Chapter 457 Solo Practice

Some time later.

"Why are you so angry? It was just payback."

Irus rubbed her bright red cheeks, looking thoroughly dissatisfied.

"You’re retaliating against me just for that? You can be so childish sometimes."

"The only person I don’t want to hear that from is you."

Irus’s face flushed slightly with embarrassment.

"Ahem."

She cleared her throat and quickly changed the subject.

"Speaking of which, are you really absolutely sure there are no side effects?"

"Didn’t you just experience it for yourself?"

With that, Hulim dispelled her Concealment spell.

BOOM!

The sudden burst of light was so intense it nearly blinded Irus.

"Wait, what is that?! It’s dazzling! Turn it off, quick!"

The Concealment spell flared back to life.

The blinding radiance vanished instantly.

Irus blinked rapidly, staring at Hulim as if she were looking at a monster.

"Hulim, what kind of spell was that?"

"Just ordinary Enhance and Fortify."

"Ord......"

Irus was left speechless.

Ordinary?

Could that possibly be considered ordinary Enhance and Fortify?

Someone please tell me—what exactly is the definition of "ordinary" anymore!

Seeing the stunned look on Irus’s face, Hulim decided not to hide it any longer and explained her new ability in detail.

And once again, Irus was floored.

"Huh, that’s weird......"

"This is way too weird."

Her voice trembled slightly.

"What is up with this ability? Are the Forbidden Powers really this absurd? This is basically a shortcut to godhood! No, wait—it’s way more broken than any normal path to godhood!"

Irus’s reaction was pretty much the same as hers.

After all, it was an ability that anyone could see was outrageously overpowered just by looking at it.

Even though she’d already known a bit about the nature of the Forbidden Ones, her understanding had clearly been far too shallow, limited by her mortal perspective.

"Hulim——"

Irus grabbed Hulim firmly by the shoulders.

She stared intently into her eyes and spoke with absolute seriousness.

"You must never, ever leak word of this ability! The demons would hunt you down relentlessly, stopping at nothing to kill you!"

"I know," Hulim nodded. "I’d only tell you, Irus."

"I-Is that so... I’m glad you understand."

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Irus’s gaze turned complicated for a moment.

Her heart was deeply moved.

She released her grip.

Turning around, she said,

"Well, since our objective was a complete success, let’s head back to the surface."

With that, she took the first step back down the path they had come.

Hulim followed closely behind.

"Irus, I forgot to ask earlier—why was that temple built beneath the World Tree? Aren’t you worried it might affect the tree?"

"No. If it were going to have any negative effect, it wouldn’t matter if it was under the tree or not. The influence would reach it regardless. So the location doesn’t really matter. Besides, these temples need to be built on specific ley line nodes."

"What about the empty temple now?"

"If you like, you can use it as a secret training ground from now on."

"Really? You mean it?"

"You actually want to......"

Their voices faded into the distance until they finally disappeared into the depths of the underground Mirror Lake.

And the ripples dancing across the lake’s surface gradually settled back into perfect stillness.

......

......

A bright, sunny morning.

A bird landed on the branch of a tree in a courtyard of the Elven Royal Capital.

It preened its feathers, readying itself to sing a song.

BOOM——!

A sudden explosion rang out, scaring the bird into flapping away in a panic.

Before it fled, it only caught a glimpse of a figure standing with both hands outstretched toward the ground, seemingly doing something incomprehensible.

And after that—

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM......

Strange explosions continued to ring out, one after another.

"Why is this still not working?"

Near the trees, on the grass, Hulim couldn’t help but complain.

Taking a few deep breaths to steady herself, she focused her mind once more, staring intently at the ground before her.

Zzzzt, zzzzt......

Red sparks crackled and danced between her palms.

She maintained that state for about a minute.

Then, her eyes suddenly sharpened.

"Now——! Annihilate!"

She pushed her hands forward with all her might.

BOOM——!

A burst of crimson light erupted forth, striking a single leaf on the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the leaf seemed to be erased from existence, vanishing from sight instantly.

But it wasn’t just the leaf that disappeared. The patch of earth directly beneath it vanished right along with it.

When the annihilation finally stopped, a square hole about a meter wide was left in the ground.

"......"

Hulim stared wordlessly at the hole, and at the countless identical holes stretching behind it.

Letting out a depressed sigh, she lowered her hands.

"Failed again......"

Hulim was in the middle of an experiment.

Ever since returning from the underground temple that day, she had begun researching the two abilities she possessed.

Naturally, her focus was on the ability representing Fury—Annihilation Divine Light.

However, the research process was proving much more difficult than she had imagined.

For some reason—whether it was because the ability’s tier was too high or something else—Annihilation Divine Light was incredibly difficult to control.

If she wasn’t careful, she would drain her mana completely in an instant.

Although she had Infinite Strikes now, which meant she wouldn’t be left helpless and immobile like the first time she ran out of mana, this was still a huge problem.

If she didn’t fix this, it wouldn’t matter how much her mana capacity grew. As soon as she activated Annihilation Divine Light, her mana would be gone in a flash. Then, what was the point of having an increased mana pool at all?

No matter how hard it was, Hulim had to master complete control over it.

"......Let’s keep practicing."

Hulim found another fallen leaf.

She placed it directly in front of her.

Then she raised her hands, aiming at the leaf. She slowed her breathing and the trembling of her body to the absolute minimum, focusing every ounce of her attention on that single, tiny leaf.

One minute later.

"Now! Annihilate!"

BOOM!

The ground gained yet another new hole.

"Failed again...... Let’s keep going."

BOOM!

"Again......"

BOOM!

"Again!"

More than an hour later......

By the time the courtyard was completely covered in potholes,

Hulim finally called it quits.

But not because she was giving up.

It was because this kind of practice placed a massive strain on her mental energy and willpower.

By now, her declining concentration was causing her results to get worse and worse.

To avoid doing more harm than good, she decided to take a break.

Hum!

A magic circle spread out beneath her feet.

The pockmarked ground of the courtyard began to churn and shift.

A few seconds later.

The ground was completely restored to its original state, without a single trace of the abuse it had just suffered.

"I’m exhausted."

After finishing that,

Hulim flopped down onto the grass, sprawling out in a star shape.

Her eyes stared lazily up at the sky.

There was no harsh sunlight here; the light filtering through the World Tree’s canopy was always gentle and warm, safe to look at even directly.

Although the entire sky was covered by the dense foliage, making the view a bit monotonous, it was still a unique kind of scenery.

Truly one of a kind in the whole world.

"It’s so peaceful......"

Whoosh~.

A gentle breeze swept across the grass, stirring her hair. In this courtyard, alone with her thoughts, with no other sounds to be heard.

Now that she had paused her experiments, the silence felt especially profound.

"This kind of place, where no one comes to disturb me... it’s actually quite nice."

After enjoying the brief moment of tranquility,

Hulim felt the frustration from her repeated failures easing somewhat.

So she sat up.

"Alright, break time is over for now. Even though it’s not quite time to start practicing again, I should take this chance to reflect on my training so far."