Chapter 553: INSUFFICIENT
The ripped-off head of the Valkyrie suddenly started to shine in a brilliant gray light as it fell; from the torn neck, her body began to grow back in reverse.
Her spine manifested, followed by bones, forming the skeletal structure; then came the muscles, organs, and blood vessels.
Before her body could fully take shape, a halo of pitch-black darkness wrapped around her, preventing the countless onlookers from seeing her skin and divine body.
Eventually, Sophia’s entire physique was reforged anew; extreme shock and disbelief were written on Zabiur Ulpranak’s skull face.
This shock was even greater for the soldiers on the Unified Armies’ side; they, who had lost all hope moments ago, were given that hope back before the despair could even fully take hold of them.
Sophia’s eyes flashed as her dead eyes looked alive again, but her face was frost-cold, oozing hatred and boundless killing intent that was directed solely at the figure of Zabiur.
As she came back alive again, a bunch of notifications flashed on her retina...
[You have performed an impossible feat]
[You have revived yourself from the state of death]
[You are now eligible for the advancement to third phase]
[Initiating immediate advancement to Third Phase]
An unrestricted rush of worldly power that was present through the bloody battlefield, from the entire warzone, trembled, rushing at her from all directions, overwhelming her with so much power that it was as if multiple fourth-phase existences were advancing instead of just one entity promoting to the third phase.
Sophia paid no attention to her advancement, as most other normal seekers should in this vulnerable moment of their evolution, a process that should be handled with complete focus and utmost caution.
Instead, she used that moment to her advantage, where she had unrestricted access to the worldly energy which was transforming her entire being and the Soul Sanctum within.
She manifested more than a kilometer-long ginormous spear made of her Saint Force, attributed by the All-Encompassing Darkness.
Amid her falling motion, she hurled the inconceivably titanic spear towards the figure of the Deathly Hollow.
Who was still in shock; things had happened too quickly; more than that, Zabiur had personally sensed the Valkyrie’s complete life force dissipate into nothingness, so how did she come back to life?
Even Leonidas Suncrest and Zeledin Ulpranak, the two mid-6th-phase entities who plotted Sophia’s death, did not understand how it was possible.
For a truly dead being to come back alive.
Suddenly, the red eyes of the Sun King glinted in understanding as a thought flashed in his mind; he whispered to himself, his tone contained a silent rage, "The reservoir of the purest life force she absorbed from Fenrir, she used that... huh, and manifested her life back onto the reality."
***
Zabiur did not have much time to think on the matter, as an attack rushed at him madly; the figure of Osiris had long moved away from the path of that destructive attack.
The Deathly Hollow sneered, as he manifested a gargantuan black trident, made of his pure Death Energy containing a fragment of the 5th phase’s power.
The High-Lich hurled it downwards; the instant the descending black trident of Death Energy collided against the ascending Spear of the All-Encompassing Darkness.
The world turned completely dark despite the Sun hanging right in the crimson skies with no clouds in sight.
Such impact between the two one-kilometer-long spears eventually caused a crack to form in the outermost layer of the battlefield’s space.
Every other ongoing battle was forced to stop momentarily by the shockwave from this clash.
They were all pushed back greatly, almost to the very edges of the warzone.
BOOOOOM!!
booooooomm!!
Crack!!
Krashh!!!
As the two titanic weapons shattered upon impact, the skies cleared once more, but that painted a more harrowing scene.
Clusters of Darkness and Death energies rained from the Crimson heavens like hellfire; even the third-phase seekers, the lowest level of combatants within this warzone, felt their hearts shudder at the sight of such power on such a grand scale.
Sophia’s body hit the ground; the shockwave of the impact had pushed her downwards with even greater velocity. She gritted her teeth and stood up.
The worldly energy rushing into her mended all her wounds; with a low growl, she got up, and in that moment her advancement had also been completed.
[You have completed your advancement to the third phase, congratulations, Sophia Evercrest]
Sophia felt anew, as every facet of her existence had been elevated to a much higher state. She was so much stronger than she had been just moments ago, but even then, it was not enough.
Because only advancing to the initial third phase was not enough to survive against the combined assault of the High-Lich and the demon Osiris.
Sophia had accumulated an immense amount of life force stolen from her enemies onto herself, even excluding the life force she absorbed from Fenrir.
She wanted to use it all and advance to mid or late third phase in one go, but she was forced to waste it all to manifest herself into reality after being killed so unexpectedly by the Deathly Hollow.
Sophia gritted her teeth and thought to herself, ’If only I had advanced to mid or late third phase...damn it...’
’I might have been able to kill at least one of them, and my survival would not be left to luck,’ she surmised in her mind.
Sophia’s gaze sharpened as she did not hold back on her power and used her strongest card; right from the get-go, she shouted, "Saint Art, Warrior of the All-Encompassing Darkness...."
A mighty wave of darkness exploded from within Sophia, spreading through the entire battlefield. The bloody warzone seemed to turn a shade of gray, as if, under the weight of her darkness, the world lost its right to possess some of its colors, to the discerning eyes of all living beings in that area.
This loss of color was even more pronounced around Sophia; an impenetrable halo of darkness surrounded her.
Like a slithering snake, the All-Encompassing darkness condensed and seemed to come alive; it wrapped around the Valkyrie’s divine figure and manifested a glistening pitch-black armor over her body, followed by a dark helmet with two gray feathers on either side, which took its place on her head.
Sophia held her hand forward, and a massive amount of darkness around her condensed and swirled like writhing worms, eventually forming into a thin, 1.5-meter-long sword in her hand; the longsword was so black it seemed to actively absorb the surrounding light.
The demonic eyes of Osiris flickered for a moment as he watched this scene unfold from the skies.
Even the arrogant High-Lich’s gaze turned serious.
Sophia, from the ground, looked up at the two and grinned viciously beneath her helmet; her ruthless resolve was evident from that one glance, so what if there was a possibility she could truly die here?
But the price required to pay for anyone to be able to kill her would be extremely steep.
She pushed one foot down, causing cracks to bloom in the ground in the pattern of a flower.
BAAANNNGG!!
With one stomp of her foot, her body shot up more than 500 meters into the skies; she declared, her voice echoing through the crimson heavens of the battlefield, "Valkyrian Sword Style, First Form, Probability Pencer."