Aria and Cely truly did enjoy themselves for a full week there. Though now it was time to move on. During this time, Cely had made some progress toward the second stage of the Nascent Soul Realm, while Aria had broken through to the Light Attunement Realm, already at the second stage.
Seeing her daughter advancing so steadily and quickly made Cely very proud. The other guests in the hotel ranged from being happy for her for having such a daughter to being extremely jealous.
How often is it that you see someone with an unparalleled talent?
Pretty much never!
Even in Neal, the largest world of this plane, such a thing is like a phoenix feather. Rare to no end, and even if you find it, unattainable.
The person Cely felt the most jealousy from was a red, thorny bush in one of the room's corners.
Not really caring, though, Cely emerged onto the soil again. A relaxed, happy smile on her face.
"Aria, darling, come! We have places to be."
Aria's head emerged from the ground.
"But, moo~om! I wanna stay~!"
She was giving puppy-dog eyes while, at the same time, pouting to play cute.
"Fine then. No dinner."
Instantly, Aria appeared at her feet in a flash of light, staring up at her with a resolute expression.
"Mommy, Cely, come! We have places to be!"
Hearing this, Cely couldn't help but laugh as she ruffled Aria's hair.
"May we meet again."
As she said this, Cely saw multiple branches and other parts of the plants sway as if to wave goodbye before she left the lobby and stepped out onto the large sidewalk.
When Cely appeared on the street, she had to adjust to the large volume of strangers everywhere, since she had been holed up with her daughter in the serene hotel lobby for the last week and wasn't used to it anymore.
Having gotten her rest, Cely got to the second part of her business in Xilia. Stocking up.
Quickly, she arrived in the shopping district. Buying up large amounts of spices, condiments, and other cooking necessities. She also appeared at the Alchemy Association to make some healing pills. Flashing her Tier 5 Alchemist Badge, she quickly got the ingredients she needed and rented a pill refining room.
It took a few hours, but since she had already advanced to the Nascent Soul Realm, the drain on her was pretty much nonexistent. She didn't plan on making any cultivation pills. Her Mystic Dishes already covered that, and overdoing it would just lead to Aria being unable to adapt to her changing strength appropriately, even if her foundation remained stable.
After leaving the building, Cely returned to walking until suddenly, her surroundings changed. A dozen hooded figures clad in black robes, inscribed with red symbols, surrounded her.
Cely, noting this and the apparent concealment formation that had been erected around them, pulled Arai behind her, looking wearily at the figures.
All of them were at least Soul Tier, with three being immortals. The worst part, though, was the red-haired woman in front of her. She was a Golden Immortal.
"We meet again."
The woman uttered, looking down at Cely, who was wearily keeping one hand behind her to keep Aria back.
"What do you want?"
Cely knew this woman. She was the red bush from the hotel. The one who had been most jealous of her daughter.
"Give her to us, and we will-"
Before the woman could finish the sentence, though, she noticed a slight movement of Cely's left hand. The woman vanished, appearing in front of one of the Soul Tier figures.
A chain sword materialised in the hand of the woman, whipping out into thin air, before clashing violently with something. A swish sounded right after that, and as the woman landed on the ground, a finger claw appeared on Cely's left side, hovering in the air.
The woman's eyes narrowed. "Sneaky. Kill her." Her tone was cold, and none of the cloaked figures hesitated
The two other immortals instantly cast techniques. One of them caused the water in the air to crystallize into sharp blades, while the other caused the rest of the air to solidify, trapping Cely.
Seeing it work, the two immortals thought they would just watch Cely get shredded to pieces, yet silver flashes tore through the air, intercepting each of the ice blades.
At the same time, the air around Cely returned to normal in a flash of purple that emanated from one last finger claw she was still wearing on her right hand.
Getting a moment to breathe, Cely stuffed Aria into her storage ring before the letter could protest
Seeing Cely standing there with nine finger claws hovering around her protectively, the red-haired woman signaled for her Soul Tier subordinates to retreat. They would just end up being dead weight here and, other than setting up the formation in which they were, they had no use.
Seeing the other nine figures retreat, Cely didn't interfere. She couldn't afford to.
The two groups looked at each other silently for a second, trying to gauge each other, before, in a blink, all four of them flashed, causing a violent clash to reverberate throughout the formation.
Each of the weaker immortals was kept in check by two of her finger claws, while the other five that were airbound clashed with the red-haired woman.
The chain sword crashed into Cely's finger claws, shooting them away violently the moment they met, while the other two figures were relatively evenly matched. Channeling more energy into the last of her finger claws that was on her right hand, Cely accumulated Immortal Qi for a second.
"Darkness!" Unleashing her domain the very next, in a flash of purple. Since she had reached the Nascent Soul Realm and acquired her Divine Sense, the energy necessary for casting her domain had dropped significantly.
The three immortals were confused for but a fraction of a moment before they got their bearings, attempting to dispel the domain that was robbing them of their senses. Before one of the Human Immortals could do so, though, one of the finger claws pierced through his forehead.
That was far from enough to kill him, though.
Flesh could be seen wriggling, trying to close up the hole the very next second, but Cely was faster. Though her domain deprived people of their senses, it did so by absorbing all information and energy inside of it.
Since Cely was the one absorbing, she, of course, could sense everything very clearly. And it was way clearer than her Divine Sense.
So, without an issue, Cely found her target, and with full force, sliced him vertically down the middle. The Human Immortal only grunted in pain as both his cultivation and soul were cut in one swing.
The next moment, with the sound of glass shattering, Cely's domain broke apart, revealing the Golden Immortal woman standing in the center of the formation with her chain sword. The other Human Immortal man could be seen next to her, heavily injured as well, with many holes across his body healing up.
"BITCH!"
The red-haired woman had completely lost her composure. Her expression was livid, red, mysterious symbols flashing across the skin on her face. All the while, parts of her were reverting to her true form, her thorny branches and leaves spreading out slowly but surely.
She could tell Cely was stronger than her. And with one of the Human Immortals gone, she had no time to spare.
'I guess I must.'
The other Human Immortal, still focusing on healing, didn't notice that one of the woman's branches had quietly appeared next to him. The next moment, it pierced his body.
Not even screaming, the Human Immortal looked at the woman in despair. Incapable of resisting it, his blood began to flow along that branch, as strange syllables emanated from the lips of the red-haired woman.
The moment Cely heard the syllables the woman was starting to spout, immense shock and alarm flashed through her eyes, forcing her to look at a strange, alien formation forming on the ground, made of the blood of the Human Immortal.
"You lunatic!"
Screaming, Cely scrambled to retrieve a talisman from her storage ring, with the word "Judgement" written on the back of it, which she activated without hesitation.
The crazed smile that had formed on the still-chanting face of the woman was illuminated in a bright flash of golden light, as the strange formation on the ground activated with a final syllable, a name, uttered by the woman.
"Ezaroth!"
The huge pillar of golden light from the talisman crushed the formation that had been concealing the fight, making Cely appear in the middle of the sidewalk.
She couldn't care about this, or the fact that everyone was staring at her now, though. The only thing Cely focused on was the center of that golden pillar of light. The figure of the woman had already melted under the immense power of a Demi-Divinity talisman she had gotten from Grimm, but that was not the issue.
The issue was what the woman did before she died. She had summoned the avatar of a Devil.
Devils were unlike any normal creatures. Though most appeared humanoid, they were completely different. Devils didn't exist in this plane of existence. The only time Devils could manifest here is through summonings. And these summonings take sacrifices. Depending on the strength and amount of sacrifices, it empowers the summoned avatar.
The thing is, if the Devil itself is powerful enough, even a "weak" sacrifice like a single Human Immortal can summon God Tier entities. And this Ezaroth, Cely knew them. They were also known under a different name in ancient scripts she had read:
Sin of Envy, Ezaroth