Chapter 362: Lola vs Seraphina [1] From her storage ring, an item was withdrawn. Her fingers closed around one of the luxury fruit smoothies that she had been saving from her daily income, the same premium item that had awakened her own fire wings and provided the massive temporary boost that had enabled her transformation. "Drink this. Now," Lola commanded the cat, tossing the sealed container toward her bound servant. The ethereal cat didn’t need to be told twice. The demonic contract ensured absolute obedience, and the creature could sense through their connection that her survival depended on immediate action. She caught the smoothie and unsealed it with quick paws, beginning to consume the contents without hesitation. Queen Seraphina’s eyes widened in genuine shock as she recognised what was happening. She knew exactly what the luxury smoothie could do—she had witnessed its effects on herself and understood the massive attribute boost and potential skill awakening it provided. Allowing another grandmaster-ranked beast to consume such an item was catastrophic for their advantage. "Stop her!" Seraphina screamed, immediately launching herself forward with speed that created sonic booms in her wake. But Lola anticipated the interception attempt. Her fire wings swept forward, creating a wall of hot flames between Seraphina and the drinking cat. The barrier wouldn’t hold long against the queen’s full power, but it bought precious seconds for the cat to finish consuming the enhancement. Seraphina’s light magic collided with Lola’s fire barrier, creating an explosion of conflicting elemental energies that lit up the entire clearing. Radiant beams of concentrated light attempted to pierce through the flames, but Lola poured more power into her defense, maintaining the barrier through sheer force of will. The two light elf grandmaster commanders immediately tried to circumvent the confrontation and attack the cat directly, recognising that preventing the enhancement was more important than engaging Lola. But their attempt came seconds too late. The ethereal cat finished consuming the smoothie, and the effects took hold with dramatic immediacy. Her translucent form suddenly solidified and expanded, growing from her previous size to something far more imposing. Her aura exploded outward with intensity that marked her temporary elevation to high grandmaster capabilities. More dramatically, a dormant skill awakened within her new form. The cat’s body became wreathed in ethereal fire that existed somewhere between physical and spiritual reality, creating a defensive aura that made her extraordinarily difficult to target or damage. The technique combined her natural phasing abilities with fire element mastery in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂 The two light elf commanders found themselves facing an opponent who could now hold her own against their combined assault, at least temporarily. The male grandmaster’s earth techniques passed through the cat’s enhanced phasing without making contact, while the female grandmaster’s wind attacks were dispersed by the ethereal flames surrounding her target. "Hold them!" Lola commanded through their contract bond, and the cat engaged both commanders with newfound confidence born from her massively amplified capabilities. Maybe following this succubus wasn’t a bad idea. She thought to herself. Meanwhile, Seraphina had abandoned her attempt to stop the cat’s enhancement and now focused her full attention on Lola herself. The queen’s light magic manifested as devastating beams that could vaporise the flesh and bone of grandmasters, each attack carrying the fury of her rage at being denied the World Tree’s prize. Lola met the assault with her own fire techniques, creating streams of white-hot flames that intercepted the light beams before they could reach her or Noah. The two elements clashed with explosive force, their fundamental opposition creating secondary effects that scorched the earth and shattered nearby rock formations. Seraphina was genuinely shocked to discover that Lola was holding her own against the full force of her attacks. Just days ago, during their first transaction, this demon had been merely at a low grandmaster rank—powerful but nowhere near her level of prowess. Now she was operating at peak grandmaster levels that matched her own capabilities. The progress was terrifying in its implications. What kind of training or resources could elevate someone to an entire major rank subdivision in mere days? The shopkeeper’s mysterious capabilities apparently extended beyond simple item sales into methods of advancement that defied everything Seraphina understood about magical cultivation. "How did you advance so quickly?" Seraphina demanded between attacks, her light magic forming spears that shot toward Lola from multiple angles simultaneously. Lola’s fire wings swept around to create barriers that deflected the light spears, each interception creating brilliant flashes as opposing elements annihilated each other. "That’s none of your concern. Your only concern should be reconsidering this fight before it costs you more than you can afford." Seraphina conjured a massive sphere of compressed light above her position, the technique gathering power that made the air itself shimmer with barely contained energy. "I am Queen of the Light Elves! I do not retreat from demons who steal from my territories!" She released the sphere, and it shot toward Lola with devastating speed. But Lola responded with her own technique, compressing flames into a counter-sphere of such extreme temperature that it glowed with incredible intensity invisible to normal vision. The two spheres collided mid-flight, and the resulting explosion created a shockwave that flattened trees hundreds of meters away. Light and fire warred against each other in patterns that defied natural physics, each element attempting to overwhelm and consume its opposite. When the explosion finally cleared, both Lola and Seraphina remained standing, though the ground between them had been transformed into a crater of scorched earth. Neither had gained a decisive advantage; their powers were too evenly matched for quick resolution. Nearby, the ethereal cat was successfully holding off both light elf commanders through her enhanced abilities. The temporary boost from the smoothie wouldn’t last forever, and when it faded, their situation would deteriorate rapidly. Lola knew they needed an exit strategy soon. But with Noah still unconscious and the system apparently processing the teardrop’s power, retreat remained impossible until he awakened or whatever was going on was completed. She would have to hold this stalemate for as long as necessary, regardless of the cost.