As soon as he came into the Material World, Ulrich saw the red-haired girl being kicked down the cliff. At that moment, he made a quick decision and ran after her. He had some guesses as to why she had become the prime target of these masked men. With his current injuries, he would most certainly die here. At least by jumping down after her, there would be a slight chance of survival.

  Chivis observed the contorted face of Mikart. No matter how she tried, she was not able to use the elemental energy in her body. Even the elementals in the surroundings were not responding to her. It felt like being completely isolated from the world around her. Even the healing of her hand was slowing down, and the external energy of death was slowly destroying her body. All she could do was give a slight smile to Mikart and fall into the dark valley below. It felt like a certain kind of pressure was pulling her downward.

  At that moment, from the corner of her eyes, she saw the Church of Frost member jump down toward her. She was completely dumbfounded at this action of his. Her speed was slowly accelerating, and the edge of the cliff had become blurry. Her surroundings were also plunged into darkness, and the only thing visible was the half-burned idiot who had jumped with her.

  Slowly, he was trying to approach her by moving his hands and body. As soon as he neared her, Chivis asked in a loud voice, "Are you crazy?"

  Instead of answering, Ulrich extended his hand and caught her intact hand. Chivis tried to resist, but her strength was no match for his tight grip. Ignoring the struggle, Ulrich took out a golden pendant from his pocket.

  Then, looking at the struggling Chivis, he commanded in a stern voice, "Stop struggling. Soon you will be able to use your power for a moment. At that time, use that previous Ascension Spell on me."

  Hearing his words, Chivis slowed her struggling. After the cliff had completely disappeared from their sight and only darkness surrounded them, Ulrich activated the pendant. For a brief moment, he and Chivis were separated from the world. Even the death energy was completely removed from them. Using this chance, Chivis applied her Ascension Spell on him.

  Ulrich felt his blood start to boil, and he was able to use more of his elemental energy. But at that moment, the pendant cracked and fell into pieces. The environment here had overridden the power of the pendant and brought Ulrich and Chivis back. Chivis again felt the constraints and was once more unable to use any elemental energy.

  At that moment, Ulrich extended his hand toward the side of the valley and tried to dig his hand into the rocky side. But due to the momentum of their fall, the only thing that happened was his hand being mangled. Using the elemental energy from his Nexus Rings, he started to heal his hand. Due to Chivis's Ascension Spell, he felt fewer restrictions than before and was able to slowly mend it.

  He started to recklessly use the elemental energy from his Nexus Rings and extended his hand toward the side of the valley. At first, there was no effect, but slowly his hand dug deeper. Their momentum was also slowing down gradually. Then he discovered something was trying to pull them downwards, and it was impossible to completely stop.

  After some time, Ulrich's face was contorted in agony. All the flesh of his hand was gone, and only the bones remained. It was taking all his effort to keep them intact. The pain of destroying and reconstructing the broken hand was too much to bear. Although Ascenders were desensitized to pain, it didn't mean that they didn't feel any. And in such a situation where a body part was being constantly mangled and healed, even they would face unimaginable pain.

  Chivis had stopped struggling and, with their joined hands, was trying to help him. Although she was only able to use a minuscule amount of her power, she was using it to boost her Ascension Spell. After what felt like a long time, they finally reached the bottom of the valley.

  From the limited visibility, they saw that the bottom of the valley was littered with sharp jagged rocks. As they neared it, Ulrich pulled Chivis up and lightly embraced her. As soon as they landed, the jagged rocks pierced his back and legs. His hand remained embedded in the wall, and small trickles of blood came out of his mouth. He let go of Chivis and pulled his hand out from the wall. All that remained was a withered, bony arm with no trace of flesh and cracks in several places. Then he tried to move but found that the rocks had dug deeper into him, and he was unable to move.

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  Looking at his plight, Chivis came forward to help. Her face had grown paler from using her energy continuously. With her help, Ulrich was barely able to get free and collapsed right after. Chivis, who was also exhausted, collapsed beside him. All around them, there was only darkness.

  Watching Chivis completely disappear into the darkness from his sight, Mikart's face twisted in anguish. He turned his gaze toward the two dark-clothed members of the Church of Death, his eyes bloodshot. From beside him, Lester let out a loud howl, and a river of fire emerged from behind him. Several large fire chains shot out from the river toward his enemies.

  The two targets of the chains easily dodged and rushed toward Mikart and Lester. Seeing this, Mikart also activated his Ascension Spell. The wind elementals started to gather around him and Lester, forming an impenetrable wall. As the two enemies neared them, Lester and Mikart felt a slight palpitation in their hearts and sensed the world around them starting to slow down.

  A black slash emerged from nowhere and collided with the wind elementals, scattering them. And when Mikart tried to close the gap, he discovered that his control over the elementals had loosened. The speed of his thoughts and reactions of the body had also slowed down. Only then did he understand why they had targeted Chivis first. Chivis's Ascension Spell controlled blood, indirectly controlling the reactions of the body. If she were here, she would have easily solved this problem for them. So they had taken out the counter as part of their strategy first.

  The assault continued, and the wall of wind elementals was slowly whittled away. Although the river of fire attacked them, the two enemies easily dodged, exhibiting their superior combat experience. Just when the wall was about to be destroyed, Lester let out a low growl.

  The blood in his body began to burn, and a large amount of energy gathered within him. In the heat of battle, he had formed his new Ascension Spell: Blood Combustion. It burned his blood to provide energy to his body. Although he felt he had seen this Ascension Spell before, he couldn’t place much thought on it in the middle of this battle. Freed from the spell that was slowing him, he stepped out of the wind wall and faced the attacks head-on.

  Lester drew back his hand and punched at the approaching black slash. Hand and slash collided, and the slash was instantly engulfed in fire, completely obliterating it. The two masked men stopped and stared at Lester. Lester stared back with his bloodshot eyes, his body covered in flames. The elemental energy from his Nexus Rings rapidly replaced the combusted blood, providing him with an endless supply of energy until the rings were exhausted.

  It seemed it would not be easy to kill Lester and Mikart, so the two masked men decided to depart. Right then, the space tore open, and Agor stepped out. With his sudden appearance, the two masked men tore through space and entered the Void Realm without a second thought, fully intending to escape.

  But just as they entered the Void Realm, they felt an immense pressure tightly engulf them. Gritting their teeth, they took out a small paper hidden inside their clothes and tore it. But the usual transmission did not happen, and the paper simply burned to ashes. The eyes hidden under the masks grew slightly puzzled. And then realizing what had happened, they became completely horrified.

  "Since you have come, why not stay a little longer?" Lumian said from the side. Slowly approaching the two Ascenders who were completely under his thumb, he continued with a slight smile on his lips, "We will be having a nice big chat going ahead."

  Looking at the two Ascenders of Death being caught by Lumian, Agor moved his gaze toward his grandson. "You don't need to worry. They've been taken care of."

  Thinking that one of their Rank One Demigods had been lurking in the Void Realm, Lester dispelled his Ascension Spells. Looking at the cliff, he asked his grandfather, "Since you are here, can you bring Chivis out?"

  Seeing the expectant eyes of his grandson, Agor could only shake his head. Moving his gaze towards the cliff, he solemnly said, "This is one of the few forbidden zones in these mountains. Once you go inside, you lose all control over your elemental energy, and the elementals also stop following your command. Even we are no exception to that. Moreover, indigenous creatures lurk inside, always searching for prey. We can only give up."

  Lester just stood there after listening to his grandfather. His jaw was slack, and his face was ashen. Mikart, who had also listened from the side, fell to his knees, slight droplets of tears flowing from his eyes.

  At that instant, Agor felt a very slight fluctuation from the valley below the cliff. His eyes turned a brighter orange, and he looked closely. But all he saw was darkness gazing back at him.