*ROOOOAARRRR!!!*
That loud roar made Nero’s spine do this weird little shimmy dance.
It’s like soone had just played death tal through a blender. It’s outright ear-grating.
"Holy shit..."
Jin was limping like her leg, but sohow she was still keeping pace. It’s a miracle given her body injuries.
Blood kept dripping from her wounds, painting little red dots on the ground like the world’s most depressing breadcrumb trail.
"How the hell did that thing break free so fast?!"
Aurelia’s wings spread wider as she scooped Jin up without breaking stride.
And she did it in princess-carry style, because apparently divine beings don’t believe in piggyback rides.
"Lord Nero, the containnt was designed to last 18 hours..."
"Yeah, well, Vincent probably had a Plan B for that too."
Nero was breathing hard, but adrenaline was doing most of the heavy lifting right now.
His new talloid Transformation was already tingling in his arms, ready to activate whenever shit hit the fan.
Which, judging by the sounds ahead, was happening right fucking now.
*CRASH! BOOM! CRACK!*
Trees were snapping like toothpicks.
The ground was literally shaking beneath their feet with each massive footstep.
Whatever the Verdant Tyrant was doing, it sounded like it was having a temper tantrum that could level cities.
"There!"
Jin pointed toward the clearing where the parents’ base was supposed to be.
Except "base" might have been too generous a word at this point.
It’s more like a "disaster zone with so people still breathing in it" at this point.
*WHOOSH!*
A massive chunk of earth ca flying over their heads, missing them by maybe three feet.
The thing was easily the size of a small car and moving fast enough to turn anyone it hit into human soup.
"MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"
That was Mina’s voice, screaming from sowhere in the chaos.
Her tough-girl act was cranked up to maximum volu, probably because yelling helped with the whole "not dying horribly" situation.
*SLICE!*
A blade of pure ice ca whistling past, carving through the air with surgical precision.
It slamd into sothing with a wet *THUNK* sound.
"Ren’s awake!"
Yuki’s voice carried relief mixed with battle-ready excitent.
Sure enough, there was the older version of Kaito but thinner, standing on so kind of ice platform he’d created.
His face was still pale as hell from mana exhaustion, and he was wobbling like a drunk person trying to walk a tightrope.
But his ice magic was flying around like he was conducting a frozen symphony of death.
*CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!*
Ice spears kept materializing and launching themselves at their target.
Each one was perfectly aid, hitting with enough force to puncture tank armor.
Too bad their target wasn’t exactly cooperating with the whole "dying" plan.
*ROAAARRRRR!!!*
Because apparently the Verdant Tyrant had decided that taking damage was optional.
Every wound was healing almost as fast as it was being made.
Ice spear through the trunk? Healed in seconds.
Slash marks from earth attacks? Closed up like nothing happened.
Burns from fire magic? The plant matter just regrew itself.
"Holy smokes... Is that thing really immortal?"
Nero finally got a clear look at their enemy as they reached the battlefield.
And honestly?
He imdiately regretted having functioning eyeballs.
"... Just what the fuck happened? What did that manipulative bastard do...?"
The Verdant Tyrant had grown.
A lot.
What used to be maybe five ters tall was now easily nine ters of pure plant-based nightmare fuel.
Its flower head had split into three separate maws, each one lined with teeth that looked like they’d been carved from bone.
Multiple vine arms were thrashing around, each one as thick as tree trunks and moving with the speed of whips.
Massive twisting roots were bursting from the ground everywhere, creating a maze of spiky death traps.
And those human faces...
"Jesus fucking Christ."
The five absorbed victims were still there, embedded in the creature’s flesh.
But now they were distortedly screaming.
Actual, audible screaming that mixed with the monster’s roars to create a sound that could probably traumatize angels.
Their eyes were wide with terror and pain, mouths opening and closing in desperate pleas for help that would never co.
"BY THE POWER OF EXPLOSIVE MOTHERLY LOVE!"
Yuki ca flying through the air like a magical girl having a midlife crisis.
Rainbow sparkles were trailing behind her as she spun in so kind of aerial attack formation.
Her hands were glowing with enough colorful energy to power a small rave.
*BOOM!*
The magical energy blast hit the Verdant Tyrant square in one of its flower faces.
The explosion was bright enough to temporarily blind everyone within a 20-ter radius.
But when the smoke cleared...
"Are you shitting right now?!"
The damage was already healing.
Charred plant matter was regrowing like the explosion had been a minor inconvenience.
"Ara ara~ This is quite troubleso."
Haori’s gentle voice sohow carried perfectly over the battle chaos.
She was standing on a platform made of giant root vines, her hands weaving through complex magical gestures.
Vines were sprouting from the ground around the Verdant Tyrant, but these weren’t attack vines.
They were restraint vines.
Thick, rope-like plant matter that wrapped around the monster’s limbs and tried to hold it in place.
"The anomaly has assimilated too many abilities."
Juno’s voice was coming from sowhere behind a massive stone barrier.
He had apparently created so kind of mobile command center using earth magic.
"Current analysis shows regeneration rates of approximately 340% beyond normal SR-tier paraters."
"English, math nerd!"
Mina was darting around the battlefield like an angry hummingbird on steroids.
Her red flowing martial ki was letting her dodge the creature’s attacks, but her counterattacks weren’t doing jack shit for damage.
"Our damage output is too little compared to its regeneration."
"Got it!"
Nero activated his talloid Transformation mid-run.
*CRACK! POP!*
Grey scales erupted across his arms and torso as his muscles bulged with borrowed dragon strength.
The weight of the transformation made his footsteps crater the ground.
"Lord Nero, stay close!"
Aurelia deposited Jin safely behind Juno’s barrier before spreading her wings wide.
Divine energy started swirling around her like liquid starlight having an orgasm.
Her usually stoic expression had shifted into sothing that could only be described as professionally pissed off.
*WHOOSH!*
She launched herself into the air, silver light trailing behind her.
And that’s when everyone witnessed why she was called the Divine Blender of Death.
"..."
Aurelia’s form beca nothing more than a streak of divine energy moving faster than human eyes could track.
Her sword strikes weren’t just quick...they were invisible.
*SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-SLICE-SLICE!*
The sound of her blade cutting through the Verdant Tyrant ca in rapid succession, like machine gun fire made of pure cutting force.
Chunks of plant matter began falling to the ground before anyone even realized she’d attacked.
"What the hell..."
Even Nero, with his enhanced reflexes, couldn’t follow her movents.
One mont she was hovering in the air, the next mont the creature was suddenly missing entire sections of vine arms.
"..."
Aurelia moved around the Verdant Tyrant like a silver hurricane.
Her wings created sonic booms with each direction change.
Her sword carved through the creature’s massive form with surgical precision.
Despite its SR-tier durability and insane regeneration, she was quite literally outpacing its ability to heal.
For every wound that started closing, three more opened up.
"She’s... she’s actually winning!"
Yuki’s voice carried disbelief mixed with awe.
The Verdant Tyrant, this nightmare creature that had been shrugging off their combined attacks like they were gnats, was being systematically dismantled by a single fighter.
*ROAAARRRR!!!*
The creature tried to catch her with its remaining vine arms, but Aurelia was moving in three dinsions at speeds that turned physics into more of a polite suggestion.
Her divine energy left trails of silver light that created complex geotric patterns in the air.
"This is what fighting an SR-tier looks like..."
Ren’s voice was barely a whisper.
Even through his mana exhaustion, he was transfixed by the display.
Aurelia’s attacks weren’t random slashing.
Each cut was calculated to maximize damage while preventing the creature from coordinating its regeneration.
She severed nerve clusters.
Disrupted energy flow.
Carved through vital connection points that the monster needed to maintain its enhanced abilities.
"Holy shit, she’s not just fast..."
Mina, despite her own enhanced speed, was staring in amazent.
"She’s striking faster than it can adapt!"
Within the span of 30 seconds, Aurelia had reduced the nine-ter nightmare into sothing that looked more like a severely pruned garden.
The creature’s multiple flower heads were spinning wildly, trying to track a target that was moving too fast for their enhanced senses.
Its vine arms kept regenerating, only to be cut down before they could fully form.
Even its massive root system was being carved away faster than it could regrow.
"Is she actually going to kill it?"
Jin’s voice carried hope for the first ti since the battle started.
From behind Juno’s barrier, it looked like they might actually survive this.
The Divine Blender of Death was living up to her title, turning an impossible fight into a one-sided massacre.
"Oh my god... Did you just trigger a red flag...?"
Nero almost facepald at Jin, to which the woman was confused as to why Nero reacted that way to her words...
But as if proving the myth as sothing factual.
That’s when the Verdant Tyrant did sothing that changed everything.
*ROAAARRRR!!!*
Instead of trying to regenerate, the creature suddenly pulled all of its remaining mass inward.
The scattered chunks of plant matter that Aurelia had carved away began flowing back toward the main body.
Not to heal, but to concentrate power.
"It’s changing tactics!"
Juno’s analytical voice carried a note of alarm.
"The creature is sacrificing regeneration for raw power!"
The Verdant Tyrant compressed itself from a nine-ter-tall monster into sothing more compact but infinitely more dangerous.
It’s now six ters tall, but with density that makes the air around it tremble.
Its remaining flower heads rged into a single massive maw lined with teeth that glead with absorbed divine energy.
*WOOOOSSSHHH!*
Suddenly the creature wasn’t the slow, lumbering giant it had been.
It moved with speed that actually made Aurelia pause mid-attack.
*CLASH!*
For the first ti in the fight, the Verdant Tyrant managed to block one of her strikes.
Its condensed vine arm, now thick as a tree trunk and harder than steel, caught her sword in a shower of sparks.
"It adapted to her speed!"
Haori’s gentle voice carried genuine concern.
The creature had been studying Aurelia’s attack patterns even while being dismantled.
Now it was using that knowledge to fight back.
*BOOM! CRASH! SLASH!...*
What followed was a high-speed battle that turned the air itself into a weapon.
Aurelia’s invisible strikes t with blocks and counters that moved just as fast.
Sonic booms echoed across the battlefield as the divine broadsword t condensed plant matter at velocities that created their own weather patterns.
The Verdant Tyrant’s single massive flower head with triple maws began charging an attack that looked disturbingly familiar.
... Corrupted divine energy swirled around its teeth.
Energy that it had absorbed from Aurelia’s earlier strikes.
"It’s using her own power against her!"
Ren created an ice platform to get a better view, his exhaustion forgotten in the face of what he was witnessing.
Two forces that operated beyond normal human comprehension, locked in combat that was rewriting the local laws of physics.
*BOOOM!!!*
The creature’s version of divine energy erupted from its mouth.
Not the clean and silver power that Aurelia wielded, but sothing twisted and violet.
Divine energy filtered through plant-based corruption that made it hungry and aggressive.
*HACK! SLASH!*
Aurelia’s response was to accelerate even further.
Her form beca less a person and more a force of nature.
Her sword work reached speeds that turned her into sothing closer to a natural disaster than a fighter.
But the Verdant Tyrant had learned.
*WUUUMM!!!*
Even moving at incomprehensible speeds, Aurelia’s attacks followed patterns.
Angles of approach.
Timing sequences.
Energy expenditure cycles.
The creature had been absorbing all of this information, and now it was using it to stay one step ahead.
"..."
For the first ti in the fight, one of the creature’s counterattacks ca close enough to Aurelia to actually ruffle her hair, but the absolute beast of a girl remained stoic as usual.
A vine strike that moved with stolen divine enhancent, aid not at where she was, but at where she was going to be.
"She’s in trouble!"
Nero was already moving, his talloid Transformation reactivating.
Although the mana demand for maintaining the transformation is outrageous, Nero didn’t spare a glance at his little mana capacity if he could save his waifu!
The tallic scales imdiately erupted across his body as he charged toward the aerial battle.
But before he could reach them, the Verdant Tyrant did sothing that made everyone’s blood run cold.
*WAAAPPP!!!*
The creature’s triple maws opened wide, revealing not just teeth but a void that seed to pull at everyone’s life force.
The five absorbed human faces, now clustered around the mouth, started screaming again.
But this ti it wasn’t from pain.
They were trying to warn everyone about what kind of shitshow was about to co next.
The air around the creature began shimring as it prepared to use its most terrifying power.
Not direct absorption like it had done to the original victims.
But a wide-area drain that would slowly suck the life out of everything within a half-mile radius.
Trees started withering.
The grass turned brown and cracked.
Even the stones began developing stress fractures.
... And Aurelia, caught in the center of the effect at point-blank range, suddenly found her divine energy being pulled away.
Her incredible speed faltered.
Her invisible strikes beca visible as her power was drained.
"... Run."
Her voice was barely audible as she fell back, wings struggling to keep her airborne.
"Everyone run. Now."
The stern expression on her face and the coldness of her voice spoke of the dangers that were about to be unleashed by the plant anomaly.
"RUN!"
Only when Nero shouted as his Greater Instincts were ringing alarm did the others snap out of their reverie.
... But as they all turned to flee, the Verdant Tyrant’s absorption field began expanding faster than human legs could carry them.
The shimring effect was spreading outward like a wave of death, and there was nowhere to go that would be far enough.
That’s when the creature opened its massive flower mouth and began doing sothing that sounded like chanting.
In a language made of screams and dying plants.
And whatever it was saying, the absorbed human faces were mouthing along with the words.
Like they’d been forced to learn this unholy spell through weeks of continuous torture.
*WOOOOMMM...*
The chanting grew louder.
The absorption field grew stronger.
And sowhere in the distance, more roars could be heard answering the call.
Every monster within miles was coming to join the feast.
***
Gilbert had been fighting monsters for exactly three weeks and two days.
He’d thought he was getting pretty decent at the whole "not dying horribly" thing.
But it turns out he was wrong.
Dead fucking wrong.
"Holy mother of God."
He was crouched behind what used to be a storage building, watching the battle unfold like so kind of divine intervention gone horribly sideways.
The plant monster was bad enough.
Nine ters of pure nightmare fuel that regenerated faster than they could damage it.
But the people fighting it?
That was sothing else entirely.
"... Is that woman actually flying?"
Aurelia was moving through the air like gravity was just a suggestion.
Her white wings caught the light from magical explosions, creating patterns that hurt to look at directly.
And when she got serious...
"Jesus Christ, where did she go?"
One mont the angel was hovering in the air; the next mont she had simply vanished.
The only evidence of her presence was the sound of cutting and the chunks of plant monster falling to the ground.
"She’s moving too fast to see!"
The other fighters huddled behind cover were whispering in amazent.
"Look at that thing getting carved up!"
"She’s winning!"
"Single-handedly!"
Gilbert had to agree.
What had seed like an impossible fight was turning into a one-sided massacre.
The woman with angel wings was systematically dismantling a creature that had been shrugging off everyone else’s attacks.
Her sword work was so fast it was invisible, creating these geotric patterns of silver light in the air as she moved faster than human eyes could track.
"... That’s not human speed."
The whispered comnt ca from sowhere behind him.
Gilbert wasn’t sure anymore what counted as human in this new world.
The way she fought, the casual way she was overpowering sothing that could level buildings...
That was operating on a completely different level of existence.
"She’s an angel sent by God."
"... Has to be."
"Look at those pretty wings..."
When Aurelia fought, it looked like watching a legend co to life.
Every movent was perfect, calculated, and divine.
Even when the plant monster adapted and started fighting back at her level, she was still clearly the superior fighter.
"... This is what a true angel looks like."
"An angel graced by the Gods."
"It’s a rcy from the above..."
The whispered comnts made Gilbert nod in agreent.
Everything he knew about combat was being rewritten in real ti.
This woman wasn’t just strong.
She was operating in a realm different from them.
It’s truly the work of an angel of a warrior.
... But then the creature did sothing that changed the entire battle.
"What’s happening to the air?"
The shimring effect was spreading outward from the plant monster.
The trees were withering.
Grass was dying.
And the angel’s incredible speed was suddenly... slower.
"It’s draining her power!"
Gilbert watched in horror as the woman who had been winning effortlessly suddenly found herself struggling.
Her invisible strikes beca visible.
Her perfect flight pattern wavered.
The divine energy that had made her untouchable was being pulled away.
"... Run."
Her voice carried supernatural clarity even in her weakened state.
"Everyone run. Now."
"RUN!"
And that’s when Gilbert realized they were all about to die.
The shimring death field was expanding faster than any of them could move.
The plant monster was chanting sothing in a language that hurt to hear.
And in the distance, more roars were answering its call.
Every monster within miles was coming to join whatever unholy ritual was about to begin.
***
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