The fact that Tier Sixes were considered Minor Deities should have clued Eve in. It hadn’t clicked, the connection just hadn’t been made, due to the fact that the Earth she came from had no visible beings with such powers. There was faith, certainly, perhaps even Faith although she had no way to be sure. However, there was no one captured on social media doing acts that were clearly divine in nature.

In a twist though, being a Minor Deity, and having the System actually solidified Eve’s personal faith. If someone as powerful as she was now could exist, then it was only logical in her mind the Creator she worshipped did as well. The burning eyes of those red-robed idiots irritated her enough to pull her out of the past.

On the other hand, staring is impolite in the extreme. Eve thought glancing back at the two idiot brothers. Just because a little old lady is scouring threats out of existence is no reason to clutch holy symbols and mutter to yourself. She was irritated because those two red robes had the same smell from her active days. The scent of those willing and able to sacrifice others for their own ends.

Point of fact, Eve had been fine letting others lead for the first few floors. After the boredom had set in though, she decided to help speed up the process of reaching the 74th. It was purely out of a sense of honor and camaraderie that she was helping speed the party along. It wasn’t like she was testing her abilities out on hapless dungeon residents.

Not at all.

In the previous fight with the Witch Hunter’s, Eve had opened her eyes to the possibility that mana might become unavailable. While that wouldn’t affect the mana within her body, it would make drawing ambient sources to fuel her Witch’s Dust challenging to say the least. She had created a thread from within her body to bypass the area affected but it was a stopgap measure at best. The possibility of the thread being snipped had only reinforced her choice of using Rituals. Even if she was placed in a zone with absolutely no ambient mana, like Earth, her Rituals would still work fueled off using Traveling Dust Witch’s Core of Space-Papered Ink-Dust.

The core from what she understood while watching it work during tests in the dungeon, used the fact that space healed to its advantage. By converting Space Elements into Mana it created an infinite loop via the laws of existence that allowed space to repair itself. If she was a researcher, Eve might bother to delve deeper, but she wasn’t. Perhaps in the future, such mysteries might be used to alleviate boredom but there was enough on her plate right now.

So, from what I can see while I can fuel things requiring mana that affect my body since it is lock and key in one, external things still require a solution. Eve thought waving a hand to casually obliterate a few goblin hordes on the eighteenth level. Trust to the red robes to trigger an alarm trap. Transmuting the air to a chemical combination with high combustibility was effortless with magic. It was her preferred method of removing large amounts of enemies at the moment. Normally external spells are enacted by utilizing the ambient mana to assist in activation by synchronizing with it like this.

Personal mana, Eve theorized, was like a key. Shaped correctly by a variety of methods, you used the ‘key’ to unlock the power of ambient mana. That was where the Witch Hunter’s had been rather ingenious. Rather than counterspells directly they removed the ‘lock’ of ambient mana leaving nothing for a witch’s personal mana ‘key’ to work upon. What worried her was if you took the Witch Hunter’s concept to the extreme.

What if someone has the talent to tell all mana to leave the area? True blue anti-mana magic. Or what if they could flood the area with mana completely under their control? Eve thought. In theory, something like that should be countered by the Talisman of Dust III’s effect stopping it from damaging her. The Talisman would prevent alteration blocking something like that unless it came from a Higher Power. Words though were cold comfort. She’d rather have something tried and tested. Eldritch effects for the win. You cannot hit what you can’t see, so you blow up the area in retaliation to flush the prey out.

A targeted method wouldn’t work, because Witch’s Dust blocked direct divination. The very act of blocking divination though painted a wide target. It was the reason she kept the off-center of her dust cloud. In that way, no one could just strike the center and take her out. There was no ‘path’ for something like a targeted external strike to follow effectively. The Witch Hunter’s area of effect method, on the other hand, was clearly derived from encountering those like Eve who couldn’t be targeted effectively with single strikes at range. In that case, they adopted a carpet bomb method. While she didn’t like it, she had to admit the method might have worked on someone besides herself.

No, it probably was a method with centuries of dead casters to its name.

As long as a ‘hit’ occurred sealing access to mana, the physical combatants could take it from there. It was a good method even if it felt like using a cannon to kill a tiger. The method was probably something that wasn’t easily countered by Rogue Witches if they got caught flatfooted. The Colored Coven Alliance would definitely have some method to counter it or they would have been wiped out in the sands of history.

Eve wanted a method that would allow her to create her immunity to such issues.

Take the mana around me away? Pointless. Eve thought. She would just fill the ‘empty’ area with her own. What better protection against an effect that removes mana than to make it an utterly worthless move?

Of course, it was easy to come up with in theory. Practice however was proving slightly more difficult. She had been cycling through concepts and words in her mind, but only the idea of a Shroud found purchase enough to invoke a reaction.

On the 24thfloor, Eve tested her theory on the strange snake-worm hybrids that seemed to flood out from countless tunneled sections.

Combining the Ritual of Space and Ritual of the Elements a Shroud of incumbent mana cloaked Eve’s withered form. She cycled through the basic four with brutal results. Elemental Water drowned, Elemental Fire melted, Elemental Air dissected, and Elemental Earth crushed. Both parties behind her turned a bit green as she kept testing different Elements. Moving from the basic four, Eve experimented with more exotic variations as they moved deeper.

It was on the 63rdfloor that Eve decided to take a break.

In her enthusiasm, she had accidentally revealed the fact that her mana regeneration was abnormal. Both red-robed priests had been giving her hostile glances for most of the trip down. It was quite clear they were worried that whatever was planned would fail spectacularly. On the other hand, since they were fanatics by choice, logic might not have entered into their calculations. The next nine floors were a careful slog as Rex took over leading. Eve handled the bodies by transmuting them with Witch’s Dust letting Loot and Storage handle things. Keeping things separate was no more difficult than adding an extra mental tab in her mind.

After almost nine hours of travel, the Daedric Doorway was revealed in all its cruel glory.

Eve looked at the massive sealed doorway carved with diabolical style. It looked like nothing so much as a gothic terror toy writ large and imbued with evil. Looking at the Door she could see the mana was woven into the very structure, a mimic of that attached to the souls of the M and M brothers.

Is the color significant or merely something that denotes attachment? Eve thought remembering from Earth that the color of absolute black was a combination of all colors in the spectrum. Everything as one would be nothing but chaos.

Eve’s eyes widened as she felt a momentary epiphany strike.

Chaos. All possibilities. Eve thought. Just like mana can become almost anything…

Before she could take the thought to completion, the four slaves following behind the fanatics took action. Eve ignored the eight slaves who attacked Rex’s party instead choosing to focus her attention on the two red-robed priests. Her attire shifted as she shifted her form, turning into a tribal outfit of deep purple with a claw necklace. The tiny terror that Kudzu had researched for Poison Affinity appeared on her left shoulder. Small wings made it look like a miniature dragon species. The tiny fake dragon’s eyes watched the priests with a gaze of apathy.

It knew their stay among the living was about to end.

I’ve finished the research, would you like the results now? Kudzu asked with a mental message.

Eve nodded a pipe appeared in her lowered right hand even as her cane vanished into Storage. Raising her right hand, she glanced at Magren letting Fire flicker into existence above her hand. More of the element entered the Shroud around Eve giving her surroundings a dark tint.

“You can’t stop the Master, no one can!” Morgus said as he threw an open palm pulsing with power towards the Daedric Door’s seal.

Eve smirked before placing the pipe into her mouth to take a long draw. Blowing out the smoke in a cloud of acidic purple haze she said, “Why would I stop such amusing toys?” As she lowered her pipe the purple Poison in the air wavered around her form making it indistinct below the waist.

Morgus pulled a ceremonial dagger from his sleeve as he shouted, “Blood for the Blood God!”

Eve flicked a finger shielding the eight slaves whose eyes went blank at Morgus’s words. The ceremonial dagger that attempted to sink into the closest slave’s chest to remove their beating heart was blocked.

Magren gaped as he shouted, “Impossible!”

Eve took another draw of her new pipe’s custom herbs feeling the wonderful Poison enter her veins before she said, “Idiots. Just because I cannot harm someone, doesn’t mean I cannot defend, either. Now, show me how you will serve the insect beyond this Door without any sacrifices to pave the way?”

The expression of shocked betrayal that flowed across Magren’s face as his brother’s dagger punched out from between the crimson robes he wore was thrilling. Unlike in movies, the priest’s death was instantaneously giving no time for a speech. As his brother’s body slumped from a pierced heart, Eve observed the mana in both bodies.

A large chunk of the ‘Sin’ mana attached itself onto Morgus, while the rest ripped Magren’s soul mana out of the body before pulling it somewhere else. Learning her lesson the first time around, Eve carefully didn’t observe the direction that wasn’t a direction the soul mana vanished into.

No need to bring attention when she was a wet behind the ears toddler to that type of power.

Morgus’s blood-stained hand moved to slap the door even as he stabbed the dagger into his own body and said, “For the Master!”

Eve’s silver-green eyes looked on as the Daedric Door opened a crack revealing absolute darkness beyond. Now was the moment she was waiting for with anticipation. A singularly ugly creature that fit the description of imp flickered into existence as if stepping into reality.

The imp’s eyes surveyed the situation with a gaze of pure hatred before Eve melted it out of existence. Looking at the System message that flowed before her eyes, Eve grinned in glee.

Upon reaching Tier Six, no more experience could be gained.

Nothing in reality controlled by the System gave XP.

Nothing.

It was common knowledge that to continue further, a person would need to enter the Deeps. Within the Deeps a war raged against those who would invade, and those who defended against invasion.

I wasn’t sure before, but now it’s clear. Eve thought as another imp appeared. The Void is more than just a gap between planets. It is a place outside Reality, too.

Eve grinned as another message flickered across her sight.

Taking a deep draw from her pipe Eve said to Rex and the others, “Step back. This will get, messy.”