Valeria fell from the sky. Not a slow, drifting fall like a leaf, but like a boulder hurled from a catapult, tracing a sharp parabola through the air before plunging headfirst into the earth.
Its left wing was gone. Not severed, not torn off, but vaporized outright by that bolt of golden lightning-from root to tip, from bone to membrane, from scales to the purple crystals embedded in the membrane.
Everything that constituted its "left wing" had ceased to exist in that instant, leaving not even ashes behind.
It slammed into the ground with a dull boom, like a hammer striking wet earth.
The impact gouged a deep crater into the ground, its edges curling outward. The shock wave flung rubble and dirt in every direction, forming a low, ring-shaped embankment.
Valeria's body was embedded at the bottom of the crater, its right wing draped crookedly against the wall, its tail hanging limply behind it, like a puppet with cut strings, carelessly discarded.
It was still conscious. That was the most painful part. If it had simply passed out, it would not have had to face what came next.
But it had not passed out. Every nerve was terrifyingly alert, every rocklike muscle transmitting signals of excruciating pain to its brain-even though it had no flesh or blood.
But this body's "sense of pain" was etched into its core energy circuits. It could not be blocked, could not be ignored, only endured.
It tried moving its left wing. No response. It tried again.
Still no response. It braced its right wing against the ground, trying to push itself out of the crater, but the moment the wing exerted force, its body lost its balance and slammed heavily back down.
Shattered stones flew up from the impact. A few struck its face, lodging in the gaps between the purple crystals and hanging there unsteadily.
Then the colossal beast descended from the sky. His golden form blotted out the entire sky, his enormous shadow engulfing Valeria and the crater it had made in darkness. King Ghidorah did not even deliberately adjust his posture. He simply folded his wings and let gravity take over.
His body, weighing tens of thousands of tons, dropped from the sky and landed beside Valeria-no, not "landed beside it," but "planted a foot on the left half of its body." The ground shook violently at that moment. It was not an earthquake, but the shock wave generated the instant King Ghidorah's foot hit the ground.
The shock wave spread outward from the crater, tearing spiderweb cracks through the ground, uprooting distant trees, and knocking the miners standing even farther away off their feet.
Beneath King Ghidorah's foot, the left half of Valeria's body gave off a teeth-grating crunch, like rock shattering beneath a heavy hammer.
Those black, rocklike scales, those purple crystals embedded in the scales, that skeleton supporting its enormous body, strengthened countless times over by arcane magic-all of it shattered, collapsed, and turned to powder beneath King Ghidorah's weight, like a lump of dried mud struck by a hammer.
Its left forelimb shattered. Its left shoulder blade shattered. Most of the ribs on the left side of its chest shattered. The energy core inside its chest was exposed to the air, like a still-beating heart stripped of its shell. Purple light flickered wildly across its surface, like someone screaming without making a sound.
Valeria did not even have the strength to scream. Its right eye-that cold, temperatureless eyeball-stared fixedly at the golden foot planted on its body.
The scales on that foot were smooth as mirrors, each like carefully polished gold, gleaming dazzlingly in the sunlight.
It shifted its attention away from that foot, struggling to lift its purple-crystal-covered head to look at the foot's owner.
The golden beast stood before it, his three heads raised high, six golden slit pupils looking down at it as though it were an insignificant stone beneath his foot.
The left half of Valeria's body was completely shattered. Not cracked, not broken, but shattered.
The scattered rock fragments, the shattered purple crystals, the energy core exposed to the air-all silently proclaimed one fact: this avatar, created at the cost of untold time and resources, with strength approaching that of a human tenth-tier powerhouse, had been crippled beneath a single stomp.
King Ghidorah snorted. Two streams of scorching air burst from his nostrils, sending rubble and dust tumbling to either side.
He lowered his head to glance at the shattered mass beneath his foot, still emitting purple light, then lifted his foot and stepped back.
"Huh? What the hell is this?" King Ghidorah tilted his middle head. No flesh, no bones, no blood vessels, no tendons.
What seeped from the spot his foot had crushed was neither red blood nor white marrow, but a gray-black substance like pulverized ore.
Tiny fragments of purple crystal were mixed into the powder, glimmering faintly in the sunlight like cheap glass beads crushed across the ground.
"No flesh or blood?" King Ghidorah lowered his middle head a little farther, bringing his golden slit pupils close to Valeria's shattered left shoulder to examine the gray-black powder and purple fragments.
Half a second later, he withdrew his gaze. All three heads turned back at once, six golden slit pupils fixing together on Valeria's distinctively ugly head, studded with purple crystals.
"So, are you a stone spirit?"
When King Ghidorah's telepathic message reached it, it was cold, direct, and casual in an "I'm just asking, answer however you like" sort of way.
Valeria fell silent. Its mind raced. When that bolt of golden lightning had struck it in the sky, it had had only one thought-It's over.
That thought had not been fear or despair, but a calm, almost cold judgment: its opponent was far stronger, and it had no chance of winning. Now that judgment had been confirmed.
It lay in the crater, the left half of its body shattered, its energy core exposed, purple light flickering wildly over the core's surface like a planet that might go dark at any moment.
It did not struggle, because it knew struggling was futile. It simply lay there, watching the absurdly enormous golden, three-headed beast standing before it with its sole remaining left eye, cold and without warmth.
[No.]
Valeria's telepathic reply came back. Its voice was flat, so flat it hardly sounded like a being that had just had half its body crushed.
"Don't care whether you are." All three of King Ghidorah's heads moved at once. The middle one lowered toward Valeria, while the other two flanked it from either side, six golden slit pupils hemming in its ugly head completely.
"Pay me back for my stuff."
Valeria's left eyeball turned. Pay him back? This golden, three-headed, unreasonable beast had knocked it out of the sky, vaporized its left wing, crushed the left half of its body, and left its energy core exposed, liable to go out at any moment-and now he wanted it to pay him back?
[Pay you back for what?] Valeria's tone carried the bewilderment of someone wondering whether they had heard correctly.
"My limited-edition, high-tech, top-of-the-line intelligent agent."
Valeria's left eyeball stopped moving. It stared at King Ghidorah's three golden, serious heads, which looked nothing like they were joking, and remained silent for a full three seconds.
Limited-edition. High-tech. Top-of-the-line. Intelligent agent. It understood all four terms separately. Put together, it understood none of them.
What the hell was that?
It rapidly searched its mind. That little thing? That little black thing with no signs of life and very strange energy fluctuations?
That little thing that had touched the sealed stone wall and supplied the energy to awaken it? Was that it? It was not certain.
But it knew that, without that little thing, it should still have been sleeping in the dark underground. From that perspective, it ought to thank that little thing.
And the way to express its thanks was to be crippled by this golden beast, then pay him back for some "limited-edition, high-tech, top-of-the-line intelligent agent" it had never even heard of?
[Do you mean that little thing from earlier?]
Valeria transmitted the question.
All three of King Ghidorah's heads stopped moving at once. He did not answer. He did not need to. His silence was the best answer.
Valeria's left eyeball finally began moving again. It turned very slowly, as though using every angle of its vision to reassess the golden, three-headed beast before it who had crippled it with a single stomp.
A fierce debate was taking place within it. One side said, You only absorbed the energy of a little thing. You didn't take it by force. It touched the sealed stone wall on its own. What does that have to do with you?
The other side said, Do you think this golden, three-headed, unreasonable beast will care about those details?
No. Debate over.
[Uh... great deity...] Valeria's tone grew respectful. It did not recognize this golden beast, but judging by his strength, he was probably some ancient old being.
It had heard the names of most of the god-kings and chief gods from the age of the gods, but had never seen them. The gods did not need to appear in person. Whatever needed doing was handled by their apostles and representatives.
It was only an avatar, not even worthy of having its name remembered by the gods.
But it knew one thing-in the age of the gods, a being with this level of strength would have been at least a chief god. Addressing him as a "deity" should not be wrong.
The instant the word "deity" came through Valeria's thoughts, King Ghidorah's middle head narrowed its eyes.
An emotion that could be put into words flashed through his golden slit pupils. It was neither displeasure nor disdain, but an indifference that said, I don't want to be a god, but I can't be bothered to explain.
He did not correct Valeria's form of address, because he did not care what it called him.
[I do wish to offer you compensation...] Valeria's tone became even more deferential, like a thief caught red-handed begging the victim for mercy.
[But, as you can see, I am merely an... avatar created through arcane magic. I have no means of compensating you.]
As it said this, it was actually considering something else. This golden beast cared so much about that "little thing," which meant the little thing was very important to him.
Since it was important, it had even more reason not to say it knew where the little thing was. But it really did not know where the little thing was-it had only sensed that little thing's energy fluctuations when it awakened, and had never sensed them again.
Whether the other party believed it was his business, but at least it was telling the truth.
King Ghidorah tilted his head. "You're an intelligent agent too?"
There was a brief pause in Valeria's thoughts, as though it were considering the precise meaning of "intelligent agent."
[I am not certain... If by "intelligent agent" you mean a nonliving creation that can serve someone and perform specific tasks, then perhaps...]
"Stop. Right there."
King Ghidorah interrupted it. He had not come to discuss philosophical definitions with a rock. He coiled his tail around this "stone spirit" and dragged it out of the crater.
"Then where's your true body?" His golden slit pupils locked onto Valeria. "Take me to it."
Valeria's body-at least the part that had not been crushed-stiffened slightly. The movement was so subtle that, had King Ghidorah's senses not been sharp enough, he would never have noticed.
But King Ghidorah noticed. He knew this fellow was afraid-not of him, but of him finding its true body.
[Well... I'm sorry...] Valeria began to stammer, forcing out one word at a time, as though making things up as it spoke.
[I am only an avatar. I do not know where my true body is...]
King Ghidorah knew it was lying. Valeria also knew King Ghidorah knew it was lying. But it could not let King Ghidorah find its true body. Its true body had slept for too long, its injuries had not healed, and its strength was far below its prime.
If this golden, three-headed beast, capable of crushing half its body with a single stomp, found its true body, its true body would have no way out but death. It would rather be torn to pieces itself than reveal its true body's location.
"Then what's the point of keeping you around?"