I felt a sudden burst of pain in my chest, catching me completely off guard. Looking down, I was shocked to see a soft feminine hand protruding from my chest. My lungs burned, and I felt as if I were drowning in my own blood.

How did I not sense her approach? Was it teleportation or something else? No time to ponder that now!

Instead of pushing her arm away, I instinctively grabbed onto the woman's arm and tightened my grip.

Zumi was the first to arrive beside me, quickly discarding her face mask and jacket. She was dressed in only a sports bra and hot-pants, her dark hair tied up in a bun. Her pale skin, thick lips, and confident expression with a hint of shame were impossible to fully appreciate in the midst of the chaos. She even had visible abs.

But there was no time to dwell on appearances, as Zumi immediately struck the person who had stabbed me from behind. I felt the impact reverberate through my body as the attacker was sent flying, her hand leaving a hold on my chest.

I turned to explain things to the others, but only a wet gurgle and black blood came out of my mouth. “Grrrlk!”

The woman who had attacked us wore a black dress, her long dark hair falling around her creepy red eyes with a black sclera. A fist-sized red gem was embedded in her chest. She was Perenelle, the woman with the power to birth God.

Wasn't she supposed to be bed-ridden? Has the God-creating process not even started yet?

I cursed myself for this oversight. Maybe creating a God couldn't be done in just a month or two. Whatever the case, the situation demanded my immediate attention. In the original story she was weakened, but that didn’t seem to be the case now.

{Perfect Me}

'Order: heal me!'

The ability activated but immediately turned off. Healing this injury wasn't within the capabilities of Perfect Me; it couldn't regenerate my lungs or possibly my damaged heart.

Desperation set in. Darkness crept into the corners of my vision, and I began to feel cold and drowsy. I was losing too much blood.

I need a way to heal fast!

***

Perenelle had witnessed many extraordinary things in her long life, but she never considered herself much of a fighter. She excelled as a divinator, a seal mistress, a talisman maker, and a creator of life. But never a fighter.

Her husband, on the other hand, was renowned as the strongest exorcist of his time and lived for hundreds of years. Tragically, he met his end while trying to challenge the drunken Yamata No Orochi, a serpentine monster. The creature used a mysterious poison that nullified her husband's concept of unbreakable immortality, leading to his demise.

Perenelle couldn't fathom how such a poison worked; it was a complete mystery to her. Despite her intense hatred for Yamata No Orochi, she knew she was no match for the monster, as her husband had learned the hard way.

Her late husband had foolishly assumed that the centuries of drinking booze had weakened Yamata No Orochi. Sadly, that assumption cost him dearly.

He left her alone in this cruel world, and she suffered a lot for it. But Perenelle had no chance to think about that anymore.

Zumi suddenly attacked Perenelle, revealing impressive raw power behind her punches. Perenelle felt her head throbbing after the first hit and realized she couldn't afford to take any more blows from the girl.

"I thought the exorcists of today were weaklings," Perenelle commented, discreetly activating a part of her Special Ability, a divination skill that showed a person's destiny. It helped her determine whom she should eliminate first, as some individuals could become formidable powers if allowed to grow unchecked.

One of the people she observed was a silver-haired girl with a scroll floating above her head, titled: [Anika Raion, The Widowed Witch of The Red String]. Perenelle recognized the danger in this title and knew the girl had to be dealt with.

Then her gaze fell upon a dark-haired boy with a tiny streak of white, emitting the scent of the detestable nine-tailed bitch. His title was [Abe no Seimei, Heavenly Sage of Retribution]. Perenelle's heart nearly stopped, as those with the title "Heavenly Sage" were known to become divine beings, and the last one with this title nearly caused the world's destruction.

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However, it wasn't any of these individuals who caught her attention the most. It was another figure named [Kon, Dragon King of Broken Fate]. Throughout her long life, Perenelle had encountered those who had defied their pre-chosen fate, but when combined with "Dragon King," it signified conscious control over a power that could defy fate itself. This was a remarkable achievement, and she wondered what extraordinary deeds this person had accomplished to possess such abilities?

Usually someone only once went against their fate, but this one had somehow done so many times.

With that in mind, Perenelle focused the Ord within her body and bit her finger. A perfect copy of herself formed from the drop of blood. Without hesitation, she charged ahead, with the woman in the sports bra proving to be her most formidable obstacle. Zumi's powerful punch sent her blood clone crashing into the walls of the Gardens of Babylon, dispersing it.

Even though the clone held only about 50% of her power, Zumi's punches were nothing to scoff at, especially when she concentrated all her Ord into a single point on her knuckles just before impact.

For a moment, Perenelle considered calling for backup from the Garden of Babylon, but she immediately dismissed the thought. Her baby was about to be born, and the Dream Lords were already pursuing them. There was no room for delay, especially if there was another group of exorcists as strong as the current one. She knew how exorcists were like an infestation of roaches.

Perenelle had assumed that spending two thousand years within the comfort of the barrier would have weakened the exorcists considerably. It annoyed her to realize that wasn't the case.

She couldn't help but wish her husband was still alive, as dealing with such problems would have been much easier with him by her side. Ah, if only her lovely Nicholas was still by her side…

As she was contemplating this, Kon used some of his lifespan to heal his own wound. Perenelle narrowed her eyes, recognizing his special ability as some form of Body Control, even though she didn't know the specifics. It seemed Kon had forced his ability to a higher level by sacrificing some of his lifespan.

'I have to take him out in one hit and inflict enough damage to prevent regeneration,' she reaffirmed her plan, factoring Zumi into the equation.

Zumi's fate wasn't as grand as others, but she had already reached her peak. Which meant that she was dangerous right now, and not in the future.

Suddenly, a mirror appeared, and Kon urged his team. “We need to retreat, the longer we stay here the more powerful she gets!”

His statement sent a chill down Perenelle's spine. Did he somehow know about her special ability? She had never revealed it to anyone.

Regardless, this solidified her resolve to act. Even if there were losses, she had to eliminate Kon here and now, no matter the cost.

With her resolution firm, red streaks spread through her body, as if it was cracking apart. She could feel her lifespan draining, weakening her physical form. Though the red gem in her chest, her husband's invention, granted her almost infinite lifespan, it could only prevent natural aging. Using her lifespan to empower herself meant enduring permanent weakness and old age.

To further enhance her abilities, she created a barrier enveloping her skin and accelerated her bodily time using {Body Accel}.

It was a simple yet unique ability - it allowed her to manipulate her own time, making herself faster. She could only multiply her speed by four times, which might not seem like much, but at her level, it was impressive.

As she started moving, the world around her turned silent, rendering everything in black and white.

Though she could only control her own time, she moved so swiftly that it felt as if time itself had stopped. In an instant, she appeared behind Kon. Even with Perenelle's incredible speed, Zumi's eyes managed to keep up, but Kon's body couldn't match the movements.

Unaware of what had just happened, Kon stared at her afterimage in surprise.

Perenelle couldn't figure out how the boy had deduced her special ability, but once a power was revealed, someone would inevitably come up with a countermeasure.

She replicated her first attack, stabbing Kon in the back. However, she felt something strange as the flesh she had pierced wriggled and tightened around her arm. She tried to withdraw her arm, but it was too slow.

Zumi had already covered half the distance towards them.

A discomforting feeling stirred in Perenelle's stomach once again.

Kon had somehow predicted her attack pattern. Perenelle furrowed her brow, trying to remember if she had encountered him before, but nothing came to mind. Despite her long age, she would surely remember someone who made her feel so uneasy.

However, Kon had made an error too. He had assumed she would be weaker and wouldn't have confronted her if he hadn't believed that.

"In an exorcist battle, small mistakes lead to big consequences," Perenelle whispered, deactivating her technique to ensure Kon heard her words.

"I know…" Kon responded.

Though she couldn't see his face, Perenelle felt like the youngster was smiling. She spread her Ord, and sensed that the brat had moved his organs out of the way and she hadn’t hit anything vital. Now, it was her turn to smile. “You think I won’t make sacrifices too?”

When she said that, her dark hair started getting trends of white and she swung her hand upward, cutting through Kon’s lungs, ribs, liver, shoulder blade, and heart.