Whoosh!

Sweeping wide, the Black Great Axe in Nana Toki’s hands gleamed with an eerie black light under the night.

Fwoom!

A feral aura burst off her body like a storm breaking.

Slash!

She swung that broad, heavy blade faster than her ice sword had ever flown.

Splat-splat-splat-splat!

The axe edge punched into bodies, then she ripped it free with brutal force.

Blood geysers shot skyward.

The soldiers in front were breaking. The woman with the giant axe looked like an undying demon-god. Belief in victory guttered to ash.

Bones piled high, blood ran like rivers.

A hellscape wrought by one woman.

Knees knocked. Hands around weapons trembled. The men shoved forward wore the color of the grave.

In that instant, they were convicts on the scaffold. Nana Toki was the fairest executioner.

Raise the axe. Kill.

With a casual backhand, she didn’t even glance. The sneak attacker behind her had his skull smashed to paste by the domineering blade.

Boom!

A heavy strike missed. The stone slab caved, spiderweb cracks racing out.

The leftover shock hurled a ring of soldiers backward.

Nana burst out of the crowd with her Black Great Axe, carrying force like ten thousand thunders.

“Go! All of you, go! You useless clowns! Do you want to die?”

Jiges on the rooftop howled, voice ragged with rage. “Thirty thousand elites can’t handle one woman? Hedon Kingdom will be laughed off the map! Trash! All of you, trash!”

But no matter how he cursed, the soldiers below didn’t move an inch.

They’d learned it—if they didn’t attack Nana Toki, she didn’t bother with them.

Against absolute power, face and pride faded. Every soldier silently chose life.

“Useless swine!”

Jiges stared, stunned and panicked. If this kept up, once that madwoman reached him, he’d be dead.

The war with the Marl Kingdom was at hand. He couldn’t fall here.

“Whoever kills that woman gets a hundred thousand gold coins, a noble rank with promotion, a hundred acres of fief, and tax exemption for three generations!”

He unfurled a voice-amplifying scroll. His threat and promise echoed through Dragonbreak City.

Rich bounty calls brave men.

Before his words finished, the crowd boiled.

Every gaze on Nana Toki mixed fear with fever for wealth.

A hundred thousand gold. Rank and title.

Those two alone rekindled hope on this slaughterfield.

Most soldiers would never touch such riches in a lifetime.

Forget killing a princess—ask them to kill the king, and they’d nod without blinking.

“Kill—!”

Finally.

With one man shouting point, the shattered morale of Dragonbreak City roared back like thunder.

Blinded by coin, countless soldiers raised steel and surged at Nana Toki.

Gold and power made them forget death for a heartbeat.

“Heh.”

For those drunk on material greed, Nana’s smile was scorn, thin and cold. Her Black Great Axe spun faster.

Bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam!

With every swing of her terrifying Demon Hand, the Black Great Axe boomed like a war drum.

Skulls shattered. Bodies tore. Arms, chests—organs flew with towering columns of blood, then fell as rain.

It drenched the faces of soldiers in Dragonbreak City.

She staged a one-woman show of violent beauty, ruthless and complete.

“Quick! Use gravity magic. Crush that woman!”

Watching the scene below grow even more savage, Jiges knew they were only delaying her arrival.

He ordered the magic corps to fire their arcane weapons.

“But Lord Jiges, that’s forbidden,” a mage whispered, tense. “And there are many of our troops alive below… it might be—”

“Fool!” Jiges slapped him to the floor. “These lowborn lives can die by the tens of thousands. Kill the woman! We still have seventy thousand troops to deploy. They don’t matter!”

“U-understood…”

The mage dragged himself up, spitting blood. He called the others to him. They began to chant.

Arcane syllables poured from their mouths. A blazing white hexagram unfurled, almost covering everyone beneath the terrace.

“What is that?”

Soldiers under the array felt the air shift.

White light filled Dragonbreak City, a hundred meters of brightness like a temple of light.

Boom!

Sudden.

Invisible gravity fell from the sky.

Nana Toki’s stride hitched. Her black blade drove straight into the ground.

Squish… rip-rip…

Far off, the blood-ice mountain shattered to dust. Falling slabs hammered bystanders, killing many.

Stones cracked. Buildings collapsed.

Soldiers were crushed, some pulped where they stood.

Damned bastards…

Nana planted both hands against the pressure overhead. Her Black Great Axe stood buried at her side. Her blood-spattered face flushed with strain.

Near her, soldiers who couldn’t endure the array’s weight were smashed into a smear of blood and flesh.

Ding! Detected a mortal threat to the host. Would the host spend forty points to purchase an augment to survive?

Feeling the array’s terrifying bite, the System’s voice rang in Nana’s head.

“You’re still trying to scam points now?!”

Her back bowed under the weight. Nana braced and snarled through gritted teeth.

This crappy System wanted its cut at every turn.

Host! It’s a forbidden draft that can breach your Spirit Energy limit once. Short duration. High risk of life damage. Not recommended unless necessary.

“Then this is necessary! Give it now!”

The System huffed. This shop isn’t mine. With insufficient points, I can’t pull it out!

“You stop yammering! If the array finishes, you’ll die,” the System snapped.

“Fine. You win. I’ll buy.”

As Nana spoke, a pill appeared in her mouth.

Host, take it, quick!

Boom!

Before the System finished, the white hexagram above her locked into place.

Weight fell like a mountain. Nana’s body buckled, crushed down.

Across Dragonbreak City, the sound of bodies popping filled the night.

Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop—

Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop—

Silence followed.

“Did it… work?”

“That demon-woman… did we kill her?”

Jiges, bloodshot and near delirious, didn’t have time to smile.

The mages beside him shrieked and dropped to their knees.

“U—aaahhhhh!”

“Aaahhhh!”

“W-what’s happening…”

It felt like something was gnawing their insides. Their screams rose and rose, flaying the night.

Splat-splat-splat-splat-splat!

In the blink between breaths, blood-ice spikes erupted from their bodies.

Spikes speared out of backs, throats, eyes, mouths. The screams cut off at once.

They sagged into the floor, like hedgehogs made of corpses, unmoving.

At the same time, a crackling thunder rolled up from below the terrace.

A heavy dread seeped into Jiges’s heart.

Rip-rip-rip—

As if something was tearing and then fusing together. Jiges clenched his fists and forced himself to the edge.

His pupils pinpricked the instant he saw it.

“Mon… monster…”

Standing before him was a blood-ice dragon, ferocious and vast. Its face was blurred, but its form was complete.

Wings spread left and right, big enough to bruise the sky. Blood-red scales lay ordered and sharp. Its foreclaws gleamed with icy murder. Just looking sent needles into the heart.

“Good evening.”

The familiar voice rang sweet and clear.

Jiges, sinking onto the rooftop, lifted his head.

Under the cold, clear moon, a woman caked in blood and flesh stood on the dragon’s brow, giving him a mocking smile.

“You’re finished.”