Lilith looked at him weirdly when he faded through objects like they were nothing.
"Well, that's convenient... Can't you turn into an armor or something? This rag that I'm wearing is kinda annoying."
True, she looked like she was a bloody trash bag. The tunic was torn and ripped, and her ugly wounds were revealed beneath it.
Noah thought for a little while, then shook his head.
"No, I don't think so. Although I can turn into what you desire, there are limits, of course. One of them should be the size. Full armor is something outside of my capabilities for the moment. We should experiment more to see."
She clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"Shit, that sucks."
Passing through the path of destruction left by her earlier battle, her body began healing by itself. It was far slower than a spell, but it was better than nothing.
"Do you also still have your Pathway? You had blocked the mental spells."
He affirmed.
"Yes, my Mind Pathway is still intact... However, my power is tied to you. I can only do Category 1 Spells, as you are a Category 1 Calamity."
Lilith tilted her head and looked back at him.
"What's the deal with 'Category'? Aren't Danger Zones the ones measured by that metric?"
Noah looked at her like she was an idiot.
"Lily... How much do you know about Heavenly Ascenders?"
Her ears twitched, but she didn't respond.
He sighed and shook his head.
"Oh my, a Calamity that barely knows anything about ascendance... My dear sister, you've broken the record of the most ignorant Heavenly Ascender."
She opened her mouth to retort, but he beat her to it.
"Calamities and Heavenly Ascenders both ascend through Pathways. The difference is that a Calamity is an exceptionally powerful entity within a certain Pathway. And only one Calamity can exist in a certain Pathway at a time, so you're the only Soul Calamity in the world."
She scoffed.
"I already know that!"
He rolled his eyes and continued explaining.
"Anyways, to ascend in a Pathway, a Heavenly Ascender must climb from one Rank to a higher one. Each Rank has the Early, Middle, Late, and Peak Stages. Each Rank provides a qualitative change, while a Stage provides a quantitative one."
Her older brother paused for a moment, then continued:
"However, the Calamities are measured through Categories. They are simply too powerful to be put at the same metric as other Heavenly Ascenders. So, you can create Category 1 Spells for now, not Rank 1 Spells."
Lilith shrugged her shoulders.
"Well, whatever. I was too preoccupied to bother learning about that stuff."
She stopped in her steps, and her eyes held an unreadable expression.
In front of her, was the camp. Or, well, what remained of it.
In the clearing, a pile of human corpses rose. The runic circle had already been destroyed, leaving only the blood of the sacrifices on the snow.
Here and there, singular patches of blood were scattered around, what remained of the dragon-kin that she had killed.
Lilith remained silent for a few moments, then continued walking forward expressionlessly.
"Hey, so to another person, I'm basically talking to myself?"
Noah nodded with a smile.
"Of course, Lily. But don't worry, I support you no matter what illnesses you have."
Passing through the corpses, she didn't respond to his remarks even when she felt like pushing him.
"Yeah, well. What are the uses of that form that you take? Beside your Pathway."
He looked at the corpses, his smile as bright as ever.
"I don't know much about that... we should look deeper into it later. But it seems like it has some effect on the heavenly essence."
Lilith agreed. The spear was able to mess with the spells that it touched, that much was clear.
She reached the tents of the soldiers, and the silence there contrasted heavily against the previous loud noises.
She eyed the tents, then she entered one of them.
The interior was expectantly simple. There was a cloth on the ground, a small bed in the corner, and basically no furniture except for a small table near the bed.
Under the table, there was a leather bag. She reached for it and opened it to see its contents.
Inside it, there was a single tunic, a shoe, and what looked like a diary. It seemed that the soldiers didn't care about having any luxuries, or, well, their superiors didn't let them.
She opened the diary and skimmed through it, but she quickly threw it in the corner when she realized that it was just the nameless soldier writing his hopes and dreams of coming back to his family in there. Not happening, buddy. Sorry about that.
She judged that the tunic was almost her size, so she hung the bag on her back and headed out.
Bam!
The door of the commander's office broke with a powerful kick. It fell to the side, just like the poor chair that was on the corner.
"Oh my. Lily, when did you grow into such a delinquent? Shouldn't you have knocked on the door and then entered respectfully?"
Noah came behind her and observed the fancy room, shameless as her.
She just side-eyed him as she approached the desk.
"Too late for that, big bro."
Bzzz! Bzzz! Bzzz!
She looked curiously at the object on the table, it looked like nothing she had ever seen in her life. It was a pink crystal that was buzzing weirdly.
Lilith looked back at Noah.
He also stared at the object, then clarified.
"I think that this is a communication crystal. Someone must be trying to get in contact with the guy whom you killed."
She lifted the crystal, feeling a weird sensation, it was as if it was begging her to put her heavenly essence inside it.
Nevertheless, she put it back on the desk.
"We have less time than I thought, let's hurry."
Then, her eyes darted to another thing that was on the desk.
It was a book that Valeric had been reading when she first came in.