Author Note: Long chapter! I wanted at first to split it in half, but I think that adding everything to one chapter is better so that I don't leave all of you dears hanging for another day, hahaha. I hope you like it~.
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The Abyssal Horror was not in a good state.
After sending Yasenia flying, with her life and death unknown, it tried getting up but stumbled forward.
The giant eye in its chest was split in half diagonally, and you could see the damage to the bones and organs.
Yasenia's attack, filled with Celestial Energy and enhanced by all her skills, caused such damage that it almost split it in two and killed it.
Not because Yasenia's attacks were stronger than Tatyana's, Mirrory's, or Valeria's, but because of the Celestial element's destructive power was monstrously strong.
The Abyssal Horror honestly didn't expect the one it thought to be a small fish would make such an attack. It knew that even damaging the dragon woman would be complicated if it didn't latch onto Yasenia's leg after being struck.
The Abyssal Horror's thoughts spun to find a way to escape its current situation. 'I must take that dragon with an aura similar to the death-attribute user. They should be related one way or another. If I secure her, I should be able to think something together with the other…'
With those thoughts, the Abyssal Horror prepared to run toward Yasenia's immobile body and secure a possible way to escape. It didn't expect to find these monsters in a lower plane.
However, that was not happening.
Its only chance to use Yasenia was cut off by Yasenia herself with the desperate attack, and now, it had to pay the consequences of hurting the Death Empress's daughter.
A monstrous aura of Life and Death energy swallowed the Abyssal Horror as an enraged voice reached its ears.
Valeria's voice was as imposing as a natural disaster. "MONSTROSITIES TO LIFE LIKE YOU MUST PERISH!"
The Abyssal Horror turned and saw an intricate coiling staff descending with the weight of a mountain right toward its head.
Even before it fell, the air pressure was enough to make the Abyssal Horror shudder.
BOOM!
With a quick sidestep, it avoided its head being opened like a watermelon. However, the place the staff landed was utterly destroyed.
"AAAAHH!!"
A distorted sound of pain spread across tens of kilometers as Valeria's staff smashed half the creature's body into a pulp. The rampant damaging life energy drained its vitality, and the body was sent flying.
The Celestial energies in its body had greatly weakened the creature's defenses. The creature's giant eye couldn't recover properly, and since their path was disconnected from Heaven and Earth, their spiritual sense was non-existent. Hence, it was half-blinded.
Tatyana didn't attack right after but took a slight detour to look toward Yasenia's direction. Her spiritual sense spread, and she tried to feel if Yasenia's body was emitting Death Energy, a sign of someone dying.
There were some hints, but as a dragon, Yasenia's vitality was robust. A single hit wouldn't kill her. The state was nothing pleasant to see, though.
When Tatyana looked over, Yasenia was immobile. Her arms were purple and bleeding, her body limp, and her breathing was faint.
The long black hair was muddy, and her face was covered with blood marks. The long tail was limp at the side, and fresh blood pooled around her as it spilled from her wounds.
Tatyana's energy became berserk after glancing at Yasenia's bloody state.
With wrath making her blood boil and fear of them having more tricks and losing her dearest, her voice turned even scarier than the wail of a thousand evil ghosts as she screamed. "FILTHY ABOMINATION, HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MY DAUGHTER!? I'M GOING TO ERASE YOU FROM EXISTENCE!"
A hurricane of Death energy flowed toward her as her meridians burst because of the amount of power flowing through them.
With Yasenia here, Tatyana couldn't afford another mistake like what happened before.
She knew deep inside that although Yasenia had acted irrationally, it was also their fault.
Instead of explaining when Yasenia's tone was clearly worried before they parted, she prioritized exterminating these things because of her disgust and eagerness to erase them.
They could've taken ten more seconds to explain.
She could've dodged the tentacle that delayed her enough for the other Abyssal Horror to catch up.
However, this time, what could go wrong went wrong. Thankfully, Yasenia's breakthrough in a life-and-death situation and use of the Celestial Intent saved her life.
Tatyana scolded herself. 'What kind of senior am I if I can't even protect her when it matters the most!?'
Tatyana's body ruptured in many places, and blood flowed while she gathered energy. "WHAT KIND OF MOTHER AM I IF I CAN'T AVENGE MY DAUGHTER!?"
The surroundings changed and became darker as the concept of death materialized beyond intent.
Her eyes bled, and the flesh on her arm exploded because her body could not bear the strain of her following attack.
However, she ignored all the screams of protest from her body as she summoned a skill beyond her current strength.
Mirrory and Valeria's expressions became solemn, and they reacted quickly.
Mirrory tsked her tongue. "Have fun with that!"
Then, she grabbed the mangled Abyssal Horror because of her punch and threw it toward Valeria with the remaining energy Angel could provide. 'Now, I can't do anything more. Not that it matters when that crazy woman has gone berserk.'
Valeria used her vines to catch it and used one of her strongest retraining skills to keep those two in place. "[Imperial Man-eating vine], [Growth Intent Level Nine], [Propagation Intent Level Nine], [Life Intent Level Nine], [Mother Nature's Paradise]."
The earth exploded, and an almost one-hundred-wide plant burst with countless tentacles latching around the two Abyssal Horrors.
The [Mother Nature's Paradise] increased the strength of all life plants, while the intents multiplied the number of tentacles rushing toward them and restricting them.
Valeria knew that this plant wouldn't be able to eat them. However, it was enough to keep them in place for a few seconds. Valeria looked over coldly as they struggled. 'Disappear as you drown in the wrath of an enraged mother.'
The two Abyssal Horrors felt their instincts and souls trembling in fear as they looked toward the floating Death Empress while fighting the vines restricting them in place.
Tatyana's imposing voice echoed throughout the entire basin, making the world appear silent with her voice as the only sound. "[DEATH'S DESCENT]!"
What followed was not a massive explosion or torrent of energy.
It was silence.
Silence engulfed the world as a Black Sun materialized and swallowed everything in an area of hundreds of meters.
Yasenia, who was looking over with half-closed eyes, heard a deafening silence as a massive sphere of death energy appeared and disintegrated everything.
Soil, air, plants, animals… Everything within the sphere big enough to be seen across the entire basin died.
The two Abyssal Horrors inside couldn't even scream as their bodies disintegrated, leaving their soul behind.
However, instead of being banished, the two deformed and corrupted souls were dragged toward the middle of the Sphere and transported to another dimension, [The Underworld].
A place of death and the place where Tatyana's real body currently resided.
The two Abyssal Horrors entered a world of darkness, with green, black, and blue as the main colors.
Before they knew what happened, a person wearing a red-colored royal dress descended before them. The appearance was identical to the person they fought before. However, the aura around her was like comparing a firefly with the Sun.
Her voice moved the Heavenly laws around her as her enraged eyes pinned their two souls and kept them away from returning to where they belonged. "Your second mistake was appearing before me. Your third mistake was hurting the person I love. Do you want to know your first mistake?"
The Death Empress's red eyes glowed as the world around her collapsed because of the rawness of her emotions. "Your first mistake was being born in the first place. [Death Law], [Fate Weaving], [Death Empress Decree: Eternal Damnation]."
The first skill was to make the Death concept bend to her will and avoid the "death" of these two souls, making them "eternal" souls. The second one cut the Fate of these two souls with the Heavens, effectively making them Tatyana's. Then, the third skill created a prison with a perfect rate of destruction and regeneration, making them suffer as long as they existed.
Hence, unless Tatyana stopped existing, their fate from now on was to suffer in eternal agony while their corrupt souls rot away and their thoughts degraded due to the merciless passing of time.
Back in Distancia, [Death's Descent] lasted ten seconds before it disappeared.
The life signals of those two things and the deformed purple world were annihilated together with the all-consuming attack, leaving behind a crater with rampant death energy.
Yasenia carefully stood up, using her tail as support, and ate a heaven-ranked healing pill. Her eyes were complicated.
Just one attack was almost enough to send her to leave her out of combat. Although her attack was enough to hurt it once, her following more normal attack was laughably weak, unable to cut a single immobile tentacle. 'How did it discover me? No… Why did I even come?'
Yasenia saw the three seniors flying toward her, and she didn't even know how to face them. 'I just wanted to make sure Mom was okay while looking from a safe distance… But now…'
Mirrory landed before Yasenia, looking at her coldly.
Yasenia opened her mouth, but a crisp slap landed on her face, making her face swing to the side. Her weak body stumbled a step, but she didn't get angry. The slap was more than well-deserved.
The stinging pain in her cheek hurt more than the broken bones across her torso.
Mirrory asked coldly. "What did we tell you to do?"
She did not complain and looked back at Mirrory. Then, she answered honestly. Her voice was weak because of her injuries. "To leave."
Mirrory looked at her coldly and asked again. "Then, why did you come? If I said that you should leave, you leave!"
Yasenia answered her true thoughts again. "I wanted to see if all of you were in danger and also the distance between me and you. I thought I was a safe distance away, but I was naïve, and I was discovered because of my weakness."
Mirrory's voice didn't warm up in the slightest. "Look at your mother. Look at yourself. Are you happy now? Are you happy now that you've seen how weak you are before true strength? If you face true danger, you and anyone from the little group you are creating are useless. Are you happy now that you know it?"
Yasenia saw Tatyana finally arriving with Valeria's help, and her breath hitched while her heart felt as if a knife had been inserted and somebody twisted it.
One of her arms was mainly skeletal as the flesh from shoulder down had exploded in a mangled mess and dripped with blood.
Her face was clearly exhausted, and even with the heaven-ranked pills and the efforts of Valeria healing her, the wounds weren't healing quickly enough, and they still dripped with blood.
Her appearance was more than miserable. Valera spoke. "Tatyana, try holding back the rampant Death Energy. I can't heal you properly."
Tatyana rolled her eyes. "Do you think I'm not trying? My meridians have exploded, so I can't do so."
Valeria asked. "So? Are you crippled?"
Tatyana shook her head. "This body can regrow even a dantian. Killing this body is extremely difficult."
Yasenia's heart hurt more and more the further she listened, and Mirrory was merciless. "If you hadn't appeared. We could have used a delaying tactic and slowly cornered them until we could kill them. However, your appearance made it impossible as they would always try to target you. They were almost dead, and one of your attacks half-crippled the healthiest one. But, so what? On a desperation move, who knows what kind of tricks they could pull with you around? Therefore, Tatyana did what she did."
The voice of the ancient woman was cold and steady, stating only facts.
Mirrory looked directly into Yasenia's eyes and stated indifferently. "Those things did not create those wounds. You made them."
Tatyana approached and stopped Mirrory. "Okay, that's enough. Cough, cough, she already knows. It was also our fault for not explaining things more deeply and rushing here hastily. Moreover, the fact that we couldn't protect her is also our fault. Even if they make mistakes, we should be able to adapt and protect them. I'm angry at her, but bashing her with words will do nothing this time."
Mirrory snorted, but she agreed with Tatyana. She was just a bit miffed that the usual intelligent and witty Yasenia made such an emotional and hurried decision.
She also knew that Yasenia "took precautions," but the enemy was above her imagination, and those precautions were ultimately for naught.
Yasenia wanted to approach Tatyana, but the horrendous wound all over Tatyana's body made her feel suffocated and unable to take a step forward.
Valeria sighed and approached the grievously wounded Yasenia. "Child. Let's be careful from now on, okay? I felt scared for a second, thinking that you had died. Come here, dear."
Yasenia used her tail to slowly move forward and arrive before the three-meter-tall woman. Valeria's hand landed softly on Yasenia's head as a soft and healing aura covered her body. "It will feel uncomfortable, but you must be a big girl and endure it, okay?"
Yasenia nodded obediently and didn't even make a sound.
The breath of life from the Nature Spirit Queen healed her damaged body at very high speeds.
Her healing, aided by [Life Intent Level Nine] plus the heaven-ranked pill, made it possible for her body to recover in a few breaths.
Usually, allowing the body to recover naturally was best. However, for fear of any corruption or damage that a hit from the Abyssal Horror could create, Valeria decided to make a comprehensive and in-depth recovery.
The uncomfortable and painful feeling of bones realigning and her organs and muscles healing was almost unbearable.
But Yasenia didn't flinch or make a sound. Her eyes were locked on Tatyana's semi-skeletal arm with a painfully beating heart.
Tatyana sighed and approached. "Little treasure, I won't say not to feel guilty, but remember that this body is much more resilient. This kind of wound is like what you've suffered. It's not permanent."
Valeria turned toward Tatyana and frowned after hearing her. "It's more serious, Tatyana. With my healing, Tatyana, it will take at least two years to recover to your peak state."
Tatyana looked at her arm nonchalantly and nodded. "Well, a bit less, this body is very resilient. I think I will return to normal in a year."
Mirrory remained with her usual cold voice. "Remember that you can't use your energy during this time to fight. Leave their protection to us."
Tatyana nodded and approached Yasenia, using her good arm to lower her head and hug her, kissing her on the forehead. "Don't worry too much, okay? It was an unexpected situation. Moreover, your decision-making after falling into danger was not bad. The preemptive attack gave us enough time, and your defense, allowing yourself to be blown away, also allowed you to live afterward. Although the decision to come here is not something you should be proud of, at least how you handled the battle it is."
Yasenia couldn't hold it anymore, and she hugged Tatyana tightly. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
She was frustrated at her naivety of thinking that the seniors would be stronger no matter the enemy. Frustrated that she thought that she could do anything. Frustrated because of the danger she placed everyone in with her actions.
Tatyana smiled and chuckled, patting her back soothingly. "As you should be. However, you've gained quite a bit because of this, right?"
Yasenia shook her head and looked at Tatyana's arm again. "It's not worth it."
Tatyana sighed and patted her silky black hair, stealing her gaze away by kissing her lips and smiling lovingly. "Silly girl. Learning Celestial Intent is something I've heard now for the first time. My daughter is the most talented in the universe! Let's go reunite with the others."
Before they left, Mirrory interrupted again. "Yasenia."
The dragoness looked at her.
Mirrory said seriously. "You are a very talented person. You are mature enough for your age. You are someone responsible for your closest people. And you possess plenty of more positive traits that make you someone truly extraordinary."
Mirrory continued. "However, even with those advantages and a few more I didn't mention, you have a glaring flaw that almost makes everything else invalid."
Yasenia listened closely.
Mirrory commented. "You are too confident in yourself. You think that you can deal with everything as long as you persevere. You believe that everything will turn out alright as long as you try your best. Well, child. You cannot."
Mirrory remained her. "This is the second time making a similar mistake that made your life hang on a thread, and the third time will take your life and the life of those involved. The life of those you consider as close."
Yasenia flinched, but she listened attentively.
Mirrory was ruthless in her assessment. "The first time you acted like a person with no brain is when you tried to interrupt my ritual. You must have thought later that you were very clever, right?"
Mirrory pointed at a place, and a ball of energy pure enough to become liquid shot toward the sky. This was created by the energy Angel recovered in this short amount of time.
A giant explosion ensued, making it seem like a second Sun was born in the sky. Yasenia knew that receiving that kind of attack would be very difficult.
Mirrory commented. "That's my strength while being tied to someone as weak as Angel. She hasn't even assimilated me in any way whatsoever. I'm tied to her, but calling her my wielder is far from the truth. She has yet to comprehend truth intent, which is just the first step to gaining control over me. Do you know what this means? Killing you back then when my master was Fu Jing Jing, a Saint, was as easy as snapping our fingers."
Mirrory commented. "However, like today, you were lucky, and we didn't act because we felt that doing so would not be beneficial. Thankfully, it was the truth."
Mirrory continued. "Today, because you wanted to see something out of your league, you risked your life and thought you could maintain a safe distance in a combat far above your league. I saw that you were about to leave, and that's why I'm not feeling that disappointed in you. You knew that you could do nothing and turned to leave, but your aura leaked, and you were discovered. It was an honest and unlucky mistake."
Mirrory sighed. "Regardless of your intentions, you've seen the results."
Mirrory finished by saying. "You've been pampered since birth, and your talent has allowed you to overcome challenges others would've failed at, increasing your self-confidence. I won't say you haven't suffered because the challenges you've overcome are impressive. Your trials and difficulties would've killed any other cultivator. Your hard work is also not lacking in any way. You use almost all the hours in the day to better yourself, and you are incredibly determined and objective-focused while also being patient and wise with your decisions. However, if you don't fix this flaw of wanting to interfere in everything, of wanting to fix everything by yourself, you'll sooner or later perish."
Tatyana stayed silent the entire conversation. Mirrory didn't say any lies, so she didn't interrupt.
She looked at Yasenia and saw her eyes still firm, deeply reflecting on Mirrory's words, making her feel gratified. 'Very good. She is still young, and making mistakes is normal. Accepting those mistakes and bettering yourself is what matters. With her age, the number of mistakes I made was not less, hahaha.'
Tatyana used her good arm to hug Yasenia's arm and smiled at her. "Well, we won't need to move. Your dears are here."