Infinite Realm

Sato left the cavern with someone else but his worry for Milo had led to him forgetting about that person. Originally, Sato had his guard up against Cecilia because he couldn't confirm whether she was telling the truth. He had even hired an Information hunter while he was out to verify the situation with the Arnhaunt family while he kept his guard up against her.

Normally, Cecilia wouldn't have been able to land an attack on him but with the rollercoaster of events that had taken place -from being under pressure while escaping and Cecilia fainting to being assaulted by the monster and Milo fainting-, Sato had inadvertently let his guard down for a second and Cecilia had used that window of opportunity to make her move.

Ignoring the pain on his abdomen, Sato immediately jumped away from the spot, creating some distance between him and Cecilia.

"I can't believe that you had managed to dodge that even though it was an ambush. You're quite something, aren't you?" Cecilia smiled at Sato with the expression that looked as if she was playing with her favourite toy.

Despite attacking at the moment when Sato's guard was at the lowest, Cecilia had missed the attacking, only causing a mediocre level of damage to Sato. Rather than saying she had missed, it was more apt to say that Sato had dodged the attack at the last moment, albeit not completely. 

Thanks to his quick reflexes and the fact that he had was still on high alert after escaping the cavern, Sato managed to move his body a bit to the side, keeping his internal organs safe from damage.

"Who, who are you?" Sato asked as he began doubting everything Cecilia had said.

"Who am I?" Cecilia laughed like a refined lady.

"I already told you. But it doesn't matter now; you will be dead soon."

*Bang*

An explosive sound rang out loud as Cecilia's aura began climbing. The aura felt eerie and demonic, making one feel as if it wasn't of this world. It was terrifying and chilling, to the point that Sato felt as if he had fallen into a deep cold abyss where no form of life could exist. 

*Bang*

The aura burst forth from Cecilia, encompassing a wide range of 7 metres around her. The entire 7 metres radius looked lifeless and devoid of any colour. Even as he stood there, Sato felt as if he couldn't hear anything. His senses seemed to be feeding him wrong information as a wave of confusion washed over him. 

Despite being aware that he was currently in the arid terrain of Maldora Canyon, Sato felt as if he was in the North Pole as a bone-chilling wave struck him and Sato slowly lose his ability to move.

'No!'

Realising the circumstance he was in, Sato immediately broke free from that feeling and further widened the gal between him and Cecilia, escaping the 7 metres dead-zone.

'That was close.' Sato couldn't help but wipe away the sweat on his forehead.

"Hehe. You're indeed a good fit. You could even free yourself from my domain." Cecilia said, although with a slight melancholic look in her eyes which only lasted for a second.

Being free from the grasps of Cecilia's domain, Sato was finally able to scan his opponent properly. It was then that he realised that Cecilia's aura had climbed up to its peak, surpassing even that of the monster back at the cavern. It was only because the majority of her aura was concentrated in her domain that Sato was able to cope with it.

"You, who exactly are you?" Sato couldn't help but ask again with a bit of fright in his eyes.

If one were to say that the chances of Sato surviving one-on-one against the lion-type monster in the cavern was 1 out of 10000, then surviving against the current Cecilia was 1 out of 1 million. It was futile to have any hope of survival. This wasn't just because Cecilia was stronger but she was a human. 

Being a human, she was much smarter than monsters and her small size(in comparison to the beast), made it more difficult to land an attack at her. At least with the beast from before, one could try and attack its weak spots like the eyes, but with a human-sized opponent, the difficulty in performing such an attack was even higher.

"Still asking such stupid questions? I do admire the look on your face so I will grant you a painless death. Haha."

[Black Flame Slash]

"Huh? You dare?" Cecilia widened her eyes as she was confronted by the attack.

*Boom*

The aura within the 7 metres radius domain had gathered in front of the attack to form an illusory shield that took the hit. The black flames spread out in a wild manner, covering a large space in front of Cecilia and blocking her sight.

"Pointless attacks. You will still fall down before me." Cecilia swung her arms as the aura shield disintegrated and shoved away the flames.

"What?!"

Without the flames hindering her sight any longer, Cecilia realised that Sato had already broke off in run, escaping form the area.

Truthfully, the look of anxiety and fear on Sato's face was all fake. He had done so to make Cecilia underestimate him, even just a little bit. After which his next move was to attack in what would seem to be a futile manner when in reality, Sato planned on blocking Cecilia's sight and keeping her busy for a while; just enough to widen the gap between them.

As he was running, Sato was going through a few plots and theories in his head to increase his chances of survival.

No matter how one looked at it, his death was a surety; running away would only delay that but not prevent it. However, Sato wasn't one to sit down and present his heads before the opponent. Even if there was a 0% chance of success, Sato would struggle for a 0.1% chance.

The way he saw it, he was no match for Cecilia. Just from her aura alone, the lion beast from before would at most be able to trade 7 blows with her, whereas Sato couldn't even trade one with the monster. But it was due to this fact, that a problem arose. It was only now Sato had a bit of space to think that he had realised this problem.

Cecilia had waited till Sato's guard was at its lowest to attack him. And not only that, but also her attack had not ended his life. Even if the beast in cavern were to injure Sato slightly, that 'slight injury' would be equivalent to at least half his HP. But from the battle records, Cecilia had only taken away 116 HP with that attack. Compared to Sato's 2000 HP, this was but the tip of the iceberg. When all these points were added together, one would discover that Cecilia's strength might not be as it seems, otherwise she would have killed Sato long ago and not wait till his defence was low. If one were to say that she went easy on him with that attack, it still doesn't make sense why she had waited this long or for such an opportunity.

'Unless she didn't have confidence of taking me down before. But if that were true, what was the cause? Her injuries?' Sato felt this was more likely.

If Cecilia's injuries were heavier than he thought, then it would make sense why she didn't attack him till now. But there was still another issue with this thought. If her injuries had recovered and her strength had returned, then she should have taken Sato down long ago and not wait till now.

As he was trying to come up with a reason as to why things had progressed so, Sato felt a chilling sensation creeping behind him.

'She's caught up.'

The disadvantage of the terrain in Maldora was the lack of complexity. As it was a canyon, there were only brown rocks scattered all over the place. Very few vegetation could be spotted and they were scattered far and wide. Because of this, it was very easy for one to get spotted if they didn't move with caution. And since there were very few obstructions, chasing after someone, especially when the pursuer was faster, was not a problem.

"You can't escape me, Sky Blade. Stop running and nicely die in my arms." Cecilia grinned radically.

Sato didn't pay attention to her but simply used [Sprint] once the cool-down was over.

Strangely though, despite supposedly being much stronger than Sato, Cecilia wasn't that fast. When Sato used [Sprint], he became even faster than she was and was able to widen the gap bit by bit.

'Damn it.' Cecilia cursed inwardly as she gritted her teeth. Nonetheless, she still have chase as she needed Sato if she hoped to leave here.

The two kept on running, with Sato taking the role of the prey and Cecilia the predator.

Knowing that the terrain didn't favor him and he would eventually get tired, Sato had aimed for the great Lorls river. In his opinion, he would rather die to monster than to Cecilia.

''Want to kill me? Fat chance.'

But of course, Sato had no intentions of engaging in a suicidal act as he already had an outline of a plan in mind.