1,000,000 Karma: My Reward Is a Quiet Life-Chapter 47: The Wrath of The Librarian
Hundreds of books spiraled, crossing in the air like swirling helixes around a singular distortion. It manifested through a vagrant glow, emerging amidst the coalescing archive.
"This is a powerful one—!" Rain announced, snapping her fingers.
With the quick gesture, a circle of pale barriers appeared around them. From his guess, it could only be some variation of magecraft, though it felt distinctly different.
From all directions, books flew in as if fired from a giant’s bow. They slammed into the ethereal barriers, bouncing off.
"It’s attacking?" Noah watched.
"It’s rejecting us!" Rain corrected.
Hovering above the labyrinth of books, it appeared; a humanoid began to be formed entirely of literature.
A cape of bookmarks of all shades and its body formed of hardcovers of all genres; it embodied the library.
[Greater Identification] [A-Rank Close-Quarters Combat Skill]
["Librarian Phantasm"] [Designated Level: Appx. 11] [Species: Phantasmal]
[Weaknesses: Spiritual attacks | Magic] [Immune to physical harm.]
"Alright, so who has such strong feelings about books that it creates something like this...?" Noah asked with a tired exhale.
"It’s...complicated!" Rain answered.
The sound of pages flapping mimicked that of a roaring storm, with winds brewing no weaker than a hurricane. With clenched teeth, the paranormal expert created more barriers, intercepting any of the incoming projectiles as bookshelves and chairs slammed by.
"Those barriers, can you use them from a distance?" Noah asked.
Rain took a moment to respond, catching her breath, "It’s difficult, but yeah, I can. Why?"
"I’ll purge the phantasmal, so provide some cover," Noah said, flipping his axe in his hand.
There was a look of surprise on the pale woman’s face as if initially wanting to tell him he had a screw loose, but she immediately changed her expression.
"You’re a higher rank than me, and you dealt with that Kidnapper...So I suppose I’ll have to trust you on this one, right?" Rain accepted.
"Right," he playfully confirmed.
Amidst the raging storm born of the book-born entity’s rage, there were plenty of pieces of the shifting library left fixated in the air; shelves, stools, couches–all capable footholds in the air.
"Alright–I’m going."
"Good luck," Rain granted.
He kept his gaze forward, waiting for the volley of high-speed books to pass by before bursting forward with all of the strength he could pack into his legs. The first foothold was a toppled shelf, leading him into the chaotic, open space while hopping to the next piece of fixated furniture.
In the eyes of the supernatural expert, in one moment the man was in front of her, and in the next, crossing dozens of meters with quick hops.
’He’s unbelievably fast–is this how a Behemoth-ranked adventurer moves?’ She observed in awe.
There was no rhyme or reason to the maelstrom of furniture, leaving the agile adventurer leaping every moment as they moved through the air.
[Stride] [B-Rank Acrobatics Skill]
Without breaking his pace, he ran and hopped. Pushing off a moving shelf, briefly, he was left looking over the vast space between himself and the ground below.
At that spare moment while reaching over to the next platform—a book flew in. While his initial instinct urged him to swing his axe to intercept it, he pressed on with full trust guiding him. It inched closer, yet never reached.
The transparent shield emerged between the side of his head and the high-velocity hardcover, shielding him as he ran across the floating couch.
From below, the baggy-eyed woman caught her breath, keeping her hands raised while watching the fast-paced movements of the other adventurer. It required utmost precision at each moment, watching Noah’s back like a guardian angel.
Each time an aspect of the library flew in like a catapulted stone, a barrier intercepted it. He moved freely, keeping his eyes on the phantasmal at the center of the chaos. Around it, contorted pillars of wood and parchment acted like a spherical barrier, constantly rotating though not completely shutting it out.
’If I use a Giga-Chop and Soul Rend combination from this distance, it’ll just protect itself with the debris. It’s a guess, but I imagine it’s creating all this mayhem to create distance because up close, it’s weak,’ he theorized.
Leaping up, he flipped away as the floating stool he had caught himself on split in half at the phantasmal’s motion. It was like a conductor at the eye of the storm, waving its arms made of scrolls and books, moving everything along.
While the books were stopped by Rain’s timely assistance, the air hissed with the arrival of a secondary volley: paper itself. He crossed from one shelf to another, over a hundred feet in the air, only to be met by pieces of parchment cutting across the wind.
"Ngh–?"
Just as he raised his arm to shield himself, the possessed paper cut across his skin, leaving thin cuts on his skin.
"Paper cuts?! That’s seriously evil!" Noah shouted towards the chaotic conductor of the archival storm.
In a zig-zag, he hopped to a tilted, purple couch, immediately jumping to a fixated book, each rupturing the moment after he jumped. No more than a few strides away was the domain of the librarian phantasmal, though it wouldn’t so easily let him through–
"Silence–!" An ear-piercing, distorted voice only vaguely feminine echoed from the flapping pages acting as the entity’s mouth.
It pointed right at him; the gesture was a command, he quickly found, as like serpents swimming through the air, connected shelves came in from both sides. The library components attempted to squash him as he leapt up, causing the merged debris to crash with thousands of pages fluttering in the air.
’Gotta make it!’ He urged.
The librarian entity attempted to swing its arm, unleashing a noise that bordered on an animalistic growl from its face of parchment.
[Spirit Binding] [B-Rank Exorcism Skill]
He pointed at it faster, calling forth glowing, sapphire chains that wrapped around the phantasmal’s limbs. There was no need to aim them himself, finding the bindings like serpents attracted to the essence of the phantasmal.
The librarian growled, resisting the hold as its unnatural limbs composed of old material began to tear, "Silence! Silence!"
Due to the unnatural formation of its book-formed limbs, it slipped right out of the chains, lunging towards him. It raised both arms, swinging them wildly without any grace–thunk.
Straight into a pale barrier, the enraged phantasmal collided face-first with pages smushed against it. At that moment, he thanked the assistance from the woman below.
Using the fixated, glass jar between himself and the phantasmal, he leapt in, confronting it face-to-face. He looked into its maw of flapping pages, watching distorted scribbles ink its flesh as he pulled his axe back.
[Giga-Chop] [Soul Rend]
The enormous axe was swung with might that countered the chaotic whirlwind of the library. In one fell swoop, its enchanted sharpness split the pages into thousands of scraps.
[EXP: 15,000] [40,000/50,000]
["Exorcism" Proficiency +2] [4/10]
[Skill(s) Acquired: "Ethereal Shift"]
[Soul Rending: "Fragment of Librarian Phantasm" obtained.]
