Sergei and the two sisters, Lira and Nira, were facing the Lotus. The only reason they were able to contend with the Lotus on equal terms was because of the two mysterious sisters.
Before Sergei's eyes, the bodies of Lira and Nira shimmered with pale spiritual light. Their figures blurred, their outlines melting together like reflections merging on water.
In a single breath, the two became one.
Now the two sisters had merged into a single body, and the result was a breathtakingly beautiful woman with glowing skin, capable of enchanting any man who looked at her. She carried the aura of a goddess, a presence born from her Innate Spiritual Body.
The Lotus suddenly peeled off one of its petals and launched an attack.
Swish.
With the sharp sound of air being cut, the petal shot toward the enchantress. It was a spiritual attack.
She calmly raised her hand, and a blue lotus rose into the air to shield her.
The blue lotus and the incoming petal crashed into each other.
Boom.
With a fierce explosion, both attacks dissolved into the air and vanished. The impact shook the cavern as both attacks dissolved into shimmering fragments of spiritual energy.
The Innate Spiritual Body was a unique constitution capable of both defending against and launching spiritual attacks. By merging together and increasing their power, the sisters were able to stand against the Lotus.
Sergei used that brief moment to prepare his strongest attack.
"Golden Piercing Cone."
A blazing golden cone blasted toward the Lotus, filled with rumbling metallic energy that ruptured the cavern around it.
"Hundred Stems Binding Hand."
The Lotus raised a hundred stems into the air, forming a massive net. The golden cone became entangled within the net but did not stop. It struggled forward with immense force.
Then ten giant hands formed from the stems and grabbed the cone, stopping it completely.
In the process, the Lotus lost many stems and was badly wounded. However, the group of three sages, now effectively two, had also accumulated serious injuries.
A similar situation was unfolding in Evan's group. The Serpent, although heavily wounded, remained fierce and deadly. It specialized in hidden and sudden attacks.
Hidden in the shadows, Rahul carefully observed the chaotic battlefield. Everyone had their eyes on the trident, which meant the fight was not truly between two sides.
And when a battle drags on for too long…
Unexpected things happen.
He was considering the worst possible outcome.
And then it happened.
Soren and Zorin suddenly noticed an opening. After pushing the Serpent thirty meters away with a powerful attack, they leaped toward the trident, hoping to seize it and escape.
The cunning Serpent smirked with its strange expression.
It had shown weakness deliberately.
Just as the two sages were about to reach the trident, not a single mythical creature moved to stop them.
Shh… shh…
Boom.
With the sound of rushing air, venom that had been scattered across the battlefield suddenly gathered around them and exploded.
Both sages were caught instantly and had no time to react.
Their bodies turned blue and began corroding within seconds.
When the Serpent had fought Garuda earlier, it had released venom that dispersed through the air. The mythical creatures were aware of it, but the sages were not.
In mere seconds, both sages were dead.
Hidden in his spot, Rahul shook his head as he watched the situation unfold. He had expected a fierce battle, but the deaths of two sages in such a short time were still shocking.
Originally, his ideal outcome was that the sages would lose the battle but escape with their lives, severely wounding the gods in the process, perhaps even killing one.
But Rahul was not the type to mourn the deaths of strangers.
More importantly, the situation had turned in his favor.
At that moment, the battlefield shifted.
With the Serpent now free, Evan alone was no longer enough to fight it. Without hesitation, he turned and ran.
Seeing him flee, Jack's group exchanged glances. The three of them nodded silently and also began retreating.
Garuda did not chase them, because the Serpent was now free.
The same was true for Sergei and the beautiful woman. However, the Lotus immediately pursued the enchantress and did not allow her to escape. The reason was simple.
The Serpent and Garuda would fight over the trident.
The Lotus believed it had enough time to return later.
It raised hundreds of stems into the air, and water began gathering within them.
"Jet Water Arrows."
Pressurized jets of water shot out from the stems and streaked toward the enchantress.
The pressure was so immense it could slice mountains.
The water pierced straight through her body.
Watching from afar, Rahul whispered softly,
"A great sin upon this earth… I looked at her only once."
The beauty died instantly.
But that was not the true reason the Lotus had targeted her.
The real reason was her Innate Spiritual Body.
After her death, the merged body split apart again.
From the two corpses, two embryos of the Innate Spiritual Body emerged.
But before the Lotus could claim them,
Garuda and the Serpent attacked together.
"Dive of Death!"
"Tail Whip Lashing!"
The Serpent's tail crashed down, shaking the cavern and striking the Lotus.
The Lotus hastily formed a wall of petals to block it. The defense barely held, but it left the Lotus open.
Garuda seized the moment.
Golden flaming talons slashed down, ripping away many petals and setting the Lotus ablaze. The cavern surface turned black wherever the fire spread.
The Lotus had assumed the two mythical beasts would fight over the trident first.
That small mistake nearly killed it.
Garuda and the Serpent did not give it a moment to breathe.
They attacked again.
"Sea of Fire."
"Sea of Venom."
A blazing sea of fire and a flood of venom erupted from their mouths, engulfing the Lotus.
The Lotus tried to form a petal barrier again, but it was already wounded and exhausted.
The barrier collapsed within seconds.
Fire and venom ravaged the cavern and the Lotus alike.
When the attack ended, the Lotus was left on the brink of death.
But neither Garuda nor the Serpent finished it.
Both remained vigilant of each other.
Suddenly,
A second head emerged from the Serpent's hidden body and struck Garuda with its jaws.
The attack was so sudden and fast that Garuda could not react.
He was thrown fifty meters away, venom spreading through his body and beginning to paralyze him.
Garuda crashed through several walls before finally destroying the entire cave.
He rose into the air again despite his wounds, creating distance between them just in time.
The Serpent also flew upward and lunged forward, jaws wide open to bite Garuda.
Garuda responded by slicing through the air with a sweeping arc of his wings.
Boom.
Wings and jaws collided violently.
Neither gained the upper hand.
They stalled in a deadly stalemate.
Then-
From Garuda's wings, a human figure shot forward, propelled by the force of the wingbeat. In his hand was a sharp golden feather from Garuda.
Swish.
The Serpent was completely unprepared.
The feather pierced straight through its neck.
The man burst out from the other side, tearing through flesh and scales.
The Serpent looked at Rahul one last time… then collapsed.
It slept forever.
Rahul thought silently,
He must be wondering… what a human was doing there. Perhaps he thinks a male Garuda gave birth to a man.
When Garuda had been thrown earlier, he had fallen beside Rahul's hiding place. Rahul had secretly hidden himself beneath Garuda's massive wings.
It had been their plan from the beginning when they entered the cave.
A surprise attack.
Garuda looked at the human and said,
"You truly are a sly fox, human… or perhaps you were one in your previous life."
He was amazed by how far ahead the human had planned.
Garuda then looked toward the trident and flew toward it.
But at that very moment -
Something unexpected happened…
........
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