[ February 13th, 2088 (Thursday, Evening) ] - [ BDV Iron Convoy #15 (Cargo Ship) > North-East Pacific Ocean > Earth ]
The coral tridents still pinned Niero's arms and legs against the caved-in metal deck.
Ocean spray.
Gunfire.
Explosions.
The distant roar of Sifang's elemental storms.
All of it seemed strangely muted as the Witch stood over him.
One boot planted beside his shoulder.
The other is beside his hip.
Her black-and-navy sailor skirt fluttered in the freezing sea wind while the coral trident in her hand hovered mere centimeters from his throat.
Around them, dozens of Scuba-Scums formed a loose perimeter, their distorted scuba masks staring silently.
Amidst all of that—
Niero suddenly raised a finger.
Or tried to.
The coral restraint prevented it.
"WAAAIITTT!!!!!!" Niero shouted, raising his hand up.
The trident stopped.
The Witch blinked.
Niero looked up at her.
Completely serious.
"If you're going to kill me, at the very least... tell me your name."
Silence.
Even some of the nearby Scuba-Scums seemed to pause.
The Witch tilted her head.
"...my...name?"
"Yeah."
Niero nodded slightly.
"It feels rude to die without knowing who did it."
He looked toward the foggy sky.
Then back at her.
"I'd like to hold your name so I can hold it deep in the depths of my soul."
A beat.
Then another.
The Witch froze.
Her predatory smile faltered for half a second.
A faint pink color appeared on her cheeks.
"...W-What?"
Niero remained perfectly serious.
Or at least appeared to be.
"You heard me."
For the first time since they met, the terrifying oceanic Witch looked genuinely caught off guard.
The blush deepened.
Not much.
But enough.
"That..."
She cleared her throat.
"My, my. That sounds incredibly romantic... for someone who's about to die by my hands."
Niero shrugged as much as his restraints allowed.
"Maybe."
The Witch stared at him.
Then she dramatically swept her free arm outward.
Ocean mist swirled around her.
Dark Script energy surged.
The nearby Scuba-Scums straightened like an audience witnessing a stage performance.
Clearly she had been waiting for an opportunity to do this.
Her grin returned.
Bigger than ever.
Sharp shark-like teeth gleaming.
"Very well!"
The sea around the ship churned violently.
Water spiraled upward around her.
Coral growth erupted from the deck.
"Know the name of your executioner, you pathetic mortal!"
She pointed her trident skyward.
As if announcing herself to the ocean itself.
"I am—"
A dramatic pause.
"AMARYLLIS!"
Lightning flashed in the distant storm.
"THE SEA WITCH!"
The surrounding Black Tide forces erupted into gurgling cheers and screeches.
"Mistress of the Drowned Current!"
"Sovereign of Sunken Dreams!"
"Terror of the Blue Horizons!"
"She Who Calls the Deep!"
The water around her surged again.
Completely unnecessary.
Entirely for dramatic effect.
Then she lowered the trident back toward Niero's throat.
Her smile becoming dangerous once more.
"And you shall have the honor to be killed by the majestic being that is me."
She purred.
"Turned you into one of my horde."
"Preserved that handsome face."
"And kept you beside me forever."
Niero stared.
Silent.
Processing.
Then finally:
"...That's...a lot of titles."
She raised her trident with both her hands, about to kill him.
Niero was priming his Nova-Spark energy and his Psionic energy to break free and fight her.
The moment was tense.
A vicious aura of imminent death—
either by the prey or the predator.
But then—
the world snapped.
Not gradually.
Not smoothly.
A cut.
A break in continuity.
Steel rang out across the deck like a thunderclap.
The Scuba-Scum nearest them didn't even finish reacting.
They split apart mid-motion.
Clean lines. Instant separation. No struggle.
Coral weapons shattered into fragments as if they had forgotten they were solid.
The trident pinning Niero?
Gone.
Not deflected.
Not pushed.
Severed.
The pressure vanished so suddenly Niero almost overcorrected forward.
A second wave of movement followed.
Faster than sound.
A figure slid through the battlefield like a blade drawn through water.
Not running.
Not leaping.
Just arriving where death was needed.
The remaining Scuba-Scum around the Witch collapsed in near silence—decapitated or disarmed in fractions of a second too precise to register as combat.
The ocean wind itself seemed to recoil from the motion.
Niero caught his breath as he regained balance.
His Nova-Spark energy dissipated slightly—still primed, but no longer needed immediately.
His eyes snapped toward the source.
Agent Takeshi Armitage of the BDAAA.
The 5 o'clock beardy swordsman.
Sword lowered.
The mechanized katana is still humming faintly with residual energy discharge.
Casual posture.
As if he had just interrupted a minor inconvenience rather than a battlefield assassination attempt.
He glanced down at Niero.
Then at the destroyed restraints.
Then at the blushing, furious Sea Witch.
Then let out a light sigh.
"Man…"
he said lazily.
"I leave you alone for what—a few hours?"
His eyes flicked back to Niero.
A half-smirk formed.
"And you already got yourself pinned by a cute girl with tentacle hair."
He tilted his blade slightly, shaking off black residue from the last strike.
"Kid, your survival instincts are either improving or getting worse in very interesting ways."
The Witch didn't move.
But the air around her changed.
The Scuba-Scum response network—what remained—stuttered.
For the first time, her smile didn't look fully relaxed.
Her gaze shifted to Armitage.
Measuring.
Recalculating.
Armitage, meanwhile, casually scratched the back of his neck with his free hand.
"So anyway," he added, almost conversational.
"Are you two done with the ocean-themed foreplay, or do I need to keep ruining your date?"
His sword angled slightly downward.
But the pressure in the air made it clear:
he was not joking about the outcome.
The instant Armitage appeared, the battlefield shifted.
What had been a predator toying with trapped prey suddenly became something else entirely.
A duel between monsters.
The servomotors within Armitage's M.A.R.S. body suit screamed to life.
Artificial muscles contracted.
Hydraulic systems discharged.
For a split second, his body became a blur.
CRACK—
The metallic deck beneath his feet shattered.
He launched forward.
Not running.
Not sprinting.
Launching.
Like a railgun projectile given human form.
His mechanized katana left its sheath.
The blade sang through the air.
A wind-piercing arc of steel screamed across the deck, his M.A.R.S. suit's artificial musculature whining as it overclocked his movement.
The mechanized katana aimed cleanly—a razor-thin arc straight for Amaryllis's chest, a finishing line drawn through the air.
For a fraction of a second, it looked like the strike would land.
But Amaryllis was already gone.
She moved.
The slash missed by centimeters.
Not dodging late.
Not reacting.
Leaving before the intention was completed.
Her body blurred backward across the slick, shattered deck, twin-tail hair snapping through the air like submerged ribbon. Coral armor along her arm flared as she twisted mid-motion.
She landed hard—but controlled.
And stopped her slide by driving her coral trident straight into the metal hull.
SKRRRCH—!
The sound tore through the battlefield as steel buckled under divine pressure, the trident anchoring her like a living lightning rod.
Water mist exploded outward from the impact point.
Armitage's blade completed its arc harmlessly, slicing only empty air and drifting spray.
He clicked his tongue lightly.
"Fast."
he admitted.
Casual tone while still smiling.
"Annoyingly fast."
Amaryllis slowly lifted her head.
Her expression had changed again.
The flirtation was gone.
The amusement was gone.
What remained was something far more focused—cold, offended curiosity.
She pulled her trident free from the deck with a slow, grinding motion.
Then tilted her head toward Armitage.
Armitage was already near the caved-in crater, casually grabbed the back of Niero's arm, and hauled him upright as though pulling a kid out of trouble.
Which, to be fair, was exactly what he was doing.
Amaryllis watched the gesture.
Her eye twitched.
Again.
"You know..."
she said slowly.
"I was having a perfectly enjoyable conversation."
"Conversation?"
Armitage snorted.
"Lady, you had him pinned to a deck with a spear at his throat. "Hardly the ones I know of."
Amaryllis clicked her tongue.
"And now, some beard-o interrupted my playtime with a cutie."
Armitage immediately looked offended.
Not by the threat.
Not by the Witch.
By the beard comment.
"Excuse you."
He pointed at his beard.
"This beard is a work of art. I've been told it's one of the twelve sexiest beards women swoon over."
Niero stared.
"Ya got a citation for that claim?"
"Yeah. Me."
"That explains a lot."
Armitage looked wounded.
"The youth of today have no appreciation for great facial hair."
Amaryllis pinched the bridge of her nose.
For the first time since the battle started, she looked exhausted.
Unfortunately for her—
Armitage wasn't done.
He pointed his katana at her.
"And while we're being honest..."
"You look like a sailor stripper."
Silence.
"What?"
said Amaryllis.
"Seriously."
Armitage gestured vaguely.
"The skirt."
"The straps."
"The dramatic coral accessories."
"The shark teeth."
"You look like a stripper whose fashion designer got drunk while watching both BDSM porn and pirate movies."
A vein visibly appeared on Amaryllis's forehead.
"And judging by your personality..."
Armitage continued.
"I suppose your only friends are fish, corpses, and whatever poor therapist got assigned to your case."
The vein grew larger.
"Maybe that's why you keep trying to kidnap random boys."
Another twitch.
"Desperation."
The ocean around the ship suddenly became noticeably rougher.
Vuldyr immediately spoke.
> [ "Warning. Warning."]
> ["Agent Armitage appears to be deliberately aggravating the enemy."]
> "You think?"
Niero muttered.
Amaryllis slowly lowered her head.
Her shoulders trembled.
For one hopeful second—
it looked like she might laugh.
She didn't.
Instead—
the air pressure dropped.
The sea darkened.
The water surrounding the convoy churned violently.
The Witch raised her coral trident skyward.
Her smile vanished completely.
When she spoke—
it wasn't playful anymore.
"I am going to kill you and feed your corpse to the ocean."
Armitage nodded.
"Fair."
"No."
The trident crackled with dark oceanic energy.
"Not kill."
Water spiraled upward into a towering vortex.
"Slaughter."
The ocean answered.
A colossal wave rose beside the ship.
Then crashed onto the deck.
BOOOOOM!
Seawater exploded across steel.
Coral fragments and black foam blasted in every direction.
From within the wave—
figures emerged.
Scuba-Scums.
Dozens of them.
Some landed atop containers.
Some dropped onto railings.
Others splashed onto the deck itself.
Harpoon-crossbows immediately leveled toward the pair.
The metallic clicks of biomechanical weapons echoed across the deck.
Within seconds—
Niero and Armitage found themselves surrounded.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Possibly more.
A ring of armed Black Tide soldiers.
Amaryllis stood behind them like a furious queen commanding her court.
Her ice-blue eyes glowed with murderous intent.
"Kill them. KILL THOSE BASTARDS!!!"
The Scuba-Scums obeyed instantly.
Niero glanced at the overwhelming number of harpoon rifles now pointed at them.
Then looked sideways at Armitage.
A beat passed.
Another.
Then Niero sighed.
"You know..."
Armitage looked over.
"Hm?"
Niero gestured at the army currently preparing to murder them.
"I wasn't aware you're really good at provoking people."
Armitage looked around.
Considered the situation.
Considered the furious Sea Witch.
Considered the several dozen armed Scuba-Scums.
Then smiled.
"In my defense..."
The M.A.R.S. suit hummed as power surged through its artificial muscles.
He rested his mechanized katana on his shoulder.
"It worked exactly as intended."
Niero blinked.
"...You wanted her angry?"
"Angry enemies make mistakes."
A pause.
"Also, it's funny."
"That is an insane reason."
"Yet it works successfully."
Around them, harpoon rifles began to fire. The moment the first volley of harpoons fired—
Agent Takeshi Armitage moved.
Not forward.
Not backward.
Everywhere.
The M.A.R.S. suit emitted a sharp mechanical whine as artificial muscle fibers contracted with explosive force.
His body blurred.
One step.
Then another.
Then a zigzag pattern so abrupt it looked less like movement and more like reality failing to keep up.
SHHKK!
SHHKK!
SHHKK!
Three Scuba-Scums collapsed before their trigger fingers fully depressed.
Two more lost their weapon arms.
Another's harpoon-crossbow split neatly in half.
Armitage's mechanized katana hummed as it carved through armor, coral, and flesh alike.
He looked almost relaxed.
Like this was less a life-or-death battle and more a particularly energetic exercise routine.
Niero didn't waste the opening.
While Armitage drew attention, he discreetly reached behind his back.
A subtle pulse ran through his Stargod Inventory.
A weapon materialized into his waiting hand.
> [Goblin Dagger (Rank-E)]
> Passive Effect: Toxic Strike.
> Chance to inflict Poison.
Neither Armitage nor Amaryllis noticed.
The chaos of battle concealed the action perfectly.
Now armed with both blades—
Purple Fang in one hand.
Goblin Dagger in the other.
Niero launched himself into combat.
The first Scuba-Scum barely registered his approach.
Purple Fang flashed.
Its head separated.
The second tried to fire.
The Goblin Dagger pierced beneath its arm.
Dark poison immediately spread through black veins as the creature staggered.
The third took a slash across the neck.
The fourth lost both knees.
The fifth received a stab through the side of its scuba-mask faceplate.
Black blood sprayed across the rain-slick deck.
Niero flowed between enemies with practiced efficiency.
Not elegant.
Not flashy.
Practical.
Every movement drilled into him through months of brutal training.
Mom's lessons echoed in his head.
Don't chase style.
Chase survival.
A Scuba-Scum lunged.
Purple Fang hooked behind its neck.
The Goblin Dagger punched into its throat.
Dead.
Another tried to flank him.
Psychokinesis nudged its aim by mere centimeters.
Its harpoon missed.
Niero didn't.
As he fought, Vuldyr's voice sounded in his head.
Calm.
Focused.
A little concerned.
> ["Recommendation."]
Niero ducked beneath a swinging coral blade.
"What?"
> ["Do not use Hungry Maw. Agent Armitage is observant. So was that Sea Witch Amaryllis. You already tip-toeing around the dangr while trying your best not to expose your Stargod System."]
Niero buried Purple Fang into another Scuba-Scum's eye socket.
"Got it."
Niero immediately understood.
Hungry Maw wasn't merely strange.
It was unique.
Far too unique, yet to be recorded by the Bloom Dominion's Metatalent listing.
A giant reality-tearing mouth appearing from nowhere to consume corpses would raise questions.
Dangerous questions.
Questions about abilities beyond his [Booster] Psionic Metatalent, let alone the existence of the Stargod System.
Questions he wasn't ready to answer.
> ["Keep inventory use minimal. The current priority is maintaining cover."]
Niero clicked his tongue.
> "Fine."
Not ideal.
But reasonable.
A few meters away, Armitage split another Scuba-Scum from shoulder to hip.
The agent glanced sideways just long enough to notice Niero fighting.
A brow rose.
"Not bad, kid!"
His katana spun.
Another enemy fell.
"Though I thought your ability was called [Booster]!"
Niero stabbed a Scuba-Scum through the chest.
"It is!"
"Then why are you suddenly dual-wielding like a video game protagonist?!"
"It's called adaptation!"
"Very suspicious!"
"You're suspicious!"
"Fair point!"
The exchange somehow continued despite both of them actively fighting for their lives.
Unfortunately—
someone wasn't amused.
Amaryllis stood atop a raised coral formation overlooking the battlefield.
Several dead Scuba-Scums littered the deck.
More continued to fall.
Her expression darkened.
The playful teasing.
The embarrassment.
The annoyance.
All gone.
Now there was only irritation.
A very dangerous irritation.
Amaryllis had expected many things.
Resistance.
Desperation.
Screaming.
Running.
Begging.
What she had not expected—
was for a sixteen-year-old academy candidate and a sarcastic swordsman to keep turning her carefully planned ambush into an increasingly embarrassing disaster.
Standing atop a mass of writhing dark-blue tentacles, the Sea Witch pointed her coral trident toward the battlefield.
"Kill them."
The ocean answered.
More Scuba-Scums emerged from the water.
Dozens.
Then came the Brutes.
The larger variants hauled themselves over the railings and hull like monstrous amphibious gorillas.
Their bodies bulged with black mutagenic veins.
Coral armor protruded from shoulders and backs.
Heavy gurgling roars echoed across the stormy deck.
The surviving Black Tide forces immediately rallied around them.
At the same time—
the ocean beneath Amaryllis exploded upward.
A colossal mass surfaced.
Tentacles.
Eyes.
Coral-encrusted flesh.
Dark Script-infused anatomy.
A Kraken.
Her Kraken.
The creature's immense tentacles wrapped around sections of the hull while others rose high into the air like living towers.
Amaryllis stepped onto one of the larger limbs like a queen ascending her throne.
The Kraken began carrying her away from the ship.
Not retreating.
Observing.
Confident that the overwhelming numbers would finish the job.
Unfortunately—
the battle immediately stopped cooperating with her expectations.
A Scuba-Scum charged Armitage.
It lost its head.
Another tried to flank him.
It lost most of its torso.
A Brute swung a coral club.
Armitage sidestepped.
Drew.
Cut.
The Brute's arm separated at the shoulder.
Nearby, Niero moved like a blue-white blur.
Purple Fang flashed.
The Goblin Dagger followed.
One Scuba-Scum collapsed.
Then another.
Then three more.
Poison spread through black veins.
Harpoons missed.
Corpses fell.
Even the Brutes were struggling to land meaningful hits.
Amaryllis's eye twitched.
Then twitched again.
"...Why."
Another Brute fell.
"...Are."
Another Scuba-Scum lost its head.
"...They."
Armitage shot one through the face with his energy pistol without even looking.
"...Still alive?!"
The Sea Witch's frustration reached a critical level.
Below, Niero spotted an opportunity.
Several abandoned harpoons lay scattered across the deck.
A psychokinetic impulse surged outward.
The harpoons launched.
Like a volley of telekinetic spears.
Straight toward Amaryllis.
At nearly the same moment—
Armitage drew his sidearm.
A compact energy pistol.
BANG.
A bolt of condensed energy shot toward her chest.
For one brief moment—
it looked like one of them might connect.
Then the Kraken moved.
A gigantic tentacle intercepted the harpoons.
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
The projectiles embedded themselves into thick flesh.
The energy shot came next.
Amaryllis reacted instantly.
Her coral trident swept through the air.
CLANG.
The bolt deflected off the weapon's shaft.
A shower of blue sparks scattered into the ocean.
Silence followed.
Amaryllis slowly lowered her trident.
Her smile was gone.
Completely gone.
The irritation had evolved into something else.
Pure murderous frustration.
"You."
She pointed at Niero.
"You."
Then at Armitage.
"And especially you."
Armitage pointed at himself.
"Me?"
"YES YOU."
"Wow."
He looked genuinely touched.
"I made the ranking."
"I HATE YOU, BEARDO."
Another vein appeared on her forehead.
Niero was beginning to understand why Vuldyr warned him about provoking enemies.
Armitage, meanwhile, seemed to treat it as a competitive sport.
The Sea Witch was furious.
Not the explosive kind.
Not the screaming kind.
The far more dangerous kind.
The kind that sat quietly and chewed on its own frustration.
Perched atop her Kraken, the Sea Witch watched the battlefield unfold beneath her.
And she hated what she was seeing.
The attack on the convoy had been meticulously planned.
The ArkNet disruption.
The sensor blackout.
The coordinated boarding assault.
The Scuba-Scum strike teams.
The Brutes.
The aquatic siege creatures.
Everything had been proceeding beautifully.
Then somehow—
A sixteen-year-old boy and an alcoholic swordsman had become the biggest problem on the battlefield.
One had crippled her local command network.
The same network she had spent months modifying.
The other wouldn't stop insulting her.
Both were somehow still alive.
Worse.
The casualty reports filtering through the Black Tide network made her eye twitch.
BDV Iron Convoy #013.
Manageable losses.
BDV Iron Convoy #014.
Acceptable resistance.
BDV Iron Convoy #015.
Silence.
Then more silence.
Then an alarming amount of dead Scuba-Scums.
More than either neighboring ship.
Possibly more than both combined.
And somehow the majority of those losses were connected to one specific teenager.
"This is stupid."
Amaryllis muttered.
A nearby Scuba-Scum wisely chose not to respond.
"This is incredibly stupid."
She bit her nail.
Hard.
The easiest solution would be sinking the ship.
Simple.
Effective.
Clean.
Except it wasn't.
The purpose of the raid wasn't merely destruction.
The Black Tide wanted living captives.
Resources.
Subjects.
Potential recruits.
Sacrifices.
Whatever dark objective they were pursuing this month.
Sinking the ship would ruin all of that.
Which only made her more irritated.
Then she felt it.
A shift in pressure.
The ocean moved.
Instinctively, she looked up.
And immediately regretted it.
Far above the battlefield—
Sororitae Sifang floated amidst storm clouds and raging seas.
The blindfolded Mistress of Elements.
The ocean itself answered her commands.
Massive currents twisted around the convoy.
Ice formations intercepted incoming attacks.
Water pillars swatted away Black Tide organisms.
And now—
for the first time—
Sifang's attention had shifted.
Toward Amaryllis.
The Witch immediately recognized the danger.
An S-Rank Sororitae fully focusing on her was significantly more problematic than annoying teenage boys.
For a brief moment—
she felt vulnerable.
Then—
she smiled.
Slow.
Dangerous.
Devious smile.
The kind that usually preceded terrible decisions.
"Oh."
Her eyes drifted toward the front deck.
Toward Niero.
Toward Armitage.
The smile widened.
"I have a wonderful idea."
Far below, Niero felt a sudden chill.
> "Vuldyr."
> ["I know! She was about to do something!"]
Then Amaryllis raised her coral trident.
Dark Script energy surged around her.
The surrounding ocean darkened.
The Kraken beneath her let out a deep, unnatural bellow.
Even Armitage noticed.
"Uh-oh."
"What?"
Niero asked.
"That."
Armitage pointed.
"That's the face people make right before paperwork happens."
"What does that even mean???"
"Nothing good!"
Amaryllis spread her arms theatrically.
Then she shouted across the battlefield.
Her voice carried unnaturally far.
"BOY!"
Niero immediately pointed at himself.
"Me?"
"YES YOU!"
She pointed at Armitage.
"AND THE BEARDO!"
"That's not my name."
Armitage protested.
"I WAS HAVING FUN."
The ocean trembled.
"SO LET'S MAKE THINGS MORE INTERESTING."
Amaryllis began chanting.
The words weren't in any language Niero recognized, barely human.
They sounded deep and ancient.
Wet.
Wrong.
Each syllable caused reality to distort.
The surrounding fog twisted inward.
Ocean water rose into the air.
Vuldyr instantly reacted.
> ["Warning. Warning."]
> ["Unknown Dark Script manifestation detected. Spatial anomaly detected from above her!"]
And then... darkness gathered around her Kraken.
Around herself.
Around the front deck.
Around Niero and Agent Armitage.
Then—
the darkness exploded outward.
A black dome erupted from the ocean like an inverted tidal wave.
Not smoke.
Not water.
Not shadow.
Something between all three.
It expanded at terrifying speed.
Swallowing ambient light, sound, and even distance.
The deck.
The ship.
The ocean.
All of it disappeared.
Even the distant sight of Sifang vanished.
For one brief moment—
there was only darkness.
Absolute darkness.
Then the world returned.
But wrong.
Niero blinked.
The front deck was gone.
The convoy was gone.
The ocean was gone.
Instead—
they stood upon an endless black sea beneath a moonless sky.
The water was perfectly still.
Like polished glass.
No stars.
No horizon.
No wind.
Only darkness stretching forever.
A twisted imitation of an ocean.
The transition was so abrupt it felt like reality itself had been slapped across the face.
One moment—
Darkness.
Endless black ocean.
The Sea Witch laughing.
The next—
Light.
Blinding.
Warm.
Overwhelming.
Niero instinctively threw an arm over his eyes.
Beside him, Armitage cursed loudly.
"AGH—!"
"What kind of evil villain flashbangs people?!"
For several seconds, neither could see anything.
Only white.
Then slowly—
their vision adjusted.
Niero blinked.
Once.
Twice.
And immediately became confused.
A beach.
A tropical beach.
White sand stretched across the coastline.
Crystal-clear blue water rolled gently against the shore.
Palm trees swayed in a warm breeze.
The sky was bright and cloudless.
It looked less like a battlefield and more like a vacation advertisement.
The contrast was so absurd Niero almost thought he had been knocked unconscious.
"...What?"
"...What?"
Armitage looked equally baffled.
"This is either a trap or the best retirement package I've ever seen."
Vuldyr immediately interrupted.
> ["Warning."]
> ["Environmental analysis complete."]
> ["Localized dimensional isolation confirmed."]
A translucent interface appeared before Niero.
-
Pocket Dimension Type: Artificial Reality Domain
Creator: Unknown Witch-Class Entity
Energy Signature: Dark Script
Stability: High
Escape Probability: Unknown
-
Vuldyr crossed her arms.
> ["We're not on the ship anymore."]
"Obviously."
Niero muttered.
> ["No, I mean actually not on the ship."]
Several holographic diagrams appeared.
> ["This resembles Bloom Dominion D-Blockade technology."]
Niero immediately remembered.
The BDAAA's D-blockade was used in the alleyway during Radiant Day. The temporary dimensional barriers were used to isolate Goblins and Orks.
And his mother's modified D-blockade to create a spacious underground training dojo.
A space much larger inside than outside.
Pocket dimensions.
Mirror realities.
Artificial spaces.
Except this wasn't technology.
"Dark Script?"
> ["Correct."]
Vuldyr answered.
> ["This dimension is being sustained through anomalous energy."]
"Meaning?"
> ["Meaning some Witches capable of manifesting their own private murder arena."]
"...fuck."
Nearby, Armitage had already reached a completely different conclusion.
The swordsman placed both hands on his hips and looked around thoughtfully.
"You know..."
"No."
Niero immediately said.
"Hear me out."
"No."
"Beachfront property."
"No."
"Small house."
"No."
"Tiny bar."
"Absolutely not."
"I could retire here."
Niero stared at him.
"We're trapped in here."
"Exactly."
Armitage nodded sagely.
"Property prices are probably incredible. Reminds me of those beaches in Malaysia or Thailand from those tourist magazines."
Before Niero could question how this man was legally employed by a government agency—
The ocean exploded.
A massive column of water erupted skyward.
BOOOOOOOOM!!
The peaceful tropical scenery shattered instantly.
Water crashed back down like rain.
The sea churned violently.
Huge waves rolled outward.
And from the center—
Something emerged.
A colossal Kraken.
Tentacles thicker than tree trunks twisted upward.
Coral-covered flesh glistened beneath the sunlight.
Hundreds of blue eyes opened across its body.
Standing atop the monster—
Laughing hysterically—
Was Amaryllis.
The Sea Witch looked delighted.
"SURPRISE!"
Water spiraled around her like a throne.
"Do you like it here?!"
"No."
Niero answered immediately.
"Aww."
She looked genuinely disappointed.
Then immediately became excited again.
"Good! Because this beach will be your graveyard!"
Dark energy spread across the shoreline.
The sand began moving.
Niero frowned.
At first he thought it was shadows.
Then hands erupted from water.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
Rotting fingers clawed upward.
The beach began vomiting corpses.
Niero's expression immediately changed.
"...What the fuck?"
One after another—
Figures emerged.
Scuba-Scums.
Then more figures.
Human-shaped.
Soldiers.
Ship crew.
Staff members.
Even teenagers.
Niero recognized the uniforms.
Bloom Dominion personnel.
Some still wore candidate jackets.
Some had visible injuries.
Harpoon wounds.
Broken necks.
Missing limbs.
Black seawater leaked from their mouths.
Their eyes glowed a sickly blue.
Dark sailor-like uniforms had manifested over their bodies.
A grotesque fusion of military attire and nautical funeral clothing.
They moved unnaturally.
Like puppets pulled by invisible strings.
The sight immediately twisted Niero's stomach.
Not because they were monsters.
But because they had once been people.
Some of them had probably been alive only hours ago.
Nearby, even Armitage stopped joking.
His relaxed expression vanished.
"...you monster."
Amaryllis grinned proudly.
"Aren't they wonderful?"
One of the undead candidates lurched forward.
Its jaw hanging partially detached.
"They are my Horde. I call them my "Drowned Choir"."
Niero felt disgust crawl up his spine.
"Those are dead people."
"Yep. Aren't they cute?"
"That's messed up. That's fucking messed up, you monster!!!"
"Awww. Thank you."
She bowed dramatically.
Niero immediately regretted giving her what sounded like a compliment.
Vuldyr's tone became serious.
-
> [Threat Assessment Updated.]
< The Witch's Undead Horde - Undead Thralls >
> Classification: Artificial Undead
> Source: Dark Script Reanimation
> Estimated Threat: Rank-E to Rank-D
> Warning: These entities retain fragments of their original physical capabilities.
-
Niero's eyes widened slightly.
"Fragments?"
"Some may still possess traces of combat training and Metatalent abilities."
"Great. Wonderful. Why can't zombies be braindead, brainless, without powers?"
Armitage slowly unsheathed his mechanized katana.
The metallic blade hummed.
Its energy edge ignited.
"Kid."
"Yeah?"
"You take left."
Niero sighed.
"There's like a hundred of them."
"Then take left half, while I take the other half."
Across the beach—
The undead horde began advancing.
Scuba-Scums.
Drowned soldiers.
Drowned candidates.
Drowned crew.
All moving together.
All answering only to Amaryllis.
The Sea Witch raised her coral trident.
Her smile widened.
"Now then."
The Kraken roared.
The beach trembled.
The undead charged.
The first undead reached him.
A former deckhand.
Its face was pale blue and swollen from seawater, one eye hanging loosely from its socket. Yet despite the horrific appearance, its movements carried traces of the person it once was.
It swung a rusted emergency wrench.
Niero hesitated.
Just for a second.
A second was enough.
The wrench nearly smashed into his temple.
He ducked instinctively.
The weapon sailed over his head.
"Kid!"
Armitage barked.
The swordsman was already carving through a cluster of Scuba-Scums.
His mechanized katana flashed like silver lightning.
Heads flew.
Black blood sprayed.
Bodies dropped.
"Stop hesitating!"
Niero blocked a second attack from an undead sailor.
"They're people!"
"They WERE people!"
Armitage snapped.
A slash.
Two undead lost their heads.
"They're dead already!"
Another slash.
A Scuba-Scum Brute lost an arm.
"You aren't killing them!"
The swordsman drove his blade through an undead candidate's chest.
"You're putting them to rest!"
Niero grimaced.
Vuldyr appeared beside him in holographic form.
Her expression lacked its usual teasing tone.
> ["Agent Armitage is correct."]
Several Astra Codex windows appeared.
-
[ASTRA CODEX - WITCH BIOLOGY AND DARK SCRIPT REFERENCE ]
Additional Recorded Capabilities:
• Seductive Mental Influence
• Emotional Corruption
• Soul Manipulation
• Necromantic Reanimation
• Creation of Undead Thralls
-
Another screen appeared.
-
> [ Golden Eye Analysis ]
< Witch's Undead Horde – Thrall (Standard) >
> Status: DECEASED
> Threat Classification: Rank F–E
> Capabilities:
> + Retains physical conditioning
> + Retains basic combat habits
> + No independent thought
> + No pain response
-
Vuldyr continued quietly.
> ["Their biological functions have ceased. There is no recovery. No cure. No consciousness. No person remains, Only their tainted rotting corpses."]
Niero watched as the undead female soldier approached.
The same one.
The soldier who had tried to get him to safety.
The soldier who had died protecting a candidate she barely knew.
Now her neck was twisted unnaturally.
A harpoon wound pierced her torso.
Black seawater leaked from her mouth.
Yet she still marched forward.
Empty.
Mindless.
Used.
Like a puppet.
Niero felt anger rise inside him.
Not toward the dead.
Not even toward the Black Tide.
Toward Amaryllis.
Because she had taken people who died protecting others and turned them into weapons.
The undead soldier lunged.
Niero closed his eyes briefly.
One breath.
In.
Out.
He remembered something his mother once told him.
"Sometimes mercy isn't saving someone."
"Sometimes mercy is making sure they can finally rest."
Niero opened his eyes.
The hesitation vanished.
Not completely.
Not emotionally.
But enough.
"...forgive me..."
The undead soldier reached him.
A blue glow flashed.
His body accelerated.
BOOM.
The sand burst beneath his feet.
The soldier never saw the strike.
Purple Fang flashed once.
A clean cut.
The body collapsed.
No suffering.
No mutilation.
No cruelty.
Just an ending.
A proper one.
Niero lowered his blade.
"I hope you're free now."
Then the horde came.
Twenty.
Thirty.
More.
Undead crew.
Undead candidates.
Scuba-Scums.
Brutes.
All charging at once.
=
The tropical beach had long since stopped resembling a beach.
It was a battlefield.
A slaughterhouse.
A nightmare.
The pristine white sand was stained black and red.
Broken coral spears jutted from the ground like grave markers.
Chunks of Scuba-Scum corpses littered the shoreline.
Burning wreckage from conjured ship debris smoldered near the palms.
And yet—
The enemy numbers never seemed to decrease.
Niero sliced through a Scuba-Scum's neck.
Before the body even fully collapsed—
Black seawater bubbled from the sand beneath it.
Tentacles wrapped around the corpse.
Pulled it down.
A few moments later—
The same Scuba-Scum crawled back out.
Whole.
Alive again.
"...You've got to be kidding me."
Another undead thrall he had cut down earlier emerged from beneath the beach.
Its broken neck had somehow reattached.
Its missing arm had regrown into a coral-and-bone replacement.
Even the Brutes weren't staying dead.
One that Armitage had bisected five minutes earlier erupted from the sea with a wet roar.
The swordsman groaned.
"Yeeeaaahhh. The sea bitch is definitely cheating."
A wave crashed toward them.
Niero blasted through it with Nova-Spark energy.
Three mutated shark-things launched from the water immediately afterward.
He decapitated one.
Kicked another.
Telekinetically launched the third into a palm tree.
Then an octopus-like monstrosity dropped from above.
Then piranha creatures erupted from the sand.
Then ice spears rained from the sky.
Then more undead.
Then more Scuba-Scums.
Then more Brutes.
The battlefield had become an endless cycle.
Kill.
Dodge.
Fight.
Kill again.
Repeat.
The Witch wasn't trying to defeat them quickly.
She was trying to exhaust them.
Mentally.
Emotionally.
Physically.
Niero finally understood.
This wasn't a battle.
It was a war of attrition.
The kind of nightmare designed to make heroes lose hope.
To make them wonder if fighting was pointless.
To make them collapse.
To make them surrender.
High above the battlefield, Amaryllis lounged atop her Kraken.
Watching.
Smiling.
Laughing whenever one of her monsters landed a hit.
Like a child pulling the wings off insects.
Niero blasted apart another wave of undead.
"How many does she even have?!"
Armitage cut through a charging Brute.
"Enough!"
The swordsman kicked a Scuba-Scum into another.
Both exploded into black gore.
"Kid!"
"Yeah?!"
"You're looking at this wrong!"
Another slash.
Another corpse.
"There is no end to this!"
Niero frowned.
"What do you mean?!"
Armitage ducked beneath a coral spear.
"The army doesn't matter!"
He pointed his blade toward the Witch.
"The nightmare won't stop unless she dies!"
That realization hit Niero immediately.
Of course.
The undead.
The Black Tide.
The Kraken.
The pocket dimension.
Everything revolved around one person.
Amaryllis.
Niero dodged a shark-like creature.
"Then how do we kill her?!"
Armitage's expression darkened.
For the first time since this fight began—
The joking vanished.
"Witches are bastards."
He split an undead thrall from shoulder to hip.
"Most are practically immortal."
Niero's eyes widened.
"You're fucking kidding me."
"I wish."
Another Brute charged.
Armitage cut through its knee.
"You can cut them."
"Burn them."
"Shoot them."
"Blow them up."
"They'll keep coming back."
Niero immediately hated that information.
"Then how are they killed?"
Armitage finally stabbed his katana into the sand and pointed toward his own chest.
"Every Witch has one weakness."
The battlefield seemed quieter for a moment.
Even Vuldyr paid attention.
"A Black Heart."
A new Astra Codex window appeared.
-
< [ WITCH BIOLOGY REFERENCE ] >
> Core Organ: Black Heart
> Classification: Anomalous Crystalized Core
> Location: Chest Cavity
> Function:
> • Source of Dark Script Energy
> • Regenerative Anchor
> • Soul Stabilization Core
> • Primary Immortality Mechanism
> WARNING: Destruction of Black Heart results in permanent termination.
-
Niero read the file.
Then looked up at Amaryllis.
The Witch was still laughing.
Still enjoying herself.
Still convinced she had already won.
"...the Black Heart?"
"Yeah. It looks like a black crystal heart."
"Inside her chest?"
"Yep."
"And we need to destroy it."
"Absolutely."
Niero stared.
"That's actually surprisingly straightforward."
"The hard part is getting close enough. Most of these witches have a personal force field to get past it but not with conventional weapons."
Almost immediately—
As if sensing the conversation—
Amaryllis smiled.
A very knowing smile.
The kind that suggested she was fully aware of what they were planning.
"Aww."
The Sea Witch placed a hand over her chest dramatically.
"Trying to reach a girl's heart already?"
Her eyes gleamed.
"How romantic."
Then the Kraken beneath her roared.
The ocean split apart.
Dozens more monsters emerged.
Hundreds.
An entire wall of undead and Black Tide horrors surged forward.
Amaryllis spread her arms.
"Come then, boys. If you want my heart..."
Dark energy erupted around her.
"You'll have to earn it."
The battlefield shook as another wave of undead crashed against the shoreline.
Scuba-Scums emerged from the surf.
Brutes roared.
Mutated sharks burst from the water.
And somewhere above them, Amaryllis sat atop her Kraken, grinning as though she had all the time in the world.
Because she probably did.
Agent Armitage bisected another Scuba-Scum with a single draw slash.
Black blood sprayed across the sand.
Without even looking at Niero, he spoke.
"Kid. You got any hidden tricks?"
Niero narrowly avoided a coral spear.
"...Maybe."
The agent immediately perked up.
"Maybe it is good."
"That depends."
"Depends on what?"
Niero stabbed an undead thrall through the skull.
"Depends on whether I want to explain why I suddenly have abilities nobody should have."
That made Armitage glance sideways.
A brief silence.
"...Ah."
Another silence.
"...One of those secrets."
Niero didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
The swordsman laughed.
"Kid."
A Brute charged.
Armitage cut both its legs off.
"I've worked for the Anti-Anomaly Agency for ten years."
Another slash.
"You know how many classified things I've seen?"
"A lot?"
"A horrifying amount."
A Scuba-Scum exploded into pieces.
"I've seen living nuclear reactors."
"Sentient parasites that are addicted to ice cream."
"A haunted vending machine that speaks Shakespearean."
"A lawyer that turned into a swarm of bees."
Niero blinked.
"...What?"
"Long story."
Armitage pointed his katana at him.
"Point is whatever weird thing you're hiding? It probably isn't even in my top fifty."
A coral lance narrowly missed his head.
"If it helps us survive and get out of here, I don't care."
Then he grinned.
"In fact. I'll sweeten the deal."
Niero already knew this was going somewhere stupid.
Armitage raised a finger.
"Not only do I keep my mouth shut."
A second finger.
"Not only do I file exactly zero reports."
A third finger.
"Not only do I pretend I never saw anything."
A fourth finger.
"I'll even throw in fifty percent of my referral bonus."
Niero stopped.
Actually stopped.
"...What?"
"Fifty percent."
"Why?"
"Because I enjoy not being... uhh... DEAD."
The answer came so quickly that Niero couldn't even argue.
Armitage shrugged.
"Besides. If your secret trick kills the immortal witch trying to murder us..."
He pointed toward Amaryllis.
"That's a worthwhile investment."
The Sea Witch was currently using a Scuba-Scum as an armrest.
Watching them.
Smiling.
Clearly convinced they were trapped.
Niero's eyes narrowed.
The truth was—
He did have something.
Several things.
The Inventory.
The Hungry Maw.
The Stargod System.
His hidden abilities.
And perhaps most importantly—
A method of destroying things that shouldn't be destroyable.
But revealing any of it carried risks.
Massive risks.
The power structure foundation.
The Anti-Anomaly Agency.
The Bloom Dominion Queendom itself.
If the wrong people learned what the Stargod System really was—
His life could become infinitely more complicated.
His family would even be dragged into those issues.
Vuldyr appeared beside him in holographic form.
Arms folded.
Expression is thoughtful.
> ["Agent Armitage's psychoanalysis probability of betraying us remains relatively low."]
"That's reassuring."
> ["By at least thirty-two percent."]
"...THIRTY-TWO PERCENT?!"
> ["For an intelligence operative, that is surprisingly trustworthy."]
Niero wanted to scream.
Instead he looked toward Amaryllis.
Toward the endless army.
Toward the Black Heart hidden somewhere inside her chest.
Then he looked at Armitage.
The agent was already charging another wave of enemies without waiting for an answer.
"Think fast, kid! We're running out of steam!"
The sand beneath them erupted like a living thing.
Too late for warning.
Too fast for reaction.
Armitage's instincts fired first.
"Kid—MOVE!"
He shoved Niero hard.
A clean, violent push.
A fraction of a second later—
The beach exploded upward.
A mutated shark-like monstrosity burst from beneath the sand like a submarine breaching the surface.
Its jaws snapped shut with a sound like collapsing steel.
And Armitage's right arm—
Was gone.
For half a heartbeat, everything stopped.
Even the battlefield seemed to hesitate.
Niero's mind didn't.
Nova-Spark ignited instantly.
He crossed the distance in a blur.
"ARMITAGE!!!"
The shark turned—
Too late.
Niero's fist struck first.
A concentrated burst of Nova-Spark energy detonated on impact.
The creature didn't even have time to finish its motion.
It erupted.
A violent flash of blue-white energy ripped through its body.
Bone, cartilage, and Black Tide matter disintegrated mid-air.
The explosion threw sand and gore outward in a circular wave.
Silence returned for a fraction of a second.
Then—
Armitage dropped to one knee.
His M.A.R.S. suit reacted immediately.
Plates shifted.
Internal systems hissed.
A sealing gel and synthetic muscle weave wrapped the severed shoulder in emergency lockdown.
"Haa—…shit."
His voice was strained.
Controlled.
But real pain leaked through it.
He reached for his katana with his left hand.
And that was when the second wave hit.
Scuba-Scums.
Brutes.
Mutated sea creatures.
Undead thralls.
All converging at once like a coordinated collapse of reality.
A dogpile.
A living tide of bodies.
Armitage didn't even get the blade fully off the ground before they hit him.
"Tch—!"
And then—
A blur moved.
Niero.
He didn't think.
He didn't hesitate.
He threw himself forward.
Nova-Spark surged through his body again.
Psychokinesis flared outward instinctively, destabilizing the sand beneath the incoming mass.
He slammed into Armitage.
Not to attack.
Not to strike.
To shield.
The incoming horde crashed into him instead.
Bodies piled onto his back.
Claws scraped.
Harpoons glanced off reinforced muscle and kinetic shielding.
Niero gritted his teeth.
"WE'RE NOT DYING HERE."
Armitage coughed out a strained laugh despite everything.
"That's… not how I planned my retirement."
From above—
Amaryllis watched.
Wine bottle in hand.
Barnacles clinging to the glass like trophies.
She sipped slowly.
A smile of cruel satisfaction spreading across her face.
"Oh?"
Her voice echoed across the pocket dimension beach.
"How adorable."
She tilted her head as the dogpile grew.
"The little insects protect each other now?"
A soft laugh.
Then sharper.
More delighted.
"Yes… yes, struggle more."
She raised the bottle slightly in mock toast.
"Die entertainingly for me."
Amaryllis leaned back against the massive coil of her Kraken, legs crossed as if she were lounging in a royal carriage rather than a collapsing war-dimension.
Below her, the sand was nothing but movement now.
A writhing pile of bodies.
A choking tide of Scuba-Scums, Brutes, undead thralls, and Black Tide beasts piling over something she could no longer clearly see.
She took another slow sip of barnacle-stained wine.
"Mmm…"
Her eyes narrowed slightly, not in concern—
but in satisfaction.
"They finally stopped moving."
She tilted her head, watching the chaos like an artist observing a finished painting.
"How fragile."
A faint giggle escaped her.
The Kraken beneath her let out a low, resonant hum.
Something like a question.
Amaryllis tapped its massive limb affectionately.
"Yes, Ocean-Man… I know. We'll preserve the prettier one."
Her gaze drifted toward the shifting mass below.
Specifically where Niero had last been visible.
"That boy…"
She smiled again.
Softer now.
More entertained than murderous.
"What a shame. He had such nice, sharp eyes. Like someone who want to tear me apart."
She swirled the wine gently.
Barnacles clinked against the glass like teeth.
"We should dress him properly. Maybe something naval. A pirate captain outfit would suit him."
A pause.
Her expression brightened further, as if a brilliant idea had just arrived uninvited.
"Oh! And a collar."
She raised a finger as though presenting an academic conclusion.
"Something cute."
Her voice softened into playful cruelty.
"With a nameplate."
She glanced down at the Kraken expectantly.
"What do you think, Ocean-Man?"
The Kraken's tendrils rippled through the air, the dimension itself responding with a distant, oceanic groan.
Amaryllis nodded thoughtfully as if it had answered.
"Yes… 'Plaything' is simple. Elegant."
She took another sip of wine, satisfied with the aesthetic decision.
THEN—
Amaryllis stopped smiling.
Because the pile of monsters moved.
Not from bodies shifting.
Not from undead crawling.
Not from her Scuba-Scums repositioning.
Something beneath them was glowing.
A blue light.
Small.
Then brighter.
Then brighter.
Then—
BOOOOM
A pillar of blue-white energy erupted upward.
The entire monster pile detonated.
Not as fire.
Not as an explosion.
But as something far more violent.
A plasma-like ENERGY blast vaporized everything within its radius.
Scuba-Scums evaporated.
Undead thralls disintegrated.
Mutated sea creatures exploded into red-black gore.
Even the sand itself was flash-heated into glass.
The shockwave blasted outward across the beach.
Amaryllis immediately spat her wine out.
"PFFFT—"
The bottle nearly slipped from her hand.
"...WHAT?!"
The Kraken beneath her recoiled.
The smoke slowly parted.
At the center of the newly-formed crater stood a single figure.
Niero Ripley.
Blue-white Nova-Spark energy danced across his body.
Arcs of energy crackled around him like living lightning.
The air distorted around him.
The sand beneath his feet glowed faintly from residual heat.
And his eyes—
His eyes had changed.
Gone was the sarcastic teenager.
Gone was the awkward boy who accidentally pet a tiger girl.
Gone was the candidate pretending to be an average Psionic.
The look in his eyes now carried a single message.
Kill.
Not rage.
Not hatred.
Not recklessness.
Determination.
The determination to put down a monster.
Behind him—
Agent Armitage slowly stood.
Still missing an arm.
Still covered in blood.
But alive.
The swordsman stared.
Then stared some more.
Then looked at Niero.
Then back at the crater.
Then back at Niero.
"...Okay."
A pause.
"...What the hell are they feeding you back in Sector 13?"
No answer.
"Protein shakes?"
No answer.
"Experimental military steroids?"
Still no answer.
Armitage pointed with his remaining hand.
"Kid. You've been holding back this entire time, haven't you?"
Silence.
Niero never looked away from Amaryllis.
Never blinked.
Never acknowledged the question.
The answer was obvious enough.
Inside his mind—
Vuldyr was already processing new information.
New data streamed across his vision.
-
< [ STARGOD SYSTEM - ASTRA FORCE ANALYSIS ] >
> State Detected: EMBER STATE
> Status: Active
> Description:
> + Initial manifestation of Astra Force amplification.
> + Temporarily elevates physical and energetic performance beyond baseline limitations.
> + Allows offensive energies to partially bypass supernatural resistances.
-
< [ TARGET ANALYSIS UPDATED ] >
< Amaryllis the Sea Witch >
> Classification: Witch
> Threat Level: Rank-C
> Status: Hostile
> Capabilities:
> • Dark Script (Ocean Domain)
> • Black Tide Enhancement (?)
> • Necromancy-like abilities
> • Succubus-like abilities
> • Dark Blood manipulation
> • Pocket Dimension Manifestation
> • Regeneration
> • Black Heart Core
> Assessment: Dangerous.
> + Significantly superior to Scuba-Scums.
> + Significantly inferior to high-ranking Sororitae.
> Estimated Comparison: Rank-C Threat.
-
Vuldyr's voice sounded calm.
> ["Analysis complete. Current target remains stronger than you."]
Niero immediately frowned.
"...That's the good news?"
> ["The good news is she is not your mother."]
A very important distinction.
Because Niero had sparred against his mother.
A Rank-S Sororitae.
Which meant his personal standard for "terrifying" was heavily distorted.
Vuldyr continued.
> ["Your current combat state allows you to meaningfully injure her. Before, victory probability was negligible."]
"Now?"
> ["Still dangerous but achievable."]
Across the battlefield—
Amaryllis slowly stood.
The amusement was gone.
The smugness was gone.
The wine bottle shattered in her grip.
Because for the first time tonight—
Something had happened that she hadn't predicted.
The "cute little boy" she intended to turn into a pet.
The prey she planned to collar.
The candidate she thought she'd already broken.
Had just annihilated an entire wave of her forces.
And now—
He was looking directly at her.
Not like prey.
Not like a victim.
Not even like a hero.
But like a hunter deciding where to strike.
The Sea Witch felt something unfamiliar crawl up her spine.
Not fear.
Not yet.
But concern.
And that concern only grew when Niero slowly raised Purple Fang and pointed the blade directly at her.
The challenge needed no words.
For the first time since this battle began—
Amaryllis the Sea Witch realized that her favorite plaything might actually be capable of literally reaching her heart.
The air over the glassed beach was no longer just hostile—it was looping.
Bodies that Niero had already cut down were beginning to twitch again in the distance.
Scuba-Scums reformed from black sludge.
Zombie thralls dragged themselves back together like broken film splicing itself in reverse.
Even severed sea-creature limbs writhed back toward their owners as if the pocket dimension refused the idea of "death" altogether.
Amaryllis stood at the center of it all, hair whipping in the unnatural wind, face twisted in fury.
"KILL THEM!!"
Her voice cracked through the sky like a command written into reality itself.
The horde responded instantly.
And surged.
Niero didn't retreat.
He stepped forward.
Nova-Spark ignited across his arms.
Then condensed.
Then sharpened.
A plasma blade formed along each forearm—unstable, bright, and humming with violent pressure.
The first wave hit.
Niero moved.
Not fast.
Not flashy.
Just precise.
A horizontal sweep.
A vertical cut.
A flick of his wrist.
Each motion left a glowing trail in the air that lingered for half a second before detonating outward in controlled bursts.
Scuba-Scums didn't just fall.
They erased.
Mutant sea creatures exploded into evaporated mist.
Undead thralls shattered into black ash that couldn't even finish reforming.
Armitage, despite everything, actually paused mid-kill to look.
"…Okay."
A beat.
"That's new."
Another Scuba-Scum lunged at him.
He casually stabbed it through the head with his katana without looking away from Niero.
"Definitely new."
Amaryllis, on the other hand, did not appreciate the spectacle.
"Impossible…"
Her fingers tightened.
Coral cracked under her grip.
"That level of output from a human candidate—"
Her eyes narrowed.
Not fear yet.
But something sharper.
Annoyance turning into calculation.
Below, Niero finally glanced back.
"Are you still good?"
Armitage rolled his shoulder—the only one he had left—like it was nothing.
"Define 'good.'"
A Scuba-Scum got sliced in half behind him mid-sentence.
"I've had worse Mondays, boy."
Niero exhaled once.
Then Armitage stepped closer through the chaos, katana carving a clean path through the regenerating swarm.
"Listen."
His voice lowered slightly.
"This gonna end."
Another cut.
Another kill.
"It's self-sustaining. Which means as long as she's alive—"
He nodded upward toward Amaryllis.
"—this never ends."
A pause.
Then he looked directly at Niero.
"So I'll these freaks busy."
A grin.
"You go kill the witch."
Niero blinked once.
"…You're assigning me the boss fight?"
"You're the one glowing with energy right now!."
Armitage shrugged.
"Also, I only have one arm left. Feels like your turn."
Niero exhaled through his nose.
Half disbelief.
Half acceptance.
Then he looked forward.
At the endless tide.
At the impossible regeneration.
At the floating Kraken above the battlefield.
At Amaryllis—watching him now with a focus she hadn't needed before.
And then he moved.
Nova-Spark flared again—this time not outward, but inward.
Condensing around his legs.
His core.
His intent.
Vuldyr's voice cut in calmly.
> ["Target set and locked, confirmed. Go for the aerial engagement. Main Objective: Black Heart destruction."]
Niero didn't answer.
He launched.
The sand beneath him detonated into a crater as he rocketed upward through the air, plasma trailing behind him like a comet cutting across the battlefield.
Armitage watched him go for half a second.
Then turned back to the horde.
"Alright."
He cracked his neck.
"Let's see how long I can make 'impossible' last."
=
The sky above the pocket-dimension ocean fractured into chaos.
Water pillars rose like spears from an angry sea, each one packed with writhing Black Tide mutations—things that weren't quite fish anymore, and weren't quite machinery either.
They launched upward in coordinated arcs.
Not random.
Not natural.
Controlled.
Amaryllis stood at the center of it all, suspended above the Kraken's back like a queen issuing executions.
Her eyes tracked Niero as he ascended.
And for the first time—
There was no amusement in them.
Only pressure.
"Stop him."
The Kraken obeyed.
Ocean-Man surged upward.
Massive tentacles tore through the air with the weight of collapsing buildings, each strike distorting the space around it.
The water pillars followed, bending mid-flight like guided lances.
Niero didn't slow down.
He shifted.
Nova-Spark flared across his body in sharp pulses, and his flight path snapped sideways in abrupt, impossible angles—like his momentum itself was being rewritten frame by frame.
A water pillar struck where he had been.
It exploded into mist and screaming sea creatures midair.
Another came from above.
He twisted, fired—
A concentrated Nova-Spark bolt pierced straight through it.
The pillar detonated outward in a spiraling burst of steam and shredded biomass.
Below him, the Kraken struck.
A tentacle the size of a train whipped upward.
Niero met it midair.
He didn't try to overpower it.
He redirected.
Psychokinesis flared.
The tentacle's trajectory bent just enough—
WHAM—
It slammed into one of its own rising water pillars instead.
The collision triggered a chain reaction.
Mutated creatures inside the pillar detonated in a violent burst of black-red mist.
Amaryllis clicked her tongue.
"Annoying…"
Her fingers tightened.
The ocean beneath them answered.
Multiple new water columns erupted at once, forming a collapsing cage around Niero's flight path.
He was being boxed in midair.
Amaryllis finally smiled again—but it wasn't playful anymore.
It was sharper.
Predatory.
"Let's see you dodge everything at once."
The cage closed.
Water spears converged from every direction.
Ocean-Man's tentacles followed, sealing escape routes.
Mutant sea creatures swarmed within the liquid structures, ready to detonate on contact.
For a split second—
Even the battlefield below seemed to pause.
Armitage, still fighting on the shattered beach, glanced upward.
"…Kid."
He muttered under his breath.
"Don't get yourself boxed in like that…"
Above—
Niero exhaled.
Nova-Spark didn't flare outward this time.
It compressed inward.
His eyes sharpened.
His body stabilized mid-air.
Vuldyr's voice remained calm, almost clinical.
> ["Warning: Encirclement confirmed. Probability of direct evasion: low."]
A beat.
> ["Alternative response required."]
Niero finally spoke.
Quietly.
"Yeah."
He raised both hands.
Energy condensed between his palms.
Not a beam.
Not a blade.
Something denser.
Heavier.
Like a star being forced into shape.
The surrounding water cage closed in—
And then—
Niero detonated Nova-Spark outward in a controlled radial burst.
Not an explosion of destruction.
But of repulsion.
A shockwave of blue-white force ripped outward from his position, shredding the incoming water pillars before they fully collapsed.
Mutant creatures inside them vaporized mid-form.
Ocean-Man's tentacles were forced wide, the Kraken itself recoiling from the pressure wave.
Amaryllis' smile vanished instantly.
"—Tch!"
For the first time, she was forced to stabilize her stance on the Kraken's back.
Niero emerged from the collapsing water cage still airborne.
Still rising.
Still coming.
Now only a short distance away.
His voice carried through the wind.
"Your turn."
The air split as Niero dropped in.
Not a descent anymore.
A strike.
Nova-Spark wrapped around him so tightly it looked like his body was briefly outlined in blue-white armor.
Ocean-Man moved to intercept.
Too slow.
Niero didn't just pass through the Kraken's defenses—
He erased the concept of interception.
Each impact against the massive tentacles wasn't a single hit.
It was a chain of micro-blows, accelerated movement folding into itself like repeated instants stacked together.
The Kraken's limbs tore open in segments of vaporized flesh and corrupted coral, its regenerative tissue struggling to keep up with the destruction rate.
For the first time—
Amaryllis felt something like panic flicker through her control.
Not because she was in danger.
But because Ocean-Man was being overwhelmed.
"No—heal—!"
Her hand lifted.
Dark Script surged.
But she never finished the command.
Niero broke through the final layer of Kraken defense.
And arrived.
A flash.
A line of motion.
A clean execution vector.
His right leg ignited in Nova-Spark.
And came down like an energized cannonball.
BOOM.
The kick struck Amaryllis in the abdomen mid-thought.
There was no time to brace.
No time to counter.
No time to smile.
Her body launched backward like a broken projectile.
For a fraction of a second, the Sea Witch crossed the air in silence—
Then she reacted.
A water pillar erupted beneath her instantly.
Catching her mid-flight.
She slid across it, carving a wake through the liquid structure before stabilizing herself with forced control.
Then—
Her expression changed.
Not playful anymore.
Not amused.
Not even angry.
Focused.
Cold.
Alert.
Multiple coral tridents burst from the water beneath her, forming a rotating defensive ring.
They hovered—then snapped into aiming formation.
Each one locked onto Niero like a judgment sentence.
Amaryllis exhaled slowly.
"…You're not supposed to move like that."
Her voice was quieter now.
Dangerously so.
Behind her, Ocean-Man attempted to regenerate—
But the damage was not keeping pace.
The Kraken's massive form rippled with instability, its structure partially disrupted by repeated Nova-Spark penetration.
Amaryllis glanced at it once.
Just once.
And something in her eyes shifted.
Concern.
Real concern.
"Ocean-Man…"
Her fingers tightened slightly.
Dark Script flared again—but differently now.
More precise.
More restrained.
Less theatrical.
She turned back to Niero.
"You're starting to become a problem."
The tridents around her rotated once.
Slow.
Deliberate.
"I don't like stubborn problems... like YOU."
A pause.
Then her smile returned—
But thinner.
Sharper.
"So I'll remove the variable."
The coral tridents fired.
All at once.
Not wild.
Not scattered.
A synchronized kill pattern designed to erase his movement options entirely.
The battlefield tightened again.
Amaryllis' composure didn't just break—it collapsed.
The Sea Witch stood on her water pillar like a crownless queen in a storm, scratching at her own cheek with raw, violent frustration as if trying to erase the fact that she had been touched, blocked, and humiliated.
Black-red blood dripped down her fingers.
The ocean beneath her reacted.
Unstable.
Erratic.
Like it no longer fully trusted its master.
"Enough."
Her voice snapped across the pocket dimension.
Not theatrical now.
Not playful.
Just done.
"I am DONE with this game."
The air thickened.
The Kraken's broken silhouette writhed behind her, trying to reassert control, but even Ocean-Man seemed uncertain now—its regeneration stuttering under the repeated Nova-Spark damage.
Amaryllis' eyes locked onto Niero.
And something inside them had changed.
Not strategy.
Not curiosity.
Humiliation.
"This ambush should have been my rise."
Her fingers curled inward.
"A confirmed Covenant contribution… a clean harvest… a ranked ascension…"
Her breathing sharpened.
Then snapped.
"And you—"
Her voice cracked into fury.
"YOU ruined it. YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!!!"
She tore at her own cheek mid-sentence.
Not a controlled motion.
Not an attack technique.
A tantrum made flesh.
Her nails carved through skin, ripping her cheek open until dark blood ran freely down her jaw.
The surrounding Scuba-Scums hesitated for the first time.
Even they could feel it.
Amaryllis wasn't commanding anymore.
She was losing herself.
"You... that ugly beardo… that blind bitch—"
Her head jerked upward.
Eyes shaking with rage.
"WHY. WON'T. YOU. ALL. JUST. DIE??!!!"
The tridents launched again.
Faster.
Less refined.
More violent.
Niero moved.
Not by instinct alone now—but by calculation under pressure.
Nova-Spark flared through his limbs.
His body blurred.
Each step rewrote his position in mid-air.
Tridents struck empty space.
He met them mid-flight.
A single strike.
Then another.
Then a chained sequence of precise impacts that shattered coral constructs before they could fully stabilize.
Fragments exploded into salt dust and black residue.
But even as he moved—
Vuldyr's voice sharpened.
"Warning."
"Target emotional degradation confirmed."
A pause.
Then—
"Secondary anomaly detected."
Niero's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Explain."
The holographic overlay flickered across his vision.
Amaryllis' core structure was highlighted.
Not fully visible before.
Now partially exposed.
A fracture.
Deep within her chest region.
Pulsing irregularly.
Unstable under emotional spike states.
Vuldyr's tone turned precise.
> ["Black Heart integrity compromised. Crack detected. Highly recomend to exploit the weakness by aiming for its crack to higher damage input!!"]
A second overlay appeared.
Weak point.
Anchor of regeneration.
Source of dimensional stability for the pocket space.
Vuldyr continued.
> ["If destroyed, pocket dimension collapse probability: high. Target kill condition achieved."]
Niero exhaled once.
Slow.
Controlled.
Across the battlefield—
Amaryllis was still screaming.
Still firing.
Still trying to overwrite reality through sheer rage.
But now—
she was predictable.
And Niero's gaze shifted.
Not to her hands.
Not to her face.
To her chest.
Where something inside her was no longer perfectly whole.
He tightened his stance.
Nova-Spark condensed again.
But differently this time.
Less burst.
More focus.
More intent.
The sky above the ocean became a battlefield with no gravity that felt safe anymore.
Wind screamed.
Salt mist tore across the air.
The pocket-dimension sea below churned like it was trying to climb back up and swallow everything whole.
Amaryllis snapped.
Not strategically.
Not elegantly.
Violently.
"DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE—!!"
Dark Script erupted in chaotic layers around her.
Water didn't just rise anymore—it weaponized itself.
Thin sheets of liquid compressed into razor-pressure jets, slicing the air into invisible kill-zones.
Water tendrils flattened, sharpened, and became high-speed cutting arcs that screamed as they moved.
Niero was hit.
Once.
Twice.
A shallow cut opened across his shoulder.
Another grazed his side.
But he didn't stop.
Nova-Spark flared in rhythmic pulses through his movement, not just powering him forward but correcting his trajectory mid-flight like a system refusing to allow deviation from a target lock.
Every attack Amaryllis threw—
He either slipped through it…
Deflected it…
Or shattered it with compressed bursts of energy at point-blank timing.
Then Ocean-Man moved.
The Kraken surged from behind him like a collapsing mountain of muscle and abyssal pressure.
A tentacle the size of a collapsing tower whipped toward his blind side.
Niero turned.
Too close.
Too massive to dodge cleanly.
So he didn't.
He caught it.
Both hands slammed into the incoming limb.
Fingers dug into corrupted flesh and reinforced biomass.
Nova-Spark ignited at maximum output—blue-white light crawling across the Kraken's surface like burning circuitry.
The Kraken roared.
The sound wasn't animal anymore.
It was something deeper.
Something structural.
Niero gritted his teeth.
Then swung.
Once.
The Kraken's body arced through the air like a living siege weapon.
Twice.
Ocean-Man slammed into Amaryllis mid-air.
A third swing—
And the Sea Witch was launched upward like a broken projectile fired from her own familiar.
For a fraction of a second—
She was weightless.
Unanchored.
Unstable.
And Niero followed.
He released the Kraken.
Pushed off air itself with a burst of Nova-Spark propulsion.
He rose faster than gravity could reassert meaning.
Above her.
Above everything.
Amaryllis looked up.
For the first time—
No smirk.
No taunt.
No control.
Just realization.
"…You—"
She didn't finish.
Niero descended.
Not like a man.
Not like a fighter.
Like a falling execution vector wrapped in blue-white annihilation.
His fists came together.
Energy condensed into a single focused core point.
And then—
Impact.
He struck Amaryllis dead-center.
But the force didn't stop there.
Her body was driven downward through the remains of Ocean-Man's collapsing form.
Kraken flesh ruptured outward in a shockwave of gore, corrupted water, and shattered Dark Script residue.
The explosion wasn't just physical.
It was conceptual instability breaking apart.
Ocean-Man disintegrated from the inside out.
Amaryllis was still in the center of it.
Still falling.
Still hit.
Still overwhelmed.
The sky flashed blue-white.
And for a brief instant—
The entire pocket dimension stuttered like a dying system trying to remain active.
The impact looked less like a punch and more like a meteor strike.
The moment Niero and Amaryllis hit the beach—
the world exploded.
A deafening detonation erupted across the pocket dimension.
Sand vaporized.
Glass-like fragments sprayed outward.
The shockwave rolled across the beach like an invisible tsunami.
Even hundreds of meters away, the hordes surrounding Agent Armitage were blown off their feet.
Scuba-Scums tumbled through the air.
Undead thralls were sent rolling across the sand.
Mutant sea creatures were thrown aside like toys.
Armitage's eyes widened.
"...Holy shit."
The veteran agent immediately stabbed his mechanized katana into the ground.
Both boots dug into the sand.
His M.A.R.S. suit strained audibly.
The shockwave still dragged him backward several meters.
"Kid wasn't kidding around..."
The smoke cloud continued to expand.
Then slowly began to clear.
And silence spread across the battlefield.
The remaining monsters hesitated.
The ocean itself seemed quieter.
At the center of a massive crater—
two figures stood.
One standing.
One dying.
Niero's right arm was buried deep within Amaryllis' chest.
Crimson-tinted energy pulsed along his arm like fire, spreading through the wound like living veins of light.
It was the power granted by his boon—
[Trait (Origin): Trinity of Self-Supremacy — Aspect of Spirit].
More specifically, one of its fundamental abilities:
[Spirit-Manifestation Constructs (Tier 01)].
The technique allowed him to manifest spiritual force through his body or external objects, drastically enhancing their durability and destructive power.
That same spiritual force had amplified the force behind his strike—
and somehow pierced straight through the Witch's personal force field.
Straight through her defenses.
Straight into her Black Heart.
Or rather—
where her Black Heart had once been.
The crystal was gone.
The pulsing darkness was gone.
The immortal core that had sustained her existence was gone.
All that remained was a shattered cavity within her chest, illuminated by fading fragments of black-red light that drifted away like dying embers.
Amaryllis stared downward.
Then at Niero.
Then back at the hole in her chest.
Speechless.
For the first time since he had met her—
she had no witty remark.
No taunt.
No flirtation.
No threat.
Only disbelief.
Small grey patches began spreading across her pale skin.
Like stone.
Like weathered statues.
The corruption crawled up her arms.
Across her neck.
Across her cheeks.
Cracks appeared.
Then more.
Tiny grains of dust drifted away from her body.
Vuldyr's voice echoed inside Niero's mind.
> ["Confirmation achieved. Black Heart destroyed. She is dead and hopefully...stay dead."]
Niero stared at the dying Witch.
The girl who minutes ago had been laughing about turning him into a slave.
The girl who had tried to sink an entire convoy.
The girl who had raised the dead.
Now looked strangely...
small.
Fragile.
Human.
And tired.
Niero slowly pulled his fist free.
Amaryllis staggered.
Another crack spread across her chest.
More dust drifted away.
She didn't even try to attack.
Didn't even try to flee.
Meanwhile—
another notification flashed.
-
< [ HP STATUS ] >
175 -> 50 / 200
-
Niero nearly stumbled.
His entire body suddenly reminded him how much damage he had actually taken.
Cuts.
Bruises.
Internal strain.
Burning muscles.
Everything hurt.
Everything.
He exhaled heavily.
"...Worth it."
A Rank-C Witch.
Dead.
By his hands.
Vuldyr sounded relieved.
> ["Pocket dimension stability rapidly degrading."]
The sky above them flickered.
Pieces of the horizon glitched.
Like broken glass.
The ocean briefly vanished.
Then returned.
The air distorted.
> ["Estimated collapse: imminent. Return to primary reality expected. Find a spatial distortion to get back to the material world."]
That got Niero moving immediately.
Because there was someone else he needed to check on.
Agent Takeshi Armitage.
Niero climbed out of the crater.
Every movement hurt.
Every step felt heavier than the last.
Still—
he forced himself forward.
Towards where he last saw the swordsman.
Behind him—
Amaryllis remained standing in the crater's center.
Motionless.
Silent.
Her body continued turning into dust.
Yet something remained in her eyes.
Not fear.
Not despair.
Something darker.
Something seething.
A slow realization.
A festering hatred.
A final, poisonous thought.
As cracks spread across her face and grains of her body drifted away into the collapsing wind, her gaze remained locked on Niero's back.
And for the first time in her life—
Amaryllis the Sea Witch understood what it felt like to lose.
And she hates it.
=
Niero barely made it out of the crater before his legs started to feel like lead.
His Ember State was still active.
Still blazing.
Still flooding his body with impossible power.
But now that the immediate threat was gone—
his body was beginning to remember every injury it had suffered.
Every cut.
Every bruise.
Every burst of Nova-Spark he had forced beyond safe limits.
He found Agent Armitage kneeling in the sand.
The veteran operative had his mechanized katana buried into the beach just to keep himself upright.
His M.A.R.S. suit looked awful.
Sections of armor were cracked open.
Synthetic muscle bundles were torn and sparked.
Pale hydraulic fluid dripped from severed artificial fibers like blood.
Armitage looked up.
Then at Niero.
Then at the massive crater behind him.
Then back at Niero.
A long silence.
"...Kid."
Another pause.
"I've seen some freaky shit."
He coughed.
"I've fought low-level anomalies and some Hollow monstrosities. I've seen cults tried to summon their dark gods and seen Sororitas punch tanks.
A beat.
"...What the hell was that?"
Niero blinked.
"I hit her."
"You launched a Rank-C Witch up in the air and then through her own Kraken."
"I hit her really hard."
Armitage stared.
Then laughed despite everything.
Immediately regretted it as pain shot through his body.
"You sure you're not secretly a Sororitae?"
"Pretty sure. Do I even look like I had tits to begin with?"
Agent Armitage chuckled while Niero rolled his eyes and crouched.
Despite his own condition, he hooked his left arm under Armitage's shoulder and pulled him up.
The agent winced.
"Easy."
"You're heavier than you look."
Armitage pointed weakly.
"Tell you what. Once we're out of this tropical hellhole, I'm increasing your referral bonus."
Niero raised an eyebrow.
"Again?"
"Seventy percent."
"Seventy?"
"You nearly died."
"You just lost an arm."
"Yeah. Cuz...you know...."
A grin.
"Professional courtesy."
Niero shook his head.
"Let's survive first. Then we talk about bonus later."
The pocket dimension continued breaking apart around them.
Chunks of sky vanished.
The horizon flickered.
The ocean occasionally became static before reforming.
Vuldyr was already running calculations.
> ["Dimensional collapse approaching critical stage. Estimated return to reality: less than two minutes."]
Niero nodded.
Good.
Just a little longer.
For a brief moment—
it almost felt normal.
Then Niero froze.
Every instinct in his body screamed.
A chill ran down his spine.
Not fear.
Not danger.
Something worse.
Pure malice.
Behind him.
The feeling hit so suddenly that even Vuldyr's warning came half a second too late.
> ["Niero—!"]
Reality ruptured.
BOOOOM—!
The crater behind them exploded.
Not with fire.
Not with water.
With something else.
A violent surge of anomalous energy erupted skyward like a black lighthouse.
The collapsing pocket dimension itself shuddered.
Cracks spread across the sky.
The ocean froze.
The air distorted.
Niero began turning.
Too slow.
Something launched from the center of the crater.
Fast. Far too fast.
A black blur.
A collision.
Agony.
Something punched straight through his body.
Niero felt coral tear through flesh.
Felt ribs crack.
Felt organs rupture.
Then he was airborne.
Lifted off the ground.
Pinned.
A jagged coral arm had impaled him completely through the torso.
Blood splattered across the sand below.
At the same time—
the same attack continued past him.
Agent Armitage tried to dodge.
Couldn't.
A cluster of protruding coral spikes sheared through his remaining leg.
The limb separated instantly.
Armitage collapsed into the sand with a scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH—!"
His M.A.R.S. suit immediately activated emergency protocols.
Tourniquet seals.
Pain suppressants.
Pressure locks.
But the damage had already been done.
Niero barely heard him.
Because he was staring up at the false sunny skies.
Then he turned his head back at what had attacked them.
And what he saw made his blood run cold.
Its Amaryllis...
...stood before him.
Or at least—
something that had once been Amaryllis.
The Sea Witch was gone.
The beautiful young woman.
The teasing smile.
The playful cruelty.
All gone.
The right side of her body had become a nightmare.
Coral erupted from her flesh in jagged masses.
Not armor.
Not mutation.
Diseased.
A catastrophic loss of biological control.
The growths pierced through her shoulder.
Her ribs. Her jaw. Her neck.
Tentacles writhed from her spine.
Her waist. Her back.
Some moved like living creatures.
Others twitched as though controlled by something else entirely.
Her left eye remained the familiar icy blue.
Her right eye—
Was no longer human.
A bottomless abyssal black.
And then Niero saw it.
The wound in her chest.
The place where her Black Heart had been destroyed.
The cavity still existed.
But something else was there now.
Something neither Vuldyr nor the Astra Codex recognized.
A black rhombus-shaped stone.
Embedded where her heart should be.
Pulsing.
Alive.
Each pulse released arcs of dark energy that crawled across her mutated body.
The surrounding space distorted with every beat.
Even the dying pocket dimension seemed to stabilize around it.
Another pulse echoed from the stone.
The ocean shook.
The sky cracked.
Amaryllis slowly raised her head.
Blood dripped from her lips.
Her body trembled.
Not from weakness.
From strain.
As though something was forcing itself into existence through her.
And Niero suddenly realized something horrifying.
He had killed Amaryllis the Sea Witch.
But whatever was standing in front of him now...
Was something else entirely.
=
=====
=
<<<[ Ch 31, Part 04 - END ]>>>