Using her ice magic to create another forest of spikes, Riveria forced the impostor back, finally earning a precious second to breathe.
She quickly glanced down at her left shoulder. The deep gash left by his previous slash had finally stopped bleeding thanks to her healing magic.
But she was still injured.
Her mental energy and physical stamina were depleting at a terrifying rate.
If she didn't come up with a solution soon, she would inevitably be worn down and killed by this mindless slaughtering machine.
Ranged magic was entirely nullified by Silentium Eden.
And in pure close-quarters combat, even with a Level 6 physical frame, she was a mage; her skills were only roughly on par with a Level 5 frontline fighter.
Against an opponent of the same level, once forced into a purely physical brawl, she had very little means of fighting back.
The only reason she had survived this long was thanks to the extreme versatility of ice magic, coupled with the unique environmental advantage of the Water Capital.
The abundant moisture in the air massively amplified the potency of her ice spells. Whether it was conjuring ice walls or terraforming the battlefield, the magic flowed naturally, allowing her to barely keep him at bay.
However, this delaying tactic had its absolute limits.
Just as "Aiden" unleashed another crimson flying slash, cleanly splitting the massive glacier she had just erected in two, a streak of cyan finally dashed in from behind.
"Ais!"
Riveria's spirits lifted.
Almost immediately after she spoke, the emerald figure fearlessly launched a ferocious assault against the "Aiden" who had just broken through the ice.
"Tempest!"
With that brief chant, raging green winds instantly enveloped Ais.
Desperate carved a razor-sharp arc through the air, violently clashing against "Aiden's" fiery crimson blade.
A deafening explosion echoed through the cavern.
Emerald wind and crimson fire violently detonated at the point of impact.
The two figures instantly separated, only to collide again a microsecond later with even greater speed.
A duel of pure, unadulterated swordsmanship had begun.
The cyan and crimson afterimages darted across the battlefield, clashing at speeds that the naked eye could barely even process.
With every crossing of their blades, the resulting shockwaves acted like the sharpest of knives, gouging deep, jagged scars into the surrounding ice, the earth, the stone walls, and even the air itself.
Especially when Ais caught sight of the lifeless bodies of her comrades lying in the distant pools of blood, a cold, unadulterated killing intent flared within her golden eyes.
Even though the enemy wore a face that she had once been mildly curious about, her sword strikes grew increasingly merciless.
However, as a bystander, Riveria acutely pinpointed the crux of the problem.
Ais still couldn't view this opponent as a "monster."
Perhaps because the man calling himself "Childe" was capable of fluent communication, Ais had subconsciously categorized these Dungeon-born entities under the umbrella of "humanity."
Or perhaps, simply because he wore that familiar face, her subconscious mind completely refused to associate him with the snarling, mindless monsters of the Dungeon that only knew destruction.
And this cognitive dissonance directly prevented her from utilizing her absolute strongest trump card—the skill Avenger.
It was an ultimate skill that dealt specialized, extreme damage against all monsters and dragonkin.
Once activated, it drastically, almost illogically, boosted all of her stats scaling directly with the depths of her hatred.
Against dragons, it elevated her power by several magnitudes, pushing her to a terrifying tier capable of completely reversing any battle.
Even though the "Aiden" standing before her wasn't a dragon, as long as Ais could genuinely classify him as a "monster" in her heart, activating Avenger would instantly grant her an overwhelming upper hand, rather than just fighting him to a stalemate as she was doing now.
In the countless desperate situations the Loki Familia had faced during their Dungeon expeditions, Ais had always been their sharpest blade. Every single time, she would activate Avenger at the critical moment, cleaving through despair and turning the tides.
But the side effects of that skill were incredibly dangerous. It eroded her mind, drowning her in the pure, intoxicating desire for revenge.
Because of this, Riveria and Finn strictly regulated its use.
Yet now, even with those restrictions lifted, Ais herself was temporarily incapable of triggering it.
Because deep in her heart, she didn't view the enemy standing before her as a "monster" worthy of her hatred.
Ais saw him as a "person."
This single misconception had become the shackle sealing away her greatest power.
While both battlefields were locked in insanely intense life-or-death struggles...
Far off in the distance, behind the veil of a massive waterfall crashing down from the ceiling, a figure was trembling uncontrollably, peering through the rushing water in sheer horror at everything unfolding in the center of the battlefield.
It was a maiden of astonishing beauty.
Her upper half was virtually indistinguishable from a human's. Long hair, the color of the deep ocean, swayed gently in the water, framing a pair of large, bright sapphire eyes that were currently filled with undisguised terror.
She possessed delicate features and pale skin, but unlike a normal human, patches of fine, pearlescent fish scales that gave off a faint glow covered the corners of her eyes, her arms, and her midriff.
Her torso was almost entirely bare, with only two large, beautiful seashells tastefully concealing the soft curves of her chest.
From the waist down, she possessed the long, graceful, blue-scaled tail of a fish.
She was a Xenos.
A mermaid of the seas and lakes named Marie.
She had witnessed the entire encounter between the Loki Familia and the man calling himself Childe. She saw the sudden arrival of the fake "Aiden," and the tragic, devastating position the Loki Familia was now trapped in as they fought a desperate war on two fronts.
Marie was trembling from head to tail.
Whether it was the pitch-black, demonic Childe or the "Aiden" swinging the crimson sword, the auras they radiated felt even more suffocating than the most horrifying monsters native to the deep floors.
The sheer intensity of the ongoing battle shocked her beyond words.
Every single person on that battlefield was as strong as the heroes out of legend—yet this group of terrifyingly powerful individuals was currently locked in a brutal deathmatch.
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