-Keeeeeeng!
Intense flames burst from the back of the hammer.
The flames burned the air and generated thrust, moving the hammer.
"Heyaaap!"
Eldin swung the flame-wrapped hammer in a rotating motion.
The red trajectory spun across space.
Any plant humans caught in that trajectory were completely blown away.
It wasn't just burning. The parts touched by the hammer exploded, literally erasing parts of their bodies.
Even if their resistance to flames had increased due to the power of the Sun Ring, they couldn't withstand the kinetic energy possessed by the hammer itself.
Eldin, moving while creating red trajectories, was herself like a living explosion or rocket.Where she passed, only the remains of plant humans with chunks of their bodies missing were left.
"Is this all you've got!"
The plants weren't just taking it passively either.
They kept charging at Eldin as if they didn't know death.
Most took the form of special forces or elves who had entered underground.
Eldin deflected an incoming ballista with her hammer.
At a considerable distance, she could see creatures imitating Dagran's appearance.
Eldin's specialty is ultimately close combat. Being bombarded indiscriminately from such a long range would inevitably put her at a disadvantage.
Moreover, Eldin had personally witnessed the power of Dagran's ballista.
That creature had perfectly copied that too. In fact, they could be considered superior since they didn't even need to reload manually.
-Crackle.
Thick tree branches twisted like rope and formed spiral-shaped arrows.
These were immediately loaded into the ballistas and fired at Eldin.
"How annoying."
Instead of trying to block, Eldin responded by dodging.
Those arrows were imbued with the Sun Ring's power. Those yellow lines cutting through the air couldn't be burned by fire, nor could they be easily blocked by wind spirits.
'I could do it if I had to, but in a situation like this, excessive use of power would be disadvantageous.'
Arrows rained down where Eldin passed, trailing flames.
At first, they couldn't even graze her clothes, but as time passed, their aim became more precise.
'They're adapting too.'
The plants imitating Dagran weren't the only things Eldin had to watch out for.
-Slash!
Along with a flash cutting through the air, a line appeared on Eldin's cheek.
If her reaction had been even slightly slower, her head might have been cut off - a dangerous attack.
"Ah really. Of all things, they had to copy the most troublesome one..."
Complaints naturally flowed from Eldin's mouth.
The one pointing a sword at her now was a plant mimicking Osian's appearance.
Like Dagran, it wasn't just copying the outer appearance.
Natural movements like a human body. The rhythm of footsteps. Even the sword stance.
Although she hadn't seen Osian's full fighting style, she could tell that this creature had learned quite similarly.
There were more than five creatures copying Osian.
When such creatures surrounded her and swung their swords simultaneously, it was enough to make Eldin's head spin.
'It's just swinging swords, but the pressure is incredible!'
Small wounds and red blood flowed from various parts of her body.
Taking advantage of these gaps, Dagran's ballistas were fired.
That wasn't all. Yellow pollen had now thickly risen around her.
Beyond there, a being copying Mist was continuously extracting pollen from its body.
Though they might not match the original, when there are more than ten copies, they become impossible to ignore.
"Well, well. I must have looked pretty laughable to you."
Eldin showed her teeth in a grin.
Flames rose over the wounds carved across her body.
The plants swung their weapons without panic, following their given orders.
Though the wooden swords were only wooden in material, they were as sharp and sturdy as Osian's sword.
The Spirit Garment Eldin wore couldn't block all the swords.
Eldin knew that the Spirit Garment couldn't protect her body from external attacks but because she knew, she deliberately didn't block.
-Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Wooden swords were successively embedded in Eldin's body, which had only been dodging until now.
The plant's main body watching this scene was puzzled.
The process leading to this result seemed too abbreviated to be simply cornered into defeat.
Rather than slowly withering away, it was the result of Eldin letting go.
Eldin, with her entire body pierced by wood, chuckled.
-Whoosh.
The flames burning over her wounds disappeared, and her skin returned to its original state.
The same happened to her body pierced by wood.
Flames arose in the areas pierced like skewers, and as the wood burned, the wounds were instantly restored.
As if she had never been injured at all, Eldin acted completely unbothered.
Her appearance had changed from before. Flames burned in her pupils, and the ends of her hair changed to scarlet, fluttering like flames.
"I didn't want to use this, but I guess there's no choice."
Eldin muttered as if talking to herself.
It was a secret technique one step beyond wearing the Spirit Garment.
It was [Spirit Assimilation (精靈同化)].
The Spirit Garment wraps spirit power like clothing. With just that, she was practically backed by nature itself.
The Spirit Garment produces much higher output than summoning and handling regular spirits.
The moment she dons the Flame Spirit Garment like now, her surroundings transform into an environment reminiscent of a volcanic zone.
It wasn't something the user could control at that level. That's why Eldin warned her companions before using it.
It's truly a double-edged sword - gaining near-omnipotent power but unable to control it, destroying the surroundings.
At the same time, maintaining this consumed extreme amounts of stamina, so it couldn't be used for long.
Most elf spirit masters couldn't even attempt to use it, and even if they did, 3 minutes would be the absolute limit.
However, Eldin could maintain this Spirit Garment for over 30 minutes.
This was because her basic stamina was far superior to other elves.
'But Spirit Assimilation is different.'
From Spirit Assimilation onwards, she herself becomes identical to the spirit.
Even for an elf with high spirit resonance, she is ultimately a material being.
Spirits, on the other hand, are nature's manifestation - very abstract and uncertain phenomena.
When Spirit Assimilation occurs, she leaves the material world and partially enters the boundary of the spirit realm.
When that happens, the world perceived by normal senses literally transforms into something indescribable.
Even now, her view of the world was mixed with the spirit realm's vision and covered in strange colors.
The same applied to smell, hearing, and touch.
It was a situation hardly bearable with ordinary mental strength since her body and mind were being pulled by the strong gravity of the spirit realm in real-time.
'I can't maintain it for long.'
Spirit Assimilation has a limit of 2 minutes at most.
Any longer and her mind would collapse. If that happened, there would be no turning back.
The moment she loses her self-awareness as an elf, her physical body would leave the material world and become one with the spirit realm.
That's what spirit power is.
Even now, her flesh and blood were turning into flames.
The moment she passes 2 minutes, her self-awareness would collapse, and she would literally transform into a living flame, forgetting both her memories and form as Eldin.
That would mean the death of her existence.
'So I'll end it before then.'
If nothing else, for these 2 minutes she is in what could be called an invincible state, immune to any external attacks.
Just as you can't cut fire with a sword, these plants' attacks couldn't affect Eldin either.
In other words, for these 2 minutes, Eldin can overwhelm them one-sidedly without any risk.
"First, these annoying ones!"
Flames exploded around Eldin.
The heat that had been somehow suppressed by the Sun Ring's power couldn't withstand the increased firepower that came with Spirit Assimilation.
Scarlet flames surged like a tsunami around her, engulfing the plant humans.
They tried to resist the flames somehow but it was useless.
This wave of flames didn't strike just once.
Two times, three times.
With each increase in number, the plant humans' bodies burned black, and eventually turned to ash and disappeared.
Within the wavering heat that erased even the acrid burning smell, Eldin stared at the plant's main body with flame-burning eyes.
"Now you're the last one."
Eldin raised her hammer.
Her hammer is made from elemental stone refined to contain spirit power.
That's why even now during Spirit Assimilation, the weapon withstood the heat and was rather absorbing it.
The hammer grew larger as it absorbed the flames. When its size exceeded 5 times the original, Eldin gripped the hammer with both hands and lowered her stance.
"Malleus Ignis."
Following the trajectory of the forcefully swung hammer, flames consumed the entire space.
It devoured even the underground sun and destroyed the mutant tower that had built it up.
*
In the underground space where not even embers remained, having ended Spirit Assimilation, Eldin fell to her knees with a thud.
"Damn it. This is exhausting."
How long had it been since she'd used this much power?
Eldin decided she would extract a huge compensation from Coruntio when she returned.
A small spark rose in front of Eldin and transformed into the shape of a lizard.
The flame spirit looked at Eldin with worried eyes.
"Ah, I'm fine. So don't worry."
The fight was over now.
The moment Eldin spoke those words, a yellow light illuminating the darkness rose.
"What? No way, that's impossible."
Eldin stared at the light with disbelieving eyes.
What rose in the darkness was the Sun Ring's sun.
She had just burned it completely with the power of Spirit Assimilation and had clearly seen with her own eyes its form disappearing in the flames.
The ashes piled under the slowly rising sun suddenly surged up.
What drilled through the ground like a drill was a giant closed flower bud.
It spread wide open and a massive plant began to rise from underground.
"Damn it. Failed to burn the roots too?"
Who would have thought it had such deep roots below with that size.
This wasn't Eldin's mistake. That thing just had incredibly outstanding vitality.
With a creaking sound, the giant stem slowly approached Eldin.
The flame spirit spewed fire at the stem but it was useless.
This was something that had survived the flames of Spirit Assimilation. Such flames were laughable even without the Sun Ring's power.
Eldin let out a defeated laugh.
"Well. I don't particularly have any attachment to life, but I didn't live until now to die in a place like this."
But death isn't something one can choose.
Even for the most outstanding hero, death comes suddenly without warning.
Living beings must inevitably face death, and it was a barrier that could never be overcome.
Eldin knew this too. She had seen many who met meaningless ends during her years of life.
Now it was simply her turn.
If she lost after going so far as to use Spirit Assimilation, she couldn't even feel wronged.
She lost because she was weak.
Eldin calmly accepted death and closed her eyes.
She only hoped the pain that would soon come would be brief.
"You look quite tired."
But something was strange as she suddenly heard that rookie's voice.
"Closing your eyes in this situation. If you're thinking of taking a nap, I recommend against it."
No. It wasn't an illusion.
Eldin opened her closed eyes and looked straight ahead.
The stems that had been approaching her were all cut away, and Osian was standing there.
White starlight was streaming from the sword held in one hand.
"Ha. What's this rookie, did you come to save me?"
"I came because that thing is my prey."
"How did you know that monster wouldn't die in those flames?"
"Isn't it obvious? Though partial, that thing possesses my power. It won't fall so easily."
Eldin couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity but it wasn't wrong. After all, she hadn't managed to completely defeat that plant.
"I'm too exhausted and tired right now, so could you handle it instead?"
"I was planning to even without you asking."
"Right. Well then, I'll leave it to you."
Eldin closed her eyes and collapsed backward.
She couldn't withstand the fatigue rushing in from using the Spirit Garment and Spirit Assimilation.
"Lady Eldin!"
Alania, who arrived at the scene late, approached the collapsed Eldin.
"W-what happened?"
"She's just resting her eyes from exhaustion. She's not dead, so don't make a fuss."
"I-is that so? That's a relief."
"Take her somewhere safe."
"What about you, Osian?"
"Why ask the obvious?"
Osian looked up at the massive plant standing before him.
"I'll bring down the sun."