'I don't know if that is a good thing for them or not…', said Daimon, of course he knew what Joanna was referring to.
Proximity to system users brings both fortune and misfortune, those that surround them are bound to face disasters and find opportunities as well, and as Eve has confird many tis before, Daimon isn't a regular system user.
Just look at Calvin and the other mbers of the elite class, they have changed so much during their ti in Neptune, and this all has been just the normal for those close to Daimon, it's not on the level of an "opportunity", otherwise they would have triggered a mission for Daimon, like llie, Daphne, Marlene, the Empress or the Nethereal sisters did.
Things weren't that bad this ti around, since it was the first ti, and yet llie was supposed to die, Daphne was going to be used as a material by the White's ancestor, the sa thing would have happened to Marlene not to ntion that her clan would have probably faced annihilation, Thea was going to have her body stolen like it happened to Thalia, and one can pretty much guess what was supposed to happen to Jasmine, Sarah and Reyne.
'You are talking as if you weren't the type to take responsibility for what you take~', playfully said Joanna making Daimon sigh.
'It's precisely because of that, that I'm worried', he said.
'That ans I didn't misjudge you, sister Alicia was the sa, so everything is fine, besides just like being "that" is not everything about you, your influence on them is not everything about them, right?', it was a rare occasion of Joanna showing the dignity of soone that walked alongside a system user till the very end, in fact she survived even if Freya's user ended up dying.
'I didn't take you to be the wise type, I guess there is a first ti for everything', jokingly said Daimon, to which Joanna answered in kind.
'Hey I have to earn so points for myself, just regular influence from you is on par with opportunities from others, I'll gladly take you as my "sponsor", the chance I need to recover my beautiful young body, is not even as small as the chance of a perfect Ivory heir and two little monsters like them to appear in the sa generation you know~'.
Daimon couldn't help but agree with the half black and half white-haired girl from whom Sarah obviously inherited that strange personality of hers.
According to Joanna, the Ivory lineage has two main talents, "duality" and "contradiction", the first referred to the capacity to encompass both sides of a certain aspect and as is it is painfully notorious, that's what Sarah was all about.
The aspect in question being nether and the expression of it, is Sarah's capacity to use both sides of the energy spectrum when it cos to nether, of course she wouldn't be the monster she is if that was everything there is to the crazy girl.
Sarah took it to the next level by combining her talent as an Ivory with her talent as a netherial, her concept of lust isn't limited to carnal desire, as the crazy girl previously explained to Sheilla, their understanding of "Lust" is shallow from her point of view, for her wanting to harm soone, wanting to be hard by soone, wanting to kill soone, wanting to be killed by soone, wanting to humiliate soone and wanting to be humiliated by soone, all the previous is lust for her.
But you could also call the emotions behind the actions described earlier, as wrath, death and lust, which in case you wonder, that is the reason as to why Sarah can forcefully control the nether of the three Lords, because the emotions they used as a base, all fall within Sarah's concept of lust.
Simply put, she is the incarnation of Ivory's duality taken the extre and is in the process of converting it into sothing else, sothing much more dangerous, also while Sarah will gladly give death to others, she'll only "receive" death by a few people, like she wouldn't mind dying for Jasmine for example, and sothing similar applies to the other cases, she sure is one complex adorable crazy girl.
And then we have the second talent "contradiction", which as its na implies, focuses in giving soone the capacity to shine in the opposite of what they specialize, and this is where Jasmine shines, both literally and figuratively.
She who was born due to a being of negative nature, not only has light affinity of extre positive nature, but her nether was created with a positive emotion and to take it to the next level, she went for "protection" which completely opposes the "violence" of the Balax family.
Even her royal innate ability, goes the opposite of the specialty of the Balax family who has talent to boost their armies, since she can take away all that, not to ntion that she took "Sanctuary" and transford it into "Pandemonium".
She is the incarnation of contradiction taken to the extre, similar to Sarah, of course she hasn't progressed as much as the crazy girl, but her potential isn't lacking in the slightest.
'One might think that in comparison the sister in the middle is lacking, because instead of taking one of the talents to the extre while still possessing the potential to develop the other, she has the two of them at an equally "average" high level, but that's not the case', said Joanna with a smile to then gaze at Daimon as she added.
'That child is an even rarer talent when it cos to the Ivory family's lineage, she is like , she simply didn't think of it as sothing positive because she saw how her sisters were progressing by leaps and bounds by taking one side to the extre and yet she didn't fall for the temptation, or should I say that "you" helped her not to~'.
'Ahem, if I were to say, you and Sarah are more alike if you ask ', said Daimon, making Joanna giggle.
'Well, personality wise I have nothing to say against that, but let tell you that I was both considered the least and most talented mber of the Ivory family ever, with just a year of difference in between, and I'm sure that I could have broken out of the cage around Neptune… if I wanted to, after all my Ivory lineage doesn't lose when compared with sister Alicia's Brightstar lineage at its origin', she said with a tinge of sadness in her voice.
'I see, so she lost her desire to continue when she lost her "jasmine", pretty Sarah-like', thought Daimon, apparently the death of Alicia had quite the impact on Joanna, that explained why soone who actually surpassed the Stellar realm to beco a Star Lord, while still being young enough to not have lost her potential, didn't continue advancing, and instead beca a guardian for the ones that had inherited the lineage of her friend.
Well, there is also the fact that she wished to rip Ereth's flesh and scatter his bones for causing the death of her friend, and since Ereth's old followers went into hiding but didn't die, it ant that they expected him to co back, she probably held out so many years while burning her soul, fueled by the hatred she felt towards Ereth, in many ways she and Sarah are quite similar.
'You don't seem that strong to though?', jokingly said Daimon, which made Joanna react like a cat whose tail was stepped upon.
'Hey don't go deciding things based on the of right now, I lost more than half of my "radiance" through the years, I was the most beautiful, most talented and the strongest in the Ivory family at every point in my life, even those three's mothers were still lacking a bit when compared to , only their daughters have surpassed…', she exclaid, to then realize that she had cheered up just with that little exchange, her translucent image then disappeared making it seem as if she was incensed due to Daimon's words, that is if we don't take into account the smile that was flourishing on her pretty face as she thought to herself.
'Humph, you are even more dangerous than sister Alicia that is for sure, well, I wouldn't have gotten this last chance had it not been for that, I guess'.
Daimon on the other hand had a killing light burning in his eyes which were hidden by his mask.
'Fucking bastards, what right do they have to play with the lives of others like that…', he thought, Ereth, the priest and Dorian, in other words the three system users that ca here before, would have destroyed Neptune due to the aftermath of their respective missions, had it not been for Alicia and Joanna's interference.
And whoever issued the missions, attempted to do it a second ti based on the objectives of the opportunities he stole from Adam and Marcus, what's more this ti the netherials were involved through Ereth who for sure wasn't doing all this just for revenge against the Prison galodon, there must be sothing for him to gain in all this, sothing like getting back his status as a system user for example.
"Oh well, whoever you are, I will make sure things won't go your way", concluded Daimon to then focus on those three again, his little conversation with Joanna didn't last more than a few seconds anyway, and after Reyne blasted away Aslan's arm, the other Lords had stopped midway through their fights.
Reed was the first one to react, he soared into the sky to then explode in both black and black pink nether, it wasn't a simple energy release in order to use a strong spell like he has done before, considering that the atmosphere around him started vibrating, a clear sign of the expression of power of an Archmage.
"Domain!", as Daimon expected, the nether in the atmosphere gathered around Reed to then mix with the one he was exuding a mont ago, to then expand, normally an average Domain has no shape it's a concentrated mass of mana or nether in this case, that surrounds its caster, creating a field that is advantageous for said caster.
However, those who are talented enough can adapt the form of their Domain depending on the situation, and since the battle was taking place in an eclosed space, Reed concentrated his domain exclusively on the right half of the throne room.
Thus, half of the room was now being engulfed by a transparent black-pink shade, while particles of nether of the sa color flocked from all over the area towards Reed's Domain.
"Hoh, and here I thought you were so trash that you couldn't even use Manifestation, but you purposedly didn't focus on it, in order to dedicate yourself to develop your Domain instead, that's disappointing on itself though", casually said the crazy girl who felt her body being pressured from every direction as she crushed a few nether particles with her left hand.
'Hey, Reed, is it that hard for you to follow indications!', Byron on the other hand, directly shouted at the Asmadian Lord, they had discussed things beforehand and yet Reed kept screwing up, or more accurately he was rushing things.
'To hell with that, didn't you see what happened to Aslan, you two can take it easy if you want, since those two are still greenhorns when it cos to Royal Nether, but this bitch getting even slightly stronger is incredibly dangerous for !', shouted back the Asmadian Lord, in a voice that only the Lords could hear.
What a joke, from the very beginning he was assigned against the strongest of the three enemies, who also basically countered him in every possible way, and now he saw Aslan losing an arm to an enemy that isn't as strong as the one he was paired with, he didn't care about Byron's plans anymore, he didn't want to give Sarah a single extra second to beco stronger, otherwise he knew he would be finished.
'Ah, damn it all, Aslan we are speeding things up', said the Balax Lord, his body burned in dark red flas that forced Jasmine backwards, that was concentrated battle aura which exuded a huge amount of physical pressure on the surroundings.
Unlike Reed, Byron didn't need to use a verbal command, the concentrated battle aura that was boiling around his body, expanded in a different way than what it happened for Reed's domain, growing in a vertical way to then expand to the sides, slowly but surely forming an armored giant made out of dark red nether which was a perfectly detailed copy of the Balax Lord.
While Byron was manifesting his Battle Avatar, which by the why occupied a big part of the central area of the throne room, the Bane Lord who had his arm blasted away by a certain Nelapsi girl was gritting his teeth.
'You bastard, weren't you the one that told to not go all out from the start since we needed them to "grow" a bit more before harvesting, I even got my damn arm blasted away following he damn plan', it took Aslan a mont to regain his cool and his arm.
Reyne whose pretty now mixed red and green eyes instinctively looked at Jasmine's battlefield to make sure everything was alright, changed her focus of attention to Aslan, just in ti to see black bones growing from the disaster that was left on his shoulder.
"Black Death Flesh Wall", once bones to form a new arm finished growing, the Bane Lord used a spell to make a grotesque looking wall made of flesh, to then place his skeletal hand on it.
The result was that the flesh wall was absorbed by his skeletal arm, turning into new flesh for him, then a layer of death nether covered it and in a second he had recovered the arm he lost, in fact it looked exactly the sa, for a good reason, his body was modified this way, out of the three Lords he was the one whose body was in the "best" condition, because he could do things like this in order to conserve it a bit better.
"That explains why there wasn't blood coming out from that wound, and also the rotten stench that follows you, however if your arm was truly dead you wouldn't have scread, so that attack did hurt you", casually said the Nelapsi girl as she pointed her lance which was burning in crimson red flas.
"Don't get carried away, you might have gone out of our expectations but you are still a re experint, who do you think was the one to propose creating you three!", shouted Aslan, his death nether was not suitable to produce "offspring" with ease, like Reed or Byron's, so he didn't participate but the idea originally ca from him, and now it have co back to bite him.
"Domain!", Aslan's eyes turned completely black, devoid of any sclera or pupil, then black nether particles rushed from the surroundings, however unlike Reed's case, basically all the death nether that was gathered by him, ca from below, which is understandable considering how many corpses were buried below the castle and specially the throne room.
In a fraction of a second, an oppressive black haze covered the left half of the throne room, making everything it touched sizzle due to its corrosive property, it's worth ntioning that the two Domains also trapped Byron, but he was unaffected, Jasmine on the other hand was being attacked by the two of them at the sa ti.
On the other hand, she was far from the main area of influence of those two's Domains, unlike Sarah and Reyne who were being hit up-close by the nether in the core of the Lord's Domains.
Daimon who was watching the fight unfold, from the back of the middle area of the throne room was also attacked by the two Domains, but he didn't do anything, it was hard to see but there was a millitric "gap" separating him from the nether in the atmosphere, or it would be more accurate to say that the nether in the atmosphere stopped advancing at him at an exact really small distance from his body, as if it was afraid of sothing.
Feeling an ominous sensation coming from the left side of the battlefield, the light princess softly snorted as she raised her staff which was cladded by the White Heavenly Spear.
"Silver Blessing!", with a fierce but llow voice, Jasmine's light mana gathered around Reyne to then be absorbed by her.
"Tsk, damn light affinity abomination", cursed the Bane Lord, he was in the middle of preparing a curse to weaken the Nelapsi girl, but he was interrupted by Jasmine's spell which boosted Reyne's already decently high resistance against curses courtesy of her imnse vitality, a notch up.
Now, he wasn't sure the curse would succeed and if it failed, he will suffer the backslash, since that's how curses work, however the light princess wasn't the only one that knew how to help a teammate, though she didn't do it out of obligation, unlike the buffer on the enemy side.
"Royal Song of War!", Byron's battle avatar pointed its left hand at Aslan, who was bathed in a red light the next second, his previously slender body buffed up, making him look at least less frail than before.
It was understandable, that was the royal version of the physical strength boosting martial art used by Erika, hers only increased strength by 10%, but Byron's one granted an increase of 30%, the difference being that it was a single target martial art instead of an area one.
And as if to return the favor, Aslan snapped his fingers and the ground next to him exploded as black bones erged from it.
"Royal Black Death Mount", the bones organized themselves to form a horse which was at least two tis the sizes of a normal one, black nether burned in its empty eye sockets.
"Go", with Aslan's order, the black bone horse rushed towards Byron's side, which made Reyne frown, she pointed her lance at the horse but a black bone wall blocked her line of sight.
"Unlike Byron, I'm not adept at charging at my enemies, I prefer a much more "elegant" approach!", with those words, nurous black bone hands erged from the ground around the Nelapsi girl, with the support of his Domain, Aslan didn't need to chant to use his basic spells anymore.
"Humph!", Reyne stabbed her lance onto the ground and the area around her exploded in crimson red flas, needless to say but the black bone hands were burned into ashes in a second, and that wasn't a spell, that was just Reyne releasing her battle aura in the surroundings.
But that's understandable, she is using both her fire and blood life sparks at the sa ti to a certain extent, and combining her flas with her blood battle aura, to create these insanely explosive crimson flas.
"You shouldn't have ntioned my mother", said the Nelapsi with a fierce voice, that wasn't a threat made on the heat of the mont, nor has Reyne lost her cool, out of the three sisters, she is the most serious and responsible after all.
No, the reason as to why Aslan screwed up by ntioning Jessica, is that he reminded Reyne of Jeanne and Emily, her human and ghoul mothers respectively, though now both are Nelapsis like herself.
But that reminded Reyne that if she couldn't advance the way she wanted just with her Nelapsi side, then she just needed to add her human side to the mix, it sounds like a simple realization, but don't forget that Reyne was forced to keep her non-human side hidden practically all her life, the discrimination that she saw Emily face, made it so that she unconsciously put all her focus on her Nelapsi side, now that she was "freed" by Daimon.
But then, it's not like she hated all humans, Jeanne was originally a human and she was also her mother, she was negating that side of hers due to the negative experiences she had, but now she has accepted both of them and the wall that was keeping her from advancing was gone.
"Royal Black Death Bone Spear Disaster!", angered by Reyne's words, the Bane Lord thrusted his spear frontwards, and a torrent of black bone spears was shot at the Nelapsi girl who answered in kind.
"Royal Crimson Flas!", she had just beco able to use royal nether, so she had only one martial art to use, however just creating more of those red flas was enough to count as a martial art, the details could be polished later.
"Booooom!", a black and crimson red explosion engulfed the left side of the battlefield, which made a certain crazy girl whistle as she continuously flashed to the side, "barely" dodging a dozen of arrows that were shot at her.
"Phew, that cute sister of mine surely got quite stronger all of a sudden, don't you agree?", said Sarah as she caught Reed's nether arrow with her bare hand to then crush it the next second.
However, unlike before, a drip of blood ca out of the clenched fist of the crazy girl, which made Reed laugh like a maniac.
"Do you think I'm so stupid that I would remain the sa within my Domain, normally my strength wouldn't be enough to deal with brutes like you in a physical way, but in my Domain my body can exert way more strength than usual!", he said as he pointed his bow at Sarah, who saw "invisible" strings attached to Reed's body.
Apparently, since his mind and body manipulating spells didn't work on the crazy girl, he used them on himself, in a way that he could ignore the limits of his own flesh.
"Well, using a domain against soone that can use your nether against you, sounds pretty stupid if you ask ~", mockingly said the crazy girl, as if to rub salt on the wound, the giant skull behind of her actually started laughing.
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