A Sister’s Fury, A Foe’s Deception

Thud!

“Gah!”

“Gah!”

A single, incredibly dull thud reverberated. The True Ancestor let out a strange cry, her upper body jolting violently as she spewed a mouthful of old blood.

The reason for the two cries of pain was simple: the colossal hammer hadn’t merely struck the True Ancestor directly beneath it. It had also struck Seraphina, who lay beneath the True Ancestor.

‘My dear sir, I truly appreciate your good intentions.’

Compared to the True Ancestor, the hammer inflicted significantly greater damage upon Seraphina, a mere human whose health barely registered at twenty.

‘Could you perhaps look where you’re swinging when you attack?’

That single blow sent Seraphina spitting blood, wounds far more severe than any previously dealt by the True Ancestor.

The True Ancestor, though not as grievously wounded as Seraphina, was clearly suffering.

After the impact, her body twisted, and she lethargically rolled off Seraphina, collapsing onto the nearby ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

“No, who in the blazes are you, and where did you even come from?!”

Struggling to prop herself up, the True Ancestor’s brows furrowed deeply. She stared at the figure shimmering with golden light, her expression ashen as if she had seen a ghost.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you recognize me now?”

As the golden light receded, the figure’s true form was revealed.

“You, you’re—!?”

White hair, gentle brows, eyes a sanguine crimson, and a face as captivating as the moon.

“Tell me, who am I?”

Thump, thump, thump…

With steps that echoed with a rhythmic cadence, the young woman who had emerged from the golden light lifted the colossal hammer to her side, slowly advancing towards the True Ancestor.

Though she appeared to be a budding beauty in her early twenties, exuding a hint of youthful naivete, her every movement and stride carried an inexplicable aura of solitary resolve, as if she were facing an army alone.

“Someone here still doesn’t know who I am, you know. Wouldn’t want to keep them waiting too long~”

“But, but this is impossible!”

Seraphina felt as though she had uttered “impossible” countless times today already.

Yet this particular “impossible” made even her, the bearer of the [Divine Blessing], widen her eyes in shock.

“She’s been dead for countless years… You can’t be her! You can’t be Cardo Scarlett!”

Cardo Scarlett!?

Iqiyah’s sister!?

“…What’s impossible about it?”

The colossal hammer slammed down heavily beside the True Ancestor, pinning her movements. Cardo then placed a foot on the hammer’s head, gazing down at the True Ancestor with an imperious air.

“Compared to you, I’m far from it, aren’t I?”

“You, a mere divine familiar, dared to usurp the authority of a god… to propagate a miracle like the [Fragments]…”

“What exactly did you trade with the Goddess of Life?”

“Hah!”

Like a startled kitten, the True Ancestor instantly transformed. One moment she was prone, the next she sprang upright, hissing at Cardo.

“You, you, you… How do you know all this!?”

“That’s something you have no right to know~”

Facing the True Ancestor’s fury, Cardo merely smiled, lifted her foot, and once more swung the ridiculously oversized hammer.

“If your plan had succeeded, perhaps you would have had a chance to know.”

“But alas, as things stand now, you likely won’t get the chance in this lifetime~ Try harder in the next~”

“Don’t push your luck!” The True Ancestor hastily rolled, barely evading Cardo’s ferocious hammer blow.

“Pushing my luck?”

Without a pause, Cardo’s silver-white colossal hammer whipped up a storm, like a giant fan, forcing the True Ancestor to retreat repeatedly.

“All those years ago, you mercilessly crushed me into a pulp!”

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth… There’s nothing wrong with letting you taste all of this now, is there?”

“Now, savor the wrath I’ve accumulated over all this time!”

Another violent strike landed squarely beside the True Ancestor, carving a colossal abyssal rift into the pristine white space.

“Hahahaha!” Watching the massive hammer fall beside her, the True Ancestor didn’t hold back her mockery. “You can’t even land a basic attack! I see your fury is nothing more than that!”

“Hmph.”

Cardo merely offered a faint smile in response to the True Ancestor’s taunts.

“Do you truly believe… I was merely missing my attack?”

Suddenly, the landed colossal hammer sank further, nearly half its body disappearing into the abyssal rift. A tremendously powerful shockwave erupted from it, instantly blasting the True Ancestor away.

“Guaaah!!!”

“Hmph… You truly underestimated my wrath!”

Watching the True Ancestor fly away, blood spurting, Cardo grinned maliciously.

“Do you still recall our conversation from all those years ago!?”

Back then, after leaving her father’s chambers, Cardo obediently made her way to the isolation room.

Behind the closed iron bars, in that gloomy space, the only place she could look was within herself.

“True Ancestor… what exactly is your purpose?”

She had demanded.

“That is something you have no right to know.”

The True Ancestor’s words were glacial, and Cardo’s fists clenched tightly.

“You only need to know… that gaining power requires a price.”

“And the lives you’ve offered are nowhere near enough to pay for your family’s revival.”

“Therefore… I require both your life and your sister’s life as collateral.”

In that instant, Cardo felt as though she glimpsed her own fate.

Like swine being fattened, she and her sister would gradually grow, gradually acquiring immense power.

Concurrently, the ‘pork’ on their bodies—the [Fragments] within them, also known as [True Ancestor’s Blood]—would slowly mature, evolving completely until they became true [Fragments], as powerful as those in legend.

The True Ancestor was the farmer, and Godia, the unwitting shepherd, was dreaming a golden dream while selling his daughters as pitiful lambs…

Fury surged within Cardo.

“At least spare my sister.”

Cardo attempted a final negotiation.

“Impossible.”

“Very well, then I’ll make you choose to give up.”

Negotiations collapsed.

Preparation for an assault began.

****

“This strike… it gathered all of my accumulated rage!”

Even after the attack concluded, the colossal hammer continued to rend spacetime, tearing at the unseen abyss behind the fabric of reality, unleashing wave after wave of potent energy.

“Surely a blow like this is enough to put you in your place, True Ancestor!”

However… in the very next second, the battle began to unfold in a direction Cardo had not anticipated.

“Hahahahahaha!”

The grievously wounded True Ancestor, who had been violently flung away, was now laughing uproariously in mid-air.

“You fell for it, Cardo! This was precisely my escape route!”

“To try and outwit me, Cardo, you’re still far too green!”

“Don’t you find this direction… awfully familiar!?”

!?

At these words, Cardo was instantly startled. Her attention ripped away from her adversary as she swiftly surveyed the surrounding space.

In short order, she discovered her critical oversight.

“Damn it!”

Her chaotic flurry of hammer strikes had indeed forced the True Ancestor away from Seraphina.

However, in her subsequent assault, blinded by rage, she had failed to notice the shift in her and the True Ancestor’s positions.

Unbeknownst to Cardo, the True Ancestor had positioned her back towards Seraphina, merely awaiting Cardo’s decisive blow!

Now, this was truly problematic. While the strike had indeed grievously wounded the True Ancestor, it had also inadvertently propelled her directly towards her intended target for possession!

Even severely injured, unleashing her power to eliminate a mere mortal with a strength of 1 would be effortless for the True Ancestor.

“Die! Seraphina!”

With a forceful thrust, before Seraphina could even react, the True Ancestor’s hand had pierced through her chest, nailing her to the ground as if her own body were an iron spike.

In that instant, the pristine white space transformed. A pervasive darkness swept through like a gale, instantly engulfing the entire world.

****

“What’s happening!?”

Outside.

Iqiyah pressed firmly against the head of the Blood-Red Dragon, transmitting her power without reservation.

Just moments ago… they had achieved a crushing victory, the great dragon on the verge of devouring the True Ancestor’s body…

But suddenly, for some unknown reason, the True Ancestor erupted with an incredibly potent surge of power, forcefully wresting control back from the dragon!

And not only that…

What was happening… Seraphina’s buff, had it faded?

The buff shouldn’t have worn off yet… yet Iqiyah felt her power draining rapidly, soon reaching a point where she could no longer sustain the dragon.

‘Seraphina…’

Instinctively, she looked towards her familiar, who remained so reliable even when unconscious…

Only to discover that, at this very moment, Seraphina had raised both hands towards the True Ancestor—

[Divine Power Boost]!