All the other rookies went quiet — it was obvious this fight wasn't over yet. Still, since it had officially been a formal match, everything would be logged at Celestia Academy.
Nobody was stupid. In the past, there had been plenty of problems with sore losers trying to get revenge after a loss. That's why if anything sketchy happened involving those three, the academy would investigate it down to the tiniest detail. Even the slightest hint that the two were trying to retaliate would bring down punishment that was ridiculously harsh.
They wouldn't even need solid proof — just suspicion was enough. That was the whole point: to scare off the losers from trying anything. And if they still wanted to act, they'd have to pull it off perfectly, leaving *zero* evidence... which was nearly impossible, of course.
'Wanna rest?' Darian asked Niara mentally, who was still breathing hard.
She looked over at the slug, clearly tired, but shook her head: 'I'm fine. My bloodline's already helping me recover. This is the best time to train. When I want to improve something, pushing myself to the limit is the fastest way forward. It always works.'
Darian sighed. It was a brutal and risky training method, but it really seemed to work for her.
Just then, another Elder walked into the hall — this one had some seriously long fangs. He didn't look as old as the other one. That was because all the Elders in Celestia Academy used to be Summoners.
When Spiritual Guardians went back to their universe, the missions they took in other universes were just as dangerous as anything here. So, yeah, dying out there was pretty common.
When that happened, the bond with the Summoner would vanish — and everyone would know what that meant. The Summoner couldn't form another bond after that, but since they'd already spent years fighting, they were really experienced. That's why they became Elders — to help out and handle internal duties.
"The Fire and Wind elemental fields are open. Who's next in line?"
The Elder looked around. There were five fields total, and once you went in, you stayed for an hour. This Elder was the one in charge of organizing access and only showed up to escort the students.
The line had totally collapsed after everything that happened. Nobody moved at first, so Darian spoke up calmly:
"Not sure who's next, but I'd like to go to the Fire field — unless anyone has a problem with that."
He noticed nobody wanted to get involved with Niara or the other two Dragon-blooded students. So, no one said anything.
Niara held up her badge. The Elder nodded and looked at another badge, checking the records.
"You've got three hours per field..." he muttered, sounding a bit confused, but didn't ask questions.
Darian nodded. "Yep. I want to use all three in the Fire field."
After confirming, he was quietly escorted away.
...
The Fire Field was basically a region surrounded by active volcanoes, spewing lava nonstop. The two of them stood on a small patch of solid ground, but all around them were bubbling lava pools.
The heat was enough to burn a regular person to ashes in seconds. The air felt like breathing fire, scorching your insides.
At the same time, countless little glowing dots floated through the air, drifting on the wind. They were an intense red, standing out like a dancing mist — and they were the most dangerous part of this place. In reality, those glowing dots were tiny elemental runes.
"There were way more of these when you made your body. That's the pure essence of the Fire element," Niara said, pointing at them.
Back when Darian created his physical form, he'd used the pure essence of the five elements. The amount was insane. Niara had the impression that, at that moment, there had been more of these runes than there were now in this entire field.
Calling that essence the most dangerous part wasn't an exaggeration. Any powerful person who entered that place had to avoid it no matter what — or they'd be dead for sure.
However, the field's inscriptions kept the essence from getting near the area where Niara and Darian were, keeping the rookies safe.
'We've got plenty of time. I'm gonna give it a shot,' Darian murmured, focusing.
Niara calmly sat down. That place was no challenge for her, thanks to her strong body; she focused on her bloodline. Darian, on the other hand, was filled with anticipation.
He no longer had the power of the ring on his forehead — it had all been spent during the fight with that Dragon shadow. But, according to the books he'd read in the library, that power regenerated over time.
The more rings someone had, the faster the recovery. Another factor was the level of the spiritual body. There wasn't anything written about his "calamity" level, but at the immortal level, with just one ring, recovery took around three days.
Darian focused on using his body's affinity. He'd created it using the purest elements. Would he be able to control them somehow?
An hour passed...
Two hours...
At that point, he stopped. Then he turned to Niara — and noticed she looked kind of excited.
"You didn't notice? Your ring..."
She murmured. Of course she could sense it through their connection. Darian focused on the ring on his forehead. It was fully recovered!
'Only two hours...'
"No, it was actually done in about an hour." Niara corrected him cheerfully.
'One hour?' He grew serious. Even being above the immortal level, going from three days to just one hour was a massive improvement. No doubt, the two extra rings on his fists made a big difference.
Once he returned to Earth and was in his real body again, he'd lose the calamity-level bonus. But in exchange, his power would triple. The instructor had said that everyone in this universe was way weaker.
Darian turned his focus to Niara. During that time, she had been working on her bloodline: 'Did you manage to absorb it all?'
"Almost all of it," she replied with a sigh. "My overall power didn't increase. My bloodline just got a bit stronger, but my endurance improved a lot. I feel like I could fight at full power for twice as long now."
Darian nodded, understanding. Even though she had absorbed 100% of the Celestial Dragon's bloodline, he was just a regular dragon, not a Divine Dragon. So all it really did was thicken her natural bloodline, her power changed very little.
Of course, any Mannaz would go crazy over gains like that. A purer bloodline means a longer lifespan, among lots of other benefits. But in battle, it just meant she could hold out longer.
As for the mental power still inside her mental sea, Darian didn't even bring it up. It was way too much, and neither of them had a clue how to actually use it.
It wasn't like the powers Darian already had and could control. It was a different kind of energy altogether — unique. It'd definitely go out of control if he tried using it now. Like opening a dam — there'd be no going back.
Niara could even explode. Maybe he could heal her and things would turn out fine. But they'd lose whatever power had been released, and wouldn't be able to use it for anything. Better to just leave it alone for now, until they got stronger or figured out a way to handle it. It wasn't something that could make her stronger, it was like a weapon that could be used once. Maybe a one-time life-saving item would be a better way to describe it.
The last hour passed quickly.
They left the Fire Field and headed to the Earth Field, which was free.
It was a massive desert, full of towering sand dunes. Everything covered with pure Earth element spread out in all directions.
Darian changed his approach, since he realized what he was doing wasn't working.
Now that the energy in his ring was back, he tried using it to interact with the element...
No success.
Clearly, he couldn't manipulate the laws like that. He huffed and asked Niara to hold his hand and bring him closer to the pure elemental power ahead.
She looked worried. That kind of thing could kill even a three-ring Spiritual Guardian instantly. When the earth power touched the little slug...
His feathers were torn apart, and his body turned black, infected by the earth. She pulled him back, but he immediately healed using the white power.
'So that's it... my calamity-level body gave me way higher resistance to natural elements. Some of these elemental runes are lower-level — I can influence those a little. But I still can't do anything with the purest power.'
Darian concluded, a little disappointed. He knew that as he evolved, his resistance and control would grow, so things could change.
But Niara was speechless. He thought that was "little"? Only Spiritual Guardians with more than five rings could mess with the highest-level elements. His current resistance already made him terrifying to anyone at the same level.
Darian hadn't fully realized it yet, but he was already the nemesis of the Risen — he could devour and control black karma, their main source of power. But he also had the potential to become a real problematic monster — even for the Spiritual Guardians...