The twins were momentarily surprised before nodding in response. They began to chant at the same time as Aerin, their voices echoing loudly inside the silent forest. Abi was watching them at safe distant with a look full of anticipation and a slight grin on her face. She had been waiting for them to summon their contracted spirits. It was the reason she didn’t respond to their attacks since the beginning. She wanted to know what kind of power the spiritualists of the Spirit Mountain Kingdom possessed. She was not just driven by curiosity alone, on the contrary, she thought that assessing the strengths and weaknesses of her fellow mages was of capital importance. Moreover, she had to learn their magic quickly or else she would blow her cover. After all, it was too strange for a spiritualist to not know anything about summoning magic.

As every time she wanted to study something, Abi activated her [Divine Eyes]. The world changed and everything became translucent while glowing with multicoloured light. Focusing her attention on her pursuers, she analysed and memorized every move they made. The moment Aerin and the twins finished their incantations, their meridians lighted up brightly. The brightest were Aerin’s meridians. As a 13-level mage, she possessed a greater mana pool than the twins who were both just at level 9. Moreover, Aerin came from a major clan with thousands of years of history. Her bloodline was very strong and her meridian system was one of the densest in the entire kingdom.

Even if a mage’s strength depended heavily the mana pool, it was not the only factor to be taken into account. The mage’s spell inventory was also a critical factor. Like all existing things, spells were not equals to each other. Some were considered of better quality than others and the higher quality spells were those which could display better performances. Abi remembered that the Spirit Mountain Kingdom ranked spells from 1 to 10. Although she didn’t know exactly what the ranking was based on, she knew that the lowest rank was 1 while the highest was 10. She tried to remember something else but quickly gave up when nothing came to her mind. The former Abigaël was anything but a good mage. Her memories were full of useless things, none of them related to magic.

Abi was really disappointed about this fact. Mage were beings who valued knowledge and wisdom above everything else. So why was the former Abi so uneducated? It seemed like she had obtained a perfect physique but little patience for study. At least she knew the names of some rank one spells which were not considered dangerous. They were not destined to be used during a serious fight but just for training. [Fireball] and [Wind Blade] were such spells. Aerin and her underlings had used earlier which proved that despite all her death threats, Aerin had been holding back until now.

Abi was still lost in thought when a strong gust of wind broke her out of her reverie. Something serious was going on as she saw the flow of the ether ocean becoming chaotic. More precisely, the wind and fire elements within the ether were flowing chaotically. Abi immediately identified Aerin and the twins as the sources of the disturbance and it was not that difficult to guess. Few things could escape Abi’s vision. If she wanted; she could literally see every cell in her pursuer’s bodies. But she wouldn’t waste mana for that. For now, she was more interested in their souls. Seeing their chakras and meridians would allow her to study their spells and duplicate them in the future.

As she was studying them carefully, Abi saw their manas spread in the surroundings. Soon, the wind and fire elements began to flow in a tornado-like movement. A strong burst of elemental energy fluctuation appeared just in front of each of them. It was located on the ground where some strange geometric figures began to form. Once finished forming, those figures condensed into three magic circles full of complicated symbols. They were glowing brightly but not with an ordinary light. In fact, they were not visible to the naked eye as they were made of pure elements. Only a spiritualist or someone with a special power could see this kind of magical circle. A peculiar symbol, bigger than the others, was located in the center of each circle.

The big symbols began to rotate first slowly then more and more quickly. Finally, they rotated so quickly that space itself seemed to deform. The big symbols disappeared and formed something like a blackhole. After careful observation Abi was astonished to discover that she couldn’t see anything inside the blackhole. She knew how to recognize a teleportation portal when she saw one but the fact that she couldn’t see beyond the portal was very strange. It was as if nothing existed there, or more precisely, the things beyond the portals were hidden from her sight. That fact alone made her tense up and she narrowed her eyebrows. She was accustomed to see everything and hated what she couldn’t see. It could only mean only one thing… danger!

She had the intuition that no matter what would come out of the portals that would be dangerous. White smokes were coming out of the holes before heading straight at the Aerin and the twins. After the three girls finished absorbing the white smokes, their bodies underwent incredible transformations. At least, the former Abi’s memories contained some information about what was going on. It was a summoning ritual, a magic performed by spiritualist in order to summon spirits in the physical world. It was a very complicated magic with many evolutionary stages. Low level spiritualist like Aerin could only master the initial stage of the summoning magic. In the initial stage, the spirit entered the spiritualist’s body and granted a part of its own power. In higher stages, the spirit could even be summoned with its own body and soul but only high-level spiritualists were qualified to do that.

Although Abi’s pursuers were just at the initial stage of the summoning magic, their transformations made them stronger than before. As their contracted spirits couldn’t form an independent body, they used the spiritualists’ bodies as mediums. In the process, the spirits transformed the spiritualists’ physical bodies and souls. With her vision, Abi saw meridians being altered as new vessels were forming at an incredible speed. She looked at Menelia and Menelyn and noticed a change in their auras. It was as if they had become one with the wind element itself and could command it with a single thought. Their entire bodies were covered in a layer of air where terrifying winds were raging. Just looking at them made Abi’s heart beat faster. She had the intuition that if she happened to be touched by those winds, she would be cut into pieces. The twins had become scary but that was nothing compared to Aerin. She was now like a fire god as her entire body was covered with terrifying flames. Abi even felt the scorching heat at a hundred meters distance.

Aerin moved a finger, it was a single finger but it sent a huge wave of flame towards Abi. Comparing this attack with a [Fireball] was like comparing the heaven and the earth. The wave of flames was 3 meters high and 10 meters wide. What made Abi even more astonished was that Aerin didn’t chant anything to cast the spell. Normally, the more powerful a spell was the more time it took to cast it. But the caster had just moved a finger! Her contracted spirit had clearly increased her affinity with fire element. As the flames were rushing towards Abi, they burned everything in their wakes. Wherever the wave passed, only ashes remained. As for the heat, it was just unbearable. Without their spirits protecting them, Aerin and the twins would have been burned to ash in the blink of an eye. The flames exploded when they arrived near Abi while scattering wood debris in all direction.

The following explosion was deafening and echoed at dozens of kilometres around. After seeing such a raw display of raw power, Menelyn couldn’t help but grinned. Along with her sister, she slowly turned her head and stared at Aerin with respect. This kind of battle prowess was worthy of a genius. Menelyn thought that with such talent, Aerin’s future was very bright. At this moment, she was happier than ever. Being a Fire clan’s vassal, the more the Fire clan was powerful the better it was. If the clan fell, Menelyn’s clan would fall as well. She shifted her gaze in front of her and felt pity for Abi. That poor girl had been struck by such a mighty fire spell.

Aerin also noticed the damages and frowned. She had the impression of having overdone it. A trash like Abi had no way to withstand an attack like that. She hoped the trash didn’t die as the consequences would be disastrous. Someone with Aerin’s status could kill a commoner without problem. Killing a minor noble was slightly more problematic but not so much. However, killing a major noble was totally different. It was sufficient to spark a clan war and she didn’t want to cause a war. She was arrogant but far from stupid. The Spirit Mountain Kingdom was put under a lot of pressure right now. Enemies were everywhere and the kingdom needed stability. At the slightest sign of weakness, the enemies would attack without hesitation. Aerin didn’t want to cause a disaster so she began to worry for Abi.

However, her worry dissipated immediately when she spotted Abi within the smoke. Not only was she alive, she didn’t even get any injury. Moreover, she was staring at Aerin with a gaze full of disdain like she didn’t put Aerin in her eyes at all. The latter become so furious that the flames covering her body doubled in volume. As the twins noticed this as well, they reached for their interspatial rings and both took out a bow. They didn’t waste time and pull back the bowstrings. Soon; two [Wind Arrows] headed straight at Abi who was still hovering in midair. She manoeuvred to avoid the arrows but found it difficult to fly. The arrows affected the wind element in the surroundings which made her control over it lessen tremendously.

She succeeded to avoid the arrows at the last minute but suddenly saw several more arrows. The twins were shooting arrows as if their bows were automatic rifles. Two, six, ten, twenty ... a hundred [Wind Arrows] covered the sky. This time, Abi didn’t dare to act recklessly. Although an individual arrow didn’t do much damage, a hundred of them could cause serious injuries. She quickly increased her speed before the arrows arrived at their destination. She was dodging all the arrows as best as she could. Like a missile, she few at high speed between the trees. She was so rapid that only afterimages could be seen. Unfortunately, Aerin unexpectedly arrived in front of her while shouting with rage.

“Do you think you are the only one who can fly?” She had used her spirit to fly as well and she was not flying like a bird but like a meteorite, her entire covered in red flames. Although, she didn’t possessed the suffocating beauty of Abigaël, if one judged Aerin based on Earth’s beauty criteria, she would be classified as supreme beauty. With her perfect white skin, long red hair and perfect proportion, few women could be considered above her. In fact, all mages were handsome or beautiful as if magic had improved their physiques somewhat. Even the twins were beautiful beyond reason. They possessed blue hair like everybody in their clan and also a perfect physiques.

Aerin profited from the element of surprise to punch Abi’s belly. A punch backed by her spirit’s power was abnormally strong. It sent Abi flying like a kite with its string cut. She slammed into the ground below with a tremendous force. A huge explosion followed, sending rocks and dusts everywhere. A normal person would never survive a punch like that. Only mages with their strong physical resistance could take such beating and survive. Aerin relaxed after succeeding at beating the trash. She had almost lost confidence in her strength. How would she not? If it spread that she took so much time to catch Abi, she would be too ashamed of herself. She snorted and prepared to check Abi’s status when a kind of devilish laughter made her stop in her tracks.

It didn’t take her long to find the origin of the laughter. It was Abi who was laughing with an lovely voice. Aerin got the urge to ask what was so funny but she swallowed back her words when she realized that Abi was not injured in the slightest. If she didn’t have a strong self-control, Aerin’s lower jaw would drop to the ground. Her mind screamed with frustration. How had Abi done that? How had she managed to take her punch without a scratch? The twins who had just arrived in the vicinity were equally shaken. They thought that if it was them who had been struck like that, they would have been badly injured. The whole forest was dead silent and only a strange laughter could be heard.

Soon after, the laughter died down and was replaced by a melodious voice. “That was quite a strong punch Aerin. You almost scared me to death. If I have had a breakfast this morning I would have vomited everything.” Although it seemed like she was taken by surprise, it was not true. How could her divine eyes miss Aerin’s movement? She had detected her from the beginning and had made preparations beforehand. The fire princess was greeting her teeth in anger. Abi made it sound like her punch was nothing special, like she could take hundred of them without problem. It was an insult that Aerin couldn’t tolerate. The twins’s faces also darkened. The trash was too infuriating. How could she talk so casually after receiving that last attack? She hadn’t a spirit to protect her at all so, it was impossible for her to remain unscathed.

At the meantime, Abi continued her speech. “I must thank you three. You have given me some valuable intel. Unfortunately, my course I will begin in a few minutes. So, I must end this little game.”

Aerin responded with an icy cold tone. “You make it sound like you can beat us whenever you want. I don’t know what happened to you. I think you have gone crazy but I don’t care. You will not escape from me.”

Hearing Aerin made Abi narrow her eyes. “You misunderstand me. I don’t plan to escape and I won’t go anywhere before dealing with you. You have been bothering me for too long. I must teach you a good lesson so that you stop bothering me.” She smiled dangerously. “Open your eyes well, I will show you a special magic called I have created myself. It’s called [Inertia control].” She quickly performed a set of hand-seals before raising her arms, each palm facing one of the twins.

Menelyn and Menelia suddenly sensed a powerful force pulling them backward. It was like a free fall but instead of falling downward, they were falling backward. It was too sudden. They were previously standing normally on the ground but in the blink of an eye, they were flushed backward at an insane speed. Their bodies hit the trees immediately behind them which exploded into pieces as if hit by cannonballs. And it was just the beginning. Having lost only a fraction of their speeds, the sisters continued to fall backward. They hurt tree after tree while reducing them to pieces. They stopped moving after a hundred meters and it was obvious that the game was finished for them. Their injuries were so severe that they fainted on the spot. If not for the protection of their spirits, they would have surely died.

This time, Aerin couldn’t help but shiver. What kind of magic was that? She didn’t have to time ponder it though. Abi had already pointed her palm toward her. She felt a strong force beginning to drag her frontward as if she was falling towards Abi. She reacted immediately and breathed deeply. When her lungs became full she expulsed everything from her mouth. Instead of exhaling air, she exhaled an enormous fireball which accelerated towards Abi thanks to [Inertia Control]. Abi immediately cancelled the spell before reversing its effect. When the fireball was just a few meters above her, it suddenly lost all its speed and dropped on the ground before exploding violently.

Aerin profited from this diversion to retreat. She needed time to reassess the situation as Abi’s magic was too strange. It was called [Inertia Control] but what was inertia? Aerin didn’t have any clue which made her greet her teeth in anger. Fighting an opponent with unknown capabilities was a nightmare. She couldn’t be careless. She had to widen the distance between them and search for a weakness. She would strike afterward when an opportunity presented itself. However, her plan shattered when Abi appeared right in front of her which made her eyes widened in shock.

Aerin tried to react but it was too late. A punch struck her belly which made her cried in pain. This punch was like an unstoppable mountain putting an immense pressure on her body. Before she was sent flying towards the ground, she saw Abi more closely. During a split second, she noticed her eyes. Two incredible golden coloured eyes with pupils shaped like a little suns. She saw those eyes for only a split second but it was sufficient to make her soul tremble. Aerin finally crashed on the ground like a meteorite.