Kat PoV
"Huh. This is... about as expected. I don't know whether to appreciate that or be on guard because of it..."
Mom flicked the blood from her blade and stared out at the vast waves of slow shuffling Ghouls that were making their way towards us, this initial wave numbering in the hundreds, if not in the single thousand mark.
"Quantity over quality to start, which is what happened in the personal rounds, right? This is just round one, so if it's only these Ghouls... it is to be expected, but we should still be on guard. The difficulty might ramp up far earlier now than it did when we were alone."
The Demoness nodded, though she was still relaxed as she watched the wave of flas wash over a large portion of the horde, Leone's magic being brought to bear in a way that was definitely overwhelming, if not bordering completely unnecessary for the monsters we were currently facing.
On the other side, Draka practiced her own area of effect spells as she summoned shards of ice to snipe various Ghouls, blowing their heads open and opting for a more precise, controlled thod of killing as she made use of their slow speeds.
The occasional higher level Ghoul was imdiately targeted when it reared its head, standing up a foot or so above its brethren and drawing attention to itself, which allowed Draka to pepper it with nurous shards to guarantee its demise.
Therefore Mom and I had little to do besides kill whatever sohow managed to sneak on by Leone's ocean of flas and the barrage of shards from Draka, the agreent we had co to leaving us to do little now as we preserved our energy for the next wave.
"So the eleventh wave had so... weird reward then, right? Was it a changing of your mana or a straight up gifting of these cerulean flas? Would I have been given fire or would it have just amplified my ice?"
"Amplification. That seed to be the the for the later rewards; amplifying you in ways that are just not possible for pretty much everyone. It is theoretically possible to grow a new set of pathways, to purify your bloodline, hell, you can even technically alter your magic."
"But that is primarily a theory that only like one or two people have ever managed to complete throughout all of history, and those people were favored by the Gods and blessed with supernatural talents blah blah blah?"
She let out a snort and nodded, patting my head and saying "Sothing like that, yeah. Pretty much how I'd put it to. You doing okay? Usually you'd be more... smart sounding.", which made raise a brow as I stared up at her, catching the mirth in her eyes as we just waited for our ti to co.
"Just a bit hosick is all. The conundrum of our life, I suppose. I always want to be doing sothing to improve, but now that I am in a veritable treasure trove to do just that I want nothing more than to be back ho, doing nothing."
"That's what makes you a person, so don't worry. All the stress and ntal fatigue accumulates pretty fast, and even with the breaks we take it won't take long before we reach our breaking points. That's why we have to make the most of it while we can. Besides, if we can go back with so crazy upgrades and other goodies... imagine the look on everyone's faces~!"
Another wave of pure, unadulterated heat washed over us, signifying the imdiate demise of dozens upon dozens of Ghouls in a certain direction, and the bright glow of flas forced us to turn away as we looked towards Draka's side instead, watching the Dragonkin get so practice in.
"Do you think the Empress is going to want to send others here too? I an, this would be the easiest way to take a bunch of the Knights and get them to be even stronger than they currently are, right? Widen the gap between the Empire and every other nation on our continent as much as we can?"
"She might, or she might keep this completely silent. Sending that many people into the Labyrinthian and having them erge so much stronger than normal wouldn't go unnoticed, and then the concerns of their loyalty would be called into question.
Just because they are loyal now doesn't an they'll continue to be loyal if they get a significant boost in strength. We've had Knights defect before to beco Warlords or other heads of state. Of course, it is possible that our wonderful leader might want to co here herself... which makes shudder a little."
Imagining the already stupidly powerful Empress getting even stronger was definitely a 'scary' thought, be it from a small upgrade like so extra pathways or mana purity or from sothing far more significant like a bloodline upgrade.
Things that I barely understood past the very noticeable buffs they gave would likely be terrifying on her, but at the sa ti having our leader be even stronger would definitely make the future all the more peaceful since she could protect us far easier than she could now.
"All of that is to say I doubt we'll make a return here, and if we do it won't be anyti soon. I also am wondering if we can even make a return... well, I guess Lilith did, but still... nothing about this place is certain."
Her musings fueled my own as I lost myself to various thoughts as I waited, filling my mind with things that were really productive and beneficial instead of so... other thoughts, which lingered at the fringes of my mind, lurking and waiting for the right ti to pounce.
By the ti the Ghouls were completely dealt with I was in a far more stable state than I had been before, my 'defenses' against the heat trapped in my tattoo bolstered quite a bit by the normalcy while my mana had replenished enough for to confidently take over for Draka, taking on the onslaught of Ghouls and Golems with ease as we began the second wave.
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