Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

All nine of the leaders waited patiently with bated breath for the maids reply.

"Are you implying that we betray our master?" Annette asked, her always calm and composed aura had at this moment become bone chilling cold.

Bianca had an even more drastic change, her emotionless face that never showed any reaction was at this moment glaring at adventurers with absolute anger and hate.

The guild leaders thought that they could shake the allegiance the maids have towards the master of this dungeon. However, what they didn't know was that the maids weren't just faithful and loyal to Simon but absolutely devoted.

For them, Simon was far more than their master and akin to their god who had created them. Forget about being able to shake that faith, even if they were captured and forced to betray Simon, they would rather commit suicide than do such a thing.

That was the level of devotion the Valkyries had towards the master of this dungeon. And so, the adventurers not only looked down upon them, but with those words they even questioned their faith and devotion.

This was tantamount to slighting Simon, their master.

"UNFORGIVABLE"…

No matter how clueless these adventurers were, even insolence had its limits. Their crimes were unpardonable and worthy of death.

"Wha-what is going on?" As the guild leaders looked on, the maid on the backline suddenly shouted and then a brilliant light emerged out of her and shrouded her within.

What walked out of that light after a few seconds, was a woman of ethereal beauty. She had white fiery hair that was actually on fire, had an otherworldly luminescent body filled with feminine curves and mystifying marking that was very much like constellations on a night sky.

Her eyes were radiating with the light of the stars and multiple orbs of light surrounded her. This was Annette's true form, the race Superior Spirit.

It is said that a superior Spirit has extremely high spirituality and almost never manifest themselves in front of mortal life unless summoned. They are born when tens of thousands of high tier spirits reach their end or merge together.

Much was unknown about Superior Spirits in the world of Althaea as only a small number of people have ever been able to come in contact with them. Nevertheless, if you asked any of them what did they know about Superior Spirits, all of them would answer the same thing, Spirit Magic.

The Spirit magic was the domain of the spirits and deviated from the standard form of Mystical Energy of this world. All spirits are innately able to use spirit magic but even amongst the spirits, Annette was a special case.

Summoned and created by Simon, she is not only a spiritual life form, but also has a physical body and can interact with the material world without needing to manifest herself.

Because manifesting her spiritual body needed her to discard her physical body temporarily, she avoided such occasions whenever possible since she loved the body Simon created for her. Yet on occasions when her ire grows and her fury reaches a point, the full measure of Annette's spiritual power and her spirit magic threatens to unleash its wrath.

"Life Siphon"

Annette extended her hand towards the guild leaders and muttered. Immediately, the multiple balls of light around her turned into spirit threads that attached themselves to the enemy creating a link between her and them.

The life Siphon is a spirit link that allows her to continuously drain all her enemies life thus damaging them from within. And since the spirit link had no physical form, it cannot be broken.

"W-What is this I can't sever them"

The guild leaders whined. Some of them tried to back away thinking that distancing themselves would break the link; however, no matter how far they went, the life siphon still connected them to Annette.

The guild leaders frowned, they could feel their life being drained along with their powers away from them. If they didn't do anything, soon all that would be left would be their skeleton.

Coming to the same decision, all the guild leaders decided to attack. Now that they were linked with the life siphon their only option to survive this was to attack the caster. However, how could a superior spirit like Annette leave herself unguarded?

She had many measures prepared; nonetheless, she did not need to use any of them because Bianca, stood in front of her.

Unlike the former, nothing much changed about Bianca other than the fact that she was absolutely furious.

Bianca's race was Elite Homunculus, that is to say, this is what her true form looks like. Unlike her sisters, she did not have any racial form that empowered her strength even further. But her race did provide her with something that no other race had.

When creating Bianca, Simon had chosen her race to be Elder Homunculus after much deliberation. The reason for that was the skill [Mimic].

It was the race specific skill of the Elite Homunculus that allowed them to mimic any race that they want.

That is to say, even though Bianca did not have any original racial form, she could transformed into any race of her choice. For eg- if she wanted to become a Superior Spirit like Annette, Black Widow Spider like Emma or any other race, with the help of [Mimic] she can temporarily change her race.

Of course, the skill might sound all powerful but it had its own shortcomings.

The skill [Mimic] allowed Bianca to transform into any race, although it was true, there are certain conditions before she can transform into that race.

First, she needs to have seen that race with her own eyes before, secondly been in contact them and thirdly consumed a drop of their blood. If all those conditions are met, Bianca could transform into that race.

Also, another shortcoming of the skill [Mimic] is that in any given time, she cannot mimic more than one race. Other than that there are other shortcomings like racial limits.

[Mimic] might allow Bianca to transforms into any race, but she cannot display more than 50% of their abilities. Of course there are also certain race that is even beyond the abilities of the [Mimic] to impersonate.

That being said, [Mimic] was a powerful ability that had a vast range of use and versatility. Coupled with Bianca's powerful class, it would further bolster her strength.

The concept behind Bianca was to create an impenetrable tank that was at times versatile and adaptable to any kinds of situation.

Simon could have set her race to any species with a powerful defence thus making her an absolute tank. However, he chose Elder Homunculus because he believed that the role of the tank wasn't just limited to taking hits.

The Valkyries were a set, with the exception of the first sister, the rest of them were created in a way so that they complement each other and work in a well-balanced and make an unassailable combo.

Each of the Valkyries have their own assigned role in this set and so did Bianca. Her job was to stop any and all kinds of attacks and enemies getting past her.

Because of this requirement, she needed to be very versatile and what better race for that than the Elder Homunculus with the [Mimic] skill?

She stood tall confronting the enemies and in front of their shocked eyes, started transforming.

The race that she chose to transform into was the strongest one that was currently in her arsenal and one which she had a lot of respect for.

Bianca transformed into the World Forging Titan, mimicking the race of the eldest of the Valkyrie sisters, Mercedes.

"Admantium Form" with those words, her body started getting covered in a layer of mineral.

Starting from her hands and legs, even the equipments on her body was enclosed in that layer. In a couple of seconds, she grew more than three meters tall and radiated of a strong impenetrable aura.

Although, her entire body was covered in dark violet rocks, she still retained her sleek body and feminine humanoid form.

Her hair transformed into a flowing plasma and she had circuit like stripes all over her body. At the centre of her chest, resembling a core, was a white orb pulsing with energy.

This was one of the forms of the World Forging Titans, the Admantium form that boasts one of the greatest defence of all races.

BANG… BANG… BANG… the attacks that the guild leaders threw at her with all their strength, simply bounced off her without managing to do anything.

Forget about damaging her, in this form Bianca was so sturdy that even putting a scratching on her was an impossible task for these adventurers.

"W-What?!" it was no wonder the guild leaders were shocked, even the advanced magic and ability conferred attacks of theirs had no effect.

"Ignore the one in front and attack the maid behind her. We must break this link first" Brutus roared charging towards Annette.

The rest of the guild leaders each initiated their own attacks but none of them even managed to reach even a couple of meters near her. They all slammed into a faint violet coloured translucent wall.

"A barrier? When did it…?"

All eyes involuntarily turned towards Bianca who was slowly walking towards them.

That barrier earlier was her doing. Attacking the mage and leaving the tank for the last, it was a common tactic abused in this world.

During the many training sessions the Valkyries had undergone in the past few months, Simon had many a times cautioned them about such tactics. Those battle simulations and training came to their use at this moment.