The Filter Collapses

“Waaah—!”

“Roar—!”

Without another word, they launched into a fresh exchange.

The greatsword, shrouded in an aura of death, clashed relentlessly against claws crackling with starlight.

There was no elaborate swordplay, no intricate martial arts—only direct, brutally pure attacks.

The glint of sword and claw flashed across the air, their speed leaving a dizzying trail of afterimages.

“Clang—!”

With another sharp clang of metal on metal, Aliciel and the undead knight broke apart, instantly creating distance between them.

The necrotic aura enveloping the undead knight was now tattered and torn, its entire body covered in a network of star-purple claw marks.

Aliciel, for her part, now bore several sword wounds of her own, the aura of death clinging to them like insidious maggots.

Yet these injuries failed to elicit even a flicker of pain from Aliciel; instead, her excitement only seemed to grow.

“Vwoom—”

As the battle grew more intense, the undead knight resolved to bring it to a swift conclusion.

The deathly aura suffusing its form contracted completely, and even the ghostly green flames licking at its armor were extinguished.

A moment later, an eruption of ghostly purple flames burst forth.

Its already massive frame swelled once more, and its armor transformed, becoming as ornate and exquisite as if it had been reforged.

It was like a second-phase transformation, its presence growing far more oppressive.

Even its greatsword morphed, reshaping itself into a scythe that radiated an eerie, violet spectral fire.

Wielding the scythe, it resembled a grim reaper summoned from the very depths of hell.

A Netherworld Emissary!

It was a mutated form of the Undead Knight.

On top of its original power, all of its stats had tripled.

It now possessed a spectral form, rendering it immune to physical attacks and granting it resistance to all but holy-type skills.

Its new weapon, the Netherworld Scythe, could even inflict direct damage upon the soul.

This was an exceedingly dangerous undead creature, its threat level nearing SS-rank.

“This is bad. That monster seems to have gotten stronger. Will Aliciel be okay?”

Perched atop the barrier and watching the distant battlefield through his clairvoyance, Ren Dao-zhen couldn’t help but feel a surge of concern.

Aliciel, however, had her eyes fixed on the scythe in the Netherworld Emissary’s grasp.

As it happened, she had recently been thinking of trying out a scythe for fun.

“Swoosh—!”

Just as Aliciel was contemplating how to acquire the weapon, the Netherworld Emissary appeared before her in a flash, its scythe slashing straight down.

Aliciel raised an arm to block.

The razor-sharp blade struck her forearm, sending sparks flying as it sliced through her tough scales.

Star-purple blood gushed from the wound.

Before Aliciel could even react, the Emissary seized her wounded arm.

In a brutal echo of how Aliciel had treated it earlier, the creature swung her around and slammed her into the ground again and again.

It then grabbed her by the side of her head, forcing her lovely, unscaled face into the dirt.

With a complete lack of mercy, it used her like a plow, carving a trench that stretched for thousands of meters all the way to the edge of the barrier.

“Aliciel!”

Witnessing a scene that looked eerily like Broly brutalizing Kakarot, Ren Dao-zhen’s concern for Aliciel’s safety spiked.

This was no longer about a few scars; he wondered if her face would even remain intact.

The next moment, the Netherworld Emissary hurled Aliciel through the air.

She crashed into a distant mountain with such terrifying force that the rock face crumbled, embedding her in a deep crater.

Immediately after, the spectral flames in the Emissary’s eyes flared.

A torrent of phantom-like purple energy erupted from beneath its feet.

An innumerable volley of Netherworld flames streaked across the sky, raining down like meteors upon the mountain where Aliciel lay.

The moment these spectral flames touched the mountain’s forests and vegetation, they withered and turned to ash.

“Rumble—!”

Under the relentless bombardment, the entire mountain seemed to melt away like ice cream, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

In less than a few minutes, two entire mountains had been reduced to ash.

“Boom—!”

Just as Ren Dao-zhen’s anxiety for Aliciel reached its peak, a meteor of light shot out from the molten mountain.

It slammed directly into the Netherworld Emissary’s chest, piercing clean through it.

The Netherworld Emissary glanced down at the gaping hole in its torso.

Spectral flames flickered to life, sealing the wound.

It then raised its head toward the source of the beam.

Amidst the billowing smoke and dust, Aliciel emerged, walking slowly.

The parts of her body not covered by scales were now a ruin of corrosive wounds.

Even her once-beautiful face was a bloody, savage mask, with hints of white bone showing through.

Yet Aliciel still betrayed no hint of pain.

The smile on her lips only grew wider, more brilliant.

Juxtaposed with her ghastly visage, the effect was deeply unsettling, making one wonder who the true villain was.

“Is that all…? Is that all you’ve got? Not enough… It’s not enough… Not nearly enough…”

Muttering these fragmented phrases like a madwoman, Aliciel vanished.

In the next instant, she reappeared directly before the Netherworld Emissary.

Her right fist, wreathed in starlight, loomed large in the Emissary’s vision before crashing into its chest.

A searing torrent of fire erupted, like a great dragon of flame, blasting the creature away.

As it hurtled backward, the Netherworld Emissary fired two beams of ghostly purple light from its eyes, piercing straight through Aliciel’s chest.

But Aliciel seemed completely unfazed, continuing her charge as if nothing had happened.

Star-purple flames ignited within the holes in her chest, automatically mending the wounds.

She made no attempt to dodge or evade any of the Netherworld Emissary’s attacks, simply taking them head-on.

Yet, far from weakening, Aliciel only seemed to grow more invigorated.

“Hahahaha… Come on… Just like that… Don’t hold back… Hit me… I can take it… Hehehehe…”

Aliciel’s gleeful cries echoed through the night sky.

It was as if beads of nonexistent cold sweat were forming on the Netherworld Emissary’s brow.

Far away, Ren Dao-zhen was utterly stupefied, staring at the deranged Aliciel.

In that single moment, the pristine image Ren Dao-zhen held of Aliciel—of an elegant, beautiful, and sacred maiden bathed in moonlight—shattered into a million pieces.

He felt as though his dreams had been stolen away, his entire world fading to monochrome.

“She’s a total masochistic freak!”

Two cries of despair rang out in near-perfect unison.

Both Ren Dao-zhen and the Netherworld Emissary were overcome with hopelessness.

The former was heartbroken that the first potential romance of his life had ended before it could even begin.

The latter was simply at its wit’s end, utterly broken by this woman who refused to die, who couldn’t be outlasted, and who only grew more excited and formidable with every blow.

If the Netherworld Emissary was a monster defined by its stats, then this woman was a freak of nature that defied all logic.