After memorizing his location so he could warp back later, Damien flew away from the dome before teleporting back to the house.
Arriving, he started telling the girls about what he found. He'd already briefed them about the situation before he left on his search, so he only needed to tell them about the hideout.
And since they were already on the subject, he told them about the conditions of the world outside the city.
"To be honest, it's stupid that we never considered the possibility before you said it," Elena said. She was slightly downcast about the state of the world, but she was similar to Damien in the sense that she knew she couldn't do anything about it, so she didn't fret.
However, unlike Damien, she held on to the possibility that once she became strong enough, she could come back and make the world a more peaceful place.
After a slight interlude, Damien spoke about the dome-like structure he had found. He also described the mutated people he had seen exiting it.
"It's pretty obvious what the identity of that structure is, but I have no interest in charging in blindly. Rose, I want you to come with me so we can do a little infiltration mission."
Rose nodded. "That's no problem. It's been getting a little boring sitting around and doing nothing anyway."
"What about us?" Elena spoke, referring to herself and Zara. "Rose has already shown that she can cast illusions on others that don't wear off as long as we have mana, so it shouldn't be a problem for us to join as well."
Well, she was talking more for herself than anything. Zara had her own concealment abilities, and they were one of her main strengths. She didn't need any help to hide from others' senses.
Damien fell into thought. It was true that Rose could use her illusions to hide Elena if she wanted, Damien's only problem was with safety. If more people infiltrated with him, they'd have to split up, and Damien wouldn't be there to protect them.
Rose, seemingly sensing Damien's worries, chimed in. "Aren't you being a bit too paranoid? Or did you forget that we aren't some weaklings that are here to burden you?"
Looking around the room, Damien started to feel like an idiot. It wasn't just Rose, but Elena and Zara as well who were all glaring at him. It was definitely true that he had forgotten their strength.
With Rose, although he knew she was strong, he had never seen her fight alone. But that reasoning was illogical. If she couldn't hold her own, how did she even reach him on Godspark Mountain? And wasn't she the one who did the most to kill the Nox within the ancient temple?
Zara was the same. Damien had only fought together with her and had never seen her hunt alone, but that didn't mean she never did.
When he was building his mana circuits and when he was within the legacy tomb, even during certain periods while climbing Godspark mountain Zara had evolved without Damien's watch.
And the final one was Elena. His trust was a bit rockier when it came to her since he had never seen her fight since he came back to earth. On top of this, she was still at 2nd class unlike the rest of them. Perhaps it was due to the conditions of earth, but it didn't change the facts.
Hesitating a bit, Damien spoke once again while looking at Elena. "Fine. Rose and Zara are good, but I've never seen you fight. Spar against Rose and based on the outcome we can vote on whether you can come or not."
Damien felt like he was being too commanding, but it was necessary. Whether he saw this as a serious venture or not didn't matter. To a second class, walking into the den of 3rd classes was almost always suicide.
However, it would be a different story if Elena could prove that her prowess matched Damien and Rose's back when they were near the peak of 2nd class.
Elena nodded almost immediately. Not only would she be able to prove she wasn't a burden, but she'd also get to fight Rose, which was something she'd been wishing for since many weeks ago.
Receiving her affirmation, Damien teleported the group to a more secluded area on the outskirts of the city. He didn't want to deal with his mother's wrath if they ended up destroying the backyard.
Damien sat atop Zara in the distance while Rose and Elena faced each other within the grassy hills they were situated on. Looking at the two, Damien nodded his head.
"Start!"
Elena rushed first. She pulled her sword out of the spatial ring Damien had gifted her and appeared directly in front of Rose, moving so fast she left afterimages in her wake.
Although surprised, Rose was still able to react calmly. However, she didn't use any weapons since the strength gap was already big enough.
She simply shaped the wind around her into a sickle shape and used it to block the oncoming sword.
Swoosh!
The impact didn't create an explosion, but the shockwave that erupted managed to raze the grass within their vicinity.
Rose smirked at this sight. "Is that all you can do?"
Elena usually wouldn't fall for such light provocation, but against Rose, she always felt she couldn't control herself. She immediately resumed her offensive, continuously swinging her sword.
She didn't stay in one place, though. Elena's speed was insane as she almost teleported from one spot to another, circling Rose while slashing with her sword.
The sword itself was similar to a katana, but its quality wasn't the same as the weapons Damien and Rose had. Only while watching the fight did Damien realize the discrepancy. 'Looks like we need to get her a replacement soon.'
Still, the weapon was enough for now. Elena continued to move around Rose as many afterimages started forming. Their movements became synced and it became almost impossible to tell which was the real Elena.
Rose was definitely surprised by this move. She tried to use her wind to disrupt the images, but they didn't budge. It was almost as if they were being supported by something else.
It was then that a change occurred. The earth began rumbling as many holes were formed in its surface. Out of these holes, tens of thick tree roots shot towards Rose.
Boom!
Finally, an explosion was produced. Rose shot wind bullets at the roots, causing massive gashes in their surfaces before cutting them with her wind sword.
All this while, Elena kept attacking in the forefront.
The battle raged on for another half an hour but didn't seem like it would stop any time soon. With Elena's strategy of continuous heavy assault, any normal 2nd class would have long since run out of stamina already. But this didn't apply to her.
Elena's specialty was always her sustainability in battle. No matter what, she always refused to be the first one to tire out.
At this point, Rose had decided it was enough. Elena had already proven herself capable, so she felt the battle didn't need to go on any longer. Wanting to teach Elena a little lesson, Rose made her move.
[Illusory Throne]
Along with her words, the environment was caped in darkness. Elena stopped her movement as her afterimages slowly disappeared. Instead of panicking, she warily looked at the surroundings, assessing her options.
Figures started emerging from the darkness. Beasts, humans, and grotesque combinations between them charged at Elena. Besides this, many horrible scenes flashed by her vision. Mass slaughters and genocide were displayed before her eyes.
Unwilling to succumb to this mental warfare, Elena closed her eyes and covered her body in greenish white mana. It looked similar to wind element, but everything about it other than its appearance was different.
Elena felt a vigorous life aura seep into her body and mind, clearing anything she considered as impurity. When she reopened her eyes, she was back within the darkness.
It wasn't that the illusions disappeared or stopped attacking her, rather Elena simply stopped seeing them. It was similar to the effects of Damien's eyes.
Staring at the endless abyss that constituted the sky, Elena raised her arm.
[Judgement]
Blinding light emerged from the darkness, bathing everything in its warm glow. However contrary to the purity of its aura, the action itself was deadly. 10 massive golden swords formed in the air. Even Damien could see their light from outside the illusory throne domain.
And then, Elena dropped her arm. The swords of light shot forward at blinding speeds, hitting their various targets. 3 swords impaled the ground, 3 impaled the ceiling, and the other 4 impacted the walls.
Even though everything was constructed from illusions, the swords struck as if they were material objects. And then, another blinding flash occurred as the swords imploded.
A rain of light arrows showered the environment around Elena, seemingly unwilling to leave a single spot untouched.
And slowly, cracks began forming in the illusory domain. Rose wasn't going to allow this. She summoned her throne and prepared to counter Elena, inadvertently giving up her position.
Elena turned to her with the same attitude, ready to fight until one of them dropped. However, their battle was abruptly put to an end.
Damien arrived in the middle of the domain and teleported them away from each other, using his vector control to prevent them from moving.
"Alright, Elena has already proven herself. You guys can continue this after we finish our missions."
