As Amelia stepped directly in front of Orion, Karteira stayed a little away behind her.

The blonde woman slashed with her knife at his face, ready to begin the fight.

As usual, by this point, Orion barely reacted.

His eyes followed the knife's trajectory with a monstrous accuracy, letting it graze his skin as much as possible while avoiding any injuries.

After a few introductory slashes, Amelia ducked.

A shield of plates moved over her back and crashed into Orion.

He placed his hand forward and held the shield in place while glaring at Karteira.

"What?"

With a smirk, she pulled the shield while sending another one to his side.

Standing back on her feet, Amelia went to pierce his chest with Aura.

Orion grabbed the incoming shield without looking at it and protected each stab with his forearm.

"Tsk!"

Clicking her tongue in frustration, Amelia took a step back to think about her next move.

Her green hair covered her eyes for a few seconds before she leaped forward back in action.

Using the power of 'Calm Analysis', which she learned to use as proficiently as Orion, her thought process was unrivaled by none but Orion.

Her body flashed a green light, and, bathed by a fair but fierce gale, she attacked him with the power of the greatest of storms.

Karteira took this chance to join in her assault and rushed past their sides, her plates closely packed around her.

The flurry of attacks Amelia unleashed created a devastating gust of air that could easily rip anyone in half.

Each time her karambit knife spun around her finger, its lethality increased, gathering energy with each slash.

Her speed slightly increased as she exchanged blows with Orion, who seemed to seriously struggle to defend against these attacks.

While forced to jump a few meters backward, Orion failed to notice Karteira. She appeared behind him and bashed his back with a wall of plates, sending him straight toward the other fighter.

Smiling at this, Amelia nodded internally.

Her eyes shone a bright green as energy accumulated in her core.

Wind caressed her arms before they moved at a speed rivalizing with the lightning element.

A flurry of wind slashes appeared static in front of her.

One, two, three ...

It became impossible to count as the number increased and a net of wind slashed formed in front of her.

Only a second later, when Orion was getting closer thanks to Karteira, her hands slowly stopped moving.

The instant her arms stayed still, the nightmarish power she unleashed broke free of its stillness and rushed toward him.

His cramped expression told everyone that he was struggling to break free, and, before he could, the wind blades all gathered on Orion.

A lacerating force swallowed him whole, leaving no room to even scream.

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But as he suffered this intense attack, his eyes glared at Amelia. Gritting his teeth, his eyes shone an even brighter white.

His wings stretched to the side as the last of the muscles formed over the bones.

Under the stress of this battle, Orion was growing even more powerful by the second.

Karteira rushed toward Amelia before both nodded at each other.

Amelia placed both hands in front of her chest, holding Aura in between. She closed her eyes and focused on her magic.

Orion, who was still enduring the raging storm, suddenly got his vision hidden by Karteira's plates.

A dome of plates, with only an opening on the top, covered him.

Tightly closed, not even light could enter through the plates' connections.

After gathering the wind energy she needed, Amelia infused it into Aura.

She leaped in the air, as high as she could.

Extending her hand in her direction, Karteira sent a platform of plates for her to jump on.

Twenty meters above the ground, Amelia glared into the opening, where she and Orion stared at each other for a brief instant.

Without a word, she aimed her karambit knife at the dome.

Glowing wildly, Aura fired a condensed wind energy downward.

The energy crossed the distance in the blink of an eye, crashing into the dome. At the same time, Karteira closed the opening of the dome, letting the energy explode within it.

A deafening sound of undescribable noise raptured through everyone's ears.

Karteira's plates vibrated and rattled violently as the energy tried to escape the dome, but with an iron will, managed to contain every bit of Amelia's power within it.

Afraid for his well-being, they all stared in silence as the sound slowly ceased.

Nothing...

Not a sound. Not even a movement, a knock, or an attack.

"Did we...go too far?"

Amelia looked at Karteira with overwhelming anxiousness. The fear of the worst suddenly took over them.

"That can be. We're talking about Orion."

Karteira tried to relieve the stress they were both feeling with a fake smile.

Until something told them that there was no reason to even think those thoughts.

*CRACK*

"Huh?!"

Turning their heads toward the dome, they noticed something.

The plates were beginning to separate, forcefully brought apart by two hands.

Orion ripped a plate off the dome before kicking the rest with a kick.

One of those plates came crashing into the ground right in between them, deeply embedded in the dirt.

"..."

The battle was still ongoing, to their greatest fears.

Out of the dome emerged an uninjured Orion. But most of all, ...

They opened their eyes wide at the sight of two new wings forming behind him.

It had already attained the same stage as the first pair, forming the beginning of a nervous system around it.

The pressure coming out of Orion was enough to turn the air heavier.

It became harder to breathe as he walked through the opening with a disinterested look on his face.

"That... was our best."

Karteira chuckled in despair as she watched Orion roll his right shoulder.

"We're taking over!"

Stella ran past both of them, followed by Mia and Senia.

The two women nodded as Karteira pulled back the plates toward her.

At the same time, in the distance, Henrietta and Titania were discussing.

"Don't you find this strange?"

"What should I find strange?"

Titania glanced at her.

"Orion isn't acting aggressively at all. He did attack them at the beginning, but he hasn't proactively tried to injure them."

"At most, he might be trying to incapacitate them so they won't bother him."

Henrietta marveled at Orion, calmly and expertly catching Catharsis with his fingers before sending Stella to the side with a swift movement of his wrist.

"I understand what you mean. There was definitely something odd about these interactions."

"Maybe his subconscious is holding the berserk state at bay, avoiding repeating the same mistake he did in the past."

She pondered while Henrietta squinted.

"We don't know how this voyage to the past affected his mind. There's very little reason to believe his mind weakened."

"You might be correct. If I had to make a conjecture, I would say he actually built his mind to greater heights."

With a nod, Titania agreed.

"Tetra also seemed to have evolved past her weak mind."

"She was always seeing the glass half empty, but look at her now."

Seeing her friend watching carefully over the battlefield, ready to use her power willingly, she smiled.

"It is rather crude to say it like this, but this voyage to the past actually turned for the better."

A faint smile formed on Titania's face as she looked at Orion, holding his power back not to hurt them too badly.

"Even now, he keeps proving to us that he has the power to break free from his shackles."

Henrietta's face suddenly cramped after hearing the last word.

"Shackles?"

Both women looked at each other. Henrietta was stunned, and Titania was confused.

Then, both looked at each other as a dark shade covered their eyes.

"Tetra told me recently that the 'Shackles' and the 'Key' were her creation. She knows exactly what seals Orion."

Turning her face toward her friend, she frowned. Titania listened intently while nodding.

"There are fifteen locks that hinder his progress. I have no idea why she made it like this, but I can make a rough guess."

"She wanted to avoid something like what happened to Noah happening again. Tetra is far too kind for her own good."

"Out of those fifteen seals, ten of them are allocated to his magic power."

"What is currently happening is the awakening of the tenth and last magic seal."

Curious, Titania asked.

"Did she tell what it actually was?"

Henrietta nodded.

"Void Master."

A brief silence happened between them until Titania sighed.

"We have surpassed the Elemental Mastery and directly went to 'The Master of the Void Element'..."

They were relatively calm.

"I have a feeling that primordial is fully aware of this and actually welcomes it. A new element is almost impossible to create, and I believe no other element will come to light anymore."

Titania looked at her and asked another question.

"What about the other seals? There are five more, aren't there?"

Nodding, Henrietta answered.

"The seals were separated into five after that. There are two locks on his arms and two on his legs."

"Both still have their last seal holding on."

The idea was somehow strange, as he should have unlocked everything by now. It meant that the power needed to unlock them was tremendously high and that they were dangerous to use.

"The last one is the 'Seal of the Soul'. But even Tetra doesn't know how to unlock it."

"A real mystery..."

"You're right about that."

Crossing her arms, Henrietta pondered something.

"Between you and me..."

Titania glanced at her.

"I heard Tetra speak about a sixteenth seal. She was mumbling something incomprehensible, so I don't really know much about it."

"'The eleventh magic seal will be the greatest of all'."

They both looked perplexed at this information.

"If that is true, then we have entered the correct timeline."

Henrietta's arms trembled lightly as she recalled these horrible endings she went through.

"No more death. No more despair..."

Looking at the women fight with every fiber of their beings, she smiled.

"At last."

Staying quiet, Titania nodded. Seeing her children fight for their happiness made her feel relieved.

Albeit for Orion, this battle wasn't seldom for him.

Unknown to everyone, this was also the greatest opportunity for everyone to evolve past their limits.

And out of everyone, two of them were about to undergo drastic changes.

Mia and Senia, breathing heavily behind Stella, glared furiously at Orion, frustration building in their hearts.