Chapter 796 - 796: A fundamentally special kind of fight (part 18)

Surprisingly, the blood prison realm which so far hasn't really reacted to the fight between Daimon and Ereth's groups, past applying pressure and trying to restrain those that either weren't participating in the challenges, or broke past the realm limit that was stablished, in other words half step Stellar due to the Lords messing with the seal for a really long time, actively attacked whatever was Karla's domain turning into.

The sky outside of Aisha's domains and above Karla's one, darkened, and then a dark red light shone down upon the battle mana agglomeration in which Karla's domain had turned after starting to mix the hurricane and the sea.

"Crack!", in an even more surprising turn of events, the active suppression from the blood prison realm actually made the borders of Karla's domain crumble apart on the spot.

'Tsk, damn blood prison realm', thought Karla as she beckoned and a crack in space opened to take in both the gate and herself, transporting her from the inside of Aisha's domains to her own which was now clashing with both Aisha's powers and the active suppression from the blood prison realm.

Once the mermaid-siren appeared inside her domain, a faint layer of white-yellow light covered the border of her domain, and as if by "magic" the blood prison realm stopped actively attacking it, and turned back to passively pressure it only.

Without the blood prison realm actively interfering, Karla's domain finished its transformation, from a hurricane in the sky and a sea below of it, both of which lost in terms of size by almost half of their total extension when compared to Aisha's domains which extended for a hundred kilometers, Karla's battle domain had now transformed into a raging ongoing storm in its entirety, which covered a hundred and twenty kilometers, it was still made out of battle mana, but at single glance once could tell that wasn't a battle domain anymore, as Karla's next words suggested.

"Mythical Black Storm Sea Realm", she said as she who had the gate floating behind of her, projecting that white-yellow light onto her, closed and opened her right hand a couple of times.

'Finally, I'm given protection by the system like before that damn bitch of Freya messed things up', she thought to herself, her realm hadn't increased that much, she was a middle stage Stellar realm battle mage only, but her battle prowess had taken a drastic increase, for a good reason she was back to have a complete existence just like when she fought Freya back then, in fact she had surpassed that because not only is she an administrator but a hero candidate too, and her connection with the system is intact even if she is in the outside world, thanks to the gate projecting that white-yellow light on her, which was even affecting her domain.

Speaking of Freya, she who was floating next to Aisha within her domains, saw her new sister frowning as she observed the mermaid-siren and couldn't help but say.

"That's just the next step past a domain, you can consider it the trait for the stellar ranks, she just forced her way to it by manifesting the usually invisible and intangible influence of the system with the help of the gate", to which Aisha shook her head, she wasn't frowning because of that.

"I learned about the "sacred area" nonsense which is just using the influence of the system in a different way than how it is used by users, earlier, both the gate and Karla ended up bleeding due to their little escapade into an unstable spatial tunnel after all", said the silver-haired vampire girl.

She got intel not only from Karla but also from the gate during her last time using blood reading, from Karla she learned about what she was planning to use the cooperation of the gate for, which as Freya said was to exert the power of the "stellar" ranks.

So far, though we have seen Stellar ranks, we haven't seen the trait of one, because laws and their advanced version, namely rules, are not that, they alongside dual path energies, in other words magic aura and battle mane are the components needed for it.

You heard Badr mention it, proper dual path powerhouses normally appear only from the Star Lord realm and above in the Stellar Kingdoms, but that doesn't mean there are no people that develop aspects of both paths below it, they exist but are incredibly rare and are called "irregularities" as Badr said.

However, the main reason as to why the gap between the Stellar realm and the Star Lord realm is supposed to be incredibly big, is not only due to it being the starting point for proper dual path powerhouses to appear, since some become magic knights or battle mages at later realms, not everyone starts preparing since their young years after all, not only because of the resources and knowledge needed for it, but also because of the high talent required for it.

To give you an idea, even Ophelia only started learning aspects of both paths at the Arch rank and she is a monster who despite being a member of the young generation could have fought with a Lord, but ended up tangled with Agrak and Dian and in the whole northern sea stellar kingdom, the only one who started preparing to become a dual path powerhouse earlier than Ophelia and others who were in a similar position from the other top noble clans, was Lyn.

She was the only one that could start from the Lord rank, and it's not because she is more talented than Ophelia, but because her constitution is especial even within her family, she was the culmination of countless generation of precise advancement and refinement of her clan's lineage, all of the previous was a secret of course, because they are "subordinated" to Ophelia's clan in public, but in truth their role is to be a secret force that is to be revealed only in case of an emergency.

Anyway, the point is that Aisha knew about the evolution of a battle domain being a "realm", past the Star Lord realm the distinction between using battle mana or just mana doesn't add the "battle" part to the name of the trait, because dual path powerhouses are considered the real deal, those that only use mana or battle aura, are considered incomplete past that point, therefore they get a word added to the name of their trait and use "fake realms" instead.

And as interesting as the previous was, given that Aisha who was once a peak Archmage from the four galaxies that lived for a couple of hundreds of years, meaning that she participated in reinforcing the seal on the breach through which the "Magus Emperor" and his subordinates invaded, and now she was feeling some similarity between the remnants of that guy's power which remain up to this day there, and the "realm" that was surrounding Karla.

'Considering that the half emperors from the four galaxies equal the Stellar ranks of Neptune and Draim according to darling, that magus emperor guy might have been what comes after the incomplete Stellar ranks we have seen in the outside, which is why our peak Arch ranks were able to defeat him when fighting as a group, and so he had a fake realm capable of affecting only mana, so knights were effective against him'.

'Though this still leaves the fact that we were able to devise not only the half emperor path from the remnants of his soul, but also the magus king path which is severely incomplete, though after seeing how hierarchy works for nether, the previous might be because it's not a path supposed to be used with mana, but another variation of it, however what intrigues more now is… that', thought Aisha as she glared at Karla and the gate's abdomens, chests and heads.

There were ethereal twisted black spiked chains piercing their magic cores, hearts and brains, which weren't there before the "sacred area" as Karla and the gate called it, in their memories, was deployed by the gate.

"You can see them… the chains?", asked the valkyrie girl after listening to Aisha's previous answer and seeing where she was looking at, to which Aisha whose eyes were shinning a pretty violet light as she radiated an insane amount of killing intent, nodded in response.

"Yes, is that…", before Aisha could finish her sentence, Freya interrupted her.

"That's the real aspect of the system's "influence", and the reason as to why I didn't even consider listening to those gate guys and directly killed them when they came to recruit me".

"Normally it's just passive influence which results in opportunities, but those chains basically mean that one's life and existence belongs to the system, which is why it can suppress you easily once you are under its influence… I too was chained by it when I became an administrator, though I could to a certain extent keep some independency from it", she said.

"It doesn't seem like they can let alone see them but even notice them, though", said Aisha to which Freya shook her head

"Of course they can't, my realm is nothing compared to what it used to be, but just like in your case, my powers are strongly related to "authority", that's why we are able to glimpse at the tip of the iceberg of the disgusting reality behind the "sacred" façade of the system, even at a low realm, but those two are simply pawns for the system that believe they are the ones using it for their respective goals", she said.

Aisha actually waited for a whole second before she looked at Freya from the corner of her eyes, but she was once again interrupted by the valkyrie girl who softly laughed at her new sister.

"You don't need to worry about that "chaotic" one in the mind of Daimon, though brief I met her before directly and she is not chained, neither is he, at least not in this way by the system since they do have restrictions on them, in fact the chains on me were destroyed when I received that monstrous origin, so, he is fundamentally different from other system users, in fact restrictions are benevolent in his case, because I honestly can't even imagine what kind of concept he might be bearing to not be able to directly use it even at initial level with that origin", she said with a reassuring voice.

It's not that Aisha didn't trust Eve, she was willing to let her watch Daimon's back in her absence, similar to how she would allow the other soulmates to do so, that's how much she trusted her sisters, however the thought of Eve being controlled by an unknown entity without she realizing it, did appear in Aisha's mind there for a second.

But Aisha herself denied it after a second thought, she being alive is the proof that Eve is independent from the system's whims, because her death was most likely staged by the system itself, and Daimon's system is absolutely beneficial for him, sure it attracts danger his way, but not to bring harm but to help him grow and it even adapts to his desires and ideology, rather than offering him power in exchange of doing nasty stuff like killing his own parents which were decent people as it was Ereth's case.

And Freya's further confirmation helped her calm down, ah right in case you wonder why Karla hadn't attacked during the few seconds in which the previous took place, it's because of Aisha's terrifying killing intent from earlier, combined with the fact that she could absolutely not hear what she was talking about with Freya.

'That damn bitch, here I thought she was preparing a big move, but she is just casually chatting with Freya, in front of me!', thought Karla to herself.

"Rejoice you silver haired bitch, I bet you have never seen a realm in action before, so have a taste of the difference between mortals and actual powerhouses!", said the mermaid-siren as she pointed her hand frontwards which made her realm radiate battle mana which clashed with Aisha's domains.

"Boooom!", naturally the water-wind battle mana caused a violent reaction when it reached Aisha's blood, lightning and metal energies, however after the initial clash, besides her blood energy, Aisha felt her lightning and metal energies being suppressed and forcefully dispelled when they approached Karla's battle mana.

"Hahaha, who is the frog at the bottom of a well now you…", Karla who was in the middle of getting back at Aisha, had her fun interrupted by the silver haired vampire girl casually saying.

"So I was right, a "fake realm" has the capacity to suppress energies that share resemblance to the one from which they are mainly composed only", Aisha's words made Karla's smile freeze on the spot.

'Fucking Freya bitch, she must have briefed her in what comes after the mortal realms!', cursed Karla in her head.

She was wrong of course, Aisha already had decrypted that information by herself, though Freya did confirm its veracity, but in any case Aisha would have noticed after the first clash, as her next words confirmed.

"I didn't even need sister Freya to tell me, I purposedly let my energies clash in their "pure" state against the battle mana of your fake realm and you were only able to affect my lightning and metal, which are only mana related without any modification currently, but my blood energy which has knight aspects in it as well, resisted your control", she said as if she could read Karla's mind.

Though it is not the main focus of it unlike in Arianna's case, Aisha's blood energy still carries a strong vitality, which is a knight related aspect, therefore the suppressing effect of just the battle mana radiated by Karla's realm, wasn't enough to affect it, which made Karla curse to her insides.

'Damn blood prison realm, giving that bitch a dual path energy', she thought without taking into account the fact that Aisha's blood affinity is… like that by innate.

"Stop playing around Karla, I don't care about your personal grudges, I want that corpse now", said the gate which made the mermaid-siren inwardly grit her teeth, she wanted to slowly return all the humiliation she suffered at those two's hands, but well, when your "safe" victory depends on someone else you have to listen to the other party's requests even if superficially.

"Tsk, fine, they like frontal clashes so I can make do with crushing them directly!", said the mermaid-siren as she beckoned frontwards, in response her realm seemed to have come to "life", as in it exploded with large amounts of battle aura as it charged towards Aisha's domains.

"Booooom!", as a result a thunderous explosion echoed through the battlefield, apparently realms unlike domains which only move alongside their owners, can "attack" on their own, giving how fierce the thing was clashing with Aisha's domains.

"Crack!", to the point that the borders of said domains were starting to show signs of being destroyed, and yet Aisha remained calmly floating next to Freya without showing any reaction to the previous, well no active reaction because the air around her had taken a 180° turn just a second ago after being reassured by the valkyrie girl a moment ago.

'I see, so that's what the fourth challenge was about, I still find it strange that they seem eerily prepared for us, but whatever, to think I would call someone "sister" when totally unrelated to being a soulmate, I thought that Liz and Elaine would be the only ones', thought the silver-haired vampire mother.

Don't get it wrong, Eve and Nasha are considered sisters by Aisha, but they got mainly involved with her through Daimon and the same applies to other potential girls that will be joining her and are of a similar age mind-wise, like for example the Lamia queen or Thalia whose direct and "dangerous" stances, were reported to her by Eve, but Freya got closer to her without Daimon being directly involved in their interaction, and in such a short period of time too.

Aisha had only experienced such a thing with Liz and Elaine before, her original sisters, not like she discriminates based on that, but it was certainly a slightly different kind of connection, after all most girls around Daimon are closer to him in age both mind-wise and biologically, like the nethereal sisters and the Risha sisters, so even if they end up crossing the limits of being friends with her darling, they will be more of little sisters whom Aisha will look after and help keep under control for the crazy ones like Sarah.

"I see them now, our chances to advance, now that all the ones that need to be present are here, what do you say if we help them have the peace they deserve", said Aisha to Freya who without hesitation nodded as she looked at the crossbow replica.

"Mm", with a soft sound, the valkyrie girl alongside her battle avatar suddenly turned into a grey silver burning pillar of light which raised high into the sky, passing through Aisha's domains and reaching all the way to the limit high above where the seal stopped anyone from continuing advancing into the upper layer of the blood prison realm.

All that energy turned into a single but way larger than usual banner that floated behind both Freya and Aisha, there was a diagonal line perfectly dividing the banner in half, but the thing was in a blank state, despite that the gate suddenly felt a sensation of dread pouring down on him like a bucket of ice cold water.

"Kill them now!!!", he shouted loud enough to make Karla's ears bleed, to which he mermaid-siren not understanding what the hell had happened to the gate, said.

"Mythical Black Storm Sea Realm…", however midway, the mermaid-siren understood why the gate was going crazy, her realm and battle mana… weren't listening to her.

'What's going on why can't I separate from this bitch and leave!', inwardly screamed the gate, only to notice Aisha's mocking gaze on him.

"Now, this is a war between "teams", you can't just back out of the fight after choosing who you'll pair with, right sister Freya?", said Aisha to which Freya softly smiled in response as she said.

"Yes, sister Aisha", with those words, grey silver flames burned on the left side of the giant banner which was the part behind of Aisha as the flaming words "Silver War Goddess" appeared on it.

"My turn~", added Aisha, which made the right side of the giant banner had violet letters dye on it to form the words "Violet Divine Empress", behind of Freya this time, and with that the valkyrie girl called out the name of her technique, which was a new one by the way.

"Alliance Banner", there was no trigger command for it though, everything was included in a single cast which is amusing considering that both Freya and Aisha can use multiple effect techniques.

Also, the banner didn't break nor turn into anything, in fact it engraved itself into the space, as if to symbolize that the relation it represented won't be affected by time or any other external things.

Violet energy came out of the banner and bathed Freya into a pretty light of the same color, the replica crossbow started "trembling" and Freya's battle avatar let go of it, allowing it to float away to then have all the violet energy be injected into it, alongside a couple of drops of blood that the valkyrie girl extracted from her index finger by pinching it with her energy.

"Partial Magic Avatar, Majestic Victorious Memories", said Freya, which resulted in the crossbow replica cracking and separating into two, each of which absorbed one drop of blood and a part of Aisha's blood energy, in a second, two other "battle avatars" appeared at both sides of Freya's ones.

They didn't resemble Freya in the slightest though, in fact those new "battle avatars" looked rather similar to Jasmine and Reyne, for a good reason, they were formed using Freya's memories of Alicia and her sister as well as the replica of the crossbow which took Freya so much effort to manifest.

"I can't let my sisters fight bare handed right, Partial Battle Domain, White Divine Empress Armory, War Demon Goddess Paradise~", said Aisha as she snapped her fingers, Freya's grey silver energy emerged from the banner and moved through Aisha's three domains, ultimately turning into white-silver flames which gave off a familiar sensation, as in they oddly resembled Daimon's demon light.

For a good reason, while Freya got access to blood energy thanks to her "alliance" with Aisha, Aisha got access to fire energy thanks to it, so now Aisha had fire, lightning ans metal elements as well as mana and battle aura aspects, which combined created a similar energy to Daimon's demon light, but with Aisha's unique traits instead, considering that she also added blood energy into it.

Forming crossbows for the extra pair of battle avatars that were manifested by Freya, and a sword for the valkyrie girl's battle avatar, while a sword also appeared for both Freya and Aisha to wield.

And in case you wonder why had Karla or the gate not done anything, it's not that they didn't want to interrupt them, but that they couldn't, the moment Aisha spoke earlier, they were shackled by invisible violet and grey silver chains.

"Let's go sisters", said Freya giving the signal to then flash alongside Aisha, followed by the three battle avatars, midway through their charge their former peak Arch rank energies advanced to half into the Stellar realm as they slashed and shot their weapons, respectively, at Karla and the gate.

'Noooo!!!', who were unable to do anything but see the incoming attacks before lights went out for them.

"Boooooom!", a sky shattering explosion was produced as those five's attacks released the energy contained in them at the same time upon reaching Karla and the gate.