"Evelyn... please, just let me in." I speak to Evelyn. It’s been four days since she’s come out or said a word. She’s locked herself inside that room, and she’s sealed every possible crack in it with thread, so even my liquid body can’t slip through.

"Evelyn!! Just a conversation! I don’t know what happened, but I, your Nerina-sensei, can fix it!!" I pound on the door in anger, but I try to hide that anger.

"...Evelyn, just let me—" Before I can try calling out to her again, I feel something wrong in my simplified domain. The outside is severely damaged, which makes me immediately leave the house and head for the beach through the water, sinking into one puddle of water and emerging from another.

"..." On the beach, I see a woman who initially seems strange, until I realize her features match exactly what Arial said about Evelyn’s wife.

’What the hell?! How did she find this place? This is Evelyn’s wife? She seems...’ We’re in the middle of nowhere, an island in the ocean with a simplified domain that should prevent anyone from detecting magic or Evelyn’s presence.

"How did you find this place? And how did you breach my domain—" Before I can finish my questions, she lunges at an absurd speed with a spear she pulled from a storage ring. I barely dodge and leap backward, but strangely trip over a piece of fruit on the ground, falling on my back.

I roll to the side, dodging a downward strike and getting to my feet, while I start shaping the seawater into hundreds of spears that I fire at her.

"So, no talking then? Fine. Once I kill you, there won’t be a problem anymore." It’s good, actually. If this is Evelyn’s wife, with her death, there will be no more barriers to Evelyn trying to recover her memories in case she sees her.

"That’s awfully arrogant of you, nymph. But don’t worry, I’ll give you a very painful death for hurting my wife." She speaks with a venomous tone, apparently unaware of what happened on this island, so she jumps straight to the assumption of aggression.

She cuts through the water spears fired at her, but we’re still in my simplified domain. I turn the water splashes into daggers that appear extremely close to her body, almost hitting her, but she still dodges, closing the distance.

PSHHH CRACK

She appears behind me and uses some strange ice magic, touching my back. My entire body turns into an ice statue before shattering. I restore myself from the seawater, watching her.

’No way? I lost a core?’ That counts as a death. Even though I’m not weak, I was killed instantly.

’She’s dangerous.’ I try to create distance so I can properly adjust to the fight, but she presses forward without giving me that opportunity, betting on overwhelming me to get the kill. But without a powerful soul attack, she’ll just destroy cores without truly killing me, whereas I only need one clean hit.

’If I use magic—’ As I think about using magic, I glance at Evelyn’s house. None of my magic is safe to use right now, because 97% of my attacks are spiritual attacks, and the residual effects could severely injure Evelyn even if she’s inside that protected place.

"Damn it..." Esther pierces my stomach and turns my whole body to ice again, shattering it to pieces with a yank of her spear. With that, I lost another core.

"You’re really strong for a normal demon. Are you sure you’re not the actual demon queen?" I mutter to her as she kicks the sand. Every grain of sand begins to melt as Esther fires a fire arrow.

The heat release is so intense that the seawater around the island explodes into steam instantly, vaporizing my body and all the trees on the island, leaving only Evelyn’s house, which is indestructible. The sand turns into a crust of stressed glass, black and translucent, covering the entire island.

Since Esther also uses ice magic, freezing the atmosphere, the glass ends up with bubbles, bulging in places, an irregular crust of glass—a truly chaotic scene.

’Fire and ice attacks... she seems to know how to fight nymphs.’ My body fully restores itself. Something is wrong. It doesn’t make sense that I’m dying so easily from every hit.

’Is that her blessing?’ I release a massive amount of water, submerging the entire island under about five feet of water, hindering Esther’s free mobility. But before I can generate the [Tempestuous Whirlpool]—the one I used when I kidnapped Evelyn, and which isn’t a soul attack— 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Esther unleashes a high-level ice magic that covers the entire dome of my domain, shattering the whole thing, meaning we’re now in the actual sea.

"Damn you."

"You think I’m not strong enough that you have to hold back? How arrogant, ocean nymph." Esther speaks in a cold tone, pointing at me with her spear. She hurls the weapon, which I catch, before I hear a whistle and it explodes in an intense burst of black flames.

’S-Shit, that’s bad! A critical hit.’ I sacrifice ten of my cores to escape the black flames, which are a spiritual attack. A lucky break for her that it turned into a critical hit.

’If I didn’t have to hold back because of Evelyn, I could kill this bitch easily... damn it...’ Evelyn was already proving to be a high cost before; now that cost has only gone up. But it’s not worth giving up the fight. I’ve come too far for Evelyn.

"[Stormy Dam of the Seas]" Using restraint magic, I paralyze her body, locking her in a bubble of water that drains Hikishin. However, she uses some strange magic that turns all the water into blood.

The blood is outside the ocean’s domain, destabilizing my magic, which unravels, dropping her into the water.

"ENOUGH OF THIS FARCE." I get angry, and then I stop holding back in some aspects. Using a core’s magic for physical reinforcement, I lunge at her with a kick that slams her against the glass floor beneath the water.

The kick is so powerful that the shockwave pushes all the water away, generating waves that move in the opposite direction of the island. The shockwave causes earthquakes, and the sea level drops over six feet below where it was, raising the island out of the sea.

"What arrogance, coming to attack a nymph in her domain like this." I kick her again, sending her flying backward, but to my surprise, she isn’t dead. She spins in the air and lands on the glass floor, her clothes torn, but she’s almost uninjured aside from a small trickle of blood on her forehead.

"Attack? You’re the one being arrogant. You stole something that’s mine. I just came to get it back. The fact that you’re a nymph matters little. Do you think I’m afraid?"

"Nymphs aren’t as strong as they make themselves out to be. Without the ocean, you’re nothing. And with all your water-based attacks, you’d barely have the power to break a high-level magical defense."

"Water-attuned nymphs are the weakest category among nymphs, so don’t be so proud of yourself. You have the most versatile element, but also the most fragile and least damaging." She rips off her torn clothes with one pull, revealing black and red armor underneath and a complete lack of any wounds.

’Tsk...’ She’s right. Nymphs with water powers are the ones with the lowest capacity to damage beings with high magical defense. And without being able to use soul attacks, I’m not sure how to break her defense.

"Come on, don’t be like that, girl. I didn’t steal anything from you. Evelyn opened her legs for me willingly." When I say that to provoke her, her gaze turns dangerous.

"Hahaha, are you insane, you whore? Saying that kind of thing about my wife? Looks like I’ll have to teach you your place, you water cockroach!! [Nebulous Storm]" She uses a magic that makes it start raining blood over an immense area.

"Nebulous Storm is Blood Magic that creates a storm around the user. The storm has various weakening effects on enemies who come into contact with the blood rain. The more blood in contact with the enemy, the weaker they become." She makes a point of explaining it as a taunt.

"Understand what that means for you?" When she says that with a sickening smile, I feel my strength being drastically reduced. My body is the entire ocean around us. The more blood falls, the weaker I get.

’C-Curse her!!’ I’m forced to compress my body, disconnecting myself from the ocean around us and gathering all my essence into this humanoid form to reduce the surface area of contact, trying to avoid being weakened too much by this high-level magic.

"Just because I’m a little weaker doesn’t mean you’re going to win against me, you stupid bitch. I’ve spent too much to just let you take Evelyn away from me." I say to her, stepping on the glass with a crack.

"I’m still the strongest one here!! I’ll tear your head off before you even notice." Esther gives a disgusting smile when I say I’m the strongest in this situation.

"The Universe will always make me win, and you will die here and now."

SKRRK KSHH TRK