Blink.
Blitz. Swoosh. Clash.
Two lightning-charged swords clashed against a sleek and simple gladius coated in Enderflames and sparks flew. The gladius was handled in such a way that it perfectly countered the pair of Shamshirs. And the swordswoman showed that she was effortless in her weapon handling by making complex moves look simple.
Eren was seen covered in various wounds. Some of them were bite wounds. But they looked red and horrible to look at but no blood came from them. It was as if the wounds were displayed to make him understand how beaten up he was.
It had been more than five days since Eren's consciousness was summoned to the Nightmare Domain. He had technically died tens of times and had countless near-death experiences during this period. And yet, his illusory body showed him that it still had room to accommodate more pain.
The dragonkin beasts mauled him and attacked him with their claws and tails. They showed their fangs at him before breathing Enderflames on him. They stopped all over him when he was at his weakest and fighting with other opponents.
The wraiths ganged up on him and bit him. Their hordes made him experience the pain of his flesh getting eaten in front of his very eyes. They used their weapons on him all at once. It was even possible for some of them to have their spells equipped. The wraiths also used their bones to launch counter attacks that he couldn't see coming.
However, none of them managed to make the situation miserable for Eren. All except Eliza.
"Aaaaaargh!"
Eren was forced to retreat once again by Eliza. The latter handled all of his sword attacks, parried them effectively, and launched a counter at him in a series of moves that looked seamless. They made her look like she was playing with a kid who knew nothing about the battle arts.
It was as if the Life and Death Altar had breathed real life into Eren's imagination through the analysis of his memories. It had a lot of permutations and combinations recorded inside the array. These combinations suit the illusory Eliza's profile, allowing her to fight like the real Eliza through the use of artificial intelligence.
Eren could read Eliza's movements just fine. She wasn't doing anything unique if he really thought about it. After all, every form of sword art was nothing but a series of slashes and swings at its core.
However, the way Eliza moved and handled her gladius made Eren question his qualifications to battle with her. Because he couldn't block them no matter how easily he could see them coming. The Witch of Enderflame would just introduce a slight variation in her move midway that would change the whole equation of their exchange.
Eliza seamlessly switched between offense and defense. Sometimes, her offensive moves doubled as an invisible wall that Eren couldn't penetrate.
At first, Eliza hadn't cast any elemental spells on him yet. That was because her rendition was based on Eren's memories of her.
The butcher hadn't seen Eliza cast any offensive elemental spells. The appearance of Enderflames he had seen was just her Way of the Elements interacting with the world around her.
Eren was not happy that Eliza standing in front of him was nerfed like that. He wanted to have a serious clash with her inside the Nightmare Domain. The conditions inside this illusory world made it ideal for him to try out a lot of his combinations on her.
The masochist in him did the only thing he knew bestâ€" add to his miseries by manually making the nerfed Eliza stronger. He started imagining spells she could cast, and the Nightmare Domain eventually picked up on his imagination.
By this point, Eren had started to understand the Nightmare Domain bit by bit. It wouldn't offer him a respite from constantly battling against his nightmarish opponents by default. But there were ways he could make the most of the time he had to spend in his imaginary world.
For example, he could let go of his sword and imagine obtaining support items like recovery potions. He could use them before summoning his sword once more, which would allow him to battle continuously inside the Nightmare Domain.
It seemed Life And Death Altar had no problem fulfilling requests like occasional recovery potions. That is if the subjects it was judging wanted to add to their miseries.
Eren wasn't provided with additional buffs other than the sporadic use of potions. It kept him standing on his two feet and allowed him to fight for five days straight without any respite.
Eren killed countless dragonkin and wraiths. The more he killed the more their numbers would grow back. It was an endless cycle of death, destruction, and suffering. He had become numb to the wraiths' cries and the beastly growls.
The feeling of hearing his own heartbeat had become a norm for the butcher at this point. His senses had been put on autopilot for the most part, turning him into an emotionless puppet who knew nothing more than to kill or get killed.
However, Eliza's attacks made the butcher understand his own mortality, preventing him from turning into a mindless killing machine. The pain was the reality check he needed to make sense of the battles. It grounded him and allowed him to see his limits.
Eliza started casting Eren's fire-element spells empowered by Enderflames whenever he tried to maintain a safe distance from her. The butcher didn't regret his choice of empowering the Witch of Enderflames with his own fire-element attacks. But he had to say that the results were more dreadful than he had anticipated just because of Sage's peculiar Ability.
"Aaaaaaaargh!"
Eren cried in pain when he was bathed in a wave of Enderflames. It started burning his skin and affected his cognition due to sensory overload. He forced himself to get close to her so that he suffered less from exposing himself to Enderflames.
