Sighing, the Monster King said, “Why don’t you two imbeciles return to where you came from before I wipe you out of existence?” Though he spoke without straining his voice, it still boomed to the point that it was clearly audible even dozens of kilometers away.
Coming to an abrupt halt right before the Monster King, Gryzmott cursed, “Damn, we’ve been completely outplayed…” As he slowly moved backward with his companion, both of them had grim looks on their faces.
“We’d better leave before any more Core Formation experts arrive,” Koloryt said through a telepathic link; his words only audible to his fellow Duke. As both Core Formation level Dukes were proficient in speed, they weren’t necessarily worried about escaping back to their territory when confronted with an enemy at their level; even if he was several phases higher than them in the same cultivation stage. However, they weren’t up against any Core Formation expert, but the Agrian King; one of the most powerful entities on the entire planet, rivaled only by a number of people one could count with one’s fingers.
Moreover, as the Agrians were most proficient in Formations, with their collection of teleportation formations, it would only take a matter of seconds for most of the Agrian powerhouses to arrive. If they didn’t scram soon, they would have to worry about the entire Agrian Empire’s military force descending upon them; not just their King.
However, before leaving, as a means to guarantee the success of their mission even when facing the Agrian King, Gryzmott launched a final attack before retreating. “Soul Extinguishing Thunder!” He cast from his soul, bypassing the Monster King before he could move to intercept, as the attack from his soul to Elizabeth’s moved at the speed of lightning; Gryzmott having allocated 99% of the move’s potential within its speed. He expected that even 1% of his soul attack was more than enough to kill Elizabeth as his probe of her cultivation base revealed her to only be a King Stage Mage.
Normally, an entity below the Spirit Realm would yet to have started cultivating their soul. To a Core Formation Expert who had been working on developing their soul for at least two entire stages, destroying such a vulnerable soul was beyond child’s play. Sadly for Gryzmott, he hadn’t targeted a regular Mortal, but Elizabeth Ultimatia; the white-haired crimson-eyed demon whose reality-breaking powers didn’t boil down to just her cultivation base.
While on the outside Elizabeth looked to have been instantly killed as she fell from the sky lifelessly, within her Soul Land not everything had gone to waste. Outside of Elizabeth’s Soul Land, while she fell, she was caught by a demihuman of the Transcendent Foundation Stage as the Monster King chased after the two presumptuous Dukes that dared make a fool of him. She retained her Infantile Wolf God Form as it would take a conscious effort to revert back to her normal human appearance.
As she was carried around by the Transcendent Foundation half-fox half-woman, Lisa and Ellie were working hand in hand to stop the calamitous storm of purple and yellow lightning that razed the blackish-yellow ground and scorched the starry sky of Elizabeth’s Soul Land. It was like a scene straight out of an Eastern Fantasy Movie, as Ellie drew what appeared to be magic-runes before her with her soul’s power to attack a literal storm and Lisa increased in size until she was a several-dozen-meters tall titan trying to fight the storm by hand. The funny thing was, it was working…
With her Embryonic Vessels of Seraphs activated, Lisa’s relentless assaults through death, and Ellie’s understanding of the soul, the terrifying calamity within her Soul Land was eventually ground down to the point that Ellie sealed the source thunder. She had Lisa actualize a soul-variant of the Talent Stealing Blood Seal —the Talent Stealing Soul Seal, if you will — to siphon out the sealed thunder’s power to repair and improve Elizabeth’s Soul Land.
“Jesus Christ that was dangerous…” Ellie commented as she heaved a sigh while watching Lisa suck out the power of the source thunder.
“Che! The only reason we aren’t dead is because we ran into that Agrian Core Formation expert. Idiot host, get to the Spirit Realm already! We’re too vulnerable as a mere Mortal King Stage Mage!”
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“Mhmm… Oh?” As Ellie was deliberating over Lisa’s words when suddenly the energy from the source thunder suddenly rejected Lisa’s Ancient Godslayer Fiend Magic. Like clockwork, the moment Elizabeth’s Soul Land returned to its regular healthy state — like it was before the onslaught of the Soul Extinguishing Thunder attack — what was left of the sealed thunder source was instantly divided into two and shot towards Elizabeth’s two static Embryonic Vessels of Seraph.
About ten meters away from each other, the two frozen figures of Belle and the third Embryonic Vessel of Seraph, that had yet to integrate with Elizabeth’s Primordial Ghost God Bloodline, lit up. Belle’s pale skin seemed to grow slightly healthier in complexion while the leftover Vessel also looked a bit less monochromatic; slightly glowing, even. However, neither of the two entities were completely removed from stasis; suggesting it would probably take a lot more than just a bit of source thunder to completely awaken them.
Sighing, Ellie watched as Lisa looked on in dismay from the fact that their chance to upgrade Elizabeth’s Soul Land had just gone to waste. While it hadn’t necessarily gone that way as both Belle and what would eventually turn into another incantation for Elizabeth’s Soul Variation technique moved one step closer to awakening, Lisa took it to be a waste as the energy from the source thunder could have improved the groundwork for Elizabeth’s perception; her Soul Land. It would improve everything from cultivation to increasing her skills and affinity, which could be used immediately.
In any case, Ellie no longer had a reason to stay within her Soul Land as the conflict had been resolved and her soul’s health was back to pristine condition. Thus from one moment to the next, Elizabeth’s eyes snapped opened to face an unfamiliar roof.
“Mhmm…” Elizabeth sat herself up and assured herself that all her valuables had yet to be moved. “It's been about ten minutes, where am I?” She addressed the group of people standing around her. They all looked as if they’d seen a ghost. To be fair, anyone would be surprised to see a Mortal recover from an attack to the soul so quickly; they were beyond surprised considering the circumstances.
“The Shaman Priestess is awake?” A man’s voice broke the ice.
“Idiot, we still don’t know if she’s really a Shaman Priestess…” A woman retorted.
“I am,” Elizabeth said as she retracted her Wolf-like features, switching back and forth between Forms to prevent any mishaps. She repeated, “Where am I?”
“By the gods… She really survived a soul attack from a General of the Irelians! The gods are on our side!” What looked to be a priest cat-man preached.
“Holy shit! She’s not even in the Spirit Beast Realm! Imagine what she could do in a couple of decades!” Another lion-headed man said.
“The World is ours!” A veiled demihuman added. It was impossible to tell what human beast hybrid the demihuman was with all the cloth covering it. But from its tone, it was most probably a female.
More and more people grew heated seeing their new Shaman Priestess not only survive, but stay relatively unharmed as she only coughed up some blood and sustain easily repairable damage from the backlash of her 6th Chaos Seal once more reaching its time limit. In fact, since over ten minutes had passed since the backlash impacted Elizabeth’s body, with her natural healing factor still being augmented several times over with the effects of her spiritual cooking and Sun’s pills, Elizabeth was already out of the critical state where she needed her Acupoint needles to recover.
It made sense considering the fact that Elizabeth had been in the midst of treatment for her physical wounds when a soul specialized doctor took over her case and saw how quickly the damage to her soul was dissipating. Not a minute after the soul doctor had people leave her body alone, Elizabeth had woken up. By then, all she had was a bit of fatigue and internal damage that she could recover from even without supplements.
“So you’ve managed to survive. Most impressive…” A calm voice instantly brought everyone’s cheering within the room down to total silence; the Agrian King had arrived.
“Mhmm… It was thanks to you driving them away that I manage to not get killed while my soul was under attack.” Elizabeth admitted.
“Perhaps, but for a King Stage Mage, as the humans across the border would call you, you’ve done well to recover so quickly from a soul attack conducted by a Core Formation Stage cultivator. You may address me as ‘Ygdris’, Miss…”
“Elizabeth. Elizabeth Ultimatia,” she introduced amidst the gasps and shock of the small audience around her. No one had ever seen their King let another call him by his given name so casually like this. Even his confidants were only allowed to do so behind closed doors.
“Well then Elizabeth, why don’t we get you accommodated and filled in,” Ygdris said, upon receiving the word that she was fit to move around. He was beyond excited to get to know their Empire’s newest Shaman Priestess.
Without much of a choice, Elizabeth accepted the offer. For now, things were cordial and to her favor. Yet underneath her accepting superficial behavior, she was stealthily beginning the process to once more charge up Time Magic to escape should the need arise.