The atmosphere was tense as Anastasia, Freya, and Arya fixed their gazes on Elysia, their guards raised to the highest degree.
'She's the most troublesome,' Anastasia thought, her expression serious.
Alvis, Ronad, and Gideon each had direct powers, focusing primarily on strength and elemental abilities. But Elysia was different.
Elysia, the Reaper of Time.
Her bloodline was particularly troublesome, allowing her to steal vitality from anything she wished and use it in numerous ways. Her bloodline had many conditions, but even the Ravensteins hadn't been able to figure out all of its intricacies.
Before Anastasia could respond, Freya suddenly stepped forward, positioning herself just in front of her.
"Ugh," Elysia sneered in disgust. "You barely have enough for yourself. Don't waste my time."
She waved her hand dismissively, as though shooing Freya away. But Freya's aura erupted outward, her grandmaster+ rank power blanketing the entire space.
"Mother!" Anastasia called out in worry, but Freya maintained her cold gaze as she spoke.
"Come out and stay back."
For a moment, Freya's shadow hesitated before swirling, and the figure of a middle-aged woman emerged from it.
"It's too dangerous, my lady," Freya's Ravenblade said, standing protectively beside Anastasia.
Despite the warning, Freya's aura continued to grow, her blue hair rising in waves as a thin blue glow enveloped her body.
"You are all in the master+ rank. Only I can handle her, so I will handle her," Freya said, her voice unusually cold, leaving no room for argument or refusal.
The calm, serene nature she was known for had vanished, replaced by a fierce coldness that radiated from her.
Anastasia and Arya were taken aback by the change, but Freya's Ravenblade wasn't. She had been with Freya the longest and knew what she was capable of.
A blue mist suddenly swept out from Freya, engulfing the surrounding area. In the next second, skeletal hands burst from the ground, and a staggering number of skeletal warriors rose from the earth, each holding a different weapon.
Freya, the Puppeteer.
This was the true Freya—the one feared on the battlefield before she married into the Ravenstein family.
She was feared for many reasons, one of the most important being her ability to overwhelm her opponents with sheer numbers.
Freya's bloodline was reanimation. She could breathe life and control into inanimate objects—or even the dead. Of course, the bodies she controlled were mindless, without ego, possessing only the will to obey and carry out any task she assigned.
The number of people who had died in the Ravenstein estate, either slain or lost in brutal battles and wars, numbered in the thousands. And right now, Freya was tapping into that vast reserve.
Freya's eyes glowed an intense blue, followed by the glowing eyes of the countless skeletal warriors. With a flick of her wrist, they shot toward Elysia with incredible speed.
Elysia frowned. What the hell was this?
The strength of the approaching skeletons barely reached master rank. Their numbers might be overwhelming, but to her, they were no more than ants.
"Time Siphon."
An intense pulse radiated from her, encompassing the incoming skeletons. However, Elysia's frown deepened.
'It's not working?'
Time Siphon, as its name implied, allowed her to drain the vitality of anything within her aura's reach.
But despite using it on these skeletons that appeared to be animated with life, it had no effect.
Soon, Elysia was surrounded by hundreds of skeletons, yet her calm expression remained unchanged.
She was, after all, still a grandmaster+ rank. They were nothing more than ants. However, her calm demeanor threatened to crumble when a cold voice echoed through the air.
"Detonate."
The implications were immediate. Each of the hundreds of skeletons erupted in a violent chain of explosions, their bones shattering with deafening force.
The entire area was rocked by the blast, shockwaves tearing through the battlefield as debris and bone fragments shot through the air like shrapnel.
The ground trembled beneath the force, a roaring inferno of destruction engulfing everything in its wake.
Smoke hung thick and heavy in the air, and for a moment, silence settled over the battlefield.
Then, suddenly, a violent shockwave burst outward, dispersing the smoke and debris in all directions. In its wake stood Elysia, barely visible through the dust, her calm demeanor completely shattered.
Her body was riddled with bone shrapnel, blood soaking through her torn clothes, and her usual composed expression had been replaced with seething fury.
Elysia's breaths came in ragged gasps, her cold eyes burning with absolute rage. She had always prided herself on being composed and calculating, always one step ahead of both her opponents and allies. But there was one thing she despised more than anything: someone ruining her beauty.
Her lips twisted into a snarl as she spat out a command.
"Life Reclaim."
Instantly, her wounds began knitting themselves back together, the shrapnel being forced out of her skin and dropping to the ground with dull thuds.
However, with each moment of healing, her body aged slightly—faint lines appeared on her once youthful face, and her hair lost some of its sheen. But the rage in her eyes only intensified.
"Chrono Burst,"
Her voice was low but filled with venom. The time she had siphoned over the years surged through her veins, and her aura exploded outward with immense power.
Her muscles swelled, her body vibrating with overwhelming force. The ground splintered beneath her as she charged, her form a blur as she rocketed toward Freya with unstoppable speed.
Freya's eyes narrowed, though she maintained her calm demeanor. Her hand raised slowly, commanding the bones beneath her feet to gather.
"Merge."
The skeletons obeyed, their bones creaking and grinding together until they formed a massive skeletal bird. It lifted Freya, Anastasia, and the others into the air, out of Elysia's direct reach.
But Freya wasn't finished. Countless skeletons swirled around her in the sky, and without hesitation, she began throwing them down at Elysia, each one hurtling toward her like a missile.
"Detonate,"
Each skeleton exploded upon impact, showering Elysia in waves of bone fragments and explosive force.