"How is this possible? I clearly dodged it."
Giada Kukulcan muttered in disbelief, but the Gungnir piercing her chest proved her wrong.
"This is a strike of 'cause' and 'effect.' It's not something you can just evade."
"Cause and effect?"
She couldn't comprehend such a power.
"Next, I'll send you off for good."
"You want to kill me?"
"Yes. Not just you—all progenitors are expendable."
For the first time, Giada Kukulcan felt a flicker of panic. This was beyond her understanding.
Half her familiars—nearly thirteen—had already been severed from her entirely.
August summoned a golden key.
The Key of the Kings, the very "vault" that housed treasures, a mystery surpassing all it contained—the key to the Gate of Babylon.
And also the key to summoning the Sword of Rupture.
In each new world, wielding the Sword of Rupture required analyzing that world's rules.
In this world, that analysis had only recently concluded.
Crimson veins stretched skyward like blood vessels, piercing the clouds.
Giada Kukulcan froze, sensing a "threat to her life." Whatever came next could end her.
Whoosh!
The crimson rule-system tree vanished, condensing into an orb of light.
August reached out, and from the orb, the Sword of Rupture emerged.
[Recount the genesis, the parting of heaven and earth!]
[Without praise for creation, cleaving the world is my Sword of Rupture!]
[Grind the millstone of stars, the celestial hell before creation's dawn, subdued by death!]
[Enuma Elish!]
With the "release chant" complete, August unleashed the sword's true name!
Boom!
Three cylindrical blades spun, their rotations tearing pseudo-spatial rifts—attacks akin to temporal fractures, shredding all foes in a torrent of spacetime.
"Xiuhtectli! Camaxtli!"
Giada Kukulcan recalled her familiars. Lightning and flames erupted toward the onslaught.
But against the Sword of Rupture's liberation, in the flood of spacetime, they were useless—paper-thin, torn apart in an instant.
Seeing this, Giada summoned all thirteen remaining familiars.
She placed them as a shield before her. It had been eons since she'd last felt her life threatened.
The fear of death gripped her once more, rekindling long-forgotten sensations.
"I can't die here!"
She roared in fury.
But the next moment, the terrifying spacetime torrent descended, obliterating all her familiars in an instant.
Even Giada's body lasted less than three seconds before being pulverized.
"Heh… So this is what death feels like…"
In her final murmur, Giada Kukulcan spoke those words.
The storm of energy and spacetime crashed down.
A vacuum zone—hundreds of meters wide and stretching over a dozen kilometers—formed above the sea.
The ocean evaporated instantly, everything annihilated. Even the seabed split into a massive trench.
Such was the Sword of Rupture's power—and this was merely its true name release, not full liberation.
At August's current strength, a full-powered strike could obliterate an island in a single blow.
If he grew stronger—beyond the ninth tier—this blade from Mesopotamian myth, said to cleave the world, might truly display such might.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, host, on completing the mission—Fall of the Third Progenitor: Defeat the vampire Third Progenitor Giada Kukulcan. Reward: Super Gacha Draw x9.]
Hearing this, August grinned. Nine high-tier draws secured.
As he prepared to leave, the scene before him stunned him.
In the air, a dense cloud of blood mist gathered—mist to droplets to streams.
Finally, it coalesced into a blood clot, slowly reforming into a woman's body.
The Third Progenitor, Giada Kukulcan, wasn't dead. She lived.
August was floored. Even the Sword of Rupture couldn't kill her—was this the power of a progenitor?
Their true strength wasn't their might, but their near-immortal nature. The Curse of the Gods was no jest.
He studied Giada Kukulcan. Her figure was decent—not overly striking, but perfectly proportioned. Paired with her green hair, she was undeniably a top-tier beauty.
"I thought I was done for."
Giada Kukulcan gathered her thoughts, lifting her head to look at August.
In that moment, she had truly "died."
But the curse's power reassembled her. She was undying.
Yet, though alive, she'd lost all her familiars—destroyed by August before her demise.
Under his Demon King Authority, they'd become his sustenance.
Revived, Giada Kukulcan was at her weakest ever—perhaps not even elder-tier.
Without her familiars, her strength had plummeted by nine-tenths, if not more.
The Third Progenitor was now a shell of her former self.
August, eyeing her, stowed the Sword of Rupture.
The mission was complete. Killing her now was irrelevant—she posed no threat without familiars.
"Hey, you're just leaving?"
"Hm? What else do you want? Should I kill you?"
"Aren't you a man? A stunning woman stands bare before you, and you've got nothing to say?"
"Sorry, I've got a cleanliness obsession."
"Jerk, don't talk like I'm some harlot. I'm not into men."
August didn't doubt that. Her vampire dominion was unique—all female, all chaste.
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