BOOM!
From the soil that was buried under the solid cobblestone road, a monster appeared and smashes right through the street, its head resembled a goat while its body was a snake with its tail being the head of a man that had been deformed horribly.
Crash!
Heimfher and everybody else in the carriage was thrown off into the sky as the explosion killed the horse and shattered the entire carriage.
With a loud thud, Heimfher fell to the ground, almost breaking his back bones while Murph and the rest of his divison landed perfectly on their feets.
"What was that?!?" Bentley shouted.
Along with him, civilians that were coincidentally present on the side of the street, soon began to run away frantically, they screamed in horror, calling for help, and left the area immediately while leaving the injured to die by the monster.
Murph saw a couple of civilians being crushed by the cobblestone brick from the explosion and they seems to have lost their ability to walk, some of the debris were too big to be lifted by hands alone, while some were already dead as their entire body was crushed, leaving only the blood that was splattered all across the ground.
"A chimera demon?— DUSKIELL!" Murph screamed, he turned his head towards the rest of the division that were about to unsheathe their swords.
"You and Carlessa, fight that monster, while i and the others will help these people escape!"
Duskiell and Carlessa both smirked at the order.
"Hey hey what the hell is that thing doing here.. How did it get into the city— Well, whatever.. Aye aye captain, call it done and just do your thing." Duskiell replied cheerfully along with Carlessa.
"A chimera?.. Oh my- I didn't expect to fight this early, but im not gonna complain! COME HERE YOU FUCKING DEMON!"
Carlessa held her sword and began to chant, her eyes never left the chimera demon as it slithered towards her and Duskiell.
"I seek strength infront of Hercules, be the reason for my victory!"
Swoosh!
A red aura enveloped Carlessa after she completed her chant, her arms gradually became thicker while her eyes changed color, her hairs which was previously dark blue now turned into bright red along with a pair of fangs growing from her teeths.
After her transformation was complete, Carlessa then dashed forward, her legs shattered the brick road beneath her as her body was lunged at an insane speed, heading straight at the chimera as they prepared for a clash.
BOOM!
"Good grief.. Wait for me you crazy woman." Duskiell sighed as he smiled, he then followed Carlessa right before she attacked the chimera with he sword.
HISS!
The chimera shrieked, its man-head tail was catapulted straight into Carlessa's trajectory, if she doesn't dodge, it would cause a fatal damage to her.
SLASH!
Carlessa saw the chimera's tail heading towards her, despite only having a fraction of a second to move, her reaction speed and every senses of her was already at the maximum limit of a human thanks to her power.
.
.
A few minutes ago, right before the battle—
Heimfher was watching the city scenery like usual, Bentley kept using his magic power while the rest was talking.
Amidst his relaxing watch, Heimfher heard Duskiell talking about his and the others God's magic, and that intrigued Heimfher, he momentarily turned his head to see Duskiell directly and realized that he was talking to Carlessa.
"Isn't it almost the time for you to ascend into an advanced awakened, Carlessa?" He said nonchalantly.
"Hah? Ohh— Haha you're right, i almost forgot about that, well i only need 2 more hearts, and after that i'll be able to do another contract.. But considering there's really not a lot of criminals that we killed, it's slowing down my growth.." Carlessa replied, she was happy at first then her face turned gloomy when she thought about the ever rare cases of an awakened criminal.
"But yeah, even if i became an advanced awakened.. I don't know which god i should take next.."
Whilst Carlessa and Duskiell was exchanging word after word, Heimfher himself was confused with what they were talking about, he never heard of the term advanced awakened before, and he also never heard of an awakened ascending, except maybe ascending into Godhood, but based on what he heard, it seems like Duskiell and Carlessa wasn't talking about being a god.
Unable to contain his curiousity, Heimfher decided to ask.
"Uhh.. What is this advanced awakened and ascending?" He said.
His question caught the attention of both Duskiell and Carlessa, they didn't expect Heimfher to be interested, so they answered.
"Huh? You don't know? Did murph not tell you about this? Jeez, that guy.. He always have that bad habit of never telling anyone anything except when the time is right.." Duskiell scoffed, he lowered his body and let his butt slides off of the comfy carriage seat.
"The world of an awakened is more complex than you think." Carlessa said, she started to explain the term to heimfher.
"Even though i said that borrowing the power from the Gods were similar to a contract, the truth is– There's a limit on how much power you can borrow from one god, and to reach that limit, you need to strengthen your magic—
"For example, my god's magic, i borrowed the power of strength enhancement from the God of Power, Hercules, at first, when i used my magic, only my strength would increase, but now my power also enhanced all of my senses, my reaction speed, my movements, my vision, my awareness, and so on—
"You might be wondering, how do i make my magic stronger then? Well, i don't know if you're gonna like it or not, but— You need to kill other awakened and eat their heart, cannibalism basically."
Heimfher instantly went into shock as he heard Carlessa's explanation, eating other humans to get stronger was not in his bucket list, and he never would have guessed that that would be the way to get stronger.
"Scary right?" Duskiell said, he still has the same smirk after listening to Carlessa.
"Carlessa had eaten 4 hearts, while i've eaten 2— Murph ate 3, Bentley and Harith ate 1– Lena haven't ate an awakened heart yet, but we're planning to give this one to her if these criminals left us with no choice other than killing them—
"The more awakened hearts you eat, the stronger you get, and your mana veins will also get bigger, when we say that your mana veins are the biggest among us all, it means you already have the required mana veins to wield more than one god's magic.. You just need to eat some human hearts—
"Oh and also, yes that's right.. You can borrow another god's power if you managed to reach the limit of your previous god's power.. Think of it like a pyramid of glass cups, you fill one glass at the very top until its full, and then the rest of the water will fill the next cups at the bottom, until you reached the very last cups."
Heimfher was stunned, hearing how an awakened power system works was enough to left him speechless, and he can't take back anything that has happened up until this point, he had become an awakened, and he had also swore to himself that he will walk the path of magic instead of swordmanship, there was no way of backing down, and Heimfher, whether he like it or not, would have to follow the law of this world.
.
.
Back to the present—
HISSS!!
The chimera screamed after its tail was severed by Carlessa's sword, its snake tongue swayed aggressively before the chimera lunged its own head to snap Carlessa's body in half.
Swoosh!
BOOM!
Unfortunately for the chimera, Carlessa was able to dodge just in time, she jumped to the side and avoided the chimera's jaw, its head hit the cobblestone road shattered it in a loud bang.
Then, using her rapid step, Carlessa was able to get behind the chimera in an instant, she swung her sword to her back, preparing for an ultimate attack while Duskiell supported her from the front.
"Let me join too you fucker!" Duskiell said as he stretched his right hand towards the chimera.
"O' Ignis, Heed my call!"
Whirr!!
A massive flame tornado appeared on Duskiell's palm, and with a strong wind current, he shot the flame tornado into the chimera.
At first, the flame tornado hit the chimera harmlessly, its as if Duskiell's magic did nothing to the demon, however, a few moments later, the chimera was suddenly caught on fire, its entire body went up in flames and it shrieked relentlessly, writhing in pain as Carlessa was locking her slash into its head.
'GOT YOU!' She said to herself.
SWING!
A slash so fast that it almost cut through the air itself, Carlessa swung her sword at the chimera's neck, beheading the hideous monster while its inside was burning into crisps, the combo from both Duskiell and Carlessa made the chimera die in an agonizing death, and its lifeless body soon fell limp.