Faced with a stronger foe, Adret impressively showed no hesitation to jump into the fray immediately. By closing the distance, she could better sense the gigantic thing’s movements and evade some attacks. At the same time, strings of silver breath and beams of moonlight shone from her scales, both damaging the creature on her approach.

“When did she get that one? Would make a great spotlight,” he commented on an amusing factor of her ‘bright’ innate ability. And unlike his Eye of Truth, these lights actually appeared clearly in their physical dimension.

Every flap of her wings created a torrent of wind, throwing liquid oxygen in every direction, all the while she rapidly circled the creature too large for its own good. However, size only slightly hindered soul forms…

The giant invisible clump let out an electric noise not too different to Akevorax’s bolt of lightning as it zapped through the air. A high-pitched, oscillating tone which grated on your ears, and from that precursor came its first attack. The ground trembled momentarily, and not too far behind, he felt the wave of soul power rush towards Adret. At such a distance, it barely hit harder than a feather on his face… But she could only hunker down and throw mana towards the Formed Soul.

Unlike him, who only recently acquired the soul-related titles, Adret and others her age already obtained a method to create a temporary defence through the Nexus. And while not anything impeccable, the barrier encasing her Soul blocked that dreadful screech.

Akevorax still heard the screech’s infuriating pitch ring in his ears.

Once she blocked it, Adret moved right back onto the offensive. Claws encased in a moonlit glow slashed frequently, all while, the flowing strings tore through its body with thousands of holes left throughout.

Those holes remained, unable to heal so easily, but damage of this scale did nothing to stop the giant blob’s shaking once more. Too stupid to hide its telegraphing, it always gave ample time for preparation. This time a large silver shield floated between them. It flew back a few metres from the impact of this wave, but ensured not a hint of soul power touched Adret. What followed further were more of the same attacks, but this alone couldn’t kill such a thing.

Soul forms weren’t dangerous due to numbers, but due to how these behemoths worked. Unlike the chimaera he killed, the soul form in front of him maintained every last soul. In other words, to kill this behemoth meant killing the thousands of soul forms within!

None of that stopped her repeated attacks though. For the first time, perhaps ever, he discovered determination on Adret’s face.

For what… He couldn’t pinpoint.

With every attack, the Soul Forms retaliated more frequently, filled with a newfound disdain and rage, but more importantly appeared to develop some concept of innovation. As its body vibrated chaotically with intensity to release another wave, the first change occurred.

It began its development to a mithril tier’s intelligence.

The intense peaks and sloughs all along its normally smooth surface settled, and instead one portion of its body pulled inwards. Like how a bowstring pulled back, the intention of this basic innovation concentrated the furious fluctuations and erratic noise it generated. Adret noticed the move instantly, and at such a close distance, easily timed an escape as the soul power escaped.

Her wings released a veil of moonlight as she instantly burst out with a speed no lesser than his own. But only for that single move.

Half a kilometre travelled just like that, she already reached the opposite side of the soul form with a further round of attacks ready. The intelligence without any control of its emotions squealed in displeasure but did little more. It lacked the ability to attack in series, for now.

Every little change and observation brought it closer to her power.

The colossal soul form, tens of times her size, might have lost enough mass to create a whole new Adret-sized clump, but she wore down a fraction of a whole at most. Akevorax watched patiently. It almost looked like he enjoyed the show by all means, but some stress always shined through on his face. Healing required a deplorable amount of time, evidenced by the decrease in runes so far.

From countless runes which floated in his body, there were now countless many runes… Obviously neither of them actually counted it out. But that problem didn’t matter. Another Master true spell eased the burden on Adret significantly, and a stronger one potentially killed the thing outright, but it also threatened to send everything haywire. Already he agitated those deep wounds with that first spell. No reason to take a risk unless she needed help.

“Keep up the effort, but note that it’s gotten faster. Use everything at your disposal; every last ability and bit of equipment. And then fail miserably. Isn’t that where you think it hides?” Akevorax muttered to himself on the sidelines, wistfully praying she didn’t get herself killed in this embroiled mess.

Her attacks continued in sequence, most powered not by mana but incredible wellsprings of lunar energies stored within. It was only with every release of silver breath that she consumed any considerable amount of mana, even so, Adret fired off a twentieth one which continued its reign of visceral damage. And in that minute of battle, all of that culminated to a mere fifth of her enemy’s body. She couldn’t maintain such a high-output method for much longer. Violent bursts of power kept her warm and threw off any frost gathered on her scales, but all of that reached its limit as well. Few other options remained.

Her actions appeared strange for a moment, almost pointless. She flew about in an easily-followed circle about the soul form, and even it easily prepared another focused blast of soul power aimed for her slow-moving body. As the final second came, it already prepared for her sudden movement and was entirely ready to adjust.

But that never happened. Instead, the silver shield revealed itself once more, and absorbed the blast like a wood wall against a tsunami. It flew backwards from the impact, a major section of its centre cracked and mana even leaking slightly. The surface healed on its own as the silver metal absorbed her psychic power, but the runes within remained partially damaged, its enchantment barely still functioning. Adret didn’t care though. Akevorax expected her to try this at some point, but not halfway through.

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Her wings released a trail of moonlight once more and she whisked into the barrier. But left behind her was a large metal plate with an engraved array, active and powered. Modified to release its attack towards the soul form facing where she once stood.

Such a simple creature couldn’t understand how arrays worked. None of them even understood that the seven arrays beneath a layer of solid oxygen created that barrier which stopped so many already.

It wholly ignored the falling metal plate as Adret landed within a small cover at the barrier’s centre, sitting within a blazing orange fire once more.

She panted drearily, exhausted and in pain from the harsh air which forced its way through her body. The biting cold and ice crystals built up within her lungs gave rise to a degree of pain she never experienced. At times like this, words of affirmation could pull most back to comfort. However, Akevorax only made things harder on her, asking condescendingly, “Is this your resignation?”

And in response… She glared, if not for just a moment. A pant broke up that face and a hint of mellowness returned, the flames with unbearable heat charred her scales, yet healed them as they turned to ash. She breathed some in as well but held in the cry of pain with agonised tears. Even without words, the answer came through clearly.

He shook his head mockingly and watched as the falling array plate finally stopped in mid-air, aimed to its target, and activated, before its wave of soul power struck the translucent barrier.

Just like its unfiltered attack, the array formed a cone of power towards the behemoth soul form. A taste of its own medicine.

Soul power erupted through the giant figure, it penetrated through like a cannon shot through flesh. It wasn’t wholly up to comparison against a real master tier, but against a dumb soul form without any protections?

Please, it only lived with a gaping hole through its centre because it was a soul form.

Adret stood out of the flames and swallowed one of the few mana potions left in her storage, then taking a dose of a mercuric liquid right after. Her resplendent dragon heart refined the two restoratives rapidly, and in a few minutes both her major energy stores would be refilled. A luxury of time she currently lacked. Moonlight washed over him as the veil reappeared, and in turn, Adret took her leave.

Above the shaking soul form, it now shook with a rapid speed and intensity completely unseen. Ready to fight to the death for its revenge. But she gave no more chances. The world itself warped, but in the end relented as the incomplete sub-realm had no will to reject what came next, and now shining down on the raining landscape appeared a sole moon in the sky. Clouds above dispersed to give a perfect circle of vision of that lunarscape, an impressive sight, but funnily ruined as this creation did not impose true changes on the world. Daylight from the plane itself still shone and left the world in a perpetual morning.

Adret’s scales glowed under its brightness, and the soul form burned under its pure light. A moonlight veil extended once more, but this time she didn’t evade or kite the behemoth, her figure flashed forward. Straight into the creature invisible to naked eyes, and hovering in the gigantic tunnel left through it.

However, with full control over itself, the soul mass closed off both ends, and rapidly flattened that space within. Immense soul power threatened to crush Adret in a moment.

Scales still glowing brightly, she infused them with further lunar power and grew blindingly bright. From an illuminating figure, to a point of light, she radiated power outwards, all to become a beacon. The walls of soul power very nearly reached her, first closed off on both ends to ensure that her Soul didn’t barely manage to squeeze out or escape.

A thin beam of light shot down from the moon onto her, instantly cutting through the entire soul form until it reached her. And then it expanded outward, growing larger but weaker. From instantly penetrating through, it drilled down metres at a time, and soon engulfed the entire figure but only cutting away thin layers of material from its top. She flew out of the hole made above and spewed out another silver breath immediately to follow up. A small grey crystal left her storage not longer after as well, embedded within the newly formed gaping hole before detonating.

A blast of soul power shattered the body of more soul forms within, but it amounted to pittances.

From the behemoth so many times larger she reduced it by a fifth alone, one array from Akevorax dealt more damage in an instant, and then she even utilised that unseen ability in hope it finally finished off the thing. But as a third of the thing remained, and her power dropped immensely as the moon receded once more, Adret reached her limit.

Would things have been different against a normal creature of this power? Obviously just her psychic prowess destroyed it with ease, that was the norm…

And yet she still always lost against her generation. What made her so weak against dragons like Pritaslo? She spent so much time focused on spells, and yet Adret’s attacks never once shook her palace. After repeated losses against much weaker dragons as well, and rapidly falling from the top leaderboard, any desire to battle dried up. Why else did she volunteer for this battle over his offerings… Did she always lack desire?

A single look to the side revealed him sitting there with a face of… Disappointment? Concern? Comfort?

At this point she couldn’t even tell. What had he felt or thought about her? Why he said one thing but acted another? Why he so clearly hated her, but said he was fine spending time together!?

For a moment she glared back there, a response to his words, but not at all directed towards him. She could not form the idea of hating another, not true hatred from the depths of her heart at least. But through her own limits she realised there was something she always hated– Something she was always allowed to hate.

Herself. Only that.

And dizzy in the face of death, she really understood why she hated herself. She understood that desires did not make a painful choice easier, but gave the motivation to perform them. A painful choice would always remain that way. But to kill that pain which crushed her heart and spirits with disappointment. Kill that constant shackle of failure others saw on her. Those were desires to change that she realised.

She made the first heartless decision of her life. She betrayed her first and deepest friend as death unmasked her repressed heart.

She killed her moon.

Blow after blow, a tearful Adret stared silently up above in her mental space, only able to watch as the perfect, gentle moon cracked like glass. Her reality and time froze, but that ruined soul form attacked the tired, static dragon. Its blast of soul power arrived towards her unknowingly, but in front of her, a figure appeared with a smile.

Akevorax ignored the blow as silver armour covered one side of his body, and leaned towards the crying Adret. “Just be yourself, that’s all she ever wanted for you.” His voice reached no one, but inevitably the painful screech of that creature beside him annoyed him.

With a single word, ignoring its consequences, the behemoth soul form was no more.

She certainly didn’t need it.