Chapter 784 - 784: A fundamentally special kind of fight (part 6)

"Mmm, let's see, the "good" mermaid one's rule is mind related, it's not like the "charm" of a hero though but…", before Aisha could finish her sentence, the first Karla in other words the good mermaid one with wavy dark blue hair shouted.

"That's enough you fucking bitch!", and here you might wonder what is the use of verbally "attacking" Aisha instead of casting a spell to do so, but that is part of the "magic" used by Karla.

Because while invisible to others, an ethereal and blurry Karla appeared above Aisha, holding a dark blue undulating stiletto which it stabbed downwards at Aisha's nape.

'Go to hell', inwardly cursed the good mermaid Karla only for a little smirk to appear on Aisha's pretty face, then under Karla's eyes of disbelief an "invisible" vague white-silver figure appeared behind of Aisha to then smack away the incoming stiletto.

"Boom!", a short-lived thunderous sound echoed through Aisha's vicinity, seemingly out of nowhere, as both the ethereal Karla and the white-silver figure disappeared on the spot.

"Cough!", the good mermaid Karla's face paled a bit as she coughed up blood on the spot, it also didn't help that Aisha didn't miss the chance to kick her when she was down.

"What's the problem, you look as if you have seen a "ghost"~", mockingly said the silver-haired vampire girl to then casually snap her fingers.

"Or more accurately, the effect of the Violet Empress Entourage, Demon Ghost Guard technique", with Aisha's words the second of the two activations of her technique given that she had used her right-hand casting spot was used and that invisible white-silver vague figure from before appeared behind of Aisha once again, she had used delayed casting in two parts, one of the two blocked that ethereal Karla with the stiletto and the second one only appeared now.

"I couldn't see it earlier, but she just tried to attack you, right, I think at a mind and mysterious level and you blocked her with that white-silver manifestation", said Freya whose eyes were shining in grey silver flames now, to which Aisha nodded.

"Mm, as I was saying, she didn't go for the classic hero "charm" mind affecting effect for the good mermaid rule, but chose to use "breach" instead, that's why she was trying to… mess with you earlier", she said, referring to when Karla wanted to open the wound in Freya's heart by mentioning the death of Alicia and her sister right when Aisha made her entrance by punching her on the face.

You heard Sera mentioning it before, but there is more than one mind affecting power that a hero could have, it probably depends on the type of hero we are talking about, also the ones known by the girl from the church of light are probably not all that exist, given that the "hero" category is wide, you have Arlion who was a "hero of slaughter" candidate for example.

But Sera did mention "charm", "breach", "domination" and "suggestion", out of which she was only supposed to be able to resist "charm" as that was the one that a hero of light like Adam had, which makes you wonder how the hell did the church of light knew that, but let's not go into detail regarding that subject now.

The point is that Karla went with "breach" instead of "charm", despite the difference in name the ultimate result is supposed to be similar though, controlling the target's mind, but unlike charm which does it by increasing likeability or directly enthralling those around the user, like it happened with Adam, breach aims for people's vulnerabilities to then give the user a chance to put the target in their control.

And here you might wonder how the hell can that be an ability a hero should have, but you have seen it in action before for sure, or are you telling me that you have never seen main characters making others empathize with them in an emotional way, well, that's "breach", it forces a connection through a weak point that is opened by the one who used it, without the target realizing it.

So, the hero with "breach" simply attacks the emotional state of the target and then comes to the "rescue" thus gaining the confidence, love or trust of the target depending on the situation.

Karla didn't use it in such a roundabout way though, it was her rule so she adapted it to the way she preferred it, so, in her case, her voice carried the rule instead of her mana like it happened for the siren Karlas and as a result she could use them to attack the target's mind, just like how mermaids from modern times are said to have "beautiful" voices capable of enticing people's emotions.

She created an ethereal version of her with her words and the undulating stiletto is where the rule was concentrated, after all, unlike a dagger which can be used for stabbing and slashing, a stiletto is used to stab exclusively and its thin and large tip is designed to pierce through armor, making allusion to how "breach" works.

Both applications are as disgusting as charm for anyone who knew about them like Sera, Daimon or Aisha though.

Unfortunately for Karla, that wasn't going to work against Aisha, because among her violet empress "entourage" which is composed of phenomena not only from the sky or focused in the energy aspect, like the demon rainbow of earlier, there is also physical and soul which equals mind, phenomena as well.

In this case, it was the "will o wisp" phenomena also known as an atmospheric ghost light, that can be seen in wetlands, which has given birth to many "mysterious" stories, in other words that was the form Aisha's mind defense took when dealing with a water related mind and mysterious attack.

And nope, this wasn't prepared exclusively for Karla, because Aisha had a version of this technique for other elements besides water, it's just that the good mermaid's breach was water related.

'Damn bitch, since when are mortals so used to mind and mysterious related stuff!', inwardly cursed the good mermaid Karla.

She who is the "first" and so you could consider her the "main" Karla, made the decision on which rule she wanted to implement on herself based on the enemies she was going to be facing in the short-term, because she wanted to be as safe as possible.

And as you might have noticed, mind and mysterious related things are not widely spread or really known by people from neither the four galaxies, Neptune, Kerrol, nor Draim, sure we have seen some use them like Erin or the night sparrow princess Ivy with her nightmare darkness, Marcus with his rituals and curses, the same applies to Arlion, but in all of those cases, the introduction to said aspects was done through an innate talent related to a lineage.

And while less "obscure", for stellar kingdom level forces such as the northern sea where they have the white disaster shark family and their subordinated forces which specializes in curses, or the Delphini which divides in warriors like Lyn and those that lean towards the analyzing aspect related to the mind, the previous tendency remains.

The "average" person doesn't really meddle with the mind or mysterious aspects much, and that was an advantage Karla planned to exploit, but then she was just slapped on the face by a "mortal" silver-haired girl who had techniques which combined both said aspects.

And the humiliation didn't stop there, because Aisha directly continued by adding.

"As for the evil mermaid one, we already have comeback, sudden power ups and disgusting mind altering, so the last of the basic hero concept which is lacking there, should be, special weapon reliance, right?", said the silver haired vampire girl as she looked at Freya's right, where a black-red water mana wave had emerged from the abyss below the battlefield, out of which a dark red trident came out.

"Humph", only for Freya to softly snort as she made banners appear, one above the dark red trident which smelled like blood by the way, and one above Freya herself.

The words engraved on the banners were "weapon" and "armor", respectively, it's worth mentioning that even here, Freya was always seen wearing that full body silver armor which combined with her pretty wings, gave her the brave appearance of a "war goddess".

"Booooom!", one of the banners exploded on the spot and as a result, the part that lost the conflict, cracked as it was sent flying into the distance.

"Crack!", that was the sound of the dark red trident nearly crumbling on the spot as it was knocked back by the effect of Freya's technique, but then the evil mermaid Karla pointed her hand at the direction in which the dark red trident was sent and the thing flew back at her, while black-red mana and dark red rules shone on it, repairing the damage it suffered.

"Really, a trident, after you mocked your user saying that he was obsessed with that giant "fork" back then", disdainfully said Freya as she saw the evil mermaid Karla repairing her weapon on the spot.

Now all the four rules which the Karlas controlled had been revealed and neither of them was able to do anything to Aisha or Freya, another hit for Karla's ego.

"Shut up, if my existence hadn't been damaged, you would be at my feet by now!", exclaimed the evil mermaid Karla.

There are two things known about the powers an administrator has as of current, first, that they are related to their feats, achievements, race and the like and all of that is summarized as "existence", for example Karla was a mermaid-siren before becoming an administrator, so her existence englobes that alongside the other previously mentioned aspects.

Then we have the energy used by administrators to exert their powers and currency for the systems, which is "origin", this is normally produced by the host through accepting and completing missions, achieving things and the like, normally the system is the one which assigns administrators a share of the origin produced by their hosts, only those that enter a contract with their users can skip the previous and receive origin directly from their hosts and the amount depends on the type of contract too.

Or well, that's supposed to be case, because as Eve had stated, Daimon produces origin just by existing, every action he does produces origin too, and even without a contract he can give said origin to others, like it happened with Freya who was played a "prank" on by Eve because she didn't accept to enter even a temporary contract with him back then.

It's not that Freya disliked Daimon, she disliked temporary contracts as that's what Karla and Ereth had between them, that's why if she was going to make a contract, it was going to be a life and death one and to decide whether she wanted to do so with Daimon, she needed to observe him.

Because as much as she was grateful for his help, she couldn't outright trust him as she trusted Alicia and her sister, Freya wasn't naïve enough to do that and also Ereth's betrayal towards her first host had made Freya develop a wary attitude towards others, luckily, it's not like Daimon was specially hiding anything from her.

Freya also lowered her guard when she saw the descendants of her late friend being alive and well while they were close to Daimon, not to mention that reunion with Joanna with whom she might not have been as close as with Alicia to call her a "sister", but was indeed her close friend, given that Joanna knew about Alicia being a system user and all, and she was trusted with Alicia's Brightstar lineage to pass it alongside her Ivory lineage to the next generation.

You know the rest of story, the valkyrie girl had judged Daimon to be worthy of sharing her life and death with, but before partnering with anyone else, she had to kill the ones who caused the deaths of her sisters and here we are.

"If you are trying to imply that you are fighting with an "unfair" advantage, you can forget about that, after all, aren't you a complete administrator with a host too as of current, Freya is not alone, but she wants to be the one to kill you, so unlike you, she hasn't been receiving any "assistance" from my darling", said Aisha.

Daimon wouldn't give origin to Freya and ruin her challenge, but nothing prevented him from using his energy to help her fight against Karla, whose connection with Ereth empowered her, well, at least until Aisha and her demonite field arrived.

But he didn't do so, out of respect for the valkyrie girl's wishes, that doesn't mean Freya was alone like Aisha had stated, Daimon was wearing her ethereal armor and was ready to provide her with his energy if she needed it.

And now that he had stopped being on the look for her, he had Aisha take over that role, and now imagine Karla's expression when Aisha added.

"Not to mention that you have a new power for this round which makes you not only closer to your original self, but stronger in comparison to when you were at this relative level, right, miss mermaid from the "Black Reef Realm", was it?".

Karla took a breath of cold air on the spot, there was this uncomfortable and eerie sensation that invaded her for a second.

'How the fuck does she know that!!!', exclaimed Karla to her insides, so far, the intel that the silver-haired girl seemed to possess about her, was limited to things that happened around her time in Neptune and its vicinity it didn't seem to even go back to when she first became his administrator, which she still didn't understand but could overlook, thinking that perhaps she got some hints due to their actions here and there.

However, what Aisha had just said was information from before Karla had let alone met Ereth, but before she even became an administrator, what's more, she has never told anyone about her background, not even to Ereth, because well, they aren't real allies, but circumstantial teammates instead, at some point each planned to take their own respective path and the less the other knew about their ambitions the better.

Karla's wariness and confusion was replaced by anger over Aisha's mocking words which came next though.

"And here I thought you were someone important considering how you call yourself a "queen", but you were just a normal "little mermaid" that was lucky, no, that sold others to raise in ranks and save your hide, that's low even for the standards I had for you, but it also explains why the nether from your third round was based in arrogance, pieces of trash like that for some reason are the ones who grow the most arrogant".

All the previously mentioned was intel that Aisha obtained through her blood reading, you remember her right eye which even as of current is working in cracking down the information Aisha wanted right, well the question she made was "where do these guys come from".

Surprisingly enough, or maybe not considering that Ereth is backed by his system more than Karla who is in a "weakened" state as an administrator in comparison courtesy of Eve, the interference blacked out the parts regarding Ereth, but a few memories did pop up for Karla.

Not that many, but they were really important, for example Aisha confirmed that this round's power for Karla made her be quite close to her original self, and what's more made her stronger than what she was when she was at the realm she is in as of current, which is the peak of the Arch rank, each Karla was a peak arch rank fighter.

What's more, Aisha even learned the name of the place from where Karla came from and that she wasn't anyone outstanding back at her native place, contrary to the airs of grandeur which she put on by calling herself a "queen", she wasn't let alone royalty… but even a noble.

At least not from Aisha's point of view, because she indeed raised in ranks through her life by using all kinds of dirty schemes in secret, which makes one wonder why did she end up as a hero system type administrator, but there is also a proper reason for that.

Karla had this image of someone that was born a commoner and through her own efforts became a noble and later a princess by the way, so for the public she was a "hero" indeed, perhaps that's why she was paired with Ereth, she knew how to move in the shadows while keeping a heroic front.

'I don't know how she is doing it, but that bitch is getting really annoying, what's more, having my background revealed like that in front of Freya is… dangerous', thought the good mermaid Karla to then be returned to the real world by the sight of a banner appearing above her, the same applied to Freya.

The two banners had the same word engraved in them by the way, which was "standing".

"Crack!", almost instantly the banner above Karla's head exploded and turned into grey silver flames that then condensed into a good old favorite to deal with nobles and royalty that didn't deserve said status, a guillotine.

That energy manifestation took form around the good mermaid Karla's neck and arms, immobilizing her before the blade hanging above her neck came down while on fire.

"Black Blood Sea Corrosive Thrust!", the evil mermaid Karla who turned into a black-red water mana wave thrusted her dark red trident at the blade of the guillotine which was aiming to behead the first Karla.

"Clang!", as a result, sparks and the sound of metals colliding were produced, but contrary to what the evil mermaid Karla expected, the one to come out on top was… the guillotine.

"Crack!", as the shattering sounds coming from her dark red trident suggested.

'What the hell, maybe both were condensed through techniques, but mine is a proper weapon, hers is just an effect and I'm also using a damn attack type spell alongside it!', inwardly cursed the evil mermaid Karla, who was returned to the real world by the good mermaid one shouting.

"What the hell are you doing, get this damn thing off me already!", though thanks to the now incomplete recovery capacity that all the Karlas could use alongside the rules of the siren Karlas, the good mermaid Karla was sure that she won't die, those flames could leave burnt marks that she was unable to remove or even hide as of current, so the first Karla didn't want them anywhere near her face.

Like previously stated, Karla suffered more due to humiliation than due to being beat up by the enemy.

"Fucking hell, Domain!", shouted the evil mermaid Karla as she exploded in black-red mana which expanded in every direction besides upwards, from the distance it looked as if a black-red cascade had appeared on the battlefield, given that the mana flowed down towards the deep abyss bellow the battlefield.

"Black Blood Corrosive Sea!", the waves of black-red mana directly clashed against the flaming blade of Freya's technique and sizzling sounds were produced on the spot.

"Hsssss!", those weren't high-heat flames this time, the violent reaction was caused because as "evil" as Freya thinks this side of her powers might be, her energy is actually extremely positive oriented, and well, the name black blood corrosive sea, gives you an idea of to which end does the evil Karla's mana leans to, right.

"Booooom!", ultimately the trident mana weapon, a focused attack type spell and the manifestation of the evil mermaid Karla's domain, managed to defeat Freya's technique, it was mutual destruction though, as the trident almost crumbling apart while the spell got neutralized and the mana waves were dispersed by the explosion of Freya's energy guillotine, suggested.

As if to rub salt on the wound, Aisha snapped her fingers and her right arm was covered in violet and silver lightning which took the form of armor as she casted her technique.

"Violet Empress Vambrace, Demon Execution Guillotine", said Aisha as she made a white-silver energy guillotine appear around the good mermaid Karla again, what's more, the silver-haired vampire mother made the "thumbs down" motion as if she was an empress condemning a slave to death, to activate her technique.

"You bitches are getting into my nerves, Domain!!!", shouted the good mermaid Karla as she was once again trapped into the guillotine.