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Elizabeth, Hikari, and the unconscious Reinhardt took flight into the dark skies of the Nightmare Realm. Powerful wingbeats carried them forward at great speed while the twisted landscape of living forests and shadowed canyons stretched endlessly below.
While flying toward their next destination as fast as possible, Elizabeth noticed several new system notifications appearing one after another in her vision.
After defeating that giant swarm of chimeric insectoids, she had earned a nice amount of experience points, especially because there had been so many of them.
They had not been the strongest beings she had ever fought and defeated, but it was clear that even when the boss was two ranks below her, the strange power the Nightmare Realm granted almost put it on par with her own strength.
However, she still ended up being tougher, stronger, and faster in the end, ultimately defeating the swarm queen without breaking much of a sweat. Getting a little roughed up against foes even a rank or two lower than her was always a given unless she used super strong, wide-range spells, which she could not risk because she had to make sure not to harm the humans trapped right there in the middle of the battlefield.
Nonetheless, she had gained plenty of levels from the hard-fought battle.
Ding!
[Due to the accumulation of EXP, your Levels have increased.]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[…]
[Your Dragon Path has Leveled Up from Level 167 to Level 178!]
[Your Chaos Demon Path has Leveled Up from Level 146 to Level 157!]
[Your High Human Path has Leveled Up from Level 118 to Level 131!]
[Your Ice Dragon Path has Leveled Up from Level 22 to Level 40!]
[Your Adventurer Class has Leveled Up from Level 126 to Level 133!]
[Your Jack of all Trades Class has Leveled Up from Level 36 to Level 44!]
[All your Stats have increased.]
[You earned a large quantity of Stat Points.]
[You have earned 1,500,000 System Points.]
[Your Bonded Familiar: [Incarnation of the Spiral of Eternity: Paragon – Rank 3: Level 144/300] has Leveled Up to Level 158!]
[Your Bonded Familiar: [Dark Nether Treant: Dryad – Rank 2: Level 110/200] has Leveled Up to Level 121!]
Elizabeth carefully read through every message, feeling the steady surge of power that came with each level up. Some of her Skills had also leveled up during the fight, and a few had even reached Max Level. She was already considering whether she should evolve them right away, since her System Points were high enough to afford several of those upgrades.
She was also wondering about something else at the same time.
"Astraea, when are you going to evolve? Do I need some kind of material for your evolution as well?" she asked her spirit, which appeared gracefully by her side in the rushing wind.
"Ah, Elizabeth!" Astraea replied. "About my Evolution… I don't know for sure. There's nothing saying what kind of materials or requirements I need… it's all completely blank."
"Wait, so you're stuck at Tier 1?!" Elizabeth was clearly surprised by the answer.
"No, I am sure that your auntie, my creator, must know what I have to do," said Astraea with a thoughtful expression. "She probably never thought I would level up this fast though… that's why I am stuck here for now. Maybe I need some kind of Update? Well, this is a perfect opportunity to call your Aunt Kate at some point, and perhaps even meet her mother, one of the Immortal Divine Dragon King's wives, and the current Creator and Master of the System, Lady Andromeda."
"A-Andromeda?!" Elizabeth gasped aloud.
Andromeda did not exist in the setting she had written back then in the game. This was also a completely new character original to this world, one that was even described as the "origin" of the System itself!
"Yes, she could be said to be the All-Mother of the System, the Supreme Moderator and Administrator, the Origin!" Astraea said with clear reverence. "If I could meet her… in person too! Ah, no, that is too big of a dream. She's an almighty Star in the Cosmos, a Cosmic Titan of Supreme Power. Naturally, it is said she is always by the side of your great grandfather."
"Hm, well, I've met people that are also pretty god-like, so maaaaybe it'll be possible?" the dragon princess wondered. "Though I have absolutely no idea who I should even contact for that… well, let's leave it for later."
"I'm sure you can easily contact your aunt through me," said Astraea. "But the Nightmare Realm here not only is generating a dangerous time dilation, it is also blocking all signals… so it's impossible right now."
"As I said, let's leave it for later. There's more dangerous things we need to take care of first," Elizabeth sighed, turning her focus back to the landscape ahead.
So far they had been able to rescue at least almost half of the people that got trapped inside, which was already a big success. However, Elizabeth could still detect a couple of living beings remaining… and also a lot of dead ones. Their souls were flying steadily toward the core of the Nightmare Realm, where the developing Nightmare Embryo was growing faster and faster with every passing moment.
"Is it my idea or is it growing?" Hikari asked, narrowing her eyes against the wind. "Your majesty, what will we do? Can we defeat such a being?"
"It is still growing, so we can…!" Elizabeth nodded with determination. "I've beaten even more dangerous monsters before… the thing is, once we beat it, according to this little guy over here, the people still trapped inside will be caught in the Nightmare Realm's destruction and will… likely die. This is why we're hurrying up and rescuing any of the survivors as fast as we can!"
"I see…!" Hikari nodded firmly. "But… what about those that already died?"
"Seeing how their souls are being pulled out of their bodies so quickly, I don't think I can revive them," sighed Elizabeth with clear regret. "My healing magic can reanimate recently deceased people, but without their souls they won't return, you know? That's… well… I need to be realistic about it."
"…" Hikari nodded solemnly. "Of course, you're completely right… let's save as many as we can before destroying that thing!"
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