Chapter 401 C401. Second Evolution
Everything had happened in an instant.
The blinding light that suddenly illuminated the entire Ozark forest disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared and the night returned to its previous calm.
The sentries stationed on the city walls of the capital city of the Floato region were all visibly confused by the sudden brightness that had originated from the incredibly massive forest miles away.
With the city guards already stretched thin by the destruction of a demon noble's mansion a few hours ago, their unit station on the city walls could not afford to investigate the cause of that blinding lights and thus, all they could do was send words to the Royal knights Captain, Nars Horlace, and await his response.
However, there was a group of individuals standing atop the roof of the guards tower, observing the situation in the forest with grave expressions.
Clad in her usual reddish-black body-fitting armor that was engraved with magic runes, her dark brown eyes narrowed into a slit as she stared deep into the center of the Ozark Forrest tens of miles away.
Her scarlet hair, no longer tied in her usual ponytail suitable for battle, swayed beautifully in the wind as she stood atop the guard tower, the grip on her spear tightened the moment she sensed a drastic change in the air.
Tucked underneath her left arm was a seemingly sleeping child with an oblivious expression on her face. Behind her were the remaining three members of her party and they each wore a similar expression to hers as they observed the area surrounding the Ozark forest.
"What in the world is that?"
Black Moon questioned as his vision extended through the vast distance but failed to penetrate the dense aura of negativity suppressing the entire Ozark forest.
Their gazes all gravitated towards the part of the forest that had slowly begun to die as everything around the origin of that light had suddenly begun disintegrating to dust under the absurd levels of negative energy.
Anything living would die and anything already dead would be reborn in darkness. If left unchecked, this aura would transform the entirety of the Ozark forest into a spawning place for the undead. A forest of the living dead.
"The rest of you head back into the city, I'll go take a look."
Aurora spoke as she tossed the child she was holding at the sisters who while startled, managed to catch Cloudy before immediately dropping her as an actual fluffy-looking cloud instantly caught her before she hit the ground.
"Are you insane! Whatever is exuding such dense amounts of negative energy has to be at the level of a Grand Lich or higher. Are you by chance courting death?"
"Relax, I'm not stupid. I only plan to take a look at the origin of that light. I sense there is a battle unfolding within the forest and I have to see this, hehehe... Besides, if there is an undead infestation in progress, it's best to eradicate it before it starts."
Saying that she did not wait for a response as her body was engulfed in a golden aura as she jumped off the roof of the tower and dashed towards the forest at a blinding speed.
Black Moon couldn't help but face-palm himself as he watched their reckless leader run head-first into unknown territories yet again.
"Ah... There goes—"
"Our idiot leader again..."
"What should we—"
"Do now eh, Moon?"
The sisters spoke off each other as usual as the child, Cloudy floated above their heads on a literal cloud completely oblivious to the situation at hand as she slept.
Black Moon rubbed his eyes in exhaustion as he wondered why he was stuck working with such a bunch.
"Ahh... I'll go back up our idiot leader so she doesn't die. The rest of you should report this to the princess and see what she thinks is going on in this region tonight."
"Alright."
"Alright."
With that, Black Moon floated off the roof as he flew after Aurora and the sisters dragged Cloudy towards the emerald palace.
?????
After being driven to the brink of defeat by Blane, Zelda's unwavering determination not to disappoint her creator, had led to her strengthening the connection she shared with her master, and suddenly, a strange female voice rang in her head, one different from any she had heard before.
??????????
{Notice: The conditions have been met. SoulLink connection has been perfected.}
{Notice: The subject designated as 'Zelda' has met the requirements to transcend.}
{The subject's Enhanced Darkness Core has reached the limits of its capacity, overload is imminent.}
{Notice: SoulLink has established a connection with Master's ?Potential Break?.
Notice: The required action is not available for the classification of the designated subject and evolution cannot be completed. Monarch Authority is required for evolution overrule.}
{Notice: Monarch Authority has been granted. The restrictions of the undead race of the specimen will now be overruled. The enhanced Darkness Core will now be evolved into a Legendary Death Core.}
{Evolution successful. The subject will now begin its transcension into a 7th Tier Demigod. The souls of the defeated will now be absorbed for evolution.}
{Notice: The subject has now successfully become a Demigod. The basic Level of Tier 7 was reached. The experiment has been completed successfully. New skills will be distributed.}
??????????
Zelda had no idea whose voice this was but could understand what it was saying. She couldn't sense any malicious intent within it and felt a level of familiarity from the voice.
She could also comprehend the conclusion to everything the voice had said and understood one thing. It didn't matter what or how it had happened, what mattered was, she had somehow attained the strength she had desperately wanted moments before she could lose.
In a blink of an eye, her transcending aura exploded out of her body, suppressing the entire forest as though death itself had descended upon them and dark lightning danced around her body.
Her aura soon stabilized after a while as it transcended the mortal plane beyond what could be perceived by the physical dimension.
Zelda could sense her new core slowly repairing and strengthening her body when she suddenly felt the air around her shift as the darkness was completely eradicated by a blinding light originating from her target's location.
His body was shrouded in an absolute dark aura despite the fact that his sword was shining brighter than the sun. His aura had increased by several folds as his feet dug deeper into the ground and he lunged at her with incredible speed.
However, every single molecule in Zelda's body was completely oozing off with immerse power that she was yet to control so every single movement of hers, no matter how minute and casual, carried within it, the might of a Death goddess, one who ruled over the end of anything and everything.
As such, when Zelda blinked, the world shuddered as a massive wave of death aura exploded forth, eliminating everything it touches, including the light and darkness of Blane's technique. If he hadn't been protected from direct contact by the darkness shrouding him, odds were, he would've also met his end.
Still, that didn't matter once Zelda decided to end this farce, increasing her movement speed at will, she causally walked towards his body that was now frozen in mid-air as though time has stopped, retrieving the storage box she had seen him place the documents Rain wanted in before proceeding to eliminate all traces of his existence with Dark Lightning.
The skill completely eradicated any trace of its target even the smell of burnt flesh was destroyed completely. It was as though he had never existed.
Seeing such a sight even surprised Zelda, who could barely comprehend what had just happened. There was a chance she had made a mistake in killing such a valuable target but unfortunately, she could barely control her strength in this state as everything around her was still being reduced to dust.
Just as she contemplated on how to proceed, a sound soon echoed in her head as a familiar voice soon followed.
'Zelda.'
This was the first voice she had held the day she was born. It was a voice she could never forget as this was the voice of her creator. As though the motion was already engraved in her soul, she immediately genuflected to nothing in particular.
'Hmm? Did you just kneel? It feels like you did, you know I'm not there right?'
[Master, I...]
'Well, it's fine. Congratulations on your evolution. I have to admit, I had no idea my undead could also advance without a core infusion. Tell me, what exactly happened?'
Although Zelda was not one for long stories, she tried to explain things as they occurred as well as her thought process along the way which was the normal way she was ordered to give a report.
After a brief moment of narrating the events and what the voice she heard had said, the voice of her master went silent for a moment.
'It's a shame you didn't keep that guy alive so his memories could be preserved but under the situation, that's absolutely fine so do not fret about it. You've certainly surprised all of my expectations as my first shadow rogue. I can't believe I'm actually proud of an undead.'
The space in front of her head suddenly distorted before a tear the size of a ball was opened and an arm reached through space, the hands of her master patting her in the head for a moment before retreating back through space.
"Well done."
Zelda's nonexistent heart practically jumped for joy as she heard those words. Accomplishing her master's wishes and meeting his expectations should've been her only goals yet for some reason, being complimented like this made her feel a bit weird inside as the decay around her immediately stopped.
'Take some time to get accustomed to your newly enhanced body before rejoining Rain on your mission and the both of you try and be more stealthy, you're both rogues after all. Alright, I should leave you to your mission, good luck.'
With that, the connection between her and her master via their SoulLink returned to normal but unlike before, she no longer felt the chaos within her body as everything had become calm.
Zelda could now feel and control the absurd amount of energy within her core and no longer exuded a ridiculous level of negative energy that destroyed everything around her.
She couldn't help but observe her body for a while as she stood in place silently before returning her attention to her current mission and her gaze shifted to the storage box.
Zelda didn't attempt to bypass the encryption of the storage box as that would be a more complicated process and would take far too long. There's also a chance of the Item self-destructing if tempered with and losing everything stored within the box.
Hence, she opted for the simpler approach as she isolated the box by infusing it with her Mana and isolating the pocket dimension tied to the magic artifact, bypassing the item's protection and tearing through space itself as she shattered the storage box.
Normally this would also collapse the pocket dimension itself, destroying everything within it but given as she was now faster than light, she had enough time to reach through the tear in space using her newly acquired spatial manipulation from her master, and transferring everything in his storage to her shadow space.
After that, Zelda quickly adjusted to her new core as she instantly learned how to control her newfound strength and disappeared into the night.
Her connection with her master had also granted her a few new skills including shadow teleportation, which was indeed faster than shadow movements.
Moments later, two figures arrived in the scene, as everything around them had already been disintegrated into nothing but dust. They could not help but stare blankly at their surroundings in utter disbelief.
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