In one of the cities where the elven war was taking place, some corrupted Elves were fighting against a hooded figure. There were three corrupted Elves, and all of them were about to reach the sixth circle as a result of the war, but their opponent seemed to dominate them with ease. Without a doubt, she was a sixth-circle with a good level. One of the Elves tried to hit her with a black earth spear, but a kick with her red boot to the Elf's neck broke it and killed him instantly.
'So this is the sixth circle... imagine what the seventh will be like'
An Elf tried to hit her with a fireball, but with her palm open, she created a shield made of blood and immediately formed long spikes on the shield itself that pierced through the body of the fire-magic Elf. The last Elf used a sword and made a downward slash, managing to cut part of the hood.
"You were already close to reaching the civis, so this doesn't surprise me"
Lyria's red eyes watched the Elf in front of her without expression. She placed her hand on the Elf's face, creating several spikes that pierced his skull and killed him instantly. The red boot from before dissolved into blood as the half-vampire brushed the dust off her clothes.
'I need to get more blood... he must give me that blood, because I will accept his proposal'
That vial Enrico gave her contained blood that increased her capabilities and circle in an absurd way. She had a suspicion that the blood was Enrico's own, something vampires should immediately recognize by smell, but since she was half-vampire, that ability took longer to manifest.
"From what I know, pure vampires have this from birth, and the other half-vampire I heard about awakened it at ten years old... when will I awaken?"
Maybe it was because her human half was stronger than her vampire side, which was a bit frustrating, but not so much since she liked her human side more. She placed her hand on her head to adjust her hair. It might even be bad to have this feeling of being inferior to pure vampires and the half-vampire who was the daughter of the strongest vampire currently.
"In any case, I don't need to feel inferior anymore, because I have very good blood to make me evolve"
Her senses were quite sharpened and eager to have that blood in her mouth again. Lyria could barely hold herself back from running after the blood; spinning slightly, she walked among the many Elf corpses and saw Sicra and Galahard killing the last corrupted Elves. The cult of the goddess of war wanted to speak with Enrico, so they decided to help a bit in this war.
"Miss Lyria, we have already sent the message to Enrico, so we should return"
"We already sent it? When?"
"We sent it through an Elf. He is part of Princess Elaris' side, and when I mentioned that we were with Enrico, he agreed to deliver the message"
In addition, they had helped in the battle of that city. The message they sent was in the form of a sealed letter; it was for him to meet them in the city of Balia in three months. The Elf would only need to deliver that letter, and since it was sealed in a way that only the recipient could open it, they were not worried about the Elf.
'It seems I won't be able to get more blood for now'
Lyria felt a strong urge to sigh before starting to follow them. Along the way, some Elves thanked them for the help, and those who had been imprisoned said thanks for rescuing them. Galahard and Sicra didn't care much about it and only nodded, while Lyria seemed a bit emotional. Just like before, when she was still a foolish girl who didn't understand how she could be sacrificed, she had a small personality that she still retained.
'They are thanking me... hehe'
She loved being adored, which is why she liked the cult before, as they were good at that business of worship even if they didn't like her. Leaving with a neutral face and her cheeks very slightly flushed, she followed her two companions from the cult.
Meanwhile, elsewhere—not in a void—a bloodied hand forced itself upward on a staircase that seemed infinite. Blood ran down his forehead and nose along with his heavy breathing.
'I just started not long ago and I'm already like this... breaking limits really gets worse with each one broken'
He felt the pressure on his body increase at least a hundred times since the last time he was here. With effort, he stood up with all the strength he could gather. This time, it might take a while, because without a doubt that Nartheis inside him must have completed its plan.
"You trust me that much? How kind of you"
As he stepped onto another stair, a shadow formed a few steps above him, taking on his appearance, with the difference—as always—being the black part of the eyes. With a snort, he climbed another step as the pressure increased once more.
"If you're here, it's because my plan worked. Good job, you shitty panther"
"It seems you can be quite an idiot toward what you hate"
He looked down and saw that the height had increased significantly since the last time. That was how breaking limits worked—whenever one was broken, the person who achieved it would continue evolving from where they left off, so it was obvious the distance would increase.
"You know, going down would be easier"
"What are you talking about?"
"The staircase down there"
Enrico's gaze went to the completely dark ground. He was very far up, but he could still see it along with the memory of the other staircase. Now that he remembered, that shadow he saw that day was without a doubt the panther in front of him.
"Yes, I suppose that was my first form, you could say"
"So my feeling that it was something bad was right"
"How cruel... well, about going down the stairs, I would like to tell you that it would increase your Nartheis potential even more"
One of Enrico's eyebrows rose. He had spoken with that Nartheis, and she said that the worse his human potential was, the better his Nartheis side would be. A cold smile appeared on his face as he looked at the being in front of him before taking another step forward.
"If I did that, it would be ridiculous. First, by worsening my human potential, I risk falling behind others even after all the effort I made to climb this far. Second, can I even stay in Nartheis form whenever I want?"
"...Sometimes, since you are not fully connected to me yet"
"Then it would be even more ridiculous... and third, I prefer to climb even higher to complete my plan. I won't risk messing things up along the way"
Enrico passed by the being, who simply formed a smile. Before starting to descend those stairs, Enrico might want to become as strong as possible and as quickly as possible, but worsening his potential to strengthen a side that was already powerful—and that he could only use a few times—was something stupid to do.
"Then leave that to me"
"What?"
"It's simple. In this state we're in, I have a body just for myself while I'm here, so we can follow the same path"
The first time he had seen his true self climbing the stairs, he couldn't do anything because he hadn't fully developed yet. He had only managed to develop now, but even with that delay, he could now increase his own potential by descending those stairs—of course, after going down all of them.
"And just one more thing: I showed a level far above the sixth circle to your friends, so you'd better push yourself even harder"
Enrico was taken aback seeing him walking downward, and even more so when he mentioned that he had demonstrated a power beyond what Enrico had shown so far. That meant he had increased his companions' drive to grow but worsened the situation for him.
'Bastard'