"We don't have too long until we get there, just keep up. How are you tired already?"
Trailing behind Kyto was Elizabeth, exhausted as she walked the pathway through the forest, stretching her arms above her head.
"We've only got a few hours of sleep! It's not my fault you're so eager to go to Mythical Valley." Vedrfolnir flew beside Elizabeth, flapping its wings before landing on her shoulder.
"I thought it'd be best if we make it before sunrise. Dragons are known to sleep too, you know?" Said the Cyrodel, turning around with a grin.
Elizabeth crossed her arms behind her head, lifting her brow.
"I guess so, but who's to say that it's the same for Ancient Dragons? Didn't Grimhild say they had magic comparable to her own?"
Kyto widened his eyes and faced forward, coming to realization.
"I forgot…"
"What?!?" Shouted the Kaizamei. "Are you seriously saying you were gonna travel to Mythical Valley without knowing how powerful its guardians were?"
Kyto held his ears in pain from her loud screaming, grinning embarrassingly. "Uh… yeah… my idea was to secretly make our wish without those dragons finding out." Proclaimed the Cyrodel, averting his gaze in shame.
"You're gonna get us killed at this rate you idiot…" Elizabeth stopped in her tracks, crossing her arms with a frown. Vedrfolnir seemed to copy her actions comedically. "I'd rather go back home than pointlessly commit suicide when we can have help."
Kyto sighed, knowing she was right. It totally slipped his mind that these dragons were apparently just as strong as Grimhild.
"Maybe Grimhild was exaggerating so she could persuade us to follow her to Mesnil."
Liz raised her brow before looking up in thought. "Well, that would make a lot of sense… but I seriously doubt she's 'fully' exaggerating. She looked worried when we mentioned Mythical Valley."
Kyto grumbled under his breath and huffed a deep sigh. "I still don't trust her…" He said, frowning at the thought.
"Well… we'll need somebody strong if we want to make our wish, ya know?" Responded Elizabeth, pity on her face.
"Right…" Kyto gazed at the ground, contemplating everything. "Man, this sucks…"
"Huh?" All of a sudden, Elizabeth widened her eyes, hearing the sound of crunching leaves in the forest from her sharp instincts. She immediately detected something out of place. Taking a stance, the Rozenheart scanned the forest as Kyto quickly prepared his magic.
"Huh, Elizabeth, what is it?"
The rustling from afar grew closer and more deliberate. Through the thick bushes, Elizabeth spotted a pair of glowing red eyes watching them from behind a massive oak tree. The creature's hot breath would create a fog in the air as it moved silently.
"Monsters!"
"Ruuuuooghh!" A horde of creatures launched at them from the forest as Kyto and Elizabeth prepared for battle.
Elizabeth's trained reflexes kicked in quickly as she faced the creature head-on, gracefully sidestepping its attack in high heels, delivering a swift kick to its ribs as Vedrfolnir flew off her shoulder. Striking it with deadly precision, she danced between the beasts' attacks as more pounced at her, but she evaded their movements.
Kyto's hands weaved intricate patterns in the air as he cast a defensive spell. "Gilfronta!" A barrier formed around him as he deflected their claws and teeth while Elizabeth fought beside him with pure skill and speed. "Elizabeth, they're Hexbeasts! Stay on guard, too much of their mana is dangerous!"
"It's no problem for me. I'm Manaless, remember?" A creature from behind charged at the Rozenheart but was met with a powerful roundhouse kick that sent it staggering backward. Elizabeth soon turned around to follow up with a series of rapid strikes—her fists and feet moving like lightning. "Haaah!" The Hexbeast was withering away as each punch overridden its mana-like body, breaking it apart.
"Huh??" Kyto realized Elizabeth was the perfect counter for Hexbeasts. With her Antimana, it had the power to override creatures made out of magic. Each punch erased parts of its body, preventing it from regenerating from complete destruction of its body and soul.
Other Hexbeasts stayed from afar, circling around them and looking for an opening, however, Kyto wouldn't give them the chance as he lifted his hand and conjured a burst of mana, "Huh?" though there was no effect. "Shit…!" Gritting his teeth, he lowered his hand. "I forgot they were immune to magic… what now?!"
"Kyto!" Elizabeth ran toward him and vaulted over one of the beasts, using the momentum to launch herself at their exposed flank that surrounded the Cyrodel. "Dragon Smasher Fist!" Lifting her hand into the air, she slammed her fist into the ground, fabricating a large shockwave that launched them back, momentarily staggering them. "Dragon Stream!" Following up with her next attack, Elizabeth dashed forward and started spinning at a ferocious speed. With enough speed and momentum, she transformed into a horizontal tornado, penetrating through the horde of Hexbeasts as her body became a catalyst for Antimana.
"Aroooohhh!" The beasts wailed in pain as their body and soul were unable to regenerate, perishing under the might of her martial arts, but that wasn't the end of them.
More Hexbeasts pounced at the Kaizamei from the forest like animalistic beasts, starving for their nucleus.
"Shit… we must be near a source of high mana which is creating them! We need to find the source and eradicate it!" Shouted Kyto, still within his anti-magical barrier. "Damnit, who would've thought so many traps were set up around Mythical Valley?"
Elizabeth weaved their attacks and moved with Grace, staying at a distance. "Go find it, I'll hold them off!" She moved with fluid martial arts. Her body was a deadly weapon, honed and crafted over time through intense training in physical combat.
Her feet danced across the forest floor as she dodged attacks from multiple beasts simultaneously. She flowed between strikes like water, her fists and feet striking with pinpoint accuracy, plunging through their magical bodies, and dropping them dead.
Each punch landed with bone-crushing force, while her kicks seemed to possess supernatural power, but were merely brute strength.
Kyto nodded at her and headed into the forest, using his mana control to find the highest source of magic in the forest. "I have to be quick, Elizabeth won't be able to fight forever!"
The horde's attacks became increasingly frantic as they struggled to land a hit on Elizabeth's whirling form. She performed complex combinations of jabs and kicks, spinning, and twisting in mid-air with breathtaking speed.
"Crap… there's too many of them! I knew this was a bad idea!" The forest echoed with the sounds of battle, snarls, roars, and Elizabeth's controlled breathing. Her martial arts was a blend of disciplined movements and raw instinct, perfectly adapted to combat multiple opponents at once.
Soaring Heaven Dragon was a Martial Art created by the Monks of Midgard, specifically designed for the Manaless. This style involved understanding one's Antimana and fabricating the flows of their Antimana into their punches and kicks. When in use, a purple aura can be seen around the user's extremities that resembles the appearance of dragon-heads. Elizabeth has mastered it to its fullest potential.
With such martial arts, she repelled their attacks away with twice the force and instinctively evaded their assault at the same time. Her brain was effectively on auto-pilot, reacting and countering attacks without even thinking about it while simultaneously planning her next course of attack.
None of the creatures could touch her. It mattered not if they were faster and more agile; Soaring Heaven Dragon Martial Arts allowed the user to move in such incomprehensible ways that opponents leagues above her wouldn't be able to keep up.
"Dragon Blizt!" Amidst her bout, the Rozenheart lunged forward into a line of Hexbeasts with her arm outstretched like a spear, appearing as a blur.
Each creature had their bodies plunged through. Massive holes were shown in their stomachs as they vanished into particles while others started emerging from the shadows.
"Haaaah… seriously?" She took a temporary breather and maintained her stance as Vedrfolnir remained in the air, worried. "Kyto you better hurry up… I'm wasting a lot of Antimana in my strikes. I haven't trained in months, I'm getting sloppy…" Catching her breath, she faced the Eagle in the sky. "Vedrfolnir, get to a safe distance away! Things are gonna get dangerous!"
The Eagle understood her and decided to fly away, gathering distance from the Kaizamei.
"Alright… it's time!" Despite her lack of training, Elizabeth was doing relatively well. Slapping her cheeks a few times to wake herself up, she suddenly crouched and closed her eyes. A purple aura could be seen charging around her body, as she took a deep breath, accumulating large portions of her Antimana.
"Hnnngh…. Haaaaaahhhhhh!!" All of a sudden, Elizabeth shouted in a war cry. A massive release of Antimana exploded from her body with a gigantic sphere of anti-energy surrounding her figure. With an explosion so massive, it covered a large part of the forest and engulfed the Hexbeasts, eradicating all of them at once.
It was neither a martial arts technique, nor anti-magic, but an intrinsic ability that all Kaizamei had. Thus, all of the mana in the area started to distort, causing logic to break down. The mana that made up parts of the forest had been replaced by her Antimana, disrupting the flow of laws.
As the explosion ceased, everything around her appeared distorted and wavy, as if she was underwater; it was reality trying to repair itself and override her Antimana.
The best way to think of kaizamei's were to think of them as diseases. Reality was the body, and the Kaizamei was the disease. Naturally, the body has an immune system to protect it from illnesses, thus, so did reality.
As existence tried to repair itself from the lack of mana, the ground suddenly started to shake. Elizabeth made a grave mistake. Not only did she release large quantities of antimana, but she attracted the Qlippoth spirits as well.
"H-Huh? What's going on?"
Qlippoth spirits were created to preserve Oblivion, but that's not all they were known for. Antimana was negative information, while mana was pure information. Naturally, negative informatio opposes creation and its fundamental building block—mana—which is where the Qlippoth comes into play.
These creatures were the preservers of nothingness, destruction, and disruption, which is exactly what Antimana was.
With enough negative information accumulated in one area, it's bound to attract these deadly creatures. They fed off of Antimana and its creation-breaking properties, feasting upon it like Candy, effectively restoring reality. Needless to say, they were reality's immune system.
As each Prime Sphere had an oblivion, this realm was also connected to all the other spheres across the Multiversal Division. Many Qlippoth are known to travel to other worlds and devour not only Antimana but the Kaizamei themselves.
"Holy crap…!"
A tear in space appeared above Elizabeth's head as a misty darkness emerged. It was the realm of oblivion. Merely looking into its nonexistent interior was enough to drive anyone insane.
"What have I done??"
Multiple flying, wispy spirits of darkness flowed from the hole in space, diving toward the ground.
Elizabeth took a step forward, knowing what these creatures were. This wasn't her first time dealing with them.
"…I have to tell Kyto!"