In a single pounce, Elveil was on top of us. Scarlet activated the lycan form spell the moment before her paw slapped us. The world blurred as we went sailing a thousand feet through countless buildings before we finally came to a stop.

Scarlet pushed herself to her feet. “I think she’s pissed.”

Her chest refilled itself out as all her limbs moved to their proper orientation. We were much more flexible, but she still dislocated anything she didn’t break. A long series of popping and snapping accompanied Scarlet’s movements as she stared at the scar in the ground we left from the colosseum.

My computer brain calculated that she hit us with an attack power of almost twenty thousand. I knew Scarlet got the same information. “Our defense, even in the lycan form, doesn’t even make it halfway. We need that demon form.”

“That takes time,” Scarlet snapped. “Unless you want to do it, then shut up.”

Elveil flew up into the air. Her wings were covered in shadow magic. As they flapped downward, a hail of heavy magic comets rained down on us. Scarlet tried to weave through them, but as they hit the ground, they exploded, and we got caught in them.

Again, we were sent flying. This time, our body ricocheted off several of the explosions before we went several hundred feet in the air. Time slowed down as we saw Elveil’s paw over head.

She struck us back into the ground. Our body created a crater a good hundred and fifty feet into the ground before coming to a rest. This time, Scarlet didn’t stand back up. She was in shock that Elveil could hit her that hard.

Our body was suffering so much damage. I was more in awe of how fast we were repairing and how much energy it wasn’t taking.

The upgraded Molecular Reconstruction is far more efficient and won’t increase costs as injuries do.

Orange’s words reached both of us as Scarlet finally pushed herself to her feet once her bones had the structural integrity to hold us up again. “Rina picked something useful than. Good, we need it. We’re so far behind her. She’s moving like her quickness is almost fourteen thousand. What level is she?”

“That’s just her bursts of speed. Her standard speed is less than eight thousand.” It felt odd talking about stats in such high numbers.

Preliminary estimations of her stats put her level close to six hundred and fifty.

Scarlet froze at Orange’s words. “I know you don’t have a sense of humor, Orange. Just please tell me that’s the high estimate.”

No. That is the lower estimate. We can’t make an estimate of her arcane stat. Although it is clear, it’s far above yours.

There was a sound behind us. Scarlet turned us around to see Elveil’s beastman shadow clone grab our tail. It threw us up towards her griffon body, where she followed with a strike from her paw.

Our lycan form spell was the only thing keeping us alive as we plowed through several buildings. The moment we hit the ground, we started running. Scarlet sprinted as fast as she could, which wasn’t nearly fast enough.

Elveil closed the distance. She took to the air again and opened fire with her magic. Scarlet made it to a building and dove through a window. Just in time for the explosion to follow. The force of the impact sent us flying through the air once more. The entire building was flattened in an instant, reduced to nothing more than shrapnel around us.

Elveil’s shadow clone grabbed our head and held us in the air. She then threw us against a building. “You’re too weak.” She ripped off one of our stinger arms. “You’ve been a very bad girl.” She ripped off the other. “Now I’m going to punish you.”

She then threw us to the ground to grab both of our arms before pulling them back. Scarlet resisted long enough to have our stinger arms rebuild to stab her in the arms and let us go.

When Scarlet rolled back over, the shadow clone was gone. Instead, it was Elveil’s original body flapping her wings, raining more magic bombs on us. This time, there was nowhere to run. We were trapped in a hail of magic that was too fast to escape.

With each explosion, we were blown farther away. Every time we tried to get back up, Elveil would land and slap us several hundred feet before flying back up. As I looked down at our broken and battered body, I saw the shadow clone appear again.

Elveil landed on us and pinned us to the ground. She leaned down and whispered in our ear. “Now, you’re going to beg for mercy, but I won’t give you any.”

The shadow clone then moved away to let the griffon version of Elveil stomp on our body with her front paws. Our ribs snapped under the pressure as Scarlet didn’t move. Bones across our body were shattered and rebuilt over and over as we were pounded into the ground. The ground was losing against us, but we weren’t winning against Elveil’s paw either.

I wasn’t in control of the body, but I could see the pain flooding into Scarlet. She was allowing herself to feel it—all of it.

Elveil stopped.

Scarlet crawled out of the crater. “Is that it? That actually felt pretty good. It’s almost like you want to hurt me.”

Elveil tilted her head. “If you want more, I can continue until you break. If I wanted to kill you, I could do so easily. But I want to see the despair in your eyes, knowing nothing you do will ever save you. So, I think I will continue to play with you, just a little longer. After all, you killed my kitten. Don’t you think that warrants some retribution?”

Scarlet chuckled. “Do you think this is torture? Don’t make me laugh.”

The shadow clone appeared in front of us. Its eyes narrowed as it pulled its hand back. Its hand turned into a claw that elongated and curved forward. In less than the blink of an eye, its arm shot forward and dug itself into our chest. She reached for our mana battery, but Scarlet jumped just in time to be impaled through our gut. The claws ripped through our body until it punctured our back.

“Missed,” Scarlet taunted as she drove her stinger arms into the shadow clone’s neck, causing it to dissipate.

Before we hit the ground, Elveil slapped us again. This time we flew further than ever before.

“Okay, so we can handle the shadow clone, but we’re not any closer to killing her,” I said. “Does this abyzgor fly?”

“No,” Scarlet said with a grunt as she shoved a large section of a building that landed on us after we crashed through it. “But I should still be able to fight her. She’s arrogant to keep coming back to the ground. Who knows, it might be able to survive her magic attacks. You can see it too. We’re not that far from withstanding them.”

As we looked around, half the city had been leveled to rubble from our fight.

“So, what do you need to make this demon form happen?” I asked.

“Time.”

Elveil’s shadow clone appeared next to us. Her claws dug into our chest. She was aiming to rip out our mana battery again. Scarlet twisted her body just in time to avoid the worst of the attack.

The shadow clone didn’t let up. It grabbed Scarlet’s head and began to squeeze. Scarlet tried to kick away, but the shadow clone disappeared before her attack landed. The clone reappeared behind her and slashed at her back.

Scarlet’s stinger arms turned inward to catch the attack. Both arms were almost severed but repaired just as quickly. Scarlet kicked back, but hit nothing again.

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As Scarlet turned to run, Elveil appeared in front of her. Her shadow magic swirled around her paw as it struck us with a forceful slap. Our body rolled across the ground for a mile before it came to a stop.

Our head was spinning. We were lying on the ground, staring up at the sky, when the shadow clone appeared again.

“Keep her clone off me, and I might be able to dodge the main body long enough to complete the spell.” Scarlet tried to roll out of the way of the clone’s stomping talons.

They landed on our hair. Scarlet immediately cut the hair and regrew it back to the length we needed to keep our mana supply up.

Orange, how can I help? She’s in control of the body.

You can still use your magic.

But she’s using a spell right now. I can’t use two spells at once.

Your mind couldn’t concentrate on two spells at once. But with effectively two minds, you can. Scarlet concentrates on the lycan form while you concentrate on your spell.

I can do that?

Did you try?

Don’t patronize me.

Apologies. That wasn’t our intent.

Another barrage of shadow magic rained down on us. Scarlet avoided most of it. But as the dust settled, a claw struck out from the shadow clone. It slashed Scarlet’s throat and knocked her to the ground.

Scarlet crawled away while trying to recover from the surprise attack. As she rolled to her feet, the shadow clone appeared and stomped on her head. Before her skull cracked under the pressure, she swung her legs attempting to use her leg scythes to cut the clone up.

The problem is, I can only see what Scarlet sees. Elveil is attacking from wherever Scarlet isn’t looking. If she focuses on the clone, the main body shoots a spell at us. If she focuses on the main body, the clone strikes for the mana battery. If my mana battery is shattered, it will kill me. There won’t be two percent of me left.

Then you have to see through your mana.

Mana vision shadow power available:

Cost: 4,500,000 shards.

That’s not cheap. I’d rather not spend the shards on it, in case we need to upgrade something still. Now that I know it can be done, I can try to figure it out first. Orange, didn’t you say my eyes use mana to function?

We have made that statement. It’s still true.

Can I mimic their function with magic? Is that how that works?

We can’t answer that.

Scarlet was blasted with another shadow bomb. She was trying to avoid everything, but two on one was too much. Elveil wasn’t fighting fair. Not that she should, but still.

I need to focus. What are my options? I’ve got only one shot. If it doesn’t work, then I buy it. My hair is practically made of mana, so it could work. I focused on the way my mana cycled through my eyes. I spent only a few seconds studying them before moving the mana in my hair in the same way.

As Scarlet dodged more attacks, I started messing around with the infusion magic. Infusing my own mana into my hair and seeing what happened. I was running blindly in the dark, but that was my only option.

Nothing was happening, but then I started considering how eyes worked. Eyes took in light through a lens and focused it onto the retina. My shadow magic can’t manipulate or interact with light. But I don’t need light to see. I have different modes of vision.

“Scarlet, switch our vision to terahertz mode!”

Unfortunately, I distracted her enough that a blast of shadow magic struck her directly. She bounced into the air off the ground. As she flew, she switched to terahertz mode. For a brief moment, I saw how the radiation was created and interpreted. A second blast, larger than the first, struck us before we began our descent back to the ground.

Scarlet groaned as she waited for half of our body to rebuild after it was destroyed by the blasts. “There had better have been a good reason for that.”

“It’ll take too long to explain,” I hastily responded. “It’s so I can help.”

Scarlet stood up and brushed off the dirt. “Help, right.”

We somehow landed in the colosseum again. More than half of it wasn’t standing, and the sphinx was flying in the air above us.

Elveil flew towards the sphinx. “You’re next.”

The sphinx shook his head. “If you can kill Rina, then you will be permitted to advance to the next floor, as per our agreement.”

“Oh, you won’t stop me? Interesting.” Elveil’s eyes went wide as they then were drawn to us. “Making deals to get me to the next floor? I thought you were an upstart, but you’re really looking out for me. It’s unfortunate, but you’re an acceptable loss.”

We have to succeed now. If she makes it to the next level, she’ll find Killa and Shadara and do horrible things to them just because they are my sisters.

Scarlet sighed. “Whatever you’re going to do, make it quick. I really want to start stabbing her.”

I started copying the terahertz radiation but used our hair as both the broadcaster and receiver. It wasn’t hard once I figured out how the process worked. Once I had the magic set, I pushed it into my hair.

A moment later, I could see the entire world around us. Everything was colored in various shades of purple.

Shadow Power obtained: Mana Radiation Vision Spell.

Shadow Power—Mana Radiation Vision Spell.

The caster creates nearly imperceptible pulses of shadow mana that bounce off surfaces at the speed of sound. Then once the pulse is received, it maps out the area around the caster. Costs 3.333% of the caster’s maximum mana per second.

Increased levels of Anchoring will reduce the cost.

It worked! It’s not black and white like how my eyes work, but I can’t believe I did it.

Congratulations.

“Holy cow!” Scarlet shouted. “You did what?” She ducked and avoided the attack from the shadow clone. “Okay, cute trick. But I’m still stuck on the defensive.”

Elveil’s main body sent out a trio of bombs our way. I created shadow bolts of my own and launched them to intercept. They exploded a safe distance away from us.

“You were saying?” I couldn’t hide my smugness.

Elveil let out a laugh. “Well done, Rina. How does it feel to work with an evil mass murderer? Do you feel dirty yet?”

She hates me, and I hate her. “Elveil needs to die, that's all. We both want the same thing, just for different reasons.”

Scarlet slashed out with her claws to destroy the shadow clone just as it reformed. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Elveil let out a howl of frustration as she sent out an even wilder barrage. I wasn’t going to keep up with it, but I picked my targets so that the ensuing explosions would cause chain reactions to stop multiple bombs.

Scarlet started humming with mana as she stopped moving. She’s doing it.

The lycan form disappeared, and the shadow clone reappeared. A cocoon of shadow mana formed around us. Elveil stopped firing, and the shadow clone backed off. All my connections to our mana snapped.

The shadow mana around us flooded through our body as it reformed into what I could only assume was an abyzgor.

Twenty-five feet of solid amazonian muscle. We only had two arms, but thick, heavy claws tipped our fingers. Our feet were massive cloven hooves that cracked the ground simply from our weight. A pair of large black horns curled from the back of our head forward like a bull’s. All across our body, shadow magic danced to imitate flames. Most of which seemed to look like a pair of bat wings draping behind us. Inside our mouth were several rows of hollow fangs for injecting venom. The venom didn’t come with the magical form, but it was terrifying to know that a creature this size needed venom.

“Now this is power!” Scarlet howled as she flexed her claws.

Shadow Power Infusion level up.

Shadow Power Infusion level up.

Shadow Power Solidify level up.

Shadow Power obtained: Shadow Abyzgor Form Spell.

Shadow Magic Power—Shadow Abyzgor Form Spell:

The caster’s body is enveloped in shadows and becomes a huge, powerful demon. All the caster’s stats are increased by their arcane then multiplied by 400%. This spell comes at a heavy cost. From the moment it is activated, it will only last 60 seconds. It will drain all mana from the caster’s body and prevent it from absorbing more than the minimum amount to stay conscious for sixteen days.

Increased levels of Solidify and Infusion will increase the stat multiplier.

Abyzgor Form

Level:

723

Agility:

8540

Arcane:

807

Power:

5156

Quickness:

8808

Resilience:

6708

Toughness:

6148

The shadow clone appeared in front of us. Its eyes went wide at the sight of us. It slashed out, but Scarlet crushed it under hoof before it finished. It appeared again. She grabbed it the moment it materialized. With a squeeze, the clone shattered. It was too slow for us now.

Elveil flapped her wings and landed a mile away. She looked at us as her eyes narrowed.

Scarlet stomped towards the reverse griffon. “How about we try this again?”