"What's happening?" a very bewildered Yahiko stood beside Marcellus.
Yahiko did not know the meaning of holding back so he was using fusion at his very limit. when fusion is used to enhance your brain, you possess the ability to perceive high speeds in a slower timeframe in your perception. while doing so normal movements that you are used to, appear as if someone started playing a video in slow motion. Yahiko had forgotten to turn off the slow-motion switch.
Hence there he stood, awestruck as a pair of bottle-green eyes stared at them from the floor below. The black aura that emanated from her body flowed upwards slowly; even more slowly in Yahiko's perception. She wore a mysterious soothing smile on her dewy lips. Her breathing had strange tranquility about it, Yahiko was subconsciously trying to match the rhythm of her breathing because he was seeing everything in slow motion. He finally realized his body was not syncing up with his time perception as he was finding his breathing abnormal and snapped out of it undoing the fusion. He looked at Marcellus and wondered when he got there.
Marcellus was having his own share of a hard time trying to avert his eyes from the gaze of those eyes. Marcellus was naturally talented at sensing the aura and assessing its quality. He could tell that the guy who just attacked her had an aura greater than both Yahiko and Marcellus combined. However, she was different, He could not see the end of it, her aura was like an endless ocean, his sensory skills failed to grasp the limits of her potential.
"Perhaps I have been downplaying the power of the gods," Marcellus confessed.
There were oddly unexplainable things about her that made Marcellus feel like he was not looking at a normal human. It was not just power that she radiated. was it her irresistible beauty? she stood proudly with a straight back slightly arched opposite to the side that she was facing to look at the two boys with whom she felt she had something in common. The sedating wave of her shiny black hair close to her waist which accentuated well in her shirtdress gown and the aura emanating from her took shapes made it look like they were looking at a goddess from paintings.
"I guess this is where it ends John," Ivanna faced the man gasping for his breath.
John and his three followers who were on the ground had no idea what was going on outside. Since Ivanna was releasing so much aura, they could not sense Davidson and or the boys who were right in front of them. They were just made aware after Ivanna stopped releasing aura.
John could not reply, he had been severely humiliated and utterly defeated in all his attempts over the past week. When Ivanna had not awakened, he had his men torture her to force awaken her to see how powerful she really was. He thought a newly awakened person, even if it was a god, would pose no threat to him. They tortured her straight for eleven hours. One of the awakened had the ability similar to Mccoy, a corroding aura.
However, even when her skin was being burned by his aura she would not even flinch. She would not talk, she would not move. As the intensity of their torturous treatment increased she finally passed out at the eleventh hour. her body gave in but she had not even made a noise let alone beg for mercy that they were so intent on hearing from her.
Just as they thought she might actually die, she sprung back to full consiousness with very intense dark aura. the first wave of her aura almost knocked them unconcious as it seemingly passed through the core of their being. Numerous second and third degree burn scars on her body gradually vanished as her body started healing itself.
Mccoy was not at the hideout when this happened, he had gone to attend to a business. Had he been present at that time, he would have been able to subdue her as she was not used to her powers.
The followers tried to subdue her themselves but she was out of the league for the followers the moment she awakened. She was adept at combat so just a normal physical boost was enough for her to stall the followers of Mccoy. Within an hour, she learned to shape her aura and formed a perfect spherical barrier around her body. At first, the barrier was barely the size that could fit her.
She got accustomed to the aura and she gradually made the shield bigger. John only arrived five hours after she had awakened and it was too late . Her barrier had extended to have radius of about ten meters. The three angels had been trying their all to break the barrier before John arrived. They shot aura at it, they hit it with fusion punches, and even tried corroding it but her aura was so much better in both quality and quantity that they could not even put any scratch on it.
After John arrived he was baffled by the aura she was produculing, in just five hours she had developed her aura throughput that was greater than his own. it had taken him more than two months to reach the mana pool he had at that time and she did that in five hours.
After confirming that she could not be harmed inside the barrier, Ivanna decided to make herself well versed at aura manipulation by the time she needed to get out of the barrier. Her aura manipulation was already better than Marcellus at that moment.
She had been trained in various disciplines of martial arts and even some of the ancient arts of the body and mind. She went through each of them to see if any of those techniques can help her in aura manipulation.
Surprisingly enough, The chakra control meditation was very appropriate to get accustomed to the way aura behaved. The principles of the chinese Tai chi technique made it easier to control the flow of aura along with body movements coordinating with the aura.
She was calmly training herself while the people of McCoy clan were gritting their teeth in desperation to break the barrier. Even John had to take a break after two days as he had exhausted every bit of aura he had.
But Ivanna did not stop, every next moment she discovered new applications of the aura. Mccoy's men could not even clearly see what she was doing inside. They would not dare to be waiting outside by the time she completed whatever she was doing in there if they could see.
By the fifth day her aura had gotten so strong that John was getting worried that it might give away the location of his hideout. luckily for him, there was not one god present in the entire state, if there was they would surely have been able to pick upon the intense aura she was producing.
He had no cards left, he was cursing himself for bringing her to the hideout. At that point, he was not sure if he would be able to defeat her even if he broke the barrier. She was like a larvae inside a coccoon waiting to become a butterfly.
When she sensed Marcellus and Yahiko's energy she finally took down the barrier.
And a butterfly did appear from the barrier. She had always been beautiful but awakening had added more to that. Awakened have improved metabolism and very strong positive hormonal activity that enhances the body. Her already luscious skin achieved mystifying glow making her transcend limit of beauty that a normal human could achieve.
"Did you guys come for me?" she asked the boys.
It took Marcellus a few minutes to realize that she was talking to them.
"yes" he said but the voice did not come through very clearly.
"Yes" he shouted again after gulping and clearing his throat.
Yahiko was secretly impressed at Marcellus for being able to talk to her even though it was just one word. he could not have done it.
John finally noticed Yahiko and Marcellus.
" What? Who are these guys? They are easily stronger than my angels, did they already find the hideout?" John was getting nervous every next second.
"I must get rid of them first, i have to deal with Ivanna later," He thought but he did not intently look at the boys to not give away his intention.
Maecellus noticed that John was up to something,
"Is he going to attack Ivanna again?"
Marcellus used fusion to enhance his perception to look at where John was but he had already disappeared. He quickly glanced at Ivanna but he was not there either. However, he noticed an alert look on Ivanna's face as she stared behind him.
"Me?" Marcelluss gasped.
He was using all his aura to observe. This was five times stronger than when he fought Yahiko because, at that time, he was mostly using it on his body. At this level of observation, even Yahiko's full fledged fusion movements would have looked slow but he still could not even follow John's movement when he covered almost fifteen meteres of distance to get behind him.
" Is he going to punch me? is it an aura attack? Oh no! his aura is like acid, I'm done for if it touches me. What do I do?" Marcellus could not make a decision, he was not using fusion on his body so he could not turn back in time. He could not instantly use fusion to strengthen his back. If he had already activated fusion he would have been much safer but it would take him about two seconds to apply fusion while this was happeneing in just one-tenth of a second.
No matter how strong he was compared to average angels, a top fifty god was still too much for him.
"Did Yahiko notice? Can he block it for me? What about Ivanna? No, she is too far away," As Marcellus ran out of ideas he just decided to accpet whatever happened next and leave it to fate.
BAMMM!
A large sound echoed through the entire cave and even radiated outside of it.
Marcellus did not feel anything, "Did Yahiko stop it?"
He turned to look at Yahiko, it was not him
Yahiko's enhanced obersvation was weaker than Marcellus so he could not react in time.
Marcellus looked back to see John's fist covered in highly condensed green aura right in front of his eyes. His punch had been stopped by something.
"This again, You can even shield something this far away?" John looked like he was fuming as he cursed at Ivanna.
Yahiko and Marcellus looked at Ivanna, she had her palm facing them.
" She created a barrier around me with that hand gesture?" Marcellus whispered as he noticed he was inside a barrier. It was not black as when Ivanna had it around her but nonetheless, it was still powerful enough to block an attack of another god.
"Creating such a dense aura of perfect shape in such a short time and from that far away-" Yahiko was so impressed he could not even finish his sentence as his thoughts interrupted him.
"Yeah, it would have taken me more than 30 seconds but it still would not be as dense as this," Marcellus agreed.
Marcellus knew the attack John was trying to hit him with was highly potent, but it got blocked by the shield like it was nothing.
John stepped back and dissapeared from their sight again. Then he appeared above Ivanna with the same condensed aura in his hand like earlier.Yahiko could not track him this time either but Marcellus could track him a bit better than last time, He was getting better at it with every new experience. However, he knew that his body still would not be able to react in time if he was the target.
But Mccoy was not having a good time, his attack was rendered useless by yet another shield. It did not matter where he attacked from, the omnidirectional shield protected her from all his attacks.
Marcellus slowly walked to Yahiko and whispered in his ears, "Umm it does not quite look like she ever needed our help, right?"
Yahiko agreed. Mccoy was indeed strong but he was clearly outclassed by Ivanna. It was not just about her shields, earlier when she shielded Marcellus, she reacted before any of them could, it was because her enhanced speed perception was the best among all of them.
Marcellus and Yahiko looked confused as Ivanna took down her shield that was working so well.
"Let's see how well I can move," she said softly as she lifted her left foot unhurriedly looking like she was about to take a step.
Whoosh!!
The next thing they knew she was already in front of Mccoy, he was only allowed the comfort of reaction because she just stopped in front of him and did not do anything else. She had a look of confusion on her face, it even somewhat looked like she was amused. Mccoy immediately retreated back a few meters.
Everybody in that room was on high alert with fully activated enhanced perception, yet none of them, not even McCoy could track the path of her movement.
"Whoa, it's gonna take some time to get used to this speed," She whispered to herself. Her gown finally picked up on inertia after a few seconds and settled down on its original shape after being lifted due to high-speed movement.
McCoy finally realized that he had no chance of winning now. Her shield was already too demoralizing for him, on the top of that she just demonstrated speed that he could not comprehend. This only meant that she had already mastered fusion and it was better than his own. Larger mana pool, better aura manipulation and better fusion, she had no weaknesses he could exploit anymore. He looked at the direction where his angels were lying unconscious. He had no help remaining either.
"I must flee," he decided.
He gathered a large amount of aura in his palm and shot it straight up. The aura collided with the ceiling and dispered along with the chipped rocks and rained down. It also destroyed the source of light that was in the ceiling turning the whole place pitch dark.
Ivanna instantly put a shield around herself and the boys before they could be hit with anything.
Mccoy used the opportunity to run towards the entrance at high speed. It was dark but he knew the place well so it was not much of a big deal to navigate for him. But as he approached the entrance a big flash of light revealed him that made him stop and cover his eyes.
"My My, what do we have here? Is it really okay for a god to be seen in such a disgraceful state?" A man's voice mocked at him.
He read the aura of the man infront of him, " An angel class that belongs to Ivanna? come to think of it, those two boys had the same aura." as he analyzed more, he was baffled by the aura of the man in front of him. It was easily stronger than two of his own angels combined.
"Even her angels are of different league huh?" Mccoy felt irritated. But he was reminded of the predicament he was in when he felt the aura that had been terrorizing him all week long rise behind him.
"I have to escape, regardless of how strong he might be, he is just an angel." Mccoy looked ahead. The entrance was big enough to make an escape past the man who was blocking him. He could not afford to engage in a fight. Even if he could eventually win, just stalling a few seconds would mean that he lost.
"I will escape from the right," he decided and leaped ahead. At first there was a distance of 5 meters between them, by the time Mccoy had reached 3 meteres, Davidson had only manged to take a propulsion stance. Davidson had thrown the flashlight above him in a way it perfectly focused the two of them. At their speed, even the flashlight that was thrown looked as if it was floating. Davidson's stance convinced Mccoy, "I outclass him in speed" he took a sharp turn at three meters and turned right. As he was approaching the passing point he realized something odd. Davidson was already in his path, ready to block him. He had an intense aura in his hands and feet while his body was left undefended. Even if Davidson was weaker, that much was enough to stop Mccoy while only sustaining minor injury because of the impact.
"How did he? The delay in my movement when i took a turn, Was that enough to predict that i was going this way?" Mccoy's head was about to burst because he did not understand how Davidson managed to intercept him.
"No, he could not have reacted in such a short time, he might have the required enhanced perception but his body cannot match that speed, even now he is moving at the speed that's almost half of mine."
That was true, Mccoy was almost two times faster than Davidson.
Mccoy could not stop his momentum as he spent a lot of force to move in that direction as a result they both collided. Davidson was thrown back a few meteres and the large portion of the entrance was destroyed due to the impact of collision.
"You, how did you stop me when you are slower than me?" Mccoy inquired.
Davidson quickly braced himself and rushed to grab the flashlight that was falling right before it hit the ground.
"All I had to do was get in your path." Davidson replied, McCoy could not see clearly in the dark but he could barely make out a hint of a grin on Davidson's face.
"With your speed that is only possible if you already knew where i was-" Mccoy stopped as a horrified look took over his face, " an angel with awareness of the future? or was it just a lucky guess? No his actions seemed well thought out."
Mccoy could not think anymore as he felt Ivanna's aura right behind him.
"What a bastard, you left your angels to die," said Yahiko as he appeared carrying two unconcious angels of Mccoy on his shoulder.
"This is why i think naming them gods is a bit weird, how can a god act in this way?" Marcellus appeared right behind him carrying the other angel.
From behind them, Ivanna showed up walking at a calm pace.
"You must be miss Ivanna, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Davidson said as he slightly bowed in front of her. This was the first time both Yahiko and Marcellus had seen him offer such respect to someone. He was always polite to everyone but this looked like a respect people give to someone they have acknowledged to be superior to them.
"I'm not quite sure if deserve such respect, could you tell me your name please," She said as she nonchalantly walked towards Davidson passing by Mccoy who was frozen in a place.
"Have you seen yourself? You deserve to be worshipped," Marcellus was screaming inside his head but seemed very calm outside.
"I am called Daniel Davidson, Miss Ivanna," He said as he raised his head to look at her.
Ivanna raised her eyebrow, "Davidson? the infamous Davidson from England?"
" So you have heard of me," Davidson smiled.
Ivanna looked like she was lost in her thoughts, as if she had come across something she had not expected.
"Unbelievable, You are top fifteen in the divination list, I am in the top five, these two have extraordinary potential judging by their Mana pool," Yahiko and Marcellus felt like happy children being Praised by their teacher in the classroom.
Ivanna sighed as she finally seemed to have reached the end of her thoughts, "To have such people gathered in a single clan, It's absurd. I wonder what kind of person our god is."
All the faces present changed colors at what she said. Even Davidson was surprised at the totally uncalled information.
"Wh- what did you say?" Yahiko who had been reluctant to even look at her asked in a loud voice unable to contain his curiosity.
Ivanna faced him to answer but suddenly the look on her face changed, both she and John seemed to have sensed something the rest did not.
"It's about time you come out now, you have been hiding around for three days straight," Ivanna said as she stared at the wall as Davidson pointed his flashlight where she was staring. A part of the wall suddenly changed into smoke, It was similar to the mist that surrounded the hideout when they first got there. The mist slowly formed into a humanoid figure as finally a man with long white hair and pale white skin wearing a robe appeared.
"So you knew all along, quite perceptive you are, Jeo Yoonah of the Dangun dynasty," said the man in a deep voice as everyone felt an odd cold sensation creeping up to their heart.