"Hah! Not so fast!

" First Shadow's body suddenly turned into a shadow, repapering near Seth and his group, but before she could do anything, a spiraling pillar of burning flames surged upwards right where she had appeared.

First Shadow was forced to stop and evade that attack, wasting the opportunity to take Seth by surprise.

Yuyin and Seth didn't keep waiting for the outcome and quickly left. Seth carried Serene in his arms, even though she was already awake. She was still a bit dizzy from all the things that had happened with her and other than that, Seth's speed while carrying her, would inevitably be greater than her own moving speed.

Lexi had already left from her soul space and returned to within Seth's soul. That mischievous spirit needed some time to rest, since she had spent most of her energies on that arduous task of cleaning up an entire soul space. However, Lexi had gained something from what had happened earlier, but she chose to not bother Seth with it yet. The situation he was in, required his full attention.

But as they were leaving, an aura of darkness began to spread through the ground, trying to reach them; however, more and more burning pillars started to surge upwards, blocking whatever attempt First Shadow had done, in order to get to them.

Lilian's abilities kept supporting their departure, until Seth, Serene and Yuyin's silhouette was already very far away from that area.

When the three of them finally vanished, only First Shadow and Lilian were left behind in that sparse area, ready to fight against each other without the interference of anyone. But at that point, first shadow was acting unusually silent, as if something had taken her out of her axis.

In reality, she was mad, bordering the crazy-like madness she had about Seth, but now, the target of those feelings had changed. She had been denied her amusement park ticked show and all her excitement was now turning into anger.

Lilian didn't do anything for a while. She just observed her opponent and waited for her next move. She was practically working as a keeper, defending Seth's group from every single attack attempt that her enemy has been trying to do.

"Good... Since you want to fight me that badly, you better be prepared.

" First Shadow finally decided to take Lilian as her main target. This annoying woman had awakened a very strong desire on her, that was able to temporarily surpass her desire to twist Seth's emotions.

"Prepare myself? Until now, all you did was talk... Is that rotten tongue of yours all you got?

" Lilian calmly replied.

"Hehe... Soon, you'll be desperately wishing that your statement was actually the truth. Touch of Nightmare!

" First Shadow opened her arms wide and her Mana wildly danced behind her back.

Swoosh!

After First Shadow said the name of the ability she was using, many dark fissures started to open in the fabric of space. From inside of them, a thick dark liquid began to be poured out. That liquid was actually dark elemental energy condensed, turned into the form of a black liquid.

Very quickly, the entire floor around her was covered in that liquefied darkness, from where an aura of death started to form. She hovered over it, ready to command all that power.

First Shadow suddenly moved her arms towards Lilian and all of a sudden, two filaments of liquefied darkness detached themselves from that dark river and moved towards Lilian. As they moved, they were getting thicker and thicker, drawing more and more darkness out from that river of death.

Those horizontal columns of darkness traveled very fast towards Lilian, bringing that aura of demise and doom upon her.

Lilian didn't even move a step from the place she was standing; she stood there, like a living statue, just observing those dark elemental abilities. Behind her back, her Phoenix Flames were already burning with a cleansing radiance, ready to face that darkness upfront.

She extended her right arm forwards and said:

"Phoenix Beam.

"

The first named ability she was going to use, was her father's most liked technique. It could be said that the Phoenix Beam, was the technique Huo Shihong had perfected throughout all his life, but even though he spent a lot of time enhancing that skill and mastering it, he still lacked the power to show its real might. However, now that Lilian was a Mana Sovereign entity, she was finally able to bring forth the real power behind her Phoenix Flames.

Chirp!

A phoenix cry suddenly rang and all the flaming radiance burning around her, converged into a single point in front of her hand.

Swoosh!

From Lilian's palm, a horizontal laser was shot with ferocity, moving like a missile to meet First Shadow's skill. It was so thick, that it rivaled those two horizontal columns of darkness easily. The environment had immediately gotten a dozen of times hotter, even dispelling the chilling feeling brought by the dark elemental energy.

Boom!

When both powers collided, the whole area shook, while flames and darkness started to spread everywhere, trying to take control of every single space possible. The floor collapsed down as fire and darkness fought against each other, to see who was going to consume who.

When things started to settled down, that area had turned into a dead valley. There was a huge and deep hole on the ground, where there were still some pools of darkness and some burning areas, that were refusing to extinguish. However, apart from that, all the other things were completely gone, nothing remained at that particular area.

But still, there were two different silhouettes, that were perfectly standing there, in the middle of that destroyed area.

Both women were still only testing each other, but the landscape was already suffering some changes from that.

First Shadow suddenly started to fly upwards, and those vortexes of darkness that were still spewing out liquefied essence, suddenly burst out like a broken dam.

"Night Tide!

"

Boom!

A wave of darkness quickly formed, dragging and razing everything away as it moved towards Lilian. The Phoenix Flames still burning on the ground were swiftly consumed by that tide and if it were to arrive at Lilian, the same would be happening to her.

That wave easily surpassed twenty meters in height and as it moved, it was still growing, being fed by those dark portals.

The battlefield was taking huge proportions and the valley where they had initiated their battle, suddenly seemed to be too small. That wave of darkness alone, was already covering the area of thousands of meters, trying to drown everything in sight inside that black nightmare.

Seeing that gargantuan ocean wave of darkness coming her way, Lilian knew she wouldn't be able to deal with it with any simple technique. First Shadow had started to fight seriously and she would have to do the same.

Lilian could try to ascend to the heavens and leave the ground, where that ocean of darkness was trying to reign supreme, but she knew First Shadow could control those black waters like she was controlling one of her limbs. So instead of wasting time with those useless evading attempts, she chose to fight it head on.

Boom!

Her Phoenix aura suddenly expanded and a burning hell unfolded around her. Those flames were just the fluctuations that were announcing the arrival of something bigger.

Lilian's burning red hair danced alongside those flames creating a rising force that imposed itself in front of that dark elemental wave.

"Skybreak Blazing Spire!

"

BOOM!

A huge tower made of burning flames formed around Lilian's body. It was like a tornado made out of a raging fire, had just appeared there, but in reality, it was a spiraling tunnel of flames that swiftly expanded, burning everything in its path. Instead of swirling like any other tornado, it kept growing taller in the form of a spiral of fire, trying to reach the highest heights.

That incomparably big tunnel, reached the sky in no time, dominating everything over there. Those dark portals that were spewing out darkness non-stop were all quickly burned to cinders and the only thing able to contain the power behind Lilian's technique, was that massive wave of darkness that quickly crashed against it.

BOOOM!

An energy storm broke out, destroying everything that had still miraculously withstood the impact that had happened earlier.

Seth and Yuyin were still relatively close to that area and were able to feel the fiercer shockwave from both powers colliding together. Seth was impressed Lilian was able to reach that level after only a year with the Phoenix Spirit. He couldn't help but marvel the powers of those ancient beings.

Serene on the other hand, couldn't believe a scene like that was happening because of her. So many people she didn't even know who they really were, were fighting for her at that moment, even though it was totally because of Seth... She couldn't help but feel myriads of strong emotional storms flooding her heart.. If she ever were to meet all the people that helped her one day, she would make sure to treat them as sisters for life.