.
" We could either find a catalysts and buff your radar up by 1 tier, or check every nook and cranny of this arena."
"... Won't we lose by then?... If this last person was able to put up with my Agility stat and still stay hidden within my detection range, he must be a high level scout or even assassin. In that case, wouldn't he just be able to steal our flag?"(Ivar)
" He only started running after we went into the castle, or at least that's when he became aware of our position. He has prepared a plan. Now that his team's vanguard basically perished along with his standard formation, he only has a suicide charge left. Our 'flag's are most likely in similar situations, so we have to defeat him to win. "
" Tch, isn't that a gamble?! HOW CAN YOU STAY SO CALM?!!?!!! "(Ivar)
" I won't question your circumstances... So relax. Victory is in sight. "
"....Where? "(Ivar)
"... Here. [Demonic energy]
Flashes of a pale purple hue breach past the entirety of the battle ground as sounds of explosions erupted outside the castle. Multiple flashes, signalling an ominous cue never before seen by the spectators. Traces of smoke emanate from the ground before dissipating into nothingness. The faint smell of burning met my nose as it consumed every corner of space. In Ivar's place where he stood before, nothing was left. Not even the ground he stood on, not even the ground I stood on, the only thing left in the barrier was a large crater with a similar magnitude to the colosseum.
Along with the newly formed enormous lack of space, large jet black pillars connecting from the ceiling of the barrier to the ground pulsate along the walls of the arena. Massively deformed, 'pillars' were more of a vague description than a definitive characteristic. Twisted, spreaded, seperate, deformed, glowing, pulsating, twitching, vibrating, moving, one could refer to them as pillars of chaos that have sprouted from the devil's tree.
Fortunately, no such techniques exist. They were merely the excess energy of [demonic energy], having given form. More than anything, these ominous pillars that could fit an adult in their diameter and reach 10 storeys tall with their height, were just solidified embodiments of incompetence. The lack of control over her skill, Lilith had wiped out everything in the arena with her energy barriers that erased everything.
If one were to describe the perspective of someone other than Lilith, it would be an armaggeddon. Pure terror consumed everyone in the spectator seats as the barrier subverted into nothingness, releasing the grotesque pillars into the atmosphere. Or at least, the terrors of the common citizen sent them into a disarray. The fighters, warriors, adventurers with more fighting experience, maintained their composure while looking over the lone little girl floating in mid-air in the middle of the arena, over the crater that completed the other half of the hemisphere-like barrier.
Dissipating back into mana, the pillars vanished into sparkles of purple, akin to an inverse of snowing, with deep purple hues that floated upwards into the sun before never being seen again. An abundance of mana, perceivable only to those with enough power, filled up the arena. A few adventurers crumbled in response, the rest either stood oblivious or struggled to barely maintain their facade.
Common knowledge was that without mana, skills, techniques and magic could not exist. Simply put, mana was an abundant fuel in the atmosphere, a source of energy, and sometimes a form of energy itself. The world system dictated the amount of energy you could harness at once in the form of the Intelligence stat. Such a limit in ability was easily visualised and realised when opening their stat menu.
This was only further supported when people were seen dying as their mana pool, or Intelligence, reaches below 0, the human body is unable to maintain itself and collapses beyond repair. Mana was beyond time and space, giving the ability to freely manipulate such factors with the appropriate skills. As a result, when facing mana depletion, not even turning back time can save their soul, a product of mana.
Being able to freely produce or steal energy directly from the world system... Such a feat reached the realm of gods... An ability that inherently transcended common sense as it tears everything down with brute force, on par with conceptual armaments of the legends. A phenomena that directly drew life and arose out of fairytale.
Such an ability shouldn't be handed to a little girl. Who knows what unforetold destruction it could wreak on the world.
... *BOOOM*
Shortly after the odd display of inverse snow, rings of smoke and destruction spreaded across the arena. Rigged bombs had impacted the spectator seats, damaging the seating and structure of the colosseum. Mass panic ensued, while a few stood calm throughout the cacophony.
Cold mist exhaled from my throat as the [demonic energy] manipulation had stolen most of the energy and shifted them around. Which included heat, only the area around me became colder, while everywhere else had the opposite effect.
"Fuh~ have I finally mastered [demonic energy]? My control received a sudden boost. Hopefully it was a growth spurt instead of a short-term boost.?!?!!
CRESS!!!!"
Bathing in the attention and victory had sent the brain into a drunken stupor. A minor momentary lapse had occurred, forsaking everything else and even common sense. Floating there on near invisible, transparent platforms of solidified [demonic energy] became a natural action that was as instinctive as breathing. With that, even the explosions could not shake her conscious until her revelation. Cress could be in danger, now was the chance to protect her!
After all, if the whole world would turn on Lilith, Cress would still be her beloved Onee-chan. That was a mere fraction of the tremendous faith invested in Cress. It bordered on devotion and was barely holding out on Lilith's ego, basically, her sense of self was the only thing stopping her from becoming a servant. Becoming a servant wouldn't be something that Cress would desire anyway, in this way, the base status quo was barely maintained next to the border. The border of insanity.
Increased to a kilometre, Lilith's [demonic energy] radar shot out waves to fill in its detection range. The first step was to look for Cress. In radar form, the waves were spread so thin that they were almost undetectable, even from mana-detection that could track minute shifts in mana movement.
Phasing out, the remaining spectators could only look on in shock while thunderous cackling ensued in the seats of the colosseum. Up to 15 floors high, the pillars gave way to accumulated damage, swaying precariously over the spectators. Screams and cries for help were drowned out in the background as Lilith single-mindedly reached for Cress's location. Hidden under fallen rubble of the colosseum back walls, a soft erratic breathing could be heard not far in the distance.
Approaching closer, Lilith lifted the large roughed up blocks of gravel that shifted and slide into the environment. *sha... * The pull of gravity on the powderised colosseum intensified, echoing the natural sounds of destruction as a body emerges.