For the next six hours, Lola and the ethereal cat remained locked in constant battle with their opposing forces. The prolonged conflict had transformed the clearing around the World Tree into a devastated wasteland of scorched earth, shattered crystals, and craters where devastating techniques had collided.
The more time passed, the more Lola's worry about Noah intensified. He remained unconscious in her arms, his body still processing whatever transformation the teardrop fruit was creating. She had no way of knowing if the process was progressing normally or if something had gone catastrophically wrong.
Worse still, she was starting to run dangerously low on enhancement items. She had used most of her remaining stock just to stay alive and maintain combat effectiveness against three coordinated grandmasters. The ethereal cat also required regular feeding of consumables to maintain her enhanced state, burning through her inventory at unsustainable rates.
