Teacher by day, Farmer by passion

Lily, still smiling as she deflected a soul burst with her bare hand, twirled mid-air and launched a kick that sent Amon sliding back a few feet for the first time.

Amon blinked.

He adjusted his monocle, not out of need, but out of disbelief.

"…Curious," he muttered. "You were hiding that."

Lily giggled. "I'm still hiding things."

She leaned forward like a predator who had found the soft spot in her prey's armor.

She grinned, teeth showing.

"I've been going easy this whole time."

The sky cracked.

Amon raised a single hand to block, and Lily's foot met it mid-air, the impact snapped the clouds in half, a sound like thunder splitting glass rolling across the heavens.

Below them, the shockwave flattened two entire battalions of Tharz Kingdom soldiers.

Men screamed as soul-charged winds hurled them like dolls, armor crumpling under unseen pressure.

Amon didn't budge. But his eyes narrowed behind his monocle.

"Your footwork's better than your brain," he muttered.

Lily spun off his palm, laughing, her twin daggers flashing in the air.

She moved like a storm—spinning, then vanishing, only to appear above Amon's head and slam both blades downward in a crescent arc.

Amon leaned back—barely.

Queen Arlen's eyes tracked Lily as she landed in a storm of blood and cracked stone.

She muttered to herself, half amused, half incredulous.

"I didn't knew you would be this strong, girl… but if my army makes it through this, I'm claiming you for a duel."

Lily didn't hear her—or maybe she did and just laughed harder.

Ace remained silent beside her.

But inwardly, he made a mental note.

Yet another person with a severe lack of self-preservation.

The blades passed, missing him by a breath, but the soul wave they carried hit the ground like a meteor.

The ridge below exploded, launching rocks, bodies, and fire into the air.

Soldiers screamed as a fifty-meter trench tore through the battlefield, swallowing friend and foe alike.

Amon appeared behind her now, two fingers glowing with a fine point of golden soul light, and jabbed forward.

Lily twisted, catching the strike with a reverse-crossed dagger block, gritting her teeth as her arms quaked.

The air shattered between them.

Their locked clash detonated a third time, and the residual burst curved outward, carving a spiral of death across the field, vaporizing two siege units and leaving only burning stumps where trees once stood.

Ace's hair fluttered from the gale as he watched from the far ridge.

Amon tilted his head, stepping on air as if descending a staircase made of light.

"You're better than expected," he said, watching Lily catch her breath. "But not enough."

He snapped his fingers.

A golden disk of soul energy appeared above her, its radius massive, engraved with spinning runes, and began to drop like a guillotine.

Lily looked up and then grinned.

She then plunged into it headfirst.

The disk shattered with a scream of metal, and Lily erupted from it like a goddess wrapped in chaos.

Blood stained her armor, but she didn't care.

"I wasn't done yet," she hissed.

Then she grabbed Amon by the face.

Amon's expression twitched.

She dove with him, dragging him downward like a comet.

The two crashed into the valley—the impact turned the field into a crater. Dust billowed. Thousands died. The sea trembled.

When the smoke cleared, Lily stood panting, her knees bent, blades buzzing with unstable soul energy.

Amon rose slowly from the center of the crater.

His robes were singed. His monocle was cracked.

He laughed.

Not cruelly. Not arrogantly.

But with genuine interest.

"You've surpassed your station," he said, adjusting what was left of his monocle.

Lily wiped the blood from her cheek, eyes still wide, grin still fixed.

"You haven't even seen the worst of me."

The dust swirled. The battlefield held its breath.

Lily and Amon still stood in the shattered valley, blood and soul-light crackling around them—neither making a move.

Their stares locked, not just in challenge, but in understanding: they were alike.

But before either could step forward again, a new pressure rolled across the world.

It was not a roar.

It was neither a shout.

It was silence so complete that it erased sound.

Sarah descended.

She floated down like a feather—barefoot, robes pristine despite days of holding the sea apart.

Her eyes shimmered with cold patience, and the parted ocean behind her roared like a caged beast waiting for her word.

All movement on the battlefield froze.

Her mere presence pinned every living being under its weight.

She landed softly, not far from Ace, as Amon stepped back with a respectful smile and Lily—mad as she was—actually quieted, her blood-soaked grin faltering.

Sarah turned to Ace.

"Xiao Zhi. Ace. Whatever name you prefer." Her voice was clear, emotionless. "Give me the beast."

Ace didn't blink.

His eyes remained on her, not on Amon, not on the army.

"What beast?" he asked, though he already knew.

"Your soul bond," she replied, still calm. "I know you've sealed it away. I don't need the full body. Just the core."

Ace exhaled, slow and steady.

"I'm not suicidal."

Ace's expression didn't change. But his pulse—measured, calm—skipped once.

Not because he feared Sarah. Well he did but there was also another reason.

Because he feared what would happen if he gave her what she wanted.

He took half a step back, not retreating but anchoring.

His soul force surged silently beneath his skin, just enough to trigger countermeasures in the air.

Sarah tilted her head ever so slightly.

She was Divine Step Realm.

That alone would be terrifying. But she was the only one. In a world of mortal limits, she had broken through.

And no one—not even the legends who shaped empires—knew what someone like her could truly do.

Ace's stance tightened.

Behind him, Queen Arlen shifted, preparing something, anything.

Even Lily stopped moving, eyes twitching as she calculated just how fast she could reach Ace if things went wrong.

The Tharz soldiers stood proudly.

The Falmuth army braced for death.

Ace felt a tremor in the web of reality around them, like a ripple passing through the structure of a dream.

Sarah looked back at him.

"Last chance. Give me the beast."

Ace's voice was cold steel.

"No."