Jeanne and Emily secretly exchanged gazes as they both reached the same conclusion; it was time for them to make their move.
Before anyone else could react at the fact that the prepared all-out attack of a someone whose battle prowess surpassed the Arch rank, was nullified as if it was nothing a second ago, two red light explosions caught all the presents by surprise.
Certainly, both humans and flesh eating demons present here knew about Emily's origins, but the only ones besides Reyne who had ever seen her vampire form and lived, were none other than Daimon and Sarah.
As such you can imagine the chocked expressions on both allies and enemies, when not only Emily but even Jeanne, suddenly underwent a maybe not physically, but inwardly amazing change all of a sudden.
For starters, the female Archdukes who was previously easily clashing with the two of them, felt a huge sensation of crisis, as her body froze under the pressure radiated by those two from up-close.
It was justified though, while Jeanne and Emily "only" were temporarily boosted to the late stage of the peak Arch rank, their race underwent a fundamental change, as far as all the present Ghouls regarded, they were brought back to when they were children who met their ancestors for the first time, they were struck by fear and reverence at the superior lineage of the ones in front of them.
The problem is that, for starters they were in presence of someone from the young generation and not only that, but one of them is a mere human, a member of a race which they despise, so you can imagine the shock that they were undergoing right now.
Unfortunately for them, Jeanne and Emily weren't kind enough to let it sink in, they both have been waiting a long time to finally make their moves, so of course they weren't going to waste the initial shock.
Similar to what happened with Reyne, their skin tone paled and their pupils were painted of a bright blood red color, only now the vampires realized that while Emily's hair color was pitch black, a sign of having one of the two purest lineages among them, Jeanne had the exact blond colored hair akin to the other.
It wasn't their fault though, unlike them, humans had the custom to dye their hair just for aesthetics, while that was strictly forbidden for Ghouls, so never in a million years they imagined that was Jeanne's natural color after she and Emily exchanged flesh and blood.
As a result, the female Archduke who was previously clashing with them, hated to admit that the woman in front of her had a lighter and prettier hair color than her, and she hated even more the fact that two red armored hands were now ripping her body apart horizontally.
Jeanne's hand was covered in a white and red refined looking armor, while Emilly's hand was covered in a black and red terrifying looking one.
"Haaa!", those two shouted as the applied strength in opposite directions, making the body of the Archduke split in two with her stomach as the center, the two parts were then sent flying in opposite directions, disappearing from sight a couple of seconds later.
The Ghouls finally woke up from their stupor, seeing one of their Archdukes being defeated so easily, they all released their mana pressure, especially those related to that woman.
But they were one second too late, before those pressures could hit those two, they had turned into black and white flashes that appeared next to Reyne.
Jeanne took her daughter and the granddaughter of the elder couple from the church and moved behind the human lines, while Emily directly punched Felix whose eyes contracted like needles, but managed to block, which made his left arm being blown away by the impact.
"What are you waiting fools, the children are safe, kill those bastards!", shouted old ben as his body exploded in mana… he just activated his Domain, followed by his friend who summoned his Battle Avatar.
Most of the presents didn't have that ability, so they chose the next best option, which was cast a highly destructive spell or a strong martial art.
"Boooom!", the area outside of the ruin, was suddenly illuminated by a strong flash of light, followed by a violent mana explosion as the strongest representatives of both sides clashed.
…
While outside things hat gotten quite explosive, causing tremors, making the sky darken at the sudden liberation of insane amounts of mana, and making the nearby volcanoes erupt, the inside of the ruin was perfectly calm.
Well except for the fact that the insides of it was currently undergoing a change under the instructions of the black mantled figure, the previous empty spaces that separated the labyrinth from the area where Jasmine was kept and the treasury, were now replaced by a straight lineal path.
Which ended in a large open area, where the cage where Jasmine was kept, was placed, on top of a pile of treasures, that included everything which Daimon and the others saw being exhibited on the shelves at the reward room.
Besides that, there was an elevated seat on which the black mantled figure was sitting, looking at everything from above, and lastly there was another living being in the room, which was a fully black armored knight, standing still like a statue, exuding a powerful pressure.
"Now let's see how your champion fairs against mine, how about a little bet to make things interesting?", asked the black mantled figure to the pretty girl inside of the black cage.
Despite having been kept prisoner for a few days, in which she didn't accepted to eat or drink anything that the black mantled person offered, Jasmine looked perfectly fine, if anything her usual bright smile was nowhere to be seen, as she remained calmly sitting there inside the cage without moving, she didn't even bother to answer this time, which only made the black mantled figure snort and accommodate on the seat, as it waited to see the one that should be appearing from the only door that this room had.
The wait wasn't that long, before the door was violently opened, as a group of three entered the room in a dash of white light, that soon faded to reveal Adam who had an excited expression as he saw a reward that fitted his "tastes".
"Finally, I was so pissed when I was unable to take all the treasures, even after having to deal with so much of that damn stinky blood!", said Adam as he unsheathed his sword.
Next to him, there were two other participants, first the girl that was kidnapped by the goblins, which he saved, apparently his other companions were either dead or they left the ruin, separately, nor that he cared, right now he only wanted something to vent his pent-up anger.
As for the other member of the team, it was actually one of the Ghouls, who proved to be strong enough to work for him, so he brought it along, because he knew that there was one last challenge waiting for him, as he hadn't obtained the legacy he came here for, and his mission brought him to the ruin.
"Welcome little hero candidate, I hope you aren't too tired after fighting those pests, since I went out of my way to prepare not only a worthy opponent, but also a nice reward in case you win", said the black mantled figure as she pointed at the pile of treasures as well as the black cage.
Adam coldly smiled as he looked as the nice things he'll soon obtain, including the girl inside of the cage, which only made his smile widen, very much to the amusement of the black mantled figure.
"I have to admit it, I didn't expect you to be able to bring your companions along, but I guess that's why you were "chosen", you have ten minutes, if you don't defeat my champion within that time, you lose, of course those two can participate".
With that said, the black armored knight finally moved, his mana pressure flooded the room, making he air tremble, the sensation it gave was that of a… late stage Archmage.
"Heh, you think that doll of yours scares me!", shouted Adam as he took out a plain looking sword from his storage ring and pointed it at the black armored knight who managed to react on time to prevent his head from being separated from his body, but lost its right arm in the process.
"Tsk, let's go you two, Ness support us from the back, Archbald you block, leave the offense to me", said Adam, his sword lit up in white dazzling battle aura and his strength which appeared to be at the middle stage of the Lord rank, jumped all the way to the early stage of Arch rank.
"Yes!", Adam's companions nodded in response, the girl jumped backwards and casted a barrier around herself, before she started chanting preparing a major buff spell, as for the Ghoul, his eyes became bloodshot and his skin turned grey metallic, the previous peak stage Lord rank Ghoul was now exuding the pressure of an early stage Archknight.
The now one armed black armored knight roared, making the air rumble as waves of black battle aura were produced by its roar, it was an intimidating type martial art with the purpose of slowing down the enemy.
Adam snorted in response, his battle aura poured out of his body as he shouted.
"Hero Banner!", a light projection with the shape of a flag containing a sword, appeared behind of him, and the black waves that were about to affect his companions, were cancelled.
At the same time, Adam and the Ghoul Archbald flanked the black armored knight, since it only had one arm now, it could only wield either the sword or the shield which previously had equipped, and it chose the sword, it was a heavy sword of three meters of size.
The Ghoul intercepted the attack that was aimed at Adam, his body exploded in red and grey battle aura, forming a voluminous armor of the same color, around him.
"Iron Blood Fortress!", the sword of the black armored knight had a lot of momentum behind, so the knight couldn't stop its attack, instead it added more strength as it tried to split the annoying ant in front of him with a single slash.
"Clang!", surprisingly the moment the sword impacted against the armor, it bounced back producing a loud sound of metal colliding, as well as shockwave because the Ghoul sank around a meter into the ground.
"Go boss!", the Ghoul had blood coming out of his mouth, due to the shock, but he had done his job, the black armored knight lost his balance, since his martial art was deflected and the timing was perfect.
"Holy Mantle!", the girl from the church finished chanting, her staff shone and then a cape made out of light appeared on Adam's back.
'It was worth saving her after all', thought Adam, this spell increased the strength of one light element attack by 50%, the only complain he had, is that the girl from the church had to chant to use it, while Jasmine could use a much better spell without chanting, but it was to be expected since this world was quite outdated.
'Oh well, everything will be better once I obtain that reward, especially the cage', he thought as he used the strongest martial art he could cast without chanting.
"Light Piercer!", a huge amount of battle aura was poured into Adam's sword as he thrusted forward, then a concentrated beam of thirty meters wide was shot from the tip of the sword, at point blank.
The battle aura of the black armored knight was blown away, and the white beam of light engulfed the knight.
"Booom!", the beam reached all the way to the other side of the room, razing everything in its way, until it clashed against the wall, piercing a hole through it, which was followed by an explosion.
It took a few seconds for the light to fade and the dust to settle, once everything went back to normal, the scene of Adam's sword piercing what was left of the black armored knight, which was basically a trunkless body, which limbs were barely attached to it.
The black armored knight started turning into dust under Adam's sword, making Adam thunderously laugh, as he pointed his sword at the black mantled figure.
"There you have it, now give me my inheritance!", he demanded, the black mantled figure clapped in response.
"Splendid, worthy of being an heir candidate, however you can only have one of the two, either the girl or the treasures, the choice is up to you".
Adam didn't even think it twice, he brightly smiled as he pointed at the black cage before saying.
"I choose her of course".
The black mantled figure remained silent for a second before clicking its tongue, it snapped its fingers and the black cage was lifted and placed in font of Adam, who smiled at the girl inside of it.
"Come out, you are free now", he said with a gentle caring smile, at the same time a pretty white light lit up on the air in front of him, before a blue metal trident with gold engravings appeared from it.
Adam had the sudden urge to laugh out loud, of course he knew that to obtain the legacy of a hero, he had to act like one, which meant choosing to save the girl, instead of the riches, naturally he did so because he was going to be rewarded.
In fact, he has been in this situation a lot of times, and it always ends up the same way, he obtaining the three things, the riches, the girl and the reward, such are the benefits of being a hero.
He grabbed the trident and was delighted at the notification that popped up for him, but left it for later, he approached the cage and opened it as he extended his hand at the pretty girl which was previously imprisoned inside of it.
"Come, I'll protect you", he warmly said as he smiled.
"You really are one disgusting piece of trash", coldly said the girl in a voice that Adam couldn't help but find familiar.
But before he had the time to process it, he first noticed he was missing something in his hand then felt a numbing pain coming from between his legs.
"B-Bitch!", was the only thing he managed to mutter as his body bent in pain, due to the prongs of the trident piercing his lower abdomen including his dick.
"Aghhhh!", the pained scream that followed, took not only Adam's companions but even the black mantled figure by surprise.
Adam who had collapsed on the ground having a hard time processing what was happening, saw the face of the girl blurring before it changed into the appearance of someone he knew quite well, but not as much as he would have liked to.
"Y-You are alive!", she shouted as he manually used one of his healing potions, which should have activated automatically, under the rare situation when he wasn't automatically protected by the defensive treasures he was wearing.
What happened was that Jasmine set up the bracelet of the god of mischief to only affect Adam, and so only he was affected by it, also she only altered her face, since the black mantled figure could only see her from behind, just in case.
Archbald and Ness immediately rushed towards Jasmine, who then brightly smiled as she jumped backwards into the cage, to then smack the base of the trident's shaft on a specific part of the floor of the cage, making a circular area of around a meter and a half to crumble apart.
And the surprises kept coming, Jasmine moved aside and the next second a white ray of light came from below, piercing a hole on the ground that perfectly matched the area which Jasmine secretly broke using the bracelet as a primitive tool, that was the origin of all those scratches.
The next moment two figures came through the hole on the ground, a masked youth and a dark green haired girl.
"Die scum!", shouted the crazy girl as her image flashed.
"Aghhh!", Adam screamed as the dark green haired girl kicked him on the face, just when the poisonous dark green battle aura was about to melt his disgusting face to match his shitty personality, a white light shone to prevent him from dying, that being said the ground in twenty meters around him, melted into a black puddle.
The black mantled figure turned into a black flash that shot towards the newcomers, but it was stopped cold by a white broken cross bow that blocked its way.
"Get out of my way!", it was about to attack the annoying thing, when the cross bow disappeared by itself, the black mantled figure reacted just in time to see the girl which has been held captive, showing her the middle finger.
Of course, the black mantled figure rushed towards them and punched the air, making a black wave of energy be shot from its fist, but before the attack could reach its target, the masked youth grabbed the two girls and they disappeared.
"Booom!", the cage took the hit and many parts of it exploded as a result, the black mantled figure trembled as it tried to locate them, only to notice that they weren't inside of the ruin, in fact it couldn't sense them at all, only now it noticed the chaos that was taking part outside.
And that wasn't all, when it looked at its right, it noticed that the pile of treasures was gone, along with the trident.
"You are dead meat!!!", shouted the black mantled figure, making the whole room quake due to its pressure.
…
The scenery changed from the inside of the ruin, to a place a couple of kilometers away from it, on a relatively safe hill made out of volcanic rock, a portal appeared on the air, before three figures came out in a rushed way.
Daimon fell to the ground, and those two landed on top of him, it would have been an enjoyable situation, if it wasn't for the fact that he had used up around 90% percent of his stamina to use Switch eight times in a row to be able to escape from the ruin, making him be out of breath.
"Ahh, that was so refreshing~", said the crazy girl who had zero intention of getting up and instead stuck to Daimon like bubblegum.
Jasmine wasn't that daring, but she was holding onto Daimon's shirt, while she immediately got off him, but sat next to his body.
"You came for me…", she said with a happy smiling expression, to which Daimon who was trying to shake off Sarah, chuckled.
"You worked hard, welcome back", he limited to say as he drank a potion to recover some of his stamina, just enough so that he could force Sarah away, to change his position to be sitting cross-legged.
"You were right, I really hit him off with as much of my battle aura as I could gather on my foot without using a martial art and while I'm pretty sure I make some of his teeth to flew out of his mouth, when it was getting to the good part, something intervened, but I thought you were going to finish him off", said the crazy girl with a sulking expression, for both, being separated from Daimon and not being able to melt Adam's head with her battle aura.
Daimon shook his head in response.
"Inside of that ruin, that… "thing" had the advantage, that's why we are luring them out, since Jasmine smartly stole that trident, they will for sure come without any extensive preparations, that will be the right moment", he said.
Jasmine smiled, as she heard Daimon's compliment, she had a hard time to not return to her happy self, when she heard Daimon's voice in her ears, before Adam even arrived at the last room.
He had marked a couple of useless things from the reward room with Switch, and when the portal forcefully transported them, both he and Sarah went stealth mode and then he changed places with those things.
Since the black mantled figure was altering the structure of the ruin, he just waited until it was over and took the change, as the rooms weren't separated by ling spatial distances, to communicate with Jasmine.
Apparently, the black mantled figure, thought that the person Jasmine was waiting was Adam, she realized it quite early so she followed the act, and that helped them pull this off quite smoothly, she even vented out some of her anger towards Adam, and stole that treasure that made the light idiot look so happy.
"Grrrrr", Jasmine's stomach made a cute sound, she put quite a lot of strength in that attack, and after not eating or drinking anything as her ring was confiscated, she was naturally hungry, but only now that she felt safe and relaxed again, she felt it.
Needless to say, but her face cutely blushed, which made Sarah laugh and hug her, while Daimon softly smiled as he took out a small snack from the inventory.
"Here, have this for now, we have to reunite with our allies for the next step, we'll be leaving this place by tomorrow at most", said Daimon as he offered Jasmine the snack, while he observed the first real notification he has seen in some time.
"Mm~", Jasmine accepted the food and took some bites of it, while Sarah kept hugging her, to then say.
"Still, I can't believe the gentle and soft little Jas went straight for the nuts, you even flipped that bitch off, sigh, my little Jas has been corrupted by this cruel world~".
Jasmine nearly choked with the food, her face was red as an apple as she mumbled with a low voice.
"I-It's not like that, I just did it without thinking, since Daimon told us that if we went for the kill it wouldn't work, I just aimed at what I thought would hurt him the most…".
Daimon bitterly smiled, Adam for sure deserved that and more, that being said even he couldn't help but slightly shiver when he saw that attack from Jasmine thanks to Rita sharing her sight with him.
'Now that you mention it, she does give off a "wilder" vibe than before, just like back at the cave', thought Daimon, but ultimately, he inwardly shrugged, it's normal that Jasmine had changed after what she has gone through.
Title:
Jasmine's return
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