“Razia, what are you doing here?” a male voice comes over the area, our attention is instantly drawn to it.

Razia is about to speak when I do first, “I was speaking first, I said come out.”

A soft chuckle comes over the area as Tabi attempts to stand in front of me, I pull before her and stand out the front.

A lone figure appears out of the shadows before us, a single male walking without any care and a pleased smile on his face. His arms outstretched he has a confident demeanour on his face, his black straight hair and glasses relay a feeling of confidence.

“Razia, Razia Razia… I knew you couldn’t be away from me.”

“Shut up, you basically stole everything of mine so I had no choice but to be with you. You are before me so you shouldn’t speak out of turn,” Razia speaks from the heart, her emotions can be felt clearly in every single one of her words.

The man stop only a few steps before us, he lowers his hands change his face into a squinting smirk as he looks over us. A dozen people appear from behind him wearing darkened robes and face masks, their actions entirely in unison.

“That doesn’t stop you having to be with me, you have no other option. Listen to your body, you know it to be true.”

Razia hugs my body but doesn’t speak, I’m about to when Tabi does instead.

“You abandoned her and now you’re coming back, you should just turn around and go back to where you came from.”

The man turns to look at Tabi, his smirk is maintained as he looks at her for a moment before turning towards me.

I return the gaze but he smiles in reply.

“Capture them.”

The black masked figured move, I’m about to set into motion but Razia moves out first drawing the sword from it’s scabbard in a soft glow, the man’s eyes are focused on the sword as its held there.

Tabi draws out her spear and prepares to intercept, I step back prepared for anything.

Razia strikes out with her sword, three black masked figures are attacking in unison, their attack acts like one person multiplying the force. The glowing sword travels forward and hits the joint strike slicing through them easily.

Razia almost trips as her sword slices through the figures, she turns to face them just in time to witness their half bodies slump of.

I nod my head to myself impressed with this strike, Tabi strikes forward her spear travels through the air piercing through not just one but four people pinning them to the ground.

Tabi takes a step forward, I push her leg forward forcing her to fall over when a shadow appears where her head was.

A black masked figure appears there, I send a punch forward but miss the black masked figure.

I help Tabi up as Razia sends out another chop, she strikes down two black masked figures who appear with the shadows. Their strikes are slow and laboured allowing ample time to dodge them.

“These things are pathetic, why don’t you come to your death already” I say, my young voice somehow enraging the man as he stomps on the ground a few times.

“I’ll show you pathetic.”

The man disappears, I frown as I get ready but Razia pushes me down on the ground.

Several hundred black shadowy figures appear, their ghostly wails would send chills up other peoples souls but not mine, they launch an attack in a wide area attacking whatever is in their way. I’m forced to watch as Tabi is onset by the figures but I don’t panic.

I watch silently while being held by Razia on the ground, a blue swirl of energy gathers around Tabi.

A pulse of energy gathers and dissipates once before a burst of energy comes into existence, I shut my eyes but feel the effects all over my body as it becomes chilly in a moment. Razia is holding me still warming me up but as I open my eyes I’m able to see the effects.

The entire space has become a frozen space, everything has a layer of ice while the black masked figures have become solidly encased in ice. Tabi grabs Razia’s sword and cuts down these people quickly before everything returns to normal.

The man recovers bending over panting, “…d…domain….”

Tabi takes a step towards him before she cannot hold it together and kneels over, Razia and me return to our feet and run over to Tabi but the man doesn’t allow us the chance as he moves forward.

A new wave of black masked people appear behind him while he himself is moving forward at a high speed towards Tabi.

“Stop him, he’ll enslave her” Razia says next to me.

I don’t really know what she means but it sounds annoying to have Tabi become enslaved to this person, the mental level effects are rather annoying to unravel so it’s better to not let them take effect in the first place.

I let out a soft sigh, I gather energy internally causing screams and wails of souls to come over the place causing Razia to stop her step, she watches me.

I gather the energy to a point and release it causing my body to slip between the two realms, this has two effects. It will transfer a massive amount of force as the two realms become balanced by universal forces, and two…

My body almost teleports from where it’s standing to before Tabi, I raise my fist in the air timing it with the man who is approaching Tabi.

The man’s chest and then chin contact my little fist causing me to spin around in the air, the man is forced to fly back several dozens of metres giving me time to recover from the spin.

Tabi steadies herself and reaches forward, “Thank you,” she quietly whispers.

I ignore it as the man stands up, I watch him walk slowly back to where he was and clap his hands, a new lot of black masked people have appeared behind him.

“You haven’t even begun to see a fraction of my power.”

Tabi attempts to stand up but I prevent her, I gather the energy within my body again causing the screams and wails to appear in the atmosphere.

“I could say the same to you” I reply to the man before me, he frowns at me but it’s too late as the screams and wails stop.

Everything becomes silent for a moment, nothing has changed as the man pats his body a few times up and down, he laughs.

“That did nothing, you weak little girl.”

I turn to Razia who has crouched nearby while approaching Tabi and me, “You should go and get your revenge, it’ll be interesting.”

“What do you mean? We should get out of here if we have the chance we can no–

I place my fingers on Razia mouth and pass her the short sword, “Get your revenge. It’ll be fine but be quick.”

Razia looks at me for a moment, her almost purple eyes feel strange to look at while her pink hair is distract yet in this moment it’s entirely serious, she nods her head and moves forward holding the short sword.

The man doesn’t take this unnoticed, he strikes out with his weapon, “You are pathetic to listen to this person.”

The man disappears from his spot, Razia prepares to intercept the strike but he reappears in the same spot and strikes out at nothing.

“What?”

I smile as Razia nears him, the man makes another strike as several clones of him appear and attempt to spread out, they each launch a strike at Razia, Tabi and myself yet as the clones make their own strikes, they all reappear on the same spot and strike the air.

The man lets out a frustrated roar while Razia arrives near him, the man launches out several dozens of strikes using all sorts of weapons and skills yet none of them land as he is forced into this singular spot, every single attack touching nothing.

Razia takes a deep breath and strikes at the man forced to stay where he is, her strike passes straight through the man.

It take a moment for the man to begin laughing, “You fool that did nothing,” he looks towards me, “you are useless….”

I shake my head and don’t respond to him, my eyes trained on his position as it’s rare that this can be pulled off.

The man’s figure suddenly jerks, his body splits in half and repairs itself.

It splits in half again before repairing itself, the man jumps again where he’s struck again and his body is split in half.

He returns to the first spot where his body is split in half, he jumps in another direction where he sacrifices a pawn to absorb a shot but he gets intercepted behind him slicing him in half.

He resets in the same spot, he jumps another direction and launches a giant skill where a giant demonic beast made of slime appears labouring everything it touches, a foul smell comes over the area.

It only lasts a moment though as the man gets sliced behind him and reset again, this happens over and over again each time getting quicker and quicker before finally one time he doesn’t reset, the man’s bisected body lays on the ground nearby.

Razia walks over to the man and stabs the remains several times before I walk over there.

She looks at me with a sad expression, her purple eyes mesmerising me but I know she means well and give her a hug.

Tabi shows up afterwards and joins us, we have a silent moment as the man's body burns up and disappears. I’m overcome with feelings at the moment but don’t quite understand them, I just enjoy the touch of the others as we hold together for a moment.

“Ok, he should have died… he just got off too easy” Razia says.

“They always do,” Tabi says while cradling me.

I break free of Tabi’s grip and look around, “We should hurry up,” I say as I walk ahead of the two of them. I don’t worry about what happened as all of this doesn’t matter, I’m just a visitor around here so they need to do everything themselves…

It takes several moments for the women to begin to follow after me, Tabi is first as she struggles to walk expending all that energy. Razia follows after me too as she inspects the area closely, I don’t ask and she doesn’t ask anything as she catches up.

We walk through the metallic corridors and make our way into the open area again, I look to Tabi who is beside me, “I don’t think anyone else is alive here.”

Tabi looks at me, her spear in her hand, “We won’t know unless we look.”

I let out a sigh.

She must be exploiting my feelings, I don’t feel strongly enough to reject her but I truly would rather move onto the next section. Tabi is concerned about the people that remain in this place and what they might be doing.

Razia catches up to us and looks out at the landscape, “It’s amazing how quickly you miss it.”

I let out another sigh while Tabi softly speaks to Razia…

The two women speak to each other for a moment before they look at me not giving me a chance to respond to their private conversation that involves me, Razia has a concerned expression on her face while Tabi has a pleasant smile on it.

“What?” I ask.

Tabi steps forward to grab my shoulder, Razia does the same as the encroach upon me. The two women are imposing on me as though I didn’t just handle their problems.

“Well…”

Tabi speaks at first then Razia takes over and almost pleads with me, she wants to search the area for more survivors and to see if anyone else from her group got away. She hasn’t seen any of their bodies and given the master is now dead, they might come out of hiding.

I don’t agree with this proposal at first wanting to leave the area and move on but the other two are quite stubborn and don’t agree with leaving, we’re at an impasse until a loud noise nearby draws our attention.

The cave we’re inside should block most noises but this one was incredibly loud and sharp, we all rush out the cave to the outside again where I spot a large creature flying in the area, a gigantic serpent with two horns on its head.

I smile for a moment but then frown, the serpent disappears revealing a blank sky again but another noise draws out attention nearby, another giant figure is standing over there moving.

I look at it for a moment before rolling my eyes and walking a different direction, Tabi follows after me while Razia stands still.

“What was that in the sky? Why are you walking away now?” she asks catching up.

“The thing in the sky was a projection, perhaps something to scare the people here for some reason. It’s a Golden Horned Wing-Serpent while the creature nearby is just some ape creature.”

“Wing-Serpent? Never heard of it.”

“Of course you haven’t, they’re rare as they need pure blood to reach that size but most people hunt them before reaching that size…”

“Oh well I guess that makes sense given how few animals remain, especially something that big but I do wonder if the gods have seen them…. What do you think Razia?” Tabi turns to look at Razia, pausing her steps a moment later.

I pause them too and look backwards, Razia has disappeared from her spot while the creature in the background is roaring and moving about more.

“You think she is over there?” Tabi asks.

I begin walking over in that direction in silence, thinking over why I feel like I should do this.

If this were happening before I ascended then I would have already walked away, I would not have even taken Tabi and left this plane already by harvesting what I can yet now?

I’m having to take care of two mortal beings including one pink haired one that seems willing to put itself in danger, and I’m willingly doing it too as I walk in that direction with my short legs.

I reach the creature and raise my little hand while gathering energy…

TiK

So interesting fight I think, one of MCs abilities that isn't really useful outside of a single target. Next up, big monster fight scene...