System vs Rebirth

While carrying Noel on her back, Anna turned around and headed in the opposite direction, trying to run away as far as possible.

With such injuries, the spider would have trouble moving. It was even more impossible to support the entire body to make a jump like earlier.

Hence, this was their biggest chance to escape.

Seeing the tall grasses that surrounded them like a prison, Anna waved her sword to the ground, letting the lightning run through the ground and hit the grasses before dispersing in all directions, destroying all the grasses in the front.

The spider was moving slowly, but it seemed that Noel had miscalculated one thing.

Even though the spider couldn't run, a single step it took easily covered fifty meters.

If Anna wanted to outrun the spider, she would still need some time.

The spider even shouted some webs to catch her.

Anna turned around and pointed her sword at the web, shooting a lightning dragon at the web.

Unlike Noel's ice, the lightning element was more aggressive. When it clashed with the web, the lightning sparked and blasted the webs away, creating a huge hole in the middle.

However, Anna couldn't move too much during this period because she had to position herself within the hole when the web fell down.

In the meantime, the two Superior Demons came closer, each of them having spiders on top of their bodies that formed their own webs to protect their bodies from the Ancient Demon Spider's web.

Anna clicked her tongue and waved her sword, sending a crescent-shaped lightning wave.

One of the Superior Demons stepped forth and punched the air, creating an air torrent that pushed back the lightning wave.

However, Anna's strength wasn't that easy to defeat. The lightning pierced through the air pressure even though it became weaker as it continued.

Still, the lightning reached the Superior Demon and electrocuted him. The spiders on his back were fried and fell to the ground.

However, the Superior Demon managed to withstand the lightning strike. Its body was letting out steam, but it didn't have any sword wounds on its body.

The other Superior Demon looped around and waved its claws. The spiritual energy extended the claws, forcing Anna to block them with her strength. She was even pushed back by this attack.

"Kh." Anna couldn't gain any advantage against these demons since she had to use one of her hands to hold Noel. Still, if this were Noel, he should be able to kill these Superior Demons or even force them to retreat with only one hand.

Anna never thought that the gap between them had become so big.

Suddenly, Noel's voice echoed in her ears. It was still weak, but his voice was very clear.

"Calm down. You should have seen my attacks and grasped a bit of it. The way we utilize our spiritual energy is different. Don't ask and maintain your focus while listening to me."

Anna was startled, but after listening to him, she didn't bother to even glance at him to check his condition.

"Utilize nature to your advantage. If it's not possible, you just have to force nature to get involved. You should be able to do it."

"!!!" Anna couldn't help but think, 'Differently? Nature? Now that I think about it, his element only gets utilized when they are about to hit the target… He is separating them so that the collisions between energy and element can suck even more energy from the surroundings, like a vortex?'

'If that's true, then…' Anna didn't continue, but the answer was clear. If the concept was like that, it would benefit her more than Noel. After all, she had the original soul. 'Oi.'

The original Anna inside her sword replied, 'No need to explain. I already understand what you're thinking. I will control the lightning, since I'm better than you in controlling it.'

'In that case, I will take care of the spiritual energy.'

There was no one who could do better than them in terms of timing.

Because the demon managed to stop her, the Grass Demon immediately grew the grasses around them again, this time trapping Anna and the Superior Demon at the same time. This prison would become a ring for them to fight to the death while the Ancient Demon Spider caught up.

However, Anna chose to leap back, breaking free from the claws.

Then she raised her sword, her spiritual energy flowing into the sword.

If she stabbed the ground with just this, the spiritual energy would release a shock wave that would blow away everything around her.

However, it wouldn't work against a Superior Demon.

That was why, when the sword was about to touch the ground, the original Anna sparked the lightning. The spiritual energy would act like a condensed gas while the lightning would become the spark that lit up this gas, causing a massive explosion.

However, the explosion in this case was the spark of lightning. Instead of the lightning that went in all directions, it actually formed a spherical barrier.

Anything that touched the barrier was obliterated by the violent lightning energy. The extension of the claws shattered into pieces and the grasses simply snapped and burned until nothing was left.

"!!!" Anna widened her eyes in shock. This was the first time she released an ability with such a level of power without a lot of spiritual energy. 'That's…'

'Yeah.' The original Anna smirked. 'So that's the Transcendent Path… To think that he was able to realize it during the battle against an Ancient Demon. What a great man he is. How about changing with me? I'll reward him with a lot of things.'

'I agree with rewarding him, but I'll ignore the rest. Still, we have to escape first. Lend me your strength.'

'Of course.'

Since the lightning sphere had destroyed the grass prison, Anna could escape from this place.

As expected, the Superior Demon hurriedly looped around as if trying to block her.

Little did it know, the first thing that Anna planned to do was actually kill him. Yes, Anna jumped toward the Superior Demon, taking it by surprise.

Roar!

The demon waved both paws, planning to crush Anna with its claws.

Instead of gathering her energy in her sword to parry the claws, Anna actually caused a burst of essence underneath her foot. The original Anna boosted the explosive power with lightning.

It launched Anna at the demon, closing the gap between them in an instant.

Anna then kicked the demon to stop her momentum and slashed the demon's left arm. The right arm was about to reach her, but Anna simply moved even faster. Just like the burst on her foot, she used the same technique on her sword, causing it to instantly swing to the other side, cutting the demon's right arm.

Now that the obstacles were gone, it was time to kill the demon.

As if knowing what Anna wanted to do, the small spiders on the other Superior Demon actually shot out their webs and pulled the demon back so that Anna didn't kill it.

"Tsk." Anna stomped the ground, planning to catch up.

However, Noel said, "Enough."

In that instant, Noel tossed the Rune Card, albeit weakly. Still, it didn't matter. The Enhance Forward Rune allowed the card to fly on its own.

Then the mechanism would activate the Meteor Rune embedded in it, forming a huge sphere without using Noel's own energy.

For the finishing touch, Noel sent forth his fire element to lit up the spiritual energy sphere, turning it into that of a black sun.

"!!!" The demon panicked, but there was nothing it could do as the Meteor Rune hit him and engulfed him completely.

Roar!

The demon let out one last roar before collapsing to the ground.

"Noel. You're fine?!" Anna looked shocked, but she soon realized that Noel used the gathering rune to recover his spiritual energy a bit faster.

And with the Rune Card, he didn't have to supply his own spiritual energy to use the rune. All he needed to do was use the element to increase the firepower, which didn't require a lot of energy. In addition, the True Spirit Body might hurt his connection with the spirit, but that only applied to Heisk. He still had Ardagan.

With the combination of the two, Noel could still fight even in such a state. It seemed that the Rune Cards were much more useful than he originally claimed.

Apparently, it also became the mark of the completion of his mission.

[Mission: One With Spirit.]

[Description: Incorporate the elements in everything (Sword, Technique, and Rune)]

[Reward: Elemental Medal and 2 Elemental Abilities.]