A Xibil...

About five minutes had passed since Elena used warp to get out of that artificial cavern and she was still lying on the ground.

「This is a bad joke」

Elena laughed at herself. Minutes before she was expecting to find something to force her to flee, however, what she found was something that made her feel weak and powerless.

That creature could alter Elena's flow of magic power just by being a hundred meters away from her, which would make it difficult for she to use the magic of a higher magnitude, which was barely enough magic level to cause some damage to the creature's body, and the mytril was useless against the scales that covered the creature's body.

Who could blame Elena for choosing to run away in fear? The answer was; Elena, she was blaming herself for running away.

From the moment she got Kaname's legacy, Elena had been living within an intoxicating dream of power. Unconsciously she felt that except for the gods, there would be nothing in this world that could pose a real danger to her.

Right now she had woken up from that dream and had done so in the worst way, having been forced to flee in fear.

Elena felt completely humiliated, she hadn't felt this way even when Richell tried to rape her. At that time, she was just a helpless child, but now she was powerful enough to face a True Dragon and still ended up running away.

After obtaining Kaname's legacy, she had promised herself not to allow anyone to humiliate her again, and now she had humiliated herself.

「I can't let this end this way…」

Elena's fingers twitched, scratching at the dirt beneath her body, forming fists filled with anger and frustration. Elena felt that if she did not face that Xibil, she would return to being the helpless and weak Elena who only knew how to survive and flee.

Elena stood up and with a somber expression looked at the palms of her hands. For a second the shadows of two other different hands overlapped on her hands, the fragile hands of the weak Elena, and the hands of someone who could have easily eliminated that Xibil, the hands of Kaname.

「I may not be as strong as you, but I refuse to lose against to you in any other way...」

Elena bit her lips and clenched her fists tightly.

Having forced her mind and heart to calm, Elena walked to the edge of the canyon and watched it closely.

At first glance, the rugged canyon did not seem special, but taking into account the shape of that cave, Elena looked at the place with more analytical eyes.

Too harmonious, this was the first thing to come to Elena's mind. The way the canyon meandered, its edges, its walls and that depth that was not uniform. All of this seemed to fit too well, without straight lines or perfectly curved lines, as if every little detail had been designed not to leave doubt that it was a natural formation.

The cannon in front of Elena had been artificially created.

A Xibil...

Elena's mind processed the facts.

That a Xibil had survived for so long was shocking, but that was only the least important of the matter. These bio-machines could practically be classified as immortal by being able to survive as long as their hearts were not destroyed. Even if a Xibil were deprived of its head and all its limbs, these creatures could still live on feeding on dirt and stones. The Xibils feed through the small pores between the junctions of their scales.

However, these bio-machines were pawns with no will of their own. Without an order, the Xibils would remain still and would not even try to feed. If they did not have an instruction to comply, the Xibils would remain inactive reaching death by starvation. This was the main flaw in the Demon Army scheme, something Kaname knew how to take advantage of by focusing his strategies on defeating the leaders of the demons.

Now, taking into account all the available information, Elena could only think of two possibilities regarding the existence of that Xibil and that of this artificial canyon. At the end of that corridor was the being that controlled the Xibil, or the Xibil continued to comply with the instruction given to him by his masters ago, perhaps guarding some important object.

Elena could only pale in front of the first possibility. Currently, she could not face one being that controlled the Xibils, an Ajawab.

As for the second possibility, that which must be protected by the Xibil must be a relic without equal since it was something from the remote past.

If a demon of old was hiding at the bottom of the corridor, this not only posed a heavy danger to Izana but to the entire world. A single Ajawab could create an army of Xibils and enslave large numbers of humans using blood magic.

A god could face an Ajawab, but not an Ajawab accompanied by an army of Xibils.

The fact Kaname and his companions were brought into this world was not only because the gods were cowards, the gods alone could not have faced hundreds of legions of Xibils.

This world survived because Kaname had dealt with the Xibils, with intricate battle strategies, and the cost of the lives of all his companions.

As for Elena, the mere presence of a Xibil had led her to realize that even with Kaname's legacy, deep down inside she actually continued to be that fragile and weak girl who had fled her home.

「I can't run away...」

Elena clenched her fists tightly again, yet her legs trembled slightly as the image of that ominous creature came to her mind. Fear was still present in her body. How could it not be that way? this was a battle that she had to fight alone.

If it had been a True Dragon or even an Ancient Dragon, Elena would have retired, but not to flee, but to better prepare herself. She would have returned Izana and later return to this place accompanied by all the Izana Knights, in this way Elena could have even killed an Ancient Dragon at the cost of losing one o two Izana Knights.

However, against a Xibil this strategy was useless. The Izana Knights would become fragile rusty iron armor upon contact with the Xibil's anti-magic field.

Elena took a deep breath and closed her eyes to immerse herself in the memories of Kaname, the person who had changed the flow of the war against demons. Thanks to Kaname, the armies of this world could finally confront the legions of Xibils.

「I'll go back to Izana to get ready」

After consuming the magic power of one of the magic cores she brought with her, Elena used warp and returned to Izana.

「Welcome back, Master」

Necro was the first to receive Elena. He had emerged from the shadow of Elena's horse.

「I'm back, Necro」

「Master, did you discover something interesting?」

Elena was silent for two seconds. If she revealed that she found a creature from which she had fled, her father and the others would try to prevent her from returning to that place, or ultimately they would try to accompany her.

「There is a magic barrier inside the cavern, your skeleton soldiers were destroyed by the effect of that barrier and to break it I need to make some preparations」

「I understand, is there anything I can help you with, Master?」

「Keep watching Izana in my absence」

Elena said goodbye to Necro and entered the palace.

To face the Xibil, Elena needed to make two preparations.

Since the mytril was useless and iron could not pierce the Xibil's scales, Elena needed a steel sword. This was the easy part. The difficult thing for Elena would be mental preparation.

Even if she was already determined to face the Xibil, her body and mind still harbored fear. Elena knew everything necessary about the Xibil regarding its battle capabilities, but this was only present in her mind based on the memories of Kaname, it was not something that was in her own mind or body, naturally; it was easier to have fear than confidence based on those ephemeral memories and the real presence of the Xibil.

「Welcome back, Elena-sama」

「I'm back, Nia」

Elena saw Nia narrow her eyes and instinctively forced her smile to widen.

「Did something happens, Elena-sama?」

Elena's body was slightly shaken by a chill. Nia was too insightful, and somehow Elena was certain that this was not just because of her elf ears.

「Actually…」

Elena used the same story she told Necro earlier, but this time she exaggerated by adding that she was a little frustrated after having tried several times to break that supposed magic barrier with no success.

Nia who had caught frustration and weariness in Elena's eyes ended up accepting Elena's story.

After having overcome what was perhaps her greatest obstacle, Elena took two swords from the armory and turned them into steel swords.

How to prepare mentally? This question came to Elena's mind.

Prior to each battle, Kaname used to meditate, or he threw himself in front of the enemy. Everything depended on his state of mind. If the stress and desire to return to his beloved reached the limit, Kaname unleashed all his anger and frustration in battle.

Elena was not trying to save the world or return to the side of someone important to her, what Elena was trying to do at facing that Xibil was something insignificant for this world, but very important for her. Elena was trying to find herself, no longer wanted to be the weak and cowardly Elena, nor did she want to be the heir to Kaname's frustrations and resentments.

Faced with that creature that had forced her to feel weak and coward again, Elena wanted to find herself and be completely reborn.

「Harlan」

After dinner, Harlan made his way to the necropolis to play chess with Necro like every night since he come Izana. To Harlan's surprise, Elena was in the corridor leading to the stairs leading down to the necropolis.

「Do you need something Miss Elena?」

Harlan was an experienced man, he had not lived sixty-six years in vain; it was only enough to see Elena's gaze to understand that she wanted to ask him for something that should not be spoken to anyone else.

「Could you have a fight with me?」

One of Harlan's eyebrows rose subtly at that. Harlan had thought that perhaps Elena would ask her to use his rusty abilities to assassinate Duke Muspell in revenge for the attempted murder against her father. Of course, Harlan wasn't even sure if Elena knew that in the past he had been known as 'The Shadow of Death'.

「What are you trying to achieve, Miss Elena?」

It was clear to Harlan that Elena's request was not as simple as a friendly exchange of blows.

Elena took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a second.

「I want to change」

Harlan blinked several times in surprise upon hearing that and seeing Elena's gaze. He had known Elena since she was a baby. He knew about all the difficulties she went through at officially recognized by her father. He had seen her break after her mother's death, and he had seen her rise and continue diligently preparing to become a noble lady. Elena always seemed to be fragile and weak, but in reality, she was tenacious, only in this way was it understood that she would have been able to continue to bear the insults and humiliations of her older siblings without the support of her mother.

The Elena that Harlan saw after three years of showing a look that was overflowing with confidence and some arrogance, this was surprising for him, but right now, the Elena standing in front of him asking him a battle was devoid of that look. In those violet eyes, Harlan saw only one thing, tenacity.

「I won't be soft on you, Miss Elena」

Elena flashed a faint smile upon hearing Harlan's response.

After spending half the day and part of the night thinking of some way to prepare mentally, this was the only conclusion that Elena could reach.

She would have a battle with the strongest person she knew to test her skills and gain some self-confidence.