Boom!
A deafening crash echoed through the air as clouds of dust surged upward.
What was left of the Ascended Intelligence Mecha—just its head and upper torso—came crashing down into the ground with a heavy thud.
A shadow fell from above.
The Skeletal Berserker Commander landed atop the wreckage, planting one bony foot squarely on the mecha's head as it struggled feebly beneath him.
Was it over?
No—Hel wasn't taking any chances.
[High-Tier Death Magic: Domain of Death]
At once, a massive, pitch-black magic circle bloomed in the air above her, emanating waves of death energy that made the atmosphere twist and decay.
The spell resonated with the Land Transmutation Array still glowing faintly on the ground, the two forming a dreadful harmony.
The Domain of Death—a spell that kills all living things within its bounds.
And "living things" here didn't just mean creatures or plants.
Even the elemental forces that lingered in the air were extinguished within its reach.
In other words—magic itself was nullified.
For any transcendent being, fighting without drawing upon ambient elements was like fighting with one's limbs cut off.
Even if they could still manipulate their own internal mana, the strength they could display would be less than one percent of normal.
Thus, at this point—if the pilot of the mecha had once been capable of resisting with the power of a Grand Archmage, now they were reduced to something no stronger than a High Mage at best.
Barely a threat.
That left only one task.
Under Hel's control, every spectral tendril born from the magic circle turned and began to wrap around the fallen mecha.
Of course, it wasn't a magical girl being bound—it was a pile of metal.
The sight wasn't exactly beautiful.
In fact, it was downright grotesque.
Still, the mecha's pilot was strong—a Grand Archmage-level existence. Even for Hel, a Necromancer of the Magister class, it wasn't easy to forcibly tear a soul from such a being's body, even with top-tier magic.
Thus began a strange tug-of-war.
Hel would pull out a sliver of the pilot's soul—
and the pilot would immediately drag it back inside.
The process was excruciatingly slow.
If one had to describe it...
It was like being constipated—you could feel something there, but no matter how hard you pushed, it just wouldn't come out.
A truly miserable struggle.
But this was Hel's domain. There was no escape.
After a grueling effort, she finally tore the soul free—
and with it, something else.
The mecha's cockpit door suddenly burst open with a metallic clang!—
and a large, round metallic sphere rolled out.
To call it "metal" wasn't entirely accurate.
The lower half was metallic, but the upper half was transparent glass.
At first glance, it looked like an oversized glass globe—until you saw what was inside.
Within that transparent shell was a dense network of brains.
Yes—brains.
Packed tightly together, interlinked by a mesh of pulsing neural tissue, with eerie blue currents of energy sparking and dancing between them.
The sight was disturbingly familiar—like a data center from Hel's previous life…
if the servers had been replaced with living brains.
And just to be clear—these weren't heads.
They were brains only, stripped of their skulls.
Somehow, that was even more horrifying.
From the metallic base below sprouted countless slender nerve tendrils, woven together like cables to form flexible appendages.
The entire contraption—this pulsating mass of gray matter and wires—was an abomination to all that was holy.
A magical girl's worst nightmare.
[Designation]: Ascended Brain (Hybrid Goblin)
[Rank]: Tier 5
[Attributes]:
Strength: 3 (30)
Magic Power: 306 (90)
Knowledge: 409 (9)
[Traits]:
Goblin Cognitive Collective (Red)
Goblin Data Archive (Orange)
Advanced Goblin Technology (Orange)
High Alchemy (Orange)
Advanced Bloodline Engineering (Orange)
Goblin–Elf Hybrid (Orange)
High-Tier Elemental Magic (Orange)
Advanced Mecha Piloting (Orange)
Elemental Affinity (Orange)
Lacking Physical Body (Black)
Empire Supremacy (Black)
[Description]:
A biological computation matrix composed of multiple hybrid goblin brains, engineered by the Goblin Empire as a living supercomputer.
Hel couldn't help but stare.
This was, without question, the most attribute-rich opponent she had ever encountered—second only to herself.
It had only five fewer traits than she did.
And that knowledge stat—409?!
That wasn't even remotely human.
Well… it wasn't human at all.
It was a brain.
A brain that could jump, apparently.
Indeed, as it rolled out, the thing actually bounced—leaping around the battlefield while tugging against the spectral tendrils still gripping its soul.
And strangely enough, it worked—the struggle allowed it to reclaim part of its essence.
But Hel wasn't having it.
With another surge of power, the tendrils tightened, and the brain let out an ear-piercing, soul-rending shriek.
Finally, the glowing blue orb that was its soul was yanked fully free.
Yet unlike any other soul Hel had seen, this one radiated immense, suffocating power—
the kind of presence that bent reality itself.
If Hel hadn't been a Death Witch, she could never have contained it.
Then, a voice rang out within her mind—
cold, sharp, and intelligent.
"Skeleton… what are you?
How can something so weak control my soul?
No… this aura—
You're not a skeleton…
You're… a Divine Offspring?!
Impossible! The gods have long since returned to their thrones!
How could one of their descendants still exist in this age!?"
Hel smirked.
"Oh? Sounds like you know quite a lot."
She eyed the glowing soul like a predator inspecting a fragile, trembling creature—
her green soul-flames flickering with amusement.
"Well then," she said softly, "let's take our time."
A wicked grin spread across her face as she pressed a glowing sigil against the floating blue orb.
[Supreme Death Magic: Soul Enslavement]
A complex array unfurled behind her, and from it surged a torrent of black chains, wrapping around the orb in an instant.
The binding pattern was… questionable, to say the least.
Imagine a giant glowing sphere being tied up in shibari.
Yeah.
It was that kind of scene.
Hel grimaced.
"Alright, that's enough of that."
With a thought, she forced the glowing brain back into its physical shell—
then, with a final gesture, bestowed upon it a new trait:
[Bloodbound Servant]
The brain's loyalty value skyrocketed—
straight to 180.
And just like that—
the Ascended Brain, the Goblin Empire's greatest creation,
became Hel's newest pet.