CHAPTER 1452: THE LAYERS

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The Verdant Jungle.

The Crimson Forest.

The Burning Ash Desert.

The Abyssal Void Swamps.

And lastly, the Nightmare Void Sea, and beyond.

These were the Layers that encompassed the Hollow Earth Nightmare Labyrinth.

Each one was different and unique on their own, with their own flora and fauna.

We’ve walked through hundreds of kilometers already in this time, or well, mostly flew.

This place seems mostly populated by a lot of flying Nightmaresaurs though, they love the storms above the sky.

But it was about time to leave this layer behind, through the Wild Rainforest, as we make our way to the Crimson Forest, we’ll maximize our growth the most.

I can already detect that some Dream Weapons are about to become evolvable, but not quite there yet.

For whatever challenges await us at the end of this journey, we need to get stronger.

Leveling is important, yes, but that won’t be enough. Foes in this world are more affected when you fight them with their own element.

As they say, fight fire with fire... even though that’s illogical when you think about it.

We have to reinforce and strengthen your Dream Weapons as much as we can!

"Mama! It’s there! The Wild Rainforest! Was that the name? Let’s go! Hurry, hurry!"

Nyx was eager to go, as I nodded by her side and walked with her.

"Oh, it looks almost the same as the rest of the jungles..." Partner analyzed the "entrance".

"But there’s clearly an entrance? How odd," Emeraldine said, she began walking after resting enough. "It is as if the plants around just twist and move into this position... I suppose with so much flora, my magic will come in very handy."

"Can you control it? Even though they’re infected with nightmare essence?" Lucifer asked.

"Yeah, there shouldn’t be any problem with it, Lucifer~!" Emeraldine nodded with a confident, adorable smile. "Despite them being a bit different, they aren’t the same as, for example, a tree mutated into a monstrous creature using Miasma..."

"Wait, what do you mean with that, auntie?" Nyx wondered, tilting her head.

"I mean to say that these plants are more plants than monsters. They’ve adapted and survived to this environment, but they’re still plants, I can feel that they aren’t just monsters... Well! There are some monsters though," Emeraldine said. "Like-"

"ROOOAAARRR!"

Out of nowhere, the jungle trembled, everyone saw a massive, carnivorous plant emerge from the ground beneath, opening its jaws and aiming towards Emeraldine.

"Hmph."

Her eyes shone brightly, her aura erupted into thousands of arrows, piercing the monster and exploding, bombarding it with great damage.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"GRYYAAEERGH...!"

The creature, after having taken so much damage, screamed and fell to the floor, dying on the spot.

That reaction time was almost instant!

Emeraldine’s powers... and her divinity, they’ve truly progressed amazingly.

Even when attacked from behind, as an Archer, she can simply materialize arrows to intercept any foe around her.

She has definitely begun to step into a realm beyond...

"Well! There’s some exceptions like that guy over there..." Emeraldine said. "Hmm, I wonder... Maria, you said you could make Dream Weapons, right? Perhaps you could save this corpse? It could create something compatible with me..."

"Oh, sure," I nodded, saving the corpse by expanding my shadows beneath it. "Anyway, let’s get going. There’s a lot more to get through! Ah right, you guys should come out and fight too!"

Besides Beatriz, I summoned all of my other Spirits. Who had been sleeping for a while. Tyr, Amethyst, Obsidian, Medusa, and lastly, Root.

"Okay, so you want us to fight for you, huh?" Tyr wondered. "You’ve gotten lazier, Maria."

"Lazy?! Hah! You’re the ones that are lazy, you’re going to work hard and get stronger, understood? Spirits can also Level Up through Yggdrasil’s System, there’s nothing stopping you from growing mightier," I said.

"Level Up? I cannot do that! My existence is twisted, not even the System accepts me," said Tyr. "I am fragmented apart, an outlier of even the System itself..."

An outlier, huh?

Wait... could he be the reason...

Hmm, I’ll think about that later.

"You can still grow stronger, Tyr, by consuming Nightmare Power and Miasma, right? Monsters, and their souls," I said. "The same goes for everyone else, you should be able to grow by devouring soul essence and other energies."

Medusa, Amethyst, and Obsidian looked at one another in confusion, they were not the smartest ones out there, but they had the spirit I guess.

Meanwhile, Root nodded confidently.

"Yes, gyuuuh! Leave it to me, master gyuh!"

He nodded confidently, his small spiritual body changing, as he suddenly began growing and growing, becoming a gigantic, walking tree.

"Fifty Percent Power form!"

RUMBLE!

The entire jungle trembled, and with Root’s powerful presence at full display, I could instantly many beasts noticing us.

"Good, I want all of you to go full power as well! I’ll give my Energy and... Nightmare Power. You’re quite compatible with it, are you not? I know you can take upon stronger, more monstrous forms. So we’ll go with that."

"W-Wait, Maria, you haven’t tested this enough- Ack!"

Tyr tried to complain, but I already infused him with as much nightmare power as he could take, alongside chaotic energies and miasma.

FLUOSH!

His body rapidly evolved, growing into an enormous humanoid titan made of swirling black miasma, darkness, chaos, and Nightmares.

His face barely resembled a human, although he had no mouth and barely the silhouette of a nose, with sharp crimson eyes.

He had no hair, bald, but covered on flames and black fog, making it as if it were hair waving by the wind.

His presence was overwhelming.

"HMMM...! DAMMIT, MARIA! WHAT IS THIS?! AGH- HUH? I’M FINE?"

His voice had become really loud, but he was indeed fine.

"See?! What did I tell you? You’re fine! And you’re stronger than ever, right?"

"HAH... I DO STILL FEEL LIKE MY BODY IS UNSTABLE BUT... I LIKE THIS FEELING."

He looked at his hands, closing and opening his palms over and over, feeling the weight of his body, something he had not felt in a while.

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