What’s with that little girl?

Iduchi gripped his scimitar, ducking under the whirring chainsaw. Moonlight spilled over the tower as rain-eroded stone steps shattered in his place. A seasoned warrior who’d crossed countless battlefields and felled innumerable foes, Iduchi had never faced an opponent like this one. Precision sniping from kilometers away. Barrages of offensive Abyssal Magic. And this bizarre, colossal armor. No—it resembled less armor than the Golems alchemists prided themselves on. But could any Golem move like *this*?

The scent of that girl, Mio, seeped from within the armor. Some unknown magic must have fused her with this massive Golem. Iduchi retreated cautiously; he knew the cost of reckless charges. Metal plates on the armor’s surface detonated whenever he drew near—yet not a trace of magical energy lingered on them. Not on the explosives. Not on the armor itself.

Iduchi was a devoted follower of the Fallen God Yaoye. Unlike self-indulgent cultists, he’d surrendered flesh and soul utterly to earn divine favor. Yet this unknown girl kept stealing his deity’s gaze—a truth that ignited jealous fury within him.

*Ravage her! Humiliate her! Kill her!*

Rage burned in Iduchi’s chest. He gripped his scimitar with both hands, lowered his stance, and lunged.

Metal shrieked. Alarms blared in Mio’s ears as she stomped the pedals to stabilize her mech. The Thunder Hammer’s diagnostics flashed: *Left knee joint destroyed. Hydraulic pressure failing. Mobility critical.* Her opponent was too fast—even the 360-degree panoramic display couldn’t fully track him. Mio gritted her teeth, forcing calm. *A top pilot’s composure. Now.*

The brutal clash raged on. The moon climbed to its zenith.

Meanwhile, Hamodia swordsmen and Seralni guards still fought through the city streets. An amorphous black miasma devoured everything it touched—humans, buildings, all crumbling to decay. Houses collapsed; debris turned to ash within the toxic fog. Soldiers with shields retreated steadily. Without mage support, they were powerless.

Lightning struck the miasma. It shuddered, losing only a sliver of its mass. At the street’s end, Rasputin raised his staff, tracing glowing runes. Runes formed patterns. Patterns built magic. As the third-tier spell completed, he intoned its activation phrase: **“Scorching Flames!”**

Fire surged like a tidal wave, flooding the street into a blazing wall that halted the miasma’s advance. Exhaustion washed over Rasputin. Human mana was finite—and third-tier spells demanded multiple mages chanting in unison. Forcing it alone drained him to his core.

As Rasputin gasped for breath, a man wielding a massive sword charged past him. Teris swung his two-meter blade, cleaving the black fog—but only its outer layer parted. The miasma surged back, whole again. Teris clicked his tongue, leaping backward.

“Orders!” he roared, raising his sword. “Fall back to the plaza! Reform ranks!”

Grand Commander Gildrais’s command. With no time for messengers, Teris, the vanguard, relayed it himself. Soldiers exhaled in relief, breaking formation to retreat. Rasputin focused, unleashing several more third-tier spells at the miasma before following the troops toward the plaza.

Gildrais surveyed the battlefield. Residential districts burned in the distance. Artillery from the tower reduced everything to rubble—yet it couldn’t kill a Death Servant. Up there, the berserker Iduchi dueled an unknown foe. In the industrial zone’s narrow alleys, guerrilla units retreated. Even with mage support, they couldn’t withstand the miasma.

The original battle plan lay in ruins. Not due to Gildrais’s incompetence—but because their enemy’s power defied imagination. Death Servants were demigods. Throwing mortal soldiers at them was futile. Gildrais held few cards. Only the Sword Saint, blessed by the War and Justice Gods, could match a Death Servant. And she stood now before the Governor’s mansion—her post, the final defense line. If breached, the trembling Governor inside would be butchered. His death would trigger the embedded activation rune, unleashing the skyborne Abyssal Magic to harvest every life in Seralni.

Suddenly, flames erupted across the distant plaza. Sulfur and oil—pre-laid traps—ignited as retreating troops lured the miasma into the square. The black fog roared, ignoring the spreading fire. The inferno couldn’t destroy it; at best, it bought time. Gildrais’s gaze lifted to the ancient tower. At its peak, a fierce battle brewed.

7.62mm bullets shattered stone slabs into flying debris. Dum-dum rounds—softened for reduced penetration—wouldn’t structurally damage stone, but flesh? They’d tear it apart. Iduchi flexed his right hand. A bullet had struck his wrist earlier, blasting everything below the elbow to pieces. Linen bandages wrapped the wound, crimson runes flowing across the fabric. Limbs regenerated swiftly.

“Who *are* you? Answer me!” He glared at the Thunder Hammer. Inside the cockpit, Mio endured his terrifying stare.

The Thunder Hammer surged forward. Its chest-mounted Gatling guns spat fire in suppressing bursts. Iduchi vaulted the tracer lines, crouching to deflect the spinning chainsaw with his left scimitar. Alarms wailed. Servos strained to balance as Mio stomped the pedals—the damaged left arm became a bludgeon, swinging down at Iduchi. A thunderous crash shook the tower. Stone fragments rained from its crumbling frame. Iduchi barely rolled right—but the Gatling guns shredded him like cloth.

*Hah… hah…*

Mio panted hard. The main camera feed projected onto her retina: Iduchi’s mangled body lay sprawled on shattered stone, blood pooling, guts spilling from his abdomen, writhing on the ground. The Gatling guns hissed empty. The mech was critically damaged—not yet combat-ineffective, but harm accumulated relentlessly. She checked the timer: *Two hours.* Beyond human limits. Even cold-weapon warriors peaked after fifteen minutes of all-out fighting. Was Iduchi even human?

Suddenly, Iduchi’s corpse twitched. The linen bandages binding him glowed crimson. They whipped through the air, sucking up blood, shoving organs back into his gut, rebuilding muscle and skin. Like a broken doll, Iduchi rose. Lidless eyes scanned for his enemy.

*Is he immortal?* Mio tightened her grip on the controls. Retreating was the only sane choice now—but her tactical display showed drone footage: soldiers in the plaza, fighting the black miasma with fire and pre-laid traps. Smoke swirled, punctuated by flashes of magic. A mage behind a shield wall hurled fireballs and ice spears.

*If I retreat, we lose.*

As a soldier, Mio knew this truth. Even stripped of memories, honor burned deep in her soul—a guiding light in the dark.

She drew a sharp breath, plunging once more into the darkness within. Black sludge surged at her feet. Titanium alloy frames rose from the mire, suspending fresh mechanical arms. With explosive bolts detonating, the Thunder Hammer’s ruined arms detached, crashing to the floor. The frames extended, locking new limbs into place. Systems synced instantly. Mio scanned the interface: these close-combat arms integrated perfectly. Energy surged—the right arm’s massive warhammer crackled with electricity; the left arm’s twin Gatlings behind its alloy shield spun up, six barrels primed to fire.

Iduchi finished regenerating. He landed softly on the tower’s peak, neck cracking as he rolled his head. Twin crescent scimitars gleamed under the cold moonlight.

“From this moment,” Iduchi raised his blades, “I acknowledge you as my equal in battle. I will fight you with all my strength.”

“And I you,” Mio activated the external speakers. “Let’s enjoy slaughtering each other!”

Bandages curled at Iduchi’s mouth into a horrifying grin. In the next instant, he accelerated—vanishing from the main camera’s view. *Again?* Mio clicked her tongue, boosting neural sync with the servos. Time slowed. Entering hyper-thought mode, she interfaced with the mech’s computer. The world froze. Iduchi’s high-speed form materialized in her vision.

*Hyper-Acceleration.* His second divine gift.

Forcing his personal time to accelerate granted impossible speed—beyond human dynamic vision. To onlookers, he simply disappeared. But the Thunder Hammer’s sensors saw through the trick. Mio saw him.

Ending the body-straining Hyper-Acceleration, Iduchi slashed downward at the mech’s back. His twin blades—*Crescent* and *Waning Moon*—bore blessings of unbreakable sharpness. Even ceramic-composite armor couldn’t withstand them. But this time, Iduchi miscalculated. As his blades descended, the Thunder Hammer’s upper torso *rotated*—a human spine couldn’t twist like this. The electrified warhammer smashed down without hesitation. Iduchi crossed his scimitars to block—but the thunderous blow cratered him into the stone floor.

The tower’s structure shattered completely. Crumbling stone gave way. Iduchi and Mio plummeted amid debris. Servos stabilized the mech; leg and back thrusters adjusted descent. Mio targeted Iduchi mid-fall. Twin Gatlings beneath the left wrist shield unleashed a storm of bullets.

Iduchi proved why he was a veteran among Death Servants. He deflected bullets with his scimitars, using their impact to leap onto falling rubble. Like an acrobat, he bounced between airborne debris, widening the gap. Mio lost sight of him, ceasing fire. She ignited the main thrusters—blue plasma flared from the backpack, propelling the Thunder Hammer in a short flight before it crashed onto the plaza near the tower.

She turned. The city’s central tower had vanished under a cloud of dust and rubble. Sensors detected nothing. Mio had lost him. She ordered circling drones to search while bracing for combat. Alarms screamed—the already damaged left leg had seized completely from the landing impact. Hydraulic fluid pooled red on the ground.

*I can’t fight like this!* Mio unbuckled her harness, ready to abandon the mech.

Just then, the system blared an alarm—Iduchi’s silhouette emerged under the moonlight.

Terrible timing!

Mio yanked the control stick. The Thunder Hammer raised its left arm; machine guns hidden beneath its shield spat fire. Tracer rounds lashed out like a searing whip toward Iduchi. He’d already anticipated their trajectory, ducking with hair’s-breadth precision. In a flash, Iduchi closed the distance using hyper-acceleration. The Thunder Hammer lifted its massive warhammer—but Iduchi struck first, driving his curved blade straight into the cockpit.

The sensation of piercing flesh and bone traveled up the blade. That familiar feeling confirmed his victory. Humans were fragile. One precise stab in the right place, and they died quickly. The strike had been perfect: steel slicing skin, snapping ribs, burying deep into the heart. The Thunder Hammer’s main camera dimmed. Its raised warhammer slowly drooped.

Certain of his triumph, Iduchi withdrew the blade—only to freeze. No blood stained it. Instead, thick, mud-like black fluid clung to the steel.

*What is this?*

That split-second of confusion exposed his opening. As if waiting for this exact moment, the Thunder Hammer’s cockpit canopy blasted off. Iduchi reflexively slashed, splitting the flying canopy in two—but bullets hidden behind it slammed into his chest and abdomen. Enchanted rounds, capable of annihilating lesser Celestials in one shot, inflicted grievous wounds even on a demigod Death Servant.

Blood bubbled from Iduchi’s lips as he desperately deflected the next volley. Mio leaped from the cockpit, Punisher in hand. She drew her power sword with her right hand, charging while firing. Iduchi swung his blade at her, but his injuries slowed his once-lightning strike. Mio blocked the curved sword with Punisher’s sturdy barrel and drove her power sword into Iduchi’s chest. The Destructive Force Field coiled around the blade instantly disintegrated surrounding matter at a molecular level. Iduchi roared in despair. The linen bandages wrapped around him suddenly writhed like living serpents, coiling around Mio’s neck and limbs.

“I’ll torture you slowly!” Iduchi snarled. “Slice you into ribbons, one cut at a time. Make you drown in endless fear and agony until your last breath!”

“Too bad,” Mio sneered. “I can’t even die if I wanted to.”

Iduchi didn’t fully grasp her words—Mio gave him no time to think. Crimson magic circuits flared across her porcelain skin, tracing from her arms to her cheeks, radiating an eerie glow. Iduchi instantly understood her intent. He yanked the bandages back, trying to flee—but Mio bit down hard on the strip choking her neck, anchoring him.

At that instant, overwhelming Spirit Energy erupted from Mio’s body.

“Final safety protocol disengaged!” The sword in her hand transformed: the hilt lengthened twenty centimeters downward, the blade doubled in size, becoming a menacing two-handed greatsword.

Then she uttered the activation command: “Godslayer!”

Soul Collapse consumed Iduchi’s body instantly. His shattered form, bandages and all, dissolved into shimmering particles of light. He reached out, grasping for his falling curved sword—but his fingers turned to ash a heartbeat before touching it. Watching the Death Servant disintegrate, Mio collapsed onto the ground, utterly spent. The glowing circuits on her arms and face faded. The cost of forcing Soul Collapse was immense; she lacked even the strength to stand.

“We won…” Mio spat out a shred of bandage and lay back, gazing up at the swirling Abyssal Magic circle under the moonlight.

“I never imagined… my end would come like this,” Iduchi’s voice echoed faintly. “Countless battlefields. Centuries lived. Countless masters slain by my hand. I gambled the authority and immortality granted by the Divine… I believed myself invincible. But why? Why did I lose to you? To a mere girl?”

“Who knows?” Mio lay on her back. “You were strong. Truly strong. A worthy opponent.”

“Is that so?” Iduchi paused. “You… were magnificent too. A splendid fight.”

“Satisfied?” Mio asked. “Shall I open the ‘Eternal Gate’ for you?”

“No need.” Iduchi’s voice dimmed. “At the very end… I accept no pity from you.”

“What a troublesome man…”

Mio slowly sat up. Iduchi’s head had already dissolved into light. Among his scattered remains, a Soul Crystal glowed under the moon—a crystallized human soul, a higher-dimensional existence. Blessed by the Reaper, Mio could now perceive them. Such a vicious man… yet his soul’s radiance remained beautiful. Thinking of her own pitch-black soul, Mio sighed.

Footsteps sounded. A raven-haired, dark-eyed beauty stepped into the moonlight. Fallen God Yaoye smiled seductively, the cold moonlight caressing her flawless skin, radiating a melancholic beauty.

“So Iduchi truly fell to you.” She picked up the Soul Crystal. “But it was expected, my beloved child. You surpassed my expectations. Should I grant you a reward?”

“Yaoye!” Mio’s shoulders trembled with rage. She tried to stand, but her knees buckled, collapsing her back to the ground.

“Rise, my thrall.” Yaoye channeled divine power into the crystal.

Before Mio’s horrified eyes, linen bandages surged from the crystal, rapidly weaving a male form. Crimson runes pulsed across the wrappings, emitting an unnatural glow. Resurrecting the dead—the ultimate taboo in any world—yet Yaoye wielded this authority without hesitation. The reborn Iduchi knelt on one knee before her, lidless eyes lowered in utter submission.

“I thank the Divine for this rebirth,” he rasped. “I shall serve you with all my strength.”

“Spare me the formalities.” Yaoye’s voice cut like ice. “Your defeat to Mio was anticipated. But Iduchi—you defied my command. You used martial arts.”

“I… but…”

“I don’t wish to hear excuses.” Yaoye’s tone brooked no argument. “First, when charging that tower—you used the movement art ‘Swallow Step’ to evade Mio’s sensor mines. Then, when severing the Thunder Hammer’s arm—you activated the enhancement art ‘Steel Severance.’ Am I mistaken?”

“The Divine sees all…”

“Now, I command you: withdraw from this contest.”

“But, Divine One—”

*Snap!* Iduchi’s hands were severed. Blood gushed.

“I dislike repeating myself,” Yaoye’s voice froze the marrow. “Or shall I take your defiance as disobedience, Iduchi?”

“I dare not…”

“Retreat.” Yaoye commanded. “Until I summon you again.”

The handless Iduchi rose. He shot Mio a venomous glare before dissolving into a cloud of black miasma. Moonlight filtered through swaying tree shadows. The Fallen God gazed at the silver-haired girl, lifting her chin with one finger.

“Allow me to bestow your reward, my beloved child.” She forced a kiss upon Mio. Their tongues tangled, exchanging saliva. When their lips parted, a glistening thread connected them.

The next second, Mio clutched her chest and collapsed.

“What… did you do to me?” she gasped in pain. “Yaoye!”

“A little reward.” Yaoye smirked. “A Fragment of Creation is no trinket for humans. Its power is too great. Forced into a soul, it triggers catastrophic collapse. To prevent that, I sealed it with five locks. Now… I’ve undone the first. You’ll gain greater strength. But if you don’t grow stronger yourself? It will devour you whole.”

“Damn you…” Mio reached toward Yaoye. “Someday… I’ll kill you!”

“Oh? I look forward to it.” With those words, Yaoye dissolved into miasma and vanished.