research has levelled up twice to level 5!]
0 knots.
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[03:01]
And the fabric was undone.
The barrier dome vanished into non-existence, revealing the pedestal within.
The two objects on the pedestal suddenly vanished into bright light.
['Tear of Malaikat (S)' has been obtained!]
['Book of Malaikat (S+)' has been obtained!]
['Fragment of Malaikat (SS)' has been obtained!]
[All items can be accessed upon the completion of the tenth floor's main objective.]
[Should the main objective failed to be achieved in this current attempt, all items will be lost forever.]
Ignoring the notifications, I turned to my comrades.
"Gather around!"
Obliging to my words, all my four comrades jumped back nearer to me.
I raised my hands toward the guardian whom was already advancing toward us.
Fourth Circle.
[Maha Visphot]
A crimson glow emerged from the guardian's torso.
Its stone surface began to crack and fragmented into a thousand parts.
[Ignite]
As if the sun had born out of its chest, the guardian disintegrated into an overwhelming blast.
I spread my arms around and let the blaze consumed the smaller knights surrounding us.
Once the entire chamber was turned into a sea of flame, I neared my hands together and activated the spell's final stage.
[Fuse]
The great flame streamed back toward where the guardian once stood.
It formed into a tiny ball of crimson light.
The more fire poured into it, the smaller the ball turned.
When the ball vanished, everything went quiet all of a sudden.
The motionless lower half of the guardian and traces of the smaller knights were what remained around us.
But before my comrades could speak up a word, intense heat emerged which turned the entire temple into a blazing furnace.
From where the ball of light hovered, a piercing glow flashed and exploded into a great pillar of fire.
The pillar blasted through the temple's dome ceiling and destroyed the gates from which we entered.
[Guardian of the Wings has fallen!]
[All enemies are no longer berserk!]
[Malaikat's blessing has been lifted from the land!]
[Reanimated enemies have fallen for good!]
[Time remaining until temple's destruction:]
[02:12]