"Hey, Ned. Wake up. Since when are you this weak?"
Taking her gaze away from us, Remi picked up the first Transcendent by his collar.
With resounding slaps filling our ears, her hands moved faster than the wind as she tried to slap the guy awake but to no avail. The guy was already knocked out that the Dark Energy contained in the Incarnation Body has started to disperse.
Upon seeing that, Remi clicked her tongue and gave the guy one last slap.
"Useless baggage."
After saying that, instead of trying another method of waking him up, Remi's arm transformed into a sharp blade. Without any hesitation, she stabbed it deep in the guy's neck. Since they're just Incarnation, no blood was spilled. Nonetheless, the reaction of the guy was too realistic.
As soon as that blade lodged on his neck, his body also noticeably shriveled like a fruit being squeezed out of its juice.
And the juices squeezed out were all absorbed by Remi, enhancing her restricted Transcendent strength.
Yulan, on her side, only watched on without saying anything which confirmed the hierarchy between them.
In the end, Remi gave up on waking him up and instead turned him into a source of Enhancement for her. As soon as she finished, the first Transcendent Incarnation disappeared into motes of Dark Energy without even having named himself. In place of that, Remi's Transcendent Aura grew to an extent approaching that of a Rank 2 Transcendent. If I have to guess, her UPL is now more than 250.
Such decisive action from her, I wonder how strong is her real body? Rank 2 or Rank 3?
"Yulan. I don't know if this will be enough but I expect us to lose here. Once the memory of your incarnation merged with your body, immediately report what happened here to your superior."
Yulan could only nod before stepping back to prepare herself from the upcoming clash against us.
After saying that, Remi stepped forward and faced Yumiko who's calmly watching what she did.
From her feet, a silver-colored circular domain spread out as multiple types of blade started to be conjured inside. And from that domain, the blades transformed into metallic figures wielding different types of blade.
To counter her Domain, Yumiko also opened her Spirit Domain which spread out from her feet and started contesting for hegemony for the area they covered. Each Domain trying to encroach upon the other.
Though Yumiko's domain isn't as flashy as hers, it was proven strong enough to halt the advance of Remi's domain.
With those metallic figures contained in her domain, it's as good as useless. However, that didn't mean they would stop fighting.
That was just the start. Remi, ignoring everything else, disappeared from her place and reappeared in front of Yumiko. With her arm that hadn't transformed back from being a blade, a black Blade Slash was launched from it, aiming to cut at her adversary.
But Yumiko already moved to counter her before she reappeared. Her Spirit Domain, as well as her miniature Spirit Ocean, overlapped creating a cubed space which became something like a cage for the both of them.
When the Blade Slash appeared, Yumiko brandished her gohei to conjure a circular mirror which reflected Remi's attack to her.
With her retreat path blocked, Remi dodged the Blade Slash that was reflected by jumping to the side. Though she was enclosed in Yumiko's cage, her Domain was still activated. Like everyone's Domain, it should be providing her with some sort of buff. That's why, after dodging, with the Dark Energy emanating from her body, numerous blades of different types were conjured and hovered in front of her. This time, it materialized enough to be mistaken for real blades.
It appears that that was her specialty. As to what Pathway her abilities came from, it's hard to discern especially when someone already started on their Transcendent Pathway.
At this point, Yumiko and Remi's battle had just entered a new stage while it was just about to start with us.
Though I could really take the front and face that Yulan, Jayna pulled on my arm and whispered how she wanted to fight her by herself.
That Yulan was someone who's probably versed with flames judging by how she kept flaunting it ever since she was summoned as an Incarnation. Jayna wanted to test her enhanced Earthfire against her.
"Daisuke, you can go ahead to the next room, leave these two Transcendents to us. I'm sure Yumiko will be saying the same thing if she's not busy with that. Believe in us."
Jayna said before charging in. Her vines conjured from her Seas were accelerating her movement.
When Yulan noticed that, she was once again enraged. She probably thought I'm the one she would fight, judging from how her eyes never left me since Yumiko and Remi's fight started. But upon seeing Jayna charging towards her, her black hair instantly turned red and burned like a candle that was lit.
With an enraged shout, a huge fire wheel was conjured in front of her and rolled towards the vine-riding Jayna.
With the Quintuple Shields from my Bulwark of Invulnerability protecting her, Jayna spun losing only one layer of her shields, before her Earthfire-enhanced vines acted like a spring and brought her mid-air.
Conjuring her different vines, Jayna skillfully approached the Transcendent Incarnation with an Earthfire-covered kick.
As that was happening, I weighed her words with the situation before my eyes... if it's Yuko, I'm sure she would also say the same thing.
Our goal is to close the Portal and cleanse this world of the remaining Dark Elves. We've already come this far that even Jayna could now fight against someone that would normally be impossible to defeat as a Mortal.
I guess believing in them wouldn't be as bad now. But yeah, just to be sure, I'll be leaving one of my clones to watch over them.
Having decided that, after forming one clone, I used the 6-nodes Enhanced Flash Step which instantly brought me past Ezyn and his group. They were still in the process of battling the Mortal Incarnations.
With the death of the first one that was beheaded by Ezyn, the remaining seven stopped their tracks and worked together to retaliate.
Though none of them died yet, Jagu and Rei were already injured despite the enhancement from my buffs.
That's why before I pushed open the door to the next room, I sent the seven with both Physique and Spirit Boosts.
I could actually provide better assistance but seeing their determined faces, I refrained from taking away the experience of fighting those stronger than them. Even if those were Mortal Incarnations, they were fully-fledged Transcendents. They have much better Skills or Abilities compared to them.
After being bathed by those boosts, they visibly regained some of their energy which allowed them to launch a counterattack.
Upon seeing that, I took away my attention to them and focused on the door before me. Yumiko and Jayna were still in the midst of their battle against the two that even if those Transcendent Incarnations saw me, they have no way to stop me. One wrong move and the two girls could end them.
As I pushed open the door. I was met with another strong surge of Dark Energy. This time, it didn't just end with one but it continued like a beating pulse.
With no active light to illuminate the place, my eyes had to adjust to the dark. The Dark Elves like their dark places. Just like those rooms we stayed in during my infiltration in their fortress with Jayna.
When the door behind me closed, the sounds of battle were instantly muted as if this room was separated from the world.
At each step, I would be engulfed in the wave of energy and right afterwards, someone would jump at me from the side, from the back, from beneath the floor. Anywhere they could come from, they would appear from there.
However, none of them were stronger than a Rank 3 Mortal as they jumped straight to their deaths.
As I walked past the last of the brave Dark Elves, our objective finally came into my view. Put above a stand, a spherical object connected to a half-full tank of Dark Energy was beating like a heart. As the source of the sudden surge of Dark Energy, it was the Core of the Labyrinth's Formation.
If there were nodes in place, it was probably connected to this core by the tubes beneath the ground.
"If you're gonna use that, you should do it now. But then I guess, what's the point?"
A few seconds after I said that, from behind the Core, a lone Dark Elf stepped out of the dark and removed the grey aura covering her, in her hand was another 'Sacrificial Sphere'.
Judging from how her hand was incessantly trembling, she was clearly hesitating to use that. She's a Rank 5 Mortal and someone who already reached the threshold. However, since she's stuck in this world, there's no way for her to advance and become a Transcendent.
"In the end, it still comes to this… Will you let me live if I step down and let you do what you want to do? I can even become your woman. Just… just give me a chance to live."
Though she appeared to be stuttering, there's no more hope in her voice.
"I'm sorry but I'm not interested. However, if you throw me that sphere and step down just like you said, the people of this world will decide your fate."
Out of all the Dark Elves, she's the only one who tried to surrender like this. But yeah, just by being here, her position among the Dark Elves sent here was most likely the highest. She's probably the one who ordered for the others in the previous room to sacrifice themselves by using the spheres and also the one who ordered those Dark Elves who jumped to their deaths just now.
Even after all that, she's here trying to save herself only when all hopes are lost.
That's a very human-like behavior. Don't you think so?
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