Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

"Usurpation?" Zach echoed, confused. The First Child had made it seem like it was a power that he had inherited from the Hydra. But Usurpation wasn't one of the powers that Lexi had mentioned. But she had only mentioned seven out of nine powers.

"Is that one of the Hydra's powers?" He asked.

The First nodded, still with closed eyes.

"It is her first power. It is a power that goes against the flow of nature. It was what helped her reach her height. It is a power that takes." The First sounded tired.

"It was a power that only the Second inherited out of all of us. But he refused to use it. Until now, I thought it was because he couldn't handle it, that his body couldn't handle it. But that wasn't it.

"His heart was just too soft to use it." The First sighed, thick blood leaking out of the corners of his mouth.

Zach looked toward the sealed Hydra. The First hadn't lied. At this point, there was no way he could deny it. He was truly related to the Children.

"Why did Usurpation let me kill your siblings permanently?" Zach asked.

The First had said it was the source of the Hydra's strength and that it was a power that took. But that didn't mean much. Zach wanted details. He wanted to know how it worked.

If it was a power that even the First valued and saw as a threat, and what had given birth to the Hydra's strength, Zach wanted to know how to use it.

The First's heart bled just from Zach asking that. He let out a gurgling chuckle.

How was he supposed to know? He just knew about Usurpation and what it did. He didn't know how it worked.

Zach furrowed his brow. It seemed like he wasn't getting anything else from the First.

He knelt and put his hand on the First's forehead. Slowly, he began pushing down.

The molten ground had cooled enough to harden like rock. With no way for the First's head to go under the pressure of Zach's head, only one thing could happen when Zach increased his strength and continued pressing down.

It was a brutal method, but it would do the trick.

The First's head let out creaking sounds before Zach's hand suddenly broke through the skull and squashed his brains.

Zach shook his hand to clear the barrier of any blood and gore. He looked at the First's corpse before turning back to the Hydra.

The other Children who were still alive would probably return, but they weren't a threat. The only thing left was the Hydra.

But maybe they should take a break first. The heat was still intense, and Zach wasn't the only one who wanted to breathe clean air for a bit before fighting something that should be even stronger than the First Child.

He had his doubts about whether they would be able to do it.

But the Hydra should be weakened, he hadn't used his world essence energy yet, and Mandra still had that spell she had been tinkering with. Yanael also had a lot of energy left in the tank.

The main concerns would be Soara and Alzara. Alzara was fine, but it was a little unclear how she would fare against the Hydra. Soara should be able to contribute as soon as she recovered from the burns.

Still, it might be a little dangerous.

Zach glanced at the other two. They nodded.

He took them back to Haven.

Soara was awake and muttering about he stench of the paste on her arms. Visla was back in her human form but still unconscious.

She looked fine from what Zach could tell based on her sleeping face. The rest was covered in a blanket since she had lost her clothes and equipment when she transformed into a badger.

There wasn't much hope of getting any of that back since the First had burned everything.

Lexi was writhing in pain. Her innate resistance to fire made it so she emerged mostly unscathed, but the First's fire was still too powerful. Alzara had covered her in a medicinal paste as well and was working on treating her burns as best as she could.

But she didn't have much else to work with other than the herbs and grasses she had managed to restore and plant with Zach's world essence energy. The potions she had brought were also running out, and there hadn't been many options to restock after they left the desert section of the Labyrinth.

Zach went over to Lexi. He gave a vial made from his barriers of the First's blood to the egg before sitting down next to his sister and placing a hand on her forehead. It was a much softer and gentler touch than the one he gave the First, and Lexi calmed down almost immediately.

Zach hadn't even given her any world essence energy yet. She just found comfort in the gentle touch of her brother.

Since she already had other energies, she wouldn't be able to make the world essence energy her own. But it could still flow through her and help her body recover, just like it did with Zach's.

But Zach had to be careful. If the world essence energy clashed with her energies, her injuries might worsen. The world essence energy alone might even be too powerful for her body.

Like a gentle snake, the world essence energy slithered into Lexi's body through the place connected by her forehead and Zach's palm. It sneaked through her torso and limbs, washing away all the pain, hurt, and injuries caused by the fighting and the First's fire before breaching the surface and giving her skin the same treatment.

It cleansed her body of filth and impurities and opened up her body. Her martial and magical energy would flow even smoother now.

It had done its job, so it was about to slip out of Lexi's body and return to Zach or just fade into the air, depending on what it felt like.

But something from deep within Lexi grabbed hold of the snake's tail, refusing to let go.

But whatever it was, it wasn't strong enough to hold onto the mighty world essence energy, especially when Zach was retrieving it.

However, a tiny crumb still broke off and stayed inside Lexi.

Slowly, Lexi opened her eyes.