Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Enderflames.

Eren felt like the green flames had a mind of their own. They were so powerful in intent that they were practically able to incinerate any object they encountered.

The green flames carried Eliza's wrath. They easily overpowered Eren's fire-element spells by incinerating the orange flames themselves.

And this was when Eren was keeping things restricted to Adept rank where he was most comfortable using his spells. As a result, Eliza's attacks were also restricted to the same rank as his.

The butcher had just broken into the Expert rank. If he chose to face his opponents while using his original rank, Eliza would have a significant advantage. She would have a much more capable platform to express her individuality through the Enderflames.

This was why Eren decided to make use of the option the Life and Death Altar provided him and kept the battle limited to the Adept rank. He wanted there to be tough opponents for him. But empowering them too much would prevent him from learning from them.

This peculiar fire-element Ability from the dragon half-blood was so strong that the green flames would sometimes get pixelated, affecting the rendering of Nightmare Domain as a whole. It indicated that the Life And Death Altar was having a hard time rendering the Enderflames based on Eren's memories as their foundation.

Eren had realized by this point that his biggest hurdle in confronting Eliza was the Enderflames. He suspected one of the major reasons the Witch of Enerflames could punch above her weight and still manage to win was because she had unlocked an exclusive Ability for herself.

Even normal water-element spells didn't work against Enderflames. The water bodies of the water-element spells would have most of their mass evaporated as soon as they came into contact with the green flames.

Eren tried various spell combinations. He made full use of his multi-element compatibility. And after doing everything, he came to a singular conclusion. Eliza's intent-based magic was just too strong.

***

"Fuuuuck!"

As a response to the Enderflames, Eren cut off his own flesh and skin to get rid of them quickly. He then healed the wounds to stop bleeding. The peculiar thing about the Enderflames was the fact that they would refuse to extinguish themselves under normal circumstances. Thus, the butcher had to suffer self-inflicted injuries from time to time to prevent the Enderflames from hampering his moves.

Blitz Steps. Swoosh. Clang.

Another round of close combat exchanges began. He had already invoked his summoner class, preventing the wraiths and dragonkin from approaching him carelessly.

The butcher's summons put up a strong fight against the wraiths. Especially the undead. Dragonkin beasts were easily kept at bay with his earth-element summons. But eventually, the wraiths and the beasts would slip past Eren's summons and manage to hurt him at the most unfortunate of times. He could do nothing to avoid that as the wraiths were supposedly endless in numbers inside the Nightmare Domain.

Eren was also trying out his ranger class in the battle against the nightmare creatures surrounding him. Plus, he was refining his close combat skills slowly by duking it out against the Witch of Enderflames.

Eren soon found out that his ranger class was basically useless inside the Nightmare Domain. First, he did not have class-supporting spells. Second, the Nightmare Domain was spatially restricted. So he couldn't create sufficient distance from his opponents anyway.

Plus, every time he tried to create distance, Eliza's green flames would surround him from all angles through the use of her fire-element spells. So he stuck to using his summoner class for the wraiths and his close combat class for Eliza.

***

Eren's seventh day inside the Life and Death Altar.

Time flew by and Eren kept on fighting. He couldn't say that he enjoyed his time spent in the Nightmare Domain. However, he took solace in the fact that the whole experience had taught him a lot.

Eren had left no stone unturned in his battle against the monstrous prodigy that is Eliza.

This was even though what he imagined her to be might not be completely in sync with reality. He was sure that the real Witch of Enderflames would be even more of a monster than what he was currently fighting.

Still, fighting with Eliza and experiencing the Enderflames made Eren understand a lot of his shortcomings. He came to realize that the Trump cards he thought he had against Eliza would be of little use to him if he didn't refine them.

He also came to realize that he needed something to counter the Enderflames if he wanted to qualify to fight Eliza. Something that would at least lessen the Enderflames' insane incineration rate, if not outright neutralize them.

Normal spells of any kind or any element wouldn't work on the Enderflames. He hadn't used his Sin Series Abilities on Eliza. That's because he didn't feel comfortable showing that he had the Sin Series mark inside the Nightmare Domain even though the Life And Death Altar was supposed to be automated by a self-sustaining array mechanism.

However, Eren could feel that his Sin Series Ablities weren't a viable counter to Enderflames in any way. The wrath, gluttony, and lust mana weren't meant to neutralize the green flames.

Eren made full use of the opportunity provided to him by the Life and Death Altar, which other participants considered punishment. In their defense, most of them had nothing to gain from living in their nightmares.

Eren was the only one who had found some use for his nightmares. As much as he denied their existence, one could say that his masochist tendencies had enabled him to find light in the dark.

When Eren completed seven days inside the Nightmare Domain, all of his opponents vanished into thin air. Eliza's image also blurred before disappearing from his vision completely.

Eren felt a cooling sensation all over his illusory body in the next moment. It was as if his hurt soul was receiving some kind of nourishment.

When Eren blinked his eyes, he was back inside Sage Loxley's den once again. Only a few seconds had passed in the real world from the moment he had "died" inside the den.