The gathered ancestors watched Elisa's battle projection in stunned silence, murmurs breaking out among them as the image faded and the next battle projection began to take its place. Discontent rippled through the assembly — her fight had been kept hidden from them, and that secrecy did not sit well.
The heavenly mountain ancestor's clone rose from his throne, clasping his hands toward the high seats where the guardian ancestors and the forsaken god sat observing the elites' battles unfold across the shimmering projections.
"Grand Ancestor Behan," the heavenly mountain ancestor said, "why was the battle of the young woman from the forsaken realm hidden from us?"
Jenny rose from her seat. "Because she is my new direct disciple, and I won't have the enemy faction's spies beyond the realm learning her true power."
A ripple of shock and envy passed through the ancestors seated below the high thrones. An elite from the forsaken camp becoming Jenny's direct disciple meant that faction now carried the backing of a guarding ancestor — a weight that would end the endless competition for world resources and techniques overnight, since every guarding ancestor swore to protect their disciples' realms and lend aid in times of crisis. The forsaken god, whom all the ancestors had long looked down upon, now had one of his elites accepted as a disciple of the most powerful female being in existence. And she was formidable in her own right — touching the threshold of true peak-turns with movements so casual only an ancestor-level being should have been capable of them.
The forsaken god smiled faintly at the gathering, his attention fixed on Elisa's projection. Though he sat physically among the lower ancestors beneath the high seats, his spiritual awareness already rested among the guarding ancestors above.
On the floating continent, the three-headed drake vanished, swallowed whole by the land beneath Elisa's feet. The engravings and restrictions carved into the ground flared to life, and the earth quaked violently beneath her. The ground split open, baleful aura pouring out through the enclosed space of the continent. The sound of shattering chains rang out from the fissure, and a black humanoid figure shot into the sky at incredible speed, sinister laughter echoing through the confined space. It stopped laughing when it spotted the tiny figure standing below — and dropped from the sky with a deafening BANG, the shockwave alone scattering the dust and wind across the barren expanse.
The humanoid's true form was revealed: a werewolf clad in a breastplate of some precious, unknown metal, canines bared, a pair of black wings folded behind its back. It spoke, voice dripping with amusement.
"How exciting — a new plaything to toil with. Hey, girl, don't be scared, this god will make it quick for you. I can sense you're at least a special lifeform. What a delicious delicacy. Bragon really does take care of his captives."
The werewolf spread its wings and hovered before Elisa. She only smiled, shifting into her half-dragon, half-human form, staring back at it with a burning eagerness for battle. The werewolf faltered, confusion flickering across its face — the sweet young girl from moments ago had become a battle-hardened beast radiating a bone-chilling aura. Despite being an immortal god-tier lifeform at the true peak-turns level, it felt an unexpected pressure bearing down on it. Its own strength measured six trillion times that of an ISG, over a hundred times stronger than a half-step peak-turn special lifeform — and still, something about her made it hesitate.
It dashed forward regardless, claw outstretched to seize her — only to grasp thin air. Elisa's figure had blurred and vanished the instant before contact.
The werewolf froze. Even at the ancestor level, it hadn't been able to track her movement. Before it could process the shock, Elisa formed a series of seals with her hands, activating a tenth of the mysterious engravings etched into her spiritual body and soul. Her power surged instantly to match the werewolf's own. She reappeared before it and lashed out with her tail.
BOOM!
The blow sent the werewolf hurtling into the distance. It steadied itself mid-air, only to realize it had lost ten percent of its total energy from that single exchange. Among the guarding ancestors watching the projection, shock rippled through the ranks — they knew Elisa was only a half-step peak-turn above a calamitous lifeform. She wasn't supposed to be capable of this so soon.
The ancestors were left speechless, but the forsaken god remained unsurprised. Jenny turned to him, asking why the display of power that defied all logic hadn't shaken him. He only smiled and shared with them the memories of Elisa's time within the forsaken realm — the moment of her rebirth inside the cave, and the strange engravings that had etched themselves into her being.
Govot rose from his seat at the sight, sealing off the area around them with a wave of his hand. "Impossible... impossible. Those engravings belong to my master's close friend — someone who has crossed beyond the level of an Above Peak-turns into territory we cannot even comprehend. How did she—" He stopped mid-sentence and sank back into his seat, quiet. Behan and Jenny exchanged a glance; they both understood exactly what he had almost said — something forbidden to speak of within the beyond realm.
Back on the continent, Elisa and the werewolf traded blow after blow, inflicting serious injuries on one another. Elisa's momentum had dropped to half of what it once was, but the werewolf fared no better — it had burned through seventy percent of its overall energy, its strength falling sharply. Still reeling from shock, it began to retreat, until its keen sense of smell caught the fading edge of Elisa's borrowed power. Sensing her boost beginning to wear off, it seized the opening and shifted into its true form: a massive black wolf with a fiery red mane and folded wings, standing a thousand kilometers at the withers. Its howl split the sky, turning the heavens over the continent blood-red beneath a bloody moon. Though the continent's restrictions capped the size and strength of any being fighting within it, the wolf's strength remained untouched by the seal — only its size was bound.
The wolf charged, fangs bared. Elisa only smiled — its strength now sat just above hers, and if she gave everything she had, she could meet it head-on in her true form. She shifted into her dragon form and charged to meet it, her size likewise bound by the continent's laws.
For a moment, the wolf faltered — staring at Elisa's true form felt like an inferior being daring to challenge the noblest creature in existence. But its cultivation, seated firmly at the true peak-turns level, steadied it, and pride won out over instinct. It pressed the attack, determined to trample her beneath its strength and feed its ego.
As its fangs closed in, Elisa struck first — her claw slashing down toward its head. The wolf's teeth sank into her tail even as her claw, wreathed now in black flame, severed its neck clean from the rest of its body.
Her raw strength alone could never have accomplished such a cut — it was the black flame wrapped around her claws that made it possible. The wolf tried to reconnect its head through sheer spiritual force, but a searing, corrosive pain lanced through the wound the instant it tried. Fortunately, it had long since shifted its core consciousness into its tail. It abandoned the attempt to regrow its head, unwilling to burn through more energy against the relentless erosion still eating away at the wound.
Seeing the wolf unable to reconnect, Elisa pressed her advantage, severing limb after limb to strip it of any chance at mobility. Two limbs fell before the wolf, its main body ruined and its situation hopeless, finally admitted defeat — surrendering a world core.