Two weeks had passed since I had become Awakened, formed my seventh soul core, discovered a Nightmare Seed, and obtained my Aspect Legacy.
I was lying on the back of my winged Demon Echo, which was flying in circles around the ruins of the city, simply thinking about unimportant things.
"This sucks," I murmured to nothing, out of boredom and frustration.
This week, I had found the habitat of another troublesome nightmare creature—it was a problematic Corrupt Monster.
Its attack was insidious, as it possessed multiple Fallen-rank subordinates, the strongest of them being a Fallen Devil. Adding to the difficulty, the thing seemed to be a puppeteer, as it controlled them with ultra-fine threads of essence. From what I could briefly see, its appearance was humanoid, or something resembling a corrupted, profaned, mutilated, cut, and badly reassembled human, in that exact order.
It was horrible and disgusting.
And spiteful—it wanted to kill me, so I would kill it instead. I had gathered good memories that would help me in the fight. All that remained was luck, though mine was very bad.
After the Echo descended onto the ground in front of the ruins of a mansion whose stone roof had been destroyed from above, and a sea of flames had blackened everything, leaving deep ashes, numerous nightmare creatures soon emerged furiously from the mansion, lunging at me.
My Echo, stepping forward, used its lightning powers, releasing potent bolts that incinerated the Awakened Beasts.
Summoning the wolf, I ordered them to fight, which they gladly did.
I watched from the side as the wolf and the crow began to massacre the weaker nightmare creatures. The crow used its sharp steel wings to slice and dice, along with its claws with great mastery.
The wolf, on the other hand, was wilder. Its claws moved in flashes, cutting down abominations one after another, leaving a sea of dark blood and entrails.
A Monster resembling a large mantis leaped onto the wolf, its sharp blades sinking into the wolf's skin. However, they failed to pierce the thick, dense fur. From the shadows emerged a second wolf that dismembered the mantis.
This was its Double Body ability.
The two wolves expanded their attack range.
The Spell's voice quickly announced each death.
My summonings' combat fragments increased rapidly.
'Well, now it's my turn.' With that thought, I made a Spatial Leap, arriving inside the mansion, then another leap. I could clearly feel the presence of the Corrupt Monster; it was alone, without any other nightmare creatures to protect it.
The room was also imbued with essence that spread like threads, controlling its lackeys.
Taking half a second to prepare, I summoned the Blood Spear and leaped, appearing about 10 meters away from the monster.
I finally looked at the monster. It was a human silhouette, or something trying to resemble a human. Its body was twisted, shattered, and mutilated. Parts of its flesh were missing, leaving only bones behind. It was difficult to tell if it was male or female. The threads of essence emanated from its six arms—four of them extending into thin threads connecting to other creatures, while two remained free.
I observed the abomination's face. Its eyes were hollow, two pits of darkness, but somehow I felt there was pain, rage, hopelessness, and emptiness. All mixed together.
Without time to think about this, the creature attacked.
Enormous vines erupted from the rocky ground, extending toward me.
Brandishing the spear, I jumped to the side while cutting the vines. The vines released a cloud of toxic green that reminded me of the Plague King.
'It's corrosive poison,' I thought, watching as the greenish mist melted other vines upon contact.
Dismissing the Blood Mantle, I summoned the Venomous Cloak in its place. This one had an enchantment that made it immune to poisons, and if I was surrounded by a venomous area, I could use it to increase my strength.
Cutting the vines one after another, the room soon filled with corrosive poison. However, I was unaffected thanks to the fourth-level Ascendant memory.
Several vines shot in my direction, forcing me to make a small Spatial Leap to get out of the attack area.
Appearing above the creature, I thrust the spear, but one of the creature's hands transformed into a kind of shield that blocked the spear tip.
Three vines lunged toward my side. Taking another leap, I arrived at another space without vines, only to jump again and then again.
Every place I leaped to had a vine waiting to attack me.
Making rapid leaps, I looked at the creature from different quick angles.
'It seems to have some ability to know where I'll appear. This is annoying,' I thought to myself.
I could feel the poison in the environment strengthening my body as I cut the vines.
'Come on, think, Ariel. There must be a way.' Launching an attack, several vines intertwined but were cut before they could regenerate and move away from me.
'I've got it!' A sudden idea crossed my mind.
'I just have to tangle it,' a smile spread across my face.
Without saying a word, I appeared in front of the creature, descending with my spear, but vines rose from the ground, forming a wall.
Several green vines shot toward me like stakes. Leaping to the right, I dodged them, only to jump in another direction to dodge other vines.
The three vines intertwined.
I jumped again. I repeated the process; one after another, the vines continuously intertwined, forming a complex knot.
Strangely, no more vines emerged from the ground. The reason was simple.
There weren't countless vines; the actual number was small ten main vines that could divide into a limited number of five. When cut, they instantly regenerated and retracted. By not cutting them and only tangling them, I left them immobile and unable to do anything.
The idea was crazy, but it had actually worked. My Luck attribute finally gave me good luck.
Gripping the Blood Spear, I made another leap. I could feel that my Echoes had already finished off the creature's last lackeys. Only a few remained, along with the Fallen Devil.
Brandishing the spear with force, I cut two of the creature's six arms.
Surprisingly and disappointingly, its body was very fragile.
The limbs fell to the ground.
Without stopping, I made another leap, cutting the remaining four arms, and finally thrust the spear into the creature's chest, where its heart was.
I looked at the abomination's face. The vines fell to the ground, dead, their color quickly turning gray.
I observed its face, and for a moment, I swore I saw immense, immeasurable relief something impossible to describe.
A short time later, its body collapsed onto the rocky ground.
I withdrew the spear, noting how the corruption was eliminated, leaving nothing behind. In fact, there was nothing in the body.
"Strange."
The Spell's voice whispered in my ear:
[You have slain a Corrupt Monster, Green Vine Curse]
[You have slain an Ascended human, Astrid]
"Huh? That's it?" I asked the nothingness. I had killed an Ascended human, but the Spell simply didn't grant me anything. It was truly a stingy Spell.
[You have received an Echo]
I blinked once, twice. I think almost a third time.
"I take back all the bad things I said about you, Nightmare Spell," I said, clasping my hands together, but the Spell didn't respond, apparently losing all interest and focusing on the destined bastard.
"Oh, well, better for me. Now let's see the new one."
Since I still had quite a bit of essence, I made a Spatial Leap outside the mansion, where the wolf and the bird had killed the Fallen Devil in a great teamwork display. Around them were hundreds of dead nightmare creatures.
"Good, let's summon the Echo," I said, bringing forth the Ascended Echo I had obtained.
A sea of crimson sparks formed in front of me. After a few seconds, the figure took complete shape.
It was, in fact, a human, and a young woman at that. Her appearance seemed no older than 20, maybe 25 at most. She had white hair like clouds, blue eyes, fair skin, a curvaceous body, and... she was naked.
'So, Echoes retain the features of their original bodies even though they're just remnants of essence from their originals?' I thought, walking around the Echo.
I wasn't a pervert, nor was I desperate. I was just a teenager of about 16.
I summoned the Echo's runes.
Name: Astrid
Rank:Ascended
Class:Beast
Attributes:[Nature] [Ice] [Darkness]
Description:[A proud warrior who was betrayed and used in a cruel experiment. She suffered at the hands of a vile creature for thousands of years. Until the -Banished from Heaven- granted her the peace found in death.]
Echo Attributes:[Combat Master] [Beastial Sense] [No Lies] [Indomitable Will]
[Unbreakable] Ability Description: [This ability grants extra power when not giving up.]
"I see.So if she fights with passion and determination, she'll get a power boost," I murmured.
[Combat Master] Ability Description: [Possesses great mastery in battle, being competent with any weapon.]
[Beastial Sense] Ability Description:[This ability elevates the senses to an unimaginable point, being able to see attack patterns that have not yet occurred.]
"Hmm.So this was the ability that allowed her to anticipate my movements and where and how I would attack. It was truly problematic."
[No Lies] Ability Description: [This ability allows discovering the truth hidden from all. Lies and illusions are ineffective against this ability.]
[Indomitable Will] Ability Description:[Even after suffering for thousands of years and dying at the hands of her opponent, her will to live makes her return.]
'These are good abilities,'I thought to myself.
Checking my memories, I found one that would suit my new Echo well.
Touching the Echo, I passed on the armor, which appeared on her body. The armor consisted of a one-piece black dress down to the thighs, allowing great mobility. Her arms were covered by long white sleeves.
A dark gray armor breastplate rested over the garment. Finally, she had metal boots up to her knees.
Her white hair flowed in the wind. Her eyes showed no emotion.
Dismissing the Echo, it returned to my sea of souls. Entering the sea of souls, I summoned it again, seeing that it still wore the same armor I had given it.
This armor was called: [War Saint], a second-level Ascendant memory I obtained after the bird killed a monster with a battle suit resembling a nun.
Anyway, it wasn't relevant.
Touching the Echo, I converted it into a summoning, spending about 700 fragments, which were instantly refilled.
I watched as the summoning now seemed more alive, and something unexpected happened.
The Echo suddenly moved, throwing a punch at me, which I barely managed to dodge, only to receive a leg sweep and feel it climb onto my chest, using its legs to immobilize my arms.
And its hands on my neck began to choke me.
"Die... you... bas...tard!" it said, straining to utter each word.