Spire of Ascension, Floor 30.
[Why have you stopped in this place? Weren't we supposed to go more deeper?]
Lia shook her head at that question and spoke in a calm tone.
"My foresight's telling me to stay here for a while..."
Lia can see a few seconds into the future, but sometimes when her foresight isn't locked on a specific target, it can give hints and warnings about events that might happen.
The future is ever-changing; the slightest change in circumstances can change the course of destiny; moreover, she has never been able to predict Rio's future, so her skill isn't capable of calculating an anomaly.
Nonetheless, it's still a very overpowered ability.
Lia has absolute faith in her skill; thus, she chose to believe the hints and warning given by the foresight.
[Hmm? Is something dangerous happening on the lower floor? The entire spire of ascension is riddled with holes...]
[Some strange attacks are being fired from lower floors that seem to involve the time elementals...] "Yeah, likely some time magic or other related type skill user is fighting in the lower floors... As for above... the battle above seems even more intense..."
"Hmm?"
All of a sudden, a look of confusion appeared on Lia's face as she got another hint from her foresight.
'Stretch out my hand? For what?'
Although Lia didn't know what this hint meant, she did so without hesitating much. *BOOOM!* *CRACK!*
Just as she extended her hand, the ceiling began to crack and collapse, causing a massive amount of debris to fall through it with immense momentum.
Lia was standing out of the range so she didn't get hit by it; instead, a very familiar person came flying, and the hand she had stretched out caught the person who fell from above. "Oh, Riya!? You were also here?"
It was none other than Riya, who fell from above and got caught by Lia.
Riya immediately hugged Lia with a thankful look on her face.
"Ah! I thought I was gonna die today! Thankfully, you saved me!"
Lia felt a bit awkward, but she accepted those words of thanks.
"What were you doing that you broke through the ground and fell down like that? You really do some crazy stuff sometimes..."
Hearing that question, Riya pointed towards the gigantic hole in the ceiling and spoke in a serious tone.
"I was actually walking with Rio and looking for you guys everywhere, but then suddenly an earthquake came and the floor collapsed..."
"But just when I fell down, I noticed an extremely powerful aura coming closer... I think Rio is likely fighting an S-ranker right now! We need to go up and provide support!"
"That S-ranker had immense vitality!! It seemed much stronger than any other S-ranker, even stronger than that demon prince we saw in Oaklum!!"
Hearing those words, a look of worry appeared on Lia's face.
She has great belief in Rio's combat skills, but even Rio can't possibly fight a peak S-ranker on equal terms as of yet.
Lia wanted to go help Rio in the battle, but then her foresight got triggered once again and urged her not to go above.
Instead of going above, her foresight was asking her to get to the lower floor with Riya instead.
'This is the exact reason why I don't like using this ability... It always creates such a dilemma for me and always interferes with my judgment abilities...'
Lia deliberated for a considerable amount of time and ultimately arrived at a decision with significant difficulty.
"Riya, leave that battle to Rio; we are going to the lower floors! Rio can definitely hold his ground for the time being!"
A look of shock appeared on Riya's face as Lia didn't go to help Rio and instead chose to go downstairs.
"T-this!? Wait, I am not joking, Lia, I am speaking the truth; there really is an S-ranker above; if we don't do anything, Rio's going to be in trouble..."
Lia gritted her teeth at those words and grabbed her hand to drag her away.
"Hurry up, we don't have time. I will explain these things to you later... It's just that I can predict a few things from the future with a skill of mine..."
"Believe in my skill... Let's go down..."
Riya sighed at those words and followed Lia.
Although she didn't know about the whole picture, she knows that Lia definitely isn't the type
of person to abandon Rio; she must have something in her mind.
Floor 27.
"Phew... I finally have clothes to wear..."
Link breathed a long sigh of relief as he finally covered himself.
He got teleported when he was in the middle of a bath, and he wasn't even wearing his space ring or engagement ring at that moment, thus he didn't even have a change of clothes. Just as he stood there, completely naked, a demon approached to attack him.
Link blasted off the entire upper torso of the other party, then stole the other party's robe to cover his own lower body.
'I still lack something to cover my upper torso... I need to start moving; there's too many monsters in this place...'
Although Link's been blasting monsters and demons alike to bits in the past hour, they just keep coming, and there's no sign of stopping at all.
That's also why he hasn't been able to leave this floor up until now.
For some reason, there are just too many demons and monsters attacking him right now.
*BOOOM!*
Just as Link was struggling to decide which direction to go, the ceiling collapsed, causing a massive amount of debris to fall directly on him!
The debris had pierced through several floors by now; thus, it lost momentum and finally stopped falling at this floor.
But just when Link was about to stand up, a massive beam of condensed time elements came flying from below and pierced right through the debris.
Even Link's hand got caught up in the beam as he tried to dodge.
His entire arm turned to dust in an instant, as if it had ages hundreds of years in an instant!
"Ugh, this sensation!?"
Link's eyes widened in shock when he got hit by that attack; he wasn't worried about the pain;
he was more shocked by the aura that the attack carried.
"Alverto!?"
Link is extremely familiar with Alverto's aura, as he has met the other party two times
already.
The first was when Rio was fighting the clone of Alverto, and the second time in Oaklum.
Without any hesitation, Link immediately jumped into the massive hole created by that beam
of time elementals.
He gritted his teeth and a look of extreme anger appeared on his face.
'This time, I will not let you go, Alverto! I will definitely avenge Zach senpai!'
*BOOOM!*
Just when Link was falling down through the hole.
A gigantic fist came flying at him, and he had to stop in mid-air to dodge the attack!
[Dao Rhythm!]
[Divine Dragon Arts: Defiant Type: Air Walk!]
Link stomped his feet as if he were hitting the ground and used the air itself to move away
from the attack's range; the gigantic fist hit the walls and stopped.
Link landed on the ground and found himself standing in a massive hall.
A giant demon appeared in front of him and started to laugh like a maniac at the top of his
lungs!
"BAHAHAHAHA, I heard from master that you are the best 'warrior' Link Rex! Come!! Fight me!! I will show you hell!!! BAHAHAHAHA!"
Hearing the other party's words, Link immediately took his stance and got ready for battle.
"Hoh, you are challenging me for a warrior's duel? Well fine, I will deal with you first before
going further down..."
Although Link's left arm has been destroyed, his combat effectiveness hasn't been lost.
He can still fight at full power even without an arm.
'Still... this guy's a peak S-ranker... Where did such a strong demon even come from!?'
'Wasn't Alverto also just an S-ranker? Then why are other peak S-rank demons working for
him...'
Demons are very arrogant types of creatures that have no such concept as loyalty.
They won't work for other demons unless the other party is overwhelmingly stronger than
them.
'Has that guy broken through to SS rank? Sh*t, that's very bad news...'
Link clenched his fist and asked with a calm look on his face,
"Oi, fat potato! Is your master an SS-ranker?"
The demon looked oval-like and round like a potato in body shape, thus Link instantly gave it
a nickname.
But that nickname indeed worked wonders; the demon immediately got angered by Link's
mocking words.
'Hmph, idiot, losing your calm over such a small thing, you are like a total amateur... If it was Liam in my place, this fat potato would have died from insults alone...'
Liam is the smartest guy in their group, and he's the only one who likes to use enemies'
emotions against their own strength.
Link also learned this ability from Liam's fighting methods.
'I wonder if the rest of the group is also here... ugh... If Riya's here, she's gonna beat me up for
not wearing the engagement ring...'
[Dao Rhythm!] Link covered himself in dao rhythm and smirked at the demon as if mocking him to come and
try attacking
him.
The demon's face visibly went red from anger, and its eyes went bloodshot in an instant!
"I WILL KILL YOU!! YOU PEST!!"
Link immediately jumped away to dodge the mad rampage of the demon with a mocking grin
on his face.
"Yeah, yeah, try to hit me; you will never reach me, you overgrown potato!"