"Haaa!".
"Roaar!".
Aster's shout followed by the Liger's roar echoed through the battlefield, the air itself trembled as the giant golden armor clashed against the fierce ice cladded figure of the Liger.
The ground rumbled and then crumbled apart due to the impact, the initial clash was between the tail of the Liger and Alexandra's shield, the shockwave made the atmosphere wave.
Surprisingly Alexandra's shield was pushed backwards for the first time, it was only a bit, but when you take into account the fact that it didn't even flinch when a Genesis Core was pushing against it, back at her fight with the Fritz elder, it makes one understand how much raw power does the Liger has.
And that is also why Aster said, that this spirit ice was perfect for Aria, unlike Esmeralda who clearly focused on the energy path, the Liger seemed to be prominent in the body path, which he didn't even know it was possible.
That was Aster's mistake, he forgot to ask Esmeralda more about spirit elements, he couldn't be fully blamed though, it's not like they were common enough to be found so easily.
And Aster never expected for one to appear this time, since he just met Esmeralda not too long ago, anyway, that conversation could be left for later, right now Aster had a giant Liger trying to knock him down, so that it would be easier to aim at the chest of the armor.
The Liger saw the tail whip attack being blocked, and the next thing it did was lower its body to bypass Alexandra's shield which was floating on the air in front of the armor.
As if it was dashing, the Liger nimbly bent its legs and then used the impulse to jump towards the golden giant, this time it was using its whole body as a weapon, instead of just the claws.
The paws of the Liger tried to land on the armor, to use the impulse and tackle the enemy in front of it, but of course Aster wasn't just going to let it have its way, the spear which was shoved on the ground a few hundreds of meters away, flew towards the armor's right hand.
Camila's natal treasure always returned to her, and this giant spear temporarily shared the same properties, Aster didn't use this one so far because he wanted to take the Liger by surprise.
And it sure did, the Liger didn't expect the enemy to retrieve that dangerous weapon like that, but it for sure wasn't ready to give up, then under the surprised eyes of Aster and the others, blue energy clouds appeared on the paws of the Liger and its giant body impulse backwards, avoiding the attack of the spear.
But that wasn't all, after dodging the spear, the Liger didn't land on the ground, but was instead standing… on the air.
"Isn't that a bit too much?", mumbled Aster, sure Esmeralda could fly, her wind made Kana's speed increase a lot, to the point that she now could follow the pace of the other girls, while she is at a much lower realm, so in the future her flying speed will be better than anyone in the same realm as her.
But a spirit ice walking on the air was strange, then an idea struck him like a bolt out of the blue, the name of the Divine Firmament from which the Yin Azure Palace originated was Frozen Cloud.
That could be why those guys were so persistent on retrieving the Liger, now that Eris had managed to understand how the formation worked, she also discovered that to maintain that connection between the damaged formation using the yin chain, to control the Liger, they dumped a stupid number of resources into it, from their side.
In Eris's words, they might as well should have given up on the Liger and try to find another spirit ice, that's how much they have invested to keep the Liger under their control, sure spirit elements were incredibly rare, but it wasn't worth risking their foundation over one.
Especially in a super force that is formed by many different factions, where they can be swallowed by others at the slightest sign of weakness.
But now it all made sense, the Yin Azure Palace probably wanted to use the Liger as some sort of symbol and excuse to get the support of other factions, they wanted to take over the control and unite the others under their flag.
They could just say that the Liger was a sign from the heavens or something along the lines of that, and for sure there wouldn't be a lack of fools that would believe them.
The clouds on the paws of the Liger disappeared and it landed on the ground, its eyes glared at the silver spear that would have pierced its body if not for the ability which was saving for an emergency and a low growl escaped its mouth.
Alexandra turned to see Aster as she sent him a sound transmission, which made Aster's eyes glow.
'Let's go with that', he answered, before he gazed at Tiana.
'What's the weight limit of your repelling ability?', he asked.
Tiana understood what Aster wanted her to do and she nodded in response.
'Three… no, four moves are the limit'.
Naturally the Liger wasn't going to leave Aster freely plan what to do, it charged towards the golden armor after a couple of seconds of contemplation, unfortunately for it, Aster excelled in parallel thinking so while he clashed against the Liger, he was sharing his plan with the girls.
…
Outside of the barrier created by the spirit beasts, the whole area was now divided into four regions, from the side of the beasts, the centipede whose figure had turned semi-transparent after covering itself into that black purple mist, had turned a quarter part of nearby area into a black melted hell.
The masked elder was like a fish in the ocean, the previously dark green marsh that surrounded his Genesis Core has also changed to look black inked, even then, the poisonous hell created by those two, couldn't push Agnes's sun-like Genesis Core even a centimeter.
In comparison to before, now it was shining in an even brighter light, the clash between the energies was making the space wave, as it reached the limit before the atmosphere started suffering temporal damage.
At the other side, the gorilla had also activated its innate ability and its previously black plaque covered body had covered in a layer of metal, unlike before the nearby area was affected by it, and everywhere it touched covered in that black metal, it was as if the gorilla had become one with its attribute.
It wasn't transforming other things into its attribute like what Sarina could do, but spreading its metal over other things, just by touching them, instead.
The armored Wendel, was also taking advantage of it, his skin had changed to a dark grey color and surprisingly his Genesis Core, increased its size in around fifty meters, which sure doesn't sound that impactful when Eris's core has eight hundred meters of size, and his only reached around five hundred and fifty meters as of current.
But an increase of fifty meters isn't something that could be taken lightly, especially because the larger the core, the harder it is to increase even a single meter of it, and he increased it a whole fifty meters, he was ecstatic.
'I hope this ape weakens after this, if I can get its beast core and refine it, the increase will be permanent!', he thought.
As if the gorilla could feel Wendel cursing him to die, it turned to see the armored elder before saying.
"Human don't keep anything hidden if you want to live, that woman comes from a place where Heavenly Realm beings are used as porters, I don't know you, but this lord wants to continue living", the words of the gorilla were filled with ridicule, the human in front of it was thinking on what to do after winning, without realizing that it was uncertain whether they could even win.
'Stupid human', thought the gorilla as it kept drawing yin energy from the yin chain link that resided in its heart, unlike the snake and the falcon, the centipede and the gorilla didn't fuse the chain link with their cores, they instead placed it in their hearts, the reason is very simple, they wanted to use it to nurture their lineages instead of just their cores.
They were already stronger than the snake and the falcon, due to their not so diluted lineages, and by injecting the yin energy right into their hearts, they reached the threshold that allowed them to use the innate abilities that their ancestors in their same realms had.
"Hoh, so you descend from a Silver Giant Gorilla, I guess the change in color was caused by all the yin to which you were exposed", Eris's voice could be heard coming from within her Forest Fortress Genesis Core.
Maybe the race of the gorilla wasn't known in this Mortal Plane, but Eris's knowledge doesn't limit to this place, so she could immediately recognize the ability that the gorilla was using.
While the gorilla gritted its teeth, remembering that the woman in front of him, came from a similar place to the one from which its ancestors were kidnapped, to later be used as training targets for humans, Wendel was in awe.
'A place where Heavenly Realm cultivators have to work as porters, what the hell does that mean!', he inwardly shouted.
Though it is said that the cultivation path is limitless, he has seen the might of his distant cousin, in other words, the patriarch of the Castle Armored sect, the sight of a Heavenly Manifestation realm, waving his hand and destroying a whole planet was burned into its memory.
And now he was told that such a strong person would be working as a mere guard, like the ones that can be seen in low ranked cities guarding the entrance to different stores, he was at deny.
Not only that, but the woman he was facing supposedly came from that place, it would be a lie to say, that he didn't feel afraid of Eris, the Fey family with their Soul Kings was enough to make him want to escape, so knowing who he was trying to kill put him under a lot of pressure.
Seeing Wendel being lost, the gorilla put on a cruel smile on its face, and the before the armored elder could react, the gorilla moved its arm as fast as it could.
"What the hell are you doing arghhh!", Wendel was taken by surprise, the giant fist of the gorilla hit his Genesis Core so hard, that it hammered a hole into it, without knowing it, after Wendel used the metal created by the gorilla to enhance his Genesis Core, the gorilla used the metal to produce a stress zone, which he now attacked.
Wendel vomited blood as a hole was punched into his Genesis Core, and then before Wendel could do anything, he was taken out of the core by the gorilla, whose hand was a bloody mess right now, naturally it suffered from the clash, but right now the gorilla didn't care about it.
"The people from those places aren't the type that you can defeat with numbers, at least not this woman, so I'll have you become nourishment for me, thanks for the meal human".
Wendel didn't even have the time to scream before his body was crushed into meat paste, which the gorilla devoured in less than a second, the Genesis Core crumbled apart the moment Wendel died, but the broken pieces didn't disappear and instead turned into metal that cladded the gorilla, just like that the ambitious elder who wanted to overtake the Castle Armored sect was killed and devoured.
Of course, the body and dantian of a Genesis Manifestation cultivator wasn't nearly enough to push the gorilla to reach the next step of its evolution, but he didn't devour Wendel for that.
There are many ways to increase one's battle prowess, advancing is just the most common and most of the times the easiest one.
But there is a reason as to why the gorilla and the centipede chose, Wendel and the masked elder to team up, their attributes were compatible with theirs, so they could help their comprehension over their own attributes increase, if the consumed them.
"That idiot probably allowed you to use your race as part of the oath, instead of your name, right?", surprisingly Eris didn't interrupt the gorilla from killing and consuming Wendel, she just stayed there inside her Genesis Core seeing the situation unfold in front of her.
The gorilla wildly smiled at Eris; rests of blood stained its teeth giving it a savage appearance.
"As expected of someone from the heavens, you are aware of that little trick, but now I wonder if you come from a place on par with those who used my ancestors as cannon fodder, it appears to not be the case, or you would have stopped me from using that fool as food", the moment the gorilla finished speaking its body shone in dark grey light.
The black metal that covered its body change to get a slightly brighter tone, from black inked to dark grey, and the aura around the gorilla skyrocketed.
"Hahaha, with the chain link and the comprehension of that guy in metal element I took a big step, into returning to my origin!", the gorilla shouted with an excited voice, it's previously over buff body also shrank a bit, getting more thin muscles.
"Booom!", the gorilla suddenly turned into a dark grey flash and punched Eris's Genesis Core, which lit up in countless of formations, and unlike before this time the Core was pushed backwards a couple of meters, making the gorilla smirk.
"After consuming you, I will evolve again, human become a source of nourishment for me!", the gorilla rushed towards Eris with a crazed expression.
"You saved me the trouble of having to chase that coward, so I'll give you a fast death in exchange", Eris's melodious voice, could be heard coming from her Genesis Core.
The gorilla suddenly had a bad premonition, but it was too late for it to retreat.
"What the hell is that!!!", in its last moments, the gorilla saw a figure that reached the sky, making him look like a little child in front of an adult, before everything turned into darkness.