Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Viccil saw something unexpected before her very eyes.r

She had constructed and deconstructed multiple theories about what this assassin's abilities were and what her goals, the more intricate sub objectives of her mission, were.r

When it came to said tall woman, she concluded that besides her overly hardened and raw battle spirit, the assassin was exceptionally confident.r

She too had deduced that this woman was Maqi, but not in the same way Darwel did.r

She guessed it judging by her temperament and style alone.r

The ruthless and callous style where even a lethal blow to the head was not enough to wipe off the smug look of ecstacy in the bowls of battle, the daring guts to challenge an Incandescent Stage expert to a fight even while knowing you are not match...r

It had to be Maqi.r

Worse yet, this woman was quite capable of restraint even though she was an.... 'assassin.'r

As far as Viccil knew, and she had done a lot of studying through the extensive records of humans from Opungale, Maqi had NO assassins.r

Their brute nature discouraged 'cowardly', overt murder arts and encouraged violent, semi-honourable face to face confrontations. This had been a tradition millenia ago, and Viccil was willing to bet that there were no changes.r

However, for this specific event, it seemed someone who had the right repertoire of significant skills – impeccable timing, swift dispatching abilities and adequate containment capabilities – was needed.r

The job, as Viccil imagined, was to kill Darwel without anyone knowing who did so.r

It was likely that anti-Divination measures were even employed, given how such an assassination order was being carried out.r

Thus this woman was sent.r

The thing that made her incredibly effective though, as the veiled guard had analysed, was her weapon, which was the source of this uncanny effect on the room.r

"Lady Darwel!" Viccil called.r

In her sight, the obscure figure of Darwel sitting atop the large flower – the reflection of the princess she saw across from her – was melting!r

The El Sif seated atop the sunflower looked at her hand and saw it start to droop like burning plastic.r

Somehow, what was happening to the floor, was happening to her body!r

"Damn it!" Darwel cursed.r

Her legs started to turn soft and rubbery as well which almost made her fall off the sunflower to the floor!r

Immediately, the princess responded by decking her body in a verdant green Perfect Aura that reinforced her body, making her several degrees tougher... but it didn't work.r

Though the limpness grew a bit slower, the process of her flesh and bones turning squishy did not stop.r

Viccil watching the absurdity within the peculiar space frowned and zoomed right up to the tall assassin. She smashed her fist into her face which instantly exploded... into blobs of bubbly rubber that flew far only to whip back to the tall woman and reform her visage back again.r

"It's no use. Brute strength isn't going to work," the assassin said with a languid, yet bestial voice.r

Viccil drew back and looked for the axes she had discarded in the unsteady, constantly wiggling floor.r

The tall woman smirked.r

"Looking for my axes? That isn't going to work either. I did make it obvious that they were the ones causing the changes – if they can even be called that – since the start, but I guess you didn't think to take them away from me," she said while placing a palm on her cheek.r

"They are Mythical grade objects, right? They are bound to you. So taking them away wouldn't have stopped anything," Viccil said while stealing glances at Darwel.r

The assassin laughed.r

"Right, right! You're right!" she said with the most unattractive giggle possible. "You were fucked from the very beginning. The princess at least."r

Viccil breathed out with a scowl.r

'But you threw them away as soon as you trapped me here. You're also afraid that I might do something to them. I could simply destroy them, right?' she thought.r

The tall woman looked to enjoy seeing Viccil grow silent.r

Luckily for her, time was on her side.r

Or so she thought.r

'Well, she clearly not stupid,' Viccil analysed. 'She knew she couldn't beat me from the start, even with her unnatural resilience which is likely coming from her axes. Even now, this strange effect from her axe, it doesn't affect an Incandescent Stage expert like me.'r

The assassin would never divulge the secret behind her axe but Viccil was beginning to figure it out already.r

'The axe probably has the primary effect of producing a very deadly poison that can kill even an Incandescent Stage expert like me as long as it enters my body through the right channel. As for its more advanced effects... it changes the properties of non-living objects? No, living things too, probably if they are close and weak enough. What's worse, the axe can allow the user to manipulate the altered composition of the materials, creating separate spaces, like this one. It must be dangerous to try and disrupt it without thinking it through though. What else? The axe also multiplies and grants its user multiple boosts to their physical attributes too, huh?...<Sigh>...' r

All this information nearly exhausted Viccil.r

This was a troublesome situation.r

She glanced at Darwel again.r

"You seem a bit nonchalant. Don't you care at all that your pretty, pampered bitch is dying?" the assassin mocked.r

Viccil gave a muffled laugh.r

"Pampered? You're underestimating Lady Darwel a bit too much," the guard said with confidence.r

The assassin raised a brow and turned to the El Sif.r

In the original space where Darwel alone could be seen, a complex array that looked like a floral pattern weaved itself before her.r

She had her eyes closed as she focused on it, giving it the utmost care she could muster without using her hands.r

When it was complete, its layers of intricacy smothered with a verdant glow, the array sank into the fruit of the sunflower she was sitting on and prompted a switch in the mostly docile flower!r

A flood of nigh infinite mana burst through the sunflower, its dark green roots breaking through the vase it still struggled to sit in and forcefully plunged into the rubbery goop that was the room's walls and floor!r

Hundreds of these roots shimmered and eagerly reached into the room with a dull glow about them.r

Some of them also extended upwards to sink within Darwel's body, connecting to her blood vessels tenderly.r

The flower seemed to take a breath.r

Actually, it did.r

Its yellow petals were then tinged with a golden glow, the sunflower gaining another increment in size, this time double its already giant mass!r

Slowly, the room's integrity began to restore itself and so did Darwel's flesh, much to the assassin's suspicion.r

How was that possible?r

This was the effect of a Mythical grade treasure!r

For it to be countered by the powers of one individual...r

What WAS Darwel doing anyway?r

Viccil smirked.r

When it came to situations like this, the El Sif, the woman she was sworn to defend was very, very capable.r

Viccil and Sevill were only there to guard her against unnatural circumstances the princess couldn't beat, but that didn't mean Darwel was helpless. She was a Master with powerful abilities of her own.r

Most of these branched from her Class and racial qualities, her class being an advanced one.r

The Natural Tamer.r

With it, she could tame all plant life – plant-type monsters included – which was extremely simple given the power within her blood that made nature and even mana subservient to her.r

However, her true power didn't lie in merely subjugating plants under her will. It lied in awakening them as well.r

...And the awakening of a plant, as she and a few other El Sif knew, produced an explosive amount of PURE MANA that raged within the plant, bringing out its latent properties or simply augmenting its pre-existing qualities. r

For humans, pure mana was created in the Centre of their mana core and was eventually transformed in the Refinery, but for plants, it was sustenance and the source of growth!r

The glowing roots within the room were radiating an incredible amount of Pure Mana that forced the room to turn solid again by literally holding it together. Within Darwel's body, the same effect was achieved.r

This wouldn't last forever though.r

In fact, the effects were already begin to wane.r

A sunflower was only a sunflower at the end of the day and thus its awakening would only last for so long and with poor results.r

The simplicity of the plant and its temporary enhancement was seen through by the assassin who stood up from her seat.r

"I see now. So that's how it works..." she said. "The plant is still affected by my axe."r

The four axes she had discarded leapt up from the floor and shot into her clutches.r

"It won't last long. All I have to do is stall until the flower dies, right?"r

"Will you be able to live long enough for that?" Viccil said with a dark look on her face, a milky burst of energy starting to rage out from her body.r

The tall assassin grinned as she felt the traces of Nitros. r

Viccil wasn't going to hold back, it seemed..r

"Let's find out," she said with a laugh, not caring for the danger coming ahead.r

As the two women clashed in the spacious darkness of Darwel's quarters, a few stories above them, a man seated on a chair with dignified poise suddenly smiled... and spoke.r

"Looks like time's up. Talk about impeccable."r