Asenane and Phaenora flew above the battlefield.
Phaenora hovered effortlessly on her Flight Circles. The translucent sapphire rings spun on her back with a soft harmonic hum, constantly recalculating altitude and momentum. Asenane flew beside her on broad dragon wings. Below them, Vastarael was still laughing and killing.
Asenane glanced down, watching another massive shockwave tear outward from Vastarael's fists, then looked back to Phaenora with narrowed eyes.
"Since when could he use Plenituse Techniques with his own body?"
Phaenora didn't even slow down. She adjusted her trajectory slightly as she spoke.
"Since always. People just misunderstand what Plenituse actually is. The Plenituse Technique isn't a weapon art. It's a framework. A philosophy. A method of using energy with maximum adaptability."
She gestured vaguely with one hand as if outlining invisible diagrams in the air.
"Anyone can technically learn Plenituse. It doesn't care if you're using a sword, a glaive, bare hands, claws or your own body. All it does is define how Soul Energy flows, compresses and releases."
Asenane's eyes flicked down again as Vastarael leapt, spun, and erased another cluster of Voidborn with a kick that caused another shockwave.
"So he trained for this."
"Five years, yes. Ever since he left Erna Isles. He did it on his body alone. Unlocking The Path of the Maiden helped a lot too. Oh, and he can use Plenituse with the glaive and with his arms. The problem is precision. The glaive demands absolute micro-control. His arms can't handle that without backlash. The prosthetic arms changed everything that enables him to use mage combat easily."
"Because they're connected to his soul."
"Exactly. His Viridescence is rougher now than the original but that's actually an advantage here."
Below them, another horizontal blast tore through the Void, not slicing cleanly but generating cascading shockwaves that erased anything unlucky enough to be nearby.
"A perfect Viridescence using the glaive slices like a laser. His mage combat shockwaves do the killing. Against armies, that's better."
"He always hated mage combat."
"He didn't hate it," Phaenora corrected. "He hated Omniphage. It used to be a passive Pinnacle Tether. Every time his energy went out, Omniphage would activate on its own, causing pain feedback and skill interference. Imagine trying to fight while your own Tether keeps ripping energy out of your soul and causing pain every time it does. That's why he never used mage combat seriously. It wasn't sustainable."
They soared higher now. The five Voidborn Giants spotted them. They were bugs to them but they didn't let their guard down. They continued talking despite being spotted.
"Reynolds changing Omniphage into an active Pinnacle Tether fixed that. Now Darling decides when it activates."
Asenane's eyes widened slightly. "And he's channeling it—"
"Only into his arms, not his whole body. And since the arms are prosthetic, there's no pain or strain. He's operating at about three hundred and two percent of his previous combat output."
Asenane went quiet for a moment.
"If he masters Plenituse with the glaive using those arms, he could actually fight Deities. He can handle them, not dominate. And keep in mind he's not using his Divinities or his Divine Transformation."
"So this is just Soul Energy and martial arts."
"Yep."
"So… he's stronger than Narisva now, right?"
Phaenora laughed. "No."
"No?"
"Narisva's a different problem. She's a jack of all trades by choice. If she ever commits to a single path instead of dabbling in everything, she'd be able to kill Deities at her Enlightenment level. That's why she's the strongest Divine of the Third Generation. Her Divinity Ascension literally destroyed Erna and cracked it."
They finally slowed down, hovering before the largest of the Voidborn Giants. It was a towering mass of distorted flesh and Void matter. Its presence alone equivalent to half the army Vastarael was dismantling below.
Asenane rolled her shoulders with her wings spreading wide.
"Alright. One giant."
Phaenora's sapphire circles flared brighter.
"Good. Let's make it quick."
And together, they surged forward.