Dorothy’s Forbidden Grimoire Novel - Chapter 444

Chapter 444**North Shore of the Conqueror Sea, Tuluva.**

Amidst the smoldering wreckage of an estate on the city’s outskirts, Ben Goche, having shed his human guise within the flames, now stood transformed into a monstrous Stone Golem atop a mound of rubble. Facing the shambling wave of shattered corpses converging from every direction, the orange sigils flaring across his stony body unleashed torrents of scorching fire.

Instantly, the area surrounding the rubble pile erupted into a sea of flame. Nearby ruins caught fire as the struggling puppet corpses thrashed within the inferno, their forms blackening and crumbling to ash under the intense heat.

Amidst the fiery chaos, Barnum fought to rise again. Blood-soaked hands shook as he lifted his pistol towards Ben Goche, only to be seen. The terrifying Stone Golem swung his heavy flail, the crushing stone ball smashing Barnum down onto the ground. His skin fractured, blood splattering wildly across the earth. Ben Goche turned, engulfing the fallen man in fresh gouts of flame. With his hardened hide nearly destroyed, Barnum had no defense against the searing attack; his body swiftly succumbed to death within the relentless blaze.

Cleared of immediate threats, Ben Goche fixed his gaze on his next target—the source of the earlier fiery strike. From the ruins, he spread his stone wings wide, silver sigils flickering to life across their surface. Among these markings, several crescent-shaped “Shadow” symbols burned brightly.

A furious beat of his wings unleashed a gale-force wind that simultaneously whipped the surrounding fires higher and lifted Ben Goche’s massive stone form skyward, propelling him into the darkness.

Stone Golems possessed the ability not only to absorb elemental spiritual assaults but also to store traces of the attack within their stony hides. Now, Ben Goche channeled wind-force he’d absorbed earlier through his wings to achieve flight.

“He’s coming after all…”

Hundreds of meters from the estate ruins, atop the roof of an unfinished building, Doroes lowered her lens, murmuring beneath her black cloak. She had anticipated the Stone Golem’s counterattack upon recognizing her elemental assault—after all, such entities held a brutal advantage against Elementalists. Driven beyond fury by this series of ambushes, Ben Goche would never forgo exploiting his inherent superiority.

*’All those captives confined in the mansion’s cellar are freed. The fire’s contained within the courtyard walls—no risk of it spreading through the city… That objective is complete. Now focus entirely on the enemy.’*

Doroes secured her ornate rifle tightly against her side, bracing for Ben Goche’s approach—a rare occasion where she would confront the enemy directly in her own body.

Her mask secured beneath her hood, Doroes closed her eyes and concentrated her will. An unnatural force expanded her cloaked, petite figure upwards by dozens of centimeters until she stood at an adult’s height. The concealing robes draped perfectly around her as if tailored for this new stature.

Her gaze now pierced the night where the roaring wind signaled Ben Goche’s approach. She unleashed her power. Scrap iron and debris littering the roof rose and hovered around her. With a sharp mental command, they shot like shrapnel directly at the attacking Stone Golem.

Detecting the assault, Ben Goche didn’t evade. He collided head-on with the projectiles, sparks flying harmlessly off his hide as he closed the distance like a cannonball—these insignificant impacts meant nothing.

Yet what he missed was one metal shard wrapped in yellow paper hidden among the debris. Knocked aside during the barrage, the fragment suddenly reversed its course through unseen command, arcing behind Ben Goche as an electric spark ignited its payload.

**”Boom!”**

Another thunderous explosion ripped through the night sky. Ben Goche tumbled violently from the blast’s fiery heart, his wing joints struck precisely. He barely stabilized midair using the last reserves of his wind-force. The explosion left only hairline fractures on his hide.

*’These tactics… Not a pyrokinesist after all. What manner of adversary is this?’*

Regaining altitude, Ben Goche glared towards the rooftop silhouette, disturbed by the unorthodox assault but reassured by its minimal impact.

Doroes initiated her second strike. Old metal fragments lifted again, launched at the descending Stone Golem.

Suspecting hidden explosives could be among them, Ben Goche beat his wings with furious power. A tempest scattered the debris before howling over the rooftop. Doroes’s cloak whipped violently as she braced against the gale—then the wind snatched her bodily over the edge.

Falling towards certain death, she directed stray metal fragments beneath her to catch her descent inches above the pavement.

Watching her land safely, Ben Goche fueled the tempest flames. His inferno expanded violently as wind-fed flames engulfed the entire building—an annihilating wave seemingly impossible to evade.

Facing the sky-born firestorm, Doroes swept her arms commandingly. Scrap iron shot together over her head, interlocking with unnatural structural precision into an impervious metallic canopy. Flames crashed and scattered without breaching its seamless surface.

Ben Goche ceased his assault. Seeing the intact shield instead of a charred corpse filled him with dread.

Stored elemental energy depleted rapidly for Stone Golems. Having exhausted his wind-force reserves to maintain flight and launch stationary gales, Ben Goche could no longer sustain aerial combat. Stone wings alone could never lift such mass without elemental assistance.

Dropping groundward, he plunged immediately into the earth to prevent Doroes from gaining an aerial advantage. Though floating upward now, Doroes had anticipated this subterranean tactic and swiftly dispersed her shield to ascend higher—confirming Ben Goche’s intent to force her earthbound.

Exactly on cue, Ben Goche exploded from within a nearby building’s wall, his flail swinging murderously at Doroes as she floated upwards in her slow ascent. Scrap metal intercepted in vain, merely bouncing harmlessly off his body as he closed in.

Confronted by the crushing stone ball, Doroes severed her metallic support. Gravity yanked her downward moments before impact. Thwarted, Ben Goche landed hard and swung again for the now-grounded adversary.

Doroes dodged with phantom speed—unnaturally precise. Recognizing her supernatural agility, Ben Goche enacted a swift countermeasure from his garments: pressing a seal hard against the street. Upon activation, the solid ground turned into viscous sludge beneath them both.

Instantly, Doroes sank calf-deep into the morass while Ben Goche—seemingly immobilized too—watched her frantic attempts to wrench free. The Marsh Seal triggered a widespread liquefaction trap: victims would be trapped by solidified soil after the short transformation duration. Earth chains became natural shackles for normal foes, though useless against Wall-Walkers. This swamp-and-shackle gambit remained the Gloom Gold Society’s signature tactic.

Confident Doroes now stood pinned, Ben Goche submerged. Cruising below ground like a shark beneath bloodied waters, he sought the perfect angle to deliver a deathblow against this immobilized threat.

Yet beneath her veil of panic, Doroes’s expression remained glacial calm above the mire. She felt neither fear of the approaching ambush nor restraint from the binding earth because her legs never touched the ground—tiny metallic plates stayed hidden beneath her robes, floating her mere centimeters above the trapping sludge all along. She’d maintained this illusion since combat began.

This entire subterfuge targeted the Gloom Gold Society’s famous entrapment strategy—counterintelligence gained from Beverly.

Similarly, she tracked Ben Goche’s underground trajectory not by sound or sight, but through minute iron traces within the soil. She traced his passage through magnetic vibrations—precise coordinates transmitted via the earth’s metals.

Doroes manipulated electromagnetic forces with razor precision against this elemental predator. Such flawless control stemmed from newly mastered scientific principles—the underlying mechanics of formidable electromagnetic techniques.

*’Most grow complacent amid perceived victory. You likely believe your next strike ends me. Perfect… I tire of this dance. Let’s conclude it now.’*