A Valkyrie’s Blade Against the Suns of Doom

What was this? What had happened? Liu Yu found herself groping forward in an endless, suffocating ‘darkness’, her mind racing to discern the origin of the next attack. Though her vision was utterly useless, she instinctively raised her Demonic Sword, poised to ward off any assault that might materialize.

Yet, inexplicably, despite having plunged her into this dire predicament, the enemy remained utterly silent, as if it had vanished without a trace. ‘No, that’s not right!’ A sudden realization pierced Liu Yu’s mind: —[Shadow] was ‘active’, it was ‘defending’. A jolt of alarm ran through her, swiftly followed by a flash of enlightenment. She finally understood the chilling truth: she had been under attack the entire time.

A tremor of latent fear snaked through the girl’s heart. In this ‘incomprehensible,’ ‘peculiar’ environment, any living being reliant on its five senses would find its strength diminished to a mere fraction, leaving it utterly vulnerable. Thankfully, [Shadow] was, at its core, merely an outpouring of the Devourer Hound’s power. It possessed neither senses nor thought, operating in ways she couldn’t fathom, and thus remained entirely impervious to the effects.

In that case… ‘I’ll use this technique!’ A thought solidified in her mind. ‘—[Chaotic Edge]!’ Unexpectedly, there was no resistance. The Demonic Sword cleaved through the chaos with ease, and Liu Yu found herself abruptly returned to a world bathed in brilliant light. However, just as she was about to unleash a volley of scathing remarks, several ‘suns’ abruptly flared into existence beside Abaddon.

“Th-this is!?”

“I will defeat you, I will defeat you… Oh, ‘hero’ of the ‘modern people’, prepare to embrace the ‘doomsday’ I bring upon you!” the youth on the dragon’s body muttered to himself. His hair was disheveled, and he appeared utterly insane, extreme ‘hatred’ adding a touch of malevolence to his enchanting face.

Now, he didn’t resemble an ’emperor’ holding absolute power. Instead, he was more like… a ‘dowager empress’ who had lost a struggle and been banished to the cold palace?

However, the ‘suns’ orbiting the youth’s shoulders forced Liu Yu to treat the situation with caution. —These were spheres composed of utterly pure energy, each radiating an unparalleled heat that scorched everything on the ground. She had no doubt that a single one, if it fell, could utterly devastate the entire city.

She had to stop him. Utilizing the extraordinary vision granted by [Shadow], the girl’s peripheral glance fell upon The Supervisory Bureau’s defensive line. The warriors stationed along the defensive line moved with hurried steps, clearly preparing countermeasures for the impending attack. But would it truly be effective?

The defensive system, painstakingly created over an entire day, had already been reduced to nothing in the previous battle. Reconstructing defenses before the next wave of attack, given the current time and technology, was an almost impossible feat. Seeing another sun rise into the sky, Liu Yu grew agitated, stamping her foot in frustration.

She wanted to rush forward and attack Abaddon, but feared he would detonate the energy spheres and level the city. With the safety of everyone depending on her, the girl became hesitant, paralyzed by indecision, afraid to act lest she cause greater harm. Yet, this ostrich-like mindset wouldn’t help her escape what was to come.

“Die, die, die—!”

After a brief wait, Abaddon launched his attack. With a casual wave of his hand, the suns orbiting him began to descend. One, two, three… a total of five energy spheres plummeted straight towards the girl.

“This is utterly… preposterous…”

Whether she could withstand it was one thing, but the ordinary citizens caught in this senseless disaster would surely perish. Since arriving in this era, she had, for the first time, truly experienced the emotion of resentment. The Doctor, Irina, and this nameless monster before her—all possessed rationality and cognition similar to humans, yet they consistently acted solely on their own whims, utterly disregarding the lives of others. If the strong acting recklessly and trampling upon the weak was indeed the law of this world, then she could now, finally, begin to grasp the meaning of ‘order’.

“I won’t let you succeed…” The girl’s left eye widened, and murky [Shadow] surged into it, completely engulfing the white of her eye. At that moment, time seemed to halt, and the plummeting fireballs became starkly clear in her vision. Then, Liu Yu gripped her Demonic Sword tightly, stepping forward. A never-before-seen resolve hardened her features, making her appear like a formidable Valkyrie on the battlefield. She raised her Demonic Sword high, aligning the ‘fireballs’ into a single line:

“As far as the eye can see…”

“SLAY!!!”

The next second, all five suns were simultaneously cleaved in two. But it wasn’t enough. Even after a portion was devoured by [Shadow], the remaining energy, if it struck the ground, could still raze the city several times over. Therefore… [Shadow] gathered in her left eye once more…

‘If once wasn’t enough, she’d do it twice; if twice failed, then thrice. I can do it, I can do it…’

“Haaah—” Gritting her teeth against the pain and discomfort radiating from her eye, she unleashed the second strike!

“Ugh… ugh… it hurts so much…” The pain from continuously using her ability in such a short time caused the girl’s tears to stream uncontrollably, her voice even taking on a slight whimper. Yet, she knew this moment was too crucial for weakness, so she forced her eyes open and swung her Demonic Sword at the plummeting fireballs once more.

[As far as the eye can see • SLAY]!!

Once, twice, thrice… With each swing of the sword, the mass of the fireballs diminished.

“Drip, drip…” Tears streaked with blood dripped down her cheeks to the ground. The world seen through her left eye blurred as if veiled by gauze; the side effects of overusing [Shadow] had finally manifested. ‘I’m not going blind, am I…’

Liu Yu’s heart was filled with fear, yet her hands showed no sign of faltering. According to her calculations, she only needed to use [As far as the eye can see • SLAY] three more times—no, twice—to largely obliterate the shattered fireballs and minimize the destruction.

“Just a little longer,” she told herself. Victory was within reach; she just needed to hold on.

“As far as the eye can see…”

“BOOM!” A hurled spear slammed the girl into the earth. The frenzied youth then lifted the giant beast’s front paw and stomped down viciously on her body, creating a deep crater. But immediately after, he was thrown back by a terrifying force.

The girl crawled out of the crater, clutching her left eye with one hand. Crimson blood seeped between her fingers, swiftly consumed by [Shadow]. ‘It was all for naught,’ she thought. To be precise, lacking area-of-effect skills, she simply couldn’t swiftly eradicate the plummeting energy spheres in front of the monster. This battle had been doomed to failure from the very beginning.

“Hmph~ so you won, didn’t you…” Liu Yu frankly admitted her defeat. She let out a breath and spoke in a tone no different from her usual one: “So, to celebrate your victory, I’ve decided…”

Beneath a sky filled with a meteor shower, two pairs of eyes, brimming with identical emotions, met. The girl’s lips curved into a twisted smile, and she declared, word by word: “I’m going to slaughter you!”

With a thunderous crash that echoed across the sky, black and red figures collided, locked in relentless combat. Simultaneously, a blue light barrier erupted from the ground.