“So, in short, you became a werelion,” Rakna remarked as he walked through the barren lands of the 90th Plateau; called Diluvian Flames.
The whole Plateau was filled with craters that no one could identify the cause and there were only a few places that seemed to have been spared long enough to develop vegetation. The sky was an undulating mass of gray clouds as if they were about to fall off at any moment.
“Basically,” Higure answered the question with a nod. She smiled widely. “I could have gone other ways to evolve. It’s an instinctual process for Wilden. But for me, since I wanted this form…” She grandly waved at her body, which caused Flavia’s and Evelyn’s eyebrows to twitch. “The evolution made it possible. So, I have a shapeshift trait now. It’s similar to yours, which in itself might be the reason why I gained this ability in the first place.”
The lioness then pointed at the sky and Rakna calmly followed her finger. He spotted Tyran flying over them with his new wings, followed by Pronos who had conjured a pair of green poison wings. It was quite honestly a terrifying sight. Likely, anyone that saw an Asura and a Nine-Headed Hydra overtaking the sky would feel as if it was the end of the world.
“Tyran over there,” Higure continued. “His wings are a product of his evolution. Maybe he wanted to look more like a dragon unconsciously. Perhaps because a certain someone made fun of him for being a wannabe,” she said with a smirk and Allan cleared his throat on the side.
“Come on, it was in good fun,” the blond retorted. “Who knew he would turn into this though…”
“Anyway, his wings should have some special characteristics to them. Either they are even more sturdy than the rest of his body, or perhaps they even grant him a skill,” the lioness concluded.
“Hm, you’re right about that,” Rakna nodded. “His wings not only have increased magic immunity like the rest of his body, but they also turned into momentum machines. Physical damage will be absorbed and then released at his whim.”
“That’s incredible,” Nyx commented. “He already had Anti-Magic abilities with incredible physical defense. But now, even the physical damage can be countered. If he grows enough… who knows what kind of monster he could turn into. Fighting him would be like trying to move a mountain.”
Everyone nodded at that while Natsu, who was hanging off Evelyn’s shoulder, abruptly perked up and looked up. “Another one’s coming,” he casually stated and everyone followed his line of sight.
“Who is taking this one?” Marie asked as the clouds began to swirl menacingly.
“Let me do it,” Higure said and stepped up whilst cracking her knuckles. At the same time, Tyran and Pronos moved away from under the swirl in the sky.
The lioness smirked and clasped her hands. “Devourer,” she spoke up. “Let me show you what it means to face Ruin,” she stated and Rakna raised an eyebrow as she slowly unclasped her hands.
A string of silver mana was formed between them and her eyes shone. Then, as if on cue, an object suddenly breached through the gray layer of clouds. It was fast and burning up from entering the atmosphere.
A meteorite. The 90th Plateau was a treacherous land where meteors constantly rained down, and always targeted living beings traversing it.
“Everyone, I recommend you put up your auras!” Higure shouted with a laugh and the silver mana turned into the manifestation of a blurry giant bell. Immediately, the group felt a chill going down their spines and hastily put up their auras.
“[Union Magic,]” Higure exhaled as the meteor got dreadfully close. “[Echoes of Ruin – The Bell of Silence,]” she chanted and the silver bell tilted and rang once. The sound spread like a ripple and everything it touched became muted as if incapable of making any noise.
Rakna’s eyes widened slightly. He couldn’t hear the wind, his steps, or even his heartbeat. For him, who had all of his five senses insanely sharpened, it was quite uncomfortable. However, there was one thing that was still emitting sound; the meteor.
To be exact, it was as if its volume had been reduced to the lowest level and it was gradually going back up. Simultaneously, its descent was slowing down. Over the course of two seconds, the sound went from almost entirely muted, to even louder than it was originally. In fact, it was as if multiple reverberations were overlapping themselves.
Then, Higure smirked and snapped her fingers. The meteor instantly slowed to a total halt and the sounds ended. The large chunk of stone had long stopped burning. “In a world of absolute silence, you mustn’t break it,” the lioness said ominously and a crack appeared on the meteor.
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“If you fight back, you will be punished. The louder you are, the more echoes are swallowed and confined around you, until it is too much for you to handle,” she finished and the bell rang for the second time. The meteor promptly scattered into dust. “And ruin falls upon you.”
The bell faded away together with the meteor and the domain of silence that entrapped the area was lifted as well. The first sound that reached everyone’s ears was Allan gulping. “R-Rak… where do you keep finding these scary women? I had no idea that cat was yandere material…”
“I know right,” Rakna deadpanned. “I feel like I should invite Lana next time I see her. Having her in the Guild might just be enough to balance things out…”
Flavia threw him a sharp look. “Mister, are you saying we are not cute enough?” She inquired and he pursed his lips.
“…no. I never said that.”
“But you implied it, didn’t you?”
“…”
Before Rakna could answer, Higure saved him by turning around and flashing them a grin.
“So? How was it? Impressive, right? I wasn’t joking when I said Echoes of Ruin was my strongest magic,” she said and the therian sighed.
“Let me guess, in a fight, opponents caught in the spell will get damaged proportionally to how much noise they make and accumulate?”
The lioness snorted. “Exactly. That’s why I once joked you would have to lose a limb or two while sparring me. Once the echoes reach a certain threshold, even just a footstep could be loud enough to lose your entire leg. But this is only one of my magic’s applications. To be fair, I could have just used my Ruin Magic on its own, and the meteor would have been ultimately destroyed in the same way, turned into a state of ruin; essentially disintegrated.”
“…let’s move on, shall we?” Rakna blankly said and the lioness burst out laughing.
* * *
They eventually arrived at the edge of a crater much bigger than the others. At the center of it and lowest possible location, the monument to trigger the Trial could be seen.
“I wonder what it’s going to be this time,” Higure mused.
“Let me take a look,” Rakna remarked and his pupils turned into golden crosses. Everyone already knew about his Crystal Sight but it was always as amazing as the first time he used it to peek into the System’s hidden details. In this case, he could determine what the Trial would be without even getting close to it.
When he was done checking, he snorted. “Well, it’s a very fitting Trial for this Plateau,” he said and glanced at the others. “It’s a Survival Type.”
“Survival, huh? They are usually fairly easy,” Flavia hummed. “What do we need to survive?”
Rakna made a small smile and pointed at the sky with his index finger.
“…seriously?” Allan couldn’t help but exclaim in disbelief. “Let me guess; they’re also going to be a lot tougher than those we’ve had on the way here?”
“Got it in one,” the therian shrugged. “Let’s take advantage of the situation while we’re at it. None of you have properly shown what you can do after your Main Path Quest. You might as well do it now.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Nyx nodded. “Then, let me take the honors. It most likely won’t take long if I use the skill I received from my Sub-Path,” she said and her body turned into a whirl of shadows before reforming in front of the Trial instantly after.
Rakna watched as she reached for the Trial stone with her hand and looked at Higure. “Horny cat, what is the name of her Sub-Path? You should know since you’re her Pet, right?”
The lioness nodded. “Child of Twilight,” she held her chin. “It was exotic; like yours. But unlike you, it seems she was able to assimilate it without trouble. Perhaps because the ‘quality’ of her body is much higher than yours, even with your Alkahestic body. She is by birth a Heavenly-Goddess. That kind of status cannot be fully erased no matter how much power she loses.”
“What was the description?” Evelyn asked curiously as they all observed the clouds swirl after the System signaled the start of the Trial. An invisible barrier had already been constructed around the crater and no one would be able to enter or exit until Nyx cleared it.
“The legacy of an ancient and forgotten being. A creature whose very life and death were denied by the world,” Higure narrated. “That’s essentially what it said about its origin.”
“Denied by the world…” Rakna muttered and raised an eyebrow when the meteorite split the sky open. It was at least five times larger than the ones they had encountered before and undoubtedly stronger. Not to mention that he could sense tremendous mana oozing out of it in waves.
Natsu whistled. “Worthy of a Trial to reach the 100th Plateau. I can feel that the flames born from the friction are actually gaining life; almost like one of my kind.”
“Then that means it will be highly resistant to most elemental magic,” Marie commented. “It might even be able to accumulate firepower to release on impact. That thing is not a meteor anymore, it is a large-scale destruction spell.”
Tyran, who was lying his head down on the ground, made a dejected purring sound whilst staring at the meteor. It was as if he was in front of a delicious meal he couldn’t touch. Due to his Nirvana Skill, he was well-accustomed to swallowing magic and he was sad that he couldn’t taste a unique one such as this.
Rakna snickered at that and then, Nyx finally made her move. She raised her hand and pointed her palm at the meteor closing in. Her eyes lit up, the red of her pupils mixing with a dark purple, and a dark spot appeared in the way of the meteorite.
“[Realm of Twilight,]” she chanted and the spot expanded in the blink of an eye. It swallowed the whole meteor before shrinking and disappearing just as fast. That was it; the Trial had ended.
Everyone gawked in shock as Nyx calmly lowered her hand. Meanwhile, Rakna’s eyes were wide open and Crystal Sight was going out of control. For a split second, he had seen something hidden in the depths of that dark sphere. ‘Was that… a dragon?’ He wondered internally and hazy words of which he normally shouldn’t know how to read formed in his vision. ‘Queen… of the Crepuscule.’
“{Wait, what did you just say?}” Fray suddenly raised his voice. “{Queen of the Crepuscule…? I feel as if I have heard that title before. Oh god, this might be as annoying to find as the records on the Crystal Sage. Give some time to look for it,}” he didn’t even let Rakna speak before he cut himself off to search his library.
The therian shook his head internally and nodded at Nyx who was walking back. She responded in kind with a small smile.
“That was a pocket dimension, wasn’t it?” Higure inquired. “A terribly stable one as well.”
“Correct,” the night goddess replied. “This is one of the two abilities I’ve received. The first, which is called Realm of Twilight, sends a target into an empty dark dimension. The second one is called the Crepuscule Night. It sends anyone, myself included, within range, into a dimension where the environment is heavily in my favor. But the latter is rather taxing. However, I can also activate it partially and make the night fall in a certain radius instead.”
“So, you could theoretically make a Full Moon at any time,” Rakna said and she smiled.
“Yes. You can take it that way,” she said in amusement. “You can note that.”
He almost chuckled at that and looked around. “So, who’s going next?”
No one spoke up.
“…you’re kidding, right? Who would go after that? Anything we do is going to be lackluster. Aah, I can already feel my trauma from middle school coming back…” Allan shivered.
“All right, you go next.”
“…Rak, my best friend, have I ever told you that you’re a piece of shi--”