It was time.

Aaron came down from the tree and moved crouched, giving the elementals a wide berth, searching the ground for stones to use.

Fire Elementals were flames kept in place by Elemental Energy. Using physical weapons against them was mostly useless. The best way to deal with them was to use the opposite element.

Unfortunately, there was no water source nearby. The second-best element against Fire was Earth. That became his best weapon, throwing dirt using his bare hands.

His secondary means of attack would be the stones he was collecting, all about the size of his thumbnail. He had healed his mouth until it could salivate again, just so he could hold the stones in his mouth.

That was all the water he could use. But more than that, the stones would be useful when he found himself unable to get close to throw dirt at the enemy. Versatility was important, too.

And even more important than versatility would be to keeping moving, both to get close enough to launch the dirt and to dodge counterattacks.

By using soil and wet stones, moving nonstop, replenishing the stones as he used them, and taking advantage of his extensive battle experience, he might kill the elementals one by one. The chance of him killing them now that he had healed some was better than before, a bit less than thirty percent.

He had won battles with worse odds.

Aaron also considered picking up tree branches and swinging them inside the elementals to destabilize their internal energies. He decided against it though. Their Elemental Energy boosted their fire heat enough to disintegrate any branch in an instant.

That said, a long branch as a starting weapon to surprise the enemy would be a good choice. He found a long, steady one and took a deep breath.

With its mouth fueled by stones, Plan B was ready. Time to activate Plan A, trying to wake Lana up.

Qi Espionage: Dark Approach!

Aaron positioned himself so that Lana would be directly between him and Alys in a straight line, then approached slowly and quietly. His body became one with the shadows of the trees. Within the possibilities for someone who was using only Qi, that is. His steps instinctively avoided anything that might make a noise.

Like a predator, he approached the elemental, ready to strike the carnifex closest to Lana. When he reached the perfect attacking distance, he lunged forward with his branch.

Qi Martial Arts: Thrust!

Not all of Aaron's skills were complex. Some were incredibly simple, but it was in their simplicity that the depth of the secrets of the universe was found.

The thrust had no unnecessary movement, it wasted no energy. The branch advanced precisely, untouched by the resistance of the air, refusing the laws of motion that wanted it to return to rest, snubbing the gravity that tried to change its trajectory. It was as if the world could do nothing to affect something as sublime as that simple thrust.

The branch touched the elemental. And as it moved forward, it became ashes. It couldn't penetrate even five inches of the enemy's body.

"Ahhhh!" Aaron shouted to scare the carnifex even more.

It worked. Totally surprised, the elemental let out a yelp, jumped away from Aaron, and ran behind a distant tree, like a frightened animal.

Aaron quickly kneeled beside Lana and grabbed soil with one hand while shaking her with the other.

"Lana!" he shouted. "Wake up, Lana! Wake up now!"

He kept repeating the same words. His hand touched the barrier around her body, not her directly. It was like rocking a doll, as if Lana had been frozen and encapsulated by the Holy Energy, which felt solid to the touch.

All eight elementals were now looking at Aaron. They growled and spread slowly, including the one he had scared. Soon, they would form a half-moon around him.

"Lana!" he insisted. She didn't move.

Aaron sighed, collected soil with his free hand too, and advanced towards the rightmost elemental.

Their reaction was immediate. They all breathed fire on him, forcing him to run sideways. All they had to do to try to reach him was turn their heads. He, however, needed to run fast to survive. Tripping would be lethal.

Qi Martial Arts: Elusive Steps!

Suddenly, his speed increased. He moved according to the Laws of the Universe. He ran straight for a tree, jumped on it, crouched, and launched himself in the opposite direction.

Qi Martial Arts: Personal Launch!

His body was still debilitated, so his launch didn't reach as far as when he had used that skill against the tiger. But it was enough to get him behind the rightmost elemental.

He threw the earth from both hands into the carnifex, just before he reached the ground. He fell rolling and was soon running again, taking stones from his mouth and hurling one at each enemy.

The stones passed straight through the elementals, leaving a small hole that regenerated immediately. The dirt made the first carnifex stop breathing fire, sneeze, and shake its head.

That was all the damage his attack caused. Aaron would need hours to kill one of them like that.

But he was patient. He just needed to avoid getting caught.

He kept running and hid behind a tree to avoid the incoming fire. He was breathless already. Now that he lacked Three Star Qi running freely through his body, his power was close to what it had been when he was Inept.

It was humiliating, yet the thrill of the challenge made him excited.

While fighting, he was also using Qi to heal himself. Two hours. In two hours, he would have regenerated enough to kill each of the carnifexes in a few minutes. He just hoped Alys didn't die until then, and that Lana—

"Alys!" Lana shouted.

Her voice was full of pain and fear.

Lana felt the Patriarch kick her, saw the world turn yellow, and then she was swallowed up by whiteness.

She recognized the white location immediately. He was in the divine space where she was pulled in every time the Goddess of Light wanted to talk to her.

"Child," the voice of the goddess resonated throughout the place. Soft as a mother's embrace, it filled Lana's whole being.

"Your Devout listens, my goddess," replied the Priestess immediately.

"The time is nigh."

The goddess could be incredibly enigmatic when she wanted to. But normally, she spoke more clearly as the conversation progressed. Sometimes Lana needed to ask the right questions though.

"What time, my goddess?"

"The time to let go of me."

Lana's heart skipped a beat. She had heard reports of excommunicated ex-Priestesses. Letting go of the Goddess was nothing more than losing her blessing.

The Goddess was love and never removed a class or energy specialization from her Devouts without their consent, however much they might deserve it. But she was quite vocal about her dissatisfaction with them. Vocal enough that most left her of their own accord after a time. Just like a nagging mother, really.

Lana took a deep breath. "What did I do to deserve such punishment, my goddess?" she asked, already crying.

"It is not punishment that I give you, child. I see everything around you, and I see what will be asked of me. A request that is like a demand from fate itself. For the sake of the universe, sacrifices are necessary. From you and me both."

"What request, my goddess?" Lana felt more and more confused. She didn't buy it wasn't a punishment though. "What sacrifices?"

"You will understand when the time comes. The reason I say these words is so that your heart doesn't weigh heavily when it happens. I understand. Much better than you, I understand. Let go of me when the time comes. It is best for everyone."

"No!" Lana shouted. "My goddess, I beg of you! Please don't! Everything but that!"

A hand made of golden light suddenly materialized in front of Lana and touched her face, wiping her tears away.

She froze in shock.

The goddess's touch was her ultimate sign of love. Only her Chosen were given such a privilege, but Lana was not a Chosen.

"You will understand," said the goddess. "Don't feel bad for letting me go when the time arrives. I understand." She was being strangely repetitive. It was clearly important for Lana to know that the goddess understood whatever was happening and held no grudges. "Now go. I spent a lot of energy interfering to save you. Go, child! I need..." The voice grew distant. "...rest."

The whiteness of the world turned into a whirlwind of colors, and Lana opened her eyes. The first thing she felt was the hard floor. The second was the smell of burned meat and fat.

Sitting up, she looked around and saw eight elementals spitting fire at someone running too fast for her to identify. She had seen the Patriarch use this technique before and assumed it was him.

While running, the Patriarch threw earth and stone at the elementals. The effect was negligible. Then, he hid behind a tree, which received all the fury of the elementals breathing fire on it.

But Lana was no longer paying attention to them.

No, she had seen a body behind the elementals.

A gruesomely charred body, except for the face, which was contorted in pain even though the person was unconscious. Or dead.

"Alys!" Lana shouted.

Alys was...

No, she couldn't be.

But what if she was?

Panic took over Lana. No. She couldn't lose the goddess and Alys on the same day. She couldn't take it. She was not strong enough.

Please, goddess, no...

No...

...

No.

No!

NO!

Her eyes turned to the elementals. It was their fault she was going through all this. She would make them pay.

She pointed her two open hands at them and recited, "The Light that rewards the just is also the Light that punishes the evil. The wicked can't hide, for divine judgment is all-seeing. May my enemies tremble before the glorious fury of the Light! Third Degree Holy Skill: Impetuous Retaliation!"

At each level, the Goddess of Light gave three special abilities to her Devouts, called iridescent skills. One for healing, one for defending, and one for attacking. Each could only be used once by each Devout.

Lana had used only one of the first-degree iridescent skills before, to heal someone who was on the verge of death. That had been a genuine miracle, and the healed man had instantly converted to the Goddess of Light.

But that skill had nowhere near the power she was witnessing now. Impetuous Retaliation was the third-degree iridescent attack skill and its power was... humbling.

She felt small when five times the energy she had in her body left her, something simply impossible.

She felt insignificant when all that energy formed a huge magic circle filled with mystical symbols in the heavens, more complex than anything she had ever seen.

And she recognized that she was nothing before the gods when all the energy around her was instantly condensed into a single golden dot in the center of the circle. That energy then descended on the earth as a finger-thin ray of golden light.

The ray hit one elemental and moved quickly. The beast couldn't do anything before it was cut in half. It dissipated at once, instantly annihilated.

But the ray didn't disappear.

Divine retaliation had come, and it demanded more heathen blood.

Aaron raised an eyebrow when he saw the golden symbols in the air.

They were... pure bullshit.

None of those symbols meant anything. That circle had been created only to look formidable, but it had no consistency. No, although they were full of energy, none of them resonated with any Law.

But he had to admit that they were aesthetically pleasing.

The skill condensed all nine energies in the vicinity with traces of Laws of Light into a single point. Then, it sent a beam of light straight at an elemental, like a golden laser visible to the naked eye.

The soul of the elemental hit by the attack exploded even before the light was done cutting its body. As simple as that, it had died.

After eliminating the first target, the beam moved quickly, cutting the ground in a straight line, destroying all elementals without ceremony. Only a smoking black trail on the floor was left as evidence of what had happened.

Aaron expected the skill to stop there, but it didn't. The ray of light stopped for an instant... then turned towards the bird.

The Master Thunder Elementalist bird.

"Shit!" exclaimed Aaron and ran towards Alys. "Lana, run!" She came out of her stupor and looked at him confused. "Run away, now!" he insisted.

While still running, he picked up Alys with some difficulty, threw her over his shoulder, and kept moving towards Lana.

The ray hit the bird, and it let out a thin cry of pure hatred that shook the entire Red Forest.

After that, Lana turned tail and ran.