Gojo Loli and Esdeath Fight Over Prey, Xingbao Struggles to Survive Between Them
The instant the words fell.
The air three meters above the scrap heap suddenly caved inward.
As though an invisible hand had forcibly kneaded it into a ball.
"Pop."
A muffled sound of a spatial bubble bursting.
Light refracted violently within that tiny patch of space.
Gojo Loli, wearing her small round sunglasses, appeared out of thin air atop the rusty shipping container.
She sat cross-legged.
A white plastic stick dangled from her mouth.
Her cheeks bulged rhythmically, the hard candy crunching between her teeth.
Within the hidden space of Nihility.
Su Chen's real body clutched his head desperately.
His brainstem felt as though a rusty chainsaw had split it straight open.
The strain of controlling two bodies independently far exceeded his expectations.
Half his consciousness had been pulled into the cold, arrogant shell of the ice queen.
The other half had been forcibly stuffed into the head of the unruly Gojo Loli.
The two overwhelmingly domineering avatar personalities collided wildly within his mindscape.
Su Chen clenched his teeth.
He bit through the inside of his mouth, and a heavy metallic taste instantly surged into his nose.
Veins bulged across his forehead, like writhing blue snakes.
He had to keep an iron grip on both avatars' emotions. He could not let the natives catch even the slightest flaw.
Esdeath slowly raised her head.
Beneath the shadow of her military cap, her ice-blue eyes were extraordinarily cold.
The hem of her white military uniform snapped and fluttered despite the absence of wind.
"Seventh Seat."
Her rich, mature voice echoed through the empty Waste Mining Area.
Every word was like a chunk of solid ice chiseled from a glacier.
"This is my hunting ground. Get lost."
Atop the shipping container.
Little Satoru Gojo nudged her sunglasses down to the tip of her nose.
Her azure eyes rolled dramatically, brimming with unrestrained mischief.
"Huh?"
She crunched the lollipop in her mouth to pieces.
She casually spat the plastic stick onto the rusty metal sheet with a faint clink.
"It's yours just because you say so?"
Her little legs swung smugly through the air twice.
"Well, I say this whole underground is my playground."
She extended her pinkie and pointed at Svarog, who was still billowing black smoke below.
"What's so special about the Seat of Ice?"
"I spotted this hunk of metal from up there ages ago. He's perfect for a little practice."
Two remarks.
Neither Divine Court avatar would give an inch.
The Underworld's already murky air instantly became oppressive and heavy.
A series of explosive cracks rang out from the frozen ground beneath Esdeath's feet.
White frost raced outward along the ground like a rampaging beast.
Everywhere it passed.
Rusty rails and abandoned mine carts were all encased in thick, solid ice.
The extreme cold made the metal brittle, and it cracked under the strain.
Sharp ice lotuses forced their way into bloom across the wasteland.
Gojo Loli refused to be outdone.
She extended her fair-skinned index finger and lightly tapped the air.
Limitless, fully unleashed.
The formerly calm space instantly grew viscous.
An enormous gravitational field centered on her slammed downward.
One cold, one heavy.
Two unreasonable laws crashed together in the center of the Waste Mining Area.
Rumble—
There was no blinding light.
Only the dull sound of the earth's crust being compressed.
A distinctly perceptible earthquake struck the entire Underworld of Belobog.
The thick alloy partition overhead groaned with a teeth-grating scrape.
Large flakes of rust and clumps of dust rained down.
They struck the frozen ground, raising a gray haze of dirt.
The mountains of discarded shipping containers nearby warped severely beneath the combined assault of gravity and solid ice.
Their metal walls caved in like crumpled wastepaper.
Terrified, Clara clutched her head and crouched in front of Svarog.
The layer of downy ice beneath her feet supported her steadily under Su Chen's deliberate control.
It completely shielded her from the world-shattering pressure outside.
But Xingbao, who had just followed the stairs down, was not so lucky.
She rushed headlong into the Waste Mining Area.
Vegetable leaves and grease from the trash cans she had just rummaged through still clung to her gray coat.
Her head was filled with grand plans to learn the glowing giant ball once she found "Sukuna's Finger."
She had barely rounded the corner.
A violent blast of air laced with sharp ice fragments slammed into her face.
The soft flesh of Xingbao's cheeks shook violently in the wind.
Her breathing abruptly stopped.
The pressure forcibly squeezed the air from her lungs, and her chest felt as though it had taken a heavy hammer blow.
The cold wind sliced across her skin like blades, leaving several thin bloody cuts.
It chilled her to the bone.
"Waaah—"
She let out a shrill, distorted scream.
Her legs weakened, and her knees shook uncontrollably.
The crushing spatial pressure pinned her back like a mountain weighing several tons.
Xingbao felt as though her spine was about to snap.
Her bones crackled sharply at the joints.
The snow and dust on the ground whirled into a miniature tornado.
It tugged at the hem of her gray coat.
The wind was absurdly strong, threatening to wrench her entire body into the air.
Xingbao's soles left the ground.
In her panic, she grabbed wildly at the air.
All ten fingers flailed helplessly through empty space.
At last.
Both her hands clamped tightly around a rusty iron post half-buried in the frozen ground.
The rust coating the post was incredibly rough.
Under the immense pulling force, it scraped a layer of skin straight off her palms.
Traces of blood seeped out and stuck to the freezing iron post.
Xingbao had no time to care about the pain.
Her legs kicked wildly through the air twice before winding tightly around the bottom of the post.
She hung from it like a koala.
The wind pressure kept mounting.
Her coat ballooned into a gray hot-air balloon.
She pressed her face down tightly against the freezing post, which reeked of rust.
Wind and snow poured into her collar.
The cold made her teeth chatter furiously in a relentless clatter.
"Help... I'm gonna fly away, fly away, fly away!"
Xingbao shouted with her eyes squeezed shut.
The moment her voice left her mouth, the gale tore it to shreds. Even she could barely hear it.
She felt as though both arms were about to be ripped from their shoulder sockets.
Her shoulder joints had been stretched to their limits.
The wind blew her tears back into her eyes, making them sting painfully.
Caught between two godlike powerhouses fighting.
As their newly recruited "underling," she was practically hopping back and forth across death's doorstep.
If I'd known, I never would've followed those tremors over here to watch.
Within the hidden mindscape.
Su Chen felt as though his brain was about to split apart.
Two enormous forces of mental power were bombarding each other.
Veins bulged at his temples, each pulse tugging painfully at his scalp.
His stomach spasmed, and acid surged toward his throat.
If he kept this act up.
He would suffer a mental breakdown before the natives did.
Both sides had displayed their power. His goal was achieved. He had to wrap things up.
Esdeath gave a cold snort.
A trace of irritation flashed through her ice-blue eyes.
She raised a hand and waved it casually.
The raging ice and snow around them instantly subsided.
The spreading frost stopped at the foot of the shipping container, advancing no farther.
"Consider yourself lucky, Seventh Seat."
The queen's tone remained imperious.
She glanced at Svarog, still billowing black smoke on the ground, then looked away in disgust.
"This pile of scrap is broken already anyway. I can't be bothered to dirty my hands."
Atop the shipping container.
Gojo Loli curled her lips.
She withdrew her fair-skinned finger, and the suffocating gravitational field around them dissipated with it.
Space returned to its normal refractive state.
The crushing pressure vanished completely.
"Tch."
The little girl dusted off her hands and stood up on the shipping container.
"What the heck? You already broke him."
She slipped her hands back into her oversized uniform pockets.
"I don't want a toy that breaks the moment I touch it."
Xingbao slid off the iron post with a thump.
She collapsed onto the frozen ground, landing on her backside.
She gulped down breath after breath, her chest heaving violently.
Her palms burned, the skin torn and peeling.
Both legs were still trembling, limp as a pair of noodles.
She tilted her rust- and dirt-smeared face upward, gazing in awe at the white-haired little girl above.
A powerhouse really was a powerhouse.
She wouldn't even give the Seat of Ice any respect.
Gojo Loli stood high above.
Her short white hair stirred gently in the wind, brushing the edges of her sunglasses.
She raised her head.
Her gaze cut through the dim searchlights of the Waste Mining Area.
She looked up at the thick steel barrier that sealed off the Upper District.
Beneath her sunglasses, her pale blue eyes
burned once more with a fervor for chaos.
She stretched out her small, delicate hand.
She pointed at the thick iron plate overhead.
Her lips parted in an utterly deranged grin.
"If the toys down here are too weak, let's go up there and drag out that old woman Cocolia for a beating!"