CH736

Okay, I’m officially significantly less sure they aren’t just trying to kill me.

That was the thought he had while dodging to the side mere milliseconds before the attack was shot as he was forced to wonder just how often he was avoiding bad endings for himself and the others. If they were seriously attacking him and the goal wasn’t to lure him then that meant there was at least one branch of the future where it worked and possibly more. He had to assume that if killing or incapacitating him was the goal then it must have seen some path to victory, especially since he hadn’t been putting so many of his minds to random options to create more to choose from.

It was a strategy he’d seen success with before but not one he wanted to try again until he was close enough to his victory to make it count, limiting his futures all the more as he kept himself from harming his dominated allies while he did his best to make the most of the possibilities he had.

More lightning came and Pato attacked where he dodged too, creating a zone that drained the vitality of those who entered it, with Ben making sure he took the brute of the attack since he had skills that could help him deal with it and he once more carelessly fired off a hail of small stones towards them, spending far too much power for an attack they shrugged off as he ran, trying to think of enough potential options of what he might do to at least complicate their attack against him.

Myriad, one to one thousand, go!

<Four fifty-four.>

Got it.

The future split and collapsed as he ran, taking advantage of the situation and skills to put to use a topic he was an expert in but rarely got to enjoy in its standard capacity as he further deepened his connection to the other three he’d taken over to indulge in a perfect act of ritual magic, able to manage it without flaw as he cast for the others instead of relying on the slim chance they might master the impromptu timing of a technique none of them had practiced before as magics merged and blended before being let out into the world as a whole, with all of the knowledge Ben could apply to a spell he’d thought of only seconds before taking full effect.

A level one light, fire, and water magic, a level two air, a level seven corpse song and then Ben’s three awakened options as well, those were the tools he had to play with when trying to single-handedly form a ritual and he used his material manipulation as the base, building it up with the rest of the options while he did his best to tie them all into something usable.

Pato vanished the instant the spell was cast, the demon controlling him already able to see how the fight would turn out and withdrew its teleporter but it wasn’t able to save Fone as the woods came alive around him, trees bending and roots shot out from the ground below to ensnare their target in a poor replication of plant magic with the options he had on hand, empowered further beyond their lower levels with the application of what mana modifiers he could create with their varying skill levels.