The explosion faded, revealing the wreckage of Gugalanna's face. Her features were ravaged—third-degree burns stretched across her skin, her nose crushed to a flattened mess, and her lower jaw hung by sinews of flesh and muscle, dangling grotesquely from her skull. Blood rushed freely down her neck, as the familiar blue sparkles of her regenerative physical property flickered struggling to undo the carnage.
Her once divine, elegant face had become a mutilated horror. The Ignis Fatuus of such a powerful magic, combined with Rex's fire magic, had done more damage than he had dared to hope for.
"AHHHHHHH!" the upper body screamed, shielding her ruined face with her palm as the bull beneath charged at Rex.
It reached him in seconds, rearing back and slamming its forelegs down, annihilating the immediate area. But Rex had already vanished with Iguazu Dash, barely missing a root that could've tripped him.
The bull, however, didn't stop. It gave chase out of pure anger and pain, destroying everything in its path as it hunted the mouse that kept vanishing just before it could crush him. This only served to fuel its frustration, causing it to roar out.
"By scars of a thousand battles, by crowns ground to dust beneath your tread—awaken!" Blue wisps began trailing up along the halberd's shaft and blade, dissolving like dying stars while streaming after him as he ran away from the bull like fading constellations.
Gugalanna, now capable of speech with her jaw mostly regenerated, lowered her hand from her face. The sadistic smile that emerged was made all the more disturbing by the semi-healed ruin of her features as the bull stopped giving chase.
"Rage, fury of the skies." With just that stanza, the magic was invoked.
"Caelum Veil!"
With her cry, a membrane-like film of golden lightning surged around Gugalanna's form, wrapping her in an electrified shell. Countless bolts crackled across the surface, forming a charged armor that covered both her lower bull body and upper humanoid half.
—An enchantment-based magic, just like Ais' Ariel.
The already overwhelmingly strong monster had now revealed its trump card: divine armor wrought from the fury of the sky. And with it, her twisted grin curled into something playful, childlike, as if declaring victory in a game only she understood.
"Distel."
In the next breath, the electrically charged waves surrounding its body shot out in every direction, expanding across the room in a beautiful dome of golden electricity—faster than any adventurer could move.
The wave of high-voltage current reached Rex—who was trying to run out of the bull's range—slamming into his back and launching him. Electricity tore through his body, shredding his Swampfire armor like paper in a shredder. He could do nothing but scream in noiseless agony, his eyes rolling back white as his body was flung through the air, the current still lashing him.
He crashed down with a sickening splat, his skin scorched and scarred from head to toe. But the demi-spirit wasn't done.
Spreading her arms wide with a smile, the golden particles lingering in the air began drifting back toward her. She was absorbing magic—clearly a physical property, as it never appeared on her status screen for him to see.
She should've been nearly drained from both the spell spamming and the recent enchantment, yet by pulling in the scattered particles, she replenished her magic reserves with ease.
The spirit consumed everything—every last trace. Even the red-tinted residue from Rex's fire magic and the jade sparkles from his wood spells swirled toward her, glittering like stars
It was a beautiful sight—a goddess encased in shimmering lights.
The mighty bull reared up onto its hind legs, the lightning currents still on its body gathering at the soles of its forehooves. With a final sadistic smile from Gugalanna directed at the mangled rat below, and a roar from the bull's lower half, its legs came crashing down—along with them, the web of high-voltage current.
The moment the hooves of thunder slammed into the middle of the room, shockwaves and surging tremors of electricity rippled out in all directions. The wave of high-voltage destruction consumed not only Rex, still on the ground, but the entire chamber—floor, walls, ceiling—annihilated in a blinding cascade of destruction. The wooden coating, the adamantite structure—everything—was torn apart.
The sound was deafening, and the world was painted a brilliant, sizzling white. Deep cracks formed along the surrounding surfaces, the metal on the ground bending and threatening to give way at any moment. The only thing keeping the floor from collapsing entirely was the layers upon layers of adamantite.
"Aha—aha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!" The spirit's laughter echoed through the cavern as she surveyed the devastation.
The walls weren't walls anymore, just jagged strips of adamantite reaching toward the ceiling, the passage beyond fully visible through the ruined chamber. This was the power of a demi-spirit, one few in Orario could hope to match.
"Hee-hee… bye-bye," she giggled, turning to leave behind the broken body of the man—his bones twisted, blood smeared across the floor, unmoving.
Another toy awaited. The one she treasured most—Aria. Her precious, irreplaceable toy. She couldn't wait to play with the toy that called out to her like a girl in love. The elephantine creature began to leave. But just as it did…
"We are the final echo of the forge… that tempered time itself..."
A rasping whisper reached her ears, and her hooves froze. Turning slightly, she saw him—on his feet again.
He should be dead.
Bones were sticking out of his body, skin scarred and torn open in dozens of places, blood spilling from him like there was no tomorrow. Part of his bald scalp had been ripped so badly you could see the white bone of his skull underneath, and his once handsome face couldn't even be recognized.
But with his trusty utility belt still around his waist, and the blue droplets of energy swirling around him, somehow he looked more beautiful than he ever should have.
"Shine fierce... shine fleeting... and leave naught but echoes of our creed!" He raised his right arm directly above him—an impossible act given the state of his bones.
Rex had entered a Limit Off status.
"Berakh—!" The swirling wisps coalesced into a vortex around his right arm.
"—HaKele."
The energy gathered, compressing around his arm from fingertips to shoulder into a razor-thin sheath of blazing blue. Dark at the edges, brilliant at the core, his right arm glowed, twilight stars flickering inside the sheath like dying embers
The demi-spirit's expression twisted. Whatever amusement and good feeling that had remained vanished instantly. Would it play with Rex for one last round?No. It didn't have the intelligence for that. From its point of view, Rex was already broken. It didn't care for broken toys. But…
Was he really broken?
"Do you know why I always thought Berakh HaKele couldn't work on my body?" the toy spoke, lowering his arm to look down at it, a creepy smile forming—or it would have been a smile, if he had any skin left on his face.
"It's because, as cliché as it sounds, I never saw my body as a weapon of its own." He looked down at his right arm. "And since the magic only works on weapons… of course it wouldn't work on something I didn't see as one."
He looked up and locked eyes with Gugalanna, a genuine joy in his one remaining eye. "But you made me realize my mistake, and for that I thank you." He then clenched his fist, holding its river-jade eye. "I probably won't be able to use this arm again… but it is what it is."
The spirit couldn't understand his words, but it decided to play one more time.
"Pierce, spear of lightning," it began, leisurely.
"Let me show you my strongest attack," Rex muttered, crouching his fucked up body and cocking his arm back.
"Your envoy beseeches you, Tonitrus..."
"The Indomitable Mortal Spirit plus Berakh HaKele plus the forgotten Heptathlos… plus my right arm." He uttered, tapping his foot six times in rapid succession against the floor. "This is to go even further beyond..."
Suddenly, the spirit felt dread—a cold, rising panic it couldn't explain. it didn't know why it suddenly felt scared nor did it know what it implied. But one thing was certain;
It had to finish him before it launched that attack.
"Incarnate of thunder. Queen of lightning—" Its chant quickened.
"Go beyond!" Rex took one step forward. "PLUS—"
"Thunder Ra—"
"ULTRA!!!"
And with that, Rex launched his right fist forward.
For a moment, the world went silent.
A blinding conical blast of blue energy erupted outward, carving through the already ruined chamber in a straight, unstoppable line, engulfing the demi-spirit before she could finish her chant.
The beam didn't stop—it slammed into the already destroyed chamber wall and burst beyond, ripping through several more like they were made of wet cardboard.
The energy surge lasted only a few seconds, but it left behind a devastating trail. A conical path of destruction stretched out from where Rex stood—narrowest at the source—before widening until it finally stopped nearly a quarter kilometer away, where the blast had been halted by an adamantite wall.
The sheer force had polished the adamantite ground along its path smooth, as if glassed by heat and pressure. And just a few meters from where Rex stood lay the demi-spirit—or what little remained of her.
He walked forward like a corpse, each step slow and dragging. Before him lay the curled-up remains of the female upper half, trembling, charred, barely intact.
The rest of her? Destroyed. Gone. Ripped appart. The only reason even this much remained was because the demi-spirit had redirected all of Caelum Veil's electrical energy to her upper body in a desperate attempt to shield her magic stone.
"Thank you for protecting your magic stone," Rex said flatly as he kicked her, forcing her body to uncoil, her arm spurling out on her sides.
Bloody tears were streaming down the spirit's cheeks in rivers. And even as just the upper body of a woman, the 2-meter-tall spirit still dwarfed Rex's battered 191 cm frame, and somehow, that only made it more pitiful.
As for Gugalanna, she looked up at him in confused silence, unable to comprehend the pain or the betrayal. Her mind, built for delight and play, couldn't process what had happened. Why had her toys hurt her?
To her, it was a game that had turned suddenly cruel, and she didn't understand why or how.
Barely able to think, she tried to chant, but no words came. She tried to defend the magic stone—but her arms wouldn't move. All she could do was watch as his cold fingers touched her abdomen, claws digging in—and with an electric shock of pain, he yanked the stone out of her body.
He held it high like a trophy, looking down on her with his glowing amber eyes as she finally found the strength to lift a frail, trembling hand, reaching toward her stone.
"Hee-hee…" he mocked. "Bye-bye~" And with a crushing motion, he scavenged the magic stone.
Not a moment later, her humanoid body and what remained of her shattered bull body mushroomed into ash that swallowed him, silence swallowing the room.
As the dust settled, Rex stood still, staring at the dozens of status screens that appeared in front of him.
[+193,285 (1,932.8) Strength, +199,261 (1,992.6) Endurance, +170,220 (1,702.2) Dexterity, +188,196 (1,881.9) Agility, +233,282 (2,332.8) Magic]
[Meteor Swarm (Magic/Active): A long-chant spell that summons a devastating rain of massive meteors. Classified as Earth Spirit magic.]
[River Jade Eyes (Physical Property): Turns the user's eyes a solid jade green. Grants magic sight and heightened visual perception. (Effective after a good night's sleep.)]
[Caelum Veil (Magic/Active): An electric element magic that can imbue things with electricity. Classified as Lightning Spirit magic]
[Spirit Blood (Skill/Passive): Grants the user the Development Abilities: Mage, Spirit Healing, Magic Resistance, and Spirit Pleasure. Each effect scales with the user's level. Also enables the creation of special items imbued with their magic properties and reduces the impact of curses.]
[Earth Crush (Skill/Active): Temporarily amplifies leg strength and endurance massively immediately before a stomp, drastically increasing impact force.]
[Gugalanna (Physical Property): Transforms the user into the Demi-Spirit Gugalanna in both body and essence. (Effective after a good night's sleep.)]
"LEEEEET'S FUUUUUCKINNNNNNG GGOOOOOO!!!!!!" Rex roared, shadow boxing with his mangled body, flailing around like a lunatic.
"Fuck yeah! I am the fucking protagonist!" he shouted, striking the Usain Bolt pose. "Oh yeah~!" he cheered, hitting another. "Oh yeah~!" He struck another pose. "Oh—EEEEEK!"
He froze.
From a broken section of wall, the Loki Familia executives stood there, staring.
Riveria. Gareth. Tione. Tiona. Bete. Ais. And even Raul and Anakitty.
'…I'm…' his eyes rolled back into his skull as his adrenaline and indomitable will rushed away.
'Cooked.'
Rex died from embarrassment.
[Author's Note: This chapter was a bit short because I split it from the first one as I didn't want it to be another single long chapter. Anyway, what do you think of the chapter? The fight? Everything else? Hope it was good. Anyway, I don't have anything else to say. Maybe I would if I don't feel tired right now, so;
Have a wonderful day, dear readers~(*￣▽￣*)ブ]