The inky black substance crawled up Feng Qing’er’s body, adhering to her skin and refusing to be defeated no matter how hard Feng Qing’er pushed her flames.
That inky black substance was, after all, something that was given to the Commanders, or rather, the Apostles, by the Nox itself. There was no way something mediocre would be able to compete with it.
The Void Essence, even when it was as low level as Damien’s, was something inviolable especially when it came to devouring. It was impossible for the inky substance to compete with it.
But Feng Qing’er’s flames didn’t carry the same danger. Perhaps if she had reached her mother’s level and blossomed into a true Fire Phoenix, it’d be a different case, but she was still in what could be considered her Adolescence Phase.
Feng Qing’er still fiercely resisted even while knowing this. She could feel that the inky black substance wanted to consume her, but she had no plans of allowing it to do so. She had even tuned out Kroa’s obnoxious voice as all her effort was focused on the task in front of her.
Rains of flame descended from the sky and impacted her position, forcing Kroa to jump away and hastily dodge. Since the inky substance had already started to consume Feng Qing’er, it wasn’t paying any attention to Kroa’s situation anymore.
It only needed her alive so it could manifest. It didn’t care what her condition was. And as Damien had learned only a few moments prior, the Apostles weren’t actually that hard to deal with as long as they didn’t have the protection of the Nox.
“Ahhh!”
A harrowing shriek rang out as Kroa was hit with Feng Qing’er’s flames for the first time. Even that single impact had melted her flesh and caused blisters to rapidly form on her body. She didn’t even realize how much she had been underestimating her opponent until that point:
The reason Feng Qing’er couldn’t win was due to the inky black substance alone. Unlike Polius, Kroa didn’t actually have the technique necessary to properly utilize the strength she was granted. She was extremely useless without the substance.
Hearing her shriek revitalized Feng Qing’er a bit. She smirked even while on the verge of death, pouring more and more mana into the neverending rain of hellfire that fell upon Kroa’s position.
But she still needed to divert a majority of her focus towards the substance that was on her body.
Feng Qing’er rapidly revolved her mana, strengthening her feathers and making them razor sharp. She hoped that with the addition of superheated flames onto the innate sharpness of her feathers, she’d have a chance to break through.
But the substance coating her body wasn’t simple at all. Even when she managed to make a tear in its surface, the surrounding substance would expand and immediately fill up the gap. The slime-like ability that made it nigh-invincible was probably the most troublesome part of the entire ordeal.
Feng Qing’er was utterly out of ideas already. As the substance expanded and took up more space on her body, her mana was given less and less freedom to move. Now that her whole upper body was almost encased in it, she could no longer affect the ambient air.
The flaming rain died down due to this, and even though Kroa had been severely burned to the point where her face was hardly recognizable, she was still alive. Her life force was still more than enough to support the substance until it had fully consumed Feng Qing’er.
Feng Qing’er could only imbue mana into her own body to counterattack the substance, but she had already seen from her previous tries that this method wouldn’t bear any fruit.
The substance rapidly expanded, reaching all the way to her tail and wrapping around itself, encasing Feng Qing’er inside of a black cocoon that she was unable to escape from. Her mana had less and less control as time went on, to the point where even the previous minor amount of imbuement she could do became limited.
“Kh!”
Immediately after the cocoon was completed, the speed of devouring increased by a large margin. Feng Qing’er’s wings were the first to deteriorate, becoming specks of every that fed into the cocoon and strengthened it.
The light in her eyes had dimmed considerably as she began to lose hope. But even then, she was of the will to go down fighting. There was no way she’d allow this thing to have an easy time consuming her.
But as if fate was toying with her, the second she forged the resolve to die with flare, her mind blanked.
***
When Feng Qing’er opened her eyes, she was no longer trapped within the black cocoon. She was actually standing in the middle of an entirely different battlefield surrounded by many people and races she’d never seen before.
A plethora of skills blasted forth chaotically. There was barely even a method to differentiate between enemy and ally. From the skies to the ground and even the seas to the side, battles were raging between multiple forces.
Suddenly, a fierce wave of flames descended from the sky and immediately incinerated thousands that were fighting on the ground. When Feng Qing’er directed her gaze at the source, she was astonished to see a massive Phoenix unlike any she had ever seen before.
It was a Phoenix so regal and domineering that even her mother couldn’t match up to it. She thought that the demeanor of the Phoenix she was watching fit a dragon more, but for some reason, the Phoenix didn’t seem out of place at all.
The Phoenix’s body twirled as it shot into the air. An array of flaming feathers shot into the surroundings like light reflected off of a spinning chandelier.
But as a Phoenix herself, Feng Qing’er easily noticed the difference between these feathers and her own.
They were imbued with something she had never seen before. It was a strange energy that influenced mana and relied on mana, but wasn’t quite mana itself.
Even though she had no clue what she was watching, the term flashed into her mind as if she had known it since birth.
[Runic Flame Embodiment]
The flaming runes that took the shape of feathers crashed into the ground and soared through the sky. Unlike the small explosions Feng Qing’er could produce, each rune exploded with the force of a nuke.
Feng Qing’er felt like she was watching the end of the world when the runes exploded, but when the flames brushed past her skin, she noticed yet another difference.
These flames weren’t simply destructive. They were imbued with the properties of reincarnation that a Fire Phoenix embodied, as well as the effects of the unique elemental path that this specific Phoenix followed.
Feng Qing’er’s bloodline began to rage and tumble. It rapidly moved as if a charging bull, tearing apart everything in its way.
Fire Phoenixes and Fire Dragons were often compared due to the long-standing rivalry between the two species and the similarities between their constitutions.
Dragons were well known for their tyranny and domineering behavior, while Phoenixes were said to be more gentle and elegant. Although both could bring damage, their methods and the things they embodied differed greatly.
But who was to say that a Phoenix couldn’t be domineering? Who decided that they had to be gentle and accepting? Feng Qing’er, for one, was never the type to adhere to this stereotype.
She was as domineering and hot-tempered as a dragon.
Reincarnation flames were the crowning ability of Fire Phoenixes, something they wouldn’t unlock until they received their first Universe Baptism and became true 4th class existences.
And the concept of reincarnation was most often regarded as closer to life than death. It was regarded as the life after death. But for reincarnation to exist, one must experience death first.
Perhaps that’s the reason why most Fire Phoenixes never awakened their flames until after the Universe Baptism. Even in the most life-threatening of situations, the reincarnation flames would simply regard death as the beginning of a new life.
But Feng Qing’er’s current situation was different. As she watched the insane war of proportions she could never fathom, she was surrounded by death on all sides. And in the outdid world, she was wrapped in a cocoon made of an unprecedented pure death mana.
A Phoenix could be domineering too. They had no reason to be gentle or stick to stereotypes when they were in battle. It was just that the domineering of a Phoenix was far different than that of a Dragon.
It wasn’t direct and tyrannical to the point where those around them forced to acknowledge it. No. For a Phoenix, what it meant to be domineering was something else.
They were kind. They were gentle. They embodied life, death, and the cycle of reincarnation.
But the second they decided to show their true colors, the second they decided to be domineering…
The foundation of the universe would shake from their wrath.