The SSS Ranked Villain's Return-Chapter 313: Floating City

There was a giant floating city in front of him, hovering above a forest at the base of the cliff he stood on.

He couldn't see any ways of getting there, but it was obvious that this city was some sort of safe haven.

Just barely, with his superior eyesight, Neraxis was able to zoom in on the city, and the moment he did, he saw a dozen guards all stationed, and even a few civilians walking along the outskirts, which just so happened to be full of parks.

As much of a luxury as that was, he knew that getting there didn't seem feasible at the moment.

Therefore, he simply glanced to the side, where a couple hundred meters away, he saw Amara and Eris staring at the same sight with shocked looks.

They were from a pretty fancy, technologically advanced world. Even so, they didn't have flying kingdoms.

Though... as cool as it is, it won't matter if the wolf catches up to us, Neraxis pondered with a sharp sigh as he began slowly making his way to Amara and Eris.

In the meantime, Elena decided to finally speak up.

"Thank you..." she muttered, her body limp over his shoulder. "I don't know what came over me..."

"You're pretty bad at using the fireball. Ever considered switching to something more destructive?" Neraxis cut straight to the point.

He could feel her flinch on his shoulder, and just as she was about to protest, he continued.

"Fire is nice, but you tend to over-concentrate the fire itself, causing it to have more of a powerful impact rather than the following blast. You basically don't use fire like fire, you know?" Neraxis pointed out.

"And how would you know?" Elena scoffed. "You haven't even known me for long, and yet you're making these assumptions."

"I have eyes, Elena," Neraxis said. "And my eyes are telling me you suck at using the one thing you pride yourself on."

"You—"

"But don't take it the wrong way," Neraxis added. "In fact, it shows you still have room for improvement. Try a new element... So, which ones can you use right now?"

She remained quiet for a few moments before letting out a sigh.

"Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Natura, Light, Darkness, Lightning... oh, and Ice."

"...?" Neraxis's brows furrowed.

"What the fuck? I thought you said you could only use a few elements? And you're using only Fire when you have all those options?" he asked, baffled. "Pardon me for asking, but are you an idiot?"

Elena pouted. "Fire is what I work best with since that's the first element I was able to use. Naturally, I like it the most since it brings me warmth when I need it."

"Okay..." Neraxis took a deep breath. "So let's say you're fighting an enemy in water. Will you use the Lightning element, or the Fire element?"

"F-Fire..." she muttered, embarrassed.

But just as he was about to judge her, she spoke.

"But it's not because I don't know how useful lightning is. It's because my fire has the properties of all other elements... I just can't utilize them well."

"Hold on now..." Neraxis suddenly halted and plopped her down onto the ground.

He grabbed her shoulders and made her face him.

"Tell me. Have you ever tried actually combining your elements? Or did you just rely on the fact that your fire can passively use all the elements?" Neraxis asked, his question tinged with hope.

But upon not receiving her reply, he knew she had actually not tried it at all.

And then his earlier assumption of her being an idiot, or an inexperienced fighter, turned out to be true on both ends.

"Alright, look..." Neraxis said as he tried using his mana. However, it was a bit difficult to weave since he had no actual affinity in this strange tower.

Nonetheless, he could manipulate the mana that was in the air, albeit slightly.

Therefore, by adjusting its frequency, Neraxis created a beautiful green butterfly that he had managed to conjure from the surrounding Wind and Nature elements.

And then, he brought it down onto the ground, turning the butterfly into a caterpillar.

It had changed color, but it hadn't changed affinities. The only difference was that it had now also combined the Earth element.

Following that, Neraxis proceeded to imagine the mana absorbing the light from above, and the moment he did, the caterpillar began glowing.

He could show more; however, even he had limits in his current state.

Therefore, he simply dismissed the caterpillar, causing its mana to scatter in the air.

With that, he turned back to Elena, who had a look of amazement.

"My mana control isn't great right now, but you get the gist of it, right?" Neraxis asked, and this time, she confidently nodded.

"I have to make the elements synergize, right?"

He let out a relieved breath. "Yep. You make them synergize, and not only will your attacks become more powerful, you'll also waste less mana. From what I saw earlier, you were just aimlessly hurling fireballs toward the wolf, and if what you said was true, then the mana expenditure was way too much."

She scratched her cheek with a slow nod. "It's... yes."

"Work on that then," Neraxis said plainly. "But that's all I can teach you since I'm not that big of a genius myself."

With that, he finally reached Amara and Eris.

They soon turned to look at him, and aside from Eris's frown, nothing was too out of the ordinary.

Though I guess her frown is pretty ordinary. He sighed. Everything is normal.

"Any ideas on how to get over there?" Neraxis asked, pointing toward the floating city.

Amara shook her head. "I'd normally be able to take us there with my sword... but I don't have it."

"Any skills?" Neraxis asked, and she simply shrugged.

"None that could help us right now."

"I see..." Neraxis trailed off as he approached the edge of the cliff.

Something felt a little off...

So out of curiosity, he decided to take a step forward, and the moment he did, Neraxis realized he had stepped on air.

He took another step forward, trying to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

And yet, when he strayed too far to the left, he began to fall, just barely catching himself by grabbing the ledge of this invisible bridge.

As it turned out, there was actually a way to get to that floating city.

Neraxis glanced at the straight line toward the floating city, and then back to the puzzled girls.

"Shall we?"