The screams of clashing metal and magical explosions continued to tear through the air over the Great Plains. While the center of Orario's formation shook violently withstanding Zald's rampage, the right wing of the army began to experience an equally horrifying collapse.
Dina and Vena moved like dancers of death riding a storm. The pure wind swords in Dina's hands cleaved steel shields as if cutting paper, while Ignis Gladius projectiles from Vena relentlessly bombarded from the air. Not a single mid-level adventurer was able to penetrate the defensive dome of Ventus Canticum.
However, amidst that one-sided slaughter, a flash of pink lightning struck from the sky, followed by the slash of a black sword that cleaved the empty space.
Clang!
Dina crossed her two wind swords, blocking the slash of a dark longsword that suddenly appeared before her. The impact created a shockwave that swept away the dust around them.
In front of Dina, less than a meter away, stood Hogni Ragnar. The dark elf from the Freya Familia gripped his cursed black sword with both hands. There was no look of confusion, no nervousness, and no weird rambling that usually came out of his mouth. Hogni's face was as cold as ice, staring at Dina with absolute killing intent.
At the same time, the figure of Hedin Selland appeared behind Hogni, adjusting his glasses with a fingertip while yellow-white lightning magic danced around his staff.
"So you weren't lying, Hedin," Hogni said softly, his voice heavy and stable without the slightest tremble. "That face... that aura of theirs. They really are another version of those disgusting twins."
Hedin clicked his tongue softly. "Focus, Hogni. Even if they are from another timeline, they are still an obstacle we must eliminate for our Goddess."
On the eastern side, Dina and Vena (who had now floated down to her sister's side) stood calmly. On the western side, the two strongest executives of the Freya Familia stared at them with full vigilance. The meeting of these two pairs of elves who shared a bloody history in the past created an invisible pressure that made the surrounding adventurers hold their breath.
However, something very bizarre suddenly occurred.
When Dina's gaze met Hogni's eyes, and Vena's eyes collided with Hedin's stare, the Anemo Calyx inside the twins' bodies pulsed violently. The wind element was the embodiment of the flow of memories and echoes of the past. In this place, where the air was still thick with the residual trauma of the dark era, the wind element acted like a giant antenna.
Dina and Vena's bodies suddenly jolted. Their eyes widened.
The remnants of dark Excelia and bloody memories of the "Dis Sisters" who were killed seven years ago in this timeline were suddenly forcibly sucked into their minds. The Laws of the World, experiencing a system error (glitch) upon detecting identical DNA and soul vessels, automatically tried to restore the rightful history into their memories.
Dina's lips parted slightly. Her pure green eyes dimmed for a moment, replaced by a vacant stare filled with bloodlust and deep pain. Vena beside her tilted her head, smirking in a highly unnatural way, a smirk that tore at the sanity of anyone who saw it.
"Ah..." Dina's voice sounded slightly hoarse, trembling with an emotion that was not purely her own. "So you two... are the ones who killed us in this timeline."
Those words slipped out effortlessly, causing Hedin and Hogni to instantly freeze. The eyes of the two elite Freya Familia elves widened immensely.
How could they possibly know? In another timeline, the Dis Sisters shouldn't have ever existed. Dina and Vena shouldn't know the details of their murder in this timeline!
However, as Hedin and Hogni saw the shift in their opponents' gestures and the look in their eyes, their blood ran cold. That stare—cold, sadistic, and radiating despair—was a perfect reflection of the monsters they had decapitated and killed in the era of The Great Feud.
"Die!" roared Hogni, charging forward at his maximum speed.
The battle broke out with brutal intensity. Hogni swung his sword in a barrage of deadly slashes, while Hedin fired pillars of yellow-white lightning from afar.
Tiona and Tione Hiryute from the Loki Familia, who were nearby, immediately jumped in to help. "We'll help you, Freya Elves!" shouted Tione, throwing her twin daggers.
However, the situation on the battlefield was not advantageous for the Orario side at all.
Dina and Vena combined the agility of the Anemo Calyx with the killing instincts of the Dis Sisters. Dina spun her body in the air, dodging Hogni's slash by mere millimeters, then thrust her wind blade into Tione's blind spot, forcing her back with a slash wound on her shoulder. Vena stepped on the air, shot upwards, and manipulated Ventus Ruina to swallow Hedin's lightning into a microscopic storm vortex.
The longer the battle dragged on, the more Hedin and Hogni were struck by shock. The attack patterns, feints, and crazy smiles now curling on Dina and Vena's lips were truly identical to their traumatic memories of the Dis Sisters.
In Orario's rear guard, the veteran adventurers who had tasted hell seven years ago began to tremble violently. Panic spread quickly as they witnessed a fighting pattern they knew all too well.
"Those eyes... those movements!" yelled one of the veteran adventurers in a panicked voice. "They've returned... The Dis Sisters really came back to life!"
"Don't waver! Hold your lines, you fools!" snapped Shakti Varma firmly, readying her spear while glaring sharply at the elf twins, even though her own heart skipped a beat witnessing the resurrection of the dark shadows from the era of The Great Feud.
High above the city, on the 30th Floor of the Tower of Babel.
God Venti sat crossing his legs in the main chair of the Denatus, twirling his wine goblet calmly. His sharp teal eyes stared at the Divine Mirror projection displaying the drastic change in Dina and Vena.
Around him, the gods of Orario held their breath witnessing the dark aura suddenly enveloping the elf sisters. Hestia gripped the edge of her table anxiously, while Hermes stared at the screen with a deeply furrowed brow, failing to understand the bizarre phenomenon.
Venti merely smiled faintly, sipping his wine without any intention of explaining anything to the confused gods around him.
'I see...' Venti murmured softly in his heart, his voice flowing calmly behind his mysterious smile. 'The laws of this world experienced a system error when detecting two vessels identical to existences that should have already died in this timeline.'
Venti slowly set his goblet down, looking at the reflections of his two girls who were now struggling within their subconscious.
'Especially since they possess the Anemo Calyx... The wind element is always synonymous with the flow of memories, sounds, and echoes from the past. As I always say, the wind is a storyteller. Because of their absolute sensitivity to the flow of the world's energy and the wind thanks to the Calyx, Dina and Vena unintentionally became 'antennas' that picked up the echoes and screams of despair from their own brutal deaths in this timeline.'
Venti leaned back relaxed in his chair, staring at the screen with the absolute conviction of a patron god without the slightest bit of doubt.
'But I have no need to worry. After all, they are members of my Familia, and I have complete faith in them. The wind of the past... can never break the wings that have already learned to fly in the sky of freedom.'
While the physical bodies of Dina and Vena moved like killing machines under the control of dark instincts, their true consciousness was actually being pulled into an empty void beneath their subconscious.
Dina and Vena opened their eyes. They were no longer on the Great Plains. The scenery around them was nothing but a silent, empty gray expanse.
And before them, only a few steps away, stood two figures they knew very well.
It was themselves—the version of the Dis Sisters from this timeline. They stood wearing exotic combat attire modeled as halter crop tops and high-slit mini skirts. Dina looked elegant in a gold-adorned black top and a magenta-pink skirt, while Vena captivated with her exotic brown skin in a mix of a silver-adorned white top.
The symmetrical elements that used to be the symbol of Evilus's terror were perfectly attached to their bodies—from the floral-ornamented shoulder guards on one side forming the illusion of a single wing, the teardrop tattoos on their cheeks, down to the white capelets floating on their backs, fluttering blown by the void's wind. It was a pure visual projection of the Dis Sisters' remaining memories and Excelia.
Dina clenched her fists, preparing to summon her wind magic, while Vena stepped back with bated breath.
However, unexpectedly, the two bloody figures did not attack. Instead, they smiled. A smile that oddly looked very calm, tired, and fulfilled.
"You guys... are very lucky, huh," said the projection of the past Dina, her voice echoing like the whisper of a cold wind.
"Saved back then by the god named Venti," continued the projection of the past Dina, touching her own neck. "You don't have to experience the same abyss of despair as we did. You don't have to slaughter innocent people just to survive under the will of this rotten world and goddess."
Dina from Venti's timeline swallowed hard. She slowly lowered her pair of wind swords, looking at her other self with a gaze full of sympathy.
"You... aren't you hateful and angry at us?" she asked softly with a trembling voice. "Even though we live happily in our timeline, while you here had to experience despair and die tragically..."
The Dis Sisters laughed softly, a laugh that sounded highly ironic. "Angry? We actually feel envious, yet peaceful. Seeing that in another world, this soul can smile sincerely... that is enough to atone for our sins."
The projection of the past Dina stepped forward, looking straight into the depths of Dina's pure eyes. "Take good care of your god. After all, in your timeline, he is the only entity who answered our prayer of despair. And from those memories of yours... in your timeline, you and Vena once executed a god, didn't you?"
Vena nodded slowly while remembering Ikelos. "Yes. We once sent a god to Tenkai with our own hands."
"Good," the Dis Sisters' smiles widened. "Then we have two final requests before our echoes truly fade away."
"First," said the projection of the past Vena, her eyes sharpening. "Through this remaining Falna bond, we can still feel her presence. Our goddess from Evilus... Alecto. She hasn't died and returned to Tenkai in this timeline. She is highly likely locked up in a secret Guild prison facility. Find her, and kill her for us."
"We will do it," answered Dina without the slightest hesitation.
"Second..." The Dis Sisters' projections looked behind them, as if piercing through the space of the subconscious and seeing the figures of Hedin and Hogni fighting their physical bodies out there. "Please torture those two stupid elves for us. After all, they were the ones who decapitated and electrocuted us mercilessly."
Dina and Vena fell silent. They were not sadistic killers.
Seeing that hesitation, the Dis Sisters laughed softly again. "We know you won't kill indiscriminately like us. You are versions that are too pure. How ironic. The same existence, yet with completely different personalities."
The bodies of the Dis Sisters projections began to glow dimly, slowly shattering into golden and silvery Excelia dust.
"As payment... we will give all the remaining reinforcement of our lifespan to you. Use these sins and our remnants to win your battle!"
The silvery and golden dust shot forward like a storm, crashing straight into Dina and Vena's chests. The pure energy containing the accumulation of life-and-death battles during the dark era flowed heavily, merging with the Barbatos Falna on their backs.
In the real world, time that seemed to have stopped flowed once again.
Hogni, who was launching a deadly slash towards Dina's neck, suddenly stopped. Not because he held back his attack, but because his sword blade was halted by pure air pressure that suddenly exploded from the elf sister's body.
WHOOOSSSHHH!
A pillar of golden-green Anemo energy exploded from Dina and Vena's bodies, soaring high piercing the sky of the Great Plains. The hurricane created from the explosion blasted Hogni, Hedin, Tione, and Tiona a dozen meters away until they rolled on the ground.
In the center of that wind pillar, Dina and Vena's backs shone brightly. The sacred hieroglyphic letters of their Falna updated themselves automatically. The accumulation of high-level Excelia from the Dis Sisters had perfected their achievement requirements in the blink of an eye.
The limit had been shattered.
Level Up! From Level 4... breaking straight into Level 5!
Dina and Vena opened their eyes. The vacant and crazed stare of the Dis Sisters had completely vanished, replaced by the absolute sharpness and majestic calmness of the wind element. They spread their arms. The Anemo Calyx reacting to their new Level 5 vessel resonated incredibly.
The aura pressure radiating from the two elf girls crushed the grass around them to dust. Thanks to the power multiplication from the Anemo Calyx, the pure pressure they produced was no longer in the realm of Level 5. The pressure broke through common sense, matching the ferocious aura radiating from Ottar and Leon Vardenburg!
Two existences equivalent to Level 8 had just been born in the middle of the battlefield.
At the Orario frontline, the commanders who had been holding their breath seeing the phenomenon felt their knees go weak.
Facing Zald, whose strength was beyond reason, was already a nightmare that drained all their defensive pillars. And now, on the other defensive wing, two elf sisters with absolute elemental authority stood radiating extraordinary pressure that dominated the entire battlefield.
The sound of dropping weapons was heard in Orario's rear lines. The hands of the mid-tier adventurers trembled. The air of despair, far denser than anger, officially enveloped the stage of the Orariopiad. Orario's arrogance had just been broken by the blowing storm of the past.
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