—A few minutes earlier—

“Sis! Sis! We’re almost there!”

In the open sky, Flan’s wind magic hoisted Remi like a kite tugged by a gale.

“Flan, faster! Push the wind!”

Mana streamed quicker, and they streaked ahead like arrows cutting cloud.

In moments they hovered over Ska Village, shadows laid across a map.

“Drop me, Flan!”

Flan cut the spell; Remi free-fell like a stone punching through mist.

Thud!

Her body slammed the ground; dust geysered up like a sandstorm, the crash luring patrolling gods like crows to carrion.

From the haze, a cutesy, childlike voice chirped like a sparrow in dawn fog.

“All good now! You ask why? Because I’m here!”

The dust thinned; Remi froze like a bird snagged mid-flight, eyes sweeping an altar of corpses—human bodies piled into mountains, gods alone still moving.

Her breath locked; her earlier playful bravado turned into a blade in her own ear. She almost heard herself whisper, scorn soft as frost, “Heh. Yeah, it’s fine. They’re all dead anyway.”

Bloodlines veined her eyes; teeth cracked against rage; her gaze rolled over the gods like a stormfront.

“Was it you?!”

She flicked her hand; a long spear condensed like night into iron. She leaned, vanished like a shadow swallowed by wind; gods screamed, and golden blood fanned the air like gilded rain. The overture began.

Red light scythed the field like harvest; every god it kissed crumpled. It lasted minutes—no endless tide of gods here to soak her fury. When Remi halted, none remained alive. Flan alighted close, face pale as drained moonlight.

“Flan, we’ll bury them later. For now, we do the real work.”

“O-okay, Sis. Life signs over there—like a beacon behind smoke. From the energy, I’d bet it’s that god called Delta.”

“Is that so? How convenient, you bastard.”

She stepped; wind-pressure cracked the earth like thunder, and she appeared behind Delta, cleaving a chattering god behind him clean in half like slicing reed.

Remi snarled, voice hard as iron.

“Found you, bastard!”

No talk of fair play. She struck on sight; the black lance drove for Delta like a lightning rod hunting storm.

Delta felt the threat bite; he abandoned the opening coffin, blinking dozens of meters away like a moth fleeing flame.

Remi’s blow smashed the stone coffin. What even divine blows hadn’t cracked, she cleaved in one clean cut; red vapor crawled up her arm like sticky toffee. She whipped her wrist, but it clung with gluey hunger.

“You little brat, you cheap-shotted me!”

Delta stood stunned; he’d pried at that thing forever, and she popped it like an eggshell. Who’s ambushing whom?

Next breath, Remi felt something slip into her—familiar, like a lost piece falling back into its groove.

Delta caught her vacant stare and tensed.

“Hey… you, what’s wrong?”

What answered wasn’t Remi’s voice, but another childlike ring, sharp as a bell.

“Bastard! What did you do to my sister!”

Flan raised her hand like a lotus igniting.

“—Fourfold Inferno Orbs!”

Four blazing fireballs roared at Delta; the air around them warped like hot glass under noon sun.

Spatial escape was already burned; he couldn’t reuse it. He threaded between them on raw reflex, a needle through cloth.

He still underestimated them. A mere graze, and his skin flashed to steam; that heat was beyond human hands.

Delta’s day curdled like sour milk. First the old man backed by that bastard, yanking up old humiliations. Then two lolis spiking power like a mountain growing in a heartbeat, flipping the fight in a blink. That isn’t normal.

Today felt like a joke—joy at finding a tool, grief when it slipped away. He half expected a stranger to tap his shoulder and chuckle, “Just kidding, don’t mind it…”

While Delta hoarded rage like coal, Flan floated to Remi and shook her shoulder like rousing a sleeper. Remi blinked back from puppet-stillness, confusion misting her eyes.

“What is it, Flan?”

“You dare ask? The enemy’s in your face, and you zone out?”

“Ah. Sorry.”

To Delta, Flan’s chit-chat was a slap—he stood right there, and they were gossiping like it was a picnic. Was divine dignity worth nothing? Were gods just air to them?

“You… you’re looking down—”

Boom!!

A prismatic pillar fell like a rainbow lance from heaven, and with it his so-called dignity blew to dust.

When the light thinned, a tall figure stood like a mountain stepping from fog. He glanced at Remi as if he’d found a treasure; delight flared in his eyes.

“Oh!!! Found it~”