[Beep! Danger! Detecting target still emitting high-intensity energy waves!] The A.I. Chip's frantic warning resonated within Lancey's skull, shattering the momentary silence following the explosion.
Immediately after, a ray of jagged dark light cut through the settling dust directly in front of her.
"Shit!"
The attack was too fast for a conventional barrier.
Puchi!
A dark longsword, wreathed in a malevolent reddish glow, plunged deep into her lower abdomen. However, instead of blood, a splash of clear, crystalline liquid erupted from the wound.
"Hydra's Reflection!"
Lancey's true body materialized ten meters away in a blur of frost. The figure struck by the sword shimmered and dissolved into a puddle of frigid water, a high-level water clone she had woven into the atmospheric mist the very instant the previous spells collided.
"Ingliasis Lancea!"
She didn't give her opponent a moment to breathe. Her hands turned a translucent, deathly blue; from her frozen fingertips, a volley of jagged icicles charged forward like ballista bolts. At the same time, she retreated with tactical precision, her eyes widening in shock as she finally saw what had survived the storm.
Louis had undergone a monstrous final evolution. He had ballooned into a gargantuan raven, his beak jagged and cruel, with a crown of jagged white bone fused into his skull. His body was still wreathed in the lingering reddish flames of his own spell, yet he stood amidst the inferno as if he felt nothing, his gaze hollow and terrifying.
'To think he had reached such a level... he is knocking on the door of Rank 2,' Lancey's heart sank. She had clawed her way to the peak of Rank 1, enjoying a prestigious position within the Astral Requiem and access to a double agent's wealth of resources, yet she still fell short against the raw power of her granduncle. A bitter taste filled her mouth.
'I guess I was right to wait until I received the master's dispatch before I moved on the Academy.'
Louis lunged, his massive form moving with the speed of a lightning strike. Lancey dived to the side, the wind of his passage shearing the hair from her neck. In mid-air, she reached for the star-shaped pendant hanging from her neck, a trump card rewarded by Leylin.
"Absolute Zero Awakening!"
She crushed the pendant. A terrifying surge of cold energy erupted from the jewelry, enveloping her in a suit of shimmering, translucent ice armor that pulsed with runic light. Her presence expanded multifold, her magical pressure suddenly rivaling the monstrosity before her.
The entire battlefield began to freeze instantly. Thick snowflakes, each as sharp as a razor, began to fall from a sky that had turned a bruised purple. In her powered-up state, Lancey met the humongous crow head-on.
Ping! Pang!
The sound of shattering metal shrieked through the swamp. The two figures collided and rebounded with bone-shattering force. As they retreated, Lancey swung her arm, spraying blue blood into the snow.
In her hand, gripped with brutal strength, was the jagged, broken tip of a massive claw. In the frantic melee, she had used the sheer physical enhancement of the armor to snap Louis's digit clean off.
Ka-cha!
She glanced at the A.I. Chip's updated projection:
[Status: Lancey Evans. Rank 1 Magus. Strength: 15.9 (19.8 with Armor Enhancement). Agility: 11.2 (11.9). Vitality: 24.7. Spiritual Force: 92. Elemental Conversion (Water): 83%.]
She furrowed her brows. The armor was burning through her reserves, but the raw power, nearly 20 degrees of strength was intoxicating.
Weng!
Clenching her fist, she crushed the severed claw. A miserable shriek, sounding like a man at death's door, echoed from the space between her fingers.
The claw transformed into a mangled, spectral raven under the pressure before being frozen solid. She opened her hand, letting the frozen fragments of the spirit clatter onto the ice like broken glass.
Across from her, the giant raven trembled violently, its beak dripping with dark ichor.
"Oh? So you actually merged with a living creature." Lancey mocked, her voice echoing through her ice helm. "How very primitive. This is the problem with your 'ancient' techniques. You assume old means powerful, yet you conveniently ignore the thousands of years of refinement found in modern methods. You are strong, Louis, but only to those who don't understand the true secrets of the Claw Scorch Meditation Technique."
A chilling shriek erupted from the giant raven as it began to swell, its energy becoming wildly unstable. The luster on its feathers shifted to a metallic black sheen, and the energy waves rolling off it became suicidal in their intensity.
"Mutual destruction? How predictable."
Lancey stepped forward, her syllables rhythmic and cold. Rumble! Countless water snakes with heads made of jagged ice emerged from the frozen mud, hovering in a predatory formation. She raised her right arm; a portion of her ice armor melted, flowing into the center of the spell.
Hundreds of snakes fused together, twisting and growing into a towering, multi-headed Icy Hydra.
The creature let out a breath of pure frost. The giant raven, sensing the end, steeled itself and lunged with its remaining injured claws.
Ka-cha!
The sound of snapping bone was deafening. The raven's claws ignited with a desperate fire, showing signs of melting into the air as they collided with the Hydra's frozen heads.
Rumble!
Bright rays of light spread out in a blinding dome. At the center, red and blue light squirmed and devoured one another in a frantic struggle for dominance. The shockwaves were so violent that even the surrounding trees were pulverized into dust.
Pak!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of secondary explosions followed. Ten seconds later, the ground had been leveled. A large portion of the swamp's earth had been frozen solid and then simply blown away, leaving a gigantic, frozen pit so deep the bottom was lost in shadow.
Lancey, her armor cracked and missing several plates, limped to the edge of the crater.
"Still not dead?"
"Ah... Ah..."
Inside the pit, the raven form had been forcibly dismantled. Louis lay battered and broken, his human form frozen into the floor of the crater with only his face visible. He was a ruin; both arms were gone, and his chest and thighs were shredded so deeply that white bone gleamed through the red. The injury at his waist was so severe he looked like a doll nearly snapped in two.
"Kill me... have your revenge... Little girl," Louis wheezed, his eyes glazed with the onset of shock.
"I won't kill you," Lancey replied, her armor finally giving way and falling apart into sparkling dust. "Your life is not mine to claim. It belongs to my Master."
"Master? Stupid... you are a peak rank 1, you need not how to anyone." Louis laughed weakly. "Reclaim the Academy... it is yours by blood..."
"This small legacy? This petty principal's seat?" Lancey scoffed. "It has no meaning to me. The Raven Claw Academy was dead the moment you killed my grandfather."
She looked at the horizon. Two massive tremors shook the ground as her two Bloodline Knights dropped from the sky, accompanied by Magus Julian, a former Night Crow member who had defected to the Requiem.
"Elder," Julian bowed deeply. "We have captured all surviving acolytes and Magi of the Raven Claw. His Highness has left the fate of your enemies to you. Your choice will not affect your mission evaluation."
"Take them all," Lancey said, looking at the nearly unconscious Louis. "Is the Lord Emissary taking charge of the transport?"
"No," Julian replied. "This time, it is another Lord."
A massive, jagged shadow suddenly stretched across the pit. A figure emerged from the darkness—the Vanguard of the Requiem.
He was a towering, spectral knight clad in translucent, shadowy plate armor that seemed to pulse with the weight of ten merged souls. He didn't acknowledge Lancey; he simply reached down with a massive, gauntleted hand, gripped Louis by the neck, and yanked him from the ice.
With a silent, cold efficiency, the Vanguard stepped back into the shadows, dragging the broken patriarch of the Raven Claw into the darkness.
"Are there any new orders from the headquarters?" Lancey looked at the horizon as she asked.
Julian replied with a flattering smile, "Your return is nearby, a few months from now the dark magi organizations would contact you to collude a joint operation against Four Seasons Garden. It's probably going to be a big event in the entirety of Eternal River Plains. Headquarters is attaching great importance to it, possibly even his highness would make an appearance."
"I see.." Lancey fell into thought, the probability of Leylin making an appearance isn't high, his movement have always been shrouded in secrecy otherwise an average three wings member like Julian wouldn't know about it. But with the shadow slaves under his command, it's not difficult to take advantage of a precarious situation. It seems her master is planning a big suprise for everyone.