Chapter 377 - A New Technique! Lock and Seal, the Golden Suns from the Sky!

Over at Cecil's side, he and Lucia were currently engaged in a chaotic fight against an innumerable amount of those serpentine monsters. They kept on attacking the monsters as they surfaced from the waters, but no matter how many times the two cut them apart, more would just resurface from the water, taking their places, and continue attacking them again.

Cecil felt that it was great that he had Lucia by his side because if he didn't, then he'd have to resort to using even bigger techniques that'll only exhaust him needlessly.

From what Cecil sensed using his Mana Sense, there was only one monster in front of him. The number of monsters that died but came back to attack him disillusioned him into thinking that he was facing a horde of monsters instead. However, no matter how many times he tried to confirm it, there was only one life force signature in front of him.

The current situation didn't make any sense to him. His sight and his senses were contradicting each other. From what he was seeing, it was like he was facing off against hundreds of these S ranked monsters, but from what he sensed, there was only one monster attacking him from the lake.

Each serpent that surfaced from the water all had identical life force signatures connected to each other, meaning that they weren't separate entities but a singular one instead. From what he saw, the only way to thoroughly take down the monster in front of him was to destroy everything in one go.

"Lulu, cover me! I'm going to destroy these things in one shot!" Cecil called out before immediately shooting into the air.

"O-okay!"

"Cecil, Lucia! I'm here! What can I do to help?!" Elizabeth called out after she suddenly appeared near them.

Lucia turned towards Elizabeth and said, "Eli, I need your help! We need to provide cover for Cel, he's going to try and take down all of these monsters altogether!"

"What? That's reckless!"

"Yeah, but apparently, Cel says that he only senses one life force signature coming from these monsters!"

"So they aren't separate entities but a singular one?"

"Yeah, that's why he thinks that he'll be able to kill the monster if he gets rid of every single one of these things altogether!"

"Alright, I'll move to cover him! But don't tell me he's going to use his Over Flash?!"

"N-No, I don't think he'll use that...he didn't really tell me which—"

Before Lucia could say anymore, the skies began to brighten all of a sudden. She and Elizabeth turned to look up and they saw innumerable large mana bolts slowly fall down from the sky.

"C-Cel?!"

"W-wait! There are friendlies down there!"

It was too late. Cecil had already launched his attack. The two didn't have anything to worry about though. Cecil had long since sensed that his friends were down there attacking the monsters.

He had used his Mana Sense to lock onto only the monster's life force signature before he sent his attack at them.

A moment ago, before Eli had arrived, Cecil had flown up high into the sky and started spreading his senses down below. It was then that he noticed that the monster inside the water was pretty huge.

The numerous serpents that had surfaced from the lake were only a small part of its entire body mass.

"I can't use Over Flash... if I can't kill this thing after using it, then I'll be a sitting duck out here."

Cecil already had another new technique that he had finally perfected that had the same principle as his Over Flash only that it wasn't as straining to use. Since Over Flash was an upgraded version of his Flash Canon, then this new attack was an upgraded version of his Mana Bolt and Mana Volley skill.

The only difference was that unlike his Over Flash skill that was powered by only his mana alone, this time, he would be using the ambient mana in the air to help power his technique. He began writing out spell formations and sending them around him.

He even chanted a recent spell he learned from Katya that would strengthen his Mana output. Once the preparations were finished, Cecil drew a larger magic formation and sent it above him. The smaller magic formations would draw out the mana from the air and concentrate it on him, while this large one would concentrate the biggest source of the environment's mana, the sun, onto Cecil.

Cecil had long since learned that the sun was the biggest contributing factor of the world's ambient mana. He learned this fact when he was on top of the World Tree's branches and noticed that the higher he went, the denser the ambient mana became.

He activated the formations and soon, a large concentration of mana began flowing into him. This technique would have been impossible for anyone else to do because they were forcing in mana of different elements into their body.

Normally, a person's body would only be able to take in mana from the environment that was attuned to their own element. The rest of the mana would be filtered out before it even entered their body. Mana that wasn't attuned to one's body would normally be a poison to someone but Cecil's bodily constitution which was neutral to all forms of mana made it possible for him to accommodate any type of mana.

"HAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" Cecil roared out as his body began overflowing with mana.

There was no pain when he felt the mana stream into his body, but he knew the side-effects of having too much mana in his body. Cecil gathered up only the maximum amount of mana his body could hold before he stopped.

He spread out his arms and began creating as many Mana Bolts as he could. He didn't focus on the quality of their strengths because he knew with the amount of mana he currently possessed he would have no worries about ensuring the strength of his Mana Bolts.

Cecil continued creating as many as he could until he could no longer sustain the amount and began pouring in the rest of his mana to enlarge the Mana Bolts he had already created. Their sizes swelled and he even began trying to compress them so that he could inject even more mana into them.

After he finished preparing his technique, the skies were thoroughly illuminated by this one skill of his. The number of Mana Bolts easily outnumbered the amount of serpents in the lake. Everyone looked up to see this and they were all shocked and afraid.

If Cecil sent his attack down right now before any of them could retreat, the result would be quite devastating.

"Cecil, wait! We're still here!" Ainz yelled.

Angelia was shocked, while Gabriel immediately ordered for everyone to retreat.

"B-Big brother?!"

"Everyone, retreat!"

Velica also began ushering everyone back while Lucius told the mages he was in charge of constructing a large dome around them so that they could all withstand the impact of Cecil's attack.

"Go! Get back to the shore!"

"Everyone, begin creating a wall! We have to make one strong enough to defend against the impact!"

"Yes sir!"

"Hurry!"

Cecil tried his best to contain his attack until his friends were clear. He knew now that even if he did aim his attacks only at the monster, the resulting explosions would severely impact them nonetheless.

"Lulu, Eli! Get back!"

"Right!"

"Let's go!"

The two girls quickly dashed away and went back to the shore. The monsters, having lost their targets began turning their attention to the large threat looming over them from the sky. They immediately began sending their attacks at Cecil but before any could even get close, they all evaporated instantly.

Cecil was using a majority of the mana he collected from the sun to power this technique so the heat coming off of the Mana Bolts was no joke. The water and ice attacks that the serpents were sending at him couldn��t even get close before they immediately disappeared.

"Alright you bastard, why don't you try this out!"

"GROOOAARRRRR!!!"

"Burn to ashes, Skyfall!!"

Cecil swung his hand down and the large mana bolts began descending from the sky. He could see the monster trying to retreat at this point but he only chuckled at its action. He smacked his palms together and yelled, "GO!"

He pointed down and the large spell formation that had remained stationary behind him, rapidly descended and expanded around the monster down below. "Septum, Spell Seal!"

He clenched his fist and the spell formation began shrinking down on the monster, sealing away all of its movements and firmly locking it in place.

"Incarcero, Spell Prison!" He shouted out and numerous small magic formations began appearing around the large formation and chains began shooting out of them, wrapping themselves around the monster's large body that was underwater.

"GROOOOAARRRR!!!" It began roaring out in pain and fury when it suddenly noticed that not only was its movements locked but also its Mana had been locked away as well.

These series of techniques were something Cecil had created just so that he could hold his opponent in place while his Ultimate Technique, Skyfall, was able to come crashing down onto them.

A major flaw of his Skyfall was that the projectiles which formed the technique moved too slowly, easily giving the opponent time to move away from the radius of the attack. With the Spell Seal and Spell Prison, he was able to chain his opponents down while at the same time temporarily seal away their mana so that they couldn't use it to try and runaway or break free from the chain prison.

The monster underneath the water began struggling furiously but it was to no avail. Cecil continued providing his spells with mana to strengthen them. No matter how hard the monster struggled to try and break free, it was all for naught. It was instead exhausting itself when it should be trying to brace itself for the impact of Cecil's Skyfall.

The large bolts of mana were now close to the monster and the lake's waters began boiling due to the heat coming from them. On the shore, everyone could hardly open their eyes and look at Cecil.

They could also feel the heat and energy coming from his techniques and this sent chills running down their spines. Ainz, Eli, Velicia, and Lucius were all shocked at this point. They had heard from Lucia that this wasn't his strongest technique. Over Flash remained as his number one destructive spell but the power of this attack, Skyfall, had trumped the might of Cecil's Over Flash when he used it back then when he was still in Anglaria.

"Uhh, Lucia...weren't we supposed to secure the area for the kingdom so that they could construct a city here?" Velicia called out.

"Y-yeah... why?"

"If Cecil's attack hits the monster in the water...wouldn't the resulting impact level everything around us? Most importantly, are we even safe here?! Aren't we too close?!"

"...Alright, everyone, we're retreating back to the campsite! Get ready, I'll open up a Misty Gate!"

Lucia immediately conjured a Misty Gate and ushered everyone through. They prioritized the injured members first. All of the captains left last while Lucia opened up a separate gate for Angelia's monsters.

Back at the campsite, Ainz and Lucius had already begun instructing their able-bodied members to fortify their campsite. Once Lucia arrived, she also began helping.

"Everyone look! It's about to hit!" Someone called out.

A few of the ones who weren't busy looked over the walls and stared at the large golden suns falling down into the war. In the next moment, a large shockwave erupted from the impact of the suns when they touched the water's surface and it blasted away all of the sound around them.

"BRACE YOURSELVES!!!" Ainz immediately shouted but his voice was soundless.

A bright flash of light ensued and a soundless explosion buffeted everyone at the campsite. Cecil's attack finally struck the monster.