"When the coin falls, I'll catch it."
"You only need to guess which side of the coin is facing upward inside my palm. Simple rules, right?"
Just... that simple?
No additional trial whatsoever?
Both Kanzaki Rei and Shin Senka understood very clearly that coin tossing was not truly random.
The number of rotations while airborne, the trajectory, the movement used to catch it afterward—
All of it could be simulated perfectly.
If this were merely an ordinary coin toss, Rei could achieve a 100% win rate.
This was no different from reading and countering moves in combat techniques.
But...
Was it really that simple?
The real distinction here was whether one was opposing her—
Or standing on her side.
If someone opposed Yakatikto...
Then no matter how many attempts they made, victory would be impossible.
"And if we refuse?"
Yakatikto lightly pinched the coin between her fingers. Her gaze was gentle as the wind disturbed her golden hair.
"Refusing is fine too. I don't enjoy hurting people proactively."
"It's just... don't you truly want to experience fate itself?"
Rei was about to speak again.
But Shin Senka suddenly stepped forward.
"I accept!"
"The task my master gave me is to obtain the Eighth Forbidden Magic and alter fate."
"I have to complete this mission."
Yakatikto smiled warmly.
"Mhm, then you can go first."
"Oh right, once you return, help me pass along a greeting to Lottie as well. Tell her Yakatikto hopes she'll escape from the Deep Earth soon."
Shin Senka replied respectfully,
"Thank you for the blessing. I'm ready."
Yakatikto lightly held the coin.
"Then get ready to guess."
Ding!
A crisp sound rang out as the coin was flicked into the heavens.
So fast!
In an instant, all that remained visible was a straight gold-and-green line shooting skyward like a heavenly pillar!
That coin...
Had she flicked it hundreds of billions of kilometers upward with a single finger?
Straight into the clouds!
Only after half a minute did the coin finally begin slowing its ascent...
BOOM!
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Then it began accelerating straight downward like a falling meteor!
Its descent became faster and faster, stirring the clouds into a raging storm. The coin plunged into the storm and temporarily vanished from sight!
Even perception itself could not penetrate the storm clouds.
Whoosh—
[Nest of Aberrations — Ninth-Level Nest]
A monster shaped like a spiraling genetic helix stood upon land completely covered in proliferating flesh. It spoke emotionlessly to the living ground beneath it.
"Yakatikto... has personally entered the stage."
The earth itself rumbled violently.
"She personally descended!?"
"Why? How could a Moon Sovereign descend personally? Back when they became gods, they already paid the price of self-binding... and after becoming Moon Sovereigns, that price became absolute. To repay their debt to the Origin itself, they must complete their World Rituals before leaving their divine kingdoms."
"Otherwise they lose divine power, lose divine authority, and fall from the position of Moon Sovereign... How dare Yakatikto do this?!"
The helix-shaped creature replied coldly,
"No matter what price she pays, she has indeed entered the battlefield."
"She annihilated all the armies we deployed into reality and shattered our experimental grounds."
"Our losses are catastrophic."
After hearing the report from the spiral monster, the ground surged even more violently.
Mountains of flesh and blood proliferated madly.
Countless powerful Eighth-Tier monsters directly grew out of the mountain itself, fused together with the terrain!
"She'd rather cripple her own position as a Moon Sovereign just to ruin our plans! That damned hag!"
"What a fucking bi—"
PFFT!
A gold-and-green flash suddenly streaked across the world!
BOOM!
Blood and flesh exploded everywhere!
The colossal mountain of flesh that covered the entirety of the Nest was pierced through instantly!
And the genetic-helix monster was completely annihilated into nothingness in the same instant.
Not even ashes remained.
"N-No... NO!"
The gigantic mountain let out a roar of disbelief!
The pierced sections began recovering.
The obliterated sections began regenerating.
But this regeneration was nothing like what it expected.
It was constantly mutating.
Some mutations were beneficial.
Others were malignant.
But thanks to its enormous mass—
Beneficial mutations could be retained.
As for malignant mutations, it could sever them immediately, disconnecting them from the main body or halting them entirely.
Even mutations of uncertain value could temporarily be isolated.
If they later proved beneficial, they could be reattached to the main body.
It evolved through endless mutation every second.
Billions of mutations occurred throughout its body every second, constantly driving its evolution forward.
It was also one part of Sophia's experiment to evolve into Perfect Life.
But...
After being pierced by that gold-and-green light—
Its flesh began proliferating uncontrollably!
The very first mutation triggered by the attack caused it to lose the ability to terminate mutations, isolate mutations, or separate flesh entirely...
Originally, mutations only occurred in localized portions of its body.
Only beneficial mutations would eventually be spread throughout the entire organism.
Thus, no matter how catastrophically malignant a mutation became in one area, it would never affect the whole.
But now...
At this very moment—
The exact same mutation was occurring simultaneously throughout every corner of its body.
The malignant mutations could no longer be terminated.
Could no longer be stopped.
Could no longer be severed.
Every malignant mutation throughout its entire body was synchronizing completely!
This was—
Misfortune!
The mutations had become irreversible.
Its body entered infinite proliferation, but every proliferation destroyed its structure, stripped away its innate talents, and consumed its life essence...
"It was you! Yakatikto... of Calamitous Fate!"
Whoosh!
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG—
That gold-and-green ray shot forward in a perfectly straight line, piercing through the Nest of Aberrations, the Evil Nest, the Twin Nest, the Insect Hive, the Wild Nest, and the Fallen Nest in one uninterrupted trajectory!
Ding!
At last, the tiny gold-and-green coin drifted gently out from the storm clouds in the sky.
And began falling back toward the earth.
Seeing the descending coin, Shin Senka jumped excitedly.
Relief flooded her heart.
For a moment, she thought the coin had simply vanished forever...
She even wondered whether it would no longer count if the coin truly disappeared.
After all, the task Master Lottie entrusted to her absolutely had to be completed.
She had heard this was the key to freeing her master from the Deep Earth.
They had to obtain this Forbidden Magic to alter fate and allow her master to escape the Deep Earth...
Meanwhile, Rei's far more refined perception faintly noticed traces of blood upon the rapidly falling coin.
At the same time, his eyes peered toward the coin's future.
Ding!
The prediction completed.
If nothing unexpected happened—
The coin would land heads-up.
And Shin Senka...
Would guess tails.
Shin Senka guessed wrong?
No...
No matter what, Shin Senka was still an Eighth-Tier class holder. She could also see the coin's trajectory clearly.
If she guessed incorrectly, then the most likely explanation was that Luck itself had decided she was not allowed to obtain this magic.
Theoretically speaking, this should not have been a game of luck at all.
Because Rei possessed a guaranteed winning strategy.
That strategy was—
To simply choose the opposite side from Shin Senka during the same round.
A coin only had two sides.
Heads or tails.
As long as Yakatikto didn't suddenly cheat midway through, Rei couldn't think of any way for the coin to develop a third side.
Unless it somehow landed standing upright...
But if that happened, the way Yakatikto held the coin would look extremely strange.
If Rei himself won, then naturally he would directly learn the magic.
And if Shin Senka won and learned 「Fate」 instead—
Rei could simply steal the 「Eighth Forbidden Magic」 directly from her afterward.
That would save him from having to seize it from Yakatikto herself.
After all—
Stealing magic from a Moon Sovereign and stealing magic from Shin Senka were two completely different matters.