KroaaaAaaommm—!

With a tremendous shockwave, a massive arch bridge exploded into a thousand pieces. The small body of Eden pierced through the gigantic structure at incredible velocity.

As they fell, the [Shadow Angel] firmly held onto Eden’s face, slamming the back of his head into every protruding construction of the black spire—while occasionally, one of the other [Shadow Angel] holding the silk wire that bound his body would swing him left and right into the walls of this cavernous abyss.

Bang—!

Smashing into another wall, Eden’s body created a small crater, but immediately then after, another [Shadow Angel] swiftly grabbed him by his head, and continued slamming him down again.

The deeper down they went, the darker their surroundings became.

The deeper down they went, the more damage was inflicted upon Eden’s body.

Bang—! 

Broken through another arch bridge, and then another, and then another, before finally being released from the silkbound dagger and sent spinning down from impossible heights with all of the [Shadow Angel]’s strength!

BoooOooooOoomM~!

An explosion, more violent than any previous ones, left the bottom of this Abyssal Prison to look as though a meteorite just crash-landed, sending pieces of debris flying in every direction, kicking up smoke.

The body of Eden fell from the sky, gaining more and more momentum until all that was visible was a trail of golden light that disappeared into a violent explosion.

And yet…

Eden opened his eyes, blinking twice to get rid of the pale grey sands that fell into them.

Despite having been through so much and cast down to the ground so violently.

Lying flat at the bottom of a small crater, on his body, there was not even a single scratch visible.

“As usual… it didn’t even hurt a little bit.”

Muttering such things, Eden held out his right hand, staring at it intently.

—From the gaps between those slim fingers, the elaborate structures of the black spire above seemed almost small.

Meanwhile…

All around the area where Eden landed, the 14 [Shadow Angels] began to gather, forming an encirclement.

Flapping her black wings high in the air, the shadow in the shape of [Roxxi] spread her arms, sending a web of scarlet silk strings that spanned across the horizon, preventing anyone and anything from having any thought of escaping.

Below her, the shadow in the shape of [Rinne] sat, swung out a paper fan, before pointing it down and unfolding it with a strange twitching of her hand.

Fuwap~!

In the blink of an eye, a small stage manifested itself around her; a wooden screen unfolded, along with a small table that appeared in the front, creating an incongruous contrast against the dark and barren surroundings.

Despite having no visible face, her gaze appeared to be locked on Eden, frozen.

Landing from above, [Frul] stood in the front of the stage. Besides her, the shadows in the shapes of [Kitsuha] and [Nana] also twitched into positions.

Directly to the left and the right, the shadows in the shapes of [Yue] and [Xue] perched on top of the bases of two massive shattered stone pillars, readying their flying daggers, preparing to strike.

[Linlin], [Minjee], [Tsukiyo], [Hyong-ran], their shadows all stood at the back side of this encirclement. [Kanna] and [Miho] floated slightly above, staring down.

Coincidentally, the area at the bottom of this Abyssal Prison that they had found themselves in just so happened to be a place that looked like a colosseum, a grand circular arena made from black rocks, worn by time. Or perhaps, more appropriately, considering the nature of this place, an [executional ground].

Back in the center.

Eden patted his clothes as he stood up and began to look around.

Underneath the shadows of the spire and countless other types of structures shrouding over them, little of the environment was visible, and the only things that stood out were, of course, the scarlet gazes locking onto him from all directions.

It looked like, aside from the fact he was surrounded, the atmosphere here also seemed to be getting quite sharp.

“Hmmmm…”

—In this sort of situation, how should one respond?

Carefully analyzing the current state of predicaments he’d found himself in. Hopeless, cornered, out of their depths with no way of escaping… 

Wasn’t this just really really bad?

But eventually, after pinching his chin and thinking about it for a little bit, Eden was struck with a brilliant idea.

Immediately, he looked toward the [Shadow Angels] surrounding him, and proceeded to make a peace sign with his right hand.

Then, he raised it high, before dragging it down in front of his eye.

And…

“Kira~✰!”

And as soon as he did.

…..

—The 14 Angels of House Lucianna… launched their attacks.

Shwing!

The shadow in the shape of Linlin slashed her sword toward Eden. 

—A wave of sharpness cut through the air, splitting the layers of dust and smoke.

Eden lightly side-stepped the slash.

Thump!

The shadow in the shape of Frul kicked a large chunk of debris. 

—The head-size grey rock shot out, creating a small shock wave as it flew through the air.

Eden roundhouse-kicked it away.

The shadow in the shape of Tsukiyo rushed forward, flapping her wings once to gain a boost in speed, directly closing the distance between her and Eden from the side. Meanwhile, the shadow in the shape of Hyong-ran circled around the arena, rushing at Eden from the back.

As they ran, Tsukiyo and Hyong-ran swung their arms, causing [pure scarlet bones] to violently burst out from inside their shadowy limbs.

On Tsukiyo, an ornate bone spear protruded from her palm, before breaking off into the firm grip of her right hand.

On Hyong-ran, it was two sharp claw-like blades, growing from her right wrist.

Upon entering attack range, the shadow in the shape of Tsukiyo pulled her arm back and sent the bone-spear forward in a powerful straight thrust! At the same time, on the opposite side, Hyong-ran swiped her massive claws!

However…

Utilizing the split seconds' window of opportunity, Eden… calculated the trajectory of the bone spear’s tip, stomped it to the ground, and ran up onto it in order to avoid the bone claw’s slash from behind.

Clink~!

Then, kicking himself high into the air, Eden rotated his body, arcing gracefully to land a little away from his original position.

—Unscathed.

…..

Recovering his posture to a firmer stance, Eden reopened his eyes.

Within them, faint golden lights began to seep out.

If he wanted to get out of here and return to Lucianna, then defeating them all was simply the best option. 

And if that was the case...

—Let’s just get it over with then, shall we?

[Eden Vs The 14 Angels of House Lucianna]—started!

Wooosh~!

The shadow in the shape of Kanna immediately spread her arms wide, releasing an army of scarlet soulfires, letting them burst out of her body!

The shadow in the shape of Miho crashed into the ground, red mist seeping from her shadowy form, pouring out from the faintly visible seams that began to appear as her limbs started to grow in length and size!

The shadow in the shape of Kitsuha cast out her [Blood Talismans]. The human-shaped papers flew out in rotating mystical formations, traveling through the air toward Eden!

The shadow in the shape of Nana shot up and immediately started to rain down her blood tears by splattering droplets from the tips of her fingers!

Without excessive movement, Eden shifted his feet and rotated his body. 

The droplets of blood touched the ground, burning through them like acid.

Perching on top of the broken pillars on the sides of the colosseum, the shadows in the shapes of Yue and Xue threw forward their silkbound daggers.

Eden flipped backward, getting out of the way of their initial trajectories… yet they were still able to curve and continue to follow him.

So, firmly planting his feet down, he predicted the movements of the daggers, and threw a high kick. Then, hooking the back side of his heel to one of the flying daggers, he slammed it down, before doing the same to the other, burying both of them into the ground.

But then. 

Directly to the side, the shadow in the shape of Frul jumped in from afar; the impact of her landing was equivalent to a small explosion—parts of the ground of the worn-down arena cracked, sending pieces of debris flying off!

At the same time, the scarlet soulfires that burst out from Kanna’s shadow flew into those debris, possessing them, causing them to suddenly freeze before locking onto and flying at Eden like homing arrows!

Eden moved his head to dodge one of the flying pebbles and jumped back to avoid Frul’s follow-up kick.

From the front, the buried daggers got pulled out, dragging two chunks of the ground along with them as they once again flew toward Eden! From the back, the shadows in the shapes of Linlin and Minjee simultaneously swung their swords!

Eden leaned out of the way of a wave of sharpness, and flipped over another. The chunks of stones missed and crashed into the ground.

The talismans sent forth by Kitsuha finally arrived at their target! The pentagonal diagram spun in mid-air in front of Eden, and a massive tendril of blood burst from within!

Eden jumped and spun sideways in order to avoid the massive tendril.

On the opposite side of the colosseum, the shadow in the shape of Rinne raised the paper fan in her hand. As soon as Eden landed, the part of the ground he was standing on suddenly lifted itself into the air. 

Rinne then twisted her paper fan upside down. 

The chunk of rock suddenly flipped, casting Eden down into a free fall!

The shadow in the shape of Roxxi twitched her fingers. A bright glowing red line began to swing across the horizontal plane on an intersecting path with Eden’s falling body!

In the split seconds they were about to collide, rather than trying to avoid it, Eden reached out to touch that thin red line, and used that tiny point of friction to flick the rest of his body into a spin.

At the same time, following the path of his fall, Frul jumped up from below with her fist raised, ready to catch him with a devastating blow!

However…

Immediately as soon as Eden raised his hand and [pointed] at her, on the opposite of the colosseum, Rinne sensed the danger, flicked her paper fan, and Frul was pulled away.

Continuing to fall, Eden rotated his body in order to land on his feet.

Upon landing, the shadows in the shapes of Tsukiyo and Hyong-ran immediately closed in on him, both from the front and from behind.

But...

Right now.

There was no need to continue to run.

As the scarlet bone spear of Tsukiyo traveled toward his chest, Eden redirected the front end with his elbow, then used his palm to hit the underside of the shaft!

The shadow in the shape of Tsukiyo was lifted entirely off her feet, just enough for him to perform a throw, sending her flying away from him at high speed!

Then, calmly, Eden swung around and deflected the scarlet bone claw slashing toward him from behind with a swift reverse heel kick!

Clank—!

Powerful and precise. A decisive counter that left nothing but a fetal opening.

Without any hesitation, he rushed at the staggering shadow in the shape of Hyong-ran and delivered the follow-up attacks!

Ah, yes, as for how it was possible for him to be doing any of this, the explanation for that was simple.

—Due to his contract with Athena, Eden wasn’t capable of lying or hurting anyone in reality.

—But this was a dream.

First hit: taking advantage of Hyong-ran’s lack of posture, Eden delivered a swift kick to the right side of her body, breaking down her balance.

Second hit: smoothly switching to a different stance, a spinning high kick to the right side of her neck, breaking down her defense.

And finally…

…1.

Utilizing the carried-over momentum from the previous attacks into another spin kick to the right side of her head, while jumping to compensate for his short height, the shadow in the shape of Hyong-ran flew to the opposite side of the arena, shattering the colosseum’s wall!

Bang—!

Back in the front, the shadow in the shape of Tsukiyo performed a mid-air spin in order to land on her feet.

She then rushed at Eden once again, thrusting her spear forward.

Eden leaned out of the way of the first attack, and side-stepped the second.

At the same time, Rinne slammed her paper fan to the floor, causing the chunk of the ground that was lifted into the air prior to smash right down between Eden and Tsukiyo!

Eden jumped back, avoiding the exploded debris that also began to be possessed by Kanna’s soulfires.

The rain of rubbles poured down on him. Then came the second wave, then the third, then the fourth. Forcing him to jump back until he was eventually cornered against the wall of the colosseum. 

Tsukiyo chased after him and threw the scarlet bone spear forward!

As soon as the spear was released, Tsukiyo swung her arm, producing another spear to replace the first one, and threw that forward too!

Eden dodged to the left. The spear whipped past him, stabbing into the wall. He dodged to the right. Another stabbed higher.

Tsukiyo kicked herself into a spin, generating momentum in order to throw yet another scarlet bone spear!

The ornate weapon tore through the air with tremendous energy, creating a vortex of smoke, cutting through the space between it and its target like a scarlet line being drawn on a piece of paper!

However…

With just a precisely-timed front kick from Eden, the spear spun off course, and flew high up.

—A perfect memory. A perfect copy. A perfect execution.

—In a dream, he could move however he imagined.

Eden immediately turned around, and then, using the previously thrown spears stuck on the wall as steps, climbed up, jumping above the spinning spear.

And kicked it down.

Bang—!

Tsukiyo reflected it back up!

Chink~!

And Eden kicked it back down again!

Bang—!

When the spear in Tsukiyo’s hand and the reflected spear collided for the second time, both of them shattered, sending shards of scarlet crystal flying out.

And leaving the shadow in the shape of Tsukiyo in a vulnerable state.

Calmly landing on the ground in front of her, Eden shifted his feet and swiftly delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to the middle of Tsukiyo’s body!

…2.

Boom—!

The shadowy form flew, rolled, before bursting into clouds of black mist!

At the same time, Yue and Xue’s daggers pierced through the cloud of dust and debris. Rinne slashed her paper fan sideways, and the ground in front of Eden was cut away, piling into a tide.

Dodging the wave and the daggers by jumping to the side, Eden suddenly came face to face with the shadow in the shape of Miho.

After the shadow in the shape of Nana flew down and landed on Miho’s shoulder, the monstrous shadow with stitched-together limbs grabbed a huge chunk of a broken-down wall, and hurled it forward!

Eden ducked. The chunk of the wall shattered into pieces behind him.

But then, from above the shattered pieces of the wall, the shadow in the shape of Frul launched herself into the air, flying toward him with her fist raised.

The lights in Eden’s eyes glowed…

And the shadow in the shape of Frul was immediately hit with a backward heel kick!

Poof~!

Frul’s shadowy body... burst into a furry of Kitsuha’s blood talismans. The clouds of human-shaped papers exploded, bursting into a layer of thick smokescreen that immediately filled up the surrounding air, shrouding everything in an opaque layer of pure white mist.

Then, from within the mist, the figure of Frul shot out. Eden dodged her punch by casually side-stepping it. Frul disappeared into the mist, before emerging from the opposite direction. Eden dodged her again.

He threw out a high kick behind him which was easily avoided by Frul emerging from the mist.

Frul then began launching a series of attacks as her fists started to burn red, eventually catching on fire, creating explosive shockwaves with every punch and kick.

Eden tilted his head back to dodge a left hook.

Eden tilted his head to the right to dodge a straight punch.

Eden deflected the kick by raising his knee.

The scarlet flames drew an arc, eventually forming into a circle. Rather than punching, Frul’s movement was now akin to a wildly rotating windmill. Eden was forced to move back steadily to avoid getting hit.

After four full rotations, Frul immediately shifted the center of gravity of her body to prepare a spinning jump kick!

However, with a precise ‘check’ to the side of her shin, her plan was completely thwarted…

The shadow in the shape of Frul lost balance and began to tumble. Only managed to push herself up by punching the air below.

Boom—!

An explosion, one that sent her entire body upward, above the field of smoke.

But in the next moment, through the smoke, the figure of Eden also shot out—with a high kick ready to be delivered straight to her chin!

Positioned, chambered.

And…

…3.

Bang—!

Linlin and Minjee shot themselves toward Eden, brandishing their long swords! Yue and Xue spread their wings and shot up into the air, catching the silkbound daggers as they flew back to their masters!

With a shockwave, the monstrous shadow in the shape of Miho also charged forward toward Eden who had just landed far away from her.

On the shoulders of the charging Miho, the shadow in the shape of Nana contorted her body—her blood tears poured down, eventually coiling around Miho’s arms like snakes, creating trails of red as she raised her fist and threw a punch toward her target!

Immediately, Eden raised his foot to meet the punch of Miho!

At the instant the two clashed, instead of one side being stopped or breaking through completely, Miho’s whole arm actually [broke] off entirely from her shoulder, before spinning wildly into the air.

Then, miraculously, the broken-off arm stabilized its rotation, and began to fly straight. It coursed to the other side, coming at Eden from behind. But with a perfectly timed backward heel kick, Eden sent the arm off course once again.

Back in front, when the arm returned to Miho’s shoulder, she stomped the ground. The worn-down floor quaked, breaking, as the burning blood tears flowed down from Miho’s limbs, filling the cracks, traveling toward Eden!

Eden jumped, but as soon as he did, Roxxi’s silk strings were there to greet him, cutting across the horizon.

All around, the rest of the angels began to move—a coordinated attack against Eden’s position!

Rinne unfolded her paper fan, causing the entire floor to quake, kicking up dust and debris! Yue and Xue sent out their flying daggers!

Miho and Nana combined their powers and threw forward another chunk of the floor covered in blood! Linlin and Minjee slashed out two waves of sharpness!

Kitsuha threw out two more Blood Talismans! Kanna spread her arms and sent even more soulfires to possess all the floating pieces of debris!

However…

Eden spun sideways, slipping in between the daggers. Directly grabbed them out of the air. Threw them at the two flying talismans. And flipped over the waves of sharpness.

And then, for the soulfire-possessed debris, using only his left hand as support, Eden sprung off the flying slice of the floor, and flipped up—avoiding everything.

A series of flowing movements that looked almost impossible…

—Karzio was wrong.

—Dead wrong.

—There was never a possibility that the angels would have been enough to take Eden out. There was never a possibility that anything would have been enough.

Eden came right down on Miho with a downward axe kick!

Bang—!

As soon as Miho received Eden’s kick with her forearms, every single one of her limbs split apart by the seams and exploded right into the air!

The shadow in the shape of Nana was knocked away by the impact!

Immediately as the exploded limbs started to move, Eden blinked—to his eyes, a swirling red [core] began to circle around him to the left!

Landing, he swung his foot, rotated his body, and smashed it into the ground!

Miho’s bits and pieces fell to the floor like puppets with their strings cut before dissolving into smoke!

…4.

BooooOomm~!

The shadow in the shape of Nana finally fell down. At the same time, the shadows in the shapes of Linlin and Minjee closed in and slashed at Eden from the left!

Eden hopped backward, avoiding the waves of sharpness that flowed out of the edges of their sword swings.

In the distance, Yue and Xue sent down their daggers. Roxxi and Rinne raised their hands. Kitsuha threw out her talismans.

A scream. Inaudible, yet still sending shockwaves through the air and causing everything in the surroundings to tremble. The shadow in the shape of Nana held her face and arched her back, twisting her body unnaturally.

Then, her skin began to bleed. Her blood poured out faster from every pore of her shadowy form until eventually, she melted away into a pool of scarlet, which then surged into a gigantic current, sweeping the entire grounds of the arena!

Landing on the ground, Eden tilted his head to dodge the soulfire-possessed pieces of rubble, broken pillars, and black metal bars that were flying at him from behind.

But rather than trying to hit him, they were actually targeted at something else...

In the middle of the colosseum, the shadow in the shape of Kanna spread her arms wide as the broken pieces of this Abyssal Prison continued to create a husk around her body.

The husk then began to rise, growing larger and taller at an astonishing rate, casting a huge shadow on the already dark surroundings. Its shape began to turn into a ‘form’.

Just then, a huge wave of blood surged toward Eden’s position.

Without hesitation, Eden jumped, and started to run, using the flying pieces of debris that were being attracted to the center as footholds to avoid falling into the blood sea!

Back in the front, as more of the environment was dragged into the ‘form’, the structural integrity of the surrounding walls of the colosseum greatly lessened, even some of the massive pillars fell, creating more debris to be possessed by the soulfires, quickening its formation!

Then, the storm of debris began clumping together at different spots in the air, forming into separate parts—‘torso’, ‘arms’, ‘head’, each one the size of severa-storied buildings!

They swirled, before coming together into a single being!

Layer upon layer, piece by piece!

Until eventually.…

A [Towering Colossus]—height matching that of the base of the gigantic black spire, made from nothing but the soulfire-possessed debris!

Jagged, messy, yet still held an absurd beauty.

[It] raised its left fist, and slammed down!

Booom—!

Since getting out of its range was impossible, Eden instead ran directly in the path of the colossus's swing, before decisively jumping onto its hand!

The massive hand slammed into the burning sea of blood, creating a massive splash that sent the red liquid splattering everywhere!

Eden continued to run—Roxxi twisted her fingers, creating a filter of crisscrossing red strings to fill the arena, fragmenting the 3-dimensional space into countless slices!

Below: the sea of blood rose, painting the ground in a dark red color.

Above: the silk strings filled the space.

All around: the pieces of debris were still flying toward him.

Above the sea of blood, on the arm of the giant colossus made from broken pieces of this Abyssal Prison, Yue, Xue, Linlin, Minjee, Roxxi, Rinne launched an all-out assault!

Flying up through the silk strings, Linlin and Minjee now blocked Eden’s path. They launched toward him.

Eden dodged the initial waves of slashes by slipping around the curvature of the colossus’s arm.

Circling around the air above him, Yue and Xue sent out their flying daggers, cutting away his path of escape.

Rinne swung her paper fan, controlling the pieces of debris flying all around, sending them hurling toward Eden.

Kitsuha cast her paper talismans on the ground, caging in his movement even further.

Roxxi constantly shifted and changed the positions of her hands, removing and replacing the red strings that cut the horizon.

Linlin and Minjee continued to run forward, raising their blades for a split second before swinging them down at speeds that could easily break the sound barrier.

The golden lights in Eden’s eyes shone brighter…

Nothing could escape his sight…

An attack from the left. A perfect parry!

An attack from the right. A precisely timed deflect!

Action’s predictions predicted, countered only by predicted prediction predictions of predicted actions.

Spinning high in the air, Eden simultaneously grabbed both silkbound daggers flying in front of his face from either side.

—As long as the possibility existed that he could win, then all he had to do was imagine how that could be possible.

…5.

Immediately after firmly grasping the silkbound dagger, Eden swung it left, slamming the shadow in the shape of Yue into one of the massive pillars that surrounded this Abyssal Prison, taking her out in a single hit.

KroaaAaomm—!

Then, pulling the dagger in his other hand, the shadow in the shape of Xue, flew toward Eden at incredible speed!

And what was waiting for her at the end of it was simply a straight kick to the face.

…6.

KroaaAaaaAaomM—!

On the top of the colossus’s shoulder, the shadow in the shape of Kitsuha frantically began preparing a Talisman Formation.

Seeing that, Eden rushed at her, running up the arm of the colossus as it began to twist and rotate in an attempt to shake him off.

In the front, another spinning diagram suddenly froze in mid-air. A blood tendril, shot out.

Eden spun to the right.

Another, burst into form.

Eden flipped to the left.

Suddenly being closed in, Kitsuha quickly tried to protect herself by raising her hands which were filled with talismans to form a defensive diagram.

Bang—!

Eden broke her guard with a roundhouse kick, sending the talismans scattering everywhere.

Yet the scattered blood talismans still managed to form a formation diagram, creating a faint scarlet arcane barrier to block Eden’s follow-up kick.

However…!

Plank—!

The diagram broke. The blood talismans burst into pieces…

…7.

And Kitsuha’s shadow was sent flying directly into the head of the giant colossus!

Boom—!

The colossus swayed backward—like a bullet, Kitsuha’s shadow bludgeoned away the layered, clumped-together face, revealing that underneath it, the shadow in the shape of Kanna lay there unprotected.

Without missing a single beat, Eden jumped.

Immediately, Roxxi manifested her strings in front of him, only for him to simply bounce off of the silk strings and went up even higher.

Rising above the shadow in the shape of Kanna, Eden flipped once to get out of the way of the invisible slashes flying at him from behind.

Raised his foot…

And dropped down!

Bang—!

…8.

Kanna’s shadow was smashed into her own creation!

From the top down, the gigantic colossus suddenly exploded in a hundred different directions! The kickback of his own attack sent Eden back up into the air along with the thousand chunks of debris!

Additionally, torrential tornados of blood, rising up from below, swirled with terrifying power, threatening to tear everything apart, blowing everything and everyone higher into the unseeable sky

Roxxi spread her arms wide and twisted her hands! The red rings on her fingers glowed intensely as the pattern of webs once again re-manifested itself!

As soon as that happened, the pieces of debris from the gigantic colossus, large and small, got caught on Roxxi’s silk strings, creating countless floating platforms in the air.

Carefully rotating his body through the field of silk, Eden eventually landed on one of those platforms…

Schwing—!

And now suddenly had to deal with a sword strike, splitting apart the air, aiming for his throat. 

He pulled his head back, barely getting out of the way.

Then, a vertical wave of sharpness followed, forcing him to flip backward as the platform he stood on was sliced through cleanly.

Dropping down to a silk string below, the shadow in the shape of Linlin rushed at him—from the other side Minjee similarly ran forward.

Fighting on the silk string, Eden now faced the full assault of Linlin and Minjee from both directions.

From Linlin, a slice, aiming for the neck.

From Minjee, a stab, aiming for the body.

Eden leaned back, before dropping off entirely to avoid the rest of the attacks. And then, using the slight movement in the string created by his full weight suddenly pulling down, he slid his other foot underneath Linlin, and swung up behind her.

From the attacks, sharpness surged toward the nearby suspended debris, destroying them.

Back on the string, the shadow in the shape of Linlin spun around and swung her sword. And Eden precisely and swiftly deflected the attack by sliding the flat blade against the sole of his foot.

Linlin swung at Eden again, however, with another precise kick, her sword swing was interrupted.

Then immediately, springing up slightly from the silk string to gain momentum, Eden delivered a spinning kick that pried the sword out of her hand!

Clink~!

However, from behind her, Minjee bounced off one of the nearby strings to grab the spinning sword out of the air, then bounced off of another string to fly in and attack Eden with both of her swords!

Eden flipped backward, dodging the initial slashes, and continued to backstep to maintain distance between him and Minjee’s increasingly furious follow-up attacks.

Eden spun, deflecting one sword by sliding it to the right.

Eden spun again, this time sliding the other sword slash upward.

But when Minjee attempted to deliver all the built-up energy toward his legs by bending forward with a low cut that started to burn up the air…

Eden suddenly stepped forward and stomped her sword down.

Then, while pinning Minjee’s right hand with his full weight, and closing in for a follow-up, Eden lightly kicked away the sword thrust of her left hand.

And now that both of her hands were temporarily decapacitated…

…9.

Bang—!

Receiving the kick to the head, the shadow in the shape of Minjee let go of the swords in her hands, letting them fly into the air, before eventually falling to the sea of blood below.

Immediately, Linlin sprung from behind her, and grabbed one of the spinning swords!

ShiiiNnng—!

Eden rotated his body, avoiding the vertical cut. And after easily dodging another slash that was almost impossible to follow with the naked eye, once again, he stomped, pinning the sword being swung toward him to the string below.

Linlin overpowered his pin and pried up his entire body, sending him flying into the air. Eden carried the momentum of Linlin’s sword into a backflip.

From below, Linlin jumped, thrusting her sword forward in order to pierce him directly!

However, right at the precipice of her jumping arc, Eden, instead of avoiding the tip of the sword, stretched out one foot…

And landed on it.

Gently.

In the next moment, Eden twisted his foot, spinning the entire blade, and also Linlin’s shadow who was holding on to it tight!

Then, timing it at just the right moment, Eden fell, delivering a powerful mid-air backward heel kick to now up-side down spinning shadow in the shape of Linlin!

BoooOoooM—!

…10.

Falling, Eden looked down. Below him, several tornadoes of blood continued to swirl up from below, cutting through the silk string, and consuming all the suspended debris.

At the center of everything, the largest tornado rose and dispersed, revealing the shadow in the shape of Nana slowly coming into form.

Rotating his body, Eden eventually landed on one of the strings, and launched himself off of it with a bounce!

Flying through the air, Eden located the shadow in the shape of Nana—and dropped directly into her!

BOOoooOoooom—!

—A perfect assessment. A perfect counter. A perfect fight.

—It just needed to be described perfectly, and it would play out perfectly.

…11.

Zzzzhhhinnng—!

As the shadow in the shape of Nana burst into a cloud of black mist, all the blood that was poured out of her similarly disappeared in an instant.

The sky cleared, revealing that in the distance, the shadow in the shape of Roxxi began to swing her hands above her head and twist her fingers, rotating the countless red strings that filled the space in order to slice Eden to pieces!

In a single smooth motion, Eden flipped over one of the silk strings, and spun 360 degrees to catch the rotating red lines slicing through the air toward his neck with his bare hands.

Traveling downward ever faster, Eden continued to flip and spin, grabbing more and more of the strings, pulling them along with him.

Eventually arriving above Roxxi, Eden combined the silk strings into one hand, held it up—and twisted them!

WoooOOosSssh—!

The shadow in the shape of Roxxi tried to resist but was immediately overpowered! Her fingers twisted. Her arms became tangled around her waist. Before her whole body was pulled toward Eden.

And she was met with a double flying knee strike containing all of his falling momenta!

BoOooOoooooooooOoooM—!

…12.

As the silk strings disappeared, the pieces of debris being held up by them also began falling along with Eden.

However, in the next moment, the pillars, pieces of the walls, the floors, and large chunks of debris suddenly became frozen in mid-air—as if time itself had screeched to a halt.

Down below, far, far below everything, the shadow in the shape of Rinne straightened her posture, and slowly retracted her outstretched right hand.

The unfolded paper fan drew an arc as Rinne moved it to the front before being twisted upright…

And swung up!

Fuwap~!

Hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, the frozen pieces of debris began to fly toward the falling figure of Eden like a hailstorm that defied gravity!

Twisting his body, Eden kicked away a flying chunk of the ground and bounced himself from his original falling trajectory!

Eventually, he landed on one of the large pillars, and began to run.

Rinne swung her paper fan to the right!

Wooosh—!

Eden dodged it easily.

Rinne slashed her paper fan after twirling it in her hand!

Thump—!

Eden’s feet didn’t slow down.

Rinne threw away the paper fan, and clapped, slamming two pieces of the wall together!

However, in the face of that, Eden immediately extended his index finger…

And a burst of golden energy shot out!

The golden straight line cut the sky in half, destroying the pieces of debris and everything else in its path toward the shadow in the shape of Rinne!

Until…!

BBbboooOOoOooOoooooOOoOOoOMmmmmmmM—!

…..

Shhh~!

Landing on his feet, Eden stood in front of the stage that was crumbling. In front of him, Rinne simply collapsed to the ground.

—And now…

…13.

—There was only one left.

Eden suddenly turned around.

To the shadow in the shape of [Miwari], sneaking up to him from behind with her hands raised.

“...”

“...”

At the frozen, seemingly terrified shape of Miwari’s shadow, the confident smile that had crept up onto Eden’s face at some point during the fight quickly faded.

…..

“...Sorry.”

Then, with a flick of a finger, she was sent to the other side of the wall.

—————……….

Inside a dream, things tend to have the tendency to repeat themselves.

Dark corridor into another dark corridor. A never-ending series of hallways and corridors that seemed to lead nowhere. 

Pat~ Pat~ Pat~

The sounds of footsteps echoed.

Haaaa~… Haaaaa~…

—Followed by the sounds of rough, uneven breathing.

The interior of the giant black spire. The holding cells and closing in walls. The deeper Lucianna went, the less bound her surroundings were to logic.

Lucianna’s cloaked figure cast a long black shadow into one of the corridors she was passing by. On the path behind her. A small footprint of blood created by her bare feet scratching against the hard stone floor.

With a determined expression on her haggard and dirty face, Lucianna gritted her teeth and endured the pain.

And continued to run.

“Haaaa~…”

With only one goal in her mind—to escape. 

—But why…

Yet another seemingly infinite path laid out before her when she turned the corner.

“Haaaa~…”

—Why couldn’t she find a way out? 

A corridor of countless prison cells on both sides of the walls awaited her when she ran up a flight of stairs. 

“Haaaa~…”

—Why?

Lucianna stopped to catch her breath, placing her hand against the cold and dark wall for support.

“Haaaa~…”

—Just why?

—Why was it that no matter how fast she ran, there seemed to be no chance of her outrunning [it]?

Reaching to wipe the sweat from her forehead, her other hand slipped from the wall, causing a small stream of pale grey sand from the crack between the rocks to fall down to her feet.

Just then.

Tak… tak… tak…

The sounds of a different series of footsteps could be heard echoing from deep within the winding corridors. 

It was slow and steady, yet consistently getting louder.

On the wall behind Lucianna, a shadow of a man cast itself, growing larger as it was approaching her.

“Karzio…” 

Lucianna muttered under her breath. 

After that, the cloaked black-haired girl continued to stumble forward into the unknown darkness. 

Tak… tak… tak…

Sometime later, accompanied by the sound of footsteps, the shadow of a man appeared in front of Lucianna despite previously being behind her.

Somehow, he had not only caught up but was waiting for her in the next part of the corridor.

“Tch!”

Lucianna immediately turned around and ran back the way she came, taking a left turn at the next available corner.

She didn’t hesitate, mustering all of her remaining strength, she ran as fast and as far as she could.

But then.

—Again.

—Then again.

—And again.

No matter where she turned, all paths would lead to the same dead end. The same swaying shadow, snickering at her pitiful state.

—Inside a dream, things tend to have the tendency to repeat themselves. 

“Haaa~... Haaaa~... ”

But then…

Booom—!

“...!”

Lucianna stopped in her tracks and turned to look toward the direction of the sounds of explosion.

Within the darkness, somehow, somewhere, something had changed.

Dark corridor into another dark corridor. Eventually, after finding and walking through an opened door with a ray of light shining from within, Lucianna’s feet came to a halt.

The end of the path—a prison cell with the wall destroyed.

Through that missing chunk of the wall was the full view of the Abyssal Prison from the spire, all the protruding and overlapping structures, clinging together above the endless darkness.

Without understanding what it meant, Lucianna walked closer to the edge.

Tak…

As soon as she stopped moving, the sound of footsteps resounded in her ears.

She looked back, at the door to the prison. At the growing shadow cast on the opposite wall.

Even now…

The only way to escape…

Taking a deep breath, Lucianna made up her mind, and turned back to the hole in the wall. She walked to the opening that revealed the scene of the Abyssal Prison.

But when she decided to step forward to the edge.

—She couldn’t.

“...!”

Lucianna looked down. At her feet, a single shadowy ‘hand’ was grabbing her ankle! 

From the pool of her own shadow, the ‘hand’ eventually formed into an arm, then a head. Eventually, a humanoid torso emerged. 

Twisting, squirming, as though the deepest depth of the Abyss itself was manifesting right in front of her, warping space around it into darkness.

Panicking, Lucianna tried to move, but now on her other legs, multiple shadowy hands were clinging to them too.

At the same time.

The figure of Karzio finally walked through the door to the broken prison cell. 

Upon landing his gaze on Lucianna’s current state, he simply raised his eyebrow and gave her a questioning smirk.

“Do you really think they’re just going to let you go?”

A matter-of-fact tone that was as if he had known how everything would play out from the beginning. 

“...”

Staring at the face of Karzio with trembling pupils, Lucanna’s breathing became faster.

She closed her eyes.

…Perhaps, it was inevitable.

But then.

KhroaAAom—!

—The wall to her right suddenly exploded.

Lucianna and Karzio raised their hands to brace themselves from the shockwave.

When the dust cleared, a figure with long golden-haired and an expressionless face, casually walked through.

Eden met their eyes and deliberately kept his foot in the air just a little bit longer before putting it down.

“Shaaa~”

And with that… 

—The heavy atmosphere between Karzio and Lucianna was basically smashed to pieces by a hammer.

As though a storm, an uncontrollable, unpredictable force of nature that came and went wherever it pleased had come to blow everything away.

“Who actually… are you?" 

The same question from before came out of Karzio’s mouth again.

Or rather, it was Eden’s appearance right now that made Karzio unable to hold back his curiosity. He and Lucianna both clearly saw it. The moment when the [Shadow Angels], who held parts of the authority over this dream, caught Eden and pulled him down.

They both knew how strong the angels were. To get out of their encirclement. It shouldn’t have been easy, or even possible.

But the fact that Eden reappeared here unscathed could only mean one thing.

—Somehow, all 14 angels of House Lucianna were taken down without a sweat.

Meanwhile, Lucianna looked down at her feet and realized that she was able to move again.

“I am… a-ah!”

Eden walked forward… and stumbled on a rock. But then immediately afterward, he managed to perform a perfect front flip into a picturesque landing with both arms out-stretched.

He raised his head and looked at the two people in front of him and continued to answer.

“A passing-through hero—no, a magical… cat… girl? Eden?”

Halfway through that sentence, however, he began tilting his head more and more with every word while showing an increasingly confused frown.

““...”” Lucianna and Karzio.

—Why do you sound so unsure?

—Are you asking us?

Karzio narrowed his eyes and looked back and forth between the wide-eyed Lucianna and calmly posing Eden once again.

Unlike before when he was caught off-guard, this time, he had the time to properly think through everything

The fact that Eden was able to appear in this space. His apparent strength. And the fact that this [being] seemed to be on the side of the Goddess of Lust who has the power over dreams…

Eventually, his mind settled on a conclusion.

“Ah, I see. I get it now. That’s how it is,” glancing back and forth between Lucianna and Eden, Karzio lets out a surprised gasp. “So you’re *burrrbb* some kind of last resort defense mechanism created by her mind, in case exactly this situation happens.”

“???” Lucianna.

“As expected of a goddess, even in these dire straits, you still have cards up your sleeves.” 

On the side of the room, Lucianna’s corner of the mouth silently twitched.

Back in the center, like a detective who had just cracked open a tough case, Karzio grinned. However, in the next moment, his scornful eyes turned into a ferocious glare.

“But this makes it simple. You’re the only thing left to stand in my way.” Karzio turned to face Eden. The shadows on his face squirmed. “Which means all I have to do is eat you up too—”

“Wait, hold on.”

“What?” Karzio responded to Eden’s sudden interjection with an annoyed growl.

“[Laser Beam]!”

““...!””

—A surprise attack!?

BooOomMm—!

Before anyone could react, Eden pointed his finger at Karzio and shot a burst of golden energy! 

Karzio was directly hit, and his body was blasted through the wall of the prison cell.

However, after only breaking through one wall, he was able to stabilize and regain his foothold, recovering to stand.

The hole in his body that was torn open by Eden’s attack quickly healed itself.

“Ah, it didn’t work?”

Eden muttered in disappointment.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

“Youuuuuu…”

“Are really…”

“Making me…

“Angry!”

In response to Karzio’s outburst and threatening glare, Eden only tilted his head cutely and looked at him without batting an eye. 

—Little did anyone know that hiding behind that expressionless face was a barely concealed smirk.

“Sworry?”

[Eden Vs Karzio]—started!

—————……….