After Toz and the cats decided they would interfere and try to stop the ritual from finishing, the only thing left to do was choose how.
Toz and Mindle didn't think long before they pulled out their trademark charged fireball.
They didn't have a lot of time until the spatial vortex finished stabilizing and formed a spatial tunnel to who knows where. And, from what the robed figures had said, teleporting over a Demonic Spark Bear. Just based on its name, it was probably a beast, but while Toz had heard of beasts with the 'Spark' prefix before, he had never heard of a beast with 'Demon' in its name.
He could almost guess where it might be coming from though, but now was definitely not the time to guess where the Demonic Spark Bear would come from.
Even if the two pyromaniacs couldn't fill the fireball with as much power and mana as they would like, it would still pack quite a punch, especially when they worked together on a single one.
Hopefully, taking out only one of the robed figures would be enough to destabilize the ritual and stop the spatial tunnel from forming.
Although the robed figures were busy with the ritual and they had Lucy to help cover them, Toz and Mindle were still extremely careful so as to not let their target notice what they were doing.
They couldn't afford to delay too long since the robed figures might notice the accumulating mana and because the ritual couldn't be allowed to be dragged on for much longer.
Although the fireball wasn't as powerful as Toz and Mindle wanted it to be, they still sent it flying into the back of one of the robed figures that they had ended up behind when circling the clearing.
The result was slightly less than satisfying. Toz didn't know if the robes were enchanted with extreme defensive measure, if it was the ritual protecting its casters or if the robed figures were just that sturdy, but the fireball had close to no effect on its target. The robed figure stumbled, and they did manage to interrupt their casting, but it didn't seem to have struck with enough power to injure the figure.
However, the robed figure's chanting had been interrupted, and their channeling of that menacing energy into the magic circle had been disrupted, which could be considered a partial success at least.
The other two robed figures reacted quickly and increased their output of energy to try and stabilize the ritual and cover for the robed figure that had been targeted. Although the ritual hadn't been completely disrupted by the Toz and Mindle's attack, they had at least managed to destabilize it, which would make it easier to cancel the ritual completely with another attack.
Unfortunately, based on how little effect Toz and Mindle's attack had on the robed figure, it would be difficult to survive if they actually managed to disrupt the ritual by attacking its casters.
And to delay the figure who was no longer casting and prevent it from going after the group immediately, giving them time to hide, Lucy was forced to attack the same target as Toz and Mindle instead of another figure that was still performing the ritual.
Lucy first rooted the figure to the ground using its shadow. Hopefully, that would further enrage it and make its mental state even more fragile since that was where Lucy's main attack would be directed.
Ever since breaking through, Lucy hadn't gotten a suitable opportunity to experiment with his control over shadows of the mind. But now that he had a target that didn't seem to have too many mental defenses but was still perfectly rational, unlike the Rat King, Lucy couldn't miss out.
He controlled the shadows in the figure's mind. Lucy was surprised since it was nothing like he had ever seen before.
Even if he couldn't experiment on other people, he could see how much darkness they were filled with. Ordinary people mostly had somewhere between a speck of darkness to an entire corner of their mind filled with darkness. The Scorched Earth Rat King's mind had been dotted and covered in darkness, amounting to more than a majority of its mind being dark. So far, despite the Rat King's strength, thanks to the fact its mind was so freckled with darkness, it was easy to manipulate and torment.
Compared to the figures in the clearing, the Rat King was practically a saint.
While Lucy couldn't be sure about the other two figures, at least the one he targeted had a mind made of darkness. Not darkness as in ordinary shadows or simply places where the sun didn't shine. But frustrations against life. Dark feelings of violence and malice.
It wasn't weird for living and breathing creatures to possess such feelings. Which living being has never been frustrated or upset in some way? Even babies cry, after all.
But so far, that darkness had never been a part of the original structure, merely covering it or corroding it.
The robed figure was different. Darkness had either completely eroded their mind. Or their mind and existence were naturally inclined to violence and brutality to an unbelievable degree.
Although Lucy was happy that he had a lot of shadows to play with when looking into the figure's mind, he was still stumped about how to do it. When torturing the Rat King, he had stretched the shadows containing fear over the rest of the Rat King's mind. He had done something similar, but not as intense, with Hugh.
However, the entirety of the figure's mind was already covered in shadows and darkness. What good would moving it around do?
Although Lucy was uncertain of what to do, the figure was looking in their direction. First, the fireball, and now someone was poking around in its head. It would obviously not be difficult to sense where they were, even if they couldn't physically be seen, thanks to Lucy's and Toz's darkness magic.
Before the figure attacked them Lucy attacked it first.
