Hearing Lia's words, Rio and Link immediately stood up and got ready to fight.
"Well, I was just looking for a way to settle the 'draw' we had earlier… Let's see who will kill more monsters and demons this time, Rio…"
Instead of worrying about it, Link immediately got excited at the thought of 'battle.
In a sense, Link is just as much of a battle junkie as Rio is; they both like the thrill of battle a bit too much.
Just when Rio and Link were getting ready to fight, Lia stopped them and said,
"Wait, there's no point in fighting an endless army of them…"
"The 'flow' of souls and existence inside the spire of ascension is very weird; no matter how many you kill, this place seems to be able to revive them all over again…"
"But I don't know how this is even possible-"
While Lia was confused, Riya suddenly interjected and spoke in a calm tone.
"It is possible… When I encountered all those monsters and demons in the upper floor… all of their vitality seemed chaotic and energetic at the same time…"
"They seemed to have the vitality of a newborn… And if what you are saying is true… if the 'souls' and 'strings of fate' are messed up inside this spire of ascension…."
"Then it is indeed possible to create 'Living' monsters and demons out of complete 'Nothingness'…"
The entire group was surprised at the fact that Riya was able to analyze the situation to such details.
Even Link was shocked after hearing such wisdom-filled words from Riya's mouth; she seemed like a completely different person at the moment!
Ignoring the weird stares of the trio, Riya continued making more guesses about the situation.
"Usually such a thing should be impossible, but… if someone has 'Soul Resonance' then everything would make sense!"
"With 'Soul Resonance' you can put fragmented broken pieces of souls into bodies made out of mana and miasma or inside projections made up of literal nothingness too…"
"The monsters and demons wandering in the spire of ascension are being affected by someone who has at least 90% or higher proficiency over the legendary skill 'Soul Resonance'…"
At that moment, Riya stood up and stretched out her palm.
She controlled the vitality and healing magic in her body and concentrated it on top of her palm.
[Astra's Blessing: Creation Type: Beginning of Life!]
A small but complicated magic circle above her palm started to glow with greenish healing elementals.
Riya used the vitality and the healing elementals to literally 'Create' a small bird.
"Astra, the 'Goddess of Healing and Protection', 'The Treasure of the Universe' once said, 'Life is mysterious, yet mana is so powerful that those who can wield it in 'certain' ways can even create 'Life' itself…'…"
Riya glanced at Lia and the others and said,
"This bird I created is just a body… just a dead corpse, but if someone has 'Soul Resonance', they can put a soul in this, and this bird will become an actual living being…"
Link and the others were so shocked by Riya's words that they all took a step back in sheer shock.
"To be able to create life as you please… d-doesn't that mean you would have attained the status of a 'True God'!?"
Hearing that question from Lia, Riya shook her head and replied in a calm voice.
"The thing is… that life created in such a way will only last until I and the user of the 'soul resonance' are alive… If any of us die, the creatures created from our combined efforts will all die instantly…"
Link tilted his head in confusion at those words and asked,
"But what does all of this have to do with that army of monsters?"
Riya took back the vitality from the bird, and it disappeared into nothingness again.
"What I am trying to say is that someone has completely skipped the need for the 'Heart of Eternal Nirvana' and is now using the Spire of Ascension to create 'bodies' out of nothingness…"
"Then they put souls into the bodies with 'Soul Resonance'… as long as this spire of ascension exists or the person using the 'soul resonance' is alive…"
"We can never truly eradicate all the monsters and demons here… So fighting the endless horde of monsters and demons is pointless…"
"We need a plan to solve this problem…"
Rio had already seen Riya act extraordinarily intelligent in the upper floor before, so he wasn't surprised much, but Lia and Link both nearly fainted on the spot from the sheer shock!
They couldn't believe their eyes and ears at the moment at all.
"I have an idea…"
Seeing that it was a bit too much for Link and Lia to digest, Rio shook his head and decided to make plans for the group himself.
"We went to a similar-looking place before the 'Dragon Valley'… It was called 'Prototype S16ir112'… In that place, I sensed an abnormal phenomenon that the walls themselves were moving from time to time…"
"This place looks extremely similar to that one… And my intuition tells me that the walls in this place are also so the same; they move from time to time when no one's paying attention…"
A confused look appeared on Link's face hearing those words.
"What are you trying to say exactly?..."
Hearing that question, Rio replied in his usual emotionless tone,
"There must be a place in this spire of ascension from where you can control the movements of the walls and keep an eye on all floors…"
"We need to find that 'control room'-like place and close the doors so that the monsters get locked outside and can't get to us…"
"I am quite sure that whoever that 'Soul Resonance' user is likely on the floor below 10, and the control room for this whole Spire of Ascension should also be somewhere there…"
"I and Link will keep the monsters at bay and will delay their movements while retreating down the floor slowly. Lia and Riya should go look for this place so that we can lock up the area…"
"I and Link will join up with you guys afterwards… There's no end to these monsters, we only have two options right now, either lock the demons up or kill that user of 'Soul Resonance'…"
Lia nodded her head at that moment,
"This plan seems feasible… If possible, I would rather prefer dealing with the user of 'soul resonance' once for all so that the problem gets destroyed from the core…"
"But it won't be so easy, I suppose… After all, not a single user of a legendary skill is weak; they are all ridiculously strong…"
Rio patted Lia's shoulder at the moment to cheer her up.
"Don't worry, you just need to close the doors; I will join the battle right after the doors are closed… No matter how strong the other party's legendary skill is, I can take care of it…"
"The real risk is an encounter with an SS-ranker… If we encounter an SS-rank enemy, it's all over for us…"
The group took a deep breath at that moment, and they all knew that this plan was filled with holes and problems; the risk is extremely high, and their lives are on the line.
Regardless of who comes across them, if an SS-ranker discovers them, they will ultimately face death.
But they can't step back either right now; it's a do or die.
With all the preparation done, the group split up in two once again: Riya and Lia headed towards the lower floors, while Rio and Link decided to hold the ground and protect their backs.
Before heading down, Riya handed over her space ring to Link; it was filled with healing potions and mana recovery potions; she doesn't need them as she can replenish her health easily.
Link can make more use of it.
While heading downstairs, Lia suddenly asked a question,
"By the way, is there some fixed place for those monsters and demons to be summoned, or do they just appear anywhere…"
"If it's the latter, then our door-closing plan is bound to fail…"
Riya shook her head immediately at that question.
"No way… To create these powerful living and walking demons and monsters is not a simple task! You would need immense power!"
"They likely have set locations where powerful mana circles and altars are carved to actually make the summoning process work… otherwise, it's impossible…"
"Moreover, most of these beasts and demons are mindless creatures with little to no sense of 'Self'…"
"They will attack even their own master if there's nothing else to attack, thus the user of this ability will likely not put the altar near him at the least…"
"If we can even close and seal up just one floor from floor 10 or lower… then it would be enough… If there are still any more altars there, we can just destroy them…"
Using the 'Heart of Eternal Nirvana,' it's possible to track down the source of vitality and life force connected to the monsters and demons, but the reason why Riya isn't doing it is because it will waste a lot of time.
There's no knowing how many altars are there in this gigantic spire of ascension; they don't have the time to find and destroy every single altar out there.
It's much better to find a way to completely close a floor so that the monsters from the upper floor can't enter anymore.
"I am more worried about those holes that were created by those gigantic beams made up of condensed time elements that came from below…"
"There are SS-rankers fighting below… And those holes can't be closed; monsters can still enter from there…"
"We need to find a way to seal them up too…"
Yo! It's your beloved author here!
Question of the day.
What do you think, will the group be able to win this race of survival?
(Tell me your thoughts in the comments!!)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones!!