Chapter 172: Settle the scores (8)

Malrik stood well back from the explosion, his eyes fixed on the scene before him. A distinct gleam shone in his eyes, and he couldn’t hide his awe at what he was witnessing.

It was the first time he had seen Lilith fight like this.

In the past, she hadn’t had the opportunity to display her true capabilities.

When she was at the Awakened rank, she mostly relied on illusions and psychic abilities. Even then, she had only used a limited portion of her potential. Her true specialty lay in illusions, and she had never had the chance to demonstrate the offensive side of those abilities.

But after Malrik reached the Awakened rank in the Ashmore Marquessate and one of Lilith’s seals was released, advancing her to the Ascendant rank, he had been preoccupied with the Banner Bearer Trial.

He was responsible for defending Blackthorn Fort, which housed thousands of people, and therefore relied on Lilith and her [Manifestation] law to create massive walls to protect the fort from attacks.

Throughout that period, the Demon Princess had played a purely defensive role, leaving her no opportunity to display the offensive side of her power.

Even when he attacked the Morveth lair within the forest, he was forced to leave Lilith at the fort with his son, the Pope, to cover for him while he played the role of the Black Reaper.

In other words, Malrik had never seen Lilith fight a real battle at full strength at the Ascended rank without having any reason to hold back.

So... this is the true power of the Demon Princess.

Malrik’s eyes gleamed as he contemplated the devastation left by Lilith’s attack. He hadn’t expected to see her law used in such a manner.

The law of Manifestation... it truly is incredible.

Lilith’s law was astoundingly versatile, especially in the hands of a demoness specializing in illusions. It allowed her to turn her complex illusions into devastating attacks, combining deception with actual force.

But amidst his awe, Malrik began to notice something else.

Using a law like that must have a steep price.

Malrik was no expert in laws; he himself hadn’t acquired a law of his own yet. However, his connection to his undead spirits had granted him some insight into the nature and requirements of these abilities.

Lokris, for example.

Malrik had previously asked Lokris to imitate one of the Ascended in the training grounds, and the outcome had been enough to pique his curiosity about Lokris’s law.

Lokris’s law was [Shapeless]. Through his experiment in the training grounds, Malrik noted that the law not only made it easier for him to use his [The Silent Observer] and [Impostor] skills, but it significantly enhanced their performance, making them much faster and more efficient.

Even more fascinating was that he became able to copy the law of the person whose form he took and use it for a limited time.

But this ability wasn’t absolute; it was tied to the copied form. The moment Lokris reverted to his original black form, he lost the ability to use the copied law, and he could only regain it by copying that same form again.

However, the [Shapeless] law wasn’t suited for all races.

Some races, like the Faceless and the Identity Devourer, naturally possessed flexible bodies capable of altering their forms and adapting to the traits of the shapes they took. And Lokris, after his recent evolution into the Identity Devourer race, possessed a body perfectly suited for this type of law.

Other races, whose bodies weren’t designed for such transformations, faced massive limitations when attempting to use it. Even if one of them managed to obtain the [Shapeless] law, they would never be able to benefit from it to the same extent as Lokris.

It seems every law has its own specific requirements...

Malrik brought his gaze back to Lilith, replaying the details of her recent attack.

Through his observations, he was able to deduce two major limitations of her law.

The first was related to the nature of the law itself.

Manifestation relied on bringing things into existence in the real world, whether weapons, tools, or even complete copies of the person wielding the law.

This required a deep understanding of the things being manifested and great precision in shaping them, especially when dealing with complex forms with multiple properties.

And herein lay Lilith’s advantage.

Thanks to her specialization in illusions, she possessed an exceptional understanding of how to form complex images and shapes, enabling her to manifest them with an ease far beyond what a normal user of this law could achieve.

The second constraint, however, was much more obvious.

Mana consumption.

Lilith wasn’t releasing those massive quantities of demonic mana merely for show. She was continuously pouring mana into her illusions and manifestations to keep them manifested in the real world.

So, the more complex the manifestation and the longer it remained, the higher the cost of maintaining it...

The Demon Princess possessed an impressive reserve of mana, and she seemed adept at employing it with great efficiency in her fighting style.

Fortunately, souls with Epic potential possessed their own mana reserves and did not rely on the summoner to provide it. Otherwise, Malrik would have been in a real predicament if he had to bear the costs of such a fight himself.

That explains why she hadn’t taken part in the fighting during the defense of Blackthorn Fort.

She had been busy manifesting those massive walls, pouring almost all her mana into maintaining such a colossal manifestation. She had little freedom to use her offensive abilities while sustaining it...

Graaaaaaaaaah!

The colossal roar ripped Malrik from his thoughts.

He jerked his head up and turned his eyes toward the source of the sound.

The dust from the purple explosion began to settle slowly, revealing the massive crater left by the attack. And in its center, amidst the scattered rocks and shattered earth, stood the chain-bound giant.

He was still standing.

Large portions of his body were covered in burns, and dark blue blood flowed from deep gashes on his chest and arms.

As for the red-horned guard, he lay in the giant’s arms, his body horribly mangled.

Burns and wounds covered most of his body, and one of his arms hung limp. His faint, labored breathing was barely enough to show that he was still alive.

But the giant showed no concern for his injuries.

He locked his eyes onto Lilith, and a dense aura began to emanate from his body.

At first, threads of dark mana seeped from his wounds, then began to condense around him like a heavy fog. Within moments, the aura erupted from his body all at once!

Booooom!

A massive shockwave swept across the battlefield, and the charred trees trembled under its force.

The rusted chains around his limbs broke apart, their metal links separating one after another and scattering through the air.

Then, his body began to change.

The muscles in his arms suddenly swelled, and his limbs grew longer as his shoulders broadened at a terrifying rate. His chest thrust outward, the muscles in his back grew larger, and his entire body began expanding faster and faster.

Craaaaack!

The ground sank beneath his feet, and cracks spread from where he stood like a massive web. The surrounding trees leaned away from him, then shattered as his expanding limbs smashed into them.

Ten meters...

Twenty...

Thirty meters!

His body continued to rise until his shoulders cleared the treetops. With every burst of growth, the earth trembled beneath his feet, and waves of air surged through the forest, carrying shattered branches and clouds of dirt.

And when he finally stopped, he stood nearly sixty meters tall.