The girl had disappeared. Just like that, any sign that she had been there vanished; she had died, just like the charred corpses that had appeared.
For a moment, Ducanor had felt a considerable amount of fear toward the girl, and even thought of killing her for a brief instant, but he was horrified by his own thought.
But now she was gone, having saved them.
Her young, angelic body had disappeared. Although true spirits bleed, their bodies were made of spiritual energy and scattered into the air as if they were simple dust.
Blood flowed across every inch of Ducanor's burly body; he was sweating blood at this point, and from his mouth, ears, eyes, and nose flowed a trail of blood that had already dried.
But the pain was insignificant now.
Anger overpowered everything.
And, suddenly, an outlet for that anger manifested in the air.
It was a nightmare creature. It was even larger than him and emitted a sinister aura around itself. Unlike the girl's flames, which seemed capable of purifying everything, the abomination's black flames seemed capable of corrupting everything.
"She died," the creature growled, full of rage. "She died, she died, she died, that little bitch died, damn it."
The ground beneath it shattered and, without even touching him, Ducanor's body was thrown into the distance. The sound of his bones cracking, as well as his organs shifting within his own flesh, echoed in his ears.
Alana cradled the ashes of the girl, whose name she didn't even know. The pressure seemed to have no effect on her, but the creature's words made her raise her cold gaze.
"Why are you looking at me like that? It's not like it's my fault that bitch burned her spirit to kill my cavalry. Damn it, do you know how long it took me to track her and chase her to this place?" the abomination roared as it split a tree over ten meters tall in two with a casual strike.
"Now I'll just have to settle for her damn Spiritual Pearl." Those words made everyone freeze; even the reddish sky, which constantly emitted sunlight in this dimension, began to cloud over supernaturally.
Ducanor's expression changed as, to his surprise, he noticed that on the ground where the girl's body had been and where there was nothing before, there was now a small, glowing gem like a ruby.
"You... bastard," Ducanor growled angrily, but before he could even show a sign of resistance, his body went flying like a broken kite, disappearing from the battlefield.
Where he had just been, a net, much like a fishing net, had appeared and covered his entire body, completely sealing him off in the distance.
"Shit, I wasted my spirit-capture net on that brat thinking he was stronger, but it seems I overestimated him," the astrologer said, annoyed.
But then he sensed mortal danger coming from the woman who had previously seemed the most harmless.
"I will kill you," Alana growled, as a bloodthirsty aura covered her body like a volcano about to erupt.
The astrologer Zhao roared with rage as he gripped the book in his hands, pointing it toward Alana.
"Please, do you not know the principle that the strong devour the weak? And it's even worse for true spirits. We are not beings born into the world; we are abominations, creatures with no reason to exist, which is why we devour each other as if we were merely beasts.
"As someone with talent and the gift of manifesting the power of the stars, I have managed to integrate the will and soul of other true spirits into my own flesh, following the path of the sin of Gluttony. And now, if you surrender, your flesh will be the foundation for the next great abomination to achieve transcendence."
And then lightning bolts began to strike the earth: one, two, five, ten, twenty, fifty.
Hundreds of lightning bolts, as if it were rain, flooded the space between heaven and earth, with only one person as their master.
But despite everything, the astrologer's expression did not change. He was an existence far too old; even if he saw a hegemon in person, he would not immediately kneel. Only one person could be worthy of his eternal loyalty, and this child in front of him was not it.
Suddenly, something appeared in his hand. It was none other than Ducanor, and his appearance caused the world to darken once more as the thunder halted for an instant.
"Let him go," Alana growled with a fragility that even Ducanor had never seen in her usually warm and jovial demeanor.
"Why? Is he your lover?" he growled with a completely mocking expression on that bestial face.
"You..." Alana growled with great fury as lightning flashed in her eyes, pulverizing a rock beside Zhao Tang.
"Don't you dare come any closer, woman, or else your little gigolo will be the one to suffer," and echoing his words, his other claw approached Ducanor's face. "Or else, this might happen."
Blood and white matter burst forth as a roar of pain escaped Ducanor's mouth. He was helpless, watching as his left eye exploded directly from the blow of the beast holding him.
"No, stop!" Alana roared furiously, but this time not daring to move, afraid that the abomination of sin would make another move against Ducanor.
But then Ducanor moved. Suddenly, an illusory spear emerged from the ground and flew toward the abomination of sin at great speed.
"Futile," the abomination grunted as it destroyed it with ease. But then, to its surprise, the spear exploded into thousands of small pieces, like tiny snowflakes, but these were not snowflakes.
The illusory spear, in truth, was Ducanor's own technosword, which, pushed to the limit, had exploded, carrying within it, as a last resort, a projectile filled with shrapnel.
Zhao Tang covered himself quickly. The attack was not powerful, but it was still dangerous if it hit the right spot. His bone armor managed to resist most of the projectiles, though a few pierced through his armor and reached his very flesh, making his mind falter for an instant.
Then a whisper was heard.
But before Ducanor could use his destiny seal to attack with his last ounce of strength, a claw suddenly grabbed his neck and, using the momentum, slammed him repeatedly against the ground until he simply lost all resistance.
"What did you expect? You are vermin, an insignificant pest on the path to transcendence. Do you know how old I am? My power, my wisdom... you are nothing, just a weakling," a furious Zhao Tang insulted him, easily wielding the remains of Ducanor's technosword with just one hand, as if it were a broken dagger.
But, to his surprise, Ducanor did not seem annoyed, or furious, or defeated by his words. Only a bloody smile remained on his face as he said with an almost unintelligible voice:
"I am weak, of course I am weak, and we have all been weak, and that is not a bad thing. The strong kill the weak, that also happens and it's not bad either. But who said a weak person can't kill a strong person? Even if the gods, immortals, or the heavens themselves come down here, they'll have to suck my big, juicy cock. And if I die, so be it. Everyone dies a little early, it doesn't matter."
A burst of laughter echoed from the monstrous throat of the abomination in front of him.
"You're right, you're very right, but you are not a weakling... you are simply insignificant."
"And me?" asked a voice loaded with murderous intent behind him.
"I was expecting you," the abomination growled. "Sin of Gluttony, the ravenous beast that wants to devour everything."
Suddenly, an atrocious suction force erupted from the abomination's mouth, completely devouring the massive torrent of lightning flowing in its direction as if it were an appetizer.
Zhao Tang, despite his apparent arrogance, was already prepared for the counteroffensive against Alana. He was surprised to realize his body was frozen. Stunned, he watched in horror as the iron fragments that had impacted his armor seemed to multiply and had begun to resonate with the lightning he was devouring. As if electricity was drawn to him, as if he were a lightning rod, his body became completely paralyzed.
"Damn it," he grunted, and at that point he realized he was in trouble. Suddenly, a lightning bolt pierced through his head, shattering a quarter of his skull and making his body collapse to the ground, motionless.
Alana quickly emerged from the void, letting out a sigh of relief as she looked at Zhao Tang with hatred.
"Aurora, we have avenged you."
A state of sadness and detachment flooded her mind and body...
...preventing her from fully reacting to the sudden attack aiming straight for her heart.
Blue blood splashed in the air. A stunned Alana watched as a wounded Ducanor had pushed her aside, causing her left arm to simply fall to the ground.
The black astrologer was standing up again despite bleeding profusely, leaning on the technosword he had snatched from Ducanor.
"Damned... wretches. I am an immortal existence. Death is only a state from which I can..."
But before he could continue, a cold air suddenly began to spread all around. The air began to crackle, while even the blood flowing from Zhao Tang's wound began to freeze and coagulate into ice crystals in an agonizingly painful way.
"What did you do?" Zhao Tang growled desperately as he watched Ducanor simply stand up. His destroyed eye socket began to burn, while the remains of his own eye were completely incinerated.
"A sacrifice," Ducanor grunted, "a blood sacrifice."
"Ducanor, no! Don't do it!" Alana yelled, but he ignored her.
Blood was still flowing from Alana's stump, and she couldn't move.
And then he began to recite the incantation:
"Blood sacrifice, exchange the illusory for the corporeal, invert yin and yang, convert the nonexistent into existent." The words caused the grotesque figure in front of him, which had turned to ice, to simply dissolve into an icy wind as it entered the body of the abomination of the sin of Gluttony.
His body, unlike before, was not paralyzed superficially, which would only prevent his movement. Now, even his soul and his very essence were being frozen into an ice sculpture.
Because that was Voltia's true power as a true spirit: she was the Spirit of Frost Dreams.
Finally, the frost ended, the snow began to melt, and all that remained of that creature was its mere memory.
"Why did you do that? My mission was to protect you on this journey, you didn't have to do it," Alana groaned with immense sorrow.
But Ducanor did not respond. He had lost consciousness moments ago, and his life force, which had once been vibrant, was flickering to the point of almost vanishing.
And it was only in that moment, in that precise moment, that Aurora's spiritual gem began to glow, and on its own, it darted into Ducanor's chest, stunning a shattered Alana, who in an instant saw something she had lost just a moment ago.
Hope.