7/29 20:01 (Summer, Night; Iriblades)
They found themselves reunited in the room in the local inn they rentend.
"So, did you find anything?"
"I asked the Guild if they remembered seeing any Half-Elf or Vampire within the last three month, but they didn't."
The first to answer Azure's question was Evan only to then be followed by Klevel and, then, Fora.
"I asked the same of various seamen and neither did they."
"Idem for the Crafter's Guild."
"Haha, listen well and rejoice, for I, the great Witch Marine have obtained vital informations for this quest of ours. There are voices on the streets about a mysterious caravan stopping just outside the city from which a beautiful white-haired Half-Elf looking around 18 years old exited, with a mysterious individual covered in an heavy coat as a guard."
"That makes sense. It seems like he did Turn her. However, if she was a Vampire, it makes no sense that she would be in the sunlight. Even an Ancestor, the highest Class of Vampires at the highest Rank, would find it painfull to stand in Sunlight."
"Fora is right. Additionally, I somewhat doubt that Edgar would have been able to create one of those abomination. And why not ask for her Blood? While we can only base our knowledge on her from Azure's very biased story, she is not one to easily forget a debt, positive or negative. He should have been able to convince her of it, but he didn't. Maybe she is an irregular Vampire?"
"No, Klevel. I'm sure she is an higher Species from Vampire. However, it would not have mattered. He knew we were somehow hunting him so…"
"So, this way she was safe. To think that he was able to resist his impulse so… How surprising. I have read little records of Vampires turning down free blood. But how did Scarlet handle the Sunlight? Maybe she has an Artifact?"
"No chance. She would not accept to use an Artifact for something as fundamental as that. Either she has a Resistance Skill already or she had no problem with it from the start. As expected from Her."
As she distracted herself, thinking about her sister, the others continued to speak.
"So we are now certain she is still alive. However, none of the seamen met her, right? When exactly did she pass by? And are your sources reliables?"
"The day the boats returned to travel and don't worry, after I beat them up a couple of times, they were very cooperative."
A sweatdrop on his forehead, Evan continued.
"Fora, do you have the list of travels of the boats?"
"Yes." She took a list and quickly searched for the 15th. "The destinations are in Terrar, Astrar, Higrar, Midrar and Lowrar."
"I'm still surprised when it comes to the name of the countries."
"Well, they were named after the old Champion that created our calendar and the first map of this World, Akirar. But, Azure, do you know where she would go towards?"
"She will go towards Dunrar. It was where we were going towards before...well, before."
"You do understand that a Vampire that Ascended from a Ghoul will lose all of their memory from before, right? Even if we find her, she… will not remember you and we just killed what could be called her father. We may need to…" Klevel stopped himself from saying 'kill her'.
It certaintly would not happen considering her, before continuing.
"… We may need to fight her to a standstill."
"No worries. We never had a strong sense for family in the first case."
Silence stretched between them as the whole of the Iriblades looked at her, especially Klevel, the one to find and take her in after the two sisters were separated, before Evan spoke the question in everyone's mind.
"Can you explain, please?"
"Well, you know how it is. My Sister was born with both an incredibly powerfull Innate Skill and an awakened Unique Skill, without even considering Her immense talent. The old leach was understating Her talent. If we never met them, today She would without a doubt have reached A-Class. Our parents were terrified of Her to the point that they made me solely to function as a chain to limit and stop Her from going rampant, Her much inferior sister that She needed to look after. Then when She was 12, our parents vanished and we started traveling."
Silence streched between them before Evan asked his question.
"Are you sure she was not a Reincarnated Person?"
"Without any doubt."
The first four members of the Iriblades spoke quickly to each other, using a Sending Stone to make it so Azure didn't hear them.
Evan: 'Her sister killed their parents, didn't she?'
Marine: 'Without a doubt.'
Klevel: 'No plausible other alternative.'
Fora: 'Duh. I just wonder if arrow-for-brain suppressed that information or just never seriously thought about it.'
Klevel: 'I believe the second. She didn't care enough to analyze the facts to understand that her sister probably killed them.'
Marine: 'I mean, from how she described them… It's not like she was exactly wrong to.'
Fora: 'Wrong or not, it doesn't matter. Neither of the two would care.'
"Well, ok, then. Let's go to Dunrar. How long will we need?"
"Hmm… considering the travel itself, the acquisition of funds and food and all the permission we will need to travel there… We should arrive there a month after the incoming White Day."
"In that case, we have enough time to investigate. Did you find anything in the mansion."
"No. The leach destroyed it completely. The only thing we have is this."
She held out an Artifacts shaped like a bracelet.
"I see." Fora neared her, gently taking it from her. "The Artifact made using Singularity as the inspiration. Are you sure I can analyze it? It may be destroyed in the process and from when we took this from the old Vampire, you never let it out of your hand."
"I know, but… there is no other choice."
"Very well. Let's return to our base. I will need my smithy."
"I will make preparations with the Guild then."
-
9/13 10:32 (Summer, Day; Luna)
*Luna gained 600+335 Magicules times 43.
*Luna's Growth Skill "Unique Arma: Sorcerous Armor of the Singularity" Rank increased to C Rank.
*Luna's Ability Skill "Meditation" Rank increased to C-Rank.
*Luna's Ability Skill "Presence Suppression" Rank increased to D-Rank.
*Luna's Ability Skill "High-Speed Processing" Rank increased to D-Rank.
*Luna's Ability Skill "Parallel Processing" Rank increased to D-Rank.
*Vision's "Weapon Mastery" Rank increased to D-Rank.
*Warden's "Imperial Scale" Rank increased to D-Rank
*Ash's "Fire Magecraft" Rank increased to D-Rank.
She nodded to herself at her progress before sighing.
"It seems like I have hit a wall. My progress is slowing down massively and my Familiars cannot acquire Skill of their own. What a bother. Oh well, I already reaquired all, but two of the Skill the Half-Elf me had, while I am missing only Crafting from the Ghoul me. I need to increase the Rank of either my Racial or Unique Skill to surpass this wall, but the C-Rank of the two Skills is special. If I don't find anything to give me a proper fight or a lot of very high-quality blood, I won't be able to obtain them in time. Let's concentrate on Spells and Techniques for now, then."
She quickly started to manifest her Vital Mana to surround her only for it to cause an explosion from her, 5 meters in range, destroying various trees.
She sighed at this error caused by the fact that she was too familiar with Mana Burst before nodding to herself, calling this Spell [Release] in her mind.
It was a simple Spell capable to generate a shockwave around her at the cost of a vast quantity of Mana.
It was quite inefficient when it comes to the force and the radius of said explosion, however.
But now that she did it once…
"[Release]!"
While she wasn't one to use a Chant to Cast Spells, she could do an exeption every now and then.
The following explosion was a more powerful and larger one than the previous one, with a radius of around 15 meters.
She nodded to herself before manifesting fully her own Arma around her.
"Okay, this can be useful if I just... Let's try this. [Release]!"
This time she used Mana Shaping to create a 5 meters diameter, thin sphere around her.
The shockwave released from her own body was contained by her barrier, being reflected and amplified within it, creating what, from an external sight, would look like a shining purple sphere whose surface rippled like water continuously everywhere, lasting a whole five seconds.
The result was an assault on everything within the barrier, herself included, by continuous shockwaves from all sides, as they were being reflected back by the barrier and passing through each other, ripping everything within the barrier apart.
She stood at the bottom of the crater, her clothes completely gone, her skin presenting deep gashes and bruises all over, her left eye being crushed in her head, her right ear cut almost in half and, most worrisome, her own being, still a lie forcing itself into reality, was damaged deeply, lowering her lifespan by a couple of days from her original remaining 6 months.
The only parts of her that were spared were those clad by her Unique Arma, that survived the process unharmed.
She smiled as she breathed heavily, some teeth missings, before her own Vital Mana quickly started restoring her damaged body, before nodding to herself.
She would need her Unique Arma to cover her completely to be able to use it safely, before she observed the damage around her.
Within these 5 meters of the barrier, she herself was the only thing remaining as earth, stone, rocks, branches and leaves were completely erased within.
She sighed before cloaking herself in her Vital Mana.
Thanks to her experiencing blowing herself up, she grasped what she should do.
She now could suceed where she failed before, the Sorcery called [Mana Clad-Warrior], a Spell that changed effect depending on the Attribute used by the Caster.
In her case, this Spell manifested as a semi-trasparent purple layer around her, barely covering her naked body.
However, the most important matter with the Spell was the effect on her.
A non-Attribute version of this Spell simply formed a barrier around her to weaken incoming attacks while slightly enhancing the Caster.
She smiled before moving to the next step, her True Wings being Casted upon her shoulders, two Weapons in her hands.
She sighed deeply, her eyes closed as she concentrated.
If this was her progress in Spells, it was time for her to progress in Techniques.
Her next step was simple, her various basic Techniques being used one after another before she nodded satisfied.
These Techniques consisted of the use of Vital Energy, Vital Mana in her case, to manipulate her own body so that she could apply her whole body into the various blows with her Energy further amplyfing the desired effects.
A simple and effective way to use Techniques, able to quickly and easily output around 135% of her potential when it comes to her blows, but… She had no need for such a thing.
Her smile grew, her eyes opening wide before she laughed, her blood flowing within her body, faster and faster.
She had no need for Techniques to manipulate her body as she wished, she was more than able to use her "Black Blood Manipulation" to bring the most out of her own body.
It was a shame that she needed that Skill for it, but at least for now, this would be the most efficient.
She quickly reworked all of her Techniques to no longer be able to manipulate her own body, streamlining the process further to instead maximize both her use of Energy and the power of the Techniques themselves.
Her new Techniques reached the same efficacy of before at only around 45% of the cost, a process that allowed her to bring out around 180% of her power with the same quantity of energy.
This was, however, not the final step.
The next was shattering the rigidity that binded her Techniques and her Shapes to the weapons by repeatedly and forcefully changing them mid swing from one to another.
From whip to sword to dagger to hammer to mace, back to whip and to scythes, to staffs and finally to weapons that had no names, that constantly changed shape, her smile growing even wider as a laugh escaped her at her success.
Dispelling her Spells and Techniques, she took a change of clothes from the storage ring she hid within her blood to protect it.
Once she was done with that, she restarted her travel, unaware that she was approching the border between Midrar and Lowrar, instead of the one between Midrar and Higrar.
-
9/13 13:02 (Summer, Day; ?)
High above the skies of Lowrar, two beings prepared to fight.
One was a great bird made out of golden flames with a wingspan of around 20 meters while the other was a light-blue scaled True Dragon, their wings beating slowly as the two of them were mostly being sustained in flight by their Mana.
The two of them, even in their more monstrous form, were people and so someone could mistakenly think words could resolve the situation.
However, the two of them were a Phoenix and a True Dragon, a pair of Races that were fighting each other since before recorded history and the two individuals in particular had an enmity lasting literal decades.
The D-Ranked Ice Dragon started this battle by releasing her Breath of pure cold shaped like a line to try and freeze her opponent solid.
In response the other one casually dodged the opening move before releasing a rain of fire in response, a rain of fire that was shut off by a second Breath, this time shaped like a cone, before it narrowed to try and take the Phoenix by surprise.
A surprise attack that failed as she agily dodged it before launching a fireball a couple dozen meters large in diameter towards the Dragon.
The Dragon quickly flew down before releasing an aura of cold around her, blowing out the flames that would have landed on her before creating and launching a spear made out of ice to impale her adversary.
This attack didn't land, after all they were both too used to fight each other for such a simple strike to matter between the two of them as fresh as they were at the moment.
A cloud of fire was released from the Phoenix around the Dragon, trying to limit her possible steps.
In response, she roared releasing cold mist to blow out the fire before hastily dodging a concentrated beam of fire and answering with her own beam of cold, it too being dodged with a graceful twirl.
"I wonder, Aurora. When will you cease to challenge me? We both know how this will end. Like the last 60 times we fought. Why don't you save us both time and you just give up."
"Keep dreaming, Amber. This time, I will beat you."
"Sure, sure. Well, good luck. You will need it. [Rising Sun]"
The Spell, that was a mix of Elemental Sorcery mixed with the Innate Skill "Pyrokinesis", Casted by the Phoenix was activated, creating a sphere of golden flames high up in the sky, the temperature around them increasing and so was the power of the Fire Attribute.
"Don't look down on me, you overgrown burned chicken. [Frozen Armor]"
The answering Spell, a mix between Elemental Sorcery and Naturecraft common between True Dragons, created an armor of ice around herself that she specialized in the past to resist fire and heat.
Quickly, the two ran at each other, claws, teeth and cold fighting against talons, flames and sheer heat.
The battle started in truth.