664 10/11 15:32 (Autumn, Night, Dungeon Propriety of the Guild in Astrar, Tenth Floor)
Evan stepped back, his hands enveloped by a thin layer of Earth-Attribute Mana that dragged the now last remaining Unit up from the ground, the other having been reduced back to just its gems by a series of blows that crushed its body into small pieces.
This last Unit was glowing in white, having shifted its own Attribute in advance to dodge any Earth-Attribute based retaliation only for the ground around it to move on its own and immobilize it in place, dragging him to the surface.
Pulling back his fist, Evan punched forward with an hand covered in light, putting an end to its struggle.
The gems started to spin in the center of the arena, moving ever closer together before finally exploding in a wave of power, forming for the second time today the figure of the real Boss of this Floor, the robotic draconic figure roared out with a silent wave of pressure.
Before the Human could advance towards it, its eyes and the star-shaped gem on its chest flashed once.
The five points of its star started to light up rapidly until the five parts calmed down, each in a different configuration.
Its star was now composed of five different segments, each with a different color and composition, passing from a viscous purple, to a dull black, a burning red, a rocky orange and finally a flowing blue.
This Boss differed vastly from the previous Units, beyond just size or physical abilities.
First of all it could output any three Attributes of its choice at a time, regardless of the Attributes selectioned by its star, which it is unable to change differently from the previous Units.
Second, it as a baseline had a Resistance to all Damage and a certain amount of Damage Mitigation to ensure its defensive ability.
Third and most importantly, it gained an Absorption towarrds the five Attributes it selected, which meant that using them would be not only useless but actively detrimental, another reason that the other Team was not ideal for this fight as it could simply set their five Attributes defensively and in this way locking off most of their options.
The only reason why the three didn't fight against the composition of the teams being that both Fora and Azure were very proficient in fighting without the use of Magic and Marine was very good as a support mage and because through various tests, they were able to confirm that the three alone could take it.
The Boss struck first, its left clawed hand lighting on fire and wind twisting within its right one, releasing twin bursts that collided with each other, mixing together into a burning tornado flying towards the two.
Simultaneously it roared towards the sky, a long line of lightning roaring upwards before falling back down precisely towards Klevel, aiming on electrocuting him while the Human was busy dealing with the flames.
Yet the two already moved to deal with its attack, the Elf erecting a wall of Dark-Attribute Mana to shield the two of them from the waves of fire, taking advantage of the pratically endless amount of Energy his flower granted them both, while the Human himself launched his own lightning bolt to deflect away the Boss' attack.
This practised defense led to even more attacks from the robotic dragon, its mouth glowing brightly before releasing a multitude of rays of light that pierced right through the wall of shadows erected by Klevel, aiming on impaling them both at once.
Evan moved before Klevel, releasing waves of his own light to bat away the beams from the Boss, smiling as he felt Mana immediately refill his own Well while the Holy-Attribute repaired all the strain caused by repeatedly Channeling almost the entirety of his Mana Well.
The wave of light he released smashed into the Boss sending it floating back a couple of meters, dealing little Damage, sure, but still knocking it back and in this way buying the two of them some more time.
Air-Attribute Mana started flaring around Evan's body, concentrating around his fists in a couple of harsh tornadoes turning in opposite rotations before he launched himself towards the Boss, crossing the space between the two, his hands flashing forward and crashing into the Boss' left arm that it raised as a guard, emitting Earth-Attribute Mana to increase its defensive power even further.
As the winds slowly grinded against the Earth-Attribute Mana-covered arm, limiting the Attributes it had access to and functioning as an additional drain on its Reserves together with the flower, Reserves that were already cut in half because of their efforts with the previous Units.
Holy-Attribute Mana pulsed from Klevel, a large Magic Circle forming around his body and finally kneeling down, taking advantage of the endless Energy flowing through him, to release an amount equal to multiple times his own maximum capacity, pooling together in a single mass floating above his head.
Slowly and carefully the Priest began to pray, being able to do alone what normally required around twenty high-Rank Priests working in concert to successfully bring to completion this Ritual thanks to the abundance of Energy he had access to.
"Oh, I beg of Thee, Lady of War!" He prayed, his voice filling the arena. "Accept my Offering and bestow upon us the Grace of YourMight!" He invoked, offering not only the entirety of his previously accumulated Energy but also his shortly-lived Nexus itself as material for Her Manifestation.
The air shook as pressure started to build up more and more, the Elf losing all control over his Mana that started to accumulate in a single point over his head, his flower similarly falling apart and rotating around its glowing core, something that looked to Evan kind of like a spiraling galaxy.
The Human launched himself back in an instant, recalling his now unnecessary Unique Arma back to his hands, as he beholded the result of his oldest Party Mate's efforts.
The mass of Energy that Klevel accumulated as an Offering collapsed inwardly before exploding in an immense wave of power, physically Materializing.
Behind the kneeling Elf now stood an ethereal, four meters tall representation from the torso upwards of a beautiful and muscular woman composed entirely out of a vaguely clear Energy and wielding a weapon that was similar to an executioner's sword, a weapon that presented no tip and used by executioners to cut off heads, but oversized even when compared to the Avatar's current size.
Evan immediately turned his eyes downwards, not so much because of any of his modesty as while the Avatar was bare of clothing, it also presented none of the details that would have been problematic for him to see, but because it was the brief Manifestation of a Goddess called upon by his teammate and so deserved at least this much reverence.
The Avatar rose its six meters long and one and a half meter wide sword, three quarters of the used Mana having vanished instantly directed as payment towards the Goddess and leaving only a quarter of it to actually do the reason it was Manifested at all, a quantity that in the hands of either Klevel or Evan would have been insufficient to deal with their opponent.
Yet, almost as if to mock this view, it rose its sword, the Full Authorities of War, Sword and a FledglingAuthority of Victory condensing together around the weapon, almost acquiring physical form in the process, before exploding forward in a vertical slash towards the Boss of this Dungeon.
Time and space itself were severed in the wake of its strike, leaving the Boss barely enough time to widen its eyes in terror before it was cut right through the middle, Vital Energy, Mana and body alike suffering under so strong a blow they collapsed with no hope of Recovery.
The Avatar quietly vanished, its Energy completely spent and leaving only silence in its place.
"Well, I suppose that is the difference between Gods and Mortals." Evan nodded, turning towards the collapsed Priest and moving to reach him, his Unique Arma shifting to a gentle golden and helping him to recover from the strain of Summoning a God, letting his guard down only once he was able to grasp this Floor's Magicule Crystal.
"They are w-worshipped for a re-reason, aft-ter all." Klevel struggled briefly, coughing a couple of times before laying down some more, trying to relax. "But turning to what I wanted to tell you in secret. Well, there are two things I need to tell you. The first, and less heavy of the two, being that I was assigned an apprentice to bring with us, a young lad from Midrar called Hale. And no need to worry, we are going to be compensated for his presence."
"I see. Yet if this is the less heavy news of the two…" Evan prompted him to continue and, after a brief sigh, the priest nodded.
"Well, the other one is a much different series of informations. When Azure ended up under my care, after her sister's… disappearance, I did my best to hide her to minimize the danger of someone finding her, well aware that a great number of People would find a child Half-Elf with an active Unique Skill to be quite valuable, especially considering what happened to her sister."
"Makes sense. So?" The Human hurried him along, curiosity burning inside him.
"Well, so, as an Elf with a certain age on me, I am aware that the Innate Skills Blessing of the Spirits and Spirit Bodyare extremely important to Elves but I didn't really research them,not until she became one of the children I looked after.
"I did think that the fact that both of them were siblings was quite strange but while rare it does happen sometimes that the Bond between two People is strong enough to lead them together even beyond Reincarnation, especially so if an irregular one takes place as was the case with Scarlet so I didn't think too much about it.
"After a couple of years that she was in my care, once I was certain enough that she was not being actively hunted, I started to make some inquiries about her family, to see if she had any family that could support her but while I found them, I soon judged them to be unfit to raise a child for a myriad of reasons, especially one as... dedicated as Azure." Ignoring Evan's softly coughted 'sister and revenge-obsessed' with just a brief warning glare, he continued.
"Fortunately - " He stopped himself, hating that he believed it was fortunate but still being unable to stop himself from such, continuing on with a frown on his mouth. "At the time Marine was already moving from orphanage to orphanage, her parents being Paladins that died while in a mission and arrived at my orphanage. The two were able to bond together, thanks also to the fact that they were two hurt children that felt abbandoned and in response resented the World.
"It wasn't an instant-fix but at least it was a start." He finished, lost in thought.
"Okay, so? Not to be rude or insensitive, I understand the emotions involved but the only secret there is that Azure has some family, somewhere in the World. And you did your best in raising her and even now you are here to help her find her sister. I understand that you feel guilty for lying to her but I believe that she wouldn't care at all about this information. What, did her family find out somehow and now wants to show up? Because at this point it's quite possible that it is a trap." Evan asked, already working out possibilities.
"No, in this I believe the same as you. I already recieved a number of letters and invitations from alleged family members that wanted to meet with either Marine or Azure and, after a little bit of research, I concluded them to be fakes and allerted both of them, the Church and the Guild itself of the names of the responsible parties, wanting to use them for our resources, power or to avenge various Entities we killed.
"The real problem is another. As she was growing and training to use her Spirits, I started researching her Skill through my contacts in secret, trying to find as much information as possible. Can you guess how many People with the Innate Skill Blessing of the Spirits were recorded in the last ten Blood Moons?" He asked, a frown evident on his face.
"Ten Blood Moons? A little bit more than six and a half millennia… I don't know, I know that Half-Elf are rare and that the Skill itself is also rare but it's still a terribly long time. At least 500? On average, around one Person every twelve years, yeah, something like that." He guessed, already ready to be proven wrong.
"That would be quite reasonable and, to be completely honest, quite close to my own initial guess. I, thanks to my own long live, estimated something like 200 to 300 myself at the start. But reality is quite different from that. Across the last 6660 years, the number of People recorded to possess the Innate Skill Blessing of the Spirits are only seventeen."
Silence filled the room, the Reincarnator's eyes widening greatly, a "What...?", filled with surprise escaping his lips.
"There are no records of two People with the same Skill ever being alive at the same time and that Skill can only be acquired at birth and never anywhen else. It's not even a matter of only a single line having this possibility nor is the Skill Linked to a specific Soul as there are records of this Skill manifesting in People with different Unique Skills which denotes different Souls.
"Partially changing topic, do you know how many People across the same period are currently confirmed to possess the Innate Skill Spirit Body? Twelve. And joining together the dates of birth and death of a group of Individuals that lived in relatively close periods a pattern is confirmed. One with Spirit Body is born first and in response one with Blessing of the Spirits is born at most five years later as far away as possible from the first."
"'As far away as possible'?" Evan asked bewildered. "But they are siblings. How could she be as far away as possible?"
Klevel answered with a very sad look."It's simple, really. This are the records possessed by the Church, an entity mostly focused and composed by Humans. They would be quite low in information when compared to the records that a somewhat-affluent Elf could ask for. And considering the ruthlessness of their parents in using a child to keep under control another child…
"It's quite evident, isn't it? Scarlet's parents upon having given birth to a child with Spirit Body, immediately started to search for the one with the other Skill, Azure, and upon finding her, not only took her in but also erased all of her previous memories, gave her a new name and changed her aspect."
Evan stepped back, his eyes opened wide in a mix of surprise, shock, dismay and slowly growing anger at the though of his friend being robbed of this much only to then live with two abusive monsters like her parents. "But this is still just a theory, right? And what about her previous parents? Shouldn't it be known what they did?!"
Klevel closed his eyes, pained. "Starting from the latter question… Not if they silence everyone involved. And to the first, it's not a theory. When she first arrived at my orphanage, she possessed a spent Artifact. At the start I didn't think much of it, thinking it was a safeguard that protected her.
"But around six months ago, I asked for it and she lent them to me. I gave them to a smith that was my friend and he confirmed that its purpose was to slowly alter its wielder's DNA and physical characteristics to match a combination of two individuals while covering it all up with an illusion of the result."
Silence filled the room as Evan grabbed his own hairs. "Ah… What are we doing to do? We need to tell her but…"
"I have no idea how exactly she would react to the information. At the start I hesitated to tell her because we were closing in on Scarlet and maybe there was no need to. Then we decided on fully exploring this Dungeon and, well, I have no idea how she would react, especially considering our coming voyage to Dunrar. I wanted to ask for your assistance with how to tell her."
"So you are doing to tell her, right?" The swordsman asked, his voice deadly quiet.
"I have no other choice. She has the right to know this and I cannot hide this from her any longer." The Priest ended, covering his eyes with his hands, leaving the room in silence as Evan closed his own eyes, thinking hard on what he himself should do.
"Why is everything always so complicated?!" Evan exploded, frustrated by the situation.
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