Chapter 782 - 782: A fundamentally special kind of fight (part 4)

"Damn it!", cursed the evil siren Karla, past the initial pain of having her arm separated from her body, she didn't seem to feel any more pain, which reminded Aisha of how the nethereals when they first met were able to ignore pain while fighting which was troublesome to deal with, with exceptions like Daimon's attacks which regardless of whether the enemy used nether or not, were effective.

After that, the first method to counter such a thing was to outclass the nether of the enemy with stronger mana or battle aura, but it wasn't really efficient since it required much more energy than usual for it to work, it was until the nature of nether, which was basically that of mana infused with a strong negative emotion, was discovered that the previous mentioned "ability" of nethereals became basically useless in front of Daimon's group.

Aurora pretty much demonstrated it, her light was charged with the anger of being unable to protect her daughter and Bell from the Lord's schemes, and her hatred towards nethereals, and with such strong emotions in her light mana, she who is more used to a defensive fighting style, utterly destroyed those nethereals.

"To think that weird characteristic of nethereals would present itself at this point, well, it's not that strange considering that you two double-crossed both that old shark and the Lords, so what acted as foundation for your fourth "return" were both of their powers, right", casually said Aisha whose pretty violet slit eyes were glaring at the evil siren Karla.

She might not be feeling as much pain as she should have, in fact black wind mana was preventing the area where her arm was cut from letting her blood flow out of her body, but she did bleed when the harpoon ripped off her arm, so, naturally Aisha used the chance to gain some more intel with her blood reading.

Due to Karla's own interference and probably because Ereth was involved too, the memories she could see were quite vague though, Aisha had wanted to learn more about the enemy's power, because as previously stated everything they knew so far, only stripped away the first two layers of Karla and Ereth's façade.

In other words, the powers they used for the first two times they participated in Neptune's events, this revealed the good and evil mermaid aspect, the siren part was mostly discovered by Daimon's own investigation and that fight they had with the Karla that was sealed in Kerrol.

But don't forget that Ereth returned a third time which was when he got beat by the megalodon to then be sealed away, which means that this is his fourth time, as one would expect from a cockroach pain in the ass hero like him.

And with this recent piece of intel, despite most being blocked by Karla and Ereth's influence, Aisha got some interesting information, the first two times those guys appeared, they focused their power in "concepts" the good and evil one in that specific order as it was formerly explained and experienced by Freya's users.

Then the third time, one would be led to believe that their focus was "external" means, given that Ereth sought the power of the northen sea stellar kingdom and also the one from the lords, but that wasn't exactly the case.

What became Arlion's life obsession, was but only the focus of Ereth's third time returning, in other words, he focused in lineages back then, it makes sense now that we have the bigger picture, because well, there was the black armored lineage he got from the megalodon, and unlike what was originally thought about nether being more of a "parasitic" kind of energy, it was revealed that while in the nethereal kingdom those that were transformed into nethereals are large in number, all the ones with noble blood are born with nether, so it can also be considered a lineage trait.

There were also other hints about Ereth's third return focus being lineages, that had fallen in Daimon's hands prior to this though, the content of that black box for example, in other words the grey sphere which was used by the Blackfin family to make the liqueur which granted Daimon the black armored shark's lineage that then turned into the Dracolevia one through overscoring in the lineage temple's test, is from Ereth's third round.

So far Daimon had guessed that it was one of Ereth's safety measures, in case he lost the black armored shark's lineage, which he did, that sphere must have been a way to recover it at a later time.

Unfortunately, that "opportunity" of his, was stolen by Daimon, and the most amusing part is that it didn't happen directly because of something he did, but because of the mission opportunity he stole from Adam, given that Daimon's involvement with the Blackfin family started when he helped Mellie who was travelling with one of the sons of the Blackfin duke, back then.

"But then, this "Black Fierce Sea" thing you have ongoing might have been created during the sweet time you spent sealed by the old shark and used to break out of said seal, but it is a power from the previous round as it is lineage related", added Aisha, which made Karla grit her teeth.

'How the fuck does she know that!!!', none of the information that was in the hands of the silver-haired girl which was calmly floating at the distance, was in possession of the former part of her which Karla was sure had been taken out in Kerrol, given that, well, Freya was here fighting her currently.

Aisha learned a few interesting things right now, first and formal, that "Karla" in Kerrol was basically a sacrifice, the one who escaped with Ereth when he died at Alicia and Freya's hands, put all of her weaknesses in her, so, she wasn't "incomplete" only because she was half of a being, but also because of the previous.

At the same time, Karla took away basically all of the sensitive intel that could be obtained from that half of her, she was still outdone by Eve of course, because she made sure that her beloved host got the rewards he was due for his efforts, in fact she took what was useful for the system and in exchange handed Daimon such a nice ability as "Mythical regeneration" which was maybe conditioned but it was still partial immortality, since so long as one had a type of energy to pay with, one couldn't be insta-killed even if both the head, heart and magic core which are the usual vital spots, were completely destroyed.

Next, we have intel that showed Aisha how the "black fierce sea shark" lineage was the improvised power Ereth had created to break out of the megalodon's seal, and was supposed to be put in the back seat after that, then Ereth was going to use the content of that black box to recover the black armored shark's lineage and fuse it with his own creation on himself, to act as his base state, while the old normal black fierce sea shark lineage was going to be distributed on his subordinates.

The previous might make you wonder, then what did Daimon's interference changed if that's exactly what happened, and the answer is "everything", the state in which the first and the other seconds in command as well as the normal subordinates were while in the blood prison realm, before being on their way to hell by Aisha, Sera and Laila, was supposed to have been achieved in Neptune.

If you make memory, you'll remember that Ereth's subordinates didn't look like that back then, they were just members from secondary branches and mixed bloods from the Blackfin family who were controlled by Ereth, also they weren't that many in number either, as in not every member of the Blackfin family was taken over by him, and all of that happened because Daimon took the content of that black box.

You see, Ereth was the one who guided the Blackfin duke to prepare that liqueur and make it a thing for the members of the Blackfin family and other "outstanding" members of the young generation to compete drinking it.

Because that was the medium which he was going to use to control them, naturally Ereth was careful, because he was wary of the Delphini or more accurately of Annette's analyzing abilities, so the liqueur by itself had zero negative aspects, in fact it was beneficial for those that drunk it who were strong enough to endure the stimulation from the black armored shark lineage traces in it.

It would only turn into a way for Ereth to control all those who drank it, when he did the appropriate ritual for it to happen, you can already guess it, but he planned to have a way large army for his initial return to Neptune, among which not only let alone secondary branch members of the Blackfin family would be, but all those other outstanding members of the young generation, which would act as infiltrators in their own families, so that Ereth could take them over.

He planned to sweep the whole clear water kingdom in a single go, but his great plans went out in flames because of Daimon, having lost that grey sphere which was an irreplaceable part of the process, he was forced to diminish the scale of his return and obediently wait to start the conflict inside the stage prepared for the global raid instead.

As to why he didn't just go after Annette if he suspected her to have been the one that could have gotten in his way, that's because the grey sphere was linked to him, once he returned, Ereth was confident of being guided to it no matter where it was hidden and yes this calculation of his included Adam or Marcus finding it somehow, it also couldn't be destroyed by normal means either, but then when he returned, no matter how much effort he put, he couldn't feel it, and that's because said grey sphere is calmly resting in Daimon's inventory as we speak.

Of course, only because of that, it wouldn't prevent Ereth from going straight towards Annette to try and force some answers out of her, as to why he didn't so, that's simple, when he initially returned, he lacked the strength to face most of the clear water kingdom which was under the dolphin queen's hand, and win in a short period of time, which is what he had before the global raid started, which wasn't supposed to be the case.

It happened because Ereth was forced to cut his loses short by shrinking the size of his initial returning army, stripped away every single trace of the black armored shark's lineage from all the people he had made drunk that liqueur and concentrated it on himself, since he couldn't control and empower all of them without the grey sphere, then he distributed the black fierce sea shark's lineage on his subordinates so that they wouldn't be uselessly weak during the global raid, he also gave up in going after the clear water kingdom right away because at the end of the day the grey sphere wasn't there, he was "sure" of that, and once he returned from the global raid, he could turn let alone the clear water kingdom, but Neptune as a whole to ashes if he wanted to.

The process to adjust himself and modify his subordinates took time and the result was also weaker than in his original plan, because the subordinates had lost the traces of the black armored shark's lineage as he had to take them all for himself, since he lacked the grey sphere, also by giving up the black fierce sea lineage to use it on his subordinates, Ereth lost it, so, that's why he made it so it would return to him when the subordinates died.

As you see, Daimon had thoroughly screwed him over, his plans were forced to be changed at the last second, their execution was slowed down and the result was also worst than expected, if things went as he planned, then his normal subordinates would have had the strength of the seconds in command, the seconds in command would have reached the level of the first and fifth, and the latter two, well, they would have been as strong as a single base Karla.

And all of that crumbled down like a house of cards hit by a hammer, because of a variable which hid in the shadows even as of current, like Daimon, appeared in Neptune.

As a bonus, Ereth also lost the black fierce sea shark lineage distributed to the subordinates for the good this time, because of Sera, Laila and Aisha, which were brought here by who, yep, Daimon.

'What a shame, the interference was the strongest when I tried to pry into what that grey sphere represents/contains, so I can't tell it to my darling, but that in itself is a nice hint, so be sure to pass it to him, Eve~', thought Aisha, this is where the memories of the blood which Aisha caught a glimpse of, ended, so let's get back to the fight.

"Black Hell Wind Gale Flash!", the evil siren Karla shouted as she turned into a black-green stream of wind which flashed from her previous spot, to then appear where her severed arm had landed, the strange scene of blood and flesh tendrils extending from the area where Karla's arm was cut off, in order to reconnect the severed arm, presented itself for Aisha and Freya to see.

Don't get it wrong, Freya had fought with her before so she was aware of the insane recovery capacities the mermaid/siren administrator had, and Aisha knows that Daimon's "mythical regeneration" skill originated from the Karla in Kerrol as well, so it's not the fact that she could pretty much simply reattach her arm what was strange.

But the fact that, first, it was taking her too long and second, the recovery seemed to cost her more than just mana like usual, but it also took some vitality.

"I had been thinking a lot on how to deal with that annoying cockroach survivability of yours, which fits so well with that piece of trash user you have, but looks like I was overestimating you, I guess that's why you resorted to something as low as relying in a pain nullifying property, your regeneration is flawed compared to back then", said the valkyrie like Freya.

You might have noticed it, but Freya got a bit more talkative, and there is a proper reason for that, which is that Karla suffered more due to being humiliated than just over taking a beating, something the war goddess administrator girl realized thanks to Aisha.

"Conceptual Banner", with a snap of her fingers, Freya made those banners appear above the evil siren Karla, there were two of them and the words engraved on them this time were "Right" and "Left".

"Conflict", with the activation command, the "war" between the two banners started and one of them pretty much instantly burned, the one with the "left" word to be accurate.

"Boooom!", as a result the left arm which had just been reattached to the evil siren Karla's body lit up in grey silver flames and then… exploded.

"Agh!", it was short lived, but it still caused the evil siren Karla to scream due to pain, but she gritted her teeth as she radiated black green mana to then this time from zero, regenerate her missing arm.

"That didn't work you bit… Aghhh!", in the midst of retorting to Freya, the arm which the evil siren Karla had regenerated suddenly had silver-grey flaming spikes grow out of it.

"Hssss!", this time the pain didn't disappear, because both the solid flaming spikes were there and also because unlike before, the grey silver flame energy of Karla, indeed produced high heat like normal fire.

"I didn't expect someone like you to understand it, but the wounds caused by the "flames of war" in the bodies, minds, hearts and souls of the people, are not healed so easily", said Freya to then add.

"I used to hate that, but as it turns out, something as "evil" as this property, can be used to ensure that pieces of trash like you, are properly punished for their actions", which made the evil siren Karla grit her teeth as she enveloped herself in black-green mana.

"Black Hell Wind Cleansing Breeze!", Aisha and Freya already knew it, but just in case, it's worth mentioning that one shouldn't think that the supposedly "good" and "evil" affiliation of each respective Karla, dictated the limits of their capacities.

Despite the evil ones being much more aggressive and having elements that leaned towards the negative extreme of the energy spectrum, that didn't mean they lacked in terms of support abilities, for example that spell which the "evil" siren Karla just used was supposed to dispel the effects of the enemy's attacks on her.

"Aghhhh!", but the result wasn't as she expected, the black-green wind mana only put out the heat of the spikes, but they not only remained piercing her flesh, but even twisted and twirled, which resulted in Karla's arm being shredded to pieces on the spot.

"And most of the time, even trying to heal such wounds results in a violent negative reaction", said Freya whose hand was burning in grey silver energy, that wasn't a new technique by the way, it's just that her energy apparently has a really wide variety of properties.

Amusingly enough, she can be considered the "opposite" of Aisha in this aspect, because while indeed Aisha's energies have more than one property like it is the case of her metal one, she ultimately produces different results thanks to her techniques where her variety of effects really shines, as she has an insanely large number of different technique variations.

Freya on the other hand, so far at least has a single technique only, and its effect is also only one, to make the things she puts in the banners to go to "war", her energy however, appears to cover all possible aspects, it attacks at a conceptual, physical, energy, emotional which in this case equals mind and perhaps even at mysterious level too, considering how easily she overcame the pain nullifying ability of Karla.

And what's more it's that it can do so in more than a single way, as it was proven by Freya changing the burning and piercing property of her energy, into a piercing and shredding one a moment ago.

'She just got much more proficient with her energy manipulation, earlier she was visualizing "weapons" or simple results such as explosions as the effect of her technique, but she can now inflict wounds directly, it is still conditioned to what she is making go at war, but she progressed as fast as me during my third challenge, not bad', thought Aisha to then add to herself.

'I'll tell her to keep the shredding effect up, the blood was vaporized earlier before I could use it for my blood reading, but this way, I have something to work with and the enemy suffers more, it's a win-win situation~', thought Aisha as she put those pretty violet slit eyes of hers to work again, but given the nature of what she aimed to see and the interference, the process will take longer and will require more blood to be spilled, so we'll have to wait a bit for it.

For now, back to the fight, the "good" siren Karla casted her own cleansing spell on her counterpart as well.

"Black Fierce Wind Cleansing Breeze!", she said as she shot a dark green wind current at her evil counterpart.

"Crack!", rather than cleansing, the grey silver spikes were "grounded" away by the wind mana, which resulted in sparks and pain being produced in the process, what's more, even when the spikes were completely "cleansed", and the multiple open wounds left by them closed, some strange and ugly "marks" were scarcely left on the evil siren Karla's left arm.

"Even if the wounds caused by the flames of war are healed, "scars of war" never disappear, by the time I'm finished with you, you'll be as ugly on the outside as you are on the inside, rather than just dying, that will be a fit punishment for a piece of trash like you", said Freya with a disdainful voice as she looked at the two siren Karlas, from above.

That was conceptual and physical damage properties being mixed, because she didn't mean "scars of war" as the marks left by a wound which with time can fade and with the most advanced treatments might actually disappear over time, she meant it as in the irrevocable changes that having experienced war brings to not only people but larger entities such as countries or even the world itself, depending on the scale of the war.

Because you see, those "scars of war" turn into new laws, agreements, plans, preparations, history, ideals and so on, so, for the good or for the bad depending on the results produced and on the take people has about it, they indeed never disappear, everyone just learns how to keep living while dealing with it.

Of course, Freya wasn't giving the chance of learning from it to Karla, she was only focusing on making full use of the "evil" side of her energy to utterly destroy her.

'This fucking bitch, why is this thing not going away!', inwardly screamed the evil siren Karla, a doubt which was answered by Aisha the next second.

"One would believe that she would have learned the lesson by now, and be fully aware that her spells are no match for neither your techniques nor mine in a 1v1 situation, and that is when we use wide area ones", mockingly said Aisha as she added.

"As for focused ones, well, let's discover it right now, you two were interested in my lightning right, experience it yourselves", said Aisha as she had violet and silver electricity arcs crackling around her right hand exclusively.

"Violet Empress Gauntlet, Silver Ruler Javelin".