Chapter 317 - Rebirth Nightmare
Vania did not have time to wonder about the reason behind Zitra\'s behavior as an immense pain assaulted her mind out of nowhere, and her vision went dark.
The next second, a plane full of dark purple energy appeared in her sight. The most shocking thing was that she had no clue how she arrived here, and her memory was cloudy, stopping her from remembering anything of the past week.
\'What is happening, where am I. I need to contact Father...\' Vania did not finish that thought before the entire plane began to tremble, and the dark purple energy began to act chaotically and full of rage.
A giant black monster materialized in front of her. The Fourth Princess of the Scientia Kingdom felt an uncontrollable and immense terror filling her heart and mind. It reached the point where she could not even think right, and her body could not stop shivering.
The horrible head of the monster approached Vania. She saw how two red eyes that represented pure and absolute massacre focused on her.
A dreadful mouth materialized in that head, and the monster spoke with an ancient tone full of viciousness.
"I take you as a disciple to pay my debt, and I will train you properly. However, don\'t think even for a second that I won\'t punish you if you disrespect me." After saying those words, the monster swallowed Vania\'s entire body.
"AHHHH!" Vania threw a scream full of fear when she saw that horrible mouth devouring her. She thought death was imminent, but the next second, the dark purple plane disappeared, and she found herself back on the upper floor of the Daybreak Magic Tower.
The face of the Fourth Princess was pale, and she slowly turned in Zatiel\'s direction. The expression on the Neo-Demon\'s face was cold and stern, and a trail of blood dripped from his right eye.
Gabriel frowned when he saw the condition of her sister. However, after seeing that her soul and body were unharmed, he decided not to intervene. He was very protective of his little sister, but since she had chosen to take an ancient monster as a teacher, she had to deal with the consequences.
"I am sorry, Teacher. It won\'t happen again!." Vania was truly terrified of that dark purple plane and the monster that inhabited it. Her soul defenses were very sturdy due to the treasure her mother gave her, and yet, she was not able to put any resistance to the power of Zatiel\'s right eye.
The Neo-Demon nodded and remained silent with a thoughtful expression. However, the truth was that Zatiel was just taking a moment to allow the pain on his mind to calm down.
What he used on the Fourth Princess was a unique spell he had named Rebirth Nightmare. He took the dream world the Sage used on him as an inspiration for this spell since even with his knowledge and expertise, he still was shocked by the power of that illusion.
The Sage used his special Mind Force to maintain his dream world. Zatiel did not have access to that power, so he used the purple plane in his Rebirth Eye to strengthen the spell.
\'Due to the treasure in her soul dimension, her spirit defenses could equal that of a Rank 5 life form at the 3rd Engraving Stage. The Rebirth Nightmare defeated her, but the backlash I received was substantial.\'
Soul invasion spells were powerful and efficient, but they also left the soul dimension in a weakened state for their duration, and if the opponent\'s soul defenses are too strong, the backlash could harm your True Soul severely.
Luckily for the Neo-Demon, his soul defenses were very sturdy thanks to his True Will, and the backlash was not too severe.
If Zatiel had used Rebirth Nightmare against Andras, he could have won the fight in a second, but this was one of the trump cards he had chosen to hide.
It was only after the pain ceased that Zatiel spoke to Vania.
"I will start your teaching right now. I can see that your law comprehension is advancing at a steady rate, and I can\'t provide much help in that aspect since we train different laws. Therefore, we will focus on your martial skills and techniques. Tell me what battle style you use."
Vania nodded and took a deep breath before releasing an immense physical might. Her body\'s strength was equal to the one granted by the third level of the Blood Demodand Technique.
After unleashing her strength, she took a bastard sword from her space ring. The sword did not have beautiful runes or an impressive aesthetic form, but just the weight in it made it a devastating weapon.
"I am a Body-refinement Magus. My battle style focuses on using my body and sword to land devastating blows."
Heinz\'s eyes narrowed the moment the bastard sword appeared. After perceiving Vania\'s aura with the sword, he realized that their paths were different, and his interest diminished.
The Cultivator took the sword as the center of his battle style and channeled all of his power in it. The Fourth Princess, on the other hand, only saw the sword as a weapon that allowed her to display the full power of her body.
Zatiel focused on the woman\'s battle stance, and he figured out the best way to help her.
"I will give you three lessons, and they should have you occupied for the next fifty years. If you master them, your battle power will improve by at least ten percent regardless of your Rank."
The Neo-Demon\'s words drew the attention of everyone. An improvement in battle power after learning martial skills and techniques was not rare, but the fact they worked regardless of the Rank was impressive.
"We need a place where we can train freely, and I don\'t want to expose my abilities." Zatiel thought for a moment before focusing on the strongest person in the room. "Gabriel, have you already built your Inner Law Dimension?"
The Second Prince understood the meaning behind Zatiel\'s question, and he made a portal appear on the floor.
"Everyone should enter the dimension. The lessons are specially designed for Vania, but you could learn something."
Ezequiel and the others nodded. Together with Zatiel and the siblings, they passed through the portal.
The group found itself in a dimension that was approximately a tenth of a continent in size. There was no land in this dimension, only an ocean that extended as far as the eye could see. The sky was filled with raging energies that were constantly generating thunder and lightning.
Ezequiel and the others could not feel it, but Heinz detected that the laws in this dimension were different from the outside world. The Law of Space and the Law of Time reigned supreme in this place.
The Cultivator felt how his connection with the Law of Killing, which allowed him to express an immense offensive might, was being suppressed in this dimension.
Zatiel also noticed the peculiarities of this place, but he did not lose time analyzing them. He focused on the woman in front of him that had already adopted a battle stance.
"Since you follow the path of body-refinement, I will only use my body and sword to attack you. You can use any spell and technique that you want, but do not release your Law Avatar."
The Neo-Demon saw Vania nod to his instruction, and he made the bone sword appear.
"Your current strength is greater than mine. The first lesson will be how to fight a melee battle with an opponent stronger than you."
Vania\'s full focus was on the Neo-Demon in front of her. She did not dare to underestimate him and immediately made her energy explode and activated a spell to increase her agility.
\'Is he going to wait for me to attack and then seek a flaw in my defense to counterattack, or use his speed to move around me and attack my blind spot?\'
All types of scenarios appeared on Vania\'s mind, and she was ready to respond to any of them. However, the Neo-Demon shattered her belief in how you have to handle a stronger opponent and flashed in her direction.
Despite the surprise, Vania was a talented fighter and immediately hacked with her sword at the incoming opponent.
The force in that sword could cut a mountain in two without a problem, but Zatiel did not slow down. Just as the weapon was about to connect, he twisted his body and with manometrical precision hit the tip of the bastard sword.
Vania\'s eyes widened as she lost control over her sword. The attack of the Neo-Demon appeared to be simple, but the skill behind it was sublime.
Unfortunately, she did not have time to analyze the attack, as the bone sword continued its path after hitting her weapon and headed to her throat.
Gales of winds surrounded her body, increasing her speed. She moved back and parried the bone sword to the left.
The Fourth Princess frowned the moment her weapon collided with the bone sword, as she felt no resistance. It was like she was hitting the air.
Zatiel\'s body made a 360° rotation. The bone sword now came clashing to Vania\'s right shoulder.
An earth armor appeared on the skin of the Fourth Princess right before the sword hit her. She was pushed hundreds of meters away and a deep gash appeared on her shoulder.
The Neo-Demon did not chase after her and waited for her to regain control over her body before speaking.
"Erase the notion that just because your opponent is stronger, you can\'t attack directly. Every attack has a soft and strong point. If you can identify and hit them with the right force and precise angle, then not only can you lessen the power behind your opponent\'s attacks, you could even neutralize them."