Wind.

Formless, shapeless, odorless and tasteless. Able to fit in any space and able to go anywhere. Its speed is limitless and its power broad and endless like its own nature. Its reach is infinite and even space itself is pervaded by it as its might travels through the infinite cosmos. Ventus's mind was elated as he no longer worried about refining mana, the process was happening naturally and with a speed even faster than he had initially planned for, as such, he could freely enjoy this marvellous development that took place in his body, mind and, strangely, at his soul.

His cells vibrated in joy with overflowing energy that looked like it might blow him up, but strangely, Ventus did not worry about that. Something about the element brought him peace and comfort he could not understand and made him feel so well he might as well believe this is all a dream. Every change occurring on his body and around him brought for a profound and mysterious feeling of belonging like he was originally part of the wind but had been taken away and was finally reuniting with his "Family". All of this made his body relax as the overwhelming wind power flowed through him and etched in his very genes its mystery and its might, his breathing was calm and relaxed, each breath he took brought him closer to the element and slowly swept away every worry in his mind and any impurity or flaw in his body.

Outside Ventus's perception, the dragon could not be any happier. With sufficient mana to power his body's recall seal to its maximum potential, the previous three days he had calculated they would take had become one and a half days at most, but judging from Ventus's state, the time they would take should be lowered even further the longer the enlightenment lasted.

"Such luck!" The dragon grumbled, "When I trained it took me thousands of years to achieve the mastery of the earth element and I only had an enlightenment when I was at the Beast Warlord level!"

Although the sudden development had brought immense benefit upon him as he could recover his body even faster, it was still quite strenuous to handle all that mana. Since it was an enlightenment that took place, he was sure that Ventus was in no danger, however, the fact remained that now, there was an absurd amount of mana pouring into the golden core through the golden connection. That by itself was no problem as it was too little of an amount to actually risk the integrity of the core, but it was a problem for him to handle all that mana with his weakened soul, and since he had an earthen attribute soul, he could not use it to regain his soul's former power and all he could do with it was use it to power the golden threads to collect the small golden pieces of his body.

…

In another place far away from all the commotion stood an emerald rhino with a young girl on top of it. The rhino was in tatters as it missed a leg and had deep cracks and scratch marks all over its body, the once fearsome lightning that crackled on its body was no more and its jewel eyes would flicker from time to time with a weak light to them that signalled that his power was fading, and fast.

Before the pair was a very familiar beast. It was roughly twenty-five meters in length and had a golden scaled body full of small protruding spikes growing on them, it's massive maw was dislocated and its white fangs were shattered in combat. Along with its body, there were several burnt holes and cracked scales as well as many burnt marks that would release a bit of electricity every minute or so.

On the girl's hands hanged a purple-colored sack-like organ the size of a human's head that oozed with red and yellow liquids, her hand glowed with a blue light that repelled the liquids and prevented their contact with her milky white skin. She pointed her hand that had a mysterious carved ring on it at the organ, and with a flash of light, it disappeared.

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"Ugh..so disgusting!" she complained "Why does every beast have to be so gross!?"

"Well, at least I had luck this time..." she said as he looked at the beast's corpse.

"If it was a full-grown King Viper I would have died trying to face it with my golem," she sighed, "At least now half the mission is complete..."

The girl retrieved the emerald rhino and put it back on her ring. Her body was sore and had several scratches and cuts all over, her clothing was somewhat damaged, but could still be used and her emerald golem was almost destroyed in the battle with the young golden sand venom dragon.

It was a hard fought battle that cost her many treasures and many hours of death-and-life struggle. Whilst she fought she would curse herself for being so hot-headed and sending Ventus off, he could have been a great aid in her battle taking in consideration his ability to manipulate the golden sand. After complaining and pondering about her battle for a few more moments, the girl decided it was about time she departed this area and searched for the corona flower as well, maybe she could find it before him and avoid having to fight with him for the flower. She sat down and had a few snacks and drinks before getting up and walk.

At this time the winds were stirred massively and the golden sand beneath her feet started moving. At first, she was curious, but that curiosity turned rapidly into fear as a massive shockwave flew her way and knocked her down making her fall on her back making her lungs empty by force. The sound that came after didn't even give her the time to breathe as it instilled despair on her very soul.

The sound was loud and tempestuous. Her body trembled as she gasped for breath, her muscles before sore from battle now were so tense they hurt with greater intensity sending waves of pain to her brain making her almost faint, her all of that coupled with here pitifully low mana reserves and her cracked will that made her freeze. If a beast came before her at this moment, she would certainly die as she found herself unable to move. Long after the apocalyptic sound had passed, she was still on the ground paralyzed, her heart beating fast as her chest heaved so rapidly it resembled a scared chipmunk. For a long time, she had no idea what to do, this sound had shaken her to the core, at the moment she heard the sound she felt as if she was in front of a demon from the pits of hell, it's mere breathing could suck her soul and end her.

The sand beneath her started to move silently whilst her body was still in a dazed state, it took a few hours, but when she finally snapped out of her stiff state she realized she was no longer atop an endless golden desert, instead, she was atop a cold and somewhat moist red flat land that stained her white clothes slightly with a faint tinge of red.

She stood up in a blink and slapped her clothes trying to get the dirt off, she even used her mana and tried to remove the stains, but no matter how hard her efforts, it was very clear that those clothes wouldn't ever again be used by her.

"First that gross beast, then that…"She blanked out for a moment,"t.t..that thunderous r...roar, and now this!? what god have I angered today!?"

Her move was only worsening by the second as her senses returned to her, everywhere she could see was the same flat red flat land with moist ground, except for a certain direction where she could still see the golden sand been dragged into an enormous tornado kilometers away from her. She got worried at first, but when she saw that the tornado was absolutely still and only sucking in the sand, she decided to focus and explored the "new" land that appeared before her.

From what her eyes told her this land could bear no life whatsoever. Although the ground was moist and seemed very fertile, the land grew no flowers and no animals roamed around. From what her ears told her, there were no life forms present as all she could hear was the death-like silence that permeated the land. Her nose told her that this place was a battlefield many years ago, although she could no longer feel the blood in the ground, it was certainly drenched by it as the smell of blood had become permanent in this land.

"What is this place?" she murmured.