“Why can you control abyssal aura?!”
Owen stumbled back a step, utterly shocked by the scene before him.
No ordinary human could withstand the corrosion of abyssal aura.
Yet Via stood there completely unaffected; she even guided the aura, using it to amplify her mana and unleash a powerful spell that wounded the four-armed ape.
“You’re a demonized being!”
“Demonized? Doesn’t feel like it to me.”
Via’s attitude was relaxed, almost playful. She felt almost no negative effects from the abyssal aura.
Her resistance to it was far higher than even in her past life as the Demon King.
“Damn you! Sylvia’s daughter is actually a demonized being, a complete heretic!!”
Owen glared at Via, grinding his teeth.
“You hid it this well? Raised in the Holy Land since childhood, yet you fell this far. Have you no shame at all?!”
“Hey, hey, young master, what nonsense are you spouting?” Via couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore. “Why don’t you take a look at yourself first? You’re the one pointing fingers while doing exactly what a heretic would do. You really think the Holy Land wouldn’t brand you a heretic for this? If anyone deserves the Great Purification, it’s you.”
“Then I can’t let you leave here alive.”
Owen’s killing intent exploded.
Today, only one of them would walk away.
The young master of the Leites family forcibly suppressed the madness surging inside him, deepened the mental link with the four-armed ape using the artifact from Abyssal Eye and poured even more mana into it.
To focus completely on controlling the beast, he couldn’t fight himself. The battlefield now belonged entirely to the ape.
“Get her, four-armed ape!”
ROOAAR!!
The beast drew mana from Owen, combined with the amplification of abyssal aura, and rapidly healed the wounds it had just suffered.
The frenzied monster pounded its muscular chest with all four fists, letting out earth-shaking roars that shattered nearby boulders.
“So noisy.”
Via covered her ears.
This was similar to the demonized being she had fought before. These monsters loved using psychic intimidation to dominate their prey.
But to her it was just loud; her mind remained unaffected.
“Perfect. Ever since I gained control over abyssal aura, I haven’t had a proper fight. A Gold-rank beast… you’ll be my first real test!”
“HAAH!”
The four-armed ape raised its arms like four massive warhammers and unleashed a storm of consecutive blows.
Attack after attack rained down like a hurricane.
“Magic Shield!”
Via predicted the trajectories and formed shields of pure mana to block.
Against a Silver-rank beast, her defenses would have been impenetrable.
But this was a Gold-rank monster, an entire tier above her, further enhanced by abyssal aura. Its strikes were effective.
Her magic shields shattered like glass, one after another.
“Let’s see how long you last!” Owen crowed, ecstatic to see the ape gaining the upper hand.
Every shield cost mana. Continuous defense would drain her dry.
“As expected, simply amplifying with abyssal aura isn’t enough. I need a higher-level technique.”
While fighting, Via’s mind raced, analyzing the battle.
Abyssal aura could amplify mana; that was the most basic use, something even mindless beasts could do instinctively.
But true demonic masters had far more advanced applications.
Mana was the most fundamental energy in the world.
In warriors’ hands, it became battle aura.
In clerics’ hands, it transformed into holy power.
Demons fused mana with abyssal aura to create the far more tyrannical Abyssal Force.
However, there was one ironclad prerequisite: the user had to reach the Transcendent tier. Anything lower, and the Abyssal Force would devour them instead.
Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Diamond ranks all belonged to the Mortal tier. Most cultivators in the human world spent their entire lives stuck within it.
Only by breaking past Diamond into the next realm could one be called Transcendent, wielding power beyond mortal limits, capable of ruling entire regions single-handedly.
At her current Silver-rank strength, using Abyssal Force was nothing short of suicidal fantasy.
Yet in this moment, she decided to try anyway.
Without abyssal aura, how could she ever stand against true powerhouses?
“Abyssal Force, condense.”
Via threw caution to the wind and guided the abyssal aura inside her body to fuse with her mana.
This was no longer simple amplification; it was true fusion, evolution.
The two energies intertwined, abyssal aura and mana, clashed violently inside her, reacting like an unstable bomb about to detonate.
Even drawing on her past-life experience, Silver-rank was simply too weak to fully control Abyssal Force.
Backlash had already begun.
Just as she teetered on the brink of disaster, her bloodline suddenly boiled.
A mysterious power surged forth.
The girl’s pink eyes gradually turned a deep, mystical purple, glowing faintly.
Against all reason, the impossible happened.
She succeeded.
Abyssal aura and mana perfectly fused, transforming into the far more domineering Abyssal Force.
“Die!!”
Owen pronounced Via’s death sentence.
The four-armed ape clasped all four fists together, roared, and brought them down with the weight of a mountain, a finishing blow.
“Abyssal Shield.”
Via raised her hand.
The shield she summoned was no longer ordinary mana; it now shimmered with the deep violet of the abyss.
CLANG!
The ape’s devastating strike slammed into the Abyssal Shield.
Unlike every shield before it, this one did not shatter.
It didn’t even budge.
The four-armed ape could not shake it in the slightest.
“T-This… how is this possible?!”
Owen’s eyes bulged, his breathing ragged.
He stared at Via, whose eyes had turned purple, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably as terror flooded his heart.
It was as if a sovereign from the abyss itself had descended.
“Are you ready to die?”