Kakia barely registered what hit her. The only thing she saw was a foot and lightning. The next thing she felt was being painfully blasted off her wyvern and impacting the mountainside with such a force it created a landslide.

She picked up from the crater she found herself in and a scowled. The surprise attack ruined her good mood. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Kakia’s good mood was long since ruined. Sure, she got to play with Penelope a bit, but that stick in the mud needed the young queen moderately intact. If Kakia got her way, the former Queen would become a newest addition to her private dungeon.

Kakia’s private dungeon. It was three words that sent chill even to the heart of the most brutal men in Centuria. The troops, the bankers and everyone knew it. The Praetorship wasn’t given on moral or character. Kakia was a living example of how this miscarriage of moral selection bred misery. A psychotic lesbian sadist who got off the sound of girls in pain got to create an elaborate room of racks and torture instruments. Whips and sharp objects were her prize collection. Kakia was already a brutal warrior who enjoyed torturing prisoner during her younger days and exposure to the Divine Fist’s cutthroat culture made her worse than anyone could imagine.

Rumor said Kakia loved drinking the blood of virgins. They said she often kidnapped the girl who caught her eyes from any station in life and sexually abuse them to death door. Whisper spoke of how she masturbated to the sight of young pretty skin reduce to a bruise and bloody mess. It was an open secret that this woman was so horrific only Satan could flap to her deviancy and even Hentai protagonist couldn’t stomach her kink.

Those were rumors that were sadly accurate. The satanic version of Elizabeth Bathory was licking her lip at the thought of getting her hand on Penelope right after she fulfilled her uses. Kakia couldn’t wait for the ritual to finish. She already selected the hot poker to brand her newest property, taming the cute little Queen would be a joy. The sadist could already imagine those sobs, cream and tears.

The S-ranker was so distracted by her fantasy. She barely minded a lone knight arriving to dash the malice from her skull.

Annoying, Kakia thought as she unleashed a scarlet wind to crush the stranger who dare struck her for the sin of interrupting her daydream.

The blast of scarlet air carved a new channel right through the rock surface and scarred the distance mountain in its direction.

Kakia huffed, believing the interloper was dead before turning in the direction the old-man was in. Instead, she met a blade in her eye.

Chunk!

Kakia reacted to that attack, but she couldn’t make it. The blade stabbed out her right eye, sending blood flying in a scarlet spray.

“Arrrrrrrrrrgh!” the S-ranker cried in an agonizing scream. “MY EYE! YOU DARE! YOU INSECT!”

It was a critical mistake, but one that finally got Kakia to register the threat standing tall against her. Through her one good eye, Kakia finally etched the image of the heroes sent by good itself to end her perversion.

She was a girl. That fact alone made the S-ranker’s mouth twisted up in an excited grin. Blood trickled from her hollowed socket down her cheek as she smile in excitement. The young woman facing her was perfection. The short black-cape flowing in the wind. The black, lustrous hair. The smooth white skin and the well-toned body underneath, that golden armor lighted with glowing radiant. Kakia drooled at the thought of tarnishing the confident image and conquering that shining strength. The golden mask covering her eyes and ears simply added mystery to the enticing meal.

“Great,” Kakia cooed. She couldn’t wait to pick this little golden flower. “What a pretty little thing? You are going to pay long and large for this. I won’t break you quickly. It will be a sweet long time to turn you into a little puppy starving for my-”

[Jewel Sword: Salvation]

Luxinna launched an attack before Kakia finished talking.

Kakia immediately shielded herself from the blast of gold, which melted the mountain behind her. Behind the bulwark of scarlet wind, the S-ranker was sweating. The mysterious girl’s attack was insanely fast and merciless. Kakia summoned her lance — a godly weapon specially forged by the Divine Fist — and slammed it down. Kakia’s blow parted the scorching beam of molten glass that turned the rocks around her red hot, but Luxinna already vanished.

Kakia, being an experience warrior, instantly realized Luxinna was coming behind her and lunged backward. She thrust her lance with the strength to crack the earth she was standing on and unleashed the cone of scarlet wind that dug a gorge on the earth.

But anyone knowing Luxinna’s Stat knew it wasn’t enough.

…

Rank S: 31350

Luxinna Latoria

Knight of Glass

Stat:

Str: 5350 [S]

End: 5500 [S]

Mag: 8200 [S]

Wis: 2000 [A]

Dex: 10300 [S*2]

Skill

Active

Serene Glass [S]

Bioglass [S]

Arms Creation [S]

Animal Communication [B]

Edge of ADA (S)

Passive

Child of Lightning (SS)

Atop the Steel Peak [SSS]

Beast of Blade (S); Tactical Form [A], Defensive Mastery [A], Savage Form [S]

Vein of Thunder God [SS]; Electro Lorde (S), Electro Gift (S), Electro Genesis (S)

…

Kakia was an S-rank, no doubt about it, but she was out of her league. She, like any S-ranker, survived the brutality of the Divine Fist, but Dawn’s training was more intense and less brutal. If the Divine Fist followed the Chinese Gu poison where multiple individuals were sacrificed in the pot for the sake of a strongest survivor, the Dawn followed the philosophy of modern medicine. Instead of tossing a bunch of random animals together and hope the strongest emerge from the fighting, Satholia carefully broke down the functional group, making the macromolecule known as ‘power’ and synthesized it into the member of Horizon Dawn.

Divine Fist trained its men like ancient Spartan, but like how the Sparta eventually got done in by the combination of inflexibility and collectivism, Kakia couldn’t help but crumble against someone better adapt to the progress curve.

Kakia’s posture was strong. Her thrust and unique scarlet wind were firm. But Luxinna simply operated from different system. Her [Bioglass] reinforced nerves, enabling her superhuman reflex-curve. The elf already cracked the blast-angle, its blind-spot, and the velocity needed to launch the counterattack. Luxinna’s mask — and the bundle of [Bioglass] calculation network it provided — helped her coordinated her the hardware to pull such feat off.

Micro [Bioglass] organism glowed in the air and conjured a magnetic field around the elf body, firing Luxinna at the speed of Mach 20 before Kakia started thrusting. At that distance and velocity, Luxinna arrived in point-blank range before Kakia even reacted. Such violent shifting of speed and power was only rendered possible by her newest armor.

Kakia, failing to counter to Luxinna’s approach, continued with her attack. By the time she noticed the burning air and the spray of rocks from the shattered ground, broken by raw friction courtesy of Luxinna, the elf already pre-emptively exploited her failed attack.

[Historia] blazed as Luxinna sourced the power from the microbe nodules of her armor, quickly charging another [Jewel Sword]. This time Luxinna concentrated all her power into a single slash.

[Jewel Sword: Golden Cleave]

The blade of gold was aimed with meticulous precision, tackling right at the connection point between the lance head and the hilt. Luxinna’s skill was called [Atop the Steel Peak] for a good reason. Her countless deathmatch with the opponent universe above her league awakened her combat instinct and honed it beyond any of her kind. Luxinna Latoria was the knight standing atop the peak of steel and blood. She could wield any weapons after gauging its shape, balance, and weight. A glance was enough for her to judge the opponent’s habit and potential weakness. Single clashed of weapon told her everything she needed to know about the combat flow.

For the Ace of the Dawn, precisely aiming to destroy her opponent weapon was child-play.

In a beat that seemed to suspend time and space, [Historia] cut into the spear shaft and the following ignition of [Golden Cleave] severed clean through the weapon. In one flash of golden light, Kakia’s mighty spear was cut in half.

The bloodied woman sole remaining eye widened at the display of such accuracy. But despite her hedonism and flaws, Kakia was a S-ranker, and she lived to the rank, immediately pulling a scarlet broad sword from her inventory and thrusting it toward Luxinna with her free hand. The red-gale covered the sword in a final ditch to pull the mysterious young woman down a peg.

Let us be honest here, Kakia’s attack wouldn’t land. Luxinna dodged a point-blank blast and moved at Mach 20. A stab wouldn’t even make her blink.

A gloved hand caught the scarlet sword. High quality as the blade maybe, Luxinna’s armor possessed Paracausal physical property that proved adequate to stop the sharp edge. While the scarlet wind might prove problematic, the microbes in her fist already release its energy to sustain a handheld [Jewel Sword].

The crimson gale and the churning current of golden fluid clashed as the gauntlet shone with a golden aura. The very air rumbled from the collision. Kakia struggled, trying to push more strength into her sword, but Luxinna’s exoskeleton-powered gripped weight like an air-craft carrier.

That was the opening the elf needed.

Kakia’s hands were occupied. One in contested of strength with Luxinna and another still grabbing on the useless hilt. Meanwhile, Luxinna’s [Historia] was completely free. All she needed to do was adjusting it length to best suit close-quarter striking. Luxinna — in a practice maneuver — turned her broadsword into a machete.

The elf didn’t stop with her set-up, releasing her armor microbe nodules, she produced a cloud electromagnet around her [Historia] to accelerate her slashes. It was akin to Japanese Iai art of quickdraws. The magnetic field acting as a sheath and [Historia] the blade.

It was fast and brutal. A beautiful line that arrived faster than eyes could see. All the left in its wake in a shower of blood and a limb still clutching on that glorified pole spinning across the air.

Kakia attempted to scream in rage, but a headbutt from Luxinna shattered her teeth.

The elf wasted no time in wrangling the scarlet blade from Kakia’s grasped and issuing a brutal melee. With one arm downed, an eye outed and dazed from the headbutt, the sadist didn’t get a chance. Admittedly, Luxinna’s rapid maneuvers put a strain on her loyal [Bioglass] microbes, but she didn’t need them for a brawl.

A fist buried in Kakia’s ribs, breaking them. As strong as the Praetor’s STR and End stat was, Luxinna with her exoskeleton’s [Bioglass] fibers was too much to handle. A kicked took out Kakia’s knee-cap, forcing her into a coming knee-strike that blew a jaw from its hinge. Luxinna transformed [Historia] into a trident and stabbed the hedonistic woman’s foot, pinning her in place in a spurt of blood and tear.

A punch slugged into Kakia’s broken jaw, a hook followed, then an uppercut. Kakia barely felt a hand grabbing her, bringing her chin to meet Luxinna’s armor knee.

Luxinna yanked a Trident from her foot, turned it into Warhammer and scored a home-run with Kakia as the baseball.

The beaten, blinded, dazed S-ranker spun across and slammed into the mountain-side with nearly every bone in her body fractured. For Kakia, this was the worst humiliation she ever experienced. She couldn’t remember herself being crushed this badly. She must escape as fast as possible. Every cell in her body was aching from the brief punishment it went through.

Kakia suddenly heard a screech of her wyvern. This was great. Her help…

Right on cue, a screech turned into a yelp and an electrocute wyvern fell right in front of her, torpedoing her last hope with it.

Then she saw a garden of flower bloomed behind the golden knight. Her heart sank. She knew those flowers weren’t mere decoration.

“[Assault Flora],” Luxinna coldly said “Targeted fire!”

…

Luxinna didn’t know why her skin crawled when she laid eyes on the mysterious Kakia. Rem and Cytortia had little information on her, but Luxinna’s instinct yelled she was a bad-news.

She took a glance at the electrocuted, barely conscious husk, impaled to the mountain by at least twenty golden blades. Part of Luxinna screamed at her to finish the job, but she decided against it. Kakia was beaten. With the injury she received, recovering in time to shift any potential conflict was impossible. The crashes between the three Dukes were already lopsided enough with Promtus captured by Hikma. The abduction of both Kakia and Promtus would land them on the shit-list they couldn’t pay and blew apart Rem’s strategy. Cytortia was already swamped with too much management work to treat this creep. Moreover, Luxinna wanted to get away from this woman as fast as possible. What she said about puppy and affection was downright creepy.

Thus, Luxinna decided to toss Kakia’s incapacitated behind back to Acrisius. Promtus would likely know more intel given how he was in command, and Kakia seemed more like a loose cannon. It obvious who to take and who to mail back as a message.

Luxinna thought thing throughly, but sadly, she didn’t have Rem’s [Clairvoyance] or Hikma’s [Psychometry]. If she knew about Kakia’s hobby with helpless girls, the sadist would be neutralized right on the spot. Alas, the elf soon decided on action, which she would soon regret. A regret which resulted in the worst grudge subjugation in Tengen Continent history and a lake.

…

Phillip Odysseus never believed he got to witness this image.

It was the army of ten thousand, gulping before two people dressed in black. The army of Acrisius sent to pursuit them were on their knee barely rising after getting hit by a small lake, thrown into the sky and knocked unconscious. They were bruised exhausted. Anyone below A-rank looked like they were about to puke. As for A-rankers, five were still unconscious after getting Hikmaed, but the remaining five didn’t have a single fight left after watching Kakia’s bloodied body got tossed in front of them. Atlanta opened her mouth to protest about Kakia, but decided survival was better than integrity (spoiler: it was a bad move).

Hikma gazed over the army of ten thousand and stated a simple fact.

“There is nothing you could do here,” the boy called, heaving the unconscious Promtus over his shoulder. “Tell Acrisius to behave himself or next time he won’t have any more S-rankers to spend in this stupid war.”

The entire army silently watched the royal army remnant left with two mysterious strangers. Their mind refused to accept the fact two guardian angels arrived from the heaven, kicked their collective asses, beat the daylight out of their infamous commander and hauled another away like souvenir.

Maybe, just maybe, their ambition for domination might be a terrible idea.