Chapter 692: Domain (2/2)

“When I name myself Empress of Mankind and start to eradicate entire species of awakened beings,” Ilea answered. She formed her mantle with the full five additional layers. Hmm. My ash capacity rose with the dominion buff too. Helpful, she thought. With the full mantle on her, she hardly qualified for light or even medium armor. Her speed wasn’t reduced in a major way however, especially with her wings.

The third tier of Titan Core activated as she floated down to the ground, her weight increasing quickly. Heat charge is good, weight increases faster. The spell is indeed, gooder than before, she thought with a smile. A test perhaps to see if the Meadow could read her mind, but the obvious groan didn’t come. Your main class is actor after all, ancient eldritch abomination, she thought and squinted her eyes.

“What,” the being said.

Her eyes squinted harder.

“I’m ready to level some skills,” Ilea said and changed into her ash mantle only, ashen wisps moving through her hair to make a single braid. White flames formed on her body as she jumped back, wings on her back. “Show me thine power, Guardian of Erendar.”

“A title I have not heard in a long time, Lilith, immortal of ash. Let us see then, if you are ready to become my equal,” the tree mused, a dome like barrier thrumming to life in a fifty meter radius. Hundreds of wooden projectiles formed around the central tree, the ground shaking as the very foundation below them shifted.

She smiled, her body tense as she watched the pulses of magic, the fabric itself torn and bent. Ilea gulped as she sensed a part of her ally’s true power. She stood in the domain of the Endless Meadow.

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Verena turned her head when she felt the barrier magic come to life. A surge of magic unlike anything she had felt before. Parts of her told her to run, others to go and fight. Her rational mind kept her standing where she was, eyes wide open and senses pushed to the limit. Her magic had activated, a feeble attempt to stand against the overwhelming power she felt from the barrier.

Few situations in the past years had made her remember her youth, when she had little to no power. When a simple level twenty Wisp had caused panic and fear to bloom in her heart. Audur came to mind but the Dragon had simply played with them, it had not been out for blood. Not until the very end. This was different. Every hair on her body stood up, the very air charged like lightning.

The Meadow had been an incredible creature to her, incomprehensible really, but peaceful, ally and friend to Ilea. Perhaps its joking demeanor, and the attitude of an all knowing teacher it liked to assume had blinded her to the true nature a part of her knew it to be. Verena had known, she had seen some of what it knew. She had failed to identify the being before, and yet until this very moment she had not truly understood.

The others had a similar reaction, all work and conversation dropped as they looked towards the shimmering dome of energy. Within floated a winged being of fire and ash, defiant against the very form of a god.

It felt like the world held its breath for but a moment, Ilea’s form floating ten meters above ground. Her wings moved.

Burning ash spread inside the barrier, a beam of near white light cut into floating stone walls, one broken through before the next blocked the power entirely.Hundreds of projectiles both wood and stone surrounded the woman before they all rushed her way. Verena wondered for a moment why she didn’t teleport away, but there simply was no space to go to. Something would hit her everywhere within the barrier. She walked closer to get a better look, her curiosity winning out against any instinct suggesting danger.

They had seen the dragonling elf try its luck against the tree, always close to getting in a good claw strike or fire breath, always deflected or blocked in the last moment. That thing was just playing around. Maybe even now…, she thought and watched. A blink of her eyes before she saw shimmering space form around the floating figure made of flame. Spears, splinters, drill like stone projectiles all lashed into her but the flow wasn’t right. There were no impacts, not on her. Instead the things hit each other, hundreds of stone pieces exploding into fine dust as they collided with wooden spears. For just one moment.

Verena didn’t blink. And then the world froze. The sea of chaos stood still in the very air within the barrier and then it all vanished. She gulped.

Ilea raised her arm, the shimmers gone when a chaotic beam of energy formed on her palm. This time it didn’t impact any walls but vanished. Wisps of white flame clung to an otherwise invisible gate in front of the single crystal tree. The spell came out ten meters above, flying towards Ilea. Again, it vanished.

“What the fuck is happening?” Pierce said as she joined with a smiling Bralin.

“For once in your life, shut up,” Verena whispered. Her eyes and head moved around as she followed the beam, gates opening and closing for the next few seconds, closer and closer to the respective beings themselves. In the end the light only showed up for a fraction of a second until it finally burned into the barrier itself. Light cracks showed for but a moment. And it’s whole again. The fires…, she thought when they died out.

“Their control is marvelous…,” Owl mused in a whispering tone.

Aren’t you supposed to be the four mark here? Verena thought but she didn’t take her eyes of the battle. A familiar aura entered her perception. There you are.

“Hmm… I felt something above. Did someone challenge the Endless Meadow?” Lucas asked, his voice carrying the same calm it always did. “Wait… that’s Ilea?”

Stone walls now flew through the arena. Dozens of them, all at least two by two meters large and flying at ridiculous speeds. Verena strained to keep up with everything. She pushed her auras to the limit, her health now burning but it was worth it. She raised her brows and glanced towards the tree. The Meadow was healing her.

Ilea spun and moved through the air with increasing speed. Each wall slid past with only centimeters to spare, some of them vanishing and appearing nearby, others shattering against the barrier or the black grass. She teleported, just once, forming gates around herself and occasionally sending waves of her arcane power or heat at the moving walls to change their course slightly.

Each impact resounded like thunder but the ground didn’t shake, the barrier didn’t waver. Even so it felt like the sound was dulled, not representing the forces unleashed within the set domain of their battle.

Not a battle, Verena thought. A lesson.

And yet it didn’t quite feel like the two were teacher and pupil. Perhaps friends, both interested in a certain game or style of fighting. Verena smiled, remembering her early adventuring teams. She had met some of them again after years and even decades. Some had wanted to test themselves against her. The results were never in question, cut in stone from the very start, but she respected the sentiment. The joy. The thrill.

“Don’t go in there,” Pierce said next to her.

The Meadow has set a barrier. None of us could ever get inside. Foolish Elder, she thought with a broadening grin. Much like with her old teammates, the result here was clear from the beginning. She watched the unending walls of stone, watched as Ilea tried to get closer to the Meadow.

She managed another teleport but not as far as Verena knew she could move. Another meter. Then she slipped up. The edge of a wall struck her shoulder and chaos followed.

Bralin groaned and raised both steel hands above his helmet. “Fuck…”

Pierce grinned and so did Verena.

The barrage of stone didn’t stop when the burning woman was struck. In the moment she was off balance about three dozen walls hit her floating form. Most creatures Verena had seen and fought would’ve been squashed by the second or third plate. But Ilea didn’t really fit into what she had come to expect. While her offensive power was something Verena envied, her armor was something entirely different.

Stone broke against her burning form, her limbs rocked to one side or the other, flames and ash ripped away as a cloud of debris formed around her. As fast as the chaos had come, it passed again. The dance resumed, Ilea’s form flying between the plates as she continued her approach towards the tree. Verena could’ve sworn she saw one of her arms snapping back from a wrong angle. The recovery wasn’t what surprised her. It was the fact that she was not only alive, but well enough to continue without pause.

“She did just get hit, or did I dream that?” Pierce asked.

“She did,” Bralin said. “Thought she liked the armor because of the plating… doesn’t look like that anymore.”

Lucas chuckled and sat down on a set of growing roots.

“Anybody up for bets?” Pierce asked.

“Ten gold that she doesn’t reach the tree,” Bralin said.

“That’s stupid. She doesn’t stand a chance. I say she gets to ten meters,” Pierce said.

“Twelve,” the dwarf answered.