Liquid aether, as per Gabriel, increased the rate of his growth to the next level, while the additional aether simply dissipated from his body. Neither Nero, nor anyone else had any reason to believe that the aether absorbed from the liquid form could be actually used for abilities and cards.
Yet at the same time, considering the rarity of the liquid, it was not like they knew much about it, anyway. It was unlikely that anyone had tested it to be used like this, and Nero didn't mind being the one to do it. As valuable as the liquid aether was, it was not as valuable as his own life - at least to Nero himself.
As such, Nero used his abilities liberally. Now that he knew how much of this place was covered in tentacles, he threw out flaming Snowflakes as if it were actually raining. Using multiple cards at the same time was not impossible, just very difficult. Similarly, using 3 cards at the same time made it even harder, almost actually impossible for Neophytes.
Fortunately, neither Fair Weather nor Snowflake required a lot of manipulation.
The burning snowflakes landed within the tentacles, and though the flames flickered heavily, clearly battling against cursed energy, they were much more resilient than they used to be. In fact, even from a distance, Nero could see a thin layer of ice forming over the tentacles, meaning that as the flames fought against cursed energy, they also were fueling themselves by absorbing heat.
The tentacle berserker unleashed a savage yell, angered by Nero's relentless pursuit. Like a staff, guiding his tentacles, the berserker pointed at Nero with the spear in its hand, and hundreds of tentacles suddenly short forward towards Nero, causing the corridor to sound like there was a storm going on within it.
But, already expecting such an attack, he switched from using Snowflake to Ful Defend the moment he noticed the tentacled monster make its move. Each time an attack stuck Ful Defend's barrier blocked an attack, Nero felt the aether inside of him drain. Quickly, much quicker than he anticipated, he was already on the verge of having a dangerously low amount of aether in his body.
Yet somehow, it never actually ran out.
Ful Defend kept absorbing aether, and his body kept providing. Nero's brain kept telling him that he was on the verge of running out of aether. In fact, he was already beginning to feel slightly nauseous. Even so, he never actually ran out of aether. It was like he had a limitless reserve of it in his body.
Actually, even in his emotion heightened state, he did not think he had an endless supply of aether, but it was pretty big. Plus, he had only taken a single sip from the liquid aether. There was still much more he could drink.
"The liquid aether can act as a reserve," he said out loud towards Gabriel, as he continued to block tentacles. The moment the attacks paused, Nero began attacking on his own, cutting tentacles off and lightning them on fire.
With this tentacle monster, it was difficult to locate any specific weakness, so the fight would be one of endurance. Who can last longer while doing the maximum damage to the other? Only, their tolerance for suffering attacks was much lower than the tentacle monster.
Gabriel did not hesitate, either. He was also getting low on aether, so he quickly took a sip from the liquid aether, and then looked at the fight from afar. The situation did not look too good, no matter how he looked at it. A single mistake, and they'd be goners.
He thought for a second for possible solutions, and something clicked in his mind. He began manipulating his red sand, and started weaving it together, as if creating something massive.
The tentacle berserker, which had been trying to attack Nero for a while now, became frustrated. For whatever reason, it could not break through Nero's defences, so instead it turned its attention towards Gabriel, who was in the back and attacked him.
The defence these two were using was remarkably similar to the ones the previous two humans had used, yet they were lasting much longer. The previous two humans had also started off strong, but their energy ran out a lot quicker than these two.
The monster, while attacking from a distance, was also thinking of ways to break the impasse they found themselves in. Upon recalling the other two humans, who it had already defeated, it had an idea.
From the memories it stole from other humans, it knew of something called hostages. That might work. After all, the plan of leaving some humans alive as bait to attract more humans was also something that it stole from others memories, and it had been working splendidly so far.
The tentacles slithered across the walls, bypassing Nero and Gabriel, and reached towards the barricaded door and began to push the items out of the way. It was not easy considering the considerable weight of the barricade, but it also had innumerous tentacles, so physical strength was not a concern.
Inside the room, Maximilian had laid Arter's unconscious body on a side and was quickly using recovery cards to recover as quickly as possible. Yet suddenly he heard the sound of things being pushed, and opened his eyes to the sight of all the furniture being pushed aside.
"Dammit!" he yelled and quickly got up to his feet. He had also been listening to the fight outside, and heard Nero's absurd idea of using liquid aether. He didn't want to waste something so valuable, but in this moment, he couldn't care for how amazing it was.
Outside, Gabriel was finally ready.
"Nero, light these on fire!" he yelled, and turned all his sand into hundreds of darts. He had been rubbing his grains of sand against each other, using friction to heat them up as much as he could possibly manage. The idea had actually worked a lot better than he expected, and in fact Gabriel noticed that his sand took on a deeper red colour when they became hotter.
As much as he would like to try out their effect, now was not the time.
Nero needed no explanation, and immediately unleashed a blanket of blue flames around him through which the darts passed, catching on fire before striking the endless tentacles in their path.
For a moment it did not seem like it would make much of a difference, but as the flames quickly absorbed the heat from the darts, they turned a deeper shade of blue, so by the time they touched the tentacles, they had already become more potent.
Hundreds of tiny flames merged together into a blaze, and suddenly there was a change. Gabriel, who was far away, suddenly shivered as his body felt a chill. The next moment instead of a layer of frost, a layer of ice began to cover the tentacles.
The tentacle monster screamed as it suddenly felt genuine fear. All its thoughts suddenly became chaotic as panic set in, and instead of acting under guidance, the tentacles began to writhe about and slam across the entire corridor in panic.
Yet the fire had taken hold, and it was growing stronger, slowly reaching the ceiling. Nero himself remained unharmed, but even behind Ful Defend he felt his armour begin to stiffen. The solution to this was simple. If he coated his armour in his own flames, he could prevent them from suffering under the effects of his flames.
But the monster had no such luxury. At first, his tentacles were encased in ice, but as its own energy within the tentacles depleted, the tentacles themselves began to freeze.
Under the sapphire hue, the corridor started to turn into a land of ice.
Desperation suddenly, for the first time, filled the tentacle berserker's eyes, and it acted as such. Instead of cutting its tentacles free, it brought the rest of its tentacles from down the corridor, and smashed them into the fire.
Though bitterly cold, the fire was affected by its cursed energy, so it began to suffocate the flames with its own body. For a moment it seemed to work. All the ice shattered under the weight of the new tentacles, and the flames began to sizzle as they were smothered by cursed energy.
But Nero obviously wasn't just going to sit and watch as their efforts were brought to naught. They finally saw hope for victory, but they weren't there yet. The closer to victory, the calmer they had to be.
Nero stepped back instead of stepping forward, and began launching his Snowflakes towards the berserker's actual body. He didn't know if the monster had a brain, or something similar, but if it did, then it should be inside the body.
A loud crash suddenly echoed through the hall, and the makeshift barricade protecting Maximilian and Arter finally gave way.