In the time it had taken for Svetlana to get trapped in a closed void which eventually ended in her ending the life of two Haron Elders, the other Elders, excluding the one locked in battle with Kirill Doxon above the clouds and almost out of the atmosphere of the Nexus world, had taken to lay waste to as many Doxon or Sensual Palace Elders they could find.
Elders of the Doxon family as well as the Sensual Palace had fallen to the Haron generals and the ones that had so far survived had actually only done so because of the few Legion ladies present at the Doxon Duchy.
The most effective and eye-grabbing fighters among the present Legion ladies were the pair of Amelia and Marla who fought like sisters in arms to take down experts that surpassed them in cultivation.
Both had spent enough of their hundred years of seclusion focused on their Elemental Ordinances and either during that time or the weeks that followed, they had been able to elevate their Elemental Ordinance Mastery to the Harnessing Level.
With her Ordinance in hand, the darkness that shrouded Marla was an extension of herself and the mere proximity of her with anyone would have caused the said person to feel the creeping of paralyzing darkness that made movements and actions sluggish and that was not all she could do.
Amelia's Ordinance on the other hand was a derivative of the Abstract Ordinance of reality which was the Elemental Ordinance of Perception.
With it, she could change and warp her opponent's perceptions to the degree of causing them self-harm and once she had reached the Harnessing Level of her Ordinance, she could warp perceptions of multiple targets which she had done a few times already to get the simple-minded monsters to attack each other.
Her Perception-warping was in no way permanent and would eventually wear off which meant that, while it was active, it was paramount that all experts around took advantage.
When the remaining Haron Elders stooped low to take their fights to experts of the Doxon family and Sensual Palace that could not possibly contend with them, both Marla and Amelia had made to intervene but the Elders just smacked them aside with superior Cosmic Saint Energy and while they were spinning away, they were struck by the duo of Ehrlich and Aliya.
Aliya and Ehrlich had been standing to the side so far and just roamed their eyes for where it was best that they focus their attention.
Marla and Amelia became their top pick on account of how active they had been.
Both Marla and Amelia kept themselves in the air after they had used cosmic energy to shield themselves from the greater part of the attack that had been used to hit them.
Once stable, they were able to truly gaze at the faces of their attackers. Amelia's Perception-warping fizzled on the monsters below and she could never try to regain that hold on the simple-minded perceptions because her whole focus was instantly grabbed by Aliya.
There was no banter between them as Aliya did not wish to waste her words on someone who was against her Princess.
Over with Marla and Ehrlich though, the atmosphere was a lot cooler although every word was spoken with spite,
"So you are one of the many floozies to fall for that blue-eyed bastard?" Enrich said and he adjusted the straps of the Armor he had on.
The Armor was covered in runes that had been paramount to its making and it was powered by Astral energy that Tanya herself had put in. The Armor was a pseudo Artifact in the sense that its power was finite but while it was active, Marla would know what it means to battle against an immovable force.
"Floozy? Is that supposed to be an insult? Imagine wagging your tail to the words of a woman whose quest for power will only lead to your death," Marla said to Ehrlich who frowned,
"I should be saying that to you! Do you really think you can win? Deep within yourself, do you really believe he is leading you on a path to glory?" Ehrlich asked.
"Are you here to convert me or are you here to fight?" Marla asked and she flexed her cosmic Armament.
"Answer the question!" Enrich yelled.
"Don't want to," Marla told him with a shrug, and a massive fist thick with darkness that felt powerful enough to crush a mountain struck out from her towards Ehrlich who met the fist with the gauntlets of his Armor.
"Ahhhh" Ehrlich yelled as he strained against the power of the fist after which he was able to push it to the side and away from himself only to very clearly see that Marla was no longer in front of him.
He whirled around with an evident sluggishness but still caught the massive ball of Marla's weapon.
*BAM*
Ehrlich hit the ball to the side and grabbed the shaft of Marla's weapon to pull her towards himself after which he grabbed her neck and slammed her against a multi-colored barrier that he made appear.
*Ac-" Marla was not even able to produce a complete sound on account of how much her windpipe was getting crushed.
Ehrlich pulled her away from the barrier he created and slammed her against it yet again and then slammed her a third time.
*BAM*
*BAM!*
With the third slam, Marla could feel foreign energy slipping into her body but she reacted fast and efficiently enough to grab the arms slamming her into the barrier, and retaliate with her darkness Ordinance.
The darkness interfered with whatever energy source Ehrlich was using after which her weapon, which she had dropped earlier, flew up into the air and banged into the side of Ehrlich's head.
The hit caused Ehrlich to move his head to the side after which Marla caused two hands to appear with her physique and used both fists to hit the man's forearms first before slamming him in the chest.
Ehrlich released her on account of the attacks on his forearm after which, he moved a single foot away due to the slam to his chest. Marla decided to use her gained freedom as well as the one foot of distance to conjure a massive Cosmic saint attack that packed the full might of her two saint stars.
*BOOOOOMMMM!!!*
So strong was the impact as well as blowback of Marla's delivered attack that it pushed her many feet away from Ehrlich but once she had been able to re-stabilize herself, she found that Ehrlich had not moved half as much as her and besides the dimming of a few of the symbols on his armor as well as a faint charring of the actual material, he appeared to be perfectly fine.
At no point had Ehrlich made an actual attempt to defend himself besides relying on his armor.
"Damn it!" Marla said but she only allowed herself a second or two to sulk as she let out wings of her Dark maelstrom physique in a show of her moving her battle prowess to a whole new level.
After she let out her wings and before she could even think to move, she received a lariat that threatened to knock her head off her shoulders.
As she spat put blood, Marla realized Ehrlich himself had been keeping parts of his abilities secret with one of those secretly kept aspects evidently being how fast he was with his Armor.
Contrary to what he had led her to believe with his previous sluggish movement, the armor, in no way slowed him down. In fact, since Ehrlich's true cultivation was nowhere near the cosmic saint realm and he had moved faster than Marla, a two-star saint could react to, the armor must be amplifying his speed.
Ehrlich never let Marla go but rather continued to push her back with the crook of his neck still locked underneath her chin.
*BANG!*
They both fell into a building and the force of their fall caused said building to crumble to nothing.
When Marla opened her eyes, she was staring right up at the sky where Svetlana was battling yet another pair of Haron Elders who had not taken kindly to how she had caused the head of their colleague to explode while she had not taken kindly to her kinsmen they had killed.
Marla's visual of Svetlana was quickly obstructed by Ehrlich who loomed over her to slam a fist into her face.
*BAM!*
The force of the blow caused shockwaves to spread but Marla took it like a champ and made to retaliate only to find her limbs quickly pinned down by the multi-colored Monument energy that Ehrlich had been allowed to wield.
As the next blow approached her, a voice sounded in Marla's ear,
'Embrace the darkness,'
The voice was hers or more accurately, it belonged to her inner self that had a better grip on her Darkness Ordinance.
At the words of the voice, Marla closed her eyes and surrendered to forces just a bit (enough) out of her control.
When Ehrlich delivered his next blow, he found his hand sinking into the darkness that Marla had liquified herself into.
The darkness crawled all over Ehrlich with incredible speed and as he panicked at how it ate away at all of what made him a cultivator in his own right, Ehrlich used the energy of the Monument to repel Marla.
He succeeded with a large part of her person but as the large mass of darkness crawled away from him to reform into Marla's beautiful self, a spike stabbed Ehrlich from the inside.
The darkness of the spike locked him down where he was at the mercy of an angry-looking Marla wielding her Armament which specialized in bashing body parts into horrific deformities...