Inside of the manifestation of the paragon body, the girls that weren't participating in this first try, were baffled.
Truth to be told, Aster didn't ask Felicia nor Camila to act earlier, he only explained his idea of using the ying-yang array along with Aria, so it was easier to fight against the Liger, but those two saw the opportunity to help and jumped to action.
Felicia's attribute is darkness which's orientation is yin, so she went to the left arm where Aria is channeling the yin energy that the cores contained.
Earlier she was comfortable in the dark places where yin was abundant, feeling that atmosphere was beneficial for her, so she supposed it will be the same now, and she was right, she could create such a huge vortex and maintain it constantly with the help of the environment that was artificially created in the left arm of the armor.
The same applied to Camila, though her attribute isn't particularly inclined to either yin or yang, her recently learnt ability treasure aura, has yang orientation as it reinforces her body, by granting her the defensive properties of the treasures she has refined.
Just like Aria and Alice, she has obtained a power that belongs to the cultivation path in which she isn't walking as she became a soul cultivator not too long ago, just like those two who learned Dragon Aura and Permafrost, she already had the ability but awakened it thanks to Aster.
And with the help of the rich yang atmosphere on the right arm of the armor, she created the strongest spear she has ever made, because she used her natal treasure as the core of it.
It's not the largest one she had made, but it's the first time she integrates her natal treasure into it, because that consumes a lot of her spirit energy, also now that she has awakened treasure aura, she felt like a fish in water.
'His swords always give me a drop of the silver liquid when I refine them… but just by being inside of this armor, I'm producing the silver liquid myself!', thought Camila.
After she learned treasure aura many things changed for her, she discovered the function of the silver and copper liquids that were stored in her dantian, the copper one was used to make her metal creations as good as treasures, in other words it was enhancement to her attribute.
The silver one, on the other hand was used for treasure aura which reinforced herself, and now she was amazed after discovering that being inside the giant golden armor, made her produce the silver liquid by herself without the need of refining any treasures, could be because the paragon body englobed everything that affected Aster's physical body.
For example, his Drage lineage which was the origin of his dragon eyes, should have made his pupils turn red, but instead they became golden like his armor, this was unrelated to the eye color trait of the Drage, which means one has a strong destruction attribute.
And Aster also possesses the Alpha Booster lineage of the Wolfstein family which focuses in amplifying any other lineage abilities, so that was now included into the paragon body, what Aster didn't expect was that Camila's body constitution would resonate to the point that she will get benefited now that she was inside of the armor, could be because the giant armor was the maximum output Aster could currently use of the paragon body.
Besides Camila who was happily destining the silver liquid she was producing to maintain the giant form of her natal treasure, and Felicia who was going wild with her dark vortex, Tiana, Nerissa and Alexandra who weren't participating were also surprised.
Certainly, Aster has shown them, how strong he is, but for the three of them, his battle prowess limited to the Genesis Manifestation realm, with explosive peaks that helped him harm Void Manipulation beings, such as Sky Rendering or Dragon Aura more recently.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtBut it is also true that the enemies on either Genesis Manifestation or Void Manipulation realms, he has faced so far weren't above average, the alligator was unable to manipulate space as it lacked reasoning, as for the female elder of the Pleasure Palace, her Genesis Core might have been large, but her foundation was trash as she used the low purity yang, she stole to nurture it, essentially choosing quantity over quality.
But the Liger was different, in a sense a spirit element is as good as one can be in their level, they are embodiments of elements after all, that's why Esmeralda was the best teacher for Kana, in what her wind element regards, there is no one better than her at the same level.
Aster theorized that back at her secret realm, Esmeralda's battle power surpassed the Heavenly Conqueror realm, though it was only his guess, as he had no way to compare her to anyone, fortunately she was restrained by the one who created that secret realm, so her participation was limited, otherwise she wouldn't have agreed to accept a host so easily, she did it in part because she wanted to leave that place but she still only accepted the ones she considered both worthy and compatible with her, which in all the history of her secret realm, were only Aster and Kana.
The Liger is the same, it is only giving the feeling of a Sea of Knowledge being, and yet the four Law Integration beasts were wary of it, Aster didn't underestimate it, in his mind he was fighting against someone on par with a renowned genius from a Divine Firmament.
Someone like Eris or Mylene, but at its prime, this might as well be the toughest battle he has experienced, besides that time when he met Alessia.
'Heh, this time things will be different, I have already experienced losing and it will never repeat again', thought Aster as his desire for battle increased.
"Roar!!!", the Liger roared and its body exploded in cold mist, the ground and even the air started freezing.
Aster snorted and the right arm of the armor moved to pierce the ground with Camila's spear, the yang radiance covering the right arm was channeled into the spear and a wave of heat was released with the tip of the spear as the center.
"Hissss!!!", a loud whistling sound was produced then the cold from the Liger and the heat produced by Aster clashed on the air.
But then the mist released by the temperature's abrupt change, was dispelled as the Liger appeared from within it, the thing actually used the mist to make a surprise attack.
"It certainly is smarter than what it made others believe", mumbled Aster, luckily with his senses enhanced to the limit and his dragon eyes, he was able to foresee the attack from the Liger, so he didn't fell into its trap.
"Booom!".
"Roaaar!!".
The left arm of the armor punched the Liger making it fly backwards a dozen of hundreds of kilometers, as it let out a pained roar, there was a small crack on its neck, which made Aster smirk.
But he didn't say anything and instead the armor rushed towards the tiger, he has never taken a passive position when fighting after all.
"Haaa!", the giant armor jumped to gain momentum and then Aster used Camila's spear to attack the Liger, this was one of the advantages of using a spear or a big sword like the ones he uses, the large range of the attack.
An ice wall raised from the ground as the Liger tried to block Aster's attack, after that punch it didn't dare to receive the attack head on, the Liger thought the armor was light since it was mainly made out of energy.
But that wasn't the case, certainly the giant had no flesh everything but the armor was ethereal, that's why Aster and the others floated inside of it, but the armor was not only incredibly sturdy, but hell heavy.
"Crack!", you can imagine the result, all that brute force combined with the sharpness of Camila's spear, easily destroyed the ice wall, once again taking the Liger by surprise, but this time it managed to jump backwards to avoid the tip of the spear.
Or so it thought, before the spear actually enlarged, this was the advantage of Camila integrating her natal treasure into the giant spear, and the reason as to why she hasn't done it before, this way the spear was an expansion of her natal treasure, gaining its properties, the problem is that it consumed both solver and copper liquid than what she produced in a week of training, it was a last resort kind of attack.
The copper liquid was still not that bad, as she produced it all the time, but the silver one was only produced after she condensed one thousand drops of the copper one, when she refined strong treasures, or when she refined the weapons that contained Aster's blood, but right now she could produce silver liquid so she could go all out for a bit.
The Liger was one step too late and he spear pierced its right side, the Liger roared but then the situation changed once again, blue light gathered on the mouth of the Liger and then a blue ray was shot at short distance towards Aster and the others.
But to the displease of the Liger its surprise attack was once again blocked, this time by a black vortex that appeared in front of the left arm of the armor, the blue ray was swallowed by the black vortex without even reaching its target, Aster moved the right arm of the armor back and Camila's spear was retrieved from the body of the Liger.
A puncture wound was left on the body of the Liger, but there was no blood coming from it, in fact the Liger had no flesh, it only lasted a second but Aster managed to see that the inside of the body of the Liger was filled with the blue energy which has been using into those blue rays.
'The exterior is made of compact ice, while the inside if pure energy, I guess it is to be expected from a spirit element… wait the first time the pain behind the roar was real, but now it was a feint to make me lower my guard', thought Aster.
When he punched the Liger earlier and cracked the area of the neck, the pain was real, he hurt the Liger, but now that the spear pierced one of its sides, there was no effect.
"The punch was aimed at its head, but it dodged, so the head and neck are vulnerable, but why?", wondered Aster, ultimately, he shrugged as he realized he should have asked Esmeralda how to fight against spirit elements, just in case.
Of course, annihilation will work, but that will cause lethal damage to the Glacial Liger, and his goal wasn't to kill it but to beat it into submission, maybe he could retrieve annihilation from its body later, but wounds will be hard to deal with, and he wanted it to help Aria as soon as possible.
…
Outside of the barrier, Wendel and the masked elder saw the previous exchange of attacks between Aster and the Liger, from the corner of their eyes and they were outraged, a member of the young generation was fairing so well against it.
The spirit beasts were the same, the physical strength of the Liger was nothing for them, but that blue energy it controlled, was more than enough to wound them and yet the newcomer was able to block it without suffering any damage, it was ridiculous.
'Oi, insect bastard, what if those guys manage to defeat the Liger, if it is forced to form a contract we are doomed!', said the gorilla to the centipede.
'Don't worry, even if they defeat it, as long as the yin chain is attached to it, it can't return to its elemental form, and it no one can contract it, the bastards from the heavens did it so no one could steal it from them after all, let's join hands, only together we'll be able to shut down the connection between the Liger and the chain', answered the centipede.
'I don't mind, but I can't do anything to this woman, my punches aren't breaking her defense', the gorilla was frustrated, in its long life he always had the upper hand in a physical confrontation.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHis physical strength was the highest among the four Law Integration spirit beasts, and now, no matter how hard it punched, it wasn't enough to take down the enemy in front of him, he still had a triumph card, but he didn't want to use it before its fight with the centipede.
The centipede of course knew what the gorilla was thinking, because he was in a similar situation, he also had its innate ability which he has yet to use.
'If we don't hurry up, we'll both lose the chance, let's make a deal, we can split the power of the Liger in two, it's better than leaving a descendant of the humans that killed our ancestors get the Liger back', the centipede said, referring to Eris.
Without knowing, the leftover divine energy in her body, made the spirit beasts confuse her as someone from the Yin Azure Palace.
The gorilla doubted for a split of a second, but ultimately its hatred towards the Azure Palace won over his greed for the Glacial Liger.
'Deal', the bodies of the gorilla and the centipede shone, they actually made a soul oath, the gorilla then suddenly turned around and punched towards Agnes's Genesis Core.
"Two beasts trying to have a private conversation in front of a Soul Queen, what a joke", Eris's voice made the gorilla feel a shiver running down its spine.
Countless runes appeared all over Eris's Genesis Core, and then a lot of spirit energy was drawn from the atmosphere as they all activated.
"Wood Arsenal, Obliterate!", Eris's Genesis Core lit up with spirit energy, and then countless light rays were shot from it, it was similar to how the Diamond Orchid attacked Aster earlier but on a way bigger scale.
"Aghhh!!!", the pained scream of the gorilla echoed through the whole place, as dark room was illuminated by Eris's attack.
By the time the illumination returned to normal, the Gorilla looked at the arm it used to block the attacks with an expression of disbelief, the whole thing was full of holes like a sieve, the rays of light burned through its hide, muscles and even its bones.
In exchange, the outer layer of Eris's Genesis Core was also burned to a crisp, but it soon fell off and a new green cover replaced it, as one would expect from the tenacious wood element.
"Centipede let's kill this one first, the range of her attacks is too big!", shouted the gorilla, just to be welcomed by the sight of the centipede which had a large clean vertical wound, opening its carapace all the way from its back to its tail.
And that wasn't all, following the same direction, there was a deep cut into the wall of the room, including a couple of the bright yellow walls which were divided in half.
"No, this one's attacks are too fast and sharp, she must be killed first", answered the centipede, out of the four Law Integration spirit beasts, the centipede had the best defense thanks to its carapace, but it was cut like nothing a moment ago.
As for the two elders, they managed to avoid receiving wounds directly, but their Genesis Cores resented the impact, a few deformations appeared on the dark grey core of Wendel, the metal layer of its core melted a bit.
As for the masked elder, part of the marsh that was covering his Genesis Core was cleanly separated and it could no longer attach itself to the original body, because it was cut so many times, it turned into a few drops of black green liquid that were burned and lost all their poisonous properties.
'Shit, wat the hell was that, my eyes couldn't follow the number of cuts that appeared along with that orange flash of light!', inwardly shouted the masked elder.