Emma’s figure emerged once again, descending slowly from the shadows of the chamber. Her steps were deliberate, the echoes of her boots reverberating through the cavernous space like a grim metronome. Her eyes remained shut, yet there was an eerie precision to her movements, as though she could see everything within and beyond the room.

Matana’s golden, slit-pupil eyes darted frantically toward her. His towering feline form trembled..... not from fear but from the rage that boiled within. His voice was a growl, low and menacing, though there was an edge of disbelief beneath it.

“Impossible... You looped my Fate? But how?” Matana’s claws flexed as his tail lashed violently behind him. “I, Matana, stand outside of Fate! I cannot be looped!”

Emma’s lips curled into a faint smile, one devoid of warmth. Her voice, calm and deliberate, sliced through the heavy air.

“You’re right,” she said, her tone carrying an unsettling certainty. She continued walking, each step drawing her closer. “You cannot be looped. But your question…. stirs curiosity. How could someone like you, Matana, be ensnared by fate?”

She chuckled softly, her laughter echoing as though the chamber itself shared in her mockery.

“I didn’t control your fate,” Emma said, her voice firm. “I controlled mine. Your path crossed with mine, and now you’re tangled in it. From this moment until the end, this loop will not stop. Even if you kill me, it will only restart. Again and again.”

Her smile widened, but it was devoid of joy.

“Until I will it to end, you are nothing but my prey.”

Matana’s massive form tensed, his muscles rippling as his rage boiled over. His growl deepened into a roar that shook the chamber, dislodging chunks of stone from the ceiling.

“You dare?” he hissed, his voice thick with venom. “A human, forcefully awakened, dares to threaten me, Matana? I’ll make you pay!”

His form blurred as he lunged, faster than the human eye could follow. Dark, primordial energy erupted from his body, wrapping him in a swirling vortex of malevolence. His monstrous body expanded further, each muscle grotesquely swelling as his claws extended like jagged blades.

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With a feral snarl, Matana’s jaws opened wide, revealing a void of a neverending darkness that seemed to devour the light itself. He lunged, consuming the chamber whole, swallowing the space in a cataclysmic collapse of reality.

But then.....

LOOP.

Emma’s figure appeared once more, descending from the shadows. Her steps echoed through the chamber as if nothing had occurred.

Matana stood where he had been at the start of the loop, his expression twisting in rage. His claws tore into the stone floor, leaving deep gouges as he growled.

“You...” he spat. “This trickery will end!”

Emma’s smile remained, unshaken. “Begin.”

And so it repeated.

For 1,078 loops, the cycle unfolded. Each time, Matana’s rage and desperation grew. Each time, Emma adapted. With every restart, she became stronger, her movements more precise, her attacks more lethal. It was as though Matana was unwittingly training her, honing her into the perfect predator.

The chamber bore the scars of their endless battle. The walls were marred with claw marks and scorched by bursts of primordial energy. Pools of blood...hers, his, or both, stained the ground, only to vanish as the loop reset.

Matana’s breaths grew heavier with each iteration. The once-proud, god-slaying otherworldly being of the deformation period now trembled, not from exhaustion, but from the creeping realization that he was losing.

“This is madness,” he growled, his voice rasping. “What kind of human can endure this? No mortal should remain sane after dying so many times!”. He knows he isn't strong enough as he was back then when he fought with the gods of this world in the deformation period, but that doesn't means he can't defeat a unawakened human who is forcefully trying to awaken,

His golden eyes, once alight with fury, now gleamed with pain and weariness. The rage that had once fueled him began to flicker, replaced by a gnawing fear. He was no longer the predator.

Emma descended the chamber steps once more, her 1,079th approach no different from the first. Her eyes remained shut, her expression serene, yet there was an unyielding presence about her.

Her voice was soft yet carried the weight of inevitability.

“Let’s start over, shall we?”

Matana froze. For the first time in his eternal existence, he felt something he hadn’t known in eons. It wasn’t just fear, it was despair.

A sudden chill swept through the chamber, so intense it felt as though time itself froze. The air grew dense, frost forming on the ground and creeping up the walls.

Matana’s breath hitched as his feline body shuddered. His very soul quaked under the weight of an oppressive, frigid force.

Emma’s voice was barely a whisper, yet it rang clear as death’s toll.

“Dark Frost Destruction.”

The chamber plunged into an eternal silence....