“Trashy System, why did Nesting Phoenix wake up?”

Cradling her pampered little ancestor tight against her chest, Nana Shi asked inwardly, doubt like mist in her mind. “We still haven’t scored that high-tier sigil, right?”

Why’d she wake so suddenly? Don’t tell me Yan Xiao’s scheming hit me again.

“Uh… judging by Nesting Phoenix’s posture and biometrics,” the System muttered, numbers flowing like rain, “looks like the master installed a high-tier sigil she crafted herself. Its energy won’t sustain her life for long. You still need a true sigil, fast.”

“Will that man-made sigil be dangerous inside her?”

“No. When the energy’s spent, she’ll revert to her prior state.”

“How long do we have?”

“……”

“About three days…”

“Isn’t that plenty?” Nana’s brow twitched, a ripple on a calm lake. She lifted her head and glanced toward the palace rooftop, distance hazy as heat-wave air, yet two silhouettes brushed the skyline.

The white one had to be Trollop; in this world, only that jerk shines like a slap.

And the other… heh, wasn’t that an old minister from Moragus’s reign? Name was… Kleisint… right?

Nana couldn’t quite place it.

Rebellion, huh…

Those two idiots really think if I’m not home, they get a window?

They’ve already wrecked her Chronos City, and dared aim at Nesting Phoenix—living tired and asking for thunder.

Watch me go cut them down right now.

As she weighed how to deal with the rooftop fools, a velvet touch grazed her neck, soft as a silk ribbon. Before she could breathe, Nesting Phoenix coiled around her like a serpent, cheek hovering mere inches from hers.

“Look at me.” Her voice was soft as down, yet it landed like a decree—petulant, proud in a stormy hour.

Mm…

Too cute.

After too long away from that earnest, bossy sweetness, Nana couldn’t resist and bit playfully at those rosy lips, a sip of spring peach.

Her wife was still that irresistible—she wanted to drag her home and cuddle for a whole day.

But the field wasn’t right now. Given the plot’s turn, she should head up and thrash the rebels to vent the smoke in her chest.

As for her wife… save that feast for when the mess is done.

“Here’s your stamp first. I’ll take you home after.”

She set Nesting Phoenix down, blush like sunset dusting her cheek, then gripped Heavens Sunder and faced Chronos City. Her eyes narrowed, a blade in a scabbard, her aura flipped from tenderness into winter steel.

They stole her throne, stirred her city like hornets, and now dared reach for Nesting Phoenix.

Do they really think she’s soft clay?

……

That woman…

She’s back!

No way… why so fast? Did the Northland upheaval hit her senses this quickly?

Makes no sense!

She shouldn’t be this quick.

Why?

Why why why why?

Fists clamped on the rooftop railing, Kleisint stared at the distant gate—at the woman hurtling his way with a Colossal Axe, her approach a storm-front. Ink-black eyes haunted him like a night terror that wouldn’t fade.

He’d planned for so long, yet her mere presence made the chessboard creak toward collapse.

Impossible!

He couldn’t be caught; capture meant death. He was one step from the place, just one step…

Damn Nana Shi! She’d take everything again!

Half his body was already veined with black sigil lines, shadow roots creeping. He didn’t even realize how twisted his face had become, a mask carved by panic.

Fear curdled into anger, and anger settled into hate, heavy as ash.

The black sigils swelled and spread, swallowing him whole like oil over water.

“Done.” Trollop watched Kleisint vanish under the black patterning, a grin slipping out like a knife.

Now… the thing hidden in Chronos City could finally be triggered…

……

By the time Nana, bearing Heavens Sunder, hacked through the soldiers below the palace and reached the rooftop, those two were gone. A familiar thread of Spirit Energy lingered in the air, a scent that pointed like smoke. She followed, only to find Yan Xiao collapsed and unconscious on the ground.

Looks like they fled?

The thought had barely sparked when a terrifying surge slammed in from behind, a tidal fist.

“Nana Shi!”

Kleisint’s hysterical roar carried crushing Spirit pressure. Nana met it, axe flashing like lightning, but the blow still flung her, body tumbling in the sky like a maple leaf caught in a gust.

That impact—whoever hit her wasn’t using a hand-held weapon…

Spinning a full three-sixty, she finally saw the idiot’s form.

A silver armored torso, towering like a small building. Two mechanical arms, one bearing a charged shield, the other a gleaming light-blade that sang like frost.

Familiar high-grade gear—wasn’t that the superpowered mech from her warehouse, left to gather dust?

How’d this clown roll it out?

Nana remembered: those mechs only recognized pilots with the power of Laws, and no Spirit Energy flowing inside. Since when did Kleisint wield the Laws?

Had he been hiding his strength all these years?

System: “Isn’t the point right now why there’s a mech stomping around your city?”

In Nana’s mind, the System stared at the ten-meter white mech, brain stalling like a frozen stream.

Her house always hid strange toys.

Though, to be fair, this dated back to Moragus’s reign—these mechs had existed then.

And back then, there wasn’t that harsh requirement about having the power of Laws and no Spirit Energy to pilot.

Because the machines were beasts—amphibious, aerial, resource-light, performance savage—when Nana ascended, she ordered all mechs scrapped. But she kept one for Yan Xiao to research and upgrade, to see if a stronger mech could be born. She feared revolts sparked by these things like sparks on dry grass.

Now, as seen… Yan Xiao didn’t disappoint.

The mech’s right-arm charged shield solved the zero-defense problem against Spirit Energy, a wall like a glacier.

Its left-arm light blade was forged from the purest orichalcum, toughness and sharpness both at the world’s summit—metal that sang like thunder.

Coupled with a nanotech energy core, the once amphibious-air military mech had been rebuilt into an A-rank strength-and-speed monster, a high-end mech that hit like a boulder and moved like a hawk.

Meaty to the point of absurdity, with performance just as ridiculous.

As for the added rule—only someone with the power of Laws and no Spirit Energy could use it—this mech was originally built for Nana herself. She had used the power of Laws to rewind time, lost her Spirit Energy, and even her Law power had waned thin as moonlight. Yan Xiao feared for Nana’s safety, so she made this lifeline.

Nana tried it for a while, got bored, then cultivated Spirit Energy anew. The loud, flashy mech was shelved.

System: “…… Then why didn’t you junk it back then?”

“Heh. Because your master made the armor too perfect. Even without a pilot, the charged shield auto-defends against any harm, a shell like a storm-proof cliff. And the craziest part—the mech charges off any ambient energy, whatever it finds.”

“In other words, unless we strip it in absolute vacuum, it runs forever.”

Nana scooped up the unconscious Yan Xiao, cold laughter curling like smoke as she explained to the System. “And right now, the only one who can force a short-term absolute vacuum is Bi Yanhan with her Absolute Zero. She’s not here. So yes—slightly troublesome.”

“Eh?!” Then what do we do?

Few things in the world made her feel “troublesome.” Running would mean handing over Chronos City like a platter.

The System took human shape, lifting its master from Nana’s arms, ready to plan under a hanging blade.

Before it spoke, Nana smashed aside the incoming weapon with Heavens Sunder, a strike like a bell.

“C’mon, don’t rush. There’s always a way.”

And when she said “troublesome,” she meant dismantling him would take an extra step.

In the air, the girl’s black dress flared like a raven’s wing. Ink-dark eyes mirrored a bottomless abyss, and her smile cut with wild grace, dragging every gaze to her like tide.

Inside the mech, Kleisint’s heartbeat kicked into a gallop, an odd heat spreading through his chest like rising steam.

That woman… was she smiling?

Was she looking down on him? Or did she have a sure-kill move tucked like a hidden knife?

Impossible!

With a superpowered mech, he was the strongest, a mountain above storms!

He whipped the mechanical arm. The blade lanced forward, sharp enough to split the sky and carve a seam in the clouds.

Right before it touched Nana, a black light-curtain burst from her body, a night sky unfurling.

The curtain spread like a storm front, draping the heavens in pitch. Even the sun seemed to drown under ink.

Chronos City felt the pause button pressed. Leaping flames froze mid-dance, soldiers sprawled on the ground fell silent mid-groan, and half-toppled buildings hung in the air like puppets.

Everything under her black canopy lost color and sound in that breath, like paintings drained of paint.

W-What is this…

Staring at the world veiled in black, Kleisint sat in the mech as alien dread swelled, his heart pounding like a drum that wanted out.

His mech wouldn’t move. No matter how he worked the controls, it was dead stone, an iron statue.

“Time-Snare Domain.”

Her voice floated down from above the mech, familiar, with a tease’s curl, a cat playing with a mouse.

Kleisint looked up. Nana hovered in the air, and behind her, the sun had become a vast black clock, replacing daylight with midnight metal.

The clock looked born of the world itself. Its face was etched with hour-marks like lotus petals, its depths packed with spinning black gears, sizes mismatched like a starfield in motion.

In that instant… she felt like the demon-goddess of time, holding the world’s moments in her palm.