Luna moved at a terrifying speed as she delivered deadly strikes with her sword. The Sun’s Ember moved with great precision as she attacked the creature’s joints. When she added more strength, her sword easily connected but failed to fully cut through its bone.

  The creature roared in pain. She leaped back, dodging one of its spider legs. Her feet skidded on the floor, leaving deep lines in the black rock until she stopped.

  She couldn’t risk getting hit again. Her body already felt like it was in flames.

  “Darkness, surround it and make sure it doesn’t leave this place. Luna, aim for the legs. I’ve made it slow but I don’t know for how long!”

  Len’s commands cut through the chaos. She was still on top while wearing a strained expression. Both her hands were on her sword as she pushed it deeper into the creature’s rock armor.

  Meanwhile, Luna willed more of her energy into the sword and charged at the same joint she recently failed to cut down. Its legs were more than two meters thick so of course to cut them down, she needed to rely more on technique this time around.

  Swoosh!

  The Sun Ember sang, its horizontal slash returning to the wound she had left. It was a brief, clean, and powerful slash that severed the large leg from the joint connecting part of it.

  Splash

  Black blood spewed and the creature immediately toppled to the side after losing one leg.

  Darkness on the other hand destroyed the two more legs with nothing but brute force and skill.

  Storm Rider had already helped by blinding it. Other than that, she stayed in the air with her arms crossed. She was observing Luna, especially the way her life essence flowed.

  ‘Her growth rate is even faster than before.’

  At the same time, Darkness was almost stepped on as the creature shook its body to throw Len off its back. However, it had underestimated Len because she held on for her dear life each time it added to its force. The silver hue of her Aura was making her entire body dimly glow as she drew out more and more to affect the creature’s anatomy.

  Soon, one of its legs just shattered after it tried to step on Luna. Now only three of its legs were left. It lost balance and plummeted on the black field with a loud thud that echoed through the mountains.

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  After its collapse, the stone creature was easier to take down. Luna attacked its remaining legs while Darkness destroyed its outer shell with a series of powerful punches charged with gravity.

  Once the shell was gone, Len's ice made it inside its body and consumed it from within. The creature grew weaker and slower as Len's powerful Aura ate away everything.

  It let out a death cry as the ice burned its insides, turning them crystalline and white as snow.

  Soon, its cries grew quieter and finally it stopped trying to fight back. Then, the cursed creature turned still and all that remained was a lifeless being made of ice.

  It was dead.

  Luna fell to her knees and let out a brief relieved sigh. Now that the adrenaline was slowing down, the pain from that hit was back then was reviving, causing her to gnaw as she slowly held back the tears welling up in her eyes.

  Darkness let out a laugh before she immediately fell on her back and lost consciousness from exhausting too much zenshi and blood loss.

  At least she was alive.

  Len jumped off the creature’s back and fell on one knee. Her face was painted with sweat and her body skin was paler. For the entire time, her ability was the one doing most. To freeze every atom in that creature must have taken a great toll of both mental and physical energy to manage because the creature was as big as a house.

  A normal group of Ascenders wouldn’t have survived this thing. Matter of Fact, a normal group of Ascenders couldn’t survive this world in general.

  ‘The second army needs to be more packed. No humans, just hundreds of ascenders with sorcerers leading them. That’s the only way they can survive this level.’

  Luna thought while staring at the ice trophy of a beast. She was doing her best to ignore the pain.

  “You’ve all managed to kill an Earth Lord. I would be lying if I said I’m not impressed by you….ascenders.” Storm Rider acknowledged as she floated down.

  “Ha! So you do get impressed, Lord Storm.”

  Luna creased her eyebrows. ‘Lord? When did she start seeing Storm Rider as a Lord?’

  Storm Rider also looked as surprised to hear that title added to her nickname. Lord was a title given to people born in high-born families and Fourth Gate users.

  Since Len was under the impression that Storm Rider was beyond a fourth gate user, Lord seemed like the appropriate title to use at the moment.

  “Well…I like to give credit when I see its worth.” Storm Rider’s eyes moved to the frozen Earth Lord. She walked up to it and touched the icy surface of its frozen skin. “The Earth Lords were sacred and peaceful beings who lived in this territory. The path we’ve just used to get here was made by the humans who co-existed with them. If it wasn’t for the curse…”

  Storm Rider stopped explaining and closed her eyes.

  Whoosh!

  The wind started to whisper as golden wisps of essence started to flow from the Earth Lord. They resembled a beautiful collection of threads that was entering Storm Rider’s body.

  ‘Storm Rider is immortal so her essence reserves are almost endless. However, that essence isn’t powerful enough to create complex sorcery.’ Luna recalled the small lessons Storm Rider had taken her through while she was still in the Coral Building.

  She had shared the differences between the sorcery humans used and the one gods used. Take for example the barrier and the prototype Mildrith. To create these, Storm Rider used essence belonging to cursed creatures.

  Even though they were cursed, they were still Divine Creatures. Their energy was part of the Realm the gods occupied. But if she had been born in the divine realm, then maybe she wouldn’t need to always absorb Life Essence.

  The weakened sisters watched in awe as the Earth Lord slowly decreased in size. Its frozen body started to fade away as Storm Rider drew more essence from it.

  ‘I don’t even know why she’s absorbing energy from everything. She has only been relying on her Aura to fight. She’s definitely up to something.’ Luna caught on quickly. But unfortunately, her body pain forced her to keep her mouth shut. She didn’t want to overthink anymore.

  Soon, the giant stone spider was no more. It faded out of existence after Storm Rider siphoned each drop of energy left.

  When she was done, Storm Rider inhaled a large chunk of fresh cold air then let out a satisfied sigh.

  “The Earth Lords were purely heavenly beings and maintained that purity even when the gods cursed them. In fact, all of the Earth Lords here were created by this mountain to protect itself from the curse. Each one is a piece of its subconsciousness that was affected by the curse.”

  “The Mountain?” Luna’s eyebrows knotted.

  Storm Rider nodded and pointed at one of the snow-capped peaks.

  “These mountains are actually the surface of a very ancient and powerful Earth Lord who is currently in slumber.”