Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

Larissa Agatha frowned as Lupusrazor stopped in its tracks. 

Since Lupusrazor is enveloped under Mordred's AT-Field, he should be invisible from low-level passive and active detections. In most cases, his presence is extremely thin, thus it's normal for being ignored despite his relatively big size.

However, Larissa Agatha's rank 1 cultivation base was clearly detectable from afar. Her 3 red star (early-stage rank 1) aura is laid bare to see, allowing others who have malicious intent to scheme against her. 

For bandits who have the numbers and cultivation base advantage, the woman riding on top of an exotic out-of-place beast not in their elements would be an easy prey. It was more so since the wolf does not have a strong presence in the first place.

"Did you selectively ignore these trash?" Larissa Agatha telepathically asked.

"Nope. We are now on the surface, air does not transmit vibration better than most solids so my investigative range is significantly shorter than when we are in the underground world. You also need some live experience in using Pale Hunter's blessings and chainsaw. I don't want to waste telepathic resources to deal with this, you’ll do it." Mordred replied as Lupusrazor growled as if the exotic beast was threatened.

Slowly, several men revealed themselves from the bushes. They wore mismatched leather armor, some wear metal armor padding on their shoulders while others have their upper body naked which reveals their body runes openly.

There was no need for an expert to know that these people are bandits.

"27 men…." Larissa Agatha muttered as she squinted her eyes at the bandits who were slowly encircling Lupusrazor. The equipment on their hands includes bladed weapons, hammer, hooks connected to steel wire, nets, and others which were specialized in capture.

“Can you do it?” Mordred asked one last time.

“Most of them are fire-path cultivators, it will end quickly.” She replied.

"Heheh, we got a nice catch today… Some priestess with a fish bloodline, boss is going to be happy…." Muttered the bandit with the highest cultivation base at 5 red stars (mid-stage rank 1).

He has a tanned wheat colored skin, just like the other bandits, but his leather armor wasn't mismatched like the rest. Instead it looks like he is wearing a set, tailor-made for his body. The armor has been engraved with defensive runes which highlight his presence further.

"Bandits, my goddess has no relation to any church of this land, but that does not mean you can do as you like. Begone from my presence, and I shall forgive this transgression." Larissa Agatha stood up on top of Lupusrazor as she took out a chainsaw from the dimensional storage.

With her swimsuit-like apparel and fragile-looking body, every single bit of her actions could incite the fire of lust within men. In the bandits' perspective, she excludes the presence of a strong, arrogant woman with a holier-than-thou attitude but weak cultivation base. The so-called ‘all bark no bite’ type of person. 

The bandits looked at each other as they seemed to reach a common agreement. 

For depraved people like them, training a woman with superiority complex into a sex slave with the use of drugs would be a fun past time. If she became addicted to drugs and died from overdose, that wouldn’t be a problem, they could just capture other girls. The bandits started to chat using a different language as they slowly closed in while being mindful of Lupusrazor's medium-class body size.

"It seems like my warnings fell to deaf ears…" Larissa Agatha sighed as she started praying with her chainsaw on her hand. "Pale Hunter, my Goddess of Shallow Waters… bless me with the strength to obliterate my foes… Rank 1 faith-path killer move, [Graceful Frost]!" 

[Graceful Frost] would slowly alter the environment so that it would benefit someone with a fish-beast bloodline like her. With her body as the center, there was a sudden drop of temperature. White silvery frost started to envelop the surrounding area but the bandits wouldn't just let things go the way Larissa wanted. 

Since mages or magic casters have high resource expenditure and are rare to begin with, there are no mages amongst the bandits, but that doesn't mean they are helpless. Most of them are fire-path martial artists chosen to specifically deal with Larissa's snow and ice-path methods.

As each of the 27 rank 1 bandits freely unleashes their radiation, the lowering temperature caused by Larissa's blessing got reversed. The white frost melted as the surroundings got hotter and hotter. In fact, the dry weeds and branches in the surrounding area are ignited. The combined power of 27 rank 1 martial artists are not to be underestimated. Even if she’s an elite amongst elite, the quantity of the radiation snowballed into a quality which was equivalent to a rank 2. 

At this moment, the area is slowly transforming into a fire-path environment. Any trace of water would be boiled and vegetation ignited. 

VROOM! The chainsaw in Larissa's hand started to churn to life. The wind pressure from the chainsaw's teeth contain a sharp cold feeling that would permeate into the bones. Despite being a chainsaw, it runs on special water instead of oil. The combustion principles followed the laws of snow and ice-path instead of fire-path, it became a source of coldness in this blazing hot area.

GRRR! In response, Lupusrazor growled. Lupusrazor’s whole body vibrates in a unique way as it sinks down to the earth. The soil that touched its body became fine sand. Soon, its presence disappeared from sight, but that does not make the bandit’s job easier. 

The bandits become even more wary as the beast is not something that’s commonly seen in the Land of Autumn Rain. In the first place, the shark-wolf hybrid is a creature from Seas of Eternal Winters; they typically lived underwater or in glacier caves.

Furthermore, the beast has a thin presence, it is hard to detect so they could only focus on Larissa Agatha. In some way or another, Lupusrazor's disappearance is already a great assistance to Larissa Agatha as the bandits' attention is now split to ensure they are not ambushed by the land-swimming shark.

The bandit leader immediately realized why the wolf had a thin presence. Despite its large size, Lupusrazor is a beast specialized in assassination.  

Yet, seeing the amount of cronies¹Ouro Kronii simps. he has, his worries lessened. Even if beasts are stronger than humans, these bandits have been working together for a long time. With the relatively close distance to a Hartina Kingdom’s city, careless new bloods and rookies would be eliminated after a few raids. What remains is the elite veteran whose combat prowess and skills are honed.  

As for where Lupusrazor went… It simply dived down underground and stayed there motionless. Its pilot, Mordred, doesn't want to waste telepathic resources in dealing with trash as his mind is occupied with preparations for Lord Erebus.

With a chainsaw in hand, Larissa Agatha chanted a few syllables to ask for more blessing from Pale Hunter. She’s hiding the fact that both ice and fire are her elements. If she went all out, she would probably be immune to same-rank fire-path methods like how Mordred is extremely resilient against various paths. ‘I don’t even need the chainsaw to harvest their souls… but Mordred wouldn’t allow me to use my flames. In that case…’

“Rank 1 faith-path killer move, [Mage Armor: Frostknight Raiment]!”

Faith-path methods are different compared to other paths. Unlike mages who use spell resources and catalysts or martial artists who use resources to train their bodies, faith-path is like a transaction. 

Simply, the way they use resources is a bit different compared to other cultivators. In a sense, faith-path cultivators use a ‘credit’ system to activate blessing. At one time, they are allocated a limited number of ‘uses’ for their methods before they need to be ‘recharged’. In some cases, they are allowed to ‘borrow’ more what they are allocated but they have to ‘pay’ for them later. Of course, the method to ‘recharge’ their allocated slots is to ‘purchase’ them from the divine and the ‘currency’ used in this transaction is faith, but more often than not, the gods will also ask for offerings in various forms. 

In this case, Larissa Agatha is connected to Mordred’s ‘credit card’ and thus, she was able to use any methods developed and archived by the Church of Shallow Waters freely.

However, she does not like the primitive snow and ice-path methods of Pale Hunter. After all, her snow and ice-path attainment is [Transcendent]. Perhaps, she has a better understanding of snow and ice compared to Pale Hunter. Thus, she combined them with her own methods to form a killer move. 

Pure white ice enveloped Larissa Agatha’s body. The ice slowly accumulated into covering her whole body like armor. Despite the solid exterior, the interior of the armor is actually viscous liquid ice. It can absorb physical trauma better than pure solid. Her chainsaw too, is now covered with a frosty aura. 

BRRRMMM!! The chainsaw roared. After being enveloped in knight-like ice armor, Larissa Agatha rushed towards the nearest bandit who wields a sword. The bandit was unable to react properly as Larissa Agatha’s method activation sequence was almost instant. Her Mage Armor provides several amplifications, including physical enhancement, speed augmentation and produces an icy radiation that would slow down the thought process of any who are affected. 

In the bandit’s point of view, she instantly gained extreme speed but in reality, their thought process was slowed down. 

The shark teeth-like blades of the chainsaw grinded a bandit’s sword. The said bandit was able to react to Larissa Agatha’s first attack. As a martial artist, his physical body is stronger than Larissa Agatha but the chest of her Mage Armor suddenly produced a spear-like limb that penetrated the poor man’s heart. Frost permeates the man’s chest as all of his organs are slowly being frozen by the pervasive energy but Larissa Agatha has already moved on from him because other bandits wouldn’t let her do as she pleases.

“One down…” Larissa Agatha whispered to herself as she endured a flaming hammer that struck her back. Immediately, she uses various supporting blessings while slashing her chainsaw horizontally. 

Since she’s using the identity of a hunter-priestess, her physical ability alone would not be able to kill a martial artist who has trained their body to the fullest in one hit. However, her chainsaw allows her to deal significant damage without the need to exert herself too much. 

A bandit whose weapon is a spear tried to block the chainsaw, but it chewed through the metal spear and his torso. His hardened spine was able to serve as an obstacle, but at this point, surviving for a little bit longer means more pain. The saw teeth chewed through the bandit’s organs, not only grinding them into bloody gore but also freezing them with icy energy. 

The bandit screamed in pain, his voice almost drowned the sound of the chainsaw. 

Larissa could not waste too much time on one person, she pulled the chainsaw from the man’s body as some of the sinews and viscera were sticking at the chainsaw teeth. Her pure white ice armor is splattered with the hot blood of a fire-path martial artist whose temperature is normally at boiling point but the ice armor wouldn’t melt with this level of heat. In this melee where she’s being ganged up, every second is precious. 

A bandit used his hammer to hit her head once more, but the same attack would not be effective on her. Larissa’s knight-like ice armor grew another pair of arms beneath her original, they gripped ice swords. The dual-wielding hand was able to defend against the hammer strike as well as neutralizing the secondary explosions of flames. Due to being ice, it has the ability to extend longer than an original hand and bend into unnatural angles, and thus, her back is no longer a weak spot.

The bandits become mindful of Larissa Agatha’s second sets of limbs, but her relatively slow movement meant she could not outrun nor ‘burst’ the bandits in one go. Her battle is slowly wearing them down with her methods. In a sense her combat style is like a chainsaw. She extremely lacked burst potential, but every little movement she made, despite how slow they are, grinded her foe’s fighting power.

‘As expected, her ice is still something that shouldn't be underestimated…’ Mordred spared a fraction of his computation power to pay attention at the battle aboveground. 

The tempo of the battle is absolutely under the control of Larissa. Despite the scorching temperature caused by fire-path radiation, her ice would not melt. Furthermore, the bandits’ movements are getting slower by the minute as if they are subjected to snow and ice-path methods. However, there’s not a trace of frost on their bodies since their bodies are extremely hot.

‘Her first method, [Graceful Frost], has infinitesimal damage potential,  thus most people would not think too much about it. However, she incorporated a sliver of her ice that could even affect time and space… things are not that simple…’

Just as Mordred’s [Transcendent] attainment in sound-path allowed him to use the laws of the world in exchange of resources, Paimon was able to do the same with fire and ice. Under the disguise of blessings, she could freely use her ice.

Snow and Ice-path has the effect of slowing down or freezing things, but that’s because cold temperature naturally slows down molecule activities. This would be more prominent in perishables as frozen stuff would usually last longer. However, Larissa’s ice went contrary to that principle. 

It actively slows down time itself. 

As the fight continued, the bandits would feel Larissa’s movement accelerated but it was the other way around. It was their time that slowed down. 

The bandit leader realized something was wrong after five of his henchmen had been permanently maimed by chainsaw, but since Larissa was a former Demon King of Grand Strategy, everything has always been under her control. These people are bandits, they are not hunters of the Hunter Association nor soldiers of the Hartina kingdom who excels in working together as a unit. 

A chainsaw is classified as a terror weapon that was recommended in the Geneva War Manual that the Great Archmage wrote. 

BRRRMMMM!!!! Another bandit had his organs gouged by the chainsaw, he coughed blood mixed with pieces of internal organs. The bandits are veterans, they are not pushovers, but their experience allowed them to determine that this fight is a loss cause. 

The priestess’ Mage Armor was too durable, its defense was beyond the upper limit of their damage potential. Perhaps, it would take them a few hours until the ice armor breaks.

Some of them have already hesitated to continue this ‘raid’ and devised a plan to desert the battle. At the first sign of retreat, every single one of them would instantly follow suit since loyalty is something worth less than air in their perspective.

“Kill her!” The bandit leader ordered, but he was actually the first person who retreated. 

When the morale broke, Larissa instantly switched from slowly grinding them to actively hunting them. She wouldn’t let any of them escape because their souls… are delicacies.

“What makes you think you can escape?” Larissa asked as her ice had permeated the area. Surely, the temperature is extremely hot as if the surrounding is somewhere within the land of sand and fire. However, keep in mind that her attainment-level in fire-path was also [Transcendent]. Between hot and cold… there’s actually no big of a difference for her.

Half of the bandits who are still alive decide to retreat, leaving the remaining comrades to fight Larissa for themselves but Larissa’s speed suddenly increases multiple folds. In the bandits’ perspective, her speed suddenly rose to the level of rank 2 lords which was a few times faster than the speed of sound.

However, the sound barrier wasn’t broken. Her casual action does not cause sonic booms. She simply slaughtered the retreating bandits with chainsaws who were using movement methods to accelerate their retreat.  

The battle’s result snowballed. In a few minutes, 26 bandits were killed. 

“Damn… I missed one…” Larissa sighed. During the commotion where every man was for themselves, most of them activated movement and stealth methods while scattering to random directions. The fact that she was able to kill all but one is actually a great result.

Slowly, Lupusrazor’s shark fin reveals themselves from the ground. The soil around it becomes soft because they are grinded into the finest sand particles. “Here’s your missing prey…” He brought up a broken corpse of the bandit leader as his wolf-shark body resurfaced. The skin of the bandit corpse has been ruptured, the bones broken like a toy and the eyeball has been ejected somewhere. “Decapitate them and store all of their corpses for later use. Their heads should be worth something, we can collect bounties if we sell them to the Hunter Association.”

“Understood.” Larissa moved according to Mordred’s order. Her ice armor now melts since she doesn’t have any more uses. After all of the ice no longer encases her body, she starts to activate healing methods as her body is hurt by the self-inflicted wound. Most of her fingers were frostbitten, various spots on her skin were also frozen, she was forced to cut and regrow them.

It couldn’t be helped, the body that she’s using right now is not from a snow and ice-path cultivator, she is actually weak to elemental effects.

While she’s working at the task given to her, Mordred asks. “How’s the chainsaw? Do you have any problem using it?”

Larissa stopped in her tracks, an expression of surprise on her face. “Y- yeah….” She glanced at Lupusrazor who is now sunbathing on top of an elevated rock. “The ergonomics are bad, but that’s probably because I’ve never used chainsaws before.”

“Alright, I will modify it. Is chainsword okay for you?” Mordred replied. “It’s a sword, but it has chainsaw teeth, the principle is more or less the same…”

Larissa Agatha blankly stared at Lupusrazor. “I see. Then, I want a chainsword. Since you’re making it, I want the chainsaw teeth to be engraved with my icy runes, can you do it?”

“A magic machinery chainsword it is, then. Give me the rune design later, we can procure the necessary materials from the Hunter Association when the time comes.” Mordred said with a tone not asking for more answers. 

Larissa Agatha raised her eyebrow in amazement. ‘When the fuck did you become assertive? Weren’t you always condescending?’ She kept those thoughts deep in her heart. For her, It was better when Mordred was assertive. At the very least, it wouldn’t cause her unnecessary troubles.