-----
Hekaton glanced at the battlefield once more, seeing that Natalia had successfully received his Familiar Spirit which he just created, and alongside that, he was pleasantly surprised that she awakened the Cheat Ability he gave to her randomly.
He analyzed her power and it really seemed like she had a chance to win, which made him rather expectant.
He had already planned that the moment Veronica's Health Points were to drop to zero, she would "die" like any Undead monster and her soul would slowly go back to the transmigration cycle.
In that moment of frailness, he would catch her and seal her soul, slowly draining he power away and then completely cleansing her memories and personality, finally reincarnating her randomly across his transmigration cycle.
Hekaton (although capable) did not liked to break souls, and preferred to completely reset them and then send them to reincarnate again… however, wasn't this "reset" pretty much dying to Veronica?
After all, her personality, mind, memories, powers, and everything that pretty much made her herself would simply disappear… she would become a blank slate.
She would not even become a husk of her former self, she would simply become… nothing.
He planned the same for Ervas Soul, although he had even considered cleansing both and then sticking them together as they were originally one soul that was sliced in half by Bestellen's powers and the fragments of the Demon God-King he wielded at that time.
"Hmm… They are certainly quite the tricky souls… But as long as they die, I should be able to catch them," said Hekaton, confident about his own abilities as a God of Transmigration who had been working on this for eons, many years even before Kritias was even formed.
I term of age, to him, the Gods of Kritias were nothing but toddlers.
…Although for the Gods of Kritias, it was him who was seen as a toddler.
-----
As Natalia realized and accepted her own self as someone selfish and cold that actually simply wanted to survive and crush Veronica, she awakened her Cheat Ability and also acquired a sudden boost of power.
She was afraid of this power after getting it, but due to her insanity, she quickly gave in to it and did not care anymore what it was or how it got there, she simply feel this lump of powerful energy feeding her with even more energy, power, and mana.
Natalia delved into the abyss of her own existence and became insane due to the ridiculous circumstances she was thrown into, her stupidity and over-confidence made her easy prey for Veronica and her allies, and due to delving closer and closer to her third and possibly last death, she felt even more insane.
The monstrous instincts within her Dragon God Soul awakened and fused with her personality, as she unleashed her divine rage and groaned monstrously, the ridiculous amounts of Mana that overflowed her entire body made her go completely mad and savage, roaring louder and louder, as she shook the earth and unleashed her blue flames and ice everywhere.
Her draconic-shaped ice body kept expanding, becoming larger and larger, even when Veronica finally appeared before her and began to break through her body with her powerful abilities, she kept regenerating, making a fool of her, and using this overflowing mana that never seemed to end to keep regenerating and unleashing gigantic icebergs everywhere!
However, finally, she found Veronica and decided to target her with her strongest move, opening her icy jaws and charging a powerful amount of blue flames, unleashing an enormous blast of blue and icy flames!
"GRAAAAAAAAH! DIEEEE!" she roared, completely insane, the only thing on her mind now was to kill Veronica and survive.
Veronica, however, suddenly formed a large barrier created through all the ghosts around her alongside the power of Shade, although she was no longer a true spirit, she still held the power to connect to her magic and fuse such mana with the other Ghosts through Veronica's Dead Spirit Magic and Spirit Magic, combining them and then shaping them into a multi-elemental barrier with great elemental resistance!
BOOOM!
The beam of blue flames crashed against the barrier, as Veronica quickly flew above it just before the barrier cracked, the intensity of Natalia's flames had increased tremendously since before, not only due to her Skill awakening but thanks to the Stat bonuses that Hekaton's Familiar Spirit descent gave to her, alongside the large quantity of mana which she could now abuse.
Natalia kept roaring like a dragon, aiming her breath attack towards Veronica and completely turning into ice anything else it touched!
Veronica, however, had enough of running away, as she activated the power Primeval Core Ability within her equipment, feeling a rush of enormous power!
Her magic stats increased even more than before, as she combined her powers with those of Anna, Shade, and the other Ghosts around her!
Through connecting her easily manageable soul with them, she was able to draw power from them and also to give it to them!
It felt mild like fusing, something she had already done with someone else than Ervas before when she joined hands with Jason while fighting against Graham, in that time, she merged her soul with Ervas while also connecting it with Jason, acquiring the power to wield his Fire Attribute Magic, fusing it with her Chaos Attribute Magic and her Abyssal Soul, generating powerful attacks of black flames!
Now, she did the same with Anna and Shade, as her powers began to converge!
The gigantic, mech-like Veronica boosted her capabilities once more through the Primeval Core, as a giant cannon was suddenly summoned on her right arm, the [Mana-Absorbing Mechanical Cannon] a 3 Star Mechanical Equipment!
She used the powerful ability of the Cannon to absorb and condense mana attributes, fusing them and then charging an enormously powerful amount of gamma energy!
"GROOOOOWL!"
Natalia roared monstrously, rushing towards Veronica as she generated dozens of icebergs covered in blue flames, falling like meteors thrown by a furious ice goddess!
Anna, Shade, Aqua, and the Ghost's power charged completely, merging together into an enormous cannon ray!
FLASH!
"DIE! …Eh?"
Natalia was startled as the ridiculous gigantic beam of highly condensed mana reached her sight, completely disintegrating her powerful iceberg meteors and then hitting her with a cataclysmic explosion!
BOOOOOOOOOM!!!
"GGGRAAAAAAAAAHHH…!"
The powerful beam rushed towards her and impacted her directly, immediately beginning to disintegrate her entire ice shell and blasting her into the ground with a loud explosion!
BOOOOM!
The powerful beam quickly stopped, as Veronica noticed that both of her mechanical equipment turned off, they were now in a cooldown mode, if she overused them, they might even negatively affect her, so she decided to let them rest, for now, darting towards Natalia to finish her off!
"Did she really survived that?" asked Anna within the interior of Veronica's armor, which seemed like the interior of a mechanical bodysuit.
She and the rest of the people with Veronica glanced at Natalia's body which was crawling out of the crater she was blasted into, her entire body was burned, but she was slowly regenerating, her eyes flashed with eerie blue light, as the mana gives to her by the Familiar Spirit was still rather plentiful, fueling her rage and power.
"Live… I want to live… I will not let… This little pathetic fat bitch… get in my waaaaay!" she groaned, as she suddenly summoned a gigantic ice attack towards Veronica!
Veronica however converged the power of the ghosts and materialized it by combining it with her metallic body, generating a giant demonic blade and slicing through the ice with a single slash!
SLASH!
CLASH!
"A-Ahhh…! GRAAAAH!" roared Natalia, without giving up, she generated ice spikes and blue-colored fireballs, which Veronica evaded or intercepted with her giant sword and her awakened Sword Technique Skill, Demon Blade Technique!
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
Swiftly moving through the air and the battlefield, Veronica intercepted each of the powerful attacks fired by the weakened Natalia, getting closer and closer to her!
Suddenly, Aqua decided to act, extending her body, and making Veronica's arms "fly" through the air like rocket punches, reaching Natalia and hitting her with tremendous force, however, what they hit was but a giant wall of ice, which quickly shattered into pieces to reveal Natalia flying away with large wings made of ice.
Veronica enhanced her entire body as she flew right back at her, appearing just a few centimeters from her!
Natalia gnashed her teeth madly as she generates a large blade of ice covered in blue flames, intercepting Veronica's attack with her own Sword Technique!
CLASH!
"You're not getting away from me!" said Veronica.
"Shut up!!!" cried Natalia, as she generated more ice spikes, but Veronica intercepted them with her flying blades!
Clash! Clash! Clash! Clash! Clash!
Giant ice spikes against flying magic blades impacted against each other as Veronica chased Natalia around, unleashing enormous slashing attacks with her giant Ghost Demon Blade, unleashing black thunder, powerful storm attacks, blacklight, and slashes of pure darkness!
"Get away from me!"
Natalia evaded by generating shields made of ice and blue flames, but quickly after, they began to shatter into pieces one after another!
Flash!
Veronica darted towards her with everything she had, reaching her once more and expanding her soul around her like monstrous, eldritch tentacles of abyssal darkness, entangling Natalia's ice body which was beginning to grow once more as she desperately fought for survival!
"D-Don't come any closer! GO AWAY!"
She began to devour the ice with her Gluttony Skill, surprising Natalia by such an unexpected trump card, and quickly reaching the core of the giant ice dragon, hitting it over the floor once more and generating a loud tremor, as her enormous metallic claws tightly grasped Natalia's body, as she vomited blood while feeling her organs being crushed!
"Unngaaaggh…!"
"I got you!" laughed Veronica maliciously, catching this annoying fly at last!
-----