997: Shadow [3]

Shadow [3]

SKREEEEEEE!

A soul-shattering screech pulled Elena back to reality, giving her no time to adjust to her gains.

'The consequence of breaking through during battle is being unable to grasp everything properly, but battle is also the best way to adapt to those gains.'

Elena cracked her neck as she watched the ankh and the demonic spirit's body fight each other fiercely.

The demonic spirit was clearly feeling pain, evident through its screeching and the lashing of its shadowy tentacles.

'It won't die.' Elena realized.

The ankh was powerful, but it was only the result of her preliminary understanding.

How could it be that easy to kill an entity formed by the merging of countless demonic spirits?

While she finally had a method to hurt the entity, she needed to put in far more work to rid it from existence.

VOOM!

Crash!

A pulse of dark mana reverberated through the air, and the ankh was finally shattered.

The demonic spirit's massive hollow eyes were slanted in anger, its mouth producing a multitude of teeth and tongues that seemed to be screaming in rage and humiliation,

'Its ego isn't complete.' Elena realized as she swerved to the side and slashed the air, cutting through a tentacle of darkness.

She flashed forward at the speed of light and spun her body, loading her leg with power and kicking out heavily.

Bang!

Her foot collided with the ethereal spirit body like it was a material object. The mana of Transcended Death rippled through the darkness like the spotlight of a lighthouse in the deep seas.

Elena immediately felt the resistance of the spirit's Laws. The dark and deathly fluctuation of that unknown concept clashed against the mana of Life, slowly nibbling away at it until it could no longer hold its structure.

Still, this nibbling was gradual. Elena's attack still had its intended effect.

SKREEEE!

The demonic spirit screeched angrily and swept its massive arm at Elena, essentially sending a wave of mana that covered the skies in her direction.

However…

Shik!

The mana suddenly split in half, two streams coming from opposite directions with the same target.

Elena shot upward through the gap between them and grinned.

'The more injured it gets, the more its ego will destabilize.'

She confirmed her assumption with that attack.

From the ancient hieroglyphs on the wall, Elena learned of the individualistic and greedy nature of demonic spirits. For them to combine like this was for the sole purpose of survival, and now—

'—I only have a single body. In the end, all except one of them will be sentenced to death in this decrepit hall.'

It seemed the yin-yang effect of the previous attacks didn't just allow Elena to promote, it returned a piece of sentience to those demonic spirits.

'All the better for me.'

Elena flashed to the very edge of the room where Yggdrasil was located and landed on its branches.

Bang!

A holographic green shield covered the tree and blocked the spirit's continued attacks.

Crack!

'I only have a few seconds.'

Elena rushed to the center of the tree, a flat area where the trunk spread out into tens of thousands of branches.

She placed her hand on the solid wood and closed her eyes, sending a prayer and a hint of mana into its trunk.

And in response, a single branch snapped off the tree and landed before her.

'Nice.' She thought as she picked it up.

CRASH!

She left the tree just in time to see the barrier break.

With a wild expression decorating her face, she blasted through the mass of thousands of dark tentacles, using the branch of Yggdrasil as a sword to cut all things.

Shing!

It sliced through the deathly mana around it like a true blade, its seemingly feeble body acting with the same power as a heavenly material.

Elena's smile was like sunlight that illuminated the world.

She felt a sense of freedom that came with the enlightenment of her promotion. It allowed her to act without qualms, following her natural instincts to achieve exactly what she wanted.

And what she wanted was the death of this being.

Elena wasted no time. Armed with her new weapon, she entered the spirit's body once more.

Its Laws assaulted her as always, but the feeling was different this time.

It was almost like they were fragmented, originating from entirely different sources.

'Now that I know what to look for, this is a simple job!'

She was no longer facing a single extremely powerful demonic spirit, but a horde of weaker ones.

'So I just need to kill all of you before you can kill me…'

Elena swiped her branch of Yggdrasil through the air.

'Sounds fun.'

It was the beginning of a slaughter.

From the start, individual demonic spirits had no chance against her. This much was proven when she killed those that were in the shrine area.

It wasn't that her perceptive ability magically increased or anything of the sort. Instead, the mana of Transcended Death forcefully separated these beings, severing the threads that held them as one.

The fact that they were internally warring was only an added bonus.

Elena cut through demonic spirit after demonic spirit, Transcended Death filling the atmosphere. Thousands were felled at her hand before she finally ran out of mana and was forced to retreat.0

"Haa…haa…"

'Its body is clearly getting smaller…' she noted as she gathered herself.

She immediately took shelter within Yggdrasil's powerful frame when she felt herself running out of steam, and at the current moment, the tree was holding back the demonic spirit army.

'Yggdrasil can maintain its existence without my aid, but its actual combat power isn't high. Its protection won't last long.'

The Valhalla Army didn't understand the concept of Transcended Death as it was a completely different vein of Life Laws from what the Valkyries studied, and it would take a considerable amount of time to teach them to use it, so they weren't a viable option…

'…and escape is no longer as beneficial as fighting. As long as I can find a way to rapidly replenish mana…'

She didn't have pills, nor did she have any outside help.

Elena gritted her teeth.

'Think of the long-term and just do.'

Without hesitation, she set her own body alight.

The smell of burning blood vitality curled through the air.

And as Elena's stamina and bodily strength weakened, her mana replenished itself, reaching a new high.

'I have to be as efficient as possible…!'

She shot out of Yggdrasil's protection, hiding her mana and using the darkness as cover to make her way towards the demonic spirits without being noticed.

Naturally, this wasn't possible.

But for a single second, the demonic spirits failed to realize Elena had left the world tree.

WHOOOOOOOSH!

A terrifying tornado erupted as Elena powerfully kicked off the ground, shattering the nearly-impregnable bricks below. Her body turned into a streak of pure white light that submerged into the darkness and burned like a candle in a lonely study.

500 spirits died on impact. 500 more died in the following second as Elena flared her mana, creating a myriad of symbols that represented eternal life and directly striking individual demonic spirits with their holy aura.

SKREEEEE!

The cacophony of roars that followed was like a symphony in Elena's ears.

Her eyes sharpened.

'Let's end this.'

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