NOVPUB"Phew", after finishing the last remaining enemy, Camila let out a sigh of relief, just like all the other girls of the family, she didn't go all out since that was Aster's instructions, after all unless it is a death or life situation or a fight where then won't be any witnesses left, one should never show all their cards.
On the other hand, it's not like the previous fight was a walk in the park either, she did use the "golden" techniques she learned recently and to deal with the innate ability of the Mountain Amber family, she needed to use the "Radiant" level version of her silver and copper techniques.
'Humph, they are strong but so what, their lineage had already fully awakened while I'm not even half of the way into it, my Wolfstein lineage won't lose to Lilia's dragon lineage… in the future for sure', thought the treasure girl with a competitive light burning in her pretty blue eyes.
The progress of her lineage can be seen on the silver and golden distribution of her spear, each 10% of the golden metal part of her spear equals a 20% of progress in her lineage awakening, so now that her spear is 20% golden colored, her lineage is around 40% awake, this also means that her spear won't completely turn golden but it will remain half and half, though other changes might happen.
Also, it's temporal but she can increase it by 10% with her Golden Fortune, so she can now confirm that something "amazing" will happen when she reaches the next threshold which is 60%.
Probably she'll gain a manifestation for her lineage, like how Aster has the golden armor of the Paragon Body, or Lilia, Sarina, Kana and Alice have their wings and tail respectively, originally, she thought her manifestation was the change on the color of her hair, but now she knows that it's only a side effect of the saturation of metal spirit energy on her.
She is not a Drage after all, the "color" of her hair and eyes isn't necessarily an indication of lineage purity and the like, in fact that might not even be the case for all the Drage, but that's beside the point.
Silver particles started coming out of Camila's hair as it returned to its pretty brown copperish usual color, something similar happened to the black-golden shield which golden decoration parts started to dissolve into golden light particles, the duration of Camila's technique on it had reached its limit.
"Condense", with a pretty mellow but surprisingly authoritative voice, the treasure girl extended her right hand and the golden particles which were coming out of the shield started gathering on top of her palm.
The golden liquid was quite precious so she of course was going to recover whatever she could, speaking of which only now she came to realize that she could still somewhat "feel" the existence of her "Golden Fortune" on Alexandra's battlefield, which shouldn't be the case, as it should have ended at this point.
Then, the shield which had completely lost the golden decorations, flashed away towards its original owner, not without leaving an eighth part of it behind.
"Mm?", the treasure girl looked at the piece of black heavenly gold with a doubt-filled expression on her pretty face, until Aster's voice reached her ears the next second at least.
'That's a certain rough girl's way to show "gratitude" for the lance, better refine it before she changes her mind', jokingly said Aster which made Camila giggle.
She placed her right hand on top of the piece of black heavenly gold, which instantly sank into Camila's hand, turning into a dozen of drops of golden liquid and… a single black drop, which was also kept in the area for the golden liquid.
The previous scene made Camila's eyes sparkle for a second, this was an interesting discovery, apparently just like Alexandra could store the golden metal created through her innate ability, she could do something similar by refining her black heavenly gold.
'Now, that's interesting, perhaps it's because even if it's black colored it's still gold, though I doubt it can be so simple', casually said Aster wo saw into Camila's dantian making the treasure girl blush on the spot.
The dantian is on the lower abdomen and while she knows Aster wouldn't use his dragon eyes to peek at any "sensitive" part, she couldn't help but feel shy about it, mostly because Aster made his stare be obvious on purpose, it could be said that he wasn't spying but blatantly looking at the area below her navel.
'D-Don't look!', she cutely exclaimed in a rush as she covered her belly with her hands, only for Aster smirk as he said.
'What's there to be ashamed about when I have seen much more than that at this point'.
'Wuuuh~', poor Camila felt like hiding in a hole as she was reminded of the times when she showed Aster a bit too much be it by accident or because of her own clumsiness.
Seeing the treasure girl who seemed as of she was about to cry, Aster inwardly laughed, she simply was too cute to not be teased.
'Don't be like that, I'll tell you what, I'll arrange a special "playdate" for you and Alexandra once the mission is over', he said with a tempting voice, which for Camila was like the whisper of the devil.
'Mm~', ultimately the incredibly high compatibility between her lineage and Alexandra's body constitution, had picked the curiosity of the treasure girl so she nodded with a happy smiling expression on her pretty face to which Aster said.
'Nice, now since both parties have agreed, return with the others, I'll catch up with you once we finish things over here as well'.
'Hey, don't go on agreeing on other people's behalf you, shameless dragon!', exclaimed Alexandra, Aster made sure that the two of them listened to his words earlier, and while Camila happily agreed, Alexandra remained silent, however Aster could see the curiosity brimming in her eyes just like it happened to Camila.
'Hoh, then, should I tell miss Tamara that her daughter refused to "play" nicely with others~', jokingly said Aster making Alexandra react like a cat whose tails was stepped upon.
'Ack, that's not fair!', she exclaimed, one must know that despite the gentle and pretty appearance of Tamara she actually has a rather strict and domineering personality, very much the contrary to Thomas whose rough appearance makes a big contrast with his actual calm and relaxed demeanor.
In other words, the one who enforces the rules in Alexandra's family is her mother and the poor light gray-haired girl is quite fearful of her "mother's love", so with Tamara as his "backer", Aster had permission to make that social skill lacking daughter of hers, open up a bit, since Tamara blamed herself for not being able to give Alexandra a normal happy childhood, hence why he paired her with Camila.
After all, thanks to Camila a completely new path might open for Alexandra to become stronger, even if she won't admit it, she found Camila surprisingly easy to get along with, it could be because they are both metal attributed cultivators with special attributes, they immediately clicked as their perfect coordination in the previous battle, suggested.
And so, Alexandra's fate was sealed by Aster adding.
'Why don't you two go back together and have a nice little chat on the way, see you later ladies~', he said as he changed his focus to the current scene in front of him, not without listening to Alexandra curse him while Camila laughed.
'Ahhh, seeing two cuties getting along, does surely brings joy to one's heart… it's a shame that I can't enjoy it as much as I would like to', thought Aster, his previously merry smile, turned into a cold glare as he met the fierce eyes of the two elders from the Ocean Aquamarine family.
A second ago they felt the energy firms of all their companions disappear, originally when the elders from the Marsh Domain and Pleasure Palace sects died, they didn't really care since they were cannon fodder in their eyes, it was within their calculations anyway.
The idea was for them to tire out the white haired and the dark gray-haired women who had the highest realm overall, since Felicia is at the peak of the Earthly realms on her secondary path while Mira is at the peak of the Sea of Knowledge in her main path.
So, with them tired, the teams from the Redheart and Mountain Amber families, who were supposed to easily overwhelm their respective targets, should have then finished the other two targets.
But things went horribly wrong, not only were the white and dark gray-haired women overwhelmingly stronger than what they expected, but they didn't even bother to go and support the remaining people from the side of the Lord of the Twin Sword Valley, which originally, they thought was a mistake born out of arrogance… until Alexandra killed the vice-leader from the team of the Mountain Amber family.
And their expressions twisted even more when Mariana who was a dark horse when it came to elders from secondary branches, was utterly destroyed by the silver-haired girl whose secondary path was only at the early stages of the Earthly realms.
And that led us to this scene where Aster mockingly said.
"I wonder, where have I seen this situation like this one unfold before… ah right, a moment ago when I cut off the arms of those two pieces of trash".
Naturally that made the two elders from the Ocean Aquamarine family see red on the spot, but on the other hand, after seeing their allies from the Mountain Amber family be killed in a matter of minutes, they didn't dare to act rashly.
'This is completely different to what you guys said, weren't they guest elders with no achievements or whatsoever in their records', said the vice-captain from the Supreme Elemental sect, making the vice from the Ocean Aquamarine who was the one that informed of the previous, say.
'That's the truth, our information was confirmed by more than ten of our trusted informants in Galatia, there was zero information about those women in the Myriad Occupation sect less than three months ago'.
'Bullshit, are you telling me that some nobodies that randomly came from a low or even a middle rank Stellar System, killed someone who was unofficially at the same level as a middle level direct descendant from a Ruler force!!!', exclaimed the Supreme Elemental sect's vice-leader.
Only for the leader to step in to calm things down.
'Enough, there is no need to make the situation more than what it is, that kid has too much treasures that shouldn't be on his hands and helpers that could be on par with high level direct descendant elders from a main branch of the Fey, and considering who has the deeper grudges with us, it's obvious that this was prepared by those damn Talis bastards', he calmly said.
Of course, this wasn't a conclusion that a mere peak Sea of Knowledge elder from the Iron Hall could reach by himself, it was the explanation that the green robed elder who was a supervisor sent by the Stall family.
'He is right, cultivators, resources and treasures of that level don't just appear out of nowhere, nor are they able to remain hidden from the informants in the border stations, they must have been prepared in secret by the Talis for a situation like this, otherwise why would that crazy bastard of William take the initiative to protect that guy', added the captain of the Ocean Aquamarine family to which the captain from the Iron Hall said.
'In any case, nothing has changed, our mission is to bring the head of one of the people surrounding the Lord of the Twin Sword Valley to both recover our face as members of a first-tier force and appease the anger of our superiors, if anything… we'll take a much more aggressive approach'.
For a split of a second, the air in the vicinity seemed to freeze before the four elders moved in different directions to surround both Aster and Sarina.
"So, how are we going to do this, who will take on the Lord of the Twin Sword Valley…", the words of the captain from the Ocean Aquamarine family were interrupted by Aster casually saying.
"What are you talking about, this wouldn't be a fight if I were to join, besides I don't think my Sarina will like it if I were to steal her fun", and with those words Aster simply gave some space to the blond motherly woman whose gentle demeaner had taken a 180° turn.
"Arrogant bastard… Fierce Cascade Sea!", with a loud shout blue spirit energy exploded out of the body of the captain from the Ocean Aquamarine.
"Fierce Cascade Sea!", following the example of the captain, the vice also manifested his sea of knowledge and with that, two eight hundred bodies of water and spirit energy engulfed everything in the vicinity.
But that wasn't the end of it, they actively injected spirit energy into their seas of knowledge expanding them past the two-kilometer mark each, for a total length of more than four kilometers.
However, it wasn't the size what was imposing about them, but the fierce currents that randomly appeared here and there through the two seas that were now clashing to further increase the fierceness of the water that conformed them.
"Well, you would need to be really stupid to not go all out from the very beginning, considering how things ended for those that didn't", said Sarina, and she was right, not only were the elders from the Ocean Aquamarine already using their seas of knowledge to the maximum of their capacities.
And they weren't the only ones starting strong, the two elders from the Supreme Elemental sect, had their bodies explode in metal spirit energy which then condensed into a layer of silver colored metal that completely protected their bodies.
"Sharp Silver Skin!", the first one to finish his change was the captain, whose silver skin technique had a sharp glow covering certain parts of his body.
"Heavy Silver Skin!", for the vice-captain not only the layer of metal was thicker but his body grew in height, so that the vice who was shorter than Sarina in her normal state, actually surpassed her by a few centimeters.
Those two were naturally main body path cultivators, with the energy one as their secondary ones, while the elders from the Ocean Aquamarine are main energy path cultivators with the soul one as their secondary one.
"Sharp Silver Radiance!", the captain added a little extra something to the seas of knowledge of the elders from the Ocean Aquamarine, by injecting metal spirit energy into half of the currents giving them a sharp metallic glow.
"Overwhelming Silver Radiance!", the vice on the other hand spread his spirit energy into the two seas in general, making the water become heavier, thus increasing the pressure that the seas caused on the "foreign" objects designated by their creators, in this case that was Sarina to be more accurate.
Well, they also targeted Aster just to see that he remained completely unfazed, in fact they couldn't even feel their seas of knowledge affecting him, it was as if he wasn't inside their seas of knowledge at all, which shouldn't be possible unless he controlled space but for that he would need to be at the Void Manipulation realm or above and clearly that wasn't the case.
"Humph", seeing that the enemy still had the leisure to pay attention to someone else, Sarina softly snorted, from within the very center of the agglomeration of seas of knowledge from the Ocean Aquamarine elders, a rotating whirlwind suddenly manifested, to then drag all the water away, in a matter of a fraction of a second a completely dry space was created.
"Heh, do you think you can drive away the combined efforts of four peak stage Sea of Knowledge cultivators with just a wind spirit energy release?", disdainfully said the vice from the Iron Hall side, water might be countered by wind, but it didn't have such a strong effect on metal.
In fact, the metal spirit energy that they were releasing was already invading the wind sphere created by the blond woman, at least until Sarina whose pretty face suddenly gained a fiercer expression, started radiating ash-red colored flames.
"What!", the elders from the Iron Hall were at disbelief at the sight of their metal spirit energy which they were using to invade the safe space created by the enemy, being melted on the spot.
"That's not just spirit energy, otherwise she wouldn't be able to deal with both of our powers, she has two damn attributes!", exclaimed the captain from the Iron Hall, to which the captain from the Ocean Aquamarine said.
"It doesn't matter, there was one girl among them with an attribute that combined both fire and wind, she couldn't do that and is just using quantity instead".
That guy was referring to Sofia's "Burning" which was indeed a combination of fire and wind into a new attribute that had properties from both of them, in comparison certainly Sarina appeared to be "average".
However, that would only have been the case if Sarina's wind and fire were normal ones, instead of the fierce storm wind from the Storm Roc clan and the Retribution Mist flames of Antares.
Being able to use both at the same time was already incredibly hard, in fact Aster wasn't even sure those wild attributes could or more accurately should be mixed and that subject was on hold for now, because Sarina was still new to being a Storm Roc princess, just like Kana.
The difference being that Sarina didn't have a spirit element like the little girl to guide her, and that her attributed required her to reign them in, instead of the gentle method of "getting along" used by Kana.
Sarina who listened to the previous slightly narrowed her eyes, she pointed her pretty right hand at the captain from the Ocean Aquamarine, wind currents gathered from all over the vicinity forming a furious whirlwind that rotated around Sarina's arm as she said.
"Windstorm, Gale", with a mellow but fierce voice, all the wind spirit energy that had gathered on Sarina's arm was shot in the form of a whirlwind which instantly reached the captain.
"Cascade Rotating Shield!", the captain immediately raised his defense, but to his surprise the fierce rotating water wall, was pierced through right away.
'What!', he thought as he moved aside to dodge the attack of the motherly blond woman, which continued its travel, going from one side of the agglomeration of seas of knowledge to the other.
"Firestorm, Blast", Sarina however wasn't planning to let those guys have a second to rest, ash-red mist flames exploded out of her left arm this time, she pointed her index finger at the captain elder of the Ocean Aquamarine, releasing a line of ash-red flames that aimed at the elder's chest.
"Heavy Silver Shield!", the vice-captain from the Iron Hall, got in the way of the attack, or at least he tried to do so by releasing metal spirit energy to reinforce his body and smack Sarina's attack away.
"Gah!", the result however was that the layer of metal on the whole left side of his body was blasted away by Sarina's attack, he did protect the captain elder from the Ocean Aquamarine though.
"You two have lineages and you two have a stronger version of that technique right, use it already, unless you want to die right now of course", casually said Sarina as she snapped her fingers, forming a dozen of gales like the one she used earlier to pierce through the defensive spirit technique of the elder from the Ocean Aquamarine, appear at her right side.
While a few ash-red dots appeared at her left, those were the exact same spirit technique with which she blasted the silver skin from the Iron Hall's vice-leader.
'Oh, come on, that's not the level of energy manipulation that a member of the Storm Roc clan should have, is it actually harder to find someone "normal" around that pervert?', wondered a certain ligress girl, whose attention was drawn the very moment those two insanely strong attributes made their appearance.
