“If I’m being perfectly honest, Momo. I think that the current me can beat you.”

Miko said to Momo, who looking was over his shoulder watching him write.

“Huh? Where did that come from?”

“No, it’s just something that came to me.”

Miko was writing in a book at a godly speed. Words filled up page by page in mere seconds.

“Of course, I’m not saying that I could easily beat you or anything. It would require me to take a lot of risks and really careful planning, but it’s possible.”

Miko spoke without taking his eyes off the book or stopping his hands.

“…..Is there something you’re trying to say?”

“Don’t get me wrong, Momo. I’m in no way trying to challenge you. I owe you too much to do such a thing. I’m merely trying to make you understand something.”

He stopped his hands, put down his pen, closed the book, and gave it to her.

“At the rate that you’re going, you’ll be stuck forever.”

“……..”

Momo silently read the title on the book.

“Introduction To Ancient Magic.”

Miko took a new book and started to fill the empty pages.

“You see Momo, to live is to constantly evolve. Living things will always try to better themselves until the day they die. So in my eyes, those who refuse to evolve are no better than a corpse.”

“Are you saying that I’m a corpse?”

“Then let me ask you this, do you feel alive?”

“…..I would be lying if I said that I don’t feel dead inside sometimes.”

“That’s because you’re subconsciously aware that you’re wasting your potential. However, Momo I’m in no way bashing you nor am I telling you that you need to pick up the slack.”

He stopped writing and showed her a smile.

“You don’t need to rush to get over any troubles that you’re facing. Just take it one step at a time. After all, I’ll come and save you if you’re ever in trouble.”

He then handed her a book titled “The Beast Embodiment Arts”.

“This will help you take that first step.”

In Romix’s air zone an intense aerial battle was happening between Bastian and Momo. Momo was wearing a black gothic dress and had pitch-black hair and red eyes. She was in her Demon Witch Form. Her gauntlet-clad fists clashed with Bastian’s bear-like hands. She flew back and threw a punch and fired lightning at Bastian. Bastian swat away the lightning and the hawk tattoos on his legs started shining brightly. He flew through the air with a sonic boom. Momo snapped her fingers and a demonic gate opened in front of her.

“Purgatory’s Gate!”

A flood of flames rushed out and covered the entire sky. Bastian was swallowed up by these flames.

“Winter Flock!”

Bastian’s voice resounded in the flames. Momo saw a bird made of ice emerge from the flames. Soon, she saw countless more emerging from the flames. The scorching hot sky suddenly became cold. The flames started freezing before eyes. Eventually, even the gate she summoned was frozen.

*Bam!*

The gate shattered and Bastian appeared in front of her with the image of a tiger behind him. He swung his hand and razor-sharp winds rushed at Momo and cut a building behind her to pieces. She, herself had flown up to avoid the attack. Bastian kicked the air and accelerated towards her. Momo dove down and the gauntlets doubled in size. She punched down while Bastian punched up. A blast of demon energy was fired down at Bastian, who pierced through it with a snake-shaped beam. She blocked the beam with a magic circle and then disappeared. Bastian opened his mouth and released a soft high pitch sound.

“………”

He spun around and punched out. A loud thud was heard and Momo appeared out of nowhere blocking his punch with her arm.

“Echolocation, huh.”

Momo’s gauntlets shattered and Bastian took a shot at her head. She narrowly escaped it by moving her head. She countered with a palm strike on his chest. A magic circle opened on it and then disappeared without doing anything. She flew back to avoid getting slashed apart by his claws. The remaining gauntlet on her arm disappeared revealing the blood-colored magic circles on her arms.

“Let’s see how you take this!”

She pointed her palms at Bastian and dark energy rapidly gathered in front of her.

“?!”

Bastian’s eyes widen when the air started to shake. He could sense that Momo was about to do something dangerous. He shot towards her but he soon realized that was a mistake. Before he could reach her she popped up in front of him pointing a ball of dark energy at his face.

“Shi-”

Momo fired the dark energy and blew Bastian out of the sky. The energy rushed towards the ground and ripped through the earth causing countless explosions throughout the city before detonating and causing an even bigger explosion. The explosion rocked the city, destroying a large portion of it and leaving a huge crater behind.

“Hah~! Hah~! Hah~!”

Momo breathed heavily in the air.

“……..”

She silently scanned the area and paused when she spotted a man walking out of the smoking crater. His clothes were nothing but rags. In fact, he was pretty much naked except his pants that were now reduced to shorts. His muscular body was charred but his glowing beast tattoos were unharmed.

“…..That’s a lot of tattoos.”

Bastian’s body outside of his face was completely tatted with all kinds of beasts and they were all glowing red, seemingly making his body look red.

“Midnight Witch, Momo Dragna.”

Bastian called out her name.

“You are truly a strong woman. So strong that you triggered something that I couldn’t on my own.”

He showed her a beastly smile.

“You’ve triggered the final technique of the Beast Embodiment Arts.”

The tattoos on Bastian’s body started merging together before spreading to his face until he was glowing from head to toe. Momo could see the tattoos coming alive and moving about. Bastian’s body then grew taller and a bit bulkier. His back spurted wings and he grew a tail. That’s when the tattoos stopped glowing and the light faded away revealing a dark-skinned bipedal demonic beast with three black horns.

“Black Beast Embodiment.”

“And it appears.”

“Huh?”

Momo smiled.

“I made a promise with Miko that I would try and move forward; and to do that I need to fight you at your strongest. That’s why I couldn’t kill you earlier.”

Bastian was taken aback by what she said.

“So you knew that I needed to be pushed to the brinks of death to activate this technique and helped me out?.... Are you insane?”

“I can ask you the same. Your goal from the beginning was to achieve that form despite knowing that achieving it will result in all your life force being used up. All of your tattoos glowing at once was proof that you were burning your life force in hopes of reaching this stage. You came to war to die.”

Bastian didn’t deny her words.

“I have my reasons but what about you? You know about this technique so you must know that it makes me at least five times stronger than I was before. I can use all of my abilities at once and even fuse them together. And yet, you helped me achieve it? Are you suicidal? I can tell from looking at you, you’re at your limit after blasting me earlier. Just how do you plan on fighting me?”

Momo laughed.

“It’s true that I’m exhausted. I have another form that’s opposite to this one called Heavenly Witch, but it’s not really stronger than this form, Demon Witch.”

Her body lit up and she reverted to her original adult form.

“So to answer your question, I have one plan.”

She lifted her right arm and it was covered in white ancient runes.

“Test out some stuff Miko taught me.”

The runes started glowing and Bastian could sense magic power surging through Momo.

“Ancient Runic Magic: Mana Overdrive.”

A white glow enveloped Momo’s body.

“I’m not done yet.”

She lifted her other arm and golden magic circles appeared on it. Her azure hair turned golden. A white and gold gown wrapped around her body. Her eyes became slit and golden as a white staff appeared in her hand. The current Momo looked like a heavenly being that descended from the heavens.

“This is Heavenly Witch. The new and improved version anyway.”

“Incredible….”

Bastian involuntarily blurted out his honest thoughts.

(I don’t feel an ounce of demon blood in her. She’s like 100% God….Not only that…)

In Bastian's eyes, Momo who was illuminating the night like a star was surrounded by a terrifying amount of pure mana.

“For some reason, I can’t see her running out of mana anytime soon.”

“Well, Bastian Brant. We’re both at our most powerful.”

Momo spread her arms and it was like a sun appeared behind her.

“Let’s have some fun.”

A giant fireball fell towards the earth.

“Hahaha!”

Bastian blasted off the ground with a laugh.

“Let’s!”

He punched the fireball and caused it to explode and smaller fireballs rained down on the earth underneath them. Momo swung her staff in front of her and golden orbs appeared. The orbs fired golden beams at Bastian, who accelerated and avoided them while approaching Momo. He opened his mouth and fired a large beam from it. Momo evaded the beam and dove towards him. He clenched his fist and punched at her. She blocked the punch with her staff and hit him under the chin with a kick. He grabbed her foot and flung her to the ground. She stopped inches away from the earth.

“Boo!”

Bastian popped in front of her and punched her into the earth causing it to burst open. Cracks ran through the ground and up buildings causing them to collapse.

“Hahaha!”

Bastian laughed when he saw that Momo had blocked his punch with her staff. A golden orb appeared at his side and blast him off her. His body twisted in the air and he tried to stabilize himself. Momo teleported at his side and slammed her staff in his ribs and forced him away. She chased after him with a giant sphere of lightning trailing behind her. The moment Bastian’s feet touched the ground the lightning was fired at him. He released his claws and cut the lightning down the middle with a swing. Momo flew at him and threw her staff and turned into a golden beast that pounced at him.

“You dare send a beast at me?!”

Bastian rushed at the beast and dodged its bite and circled around its back. He wrapped his arms around its neck and pulled back. He ripped the beast’s head off and it turned into light particles. He turned around and saw Momo holding a gigantic golden hammer.

“Die!”

She hit him with the hammer and he was sent flying through the city. He broke through several buildings and landed on the street.

*BOOM!*

He heard a loud sound and saw buildings collapsing one after the other as if being mowed down. As he was wondering what was coming, he saw the gigantic hammer spinning and coming right at him. He took a step forward and swat it away with a kick. The clash created a thunderous sound as the hammer was blown back. That’s when Momo appeared out of nowhere and caught the hammer before swinging it down on Bastian. He clenched his fist and threw an uppercut. His fist clashed with the hammer and the clash sent shockwaves throughout the area demolishing all the buildings around them.

“Ugh!”

Bastian groan. He felt like he was trying to redirect a meteor with his fist. His body creaked as he poured more strength into his arm and blew the hammer back. He wasted no time and flew towards Momo and slammed his fist in her stomach and blast her away. Her body spun crazily as she cut through the air. She finally stopped after crashing into a magic circle she created. She saw a shadow cast on her and looked up.

“?!”

A building was dropped on top of her. The building exploded and a celestial dragon burst forth and breathed golden flames at Bastian. The flames engulfed him and illuminated the night sky.

*Bam!*

A hole suddenly opened up in the dragon’s chest and it disperses into light. Momo flew upwards while Bastian dove out of the cloud of flames with a grin. Momo armed turned into a golden cannon and she fired a huge blast at her enemy. Bastian fired a black light his mouth. The two clashed and caused a huge explosion between them. The two flew into the explosion without hesitation. A deafening sound resounded and the explosion dissipated leaving the scene of the two crossing punches. Bastian punched Momo in her face while she punched him in the chest. The two held their ground and started raining down punches and kicks on their opponents.

Momo’s gown was stained in the blood of both her enemy and hers. Her once celestial appearance was gone and she now looked like a mad beast desperately clashes with another mad beast. The two only separated when she flew back and fired another blast from her cannon to blow Bastian back.

“Hahahaha! I don’t know how you’re able to fire consecutive big attacks one after the other but I’m sure having fun!”

Bastian shot towards her surrounded by sinister static. He thrust both arms in front of him and fired a giant black beam that blasted Momo deeper into the city. She stabilized herself and saw several buildings being thrown at her. She stretched her hands out and two giant arms appeared out of nowhere behind her. She started throwing punches and the golden arms copied her movements and destroyed the buildings one after the other. She then used her index fingers and thumbs to form a triangle. Energy started gathering in the triangle.

“Haha!”

Bastian appeared behind her swung and his claws at her head. She vanished before they could reach her.

“Yo, strongest Pillar!”

Bastian looked up and saw Momo pointing the triangle at him.

“Go to Valhalla!”

An enormous golden beam was fired and it rushed towards Bastian.

“Hahahaha! You think that can-”

He lifted his hand to attack but his body froze. Confused he looked down on his chest and saw a blood-colored magic circle.

(When did she-)

Before he could finish the thought he was devoured by the beam.

*BOOOOM!*

A humongous explosion occurred and it spread across the city destroying the final parts that were left untouched until now. The whole city shook like the world was coming to an end. When everything calmed down a huge crater that stretched for several miles was left. Bastian laid in the center of that crater. He was missing his entire right side of his body and the rest of him looked like it was crumbling away.

“……..”

He silently looked up at Momo who landed beside him.

“….You lose, Bastian.”

“I can see that.”

Bastian showed a charred smile.

“Was your last battle satisfactory?”

“That depends. Just how did I lose?”

“Are talking about the magic circle that restricted your movements and sealed off your magic?”

“That and also how did you become so powerful.”

“They’re both easy questions so I guess it’s fine.”

Momo pointed at his chest.

“I placed the magic circle on you earlier in the fight. Don’t you remember me hitting you with a palm strike but nothing happened?”

“Ah, I guess that did happen…. What about your strength? It’s like you had an endless supply of mana.”

“Ancient Runic Magic curtesy of Miko. I used a runic technique that allows me to draw mana from the world around me and use it in its purest form. In other words, the mana doesn’t lose strength from conversions like with spells or normal magic attacks. It also allows me to become one with the world in a sense, thus granting me access to seemingly endless mana.”

“There’s a technique like that? That’s just cheating.”

Bastian laughed.

“Alright, I’m satisfied! This was a great final battle! I gave it everything I had and I clashed with one of the biggest geniuses of this generation! I have no regrets!”

As if to prove him right, his body started crumbling faster.

“Ah, Momo.”

“What is it?”

“I want you to past a message to my disciple, Natasa.”

“You sure got a lot to say for someone who’s dying.”

“I’m just staying myself to my last breath.”

“Fine, talk.”

Bastian smiled.

“Tell her, fight and continue fighting until you’re satisfied. Once you’re done, let’s spare again in hell.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want to say?”

“Yeah….”

His eyes became mellow.

“That’s just the kind of relationship we have.”

“…I see. I’ll be sure to tell her if I see her.”

“…Thanks.”

Bastian body had already been mostly reduced to dust and only a portion of his face remained. Momo felt like she could hear his final thoughts from just looking at that portion.

“Farewell, My Daughter. Until we meet again.”

She watched as he crumbled away into nothingness. She looked around silently and sighed. And then-

“Guah!”

Blood gushed out of her mouth in large volumes. She collapsed backward and hit the ground in her normal form. Blood leaked from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

(Shit…I overdid it and the backlash is taking effect…I can’t even speak.)

The pain assaulting her body was so agonizing that she hoped that her heart would just give and end the suffering.

(I can’t die yet…)

But that thought quickly disappeared.

(I won’t leave Miko alone!)

She tried to move her fingers despite it feeling like they were being torn off.

(Even if it’s agonizing, even if it’s easier to die!)

She lifted her upper body even though it felt like someone was beating it with a hammer.

“Live, Momo!”

She shouted at the top of her lungs before losing consciousness and collapsing with a thud.

Elsewhere, Natasa Kingsley was undergoing a metamorphosis in her cocoon. A single tear could be seen flowing from her eyes before being mixed in the liquid around her.

Time until complete Metamorphosis:- ????