She Was Truly Beautiful

But all the energy in its body surged from that single point to every limb.

A node. The pump that drove the monster's energy.

"You've locked on?"

"Locked on."

"What about charging the attack? Stand still for three seconds and it'll swat you out of the sky!"

"Who said I had to stand still?"

Ziwei stepped forward, off the edge of the tower crane.

A hundred meters above the ground, she fell straight down.

Her long violet-gold hair trailed a streak of light through the wind and rain. The dark-gold scythe hung at her side, its blade slicing through the curtain of rain.

"Master, have you lost your mind? You're using free fall to time the charge?!"

"Quiet. Count."

"One!"

The Rift-Splitting Dreadbeast stopped tearing at the reactor.

It raised its head. All six compound eyes snapped toward the figure in midair, and its shrill screech tore through the rain.

The sound rolled across the sea, shattering rows of windows in the distant factory buildings.

Its bone wings spread. Dozens of translucent spatial wind blades took shape in a crisscrossing barrage, mingling with a mouthful of corrosive slime as they crashed toward the falling figure.

Where the wind blades passed, steel frames were left with smooth cuts, and raindrops were sliced in two.

"Master, it's looking at you!"

"I know."

"Two!"

Ziwei did not dodge.

The wind blades struck three inches from her body, and a thin violet-gold film of light appeared.

Dozens of blades hit it one after another, ringing out in a rapid clatter. They failed to raise even a ripple and bounced away.

Slime splashed across the film, hissing and smoking white as it slid down the curve. Not a drop touched her.

"...I forgot you have Mind-Over-Matter Protection. The attack can't hurt you," Kabi said sheepishly. "I worried for nothing."

"Glad you know."

"Three!"

On the ground, a badly wounded special operations soldier braced himself against a broken wall and looked up.

"What is that..."

"Light. Purple light."

"She isn't even dodging?"

"She's crazy. Those are a lord's wind blades..."

"Quiet." The veteran at their head coughed up a mouthful of bloody foam. "Watch."

In the Rift-Splitting Dreadbeast's compound eyes, the violet gleam had already reached its head.

It did not dodge.

A crimson glow rose between the gaps in its bone armor. Each segment of its spine lit up, painfully bright, as the energy throughout its body surged back inside.

Its hideous maw aimed at the breach in the reactor below. A ball of destructive energy gathered and swelled in its throat.

"Oh no! It's going to blow itself up!" Kabi shrieked. "It wants to set off the reactor core too!"

"If that energy ball falls into the reactor core, the fusion reaction will use it as fuel! All of Xinghai City will be wiped off the map!"

"Hurry, Master! That thing in its throat is getting brighter!"

"Then it can choke on it."

Ziwei turned her wrist.

The falling scythe changed course in midair, its blade sweeping diagonally upward.

"You talk too much. Times have changed."

"Dusk Calamity Annihilation."

A thread of violet light shot from the scythe.

There was no pillar of light. No roar.

The cutting edge was so thin it was almost invisible as it swept straight through the curtain of rain.

Raindrops split in two and hung in the air, forgetting to fall.

Pfft.

A soft sound.

The blade entered through the crown of the Rift-Splitting Dreadbeast's skull and emerged from the third segment of its spine in one clean stroke.

The energy ball in the great beast's throat froze.

The crimson glow of its self-destruction froze.

Even the magic surging around it froze.

A violet-gold force field closed inward from the wound, sealing the entire beast inside.

The next instant, its hundred-meter body disintegrated inch by inch.

Bone armor, flesh, and sinew crumbled away in the violet-gold light, turning to ash that the rain drove into the sea.

The wave of its self-destruction had barely begun to rise before the force field forced it back into its body, where it vanished along with the beast.

Not the slightest shock wave escaped.

The warning light on Reactor Three flashed twice, then turned green again.

The factory buildings stood intact. The sea was calm. Only the whirlpool remained, turning in place.

"It's dead? Just like that?"

Someone murmured over the public channel.

"A lord with a reading of three thousand one hundred... killed in one strike?"

"Did we record it? Ask the technical department if they got all of it!"

"The rain's too heavy. The drones can't get close... Wait, what's she doing?"

A moment later, the dispatcher switched to an official tone.

"Calling Ziwei! This is the Monster Hunting Bureau's Xinghai dispatch center! State your purpose and cooperate with the subsequent registration!"

"Repeating: please cooperate with registration! It is your duty as a Federation citizen!"

"Kabi."

"Here!"

"Mute them."

"You got it! Peace and quiet at last!"

Before the light had fully faded, Ziwei flicked her wrist.

The scythe tip hooked into the scattering ash and pulled.

A fist-sized, deep-blue crystal flew out and landed in her palm.

A D-rank, first-tier spatial Abyssal Core. Light flowed across its surface, which bore not a single crack.

"One hundred percent intact!" Kabi rushed over. "A spatial Lord Core! Even if you don't sell it, Master, absorbing it will give your magic a huge boost!"

"Good."

Another flick of the scythe sent two lord vertebrae flying from the ash. She caught them and slipped them into her magical storage item.

"The vertebrae are valuable too! Lord-tier forging materials!"

"Two of them."

"Two hundred thousand each! Four hundred thousand for the pair! Master, we've made a killing!"

"Obviously. Why else would I come out in the rain?"

"The Monster Hunting Bureau's drones will be here in forty seconds!" Kabi warned. "You don't want them filming you rummaging through the ashes!"

"I'm not rummaging through ashes." Ziwei slipped the Abyssal Core into her storage pouch. "I'm recovering spoils."

"Right, right. Recovery! Good for the environment!"

The last of the ash scattered.

A wisp of lingering will drifted out from where the beast had vanished and hovered in the rain.

The Rift-Splitting Dreadbeast's final thought remained fixed on the instant that thread of violet light had pierced its skull.

It had devoured its way up from the depths of the abyss to the rank of lord. It had seen hundreds of powerful beings, if not a thousand.

But it had never seen anything like this.

No incantation. No magic circle. Not a trace of a monster's savagery.

Only a tall violet-gold figure standing amid the wind and rain, her skirt fluttering and her long scythe angled toward the ground.

The curtain of rain edged her in light.

That wisp of will trembled, leaving one last ripple of wonder in the void—

"She... really is beautiful..."