A few hours before dawn, a warp opened near to the Izana Palace.

Harlan and Elena emerged from that warp accompanied by five steel soldiers.

Harlan's clothes were rags stained with blood and covered with dust. Thanks to Elena's sorcery he had no wounds, but a faint smile of satisfaction hung from his lips.

As for Elena, she looked impeccable, with no visible trace of the long battle she had fought against Harlan. She had used sorcery to repair her clothes and cleanse her body, and the reason she did not do the same with Harlan was that he refused. Harlan declared something as extravagant as he would keep those clothes as a souvenir.

Strange as it was for Harlan himself, he felt like a proud grandfather at this point.

As for the outcome of the battle, this was something that only Elena, Harlan, and the five silent steel soldiers knew.

After saying goodbye to Harlan, Elena retired to her room. Although she was eager to face the Xibil, she had to wait to eat breakfast so as not to worry her father and the others, and it was also necessary for her to relax her mind to prepare for what would be a harder battle since her fighting ability would be diminished by the anti-magic effect of the Xibil.

The Xibils were absurd creatures. Nowadays Elena was perhaps the only person capable of dealing with such a creature apart from the gods. By taking Harlan as an example, if he were to confront a Xibil, Harlan could not use his thaumaturgy. Not even the most powerful human warrior in the history of this world could fight a Xibil one hundred percent.

One rather important point must be emphasized. The weapons wielded by the Xibil were no less atrocious than their bearers. Whether they were long spears three meters long, ominous masses covered with spikes or two-handed serrated swords, the Xibil's weapons were called 'devourers' because they could absorb magical power. A single scratch from these weapons would only increase the anti-magic effect of the Xibil, and a deep wound would completely drain an individual's magical power leading to unconsciousness.

If that Xibil inside that cave had a weapon, Elena's magical attacks would have been absorbed by the metal of the weapon, by the Orichalcum, and part of this magical power would have been absorbed by the Xibil to strengthen it even more.

Mytril was the magic metal, and the Orichalcum could be described as the anti-magic metal.

Create orichalcum? Impossible!

Technically, turning iron into mytril comprised imbuing magical power into the iron. Now, how create a metal that devours magical power? Kaname believed that orichalcum was a by-product of the creation of something more ominous thing, the Xibil.

It was unknown how the Ajawab created the Xibils, but there was no doubt about one of the main ingredients, living beings.

The Ajawab could turn a simple human into a Xibil, and the result of this was like that Xibil inside that cave. However, the shape of the Xibils was not limited to a humanoid form. The most terrifying example of this was the Xibil-Kaan created from a dragon, ominous winged creature that could only be destroyed by transmigrants or gods. The anti-magic field of the Xibil-Kaan was particularly suffocating, even the elves could barely stand up within their half a mile of effect, and the powerful Ancestral Dragons were not even capable of taking flight within the area of effect.

Elena had breakfast with her father and the others, chatted a bit with her father, and finally left Izana using warp.

「 In the worst case, I'll escape...」

Standing at the edge of the canyon, Elena muttered to herself to dispel her nervousness, but the very idea of being forced to escape was extremely humiliating for her.

Elena held a long spear, two swords, and two daggers hanging from her belt. Each of these weapons was made of steel. She wore no armor, the mytril was useless, and steel armor would only hinder her mobility within the cave.

After making sure she had several magical cores in the side pockets of her tight pants and in the pockets of her leather vest, Elena took a deep breath and then jumped to the bottom of the canyon.

As with the scenario, there was no noticeable change in access to the cave. If there was an Ajawab in there, the cavern would probably be empty now. The Ajawab should have thought Elena was one god since she had used a warp before, and this fearsome creature should have fled by imagining that several gods would come to this place in a short time.

Elena took another deep breath and then finally entered the cavern.

Elena's steps through the long corridor were slow and heavy. With each step she took, Elena could feel the weight of what she was trying to leave behind, the cowardly and fragile Elena.

Soon an ominous squeak came from the front. Elena clenched her fists and bit her lips. It was time for a change.

No matter how strange it was that the Xibil was still here, Elena stopped worrying about this and about that at the end of the long corridor. The only thing that mattered to Elena was facing her fears to force herself to change. Any other issue could be put aside for later.

In the distance between the darkness, a faint red glow caused Elena to shiver for a second.

There was the ominous figure of the Xibil, advancing towards Elena and emitting those unpleasant squeaks.

Elena's legs trembled slightly, yet she kept her eyes on the XibiI.

The creature's two right arms were severed, and it was not wielding any orichalcum weapons. It was a Xibil whose fighting ability was markedly reduced.

Elena bit her lips in frustration. In her first encounter with this Xibil, she didn't even give herself time to notice such peculiarities, at that moment fear, had completely overwhelmed her.

The anti-magic effect reached Elena, her flow of magical power was altered once more and she began sweats cold from fear. Even if the Xibil's fighting ability was noticeably reduced, she could not dispel the fear that was constantly crying out for her to flee.

Elena took the spear in both hands, spread her legs apart, and adopted a fighting stance. At this moment she was fighting with herself. Her worst enemy was not the Xibil, but the fear that tried to overwhelm her and that could hinder her performance in battle.

The Xibil emitted an even more powerful screech and then charged towards Elena.

The floor of the cave was shaking slightly with each step of the Xibil, and this caused Elena's heart to contract and expand with great speed.

Elena closed her eyes for a second to calm down. She brought to mind that day when Richell had attacked her, the endless nights when she could not sleep for fear of being attacked again, the frustration and helplessness she felt every time when men in the Order of Saint Eclestine made her despicable proposals to which she could only respond by turning around and leaving in silence, and finally, that day when her life changed, when after giving herself up to death resigned, she was given the option of gaining power.

「 If I cannot change myself, all the power I have gained will be meaningless! 」

Elena opened her eyes and a strong glow of tenacity mixed with the violet color of her pupils.

The Xibil was already two meters away from Elena, and without further hesitation, she pushed the tip of her steel spear forward.

Using strength against the weak was easy, Elena had been doing this until now. She had killed that merchant in Dur and that Baron because she was stronger than them. She had broken into Lutrel Palace because she was stronger than her siblings.

What most frustrating to Elena about herself not its have felt satisfaction at she crushes the weak or the humiliation of having fled at faced a creature capable of making her feel in danger. What filled her with frustration was that she had been so arrogant as to promise to protect Nia and others.

There was much that Elena wanted to change about herself, and by pushing the tip of her spear into the Xibil she was taking the first step toward doing so.

The spear hit the Xibil's chest, several sparks jumped out and lit up the corridor, and the tip of the spear slid over the black scales until it found an opening. The Xibil let out a heart-rending screech of pain once the tip of the spear penetrated his defense.

Despite being bio-machines, the Xibils could fully felt pain.

The pain was a powerful incentive to motivate any creature, and the Ajawabs was sinister enough to give the Xibils great sensitivity to pain.

In a swift fit of rage, the Xibil moved both of its left arms toward the spear. The Xibil's hands grabbed the spear and pushed it to his right side.

Elena could not keep her grip on the Spear, her hands were covered in a cold sweat, the Spear slipped from her hands.

Once again, she had made a mistake and this time the cause was her lack of foresight in not wearing gloves, however, this time this simple mistake had consequences.

As she took several steps backward and drew one of her swords, Elena watched as the Xibil took up the spear. Without looking for it, she had given a weapon to her enemy.

Elena clicked her tongue angrily and prepared herself.

With a golden liquid draining from the wound onto her chest, the Xibil made a powerful, angry squeak that saturated the corridor.

「 Keep silent bastard! 」

Elena approached the left wall and raised her right hand toward the Xibil.

「 Primordial seed of the whole, manifest your glory ∼ 」

The air around Elena was filled with small flashes of light. Because of the anti-magic effect of the Xibil, Elena was forced to recite the spell incantation above the low magnitude of sorcery.

「 Denies the darkness ∼ 」

The Xibil charged Elena once more. Even if it was immune to the magic of lower magnitude and very resistant to magic of a higher level, the Xibil would not remain motionless waiting for its enemy to attack it. These ominous creatures had been designed entirely for battle, they would never underestimate even a defenseless human child.

Elena narrowed her eyes as she saw the Xibil pushing the steel spear towards her.

The Xibil pushed the spear with his two left arms towards Elena, and in a skillful movement of just a few inches, she avoided the tip of the spear that was looking for her head.

The tip of the spear hit the wall brutally and Elena slid under the Xibil's arms as the air was saturated with dust and chunks of rock. The strength of the Xibile was comparable to that of a giant and these ominous creatures did not know the concept of restraint, and she aware of this, Elena provoked the Xibile by reciting that spell which did not end.

Half of the spear was lost inside the earth and the rocks. Had the wall been struck by a mass, an ax or a sword instead of a spear, a large section of the wall would most likely have collapsed.

Elena moved quickly to the Xibil's back. She pushed her sword over the Xibil's back. This time her hands were not covered with sweat, so she could put all her strength into the sword.

A lot of sparks jumped into the air and the tip of the sword penetrated the skin of the Xibil. This time the tip of the sword did not look for a space between the joints of the black scales, but directly broke some of them and made its way into the body of the Xibil.

The Xibil emitted a heart-rending screech of pain and turned its body to its left as it extended its two arms.

The Xibil's rapid reaction forced Elena to release the hilt of her sword and then retreat in a hurry. However, she did not do so in time. She hesitated to release the sword for a small fraction of a second and this had consequences.

The back of the two left fists of the Xibil hit Elena's left side, sending her flying several meters. The Xibil completed its turn and its fists brutally hit the wall. This time the entire corridor shook and part of the wall collapsed as the floor and ceiling filled with cracks.

Elena's body hit the ground and continued to roll for several more meters.

Once it stopped rolling on the floor, Elena stood upright leaning on one wall of the corridor. A line of blood drained from her lips, her clothes were torn several times exposing some of her blood- and dust-soaked skin.

Elena hugged her left side with her right arm, a grimace of pain on her face showed she had some broken ribs.

「 Something like this would have killed me before...」

Elena muttered that as she wiped the blood from her lips. Her gaze showed no fear, but tenacity. Without the modifications she received when she received Kaname's legacy, her body would most likely have been torn in half by the previous Xibil attack.

「 Relentless wanderer who refuses to back down ∼」

As Elena conjured a spell, the Xibil emerged from the dust and debris. The tip of Elena's sword protruded from the creature's chest, and a golden liquid drained continuously from this wound.

「 As fleeting as yesterday's dawn and as hopeful as tomorrow's promise ∼」

For any creature must have been a lethal wound, but the Xibils could not be measured by this kind of logic. These ominous creatures would continue to move as long as their hearts were not destroyed, and the worst part of this was that the hearts of the Xibils were not fixed on a specific point in their bodies, their tiny heart the size of a child's fist and as fragile as the glass was in constant motion, moving continuously within their torso.

Elena's attack had been subject to luck. If she was favored by luck, her sword would have reached the heart of the Xibil and that would have meant the end of the battle. Fortune had no intention of favoring Elena.

「 I pray for just one of your tears to ease some of this torturous wait ∼」

The Xibil emitted a powerful squeak and ran towards Elena without worrying about the sword stuck in his back. Based on what happened so far, the creature's instincts told it that this enemy was dangerous.

「 Turn back my suffocating pain and give some relief to my soul, RESTORATION! ∼」

Elena drew her second sword as she recited the last part of the spell.

Elena's body was wrapped in silver light, her wounds quickly healed.

Like an enraged bull charging at full power, the Xibil charged at Elena using all the weight of his body. Elena jumped to her left to evade the charge and swung her sword towards the Xibil's neck.

The creature did not have its two right arms to reach Elena or block her attack. The blade of the sword struck the Xibil's neck.

「Ah!!! 」

Elena gave a loud cry as she put all her strength into the attack.

The force deposited in the sword and the inertia of the Xibil's powerful charge, both forces collided and the edge of the sword outlined its path through the scales, muscles, and bones.

The head of the Xibil spun in the air as its body continued on its way with no change in its trajectory.

At the success of their attack, a smile tried to take shape on Elena's lips. However, this smile froze completely.

As the Xibil's head spun in the air, its slimy tentacles moved swiftly towards Elena.

Elena's eyes opened wide when she saw it, she was still a few inches above the air after having jumped to avoid the Xibil's onslaught, her sword was still drawing an arc. All Elena could do was arching her body backward and raise her right forearm to try to protect her head.

Since the Xibil's head had no control over its trajectory, only one of its tentacles touched Elena's right forearm.

Elena felt as if hundreds of small needles were piercing her skin and a sensation of paralysis flooded her arm.

Elena's back hit the wall in the corridor and once her body reached the ground, she ignored the pain and brought her left hand to her back to pick up one of her two steel daggers. With no sign of hesitation, Elena stabbed her right arm.

「Uhg...!」

Elena bit her lips to hold back the cry of pain.