Corrupt Creations

"Alright, I accept it. I'll help you with whatever you want me to. We can use my family training grounds to train."

"No, I want it to be a secret... I'll be testing some techniques that no one but you are allowed to see, so we got to find a calmer place."

Elyra felt a bit happy after realizing Seth trusted her enough to show her his secret techniques.

"There is one more thing we need to consider while finding the right place. I want you to fight against me seriously, that's why it can't be just any simple place."

"Fight you seriously? I know that you were able to resist against that Profound Mana initial-stage beast attacks inside the dungeon, but that doesn't mean you are going to be able to resist against my serious attacks."

Elyra didn't know Seth was the one that fought against Elyon. In her conception, the Elf Queen must have deleted him from the surface of the planet and Seth was only there to help her with some other things when they left the dungeon together.

She knew Seth's strength was already outside of what was considered to be normal, since he was able to fight against that beast, but there was a long road to go until a Mana Control middle-stage cultivator like him could actually fight a Profound Mana initial-stage practitioner.

But suddenly, since they were talking about strength, she unconsciously tried to feel Seth's aura and immediately stood up in shock.

"You're at Mana Control peak-stage Realm?!"

"Well, some things happened and I was able to increase my strength a bit."

'A bit?' Elyra didn't even know how to properly react. Seth upgraded his strength twice in the time span of a single week, going from the Mana Control middle-stage to the peak-stage.

She suddenly remembered the phenomenon that happened inside Seth's guest house yesterday and felt that his sudden growth had something to do with that. But since it was something related to Seth's privacy, she didn't let her curiosity win over her reason.

"There is a place we can use to train that fits perfectly on what you are searching for. Come with me, I happen to have some free time now."

"Oh? Right now?"

"We can do it later if you want."

"No, I'd rather do it now. It's just that I wasn't expecting it."

"Then good. Let's go to the city, it's a place you have already visited before."

'In the City...?'

Elyra and Seth left the office and passed through the mansion gates, traveling towards the city.

While passing through the streets, they could see how people were still working hard to clean the leftover debris from all the destruction that had happened. Elyra couldn't understand how things have gotten on that stage.

They arrived at the Central Stadium, where there were some Elves entering and leaving the dungeon through the blue spatial gate.

Sometimes two elves would come out of it while carrying a dead body of someone they found inside. There was a group of people in charge of recovering the bodies from the elves that lost their lives inside the dungeon and Seth noticed that the atmosphere here was the heaviest.

It's a given it would be. There were many young practitioners that ended up dying there and that deeply affected their families outside.

Elyra and Seth approached the entrance of the dungeon and those guards didn't even try to stop them. They already knew an important figure like Elyra and since Seth was with her, they didn't try to do anything funny. Actually, with the state the city was currently in, everyone was trying to strive for the better, putting the society in first place.

They entered the dungeon once again, appearing inside the outer layer. The barrier dividing the outer layer and the inner layer had been shattered, but that didn't mean anyone would delve there.

Elyra was precisely bringing Seth to the inner layer, where there would be a peaceful environment for his training with her.

While heading there, Seth noticed that the blue dome covering the core region was still standing tall. There wasn't even a tiny crack on its surface. It was intact, just like it was recently built. He realized that that part of the formation must be the strongest one, but even though it was heavily reinforced with Mana, it should have suffered the attacks of Many beasts. For it to not be even scratched, it is outside of normality.

Seth looked towards Elyra while asking: "What is inside the core region?"

"The core region? We don't know. We elves, have never been there before, however, there are ancient records stating that something very dangerous is resting behind that blue dome."

"Didn't any of you try to explore that region? Could it be that you were afraid of what the ancient records stated?"

"No, we tried to enter that region before. It's just that we couldn't."

"Couldn't? Isn't the formation covering this whole dungeon, something the elves had created?"

"Yes. The formation is something we created, but the records state that that blue dome already existed inside the Ereinrith Abandoned Ruins when we first got here. It is something more ancient than this dungeon."

'Hm... This was unexpected. So, there are still some secrets to be uncovered here.'

Seth and Elyra entered the inner layer and there didn't seem to be anyone near, but they kept going further, reaching the deepest parts of the inner layer. They were already very closed to the blue dome, just some kilometers away from it, when Elyra suddenly stopped and created a barrier around the whole area using her Mana.

"This is a good place. Take the wind attribute items you have and let's start it."

"Wait... Let the wind element training for later. I want to spar with you first. There are many new techniques I'm eager to test."

"Alright. Let's do it like this... I will only use my wind elemental abilities on this battle. Try to feel the element while we are fighting."

Seth nodded and started to get ready. In a flash, his body disappeared, appearing beside Elyra a second later. He was already ready to strike her with his fist when he felt a very powerful force pushing him away.

When he stopped, he saw a windy aura circling around Elyra, pushing anything that tried to approach her, far in the distance. He observed her aura, trying to understand the wind and feel some connections with it.

Seth attacked once more and Elyra controlled the wind around her to create a storm that made Seth fly away once again.

Elyra smugly smiled at him and said: "Like I said, you won't be able to fight a person a realm higher than yours, just try to feel the wind element around my body."

'Heh... Then let's see if you can keep up with that attitude.'

A green aura suddenly expanded from Seth's body, and the pressure coming from him intensified. A green mist surged and it went towards Elyra, clashing against the wind around her. After some few seconds Elyra felt a heavy poisonous feeling trying to invade her body while bypassing her protection.

She had to intensify the Mana on her wind barrier, expelling the green mist from nearby.

"This is..." She was still trying to recognize Seth's ability, when he suddenly appeared beside her. She noticed he had real good movement skills and could faintly feel the presence of a different element infused on it.

"Time for you to get serious..." He said while a bright green light covered his entire arm.

Elyra created a wind blade and used it to defend herself.

Seth's green energy entered in contact with her wind blade and it started to spread to it, trying to infect the Mana on her skill. The entire wind blade started to turn into a bright green color and Elyra was forced to let go of it.

Seth quickly tried to use this chance to get the upper hand on their sparring session. His energy expanded, attacking Elyra and creating a heavy poisonous aura around the place she was in. But he went as far as intensifying the pressure with his Mana and soon the green energy had already covered almost a thousand meters around them.

Elyra felt that every place around her was filled with Seth's Evergreen Essence and she was finally feeling a bit of pressure. Her wind element started to swirl with ferocity, creating a fierce gale in the entire area, however, she felt that even though the green mist was being expelled from nearby her, the poison still kept trying to invade her body through her skin.

Right now, she realized that Seth's energy was the same energy the Elf Queen had. She knew that it wouldn't be as simple as just forcibly expelling that green mist to get rid of the poison, so Elyra decided to leave the ground and hover in the air while being supported by the wind.

But suddenly...

Cough! Cough!

The poison had invaded her body making her countenance turn graver.