Master of Myths

Lightning cracked the earth open causing fissures to fill the ground as fire from above boomed the land into smithers, one look and anyone would think doomsday was near

At least for most people it did, among this rain of destruction though two figures were not at all amazed, emerging from the heavy bombing with a deadpan expression

"This is too much"

Complained Ellis who'd already switched from the heavy armor into lighter clothes, not needing to hide her face this deep into a territory no one could spy on

The white haired Zero by the side nodded, even for her the intense rapid attacks could not be easily withstood, not to mention she couldn't mend her clothes like Ellis could thanks to that special hairpin, leaving her in somewhat tattered and exposing pieces after the prolonged fighting 

"Even when we were moving nonstop these little round guys could improve quickly enough to put a fight, not to mention being such a cohesive force"

The redhead wondered if humans could have been just as scary if they were a united front from the beginning

'It's not too late now, if we could have them come together.....'

Just the thought of it made the idea seem like a tall order, before she would believe so with certainty, but after seeing how guilds operate individually and only cooperate in a crisis she realized humans, while strong in groups, sought their own paths for the most part

Boom! "Ss"

A splash of fire caught her off guard promoting a sharp breath just before the wound was covered by aura to keep off any more damage

"Focus"

Reminded Zero while deftly commanding her evil spirits to soak in some of the damage for them, sacrificing themselves in the process

"Sure it's alright to have them killed like that?"

"My Lord said spirits don't have souls so killing them won't affect my skill's use"

Weren't spirits souls? Did Ellis miss something in the loud booms?

No time was given for more idle chatter since smoke formed in front of them in the shape of numbers counting down

"Three minutes? We should evacuate the area quickly"

Their job as a distraction was done allowing them to happily escape the enemy formation

That being said it wasn't so easy to do, the formation itself seemed to be moving with them as the center, relentlessly trapping them in a torrent of flames and thunder

"You are not the only one's improving"

With a smirk the redhead changed her outfit into a feathered one, demi wings extending behind her calf and elbows that negated much of the wind resistance, the speed it gave her might not be amazing to be half more of her original but the small increase made a difference, gradually allowing her to put some distance from Zero who remained stuck in the battlefield

"...She's gone far enough"

Seeing as Ellis disappeared beyond vision Zero decided she gave her enough of a headstart not to be stuck in the middle, now she could finally leave as well

While her clothes couldn't be changed her entire form could be, morphing into a huge bat and taking off with speed a few times faster than her running, outpacing Ellis within a minute and arriving at the border of the formation, then flying beyond it

"Haaah, haah"

Ellis caught up near the end of the timer, panting for breaths as her loose feathers started to show too much cleavage

The timer soon hit zero and the smoke dispersed, then came a momentary silence before

BooooOOOOOm!

"!!" "..."

Compared to the nuclear like explosion before them what they went through looked like fireworks, perhaps even children's crackers

"If  they could do that we should have had them come from the beginning"

Ellis muttered in a complaining manner, the Witness and its followers saved so much time with one attack, if it was Ika alone it would have taken hours on end

"It's our fault for not being able to keep up"

Corrected Zero making Ellis feel down but also fired up to work harder

'It is true that we are slow in comparison to the improvement of these odd creatures but we are also facing an entire race, our levels and skills have stagnated as well…that's no excuse however'

Certainly it wasn't, perhaps she did not put too much effort into this, or perhaps she was doing something wrong

'Still, it would have been better not to gove these things time to improve and outright bomb them with our comrades' firepower'

She regretted not having a hand earlier, running around with fire being shot at you and lightning bursting under your booty was no fun

Meanwhile, on the other side of the annihilated formation, YuJu was also looking regretfully at the mess, regretful that he had to call the Witness

'I need them to do their task as fast as possible, can't bother too much with this'

The many eyed creatures and its gang were not idle, right after the raid had ended he sent them on an excavation mission to support the incoming consumption of his skill

'I should try to analyze their pattern of learning more, dumping the use of creatures altogether and resorting to stimulating natural disasters was out of my expectations, not to mention they weren't even looking at Ellis and Zero, only one or two did so to guide the formation'

He did not know whether they figured something out about his special sense or if it was a coincidence, either way it proved to be a headache science he could no longer track them forcing him to blow the entire place up, otherwise it might take an entire week just to break apart the formation

'If only I gathered some more information I might not be in this perdicement'

Its been three months since they entered this new land which even he knew not much about, beside what these creatures could do he was absolutely clueless since the entre half year when this land appeared and flourished until the day it got raided to the ground he was trapped somewhere far, far away

'No matter, we are almost there'

Clueless as he may be YuJu regained hope of finding the mission as he turned toward the huge dome in the far distance

"Just what are you"

Gazing at it unstealthed he could feel the dome gazing back, a weird inconsistent feeling, much like…

"...an illusion"

Which would be a terrible thing to believe since if the level of illusion reaches beyond the physical realm and into self awareness then for sure, this war would be lost

'Well, let's hope for the best'

Motioning to Ika and the Witness he had the two follow as he made a trail, guiding them to surround and light up certain areas where he could feel many sets of eyes came from during the earlier explosion

Every time they blew up something he would yet again ascertain another group through their panicked gazes, thus making an irregular line of darkened potholes in his path toward the dome

Ellis and Zero followed behind riding on Jasper, while the master of this shadow dragon was happily resting inside YuJu's shadow

"Well done, off you go, and remember to properly escort Aaron home once your done, make sure he remains unspotted"

The Witness responded with nothing, only disappearing in a puff of smoke, YuJu was assured it would do its job however given it had no other choice

"Master, are we to attack that dome's residents?"

With the huge structure not far from them Ellis naturally assumed they would be going on full assault, maybe even end this long and tiresome journey

"Hmm"

YuJu didn't outright answer however, looking at the dome with some suspicion

"Zero, punch it with everything you have"

"Yes my Lord"

Flying toward it she came down clenching her fist, Unhinged activated, charged used to boost speed, and all her power concentrated into one fist

"Ha!" Puf!

The strike was heavy and merciless, so was the realization of its ineffectiveness, the small cloud of dust blooming from her mighty attack looking to mock her weakness

"...."

"It's okay, I expected as much"

Comforting the silent woman he came to inspect the dome himself

"Its texture looks like a miss match between ores and skin, perhaps they tried combining things they imitated before into making this large barrier?"

It sounded very likely that is the case, still, he doubted they could make such a thing given how they had their entire efforts concentrated on improving battle effectiveness against them, not to mention the few races and creatures who have yet to give up on the raid

"Master, I think this is not an illusion"

Intervened Ellis, bringing a new thought onto the table

"Not an illusion..certainly I feel no aura coming from it"

Having missed such an important detail he focused to see if there was anything else he did not notice

'Not an illusion, not an illusion….not an illusion?...oh no'

If this wasn't an illusion, did it not mean what he felt before was…

"Run!"