“Wake up, sleepyhead.”

Luxinna’s eyes peeked open to greet a familiar face. She glanced at herself, yep, still wearing her usual black uniform, but without the coat and mask. Luxinna breathed, at least something about this situation was familiar.

“You again.”

“Sadly, yes,” child-size Luxinna answered. “Breaking news. The space-warping did a number on your perception of time-space. Like it or not, that guy is awake.”

The last thirty minutes replayed itself in the elf’s brain.

The light. That girl. Thier crashes. Those sudden stomach-flipping lurches.

Her True Magic.

“Oh no,” Luxinna sat straight and absorbed where she was. “No, no, no, no, no, no.”

“I guess you have questions, and I understand your reaction,” the young Luxinna spoke in uncharacteristically sympathetic voice. “But you need to focus.”

“Can we change the backdrop?” Luxinna grabbed her younger self and shook her with unbridled desperation. “A beach. A city. A van. I will settle for a ruin of Venistalis or hell, but not here.”

Alas, ‘here’ didn’t change. Luxinna was still in a familiar pond with toxic atmosphere. Dark vines covered the once pristine ground of white pebbles. The originally clear and fresh water was now sickly liquid. The green vines corrupted all sides of the waterfall. And where the water once fell, a tower of gross shiny black glass stood like an abominable creation of the stars. The sweet, sour, rotting smell nearly caused the elf to vomit.

Luxinna saw this scence only once. It was her sacred visiting place back in Lightwell forest. The spot which was taken over and transformed into a polluted hell by a World Enemy. It was a place of her trauma where Paracis Corrupter parasitized her. She was barely rescued by the suicidal effort of Cytortia and Rem. It was a place where Horizon Dawn first fought an enemy from beyond and barely won thanked to Satholia’s intervention. 

“I can’t.”

“This place isn’t real,” Luxinna muttered. “It can’t be real. Satholia killed the Corrupter.”

“But sadly, its copy lived, and WORLD is quite a cruel mentor,” young Luxinna pointed at the tower. “Your lesson is there.”

The tower of black exploded as humongous flower bloomed. The monstrous flower resembling the Rafflesia fold into existence, whirling its teeth like an angry chainsaw. It roared, sending thunderous shock-waves echoing in the forest as sickening stenches of poisonous rose in with the purple mist.

Luxinna reacted immediately. Her hand stretched under raw reflex, waiting for a familiar sword to materialize magically in her waiting palm.

Nothing.

“Sorry, you can’t use [Historia], Lux. You are on your own.”

Luxinna’s morale did a dive as a forest of vines emerged from the lake and lasered her location with purple beams.

…

Several platforms appeared on the floor with simple holographic message written above them.

Treasure Hall Pathways

It was a trap, and Hikma knew it. An intelligent ten years-old would be suspecting something. The set-up couldn’t be more suspicious unless someone put a giant neon sign over it.

Sadly, the 33 Stars walked right on to the plate.

“We divide the treasure equally,” Magnolia Drakokia glared at her temporary allies.

“Don’t get you knicker into a twist,” Amitate replied with a politician worthy smile. “We have a deal.”

“Milady,” one elf in the entourage said. “We should—”

“You will stay here and guard the entrance,” Magnolia emphasized haughtily. “We can’t have anyone else interfere with this treasure hunt.”

The 33 Stars stood on the elevator as it descended below the ground. The hidden Hikma helplessly watched the potential disaster unfurling before his very eyes with a face-palm. All the effort he went into warning them and they sashayed to the gallow anyway.

Rem should have a better plan. They sincerely needed it.

…

Back inside the sour, misty landscape inside an elf’s mind, a furious battle unlike any raged.

Explosion flew and lightning struck as Luxinna continued her one woman war.

Some point in the brawl, the Paracis Corrupter summoned an army to help put the elf on a pike. But Luxinna still danced across the tainted waterfall. Her lightning set the wall of vines on fire, turning the air into blossoming smokes and flames. Smell of Ozone crashed against the acrid sourness and whirling scent of smokes as the elf spun through a lilac beam of energy chasing her.

Luxinna ran diagonal to the wall and somersaulted off the rocky surface as a giant worm, green with corruption and riddled with barbs crashed through the rocky cliff of the waterfall. Luxinna grimaced, tensing her muscle and bursted into motion against the thunderous flying rock. Her spinning body readjusted to launch a calculate attack midair.

[Overflow]

[Serene Glass]

[Electro Gift]

A golden polearm of [Serene Glass] appeared in her hand. Handling the perfectly formed weapon like she wielded it for a lifetime, Luxinna enchanted the weapon with a lightning edge. The elf performed a triple mid-air slash, whilst amplifying her weapon’s range with [Aura]. The slices of electrically charged edge seared the worm with blacken scar and scent of burnt toasted.

Landing nimbly, Luxinna timed her strike against the counter-attacking worm. The elf calmly side-stepped the worm’s rotating maul of death. Golden gauntlet formed on her fist as her body hit the perfected rhythm. [Aura] coated her strike as her golden legging solidified. She spun, breastplate molding itself up her chest, concluding the full-body attack, and carving the 5-meter-tall giant corrupted worm with her lightning blade.

She stood fully armored against the Corruptor.

Horizon Dawn’s Ace created a make shifted mask of gold over her eyes as the monstrous flowers raised its tentacles. It would be bothersome if icky fluids and bloods got in her eyes.

Barbed tentacles rained down energy, and hoards of corrupted animals stormed the waterfall to face the fully armored Luxinna.

Luxinna sweated. This was ridiculous. She summoned a [Guard Fauna] to block a barrage of beams raining around her. Rem shouldn’t be able to survive this back then.

…

The younger Luxinna commented at the fight from the clouds above as her older-self carved her ways through the hoard. 

“You think you are fighting the same Paracis as Rem? That would be too easy for the current you. The WORLD uses the trail to put a stop gap on abuses of power not donates passing marks. This trail required more than strength to learn.”

The younger elf continued narrating.

“You should know. Rem must have told you about the knowledge he pried from Chuang Tianshang. What the Heavenly Daughter of Fire saw was only a prediction — a facet of the future causes by leftover temporal shifted during Satholia’s manifestation on Olympus. No matter how theoretical it is, that prediction still caused an altering in the stable time-loop realistic enough it tricked the Chuang Tianshang into thinking she witnessed the collapsed of Phantasia. In a certain sense, that is the future that would happen without Satholia and Horizon Dawn’s intervention.”

The elf sighed.

“And how does that random information got to do with this trail. It is simple, really. Don’t you remember the key detail of what happens in that terrifying timeline? Without Rem, you get corrupted completely and the Paracis fully matures. Its attack on Lightwell uproot the elves and push Aurora Continent into such a chaos that it required the united force of all 33 Stars and the Divine Fist to stop after much casualties. That was the version of Paracis Corrupter you are fighting. The World Enemy who defeated and killed all the S-ranker in Lightwell, including your grandparents. The annihilator of civilization with an impenetrable home advantage, and a trump card with such power it renders Lightwell’s S-rank a pushover.”

…

Luxinna heard every word her younger self uttered as she ignored it and focused on surviving.

[Overflow]

Luxinna entered a mental slowdown to calculate how to handle her latest threat.

A corrupted gorilla approximately 180 Kg. Must be careful of the ten tentacles emerging from its back at the speed of 160 Kilometer per hour. Recalibrates the tentacles’ shooting angle for weak spot to enter and dissect.

Luxinna wove between a tentacle sprouted from the massive ape back, balancing and shifting her feet until she finally in the close-quarter range.

First, disable the left ligament to unbalance. Seize that opportunity to attack the phallus, follow-up with hay-maker at the diaphragm, then traumatize the solar plexus. 

Lightning flashed. The gigantic monkey’s knee gave out by a kick. A knee slammed into its crotch and an elbow decimated its chest. The gorilla tensed its muscle and voice box, but Luxinna was ready.

Estimate a coming roar to stun and incoming roping maneuver. Solve by shattering the throat and reply the right arm with an uppercut. Next, reposition the reply into a full-power fist in the rib. Then reposition again to finish with neck chop.

Luxinna’s arms move. Her fist crushed the ape voice box before its roar arrived, while her other arm arrived at the perfect timing to knock the gorilla’s attempted to at bear-hugging. The ape suddenly felt something crunched its ribs to smithereens in flashes a lightning. The corrupted beast fell to its knee, glimpsed lightning flashes, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in its neck.

Luxinna barely got time to mourn after shattering the ape’s neck in a second. A hoard of animals was already upon her. 

What followed was a blur. 

She remembered breaking a wolf's jaw, snapping a goat's neck, and dodging a gigantic tentacle infested turtle. Luxinna felt bad for the shelled reptile after dodging its purple beam and supplexing its head to the ground. At some point, a gigantic bear fell from above, while she stabbed a corrupted manticore in the chest. It took her seconds to roast both animal innards, but even less time for them to be replaced with a swarm of infested avians sporting putrid scent, green disgusting feathers and purple beak. Luxinna formed an intricate array of [Guard Fauna] and transforming them into tesla coil with [Electro Gift] to fix her aerial problems — permanently. The black hair elf remembered throwing up [Assault Fauna] to turn the charging assortment of corrupted wild-lives into a pool of blood. After that a blur of blood, furs and golden polearm flew. She lost count of how many feet she stabbed or the belly she sliced open. She didn’t even recognize the animal she currently electrocuting to crisp. Bloods, guts, and fluids splattered her hair, mask and body as she fought against the stench and distracting tides of the conflict. Out of breath, the girl remembered frying through numbers of manticores, a goat, and several giant bats. Giant bat? That was new. At some point, Luxinna noticed she bled. The realization shocked her so much. She was so focused on dispatching her enemy with [Overflows] her injury slipped past her mind.

That brief paused in her movement allowed a corrupted bison to knock her to the ground. Luxinna rolled across the floors paved with corrupted vines.

This was bad. The barrages of foes and actions caught her without a moment to breathe or recompose. Bloodlust and killing intent might sound neat, but losing herself in such rapid carnage won’t end well.

Suddenly, Luxinna's enhanced sense went on full alert. [Overflow] resumed at full gear when she noticed the itching swarm of insect climbing on her body. She didn’t know what would happen, so she launched one panic Arcane.

[Electro Lorde]

Luxinna’s body burst with an electrical maelstrom, roasting every chittering critter on and around her body to ash. The elf back-flipped to her feet, materializing a spinning polearm of [Serene Glass] in hand, and went all out with her next [Electro Lorde].

The Arcane encompassing the phenomenon governing electromagnetic force unleashed its might as a tree of lightning shooting into the dull sky, dispersing the purple hazed and painting the earth and cloud in golden brilliance. Electrical bolta peppered the army of corrupted leaping into the fray. Anything staying above ground that wasn’t a lighting-wielding got shocked to death in the torrential waterfall of crashing thunderbolt .

It was blunt but spectacular uses of the power which govern the concept of lightning and charge gradient. Regrettably, Luxinna was too young to comprehend the subtlety and elegance of her technique. She wanted brute force, and she got it. Everything that registered as a threat got wiped.

Well, everything but one.

The Paracis Corrupter remained standing. Its surrounding flickered with translucent field Luxinna knew so well.

[Aura]. The mother-fucking World Enemy used Horizon Dawn’s invention to soften her death blow.

Not invention. Discoveries. You might discover the simplest method to avoid getting fuck by energy attack, but you aren’t the only one with access to that knowledge, dear. A matured World Enemy can pull a decent [Aura] too. Why do you think countries need to pepper it with S-rank, armies and mass-destruction weapon?

“Shut up,” Luxinna growled at her younger self, as numbness crept up her leg. Such sensation realized Luxinna’s worst fear. She was overheating. Probably the consequence of going overboard with [Electro Lorde]. Hopefully, the enemy was running dry too.

Three massive Hydra’s head rose thunderously from the tainted water — thanks, universe

“Fuck me,” the elf dodged an acid breath, and started conjuring combat knives.

…

“[Electro Lorde]” Hikma cast the Arcane, disrupting the entire electronic in the elevator.

Next to him, Melody ripped the plate from the ground. Behind them, Rem went on a triad.

“No handrails, no security instruction, and likely no emergency line. That isn’t an elevator. It is a murder weapon.”

“Thanks Rem,” Cytortia halted her friend's rant. “What is the plan?”

Rem switched to telepathy

We don’t play the game. We are going to dive but never land. This thing must have a clue, a vent or a maintenance hatch. I will try to crush every spying hardwares we come across to keep our mastermind in the dark. Then we deduced the next venues of action base on the information. Keep our conversation as mental as much as possible. I will sort the detail out as I go. Cytortia, please cloak us and Hikma prepared a big [Nimbus] to float us.

Cytortia activated [Paradiso]. A worry for Luxinna flickered in the back of her minds.

But that worry was quickly extinguished. Amongst the Dawn, Luxinna stood as their greatest fighter. The elf would be fine.

…

Luxinna Latoria tossed her dual blades toward the Hydra and unleashed [Electro Lorde], blowing the monster’s head off while cauterizing the stump with extreme voltage. The elf delivered her finishing touch by impaling the monster's main body with supercharged javelin of [Serene Glass].

The Hydra went down in a minute.

Oh goody. You actually survive the starter. Beware the main course.

“Main course?” Luxinna barely got the question out before a long-hair woman rose from the corrupted water and rushed toward her in flashed of lightning.

“No way.”

A solid punch knocking the elf hundred-meters out the waterfall. The malicious figure wrapped in purple lightning bolt barely paused in its pursuit.

…

“Oopsie,” young Luxinna on the sky detected the change in mental equilibrium. “The trail finally goes on a whack.”

…

In the real world, the golden coffin holding Luxinna crumbled. The elf righted herself like a stringed marionette. Left-over pieces from the coffin began reforming around the elf en masses.

Luxinna newest get-up wasn’t like her usual armor. Thick chitin like glasses bulked her hand and leg into a claw. Exoskeleton pieces fitted her body in carapaces. Unlike her original skintight and lean breastplate, her newest armor was bestial and bulky, wrapping around her chest and shoulder like calcified rock. The armor from her back bulked up and grew golden cables sparking with electricity. A cable like tailed snapped from behind as the glass armor bought itself online.

It was a heavy-duty armor that should be disqualified because of the sheer problem in maintenance and maneuverability. Problems that became non-issue given its brand-new update.

A new masked covered her entire face in golden glass. Its mouth parted and let out an echoing roar.

This was Luxinna Latoria’s 2nd Legend. Even among all permutation of True Magic, it should be relegated as unique. Unlike other True Magic, this power possessed its own sentience and individuality because of its specialization—a deadly statement given its inherent savagery rivaled in an untamed state. 

The violent, far-from-tame, True Magic had seized the body of one of the strongest combatants in the Dawn with knowledge and capability of her power set. Waking her up was impossible until Luxinna beaten her trial.

Beast Luxinna bellowed in lightning and raged. Her lightning shook the entire base.

The situation was obviously getting worst.