"This…what is this?" Damien muttered in shock.
Shining silver hair that draped down to the floor, crystalline skin like glass, and a white dress that seemed to accentuate her innocence. That was the girl's appearance.
At least, on the right side of her body.
The left side of her body was a horror to look at. Rotting red skin that oozed puss and what looked like blue blood that stained her dress, inky black hair, and a face covered in scar marks and horrendous holes.
Even her mana was split into two parts. One side was the same as the domain and ice mana Damien had been assailed with since he entered the ruins, while the other was connected to the black aura filled with countless eyes that floated behind her.
"What the hell is this? Is it them again?"
Damien's first instinct upon seeing the black mana was to connect it to the Nox, but he didn't hastily make that judgement.
'Even if it looks similar to their mana, it's something entirely different.'
He realized it after observing closer. The black mana reeked with the scent of death, but it wasn't the same inky and impure substance that the Nox used. It seemed to be derived from a different source.
'What happened to this girl? Why is she down here below the shrine? No, why is she here in this ruin at all?'
The questions kept piling up. And as Damien observed the girl, she did the same to him.
"W-who are you?"
Her voice was feeble but filled with malice. Her eyes were locked on his face, but he could feel her awareness darting around and constantly checking the surroundings.
"Ah…" Damien didn't really know how to answer the question. He couldn't just say he was a tomb raider that came here for treasures. In the end, he just decided to introduce himself normally.
"My name is Damien. What about you?" He tried to speak gently, but even he couldn't keep his voice from trembling when he saw the left side of her face.
"You…not from here…hiding things…everybody is hiding things…" The girl muttered to herself.
Out of nowhere, a malevolent aura burst from her body and tried to latch onto Damien. She lashed out, jumping into the air as if pouncing on him.
Clang!
But her movements stopped short. It was only then that Damien noticed the thick metal chains that bound the girl to a place deeper into the darkness.
Clang! Crash!
The girl whipped her limbs furiously as the chains dragged her back to where she once was. She tried to break them with all her might, even pouring frightening amounts of mana into them, but nothing seemed to work.
"You…do you want me to let you out?" Damien asked lightly.
It didn't seem like a good idea to do so. There must've been a reason she was sealed under the shrine, but he still offered. He needed to understand more about the situation.
Especially since this little girl might be the elemental spirit he had been looking for since the beginning.
"Grrr…!" The girl snarled at him. As her malice became directed at him, the thousands of asura-like eyes behind her also focused their gaze there.
Roar!
An incoherent roar left her mouth. As soon as it happened, the aura of those eyes congregated and blasted a reddish-black beam of energy at Damien.
'Dodge!'
He immediately attempted to teleport, but found that he wasn't able to do so. It wasn't a problem with space, rather it was his mana that didn't obey him.
It moved sluggishly, and whenever it left his body it froze into crystalline snowflakes that fell to the ground and shattered.
'Damn! She's using the domain!'
Using his spatial affinity became meaningless the second it happened. In fact, any mana-based attack lost its value. In the last moment before the beam hit him, Damien rolled to the side, using his Void Flames to propel him away.
"Argh!"
Even though he saved his vitals, his arm was still caught in the blast. Within seconds, it turned into a corroded mass similar to the left side of the girl's body.
'Damn! I can't endure that darkness power with my body alone. Luckily, the Void Flames still work.'
But even that was limited. The Void Flames could still be used since they drew mana directly from his Mana Heart and didn't need externally deployed mana to function, but at the same time, they grew and flourished by devouring mana.
Their full potential would be limited when mana itself was a resource that he couldn't use.
Roar!
Another roar rang out. The thousand eyes glowed red, and in response, the darkness around Damien began to move.
Tendrils were formed out of thin air, attacking him from all sides. Meanwhile, the cold aura of the elemental domain invaded his body and tried to force him to halt.
'Dammit!'
It was a situation that seemed hopeless, but he was lucky to still have his main trump card.
Pitch black Void Essence burst from his body and formed a barrier around him, shredding those darkness tendrils into nothingness. Using the time he had gained, he immediately roused his Demonic bloodline, undergoing transformation.
'Attack!'
The runes on his body moved into formation, making his power rise exponentially. He heavily stomped the ground, blasting forward with his entire bodily strength to reach the girl.
'I don't know if she's the elemental seed or whatever, but as things are now, she needs to die.'
This frightening power that could both freeze mana and corrode flesh as powerful as him was too dangerous. And this was while the girl was still sealed. He couldn't even imagine how much more powerful she'd be if she was given free rein.
Tendrils and beams of darkness tried to stop his charge, but he tore them to pieces using Void Essence.
The darkness around him accumulated above his head and formed a massive palm that struck down with astonishing speed, but Damien wouldn't allow it to hit him.
'Speed!'
He changed the configuration of his body runes to prioritize his speed. His body vanished and reappeared many meters away in an instant, narrowly escaping the surface area of that palm.
And after that, he reached her body within seconds. Void Essence coagulated around his hand as it shot forward like a blade aimed at her throat.
"The same as the rest…want to kill me…but why…? What did I do…?!"
"Keuk…"
Damien's nails abruptly stopped right before piercing her neck. The aftershock of halting his momentum caused a few bones in his arm to break, but they healed soon enough.
It wasn't like her words were enough to stop him. He wasn't as merciful as that. It was just…
It was the first time that he was able to see her eyes. Those crystal clear eyes that still held a tinge of innocence completely contradicted the malice he felt from her aura and actions.
'But why did I stop?'
That shouldn't have been enough. Even if it was like that, she was still trying to kill him.
She was, right?
But as Damien continued to look into those eyes, he didn't feel killing intent nor malice. There was only a single thing that translated to him bright as day.
A call for help.
The girl in front of him was desperately begging him for help even while actively trying to kill him.
