"Didn't I say I'll be back as fast as I can? Just keep the hot stones burning steadily, and I'll handle this as quickly as possible," Orion replied, offering a reassuring smile.
Without waiting for Saria's response, he leapt off the side of the basket, sliding down the rope with his hands tightly clenched around it. Even if his body was strong enough to endure the friction, he let go before reaching the centre of the rope, diving headfirst towards the ground.
As he descended, utilizing his momentum to accelerate his fall, Orion summoned the four-meter Crimson greatsword into his grasp.
Activating his gift, and releasing his Vylkr energy from his two Vylkr containers, he enveloped it in a bluish hue.
With the appearance of the Crimson greatsword, Aerialia also manifested.
"What manner of creature is that?" Aerialia asked, her voice covered with a mix of shock and surprise.
While she recognized the danger posed by the Vylkr vines, witnessing the creature before her left her utterly dumbfounded.
"It's a three-star Vylkr vine, the strongest variation of the Vylkr vines that we know of," Orion replied as he firmly gripped the four-meter Crimson greatsword with both hands.
He immediately controlled his lightning to stretch outwards, conjuring another blade around his Crimson greatsword. Before Aerialia could respond, Orion swiftly asked, "Can this blade cut through those Vylkr vines?"
"Of course, it can. The blade was forged by me, so without a doubt, it can cut through anything in its path," Aerialia responded firmly, showing no hesitation in her words.
Orion nodded, already knowing the answer, but just wanted to say something to feel comfortable and reassure himself about what he wanted to do. He positioned his arms correctly, and just before he descended above the headless three-star Vylkr vine—
His hands fell forward.
KAABBOOMM!! RUUMMBLEE!!
BOOOMM!! BAANGG!!
CRAACCKKLLEE!! CRACCKLLEEE!!!
Lightning shook the air without the emergence of thunder, charring and burning a part of its humongous figure to a crisp while the four-meter Crimson greatsword easily cut through its body without stopping, like a hot knife through butter until Orion's Crimson greatsword finally reached the ground.
BBAANNGGG! BBOOOMMM!
A huge pit formed in the ground, stretching for about nine meters deep, causing the three-star Vylkr vine to tumble within it. But Orion knew that it was far from enough as he saw the swarm of one-star and two-star Vylkr vines replacing the ones that had been fried and cut off while it strangely rearranged its legs to another side so that it could properly get back on its feet. However, something had instantly caught his attention.
"Hey, Aerialia, are you seeing this?" Orion asked.
Ignoring that Orion was directly calling her by her name, Aerialia focused her attention on the sight before her, too stunned to take her eyes off it.
Instead of being replaced like the rest of the newly formed Vylkr vines, they watched as the Vylkr vines, which Orion had cut apart with Crimson greatsword, were being wrapped up by the slithering, newly formed Vylkr vines as though they were devouring them, causing doubt to settle on them, most especially Orion.
He had seen Vylkr vines slither towards life to devour it; he had heard about how they devoured everything and anything in their way.
However, there was one thing that he had never seen or heard about—
Vylkr vines devouring one another!
Nonetheless, even if Aerialia could see the same thing, she sensed that the Vylkr vines being devoured contained traces of divine energy released by the Crimson greatsword.
In short, the Vylkr vines were not just devouring one another but consuming the divine energy within the dead Vylkr vines.
Even if she had doubted it herself when Aegis of the Arctic Deity was speaking, seeing it for herself, she understood he was not lying and that the Vylkr energy was really able to compete with and even devour divine energy.
"This… This is…" Aerialia wanted to speak but didn't know how to put it into words.
Even Orion was momentarily speechless before he regained his composure and turned behind to look at the two Vylkr vines in the distance still fighting against Seth. Seeing that the Vylkr vine before him would take some time to recover, Orion decided to head over to help Seth now that he could temporarily slow down the Vylkr vines.
Aerialia was pulled along with Orion as he released the Vylkr energy within his two Vylkr containers again, his body surging towards Seth at an amazing breakneck speed.
…...
"No, haaa… I will not die here!" Seth said to himself as he slashed down on another approaching Vylkr vine, tearing it apart before burying it under a mass of molten lava with his other hand. However, its movement remained unaffected as several other Vylkr vines attacked him.
Meanwhile, the damaged portion of the Vylkr vine fell to the ground, quickly replaced by another wave of one-star and two-star Vylkr vines.
This was the real challenge in dealing with a three-star Vylkr vine. It required more than one three-star warrior or a group of them to take care of them, not only because they were a conglomeration of one-star and two-star Vylkr vines acting as one entity but also because they had to push them to the point of no recovery, eradicating them.
And because a three-star Vylkr vine does not have a particular weak point that they could strike down and stop it from emerging again, as long as the one-star Vylkr vines and two-star Vylkr vines were present, their emergence was—
Inevitable.
SWISSSHH!! SIZZZZLEEE!!
As Seth fought for his life, attacking again, lightning rumbled in his ears. It only got more apparent by the second, causing him to turn his head to the side and catch a glimpse of Orion racing towards him.
Orion's feet glided, not even touching the ground, as the rumbling and crackling of lightning accompanied his every footstep.
With wide eyes filled with disbelief, he watched as the lightning disappeared from Orion's feet before emerging once again from his upper body, causing the Crimson greatsword within his grasp to radiate a violent, stinging bluish hue. And then, just before he could react…
SWOSSHH!! BANNGG!!
