"Foresight Slash! Iai Slash! Helm Breaker! I'm carting... wait, no, I'm dodging!"
The Sapphire Star became a streak of light racing across the violently tilting deck, which churned like a boiling pot of soup.
Below the ship lay a lava vortex that devoured everything; overhead swept Dire Miralis's scorching breath, hot enough to melt steel.
With split-second reflexes honed countless times beneath the claws and fangs of elder dragons, she narrowly dodged a sweeping, colossal lava tail, kicked off the shattered remains of the ship's railing, and leaped into the air. The Fatalis Demolisher in her hand erupted with a dark radiance that swallowed light!
"I've never fought at sea, but you think you can ambush me? You're twenty thousand years too early!"
She roared furiously at the lava beast churning up sea and sky, her fighting spirit fully ignited by her desperate plight.
"Don't you know I once slew Fatalis in seven minutes and twenty-six seconds?!!!!!"
Her glorious past achievements became an unyielding will to fight. Gathering every ounce of strength, she raised her longsword high, its tip aimed straight at Dire Miralis's burning, molten-core eye!
Yet just as she prepared to unleash the decisive strike, something changed again!
As though thoroughly enraged by her taunts, Dire Miralis abruptly plunged its enormous body toward the center of the vortex!
The vast lava vortex suddenly spun more than ten times faster! Its terrifying suction surged instantly, forming a dark core that seemed capable of warping and swallowing even light!
"Holy crap! Where'd that huge whirlpool come from?! It's sucking me in, aaaaah! Boss~ see, I'm not trying to run away~ I'm being kidnapped~"
The Sapphire Star barely had time to cry out before the irresistible suction seized her!
Her desperate swing was forcibly cut short. Like a kite with its string snapped, she was violently torn away from the teetering ship and plunged toward the bottomless center of the vortex!
The last things she saw were the Field Team Leader's outstretched hand, his face stricken with horror, and Dire Miralis's furious, molten-gold eyes, which seemed to hold a hint of satisfaction at a successful scheme.
"Tell Lone Bird for me-!!! Remember to take over as commander-!!! Hehehe~ wait, no, boohoo, help~" Those were the final words she shouted with the last of her strength before darkness swallowed her completely, filled with "reluctance" and an obsession with dumping her responsibilities on someone else.
The terrifying spatial vortex created by Dire Miralis possessed enough devouring force to tear apart steel and the bodies of elder dragons.
Still, the Sapphire Star had confidence in herself. How could a mere elder dragon's body compare to her own thoroughly tempered, deluxe physique?
Just as the irresistible suction dragged the Sapphire Star toward the dark core and her consciousness was about to be crushed, the Fatalis Demolisher on her back suddenly erupted with unprecedented power!
Hummm-!!!
The blade's cry shook her very soul!
The carefully layered Velkhana appearance on the sheath blazed with dazzling, pure ice-blue light! Two utterly opposing yet perfectly intertwined powers, extreme cold and extreme darkness, formed an incomparably resilient cocoon that held the Sapphire Star's body safely within!
The tearing pressure of the spatial turbulence abruptly eased.
Weightless and dizzy, the Sapphire Star felt a cold, powerful force envelop her entire body.
"Huh? Did this sword come to life or something?" The Sapphire Star's eyes flew open, a flicker of astonishment cutting through her confusion.
The next instant, the icy darkness surrounding her smashed through some invisible barrier like a meteor.
Bam!
In a landing that was hardly graceful but undeniably forceful, she slammed down into a mountain forest clearing... filled with strange purple flowers?
The tremendous impact forced her down onto one knee to absorb the shock. Spiderweb cracks spread across the ground beneath her, while shards of ice scattered in all directions, refracting dreamlike colors beneath the moonlight.
She quickly rose and surveyed her surroundings warily.
Beneath the deep night stretched an endless forest of purple blossoms, carrying a faint, sweet fragrance. Huge clusters of flowers hung like purple waterfalls, gently swaying in the night breeze.
Besides the floral fragrance, the air held... an extremely faint trace of a rank odor that instinctively filled the Sapphire Star with disgust and caution. She had smelled it only in certain rotting monster nests.
"These flowers... I've never seen them before."
The Sapphire Star murmured to herself, instinctively gripping the sword hilt behind her back.
With a slight shift of intent, wisps of ice-blue cold wound along the hilt and around her forearm-Cold Draw, boosting her attack power for an instant.
Before she could give this unfamiliar place any more thought, a scream so shrill it cracked tore through the silent flower forest!
"Aah-!!! Stay away! Help!!!"
More terrified shouts followed, along with running footsteps, and...
"Wryyyy!"
A hair-raising, inhuman roar, accompanied by the sound of greedy gulping! A thick stench of blood, like freshly torn prey, rolled almost tangibly out of the dense woods a short distance ahead!
"What the hell? Where did I land? I've never heard of Dire Miralis teleporting people away!"
The Sapphire Star's brows instantly knitted, and her senses as a hunter at the pinnacle spread outward.
She clearly detected dozens of human presences running in panic, as well as... several beings radiating cold, bloodthirsty, inhuman malice! One presence was particularly immense and cloying, filled with twisted resentment and brutality!
That feeling... was a little like certain monsters overflowing with murderous intent, but not quite the same. More... evil?
"This test... is hell! Why are people dying in a test, aaaaah?!"
"That monster! It's that monster!!"
"Run!!" Terrified cries reached her in broken bursts.
"A test? Monsters?" The Sapphire Star had no idea what was going on, but she knew the words "hell" and "monster" all too well! It sounded like some big brute was picking on the weak?
"Tch. Looks like trouble."
The Sapphire Star curled her lip, her gaze instantly turning as sharp as a blade.
She hated trouble, but she hated bullies even more!
Especially when she sensed that largest source of malice chasing and toying with those clearly weaker presences in a cruel, mocking fashion. Anger quietly rose within her. Whatever kind of monster it is, I'll cut it down first!
The cold instantly grew fiercer, coiling around her sword arm as though it would freeze even the surrounding air.
Cold Draw-!
Just then, a despairing cry came from the dense woods ahead, followed by the whistle of something enormous rushing through the air!
Through the gaps between the trees, the Sapphire Star saw a terrifying humanoid creature, its body wrapped in twisted arms and as enormous as a mountain of flesh. Grinning viciously, it swung a gigantic arm down at a black-haired boy who had fallen to the ground, dressed in strange checkered clothing! The boy's eyes remained defiant, but the difference in strength was obvious!
"Hey! You big oaf up ahead!"
The Sapphire Star's voice was not loud. Her figure vanished instantly!
Whoosh-!
An ice-blue streak shot into the battlefield faster than any human or monster present could follow with their eyes!
At the very last instant before the huge monster's arm could crush the boy into pulp-
Clang-!!!
A deafening crash erupted, like an iceberg shattering!
The Sapphire Star appeared before the boy like a phantom and merely lifted the front end of the Fatalis Demolisher's sheath in a casual upward block, the blade still resting within!
Boom!!!
The monster's enormous arm, powerful enough to shatter stone monuments, slammed into the crystalline ice sheath!
The expected bloody spectacle of the sheath shattering and the girl being crushed flat did not occur.
Instead, an unimaginable, terrifying power-a fusion of absolute-zero cold and darkness that devoured all things-erupted from the sheath like a dormant volcano!