Although the Wasteland was technically a layer of the Underground, some people did not consider it as such and only viewed it as a transitory place to the inferior layers.
This wasn't just due to the poor living condition that this layer has, but more importantly, the height of this place was less than fifty meters.
With such a narrow space, any fight among individuals capable of showing a fighting power above Rank 1, will create a destructive force powerful enough to change the environment and reduce everything to nothing around them.
That was exactly what was happening as Sophia and the Eye Lord were fighting. They were constantly launching spears of dark ice and fiend claws made of blood against each other, destroying everything in their path.
Both had great speed and control over their bodies, so they were constantly moving around the place, and a field of destruction was accompanying them as their spells crashed against the ground and the ceiling.
As the fight continued, frustration was starting to appear on the face of the Eye Lord. The number of fiend claws he was conjuring was less than the beginning, but their power has increased and it was certainly greater than the one carried in Sophia's dark spears.
Unfortunately for him, every single one of his claws crashed against the spears and they neutralized each other, leaving no winner.
Neither of them was willing to show weakness, so they increased the power of their spells, and the surrounding destruction grew as well.
The Eye Lord knew that his chance of being victorious was great since his energy pool was greater than his enemy and it was depleting at a slower rate since he did not use a runic set.
But even if he manages to debilitate her, that does not mean he will be able to kill Sophia since those dragonborn that could release an attack powerful enough to disintegrate an Eye Lord were still present, and by that time, he will be so tired that even escaping will be up to luck.
After a moment, the Eye Lord became resolute and his red eyes started to glow as he channels all the energy in him before launching a spell
"Blood Fiend Form!"
Blood started to appear around the Eye Lord's body, transforming him into a twenty-meter tall creature with claws, horns, and a tail that seems entirely made of blood.
The power of Eye Lord increased tremendously, and without delay, he launched himself against Sophia.
Despite the increase in her enemy's strength, Sophia's eyes remained calm, and channeling all of her Abyss Aura and the power of her runic set to the limits, she conjures hundreds of small spears of ice, before making them fuse with each other, forming a dragon tail thirty-meters long and sending it against the blood fiend.
The moment the dragon tail and the blood fiend crash against each other, a shock wave is generated that makes the place around them tremble and the ceiling and ground break apart.
The dragon tail was destroyed and although some damage was made to the blood fiend, it still remained complete but his momentum had dissolved.
The Eye Lord was preparing to resume his attack when he felt two crimson-colored eyes looking at him, and for the fraction of a second, his mind was clouded.
Sophia's Oblivion Eyes only affected him for an instant, but it was enough to decide the battle.
When the Eye Lord was able to focus again, the thing he saw were two dark beams, carrying the same chaotic energy that killed his partner, clashing against him at point-blank range, right in his chest.
A great part of the blood fiend's body chest was destroyed, showing the Eye Lord in its center, and sending him to crash against the ground with impressive speed.
The Eye Lord's condition was serious. He had lost his right arm and his chest was severely damaged.
Seeing the poor condition of his enemy, Sophia's eyes become colder and she channels her energy again, creating another dragon tail.
Just as she was about to send the dragon tail against the Eye Lord and crush his body, a great sense of danger assaulted Sophia.
Behind her, outside her dome of ice, a man covering in shadows appeared, carrying a grey dagger in his hand.
The moment he appeared, he acted immediately, destroying a part of the dome of ice with the dagger, before launching an attack against Sophia's back with the same weapon.
The actions of the man were ruthless, precise, and experienced, demonstrating great skill in this type of surprise attack.
The power behind the dagger was by no means simple, it had the ability to kill a Rank 2 life form if the attack was precise, but despite realizing that, Sophia did not lose calm.
She channels all of her Abyss Aura, but this time, she was using her consciousness to launch the spell, and she was doing it with such an impressive speed, that it seems like she was waiting for this to happen.
The dome of ice repaired itself immediately and its thickness and density increased greatly. Once that was done, a typhoon of Styx water was released from Sophia's body completely filling the interior of the dome.
The figures of Sophia and the man in shadows disappeared and the only thing you could see were the incredible powerful current of Styx water moving though the dome, displaying an impressive corrosive might and destructive pressure.
The power that those waters were displaying should be enough to break the dome immediately, but thanks to the two of them working together it was able to contain the typhoon and increase exponentially his power by concentrating it in a small space.
Three seconds later the Styx water calms itself before disappearing, showing the interior of the dome.
Sophia's face was extremely pale due to the severe depletion in energy and her left arm was bleeding badly due to the laceration that extended from her shoulder to her hand, as for the man in the shadows, the only thing of him that remained was the broken skeleton that she was holding in her right hand.
It was only now that the Eye Lord was able to stand up, and when he saw the skeleton on Sophia's hand he was shocked.
Despite the man cover by shadows being weaker than him, the Eye Lord knew of his impressive assassination skills, but now he had been reduced to a set of bones in less than five second
Although he saw that Sophia's condition was poor, he wasn't better, so, despite the fact that the punishment will be severe, the Eye Lord prepared to escape.
Just as he was going to run from the ground, next to him, a man covered in lightning came out breaking the earth.
The Eye Lord wasn't able to react before the man pointed his palm at him and fired a blast of energy, destroying his upper body and killing him.
Despite achieving the amazing feat of giving the finishing blow to someone an entire Rank above him, Ezequiel did not show any emotion and just took his spatial ring before flying to where Sophia was.
"Are you ok?, that injury seems to be affected by some sort of poison."
Ezequiel looks at the laceration on Sophia's arms and detects a type of energy inside that was trying to continue its destruction but was stopped by an invisible wall.
"I am fine, thanks to my bloodline, my resistance to this type of injury is very powerful."
Sophia took a vial from her ring, and splashed the liquid inside it on her wound, making a grey gas expel from it.
Seeing this, Ezequiel nods. His bloodline gives him an incredibly powerful body, but he knows that when it comes to resistance against altered states, Sophia's body was better.
"It seems that the members of the Blood Eye clan, from the Eye Dynasty, are set on getting revenge. I searched for other people as you were fighting, and it seems that the only ones present are these three."
"Yes, it was to be expected, after all, the person that Zatiel almost killed during the expedition seems to have been special. There were not just people from the dynasty. Since this person is someone we both know, he is Clive."
Sophia raises the skeleton in her right hand for Ezequiel to see.
"He may have been reporting information about the movement around the tower, or he may have been contacted by the Blood Eye clan to hire him for this assassination. Either way, they are dead and no more threat should come in the near future. I will stay here, helping Dante. You should go back to the tower and focus on advancing to the next Rank."
The typhoon of Styx water was Sophia's new Rank Spell known as 'Oceanic Nothingness', and now she only needed a place with a high amount of energy to help advance to the next Rank and the tower was the perfect place for that.
"I will. You should be extra careful here. This time we were able to detect them thanks to Dante, but the next time we may not be so lucky."
"I know. But I must say that the abilities of the Animus to detect danger are impressive, those three were able to hide their presence but their emotions revealed their whereabouts."
Ezequiel looked at the boy, and affection was present in his eyes.
