Raven gritted her teeth, her eyes narrowing as she focused her attention on the thralls, deflecting their attacks with graceful, precise movements.
She could feel the shockwaves of Northern's onslaught rippling through the air and knew she had to be careful not to get caught in the crossfire.
She twirled into the air and swung her blade, causing the heads of three thralls to roll in the wake of her sword.
Then she landed on one knee and looked ahead, staring at the whitish glow that Northern held in his hands as he took a javelin thrower's stance.
Ready to obliterate the enemy before him.
She stared at him with a slight frown above her brows.
"Was he hiding his powers all along?.... but there's no way he would have known that the Karasuno was following him."
It was exactly as she had said.
The Kageyama clan practiced an ancient technique of surveillance called Karasuno.
It was a passed down technique where one needed their essence to activate it.
Once activated, the technique takes on a near-life form, able to act as a black crow that traces its target without being noticed.
All it needed to stay hidden was the presence of soul essence.
As long as its target had soul essence, it could never be seen unless the user willed it so.
Through the eyes of the black crow, it was possible to see what the target was doing.
Through the mouth of the black crow, it was possible to have a conversation with the target.
And through the feather of the black crow, it was possible to pass an inked message.
Of course, this was just a family arts technique since they were a notorious clan of assassins.
It had nothing to do with Raven's ability nor her talent.
And it was a perfect technique that not even an Ascendant should be able to see... except an exceptional few.
Raven was very sure Northern, by every means possible, was not part of that exceptional few.
So what exactly had transpired?
The young lady was drowning in a lot of confusion... and it was becoming distracting.
Raven let out a sigh and looked away, facing the scant number of thralls that remained.
She had single-handedly dealt with over a hundred of them, and not even a single scratch marred her body.
Suddenly, the entire landscape shuddered.
That was when Northern's intensified crimson lances, glowing with a blinding white light, streaked towards the Kirithon's four pulsing cores.
The monster tried to retaliate, but its entire form was already overwhelmed by Northern's prior onslaught.
Its flesh incessantly being rendered asunder.
As the lances struck the cores, a deafening explosion rocked the area.
The Kirithon let out an agonizing roar, its massive body convulsing violently.
Northern watched intently, waiting to see if his attack had been decisive.
Slowly, the Kirithon's movements began to slow, its regenerative abilities faltering.
Northern narrowed his eyes, sensing an opportunity. Gathering the last of his strength, he charged forward, his hands wreathed in crimson energy.
"This ends now!" Northern bellowed, slamming his palms into the Kirithon's weakened form.
The monster lunged its hands and tendrils forward, but its attacks were feeble. With a flick of his hand, Northern warded them away.
Then he tore into the Kirithon's body with his hands covered in dancing red flames, ripping through its flesh and reaching for its core.
However, Northern's eyes suddenly furrowed.
He deepened his hands further into the now dying body of the monster, a deep frown now contorting his face.
The monster's massive form lifelessly dropped to the ground, expunging a cloud of dust and smashing debris into splinters around.
Northern removed his hands, they were empty...
He looked at his purple-soaked hands, then raised his eyes to the monster's corpse.
By this time, Koll's soul was wearing off, and he was slowly reverting to his original body.
"Wow! I'm enthralled. You are totally on another level."
Helena's voice resounded with jubilation as she approached Northern.
She was with Terence, who was still staring at Northern with so much awe radiating from her eyes.
Raven was still far behind, but she seemed to have finished cleaning up as her swords turned into sparkles and disappeared.
The veil that covered the light was finally uplifted, and scarlet light was subtly leaking from the horizon.
Northern, with a pale face, turned to them... he didn't have to speak, his facial expression was enough to warrant an immense amount of concern from Helena and Terence.
"Hey, flower boy, are you okay? You just defeated an Apex Maelstrom-rank monster, that's not quite the face for celebration."
Northern looked at the massive dead body and looked at Helena, then he shook his head slightly and said:
At this point, Raven was closer to them, so she could hear what he was saying.
Northern's voice rang tiredly.
"I tried to take the core, it's not there anymore..."
Helena squinted her eyes for a moment.
"It's possible that your attack could have destroyed its core."
Raven shook her head and entered the conversation.
"A soul core is indestructible. Something is off here..." she looked at Northern for a few moments and asked, "Are you certain it died?"
Northern was silent for a couple of seconds.
Apart from the absence of the soul cores, he never received any fragments... none at all.
Which meant that the Kirithon was very much alive.
He closed his eyes and shook his head as he responded:
Raven too was silent for a while. Then she said:
"Chances are that it has run away..."
Helena tilted her head back and scratched her hair, groaning angrily.
"Argh! This is annoying... how does that even work?!"
"Since we haven't encountered many maelstrom-rank monsters of apex level, not much can be said... we've not, in fact, encountered many apex level monsters... and it's apex level. That level itself means anything is possible."
Northern stayed aloof for a while, then he returned his eyes and apologized.
"I'm sorry, I should have been more careful..." he bowed his head slightly to Helena.
He had promised her to end the creature's life, and now, he couldn't help but be washed with a torrent of embarrassment due to how overconfident he was back then.
Raven lowered her head slightly to Helena and clenched her fist.
"If you decide that you are not going with us... I will understand."
Helena, with her eyes widened and blank, looked at Northern, then turned to Raven and turned to Northern again before resounding,
"Are you guys crazy?! Flower boy, you practically obliterated that thing alone! And you think I'm not already satisfied?"
She gave Raven a knock on her head, causing her to frown slightly and look up.
"You can stop with the nonsense act. You know already that I am following you on this journey, and besides, hell, in no way, will I let you go away with my precious map."
She looked around; it was subtle, but they could now hear chatters and steps.
Of course, with a destruction of this level, even if the entire area was covered in the monster's veil—it was impossible that the main city didn't sense or feel anything.
It was only a matter of time before they reached here.
Helena's brows furrowed a little.
"Now, if we don't want to face more complications than we have at hand, I think we better get moving," she urged them.
With that, the cohort took hasty steps forward.
Northern paused and looked back at the monster's corpse with a vicious glare on his face before joining the others in front.
After they left, four worms crawled out of the monster's body, merged into one, and burrowed into the soil.