Hikari and Lila froze as their eyes locked onto Lirael. The woman standing before them was draped in an aura so suffocating it felt as though the air itself recoiled from her presence. Her eyes—if they could even be called that—were endless, yawning voids of absolute nothingness, devouring all light, all warmth. Lila’s breath hitched in her throat, a primal, instinctual fear clawing at her chest. Her body screamed at her to run, to flee from whatever monstrous thing stood before them. And yet, she couldn’t. Her legs refused to obey.

Hikari, noticing Lila’s distress, stepped in front of her, her stance guarded. Her expression remained neutral, but her fingers twitched ever so slightly, betraying her tension.

Hikari scoffed. “So, who exactly are you?”

Lirael straightened her posture with an air of refined elegance, placing a delicate hand on her hip. Then, as though standing before a grand audience, she performed an exaggerated, sweeping bow. Every movement was deliberate, oozing theatricality and arrogance, as if she expected applause to erupt at any moment.

“How dreadfully rude of me,” she purred, her voice a silken melody laced with amusement. “Allow me to introduce myself properly~” She slowly lifted her head, a smirk playing on her lips. “I am Lirael, the Witch of Despair~”

Lila’s blood ran cold. The title struck her like a blade to the chest. Witches—actual, living witches—were nothing more than myths, stories meant to frighten children. And yet, here one stood, radiating an aura so steeped in death it was suffocating.

Lila stammered. “The… the Witch of Despair?”

Lirael let out a soft, knowing laugh, tilting her head in an almost patronizing manner. “Oh, my, don’t tell me you’ve never heard of me~? How disappointing. I thought humans were more observant than that.” Her smirk widened as she ran a gloved hand through her long, silver strands. “I’d assumed that someone as breathtakingly beautiful as myself would be impossible to forget~”

Hikari let out a short, dry chuckle. “Please. You’re as pale as a corpse. If anything, people remember you because of how unsettling you look.”

Lirael’s expression twitched ever so slightly, her smile thinning. She clicked her tongue in irritation. “Tsk. Such crude remarks from an apostle,” she murmured, her tone dripping with condescension. Then, with an almost lazy shrug, she continued, “But, I suppose I can’t expect one of your kind to recognize true magnificence when they see it~”

She eyed Hikari with vague amusement, as if she knew something her and Lila didn’t—something important, something damning. The word apostle lingered in the air like a curse, like a riddle waiting to be solved.

Lirael’s finger lifted—elegant, deliberate—as if plucking a note from an invisible symphony. Her gaze, cold and knowing, landed squarely on Hikari.

“Tsk, tsk~ I expected more from an Apostle.” A smirk curled on her lips, dripping with amusement. “But you… you’re different. That aura of yours—so potent, so divine. Almost godlike.” She tilted her head, studying Hikari as if examining a rare specimen under glass. “It makes me wonder… are you truly who I think you are~?”

Hikari’s eyes narrowed. “And who exactly would that be?”

Lirael’s smirk deepened. “Ah, of course, you wouldn’t know~ How tragic. The little Apostle, unaware of her own origins.” She sighed, placing a hand over her chest in mock sympathy. “But don’t worry, dear. I know exactly what you are. And that’s why…”

SNAP.

The sound cracked through the ruined city like a gunshot.

RUMBLE—

The ground trembled. The behemoth, broken and bloodied, rose.

Its massive, misshapen body groaned as shattered bones reset, torn flesh reknit. One arm—thicker than a car—jerked to life, reforming into an unholy hammer-fist that gleamed with dark energy.

Lirael’s voice lilted with glee. “That’s why I have to get rid of you~”

The behemoth lunged.

FWOOOSH—

Its hammer-fist descended—a meteor of raw destruction aimed straight at Hikari.

A blur of motion.

Hikari vanished.

BOOOOOM—

The impact obliterated the street, sending cracks screaming across the pavement. The shockwave rippled outward, rattling broken buildings and tearing apart abandoned vehicles like paper.

Above the carnage, Hikari reappeared mid-air, flipping backward, her cyan eyes burning.

Lirael clapped her hands together. “Yes, yes~! This is what I want to see!”

She raised a single hand.

CRACKLE—

The sky split open.

A bolt of twisting purple-grey lightning tore free, spiraling toward both Hikari and Lila with unnatural speed.

ZZZZZTTT—

“Shit!”

Lila moved first.

Her hands shot forward—energy crackled in her palms, a psychic barrier materializing in an instant. A shimmering dome of pure mindforce—thin as glass, yet stronger than steel.

KA-BOOOOOOM!

The lightning slammed into Lila’s shield with explosive force. The sheer impact sent a maelstrom of energy howling through the streets, glass shattering for miles. The air trembled. The world itself shuddered from the force.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

And yet—

The shield held.

Lirael’s smile sharpened. “Oh? Quick on your feet, aren’t you? How adorable~”

Then she moved.

A blur of black and violet—

Lirael struck.

A single kick—inhumanly fast, impossibly strong—collided with Lila’s shield.

CRACK—

It shattered.

The force sent Lila flying like a ragdoll, her body smashing through a concrete wall—

BOOOOOOOM!

The entire building collapsed.

Dust and debris erupted into the air, swallowing her whole.

Hikari’s breath stopped.

Her mind went blank—then red.

Something inside her snapped.

“That bitch—!”

Her entire being ignited in rage.

Hikari launched forward—

But then—

No.

“Fuck—Lila!”

Her instincts screamed.

She spun a heel mid-motion, pivoting—rushing toward the wreckage—

SWOOOSH—

Lirael appeared.

She materialized right in front of her—too fast, too smooth, as if space itself obeyed her whim.

“Ah, ah~”

Her backhand came without warning.

CRACK—

The blow snapped across Hikari’s face like a whip.

Her vision whited out.

WHOOOOOSH—

Her body rocketed sideways, a helpless projectile as she smashed through a lamppost—spun out of control—skidded across the ruined asphalt before finally slamming into the side of a crumbling skyscraper.

CRASH!

Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

Lirael giggled, floating just above the battlefield, her silver hair catching the dim light. “Not a smart move, turning your back in a battle~”

Hikari wiped the blood from her lip.

She exhaled.

Then grinned.

Her cyan eyes burned.

“Fine.”

She pushed off the wall.

The air hummed with raw power.

Hikari’s cyan aura ignited, crackling like an untamed wildfire. A surge of psychic energy erupted beneath her feet, launching her forward—a blur of motion so fast the air itself snapped in her wake.

Lirael’s smirk didn’t waver.

She stood there, waiting. Unmoved. Unshaken. As if the very concept of threat was beneath her.

“Tch. Cocky bitch.”

Hikari thrust both hands forward—

BOOM!

A volley of cyan energy blasts tore through the air. Each one was a miniature explosion, rippling with compressed telekinetic force. The ruined cityscape trembled under the sheer pressure.

Lirael tilted her head.

Then—

She moved.

WHOOSH—

A blur of black and violet—Lirael vanished from sight just as the first blast struck where she had been standing. The entire street exploded, debris shooting into the air as a massive crater tore through the pavement.

But Hikari was already one step ahead.

The instant Lirael vanished, Hikari’s mind locked onto her presence.

“Above!”

She twisted mid-air—

FWOOOSH!

Her heel came crashing down in a spinning kick, a move that could tear through solid steel. Her momentum carried all of her weight behind it, boosted by a telekinetic pulse that made her strike impossible to evade.

But—

CRACK!

The ground erupted beneath her feet.

Lirael’s heel stomped down, sending a monolithic slab of earth hurtling toward Hikari. The sheer speed of it—faster than sound—ripped the air apart, creating a sonic boom that shattered windows for miles.

Hikari barely had time to react.

BAM!

The rock formation struck her mid-kick, the force caving in her ribs as she was sent skyward like a ragdoll.

Wind roared past her ears.

She was weightless—launched hundreds of feet into the sky, her body spinning out of control.

“Shit—!”

She gasped, blood pooling in her mouth. Her lungs screamed. Her head rang.

The world below blurred into a mess of colors.

Then—

A presence.

Above her.

Hikari’s pupils contracted.

Lirael.

She wasn’t just waiting.

She was already there.

It was almost inhuman. The way she moved—as if distance had no meaning to her. No wasted movement. No effort. Just pure inevitability.

Lirael’s hands interlocked.

Her arms tensed.

Her entire body shifted downward.

Then—

She struck.

“Try surviving this~”

WHAAAAAAAAAAM!

The most devastating hammer fist in existence crashed into Hikari’s stomach.

CRACK!

The sound barrier shattered.

BOOOOOM!

Hikari’s body detonated downward at 250 miles per hour, the sheer force of the impact sending a thunderous shockwave across the sky. The clouds themselves split apart.

She plummeted—

Faster.

Faster.

FASTER.

The ground raced up to meet her.

Hikari’s brain screamed warnings, her survival instincts blaring—

“Fuck—move—MOVE—”

But her body refused to obey.

Every nerve in her body was on fire.

And then—

IMPACT.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The force of Hikari’s body hitting the ground cracked the city itself. The pavement exploded beneath her, debris shooting into the air like a volcanic eruption. The shockwave leveled buildings, glass raining down like deadly confetti.

A dust cloud engulfed the battlefield, thick and choking.

Silence.

For a moment, nothing moved.

Then—

COUGH.

A splatter of blood hit the rubble.

Hikari stirred.

Her fingers twitched, her muscles screamed, but she forced herself up.

She refused to stay down.

Lirael landed effortlessly beside her, not a speck of dust on her pristine form.

She sighed.

“Tsk. I thought you’d be stronger than this~”

Her tone was bored. Disappointed.

Hikari’s vision blurred. Everything hurt.

But her rage burned hotter than her pain.

Her fingers clenched into fists.

Blood dripped from her lips.

Her eyes flickered—

Then ignited.

CYAN ENERGY SURGED.

RUMBLE—

The air vibrated.

Lirael’s smirk faltered.

Something was wrong.

The ground cracked beneath Hikari’s fingers.

Then—

She moved.

Lirael’s eyes widened.

Hikari vanished.

And for the first time—

Lirael felt it.

A flicker of something she hadn’t felt in centuries.

Danger.

FWOOOSH—

A cyan blur ripped through the air, too fast for the eye to track.

Lirael’s senses flared—

Behind.

She spun—

But Hikari was already there.

Eyes burning with raw psionic energy. A living comet of power.

Her fist rocketed forward, cutting through space itself—so fast, so devastating, it was as if the very concept of distance had been erased.

A deathblow.

A strike so absolute, nothing should have been able to dodge it.

And yet—

Lirael vanished.

WHOOOSH—

The sheer force of the punch ripped apart the air, sending a concussive shockwave tearing through the ruined city. A skyscraper in the distance—already battered from the previous battle—collapsed from the impact alone.

Lirael reappeared a dozen feet away, a smirk tugging at her lips.

“You thought you were gonna get me with such a simple trick—”

Her voice was laced with amusement. Arrogance.

But then—

She blinked.

Hikari was gone.

Above.

Lirael’s eyes snapped upward just in time to see her—

50 feet in the air.

Suspended in the heavens, surrounded by an aura so intense the very atmosphere shuddered.

Cyan energy crackled around her in untamed arcs, illuminating the battlefield like a second sun.

And then—

They appeared.

9,000 blades.

Each one forged from pure psionic energy, hanging weightless in the sky.

An ocean of weapons.

A divine execution.

Lirael’s breath hitched.

A sensation she hadn’t felt in over 900 years pressed against her chest.

Pressure.

The weight of an opponent who could actually kill her.

For the first time, the mockery in her voice faltered.

”…Okay.” A slow smirk curled her lips, but her voice carried the faintest edge of tension. “So maybe I underestimated her~”

Hikari’s glowing eyes locked onto her.

No words.

Only judgment.

Her hands thrust downward.

And the sky fell.

9,000 blades.

Descending.

Racing toward their target—

A storm of death.

TO BE CONTINUED…