Pulling out the ice shard lodged in her shoulder, Neva lightly dropped it. The sound of its fall echoed in the corridor. Her right shoulder was slowly regenerating. Large and small cyan circles surrounded her, ready to counter any move from her enemy.

  Nel’s husband just silently observed Neva. The sheer number of spells surrounding her was astounding. If not for his first attack confirming she was still a Paragon, he would have thought she was actually an Ascender pretending to be weak to trick him.

  Neva made the first move. With a single step, she had covered the distance between her and her enemy. Not surprised by this turn of events, Nel’s husband used the ice elementals to form a solid shield in front of him. But Neva’s fist, covered by several spells, easily broke it. Still, the small time gap was enough for her enemy to distance himself.

  Neva instinctively jumped back, and the place where she had stood erupted with several large ice spikes rising from the ground. Her shoulder had also recovered by now. As her teacher had taught, giving distance to an Ascender was like inviting her own death. She rushed at him again to close the distance. Still, reading her objective, he used his superiority in elemental control to keep her at bay.

  This stalemate continued for some time. Nel’s husband wanted to use his full power as an Ascender but was afraid of the backlash from the world. Using his full power here would make the world impose suppressions on him, which was not ideal in front of such a dangerous opponent. Hence, he could only use his elemental control to attack Neva.

  And since she was lacking in quality, Neva just substituted it with quantity. When her enemy threw spears at her, she raised several times more shields. Whenever chains flew at her, she raised massive ice walls to deflect them. But as time passed, she soon realized her shortcomings. Her energy was running out fast, but this was not the case for her enemy. He was mostly manipulating the elemental particles from the surroundings.

  In order to escape this situation, she decided to take a big gamble. The cyan spells around her started to glow, and their energy also increased. Looking ahead at the target, she bent her knee and shot forward even faster than before. Using shields and walls to block the incoming projectiles, she soon arrived at Nel’s husband. But just as her hand reached forward, she found she couldn’t move. At some point, many ice chains had emerged from the void and circled her whole body. She lay suspended in midair.

  Just as Nel’s husband reached his hand forward to end her, he felt something amiss, but it was already too late. He felt a sharp pain in his chest, and looking down, a cyan dagger had emerged from it, completely covered in blood. The Neva, who was entangled in front of him, transformed into elemental particles. Realizing the situation, he quickly activated his Ascension Spell without a moment’s delay.

  Neva felt like she had been submerged in a lake filled with cold water. Her hands refused to follow her orders. The spells she was going to use stopped mid-casting. Her mind also seemed to have slowed down considerably.

  Nel’s husband slowly walked out of the path of the dagger. The wound on his chest started to heal rapidly. Fear was still lingering on his face. A single moment of delay would have cost him dearly.

  Looking at Neva, there was not even a single fluctuation of energy from her. She had used his tendency to focus on her energy to switch with her duplicate at some point in time, and when he let his guard down a little, she had attacked him from his blind spot. She had used all her energy on the doppelganger and hence had not a single ounce for herself. It was a crazy plan, but it was also an effective plan, and it had actually worked. If not for his Ascension Spell, Focal Freeze, she would have dealt heavy damage to him.

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  He brought his hand closer and pierced Neva’s chest. But there was no reaction from her. He released Focal Freeze, and blood started to spill from Neva’s mouth and chest, pooling on the ground below.

  Lex, who was waiting for the metamorphosis of Liam to complete, cast his gaze at his student, piercing through layers of space. There was no visible worry on his face, but rather a hint of expectation.

  As Nel’s husband was going to end it once and for all, the limp hands of Neva tightened their grip on the hand that had pierced her. Then, looking straight at him, she simply said, “Thank you.”

  To ascend from a Paragon to an Ascender, a Soul Caster not only had to create a seventh Nexus Ring connecting their body and soul but also had to combine the lower three Nexus Rings into one. This presented them with a chance to create their own unique Ascension Spell.

  Neva had been stuck at the last step for a long time. Her teacher had just told her to take it slow and that she lacked life experience, which was preventing her from properly formulating her connection and spell.

  And at the moment when her chest was pierced, she felt a feeling she had never felt before. This feeling made her stomach churn and want to throw up, to run wild doing anything she wanted, but also to remain as quiet as a mouse. A slight trembling of her heart, to which she was unaccustomed. She had never felt this feeling, even when she sparred with her teacher.

  Was this fear? Was this the fear of death? Why was she afraid of death? She hated this feeling, and she hated herself for having it. She was ready to do anything to remove this feeling from her, even if it meant actual death.

  At that moment, her three Nexus Rings, which had been unresponsive before, suddenly started to move towards each other. She slowly moved them, adjusting them, and like a single entity, they merged. At that moment, she felt as if a new world had opened before her eyes, a far more beautiful and dazzling world than before. The elemental particles she had to concentrate properly to feel were now completely visible to her naked eye.

  But the last step remained: surviving the baptism of the destruction lightning.

  Without any notice, the clouds that had gathered above the castle started to rain down golden lightning. And at the center of this were the duo. Nel’s husband tried to pull back his hand, but the grip was too tight. He then materialized elemental energy to shield himself, but it was ineffective against the lightning. His actions grew more and more frantic as he knew what this lightning meant.

  Soon, the smell of burnt skin spread in the air, and Neva’s fair skin was thoroughly charred black. At some point, a cyan gem had appeared in her hand. She slowly brought it closer and put it in her mouth. Her grip on her opponent loosened due to this, and he was able to escape from her grasp. The lightning continued raining down and striking her.

  In due time, the strikes of the lightning slowed and disappeared. The clouds that had gathered also cleared. The area that was a castle was currently reduced to just rubble. At the center of it was a charred, black figure that was hard to tell if it was a person. There were also white bones visible on several parts of her body.

  The only thing keeping Neva alive was her last breath. A single breath lay between her and death. At that moment, the cyan gem in her mouth sparkled and dissolved into her body as she let out her final breath. Just as the last sign of life was disappearing from her body, Nel’s husband let out a small sigh.

  But as if to mock him, the ice elementals in the surroundings rushed forward to form a terribly freezing crystal that enclosed the burnt figure.

  After what was just a moment, the crystal cracked, and Neva walked out. The burnt figure from before was gone, and a fully healthy teenage girl stood there in her place. Her whole body was glowing with a light cyan color while being fully covered in a beautiful cyan dress made from elemental particles.

  Smiling lightly, Lex turned his attention back to his opponent, who had completed his metamorphosis. Ulrich, who was standing on the city wall, also lightly nodded his head. There was one more Awakener among them.

  Neva looked around in fascination. The things she had found so hard to learn before came to her with just a thought. She lightly raised her hand, and a swirl of ice elementals came rushing towards her and encircled her hand.

  Looking at this sight, Nel’s husband grew horrified. He staggered back a few steps. Cold sweat slid down his spine.

  He had faced Ascenders before. He was one. But he had never seen anyone master the control elementals just after ascending.

  Just as he was about to flee, the girl looked at him and smiled for the first time, “let's continue,” and threw a punch at him. At that moment, a familiar pressure enveloped them, and they were thrown into the Void Realm.