The Devil In White: An AA Online Novel

"It's a special Order of the White spell. I couldn't use it on the ship when Port Laudable was attacked because I wasn't high level enough, and if I had been, I would have destroyed the ship." Aidan explained. "With your Aura, I should be able to cast it in the next few minutes though."

"What thing?" Amelia asked again.

"Oh, it's super cool. You should head and watch." Raven said, chuckling. "Probably get that huge grin you get when you're excited. You know the one, the creepy one."

"On my way," Amelia said, sounding exasperated. "Running from one lunatic to the next seems to be my battle strategy."

"It's not crazy like the meteor drop is it?" There was a hint of respect in the dread Forsythe used to ask his question.

"This is, alas, more normal." Aidan sighed. "I can cast this without breaking anything."

"Why didn't you use it earlier instead of the meteor drop?" Forsythe asked, sounding confused.

"I didn't think of it." Aidan lied, enjoying the quiet that came over the chat as a response.

It turned out to be worth the trip. Amelia arrived just in time to see Aidan stride out into the midst of the enemy. He raised his staff(The Unfair Stick, as he took to referring to it) and called calmly, activating his spell. [Second Release - Mana Devastate]." With that, he simply began walking forward.

At first, Amelia didn't know what he was doing. He did cast spells that threw back enemies or slowed them but didn't do much else. She half-thought he was going to get killed doing what he was doing. Then she realized that the visage that were near him didn't seem capable of fighting.

It was like watching a sandstorm with a human being as the center. Aidan walked out and continued casting spells but the enemies that turned toward him started to visibly wear away. Almost as if they were being disintegrated by being close to him. The visage and the surrounding landscape began to slowly dissolve in a circle as he moved. The dissolved parts began moving toward him, fortifying an invisible layer around him. Aidan was a walking disintegration field.

Immediately realizing that the enemies around him were vulnerable, the mages and archers of the frontline began hammering the visage around him. They fell in droves even as he continued walking. It was like matter simply dissolved once he was near it.

"What is that?" Amelia demanded, envy coloring her voice.

"It breaks down living and non-living objects to mana and converts it to my pool." Aidan explained. "I can only use it once a day, but it's the signature spell of the Order of White. If you don't give up any schools and use enough of them repeatedly the game believes you to be a master of matter. This spell dissolves matter and converts it to mana."

"Wow. That's… almost overpowered." Hunter conceded. "We can see groups fleeing from you from here."

"Yes, well, like I said I can use it once a day if conditions are met," Aidan said gruffly. "I don't feel like it's the usual game changer. There are so many enemies that even murdering 30-50 at once seems like a drop in the bucket. That and any reasonably intelligent enemy would just move away. I have to walk while I do it."

"We have a new problem," Forsythe said, suddenly sounding concerned. "You can't see it from there probably, but from here we can see that the shield wall is starting to buckle in places."

"People are getting tired." Gilduirn suddenly announced, surprising Amelia because he wasn't part of party chat and had spoken near her for the first time since she'd arrived at the front. "Just my guild for now. We've been fighting non-stop for hours. Admittedly, it got rougher since your crew got here."

"Gilduirn says that his guild is getting tired." Amelia relayed.

"No small wonder that." Aidan acknowledged. "No one really expected this to be a lengthy fight, just a hard one."

"Pretty soon some of them will be asking me about getting some sleep or leaving to go to their jobs." Gilduirn sounded grim. "I won't allow it if at all possible of course, but people will start dying soon. Trying to escape this rabble."

Amelia gazed out with him, trying to imagine what he was talking about. The visage were literally throwing themselves at the shield walls, getting killed by the hundreds every second. It didn't seem like it was doing any good. People fought as hard as they could, leveling up every minute from the forces that were killing themselves against the defenses. Still, even if it got easier it was easy to imagine people starting to think about other things.

"Do you think we should head up the mountain?" Gilduirn suddenly asked, turning to Amelia.

"Gilduirn thinks we should go attack the visage boss before the force loses steam." Amelia relayed over the party channel. "Thoughts?"

"It would be nice if that stopped the visage," Khiafin grunted. "I don't know how things look on your end but the Residents are putting up a hell of a fight. The Transients are slowing down."

"Not a bad plan." Aidan's spell must have been close to expiring because he was making his way back to the front line.

"We think that's a good idea." Amelia conveyed to Gilduirn. He nodded and started speaking quietly. He must have been talking over his guild channel. At last, he turned to Amelia. "Do you want to come?"