"Damn it, can't this thing stay quiet for once?"
Sirin glared up at the thunderclouds where a colossal dragon could burst forth at any moment. She cursed under her breath, drew her blade again, and raised it toward the sky, chanting her Kotodama.
"Manifest—Void Realm!"
An Edict Edge always responded to its wielder's Kotodama, and each wielder's word differed depending on their Adaptivity. The word they heard from their blade was the purest manifestation of their compatibility.
As the word echoed, the Heavenly Blade transformed, its form dissolving into a boundless, distorted space. Centered around the Edict Edge, pitch-black spatial shackles spread at a speed beyond human sight.
The shadowy dragon, which should have retreated, instead fixed its crimson eyes on Sirin and let out a piercing roar. Wrapped in storm and lightning, it lunged straight for the barrier.
She expected the impact to be similar to yesterday's—but when Almighty Thunder struck, the spatial barrier under the Heavenly Blade's control shuddered violently.
Sirin's expression darkened. As the blade's master, no one understood better than she what kind of force that impact carried.
How could this be?
"Go! Alert the others! Almighty Thunder is breaking free!"
So it had been holding back all along? Pretending to be weaker than it was?
Refusing to abandon the observation point, Sirin poured her power into the Heavenly Blade, patching the barrier that had nearly been shattered by the dragon's assault.
But Almighty Thunder didn't stop. It seemed to sense the weakening structure and rammed into the barrier again and again, thunder rolling as spatial cracks spiderwebbed across the air like shattering glass.
The dragon's head grew increasingly solid, its form coalescing out of the storm. Sirin's expression was cold as she fought to repair the barrier before her.
Each impact brought deafening thunderclaps. Between the roar of storms, she could hear the tearing sound of space itself fracturing.
Just a bit longer.
She had to hold out just a bit longer.
The more time she bought, the more prepared everyone else would be. If Almighty Thunder broke free now, the nearby base would be annihilated.
"Get back!"
Her golden eyes blazed brilliantly against the pitch-black storm.
"This world doesn't welcome you! You damned monsters—why can't you just stay dead?!"
"Void Realm!"
Once again, she reinforced the surrounding space.
At that moment, her grip on the Heavenly Blade deepened. She felt a new understanding of how to manipulate space itself.
Where Almighty Thunder's strikes had fractured reality, the shattered fragments of space became blades sharper than any steel, slicing across the dragon's massive head.
The shards were many, but each was small. Even empowered by Sirin's will, their damage was limited.
Hold it!
She had to hold it together!
But no matter how she tried to mend the barrier, Almighty Thunder's relentless attacks never ceased. The space around her grew thinner, more fragile.
Should she retreat?
One more hit—just one more—and this place could collapse entirely.
If she didn't evacuate the mountain now, then when the barrier broke and Almighty Thunder escaped…
She'd be the first to die.
Barely holding the crumbling space together, she touched her earpiece and called the nearest communications officer. "Can you hear me? Listen—Almighty Thunder is stronger than expected! I can't hold this position much longer!"
"Please stay calm! We've already received the report—reinforcements are en route!" a woman's urgent voice replied, her tone rapid and tense. "Just stall it a little longer! Whatever happens, don't let it leave that coordinate! There are still civilians nearby, and the Divine Weapon is still charging—it needs one more minute!"
Sirin wasn't surprised.
She was part of this plan, after all. She'd helped design every step of the operation against Almighty Thunder.
Now, all she could do was send out the warning—so others would have even a few more seconds to prepare.
"I know what to do."
Lowering her hand from the earpiece, Sirin took a deep breath. "Damn that Yae Sakura. No talent for storytelling whatsoever—here I am, about to die, and my head's still full of unanswered questions."
"She knows I hate it when people say things like that before a fight—and she still had to say, 'if we make it out alive'…"
Grinding her teeth, Sirin glared at Almighty Thunder, which was moments away from breaking free. Gripping the hilt of the Heavenly Blade with both hands, she charged straight toward the dragon's form. "If I survive this, Yae Sakura, you jinx of a woman—you'd better be ready for me!"
The air rippled. Countless golden spatial blades burst from the distortion, slicing toward the heart of the storm.
In the blink of an eye, Sirin used the Edict Edge's power to shift into the fractured space itself—where Almighty Thunder's force was tearing reality apart.
"I must be insane," she muttered, even as she moved.
If she wanted to stall Almighty Thunder for even a few more minutes, the best position was inside the collapsing spatial field.
But facing Almighty Thunder alone…
Bolts of divine lightning—heaven's punishment—rained down from the storm swirling around the dragon. The Heavenly Blade shimmered, generating a thin golden barrier that blocked most of the lightning's fury.
"I really hate that word," she said through clenched teeth, lifting the sword and pointing its tip toward the dragon. "But I'm sorry—until I'm dead, you're not leaving this place!"
"Void Realm—Manifest!"
Within the Imaginary Space, Sirin fully unleashed the Edict Edge known as Sky—the divine blade forged from the fallen Eternal Zenith.
The broken, wasteland-like void transformed before her eyes.
A radiant, palace-like prison of golden light formed, trapping both her and Almighty Thunder inside. The power of the Imaginary Space manifested as countless golden blades, all aimed at the dragon.
The furious beast glared at her, its crimson eyes blazing. Endless torrents of lightning crashed against her barrier.
The overwhelming energy caused cracks to spread across the golden shell that shielded her.
Though an Edict Edge could replicate a Kami's power, no human body could truly bear such might.
Sky's ability activated again. Wrapped in her fragile golden barrier, Sirin dodged the rain of divine thunder. Her counterattacks occasionally slashed through the dragon's scales, but the wounds closed instantly, sealed by the storm of lightning surrounding its body.
Ineffective damage.
Until she drained its power to the brink, it would just keep regenerating. That was why every battle was so brutal—and why victory demanded so many lives.
"Damn you, thunderstorm!"
The red lightning surrounding Almighty Thunder was terrifying beyond measure. Sirin could feel her barrier weakening—if it shattered, death would be instant.
Stay calm. Stay focused!
Don't think about anything else. Just hold it off—just buy the evacuation teams a little more time!