'This is fascinating…'

As mental energy finally managed to grab hold of Darkness elements, I experienced a different feeling than before, it was as if a part of my perception had undergone a metamorphosis, but in reality, that wasn't the case, it was more like my control had evolved one step further.

​​

'It's totally different!'

It was as if my control of elements to this point was nothing but simply containing them within my body and guiding them around, I wasn't truly in control of them.

However, now that I managed to grab hold of the Darkness elements using my mental energy, I felt like I could truly control them, I even managed to perceive the elements' 'thoughts'!

While they weren't exactly thoughts per se, they were quite close to this definition. At this moment, I could feel that the Darkness elements were somewhat burdened by being in a tug of war between my mental energy and weapon energy…

'In that case…'

So far, I had to use 'Darkness Unity' to empower my Darkness elements with weapon energy considering they weren't 'sharp' enough for 'butchering', but that was no longer relevant since physical attack itself had no meaning!

As such, since my Darkness elements were burdened by dual control, which was why it wasn't easy to get hold of, to begin with, I only had to revoke the reason behind the elements' reluctance to move to solve the problem!

'It's been a while since I did this…'

Ever since I had managed to use elemental weapon techniques, I had more or less stopped using 'Elemental Armament' considering its lower potency, but it seemed like it was finally time to use it again.

With that in mind, I directly transferred both swords back into my spatial ring, falling back further to get ready for my attack.

- Eh? Are you really giving up? -

The 'figure' was slightly surprised by my action, it seemed like he was just mocking me before so I could continue fighting, but perhaps he just wanted to keep me busy.

'Is he possibly being wary of…'

As the potential last boss or at least one of the big bosses on the demons' side, it wouldn't be weird if the 'figure' knew about the theory I was trying just now, trying to push me away from trying it.

'Since I just 'broke through' in his opinion, that's possible…'

If my current 'Wisdom' stat, the one that was able to resist the corruptive mental invasion of the 'figure', was the prerequisite for its usage, then that made total sense.

However, it didn't seem like he noticed that I already had that in mind, thinking that I was really giving up instead…

'Here goes.'

Not giving him any reply this time, I directly shaped my Darkness elements into dual longswords using 'Elemental Armament' before controlling my mental energy to grab hold once again!

'Success!'

This time, it didn't even take more than two tries before I was able to take hold of all the elemental particles that both longswords consisted of, it was as if the Darkness elements were like a child that wanted to hold the hands of its 'parent' this time!

Using this momentum of success I dashed towards the 'figure' for one more time, merging almost all of my mental energy with the swords aside for a minimum amount that I kept for protection.

- So you are trying something else instead? Do you think that pure elements would harm me when strengthened ones couldn't? -

As the 'figure' mocked me once more seeing that I manifested my 'Elemental Armaments', I reached my target and slashed both swords after spreading the remaining mental energy on my upper body!

- This is quite amusing. -

Feeling slight irritation from the blabbering of the 'figure' just before my elemental swords reached his neck, I prayed that he would completely shut up by the end of this strike.

'Ugh…'

Feeling a strong sting as my sword sank into his neck, I was surprised to find that both elemental swords quickly sliced through the figure's neck as if it was made from butter!

The sting seemed to be the compiled negative effect of quickly going through the figure's neck. After all, coming into simple contact could already hurt the mind space pretty badly.

- Maybe you should lie down and… What have you done?! -

The 'figure' was still blabbering to depress me even as his head flew away from his body, he only seemed to change his tone with slight shock as his head landed on the ground.

'Eh?'

I believed that the 'figure' was really intent on distracting me from using this method, but it seemed like he knew nothing about it. Perhaps…

'Was there another solution?'

Feeling confused by the situation, I finally decided to give up wondering about it for now. Steam could almost visibly show coming out from my head from overworking my brain. Besides…

'It worked!'

Other than the small clue of the 'figure' being shocked, black mist wisps seemed to emit from his head as parts of it faded away, it was like he was slowly getting disintegrated!

- You… You are even more troublesome than I expected! I will deal with you myself if you manage to survive till then! -

As the head blabbered out its last word, it completely disintegrated. Meanwhile, the body was simply standing in the same spot, as if unmoved by what happened.

Leaving nothing to chance, I immediately got into 'butchering' the mannequin-like figure, slightly wishing that the tower would choke on its meal for leaving me in such a 'great' situation.

'Phew…'

It was only when the very last bit of the 'figure' disintegrated that I finally let my mind relax once more as I let out a sigh of relief.

[ The refinement of the Tenth floor has been completed. ]

[ Complete refinement has been achieved. Please exit the tower or redesignate the refinement target. ]

[ The Corrupted Elemental Seed within your body has been purified! ]

[ You have received the Title, 'Purified Body'! ]

[ Achievement, 'Complete Corruption purification', recorded! ]

As I checked the system's notifications that rang in my head, I was somewhat surprised to discover that I had missed quite a few ones in the system log!