"Beings like you?" she asked, her eyes still calm and unmoved. "You speak as though you are more than a Transcendent."

"Because I am," the blond man grinned, spreading his arms wide. "You are looking at the one and only Holy Son of the one true God of this world. The Great Sage Limitless. I was born of his essence, and I am blessed to share his omnipotence."

The look in Althea’s eyes finally flickered slightly, but not in surprise or wariness; rather, she looked amused, like a puzzle piece had just slotted into place correctly.

"Ahh. So you are the one called Unlimited. I heard whispers of you over the years," she scoffed lightly, then raised her sword and shifted her feet beneath her in the motion of the Seneschal sword dance, readying herself to attack. "I’d like to see just how ’unlimited’ you are."

"Stop, stop!" the blond man said quickly, waving a hand with a chuckle. "While I’m flattered that news of my prestige reached your ears even in your years living like a rat hiding, do you really think I will simply allow you to exchange hands with me?"

He looked thoroughly appalled by the thought. "I, the Holy Son?"

"You and I both know there is no such thing as a ’Holy Son’ in our world," Althea snorted. "Throwing the word around isn’t going to suddenly give you or your daddy divine powers."

The blond man’s expression turned flat, particularly at Althea’s choice of words, then he spoke: "You’re trying to smack talk. It doesn’t suit you."

With an exaggerated clear of his throat, he called out: "Well, the stage is yours now. Don’t disappoint me."

Just as Althea’s already heightened senses immediately spread across the plains trying to pick up traces of the person he was speaking to, the Undying Flame, still on her dragon in the sky, suddenly shot to the ground like she was hit by a missile.

Without thinking, Althea moved her sword in a clean motion and sliced forward in an unpredictable manner that followed a movement of the Seneschal sword dance.

That attack was what prevented her from suffering the same fate as the Undying Flame, who had cut a crater into the ground for several meters.

Althea’s unpredictable attack should have struck whatever had attacked them as it moved to attack her, but despite her fluid sword form, she only felt the Errant sword nick the thing in question.

Blue blood? Althea saw the trace of it on the tip of the sword before she flicked the blood away and readied herself for another attack.

Right as she did, a body stumbled into a tumble for miles behind her, and she deftly turned and honed her focus onto it.

What she saw was a black, humanoid thing that looked like the depiction of devils and demons that she had seen during her time in the world of Gods with Finn thousands of years back.

So this is some kind of experimental creature that’s extremely fast? Althea deduced. Did the blond man really think this was enough to stop her from splitting his smug face in two?

She stopped paying the thing any attention altogether and directly charged at the so-called "Holy Son." But before she could reach him, the speed demon came at her faster this time and slammed into her body with the momentum of a mountain. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

...But all it served to do was move Althea several steps back.

Even before the moment of impact, she had already cast a subtle field of order around her body and the immediate space around her. It entirely killed off the force of momentum the demon carried along with it, intending to pulverize her.

Sloppy.

Althea couldn’t believe how weak a thing this was compared to what she had expected. The humanoid demon still even had the time to look stunned that its attack had been so easily dissipated.

And in that moment of hesitation, Althea dropped low in a quick movement and sliced both legs clean off, carrying the same motion to slice off both arms before kicking the limbless body into the air.

And out of nowhere, the Undying Flame appeared, hair burning bright red like an ember as she delivered a flaming fist right into the mid-section of the creature.

It spontaneously combusted in an instant, burning with bright, hot flames that were hard to look at.

Althea didn’t wait to see the result of the petty demon; she launched herself toward "Unlimited," chanting an edict that made the Errant sword groan in delight for a major attack.

She brought the sword down, the Errant sword releasing its Error nature, while her ordered aura coated it for a delayed, contrasting effect for the moment the attack landed.

But just as the sword descended, her eyes widened and she moved into a different motion of her swordplay, parrying a deadly attack just by a breath.

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she landed ways off her intended target. She immediately leapt multiple steps back after that to give herself space to assess the new development.

That’s definitely the same creature, Althea stared at the demon that had appeared out of nowhere, just like the first time.

There were obvious differences between this one and the last. This one was slightly larger, having a more defined carapace across its midsection that had taken a death-dealing blow from the Undying Flame.

Not only that, its skin looked tougher, its legs more defined and reinforced, especially at the knees where she’d severed its legs. And it was multiple times faster than the last one.

The changes were enough that Althea had immediately thought it was a different creature. But her senses told her a different story. The aura, the soul emanations, and everything about the creature pointed to the fact that it was the same one that had just died moments ago.

She looked toward the spot where the burning remains of the previous demon should have been, but it was nowhere to be found.

Her eyes went to the Undying Flame, whose ember-red hair had come loose and cascaded down her shoulders wildly. But the look in the Archon’s eyes also showed the same confusion, deduction, and conclusion Althea had come to herself.

The two women looked back at the demon, then at the Holy Son standing on his pedestal like a god looking down on them.

"I remember you said you wanted to find out how ’unlimited’ I am," he smirked, then shrugged. "Well, you will see for yourself. Prepare for round two."

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A/N: These five Chapters were the first batch of the ten-Chapter mass release. The remaining five will come later today (still within 24 hours from this release).

If you’re enjoying the story so far, don’t forget to vote with Power Stones and Golden Tickets.

Also, if you have any suggestions, discussions or thoughts you wanna share with me, you can join the official discord server. We’re still a dozen or so, but you can get direct access to me there, get announcements about any new project I have ongoing, and I can also ask for your opinions about little things here and there.

Link to discord: https://discord.gg/RYx7VzCJXU

Cheers 🍻

Astrl