*Flap! Flap! Flap!*
The Summoner flapped his wings and retreated, taking to the skies. At the same time, he activated a martial art that made his presence and physical form almost unnoticeable. With even the slightest distraction, he would vanish completely from his enemies' senses.
Niara didn't move to stop him. The dynamic between the two of them was clear: the Summoner specialized in fleeing and hiding, probably relying on countless safeguards to keep himself safe.
Meanwhile, his Spiritual Guardian focused entirely on offense. He used daggers, so he wasn't a mage. He could be a Fighter-type or maybe even a rare Mystic, with a high focus on damage.
The black-clad Spiritual Guardian scoffed, his daggers pulsing in sync with his orange aura.
Niara stayed sharp, trying to catch even the slightest sign of his Blessing. But even if she figured something out, resisting that power was impossible without detailed knowledge of its effects and weaknesses.
Even if the enemy used a Blessing people had heard of and could look up in a library, knowing what it did and fully understanding its weaknesses were two very different things.
Of course, average Blessings had obvious weaknesses, easy to grasp and exploit. But the really unique or above-average ones? Only the user who'd studied them deeply would know how they truly worked.
In short, very few people picked weird Blessings. They weren't practical to use, were hard to master, and even tougher to improve later. But in return, they offered a major strategic advantage when it came to ambushes. It was nearly impossible to figure out how to deal with them mid-battle...
Niara was tense, until—
'Get ready... use everything you've got. We have to end this in one move.' Darian's voice echoed in her mind, making her heart race with excitement.
She clenched her fists, and her body pulsed. The Green Divine Dragon Armor fully activated.
Darian focused. The enemy was an expert in killing. He had seen his Blessing in action through a vision of the past. He'd even heard the man proudly reveal the name of his Blessing before slowly wiping out his targets.
This guy wasn't a fool.
It was just that everyone who'd seen his Blessing in action... wasn't alive to tell anyone else about it.
The man took a step forward, moving slowly—step by step, like a shadow.
'He has a Blessing called: Divine Twin Blade,' Darian explained quickly.
'It's pretty simple, but also really weird and kind of a cheat. He has to land a first strike from the front, out in the open. If it hits—even just a graze—his Blessing activates. Then suddenly, his second strike warps all understanding of reality, and its power multiplies countless times over. It's a sudden, overwhelming attack that's impossible to block unless you already know about it.'
'His weakness is that he needs to land that first frontal hit, and then be fast enough to follow up with the second. That's why he uses two daggers—they're light and accurate. In the end, after that twin strike, a huge chunk of his energy gets drained.'
Niara understood, and a wave of draconic power burst out from inside her. The enemy was now just five meters away.
Bottom line, she had to endure the first hit. That's why Darian told her to use 100% of her strength. Since the enemy needed speed for the second strike, the first one would be weaker, just enough to activate the Blessing.
Even so, she was still too weak. He was a Spiritual Guardian with two rings, while she was barely even a Summoner—relying solely on Darian's single ring.
Just blocking the first hit would hurt like hell, and Darian might have to heal her afterwards... and then the terrifying second strike would come to finish her off.
There was no point in trying to block it... if she just dodged that initial blow, the devastating follow-up wouldn't happen. But she trusted Darian had a plan to win this.
Three meters away.
Darian pulled several scrolls from his spatial ring and opened them all at once. The glowing inscriptions instantly linked together, forming a dense aura of nature around them.
Those scrolls contained the rare inscription he had bought in town, created from a plant that enhanced healing effects. *(Chapter 20)*
Without hesitation, he poured all his white power into it, combining it with the natural energy from the scrolls. He directed everything into her scales and body.
"!"
The moment he did that, Darian felt that same insatiable hunger coming from her draconic bloodline again. He didn't want to risk losing all his power at once on something uncertain. But now... he couldn't hesitate. He was betting everything.
So he pushed it all into her spiritual root.
Suddenly, Niara trembled, eyes wide open.
Their contract connection let Darian feel it too—something primal was awakening inside her. The runes of her bloodline twisted like a starving beast, opening invisible jaws to devour the energy he poured in.
All that white and natural power was consumed in a single instant.
Niara's heart pounded. A crushing feeling took hold of her, filling her completely—it wasn't just power, it was a visceral euphoria, a will to live like she'd never felt before.
Her whole body began to shine.
White light erupted from her skin, like her very existence was being rewritten.
The green scales started losing their color, fading into a pure, blinding white.
Two meters away.
Darian's eyes widened. His white power now flowed perfectly through her, as if they were one being.
Then he looked up and was stunned: All the green scales on her body had turned into immaculate white. Her amber eyes now matched the same color as her hair—a stunning celestial blue.
At the same time, Darian felt like he was inside her again. He could feel every scale, every inch of her body with ease.
'She fused with the white power... but what is that?'
He muttered, focusing on her soul. On her forehead, there was a small white mark, like a rune. It had formed automatically from his white power, after being absorbed.
He only noticed it after it formed, confused. Was that some hidden ability of his curse he didn't know about?
A low moan escaped Niara's lips—not from pain, but from ecstasy.
"White Dragon Armor!"
She shouted with excitement. With a single flap of her wings, the miasma around her was blown away, like it had been hit by an opposite force—a light too pure to be tainted.
One meter away.
Up in the sky, the Summoner was stunned by the sudden change. On the ground, the Spiritual Guardian didn't hesitate and dashed forward.
He had two rings and plenty of escape methods if things went wrong. What could a half-dragon woman and a one-ring Spiritual Guardian really do?
His Divine Blessing couldn't be blocked. No one could ever guess its full effect until it was already too late. So even if that change looked strange as hell—there was no reason to be afraid.
*RUMBLE!*
A fist, shining like a white sun, ripped through the darkness, charging at him with devastating force.
The man smirked, a sinister glint in his eyes.
In the next instant, his dagger sliced the air with deadly precision. The power of his two rings flared—only 20%, but enough to make him move like lightning.
**BOOOOM!**
The impact shattered the grim silence of the abyssal nest.
Far off, everyone in part of the third and second lines froze for a second, their eyes turning in the same direction.
Something had changed.
For a moment, it felt like the world drowned in darkness had been lit up. A white sun burst out of nowhere, and the thick, unyielding miasma twisted violently, like an invisible storm had blown it away.
The explosion wasn't the loudest among the battles up front—over there, the chaos was deafening. But the way the miasma reacted? That was impossible to ignore. No Blessing ever messed with the cursed mist like that.
And then…
Everyone's eyes widened. Shock kicked in, wiping out their initial surprise.
The miasma hadn't just been pushed back.
It was *gone*.
In an instant, half of the second and third lines were completely clear. What used to be a wall of darkness had vanished, like it had never even been there.
Silence.
There were pills and tricks to deal with the miasma—but at best, they just moved it around or sealed it into some container.
But this?
A massive chunk of it had been *purified*—all at once. No one could believe what they were seeing.
For a moment, all the bloody fights came to a halt.
A moment later…
Every bit of light inside the nest suddenly vanished.
The Summoners and Spiritual Guardians felt like they were swallowed by darkness itself. A primal fear and crushing dread surged in their minds.