"Where did she go?" Silvia warily investigated their surroundings, her hand planted itself on the hilt of her sword.
"I don't know."
Savana rapidly climbed up an outcropping of rock, reaching the top, Savana began surveying their surroundings.
But nothing.
Not even a trail.
"When did you last see her?!" Savana shouted down at Silvia, something felt eerily off.
"I can't-!"
Silvia caught her words midsentence.
"...remember."
Savana felt chills on her skin, chills colder than the ice beneath her feet, 'That's right, when did I last look at Aranea?'
She couldn't remember.
The chills spread across both of them.
Why couldn't they remember the last time they saw her?
Why did they subconsciously ignore looking at Aranea?
At what point did she disappear?
Beside them, hidden away, Instructor Florin similarly felt a dreadful sensation ripple through her heart. Her gut sensation was warning her.
[Aranea is in danger]
For them, for her, to be tricked like this meant one thing.
The enemy was at least as strong as her, perhaps stronger.
But, Instructor Florin, who should be searching for Aranea...
Smiled.
Chuckled.
And, with rambunctious delight:
[Serves you right.]
She did nothing.
"Should we go back?"
Silvia declined Savana's suggestion instantly, "No, we don't even have a trace of where she could be. It's better to get to the Imperial Camp and report this to the Instructors."
"Got it."
The girls hurriedly began their descent down the frosty mountain range.
And behind them, one of those Instructors whom they were supposed to believe in was giggling madly to herself.
-----
True Corrupted.
These were beings reigning at the heights of the existences created by the Abyss.
The Abyssal Power within them was pure, concentrated, and foul to an extreme.
At the same Rank, a True Corrupted could dominate thousands of lesser Corrupted.
Potent grey Abyssal Power oozed from the enormous Broken-Winged Giant.
Its tattered, featherless wings spread open, a snow-like grey substance consistently floated off them; landing on the ground, it began rapidly decaying and festering.
And from that festering came mushrooms, slithering tentacles and more.
Its hundreds of razor-sharp teeth gaped wide open in front of her face, welcoming her in.
Its badly scarred, black body was easily 30 meters tall.
Its eyes were a putrid, greenish-grey; mouldy and festered.
Aranea could feel the
From its dreadful strength.
Its maw gradually shut itself once it noticed that the prey had decided to stop. That small movement shook the ground around Aranea, causing an avalanche from the mountains above them to begin its descent.
Her entire body would have burst apart already if not for her Mana.
This True Corrupted Giant's dreadful power was enough to shatter apart multiple mountains with ease.
And right now, as it stood up from its knees, the naked Broken-Winged Giant began concentrating its Abyssal Power into its fists.
Preparing to attack.
All of this insane power came from...
An Upper-Medium Ranked True Corrupted.
It wasn't even Lower-High yet, not to mention the higher Ranks.
Aranea's extreme visual acuity and reaction time caught onto every minute movement of its muscles and Abyssal Power.
Activating
Opening her palm, she pulled out a selection of tiny items, then-
Crunch-
Swallowed them hole.
Her pitch-black swirling eyes throbbed and were painted a slight red, the blood vessels in her eyes burst.
The True Corrupted Giant stood high, its eyes gazing at her with true intelligence.
Yes, intelligence.
True Corrupted beings could be as or even more intelligent than every other Race in the world.
Fortunately, this was a Giant, therefore its intelligence was still on the lower side.
But.
In exchange for slightly lower intelligence.
Their battle intelligence was...
Squelch-!
Raising its enormous fist, throbbing, copious volumes of Abyssal Power collected itself on its fingers.
The atmosphere in front of that fist could be seen visibly deteriorating. The scene looked exactly like waves of heat in a desert.
Except this wasn't heat.
This was decay.
Pulling its arm back, the movement not only looked slow, it was actually slow.
Yet, Aranea remained on the highest alert; she kept track of every tiny movement.
A low, guttural roar rippled from its mouth.
As it roared its fist began following through, ripping a path of decay through the air.
The wind whistled around its enormous falling fist, but that same wind decayed before Aranea could hear its whistling sound.
Seeing the ball of utter terror slowly approach, Aranea tightened her legs.
Because next was-
BANG!
A fountain of rock, snow, and decaying rubble exploded violently across the sky.
Then-
Boooom!!!
-the sound followed, a shockwave of utter destruction rattling the air as it expanded outwardly without hesitation.
Everything the shockwave passed by shattered down into rubble, the rocks, the cliffs, the most ancient of stones-
All of it.
The Giant's fist dug into the ground where Aranea stood.
In that split second, its fist went from abhorrently slow to the quickest punch it could muster.
Its eyes, however, ignored the crater, they instantly flickered to their right; the whistling, tiny figure hazily burst through the sound barrier.
Cushioning the recoil with Mana, Mana flowed like a broken dam out of her body, conjuring up 15, massive, blazing blue
Clenching her fist-
Fwip-!
-Crackle!
The Giant's fist whipped out of the ground, crackling through the air as it aimed for the flying lances of fire ripping a path at him beyond the speed of sound.
The lances of fire collided with its Abyssal Power. The collision of Aranea's 7-Star Mana and its pure Abyssal Power sounded like two metal beams peeling into each other's flesh.
The pressure, sound, and shockwaves from the collision rushed outward and obliterated the storms of snow and decaying ash, revealing the battlefield once and for all.
Feeling the rush of wind on her skin, her black and white hair wildly rippled in the air.
Floating in the sky, Aranea was finally at eye-to-eye level with the Giant.
This was what they gained in exchange for the slight lack of normal intelligence.
Supreme battle intelligence.
As they stared at each other, their momentum slowly built itself. The clash of her Mana and its Abyssal Power reverberated through the mountains.
This situation brought forth many questions for Aranea but now wasn't the time to ponder on it.
"What? You thought I was stupid?" Aranea questioned.
The Broken-Wing Giant grinned putridly, "Not really." A deep, male voice uncomfortably rubbed itself into her ears.
Its voice was also tinged with Abyssal Power.
"At least you're not as stupid as they say."
Clenching his fist, the Broken-Winged Giant assumed a solid fighting stance, "What are you waiting for? Let's fight."
It's seriously unfair.
They lose a tiny amount of intelligence and gain an insanely high battle IQ; it's such a small loss that you can't even tell half the time that they lack it.
But that's what it meant to be a True Corrupted being.
If they were so weak, so useless, then the Three Alliances would not exist.
Aranea pushed lightly on the platform beneath her feet-
Crackle!
-and shattered the sound barrier, her body whizzed through the air and almost instantly arrived above its head.
Conjuring a couple more lances-
Its fist responded a moment too quickly, rushing a path of destruction through the air as it covered her line of sight instantly.
Stepping to the side-
BOOM!
The pressure from its fist sent another burst of shockwaves flying.
-she disappeared from her spot, reappearing on its left.
Hundreds of fire lances constructed themselves a step faster than last time, Aranea had to create a bubble of air for her to breathe properly in the midst of it all.
Launching them out, the Broken-Winged Giant spread its palms open.
Its Abyssal Power coalesced in front as a shield, blocking her line of sight from it.
As the lances collided with it, Aranea took another step, this time reaching for its back.
Passing through the air, she first stepped above it and still couldn't see its body properly, with the next step she reached for its exposed back.
But the moment she appeared behind it-
"Got you."
-she found its face grinning with its maw wide, wide open.
In the middle of that mouth, thousands of balls of Abyssal Power were burning quietly; ready to launch at a moment's notice.
Unperturbed, Aranea returned the grin.
"Are you sure?"
A vast pressure descended on the upper half of the Broken-Winged Giant's mouth.
Clack!
The massive increase in gravity forced its mouth shut, and, with its mouth now closed-
Rumble...
Thousands of Abyssal-Powered balls rebounded within its mouth; clouds of Abyssal Power fizzled out the corners of its slightly opened mouth.
The Broken-Winged Giant endured the pain and thrust its fist out again.
But again, Aranea descended her will on the Broken-Winged Giant.
Except, this time, it was sideways.
Squeezing its muscles, Abyssal Power surged from its veins as it retaliated against the burst of gravity.
"HA-!"
The pungent, Abyssal roar pushed out pure, abhorrent Abyssal Power from its eyeballs, then-
Clack!
It opened its palm, and from its palm, a vast, sky-encompassing spearhead engraved with cursed etchings ruptured forth; piercing at Aranea.
Pushing herself to the side, Aranea glanced sideways at the Broken-Winged Giant; her fingers clicked, a quiet, non-threatening manoeuvre.
However, that silent manoeuvre flourished out tsunamis of translucent, blue, pure Mana from the depths of Aranea's Mana Resovoir.
Wrapping around the Broken-Winged Giant, thousands upon thousands of icicles, violet-blue fireballs, earthen swords, vines...
It was an endless number of minor Spells.
The atmosphere surrounding the two warriors quaked, and the sound of paper screeching and tearing abruptly exploded in between them.
In the depths of that tearing, Aranea caught sight of a dark, endless black dot.
The Void.
It was minuscule, as small as a pea; but it was there.
Their clash of Mana and Abyssal Power had torn the very atmosphere.
Albeit minutely, but, it was still a grand feat.
Glaring at his spearhead, the Broken-Winged Giant dismissed his Abyssal Power and nonchalantly stared down every piece of Magic surrounding him.
He could feel his veins, his heart, his mind; it was all bubbling, burning, shrieking-
In excitement.
"You're strong for a Human, little girl." His decrepit void echoed between the decaying, shattered mountains around them.
"Thanks for the compliment, that's the first time someone's called me Human in years."
"Haha!" His voice rumbled with glee, "How amusing!"
Those mouldy greenish-grey eyes of his blazed through the encirclement of Magic, staring at Aranea.
"And what brought you here, Human? You looked like a hypnotised little treat at first, but that's clearly not the case." He slowly placed his hands together as he spoke, the air between them screeching and bursting as he did so.
"Who knows, where are we anyways?"
Cackling, "Why don't you take a closer look?"
Aranea did as he recommended and took a closer look, she already knew what he was about to do next.
But as she looked.
As her eyes captured the source.
She finally understood why a True Corrupted Existence was here in the Ashen Falls Mountain Range.
It was beneath him.
In a ravine.
The violet, swirling waves of energy wafted erratically yet rhythmically.
The decaying ground kneeled beneath its feet.
And from within, she caught sight of another Realm.
What happened when a Dungeon, a Rift, and the Abyss combined chaotically?
When the energy of all types clash?
A Realm Tear.