Chapter 308: True Monsters

"Wait... The two of them don’t hate each other, right?" Priam narrowed his eyes, noticing the spark of rivalry flaring up between the sisters.

He took a deep breath and shook his head. They had been born together and raised under the care of attentive parents. It was natural that, during their adolescence, they had had their share of conflicts... But now that they were adults, unless they had become spoiled and brainless, they should understand the priceless value of protecting one another and accepting their differences.

Meien and Suien were already positioned in the center of the martial stage. Standing less than twenty meters apart, they stared at each other with cold and stern expressions.

Around them, the crowd in the arena was completely riled up.

At that moment, an imposing figure emerged from the central entrance.

"Elder Frizza!" The cry echoed through the stands.

She was a tall, slender woman with long white hair and striking blue eyes. Her face was sharply defined, and she looked like a stern, austere middle-aged woman—she didn’t look anything like an elderly woman on the verge of death.

Priam silently nodded. In the Divine Plane, there were countless methods of using Ether to preserve a youthful appearance. For most people, one’s true age could only be inferred from their life force—but that was impossible to measure if the individual was absurdly more powerful.

Priam, however, could clearly sense that Frizza’s vitality was hanging by a thread. She would hardly last more than five years. The Mages from the mortal plane, lacking such refined sensitivity, didn’t even suspect it.

Frizza walked to the center of the martial stage, watching the two young women with a faint, satisfied smile. Both overflowed with the vigor of youth, radiating a contagious courage and enthusiasm.

"Fight with everything you have. My only disciple will inherit all my treasures and my finest Magic Arts. The winner’s path will be paved toward infinity. This is the most important moment of your lives." Frizza’s voice echoed with a solemn and powerful tone.

"Yes."

The two answered perfectly and in sync, but with absolutely calm and indifferent tones. They continued staring at each other as if the Elder’s presence didn’t even matter.

Frizza furrowed her brow, subtly irritated. She took a deep breath and firmly asked, "Before you begin, tell me: what motivates you to train and push yourselves to your limits? What are you seeking from life?"

Suien finally looked away from her sister and faced the Elder.

"Our reason is the same. Both of us need to go to the Divine Plane. We need to find someone."

As soon as she finished speaking, she turned her gaze back to Meien.

Frizza snorted. "If you’re looking for someone, the winner will have that opportunity. But the Divine Plane is a ruthless place, and most of those who leave the mortal plane die within a few years."

Neither twin answered, but Frizza noticed a restrained irritation flowing through both of their auras.

"Enough talking. The rules are the same: the battle ends when one of you gives up or can no longer fight." Frizza turned around and walked off the martial stage.

The Elder herself would be the judge of the confrontation. Once she reached the edge, she waved her hand, and a translucent reddish barrier rose around the entire martial stage.

"BEGIN!" she shouted.

The entire arena fell into a deathly silence. Every spectator held their breath, frozen in anticipation.

The two remained motionless. The silence lasted only a few seconds before...

Meien raised her right hand.

Suien raised her left hand.

The movement was perfectly mirrored. The next instant, a dense bluish aura burst forth around both of them. It was the unmistakable energy of Catalyst Mages.

Priam nodded. They had followed exactly the path he had paved for them.

Suddenly, both their eyes shone intensely, radiating a pulsating, multicolored light.

"GOOD GOD!"

"IS THAT SOUL POWER?!"

The more experienced people in the stands recognized the fluctuation and shouted in shock. Even Frizza’s eyes widened.

Manifesting Soul Power while still at the Disciple Rank was considered practically impossible. And even if someone managed to do it, the manifestation should have been subtle and weak.

However, all it took was a glance at the stage to feel the pressure: even protected by the barrier and from a distance, the spectators felt a sharp pang of pain. The audience’s souls were being affected!

"Are they burning their own bloodline?!"

"Yes! Their race must be specialized in Soul Power! Unbelievable!"

The experts in the audience quickly analyzed the scene and agreed. No one had known the young women’s true race before. Now, this explanation seemed logical.

Priam, on the other hand, took a deep breath, surprised. Yes, they were burning the Vanculari bloodline.

This was a basic technique from the race’s Ancestral Art. Originally, however, the technique was supposed to be performed in partnership with a contracted spirit. The twins had adapted it to burn their bloodline, thus achieving that result.

It wasn’t an absurdly complex adaptation, but it required frightening comprehension and talent to perform it at such a low rank. Priam had given them the initial knowledge, but they were demonstrating a brutal innate talent by putting it into practice.

"You were better than me at this. But this time, I’m not losing again!" Suien roared, her green eyes pulsing with a frantic glow as the multicolored light merged with her aura.

Meien merely snorted in response. It was obvious that she had been superior in the past—after all, she was an alchemist. To refine high-level pills, absolute control over energy and manipulation of Soul Power were basic requirements.

In sync, both extended their hands forward.

Suddenly, the entire martial stage rippled violently. It was like watching the surface of a calm lake being struck by an invisible rock: the Soul Power of the two twisted, distorting the very fabric of space.

Within fractions of a second, this overwhelming force condensed into two subtle, multicolored spheres that floated before them.

They stared at each other with absolute coldness.

"GO!"

With a simultaneous shout, the two spheres shot forward like cannonballs, on a direct collision course.

*BOOOOOOM!*

The collision was devastating.

The entire audience widened their eyes in panic as the protective barrier around the stage began to crack, covering itself with fractures like a spiderweb.

It nearly collapsed.

The air above the stage remained completely blurred and distorted for a few moments.

As the dust and spatial ripples dissipated, two figures were revealed, still standing, exactly in their original positions.

Drops of sweat ran down their fair faces. Both were breathing heavily, their chests rising and falling violently.

"Was... was it a draw?!"

Perplexed murmurs spread through the stands, while the elders nodded with solemn expressions. In that first direct exchange, the strength of both seemed terrifyingly evenly matched.

After a few seconds of dense silence, Meien let out a provocative smile.

"Good job. You really managed to match me in this aspect... But if you think that’s enough to beat me, you’re dead wrong."

Suien snorted in response.

Both clenched their fists tightly.

*Buzz!*

A sharp, shrill hum reverberated throughout the entire arena.

At the same instant, Meien burst into flames. A devastating pillar of fire three meters tall rose around her, completely engulfing her.

On the other side, the floor beneath Suien’s feet shattered.

Dozens of brownish roots, as thick as human arms, burst from the rocks, snaking around her. The nature energy emanating from those roots was suffocating, directly rivaling the scorching heat coming from her sister.

"You’ve always had the advantage in direct combat because of your specialty... But that ends today!" Meien exclaimed.

With a fluid motion, she pulled a pill from her spatial ring and swallowed it in one go.

On the other side, Suien waved her fingers, causing thousands of small multicolored runes to materialize and float in the air.

**BUZZZZ!**

The hum became chaotic and deafening. The entire arena began to tremble.

Around Meien, space seemed to crack into thin fissures. Her fair skin took on a blazing reddish hue. An incredibly dense and aggressive Yang power overflowed from her pores, making her look like an awakened ancient beast.

In the stands, Priam’s eyes widened.

He had seen that before!

It was a pill body absorption technique—the same specialty used by Dioma, the genius of the 8th Branch!

However, Priam was absolutely certain that he hadn’t left anything remotely similar in the basic Alchemy knowledge.

Dioma had learned that technique from an extremely complex Magic Art of his branch, one that only he and the Leader Elder Validar had been able to learn in that generation.

’How did Meien learn this? Did she... did she develop a technique like this on her own?!’

Narrowing his eyes as he analyzed his sister’s aura, Priam confirmed his suspicions. It was conceptually similar to Dioma’s method, but the magical structure was completely different.

His little sister had created that method from scratch, probably deducing the possibility by analyzing the knowledge of Catalyst Mages that he had left behind.

It was still a rudimentary technique compared to the version refined over millennia by the sect, but the sheer genius required to conceive it was staggering. After all, as a woman, she had managed to perfectly absorb and integrate the pure energy of a Yang-attributed pill into her own body.

If learning something like that was already a trial for prodigies, creating a functional method from scratch was something even Leader Elder Validar wouldn’t dare attempt.

"Hunf... You think you’re going to beat me with just that?" Suien’s mocking voice came from the other side.

She made a quick gesture, and the thousands of colorful runes floated and began intertwining in the air.

**BUZZZZ!!**

The fabric of space trembled and fractured slightly.

Three multicolored spears, entirely woven from the runes, materialized overhead.

The next second, the energy condensed to such an extent that the weapons became almost completely physical, emitting a killing intent that seemed capable of piercing the very sky.

’An Offensive Inscription?!’

Priam’s heart raced in his chest.

Throughout his entire journey, both in the mortal plane and the divine plane, he had only ever seen inscriptions meant for defense, support, or imprisonment—which were the standard forms of the Inscription Art.

The offensive branch was considered legendary, extremely difficult to create and even more dangerous to control. Only Inscription Masters at the very peak, probably those anchored in the inner and central sects, could manipulate such concepts.

Furthermore, inscriptions of this kind couldn’t be sold or transferred; only their creator possessed the necessary affinity to operate them.

The knowledge Priam had left for Suien only covered the basics of Inscription. She had studied it, understood the concept, and created a brand-new offensive method entirely on her own.

Priam stared at the arena, overwhelmed by a mixture of absolute shock and pride.

’These two... were true monsters!’