With the two spheres in his palms, Orion lifted his hands further up.

The white sphere in his left hand was Dawn, his acceleration magic, and the black sphere in his right hand was Dusk, his ailment magic.

"When have you thought of that? I am sure you said that magic was sealed underground."

Amelia was stunned; she had in front of her two spheres, way bigger than any of her elements currently.

"When I spoke with the tree, it said something about the sealed elements. It said that 'normal' elements were sealed away, not my ancient magic."

"So you should be able to freely use this type of magic, knowing that they're not part of the five elements. I don't know how they will react to being transformed into daggers, though."

With a heavy sigh, Amelia reached for them.

"Another absurdity coming from you... What a change. But thank you. Now I won't feel like a dead weight with my iron daggers."

She was about to take out the daggers attached to the holster at her thighs, but instead was gifted brand-new elements to use.

"I remember when you made me those two elemental crossbows. I still want to experiment with them, but I'll wait until you can freely use all five of them."

With a faint smile on her face, she was reminded of Orion's nature.

'He's impossible. He still intends to use those dangerous weapons?'

Forcefully pushing the elements upward, he urged her.

"So, you're taking them?"

"Yes, I will."

Amelia placed her hands on top of the spheres, and his magic switched hands. With Orion now freed of most of his magic, the most he could do was support Karteira's speed enhancement.

His 'First Gear' wasn't part of his magic, making its use free of any burden.

"What they want to morph into is what I'm curious about."

"I don't usually force my daggers to have a shape; they all have a specific one they want. But these two don't want to take shape."

Hearing Amelia's confusion, Orion closed his eyes and looked closely inside him.

'They don't want to change from a crossbow to a dagger. What a pain.'

The two spheres, seemingly hearing his inner voice, began to undulate in Amelia's hands.

"Wait, what's happening? They refused to change a second ago!"

Even taken by surprise, she immediately closed her eyes and focused on them.

'While the light element requires a flat and curved blade to slice, the dark element requires a pointy shape to plunge into its enemy.'

"Dawn, Dusk."

After saying their names, both spheres brightened and shifted to the greatest daggers Amelia had in her hands.

'They possess tremendous power. How does Orion control them so well?'

Amelia thought, looking at the two new daggers in her hands.

Dawn, the light dagger, refused to have a simple blade. It kept undulating, as if the blade were made of water.

Dusk, the dark dagger, was more tamed. Its shape was a simple, pointy blade, but it kept hiding its true form.

"Good, they changed form. Karteira, can you grab that ant body and throw it in the air, please?"

Karteira, who had been looking at this scene since the beginning, also wanted to know the power behind the two strange daggers.

At Orion's order, she grabbed the dead ant next to her and chucked it toward them.

"Incoming!"

The body of a gray ant flew straight at them.

"I asked in the air, but whatever. Amelia, do your magic."

Amelia immediately slashed at the body. Dawn's blade straightened into a solid form and cut the body in half after stretching out in the blink of an eye.

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Once Dawn finished cutting the ant and returned to its watery form, Amelia stabbed Dusk forward.

Its pointy blade extended to the head of the ant, which was now cut in half, and pierced it. After entering the head, the tip separated in two, causing grisly internal damage and inflicting a new ailment Orion later called 'Bleeding'.

Looking at that scene, even Orion was speechless. He never expected his elements to be so different while being in a different form.

"I guess this will have to do? Well, it's time for some carnage."

Orion was impressed at how dangerous they were, even in dagger form. They kept their specific attributes even after being transformed.

With the two daggers in her hands, Amelia thought about the way they behaved.

'They are way different from every dagger I had in my hands so far. They feel untamed. Maybe it's because they are not used to being a weapon that isn't a crossbow?'

*Clap* *Clap*

Both of them looked at Karteira, who was clapping her hands.

"Nice, nice. I can already see a pile of dead bodies inside, using those two. So, what are we waiting for?"

Amelia was now ready.

...

After checking one last time to see if they were ready, they entered the tunnel.

Karteira used her 'Cerulean Aegis', wearing her full plate armor, expecting a few struggling fights. There were still well over ten thousand creatures inside, as there were dens of monsters all around.

The tunnels were all lit by the roots of Tiohr-nam emerging from the floor, walls, and ceiling. It was easy to see in front of them thanks to the yellow light emitting from her.

They walked inside the curving tunnels, took a few turns, and killed the insects they encountered. Karteira, as a vanguard, killed them on sight with her fists.

It was a stroll so far, as not many insects seemed to move in the tunnels.

But the actual situation was way different from those tunnels, as they were struggling.

"Orion! Watch on your left!"

"Damn it! I didn't expect to see this many crawling all around!"

"Karteira, are you alright?!"

The room they entered was large, and it was crawling with ants, grasshoppers, and hornets, ready to devour them.

Orion was running all over with Amelia on his back, doing somersaults and kicks to avoid the bugs, while Amelia sliced and stabbed everything.

Karteira was acting as a decoy and walking armor because most of the attack didn't hurt her at all. She just had to protect her head from any attacks, which was made easier with the speed enhancement.

"I'm fine; there's just an awful amount in here!"

She said that as she punched a hole inside a grasshopper's head.

"Definitely. Amelia, above!"

She slashed before looking up, giving her full trust in Orion's judgment, as he was able to see the surroundings in considerably more detail than her.

Dawn, which was used to slash the ant on the roof that was preparing to throw a stream of acid, perfectly separated the body in two and even made a dent into the ceiling by a few centimeters.

An outrageous amount of body parts and green blood were all over the room. There was nowhere around them where blood wasn't spilled. It was gross, as even the ceiling and the walls were covered with body parts.

"How many have we killed already? Two hundreds? Three?"

"I'd say more. I can't even look around without seeing a corpse. Try to push them behind you to avoid having their dead bodies hinder your movement. Anything can be your end right now!"

Orion kicked a hornet with his left leg and destroyed its head, making it fly straight to the pile of bodies behind Karteira.

"Watch where you're sending that trash!"

She growled at him after receiving a shower of green blood.

"Sorry! I don't have time to be careful right now!"

"Stop talking! More are coming!"

Amelia killed three bugs with one slash using Dawn and pierced two more with Dusk.

"If that isn't unfair, I don't know what is! Her body count is through the roof! How am I going to catch up to that?!"

Karteira began to heat up, moving faster and faster. The cool underground was great to keep her from overheating, and the speed she was running at helped her regulate her body even more. She was in good shape.

"Out of the way!"

She ventured further away from the new group of enemies but found an ant running to bite her. She punched it hard and crushed it against the floor, creating a crack where its body touched the ground.

After killing it, she took the chance to let the steam under her plates out.

It was still manageable, as she tried to keep her temperature regulated as much as possible right now.

There was some irritation in her from the competition she had with Amelia. She had the most enemies in front of her, but Amelia was killing her targets faster.

'I want to kill faster. I need to kill them all faster!'

Her plates returned to their places, and with a rage unusual in such a situation, she roared at the bugs.

"Come here, trash!"

The plates under her hands moved, revealing her hands. Those plates mounted themselves on the top part of the gauntlets, creating a sharp plate capable of cutting anything she desired.

Her rage toward the enemies in front of her and the birth of competition brought a new evolution to her plate armor.

"Rip and Tear!"

With the two gauntlets now in place around her wrists, she growled like a feral beast.

"Karteira! Calm down; you're going too far!"

"I just need to kill more; I want to kill as many as Amelia! Don't stop me now!"

Unable to focus on stopping Karteira, Orion let her be.

'Well, it's normal for her. I was doubting if she had finally lost it.'

Orion thought, running on the slanting wall while Amelia killed everything in their path.

"I wasn't trying to stop you; I'm stopping you from losing your mind!"

"Thank you, but I'm fine!"

"Also, could you change your enhancement? I need it on my arms instead."

After looking at her current state, he switched the speed enhancement to her hands.

"It's done!"

She ran toward the group of enemies closing on her and jumped inside without worrying about taking damage.

In no time, the mound of bugs turned to pieces around her.

"Aaah~ Awesome! More!"

Her tail pierced a hornet's corpse, and she threw it toward a grasshopper behind Orion and Amelia.

"There's more coming! We need to retreat! There's not much space left for us to fight in. We'll find another room like this!"

There was no room for the group to freely move around anymore as the many bug corpses and limbs littered the place.

Liters of blood formed puddles all around, making it difficult to avoid.

It was impossible to move without risking tripping on a bug or slipping on the blood.

So Orion decided it was about time to retreat and move on another path. It was easier to clean the underground this way, keeping everyone mentally free of stress.

After ending the lives of at least another hundred bugs, they retreated to the tunnels, where it was easier to take a breather from the carnage the two women had caused.