Layla woke up with a yawn.

She stood from her large bed and looked at her image in the mirror. The same brown skin and white hair in front of her red eyes.

It felt like nothing changed much about her physical appearance except her height as she gained a few inches.

At this point, it had been a few years since the fight with the Pyrohydra, making her 10 years old.

Her brother was now eleven years old.

Her family didn't change much either.

Zain was still a nice kid if only with a much more interest in breaking stuff when training.

Her father was still doting, even if he doesn't show all the time, same as her mom.

If there is something that might be mentioned is the fact that when she had to go to the noble parties, the kids and the other nobles no longer ignore her very different appearance.

Her appearance is after all pretty strange, even more so compared to her own family and basically almost all the other nobles. She just sticks like a sore thumb.

'Luckily there is no one starting a witch hunt or something. Last thing I want is a beginning for racism. Though to be honest, it already exists in another place of this world and even in this kingdom, just not shown as much here.'

She pondered as a maid combed her hair.

Of course, Layla knew why the nobles will not look at her with disdain even as they think that she was adopted or made because of infidelity.

Because she was a princess.

It didn't really matter if they hated or were weirded by her looks, they are simply on a lower level than her in hierarchy. To directly oppose and insult her means that they will be insulting the king and the queen by proxy. And that will not end well, especially when she is not antagonizing them.

At least she is not playing any 100-dimensional chess with anyone anytime soon.

Hopefully.

Leaving that train of thoughts behind, Layla pondered on her current state.

Currently, she is much more powerful than she was before, and her mana reserves skyrocketed thanks to her fighting inside some of the more difficult dungeons.

She doesn't have a human example to use, but at this point she can casually defeat Myrna, most likely. The last time she saw her and got to feel her mana reserves, they felt monsterously tiny compared to Layla thanks to all the 'grinding' the princess had done.

Then again, this is assuming Myrna is not hiding a trick or two, which Layla believes is something almost guaranteed.

Taking her mind away from Myrna, she wondered if she was ready to start the fight with the demon queen.

No doubt, she is strong, but how strong, is a question that Layla couldn't know, and most likely, never will, without fighting her first-hand.

'Of course it would not be an easy fight.'

The Demon Queen; In the game, she was not so difficult to beat if you know how the AI will act, plus the fact that she did not use her one-hit KO Soul and Body elemental spells most of the time, and only when her HP was critically low, which, if the player knew about it, would have already planned to defeat her at the same turn, or used a healing and buffing spell to survive the attack.

In this world? Who knows how a sentient and sapient being who had more than 200 years to train would even act while using that power?

'Now, that is a terrifying idea. A Boss who had centuries to hone her OP powers.'

Layla supressed a shudder at the idea.

Better think of that when she isn't alone. The maid almost noticed it.

---

"Finally, it took a few more months, but I am now ready."

Layla breathed as she prepared herself.

Time stopped around her.

In the darkness of the night, she looked around as the light of the moon illuminated her room from the window, as the world became mute except her.

She walked out of the castle, a map in her hand, and a cloak hiding her figure.

"Time to see how strong the Demon Queen is..."

Steeling her nerves, she ran rapidly and jumped above the roofs of the buildings when she reached the crowded areas, augmenting her body while still affecting time, putting it into a halt.

A building after building, district after district, the whole scenery became smaller and farther, as she was leaving the kingdom.

The large green area surrounding the kingdom was clear.

This was a large forest that extended for dozens of miles, containing a lot of wild life and plants, along with the regular weak monsters such as goblins and slimes.

Beyond it was her destination. The large city where the Demon Queen and other monsters live.

History books say that it was a city that made an alliance with the Rossthey kingdom before getting ravaged by monsters centuries ago, and it's now nothing but a den for all sorts of monsters who are ruled by the Demon Queen.

Layla watched as living organisms stood still, some in the middle of catching other animals or creatures.

There was also a large monsterous zebra that was in the middle of the jump to bite at a lion, from what she could understand.

"Nature sure is great, right?"

Asking no one, Layla moved her hands in front of the zebra, frozen in time, and space twisted.

The zebra was no longer there.

It was not dead, far from it. But it was locked into Layla's version of the typical Item Box, where time doesn't resume unless she decides it.

"Sorry about that, but I might need you later on."

With that apology, she also pulled the lion, along with many other creatures in the space construct of her making.

Layla looked around her for a moment before continuing.

There was no hint of exhaustion she could feel even with the continuous usage of both Time Stop and Body Augmentation thanks to how high her mana is, and the Life affinity she has, erasing any sign of tiredness.

After what felt like hours, she had reached the end of the forest, killing some of the stronger monsters and increasing her mana resevoir a tiny bit.

Layla looked at the structure in front of her.

"That sure is quite large..."

What she saw was a huge wall surrounding the city, easily reaching hundreds of meters, maybe even a few kilometers from how high they were.

The wall seemed to be made with steel, quite solid if not for the fact that every demon here probably has enough power to destroy it with ease. But it works well against most low level humans and creatures and maybe stalling some of the stronger beings for a while.

Her eyes closed for a moment, before she breathed, and opened them.

"Time to work now."

With that, in the world of stopped time, she rushed once more.

She jumped high enough, using her fingers to stick herself on the walls and making her way to the top.

A dozen or so monsters frozen in time were around her as she was above the walls.

Little did they matter, as two thin and wide spatial slashes made a short work of them, slicing them into multiple pieces.

For a moment, time resumed so Layla could add some of their mana to her own mana pool, before stopping again.

The other guards had already seen her, but it didn't matter when they followed their friends to death.

"Guards down, now for you..."

Layla jumped ignoring the other monster citizens frozen in time, blissfully unaware of her presence.

"Into the castle, I go!"

With that, she leapt towards the castle in the middle of the city.

---

"This castle is indeed quite amazing..."

Layla walked casually inside the large castle.

The castle was extravagant, walls made with what seemed to be marble, with large windows. There were flowers put in large vases made of silver and gold.

As she walked, she passed through a large amount of monsters who looked quite human except for tails, different skins, and more. All frozen in time, as they didn't notice her presence as their perception ceased to exist as time stood still.

All of them were ignored as she slowly marched towards her destination; the huge doors that separated her from her target.

The Demon Queen.

'Her energy is quite powerful. It easily eclipses all the monsters I've seen combined. This has to be her.'

A shiver went through her body before she calmed herself.

No time to hesitate now.

Opening the door, she saw her.

Long black hair, seductive face, huge boobs and curvy body.

She was also naked, her large boobs on display with an escatic sadistic expression on her face.

Layla looked at the sight in front of her, and she didn't know if she should be, embarrassed, worried or annoyed.

'I really regret my life.'

Such was her feelings as she saw the paused scene in front of her.

In front of her, the Demon Queen was also in the middle of having sex with a man, a human from the lack of any features such as different skin color or long ears and the likes.

And Layla wasn't sure if this whole thing is consentual.

'I guess, I will pick annoyance.'

Layla pondered as her eyes twitched and her arm was raised, mana enemating as space twisted around it, and she waved it towards the Akeno-look-alike.

A diagonal tear in space came to being, slicing and erasing the demon queen's whole upper body down to her hips, and killing the poor man alongside her.

"Well, this was easier than expected."

Layla stated, breathing as time resumed, and blood spilled from the corp-

A sound of the wall cracking hit her ears, before she sensed it.

She gasped as air left her lungs, a sensation in her stomach making itself known.

Pain. That was it.

"Wha-!"

Instictually, her senses sharpened as her arm went towards her stomach, and she immediately felt the touch of the red liquid flowing from her body, and the gaping hole in her body as it was closing at a rapid rate due to her Life affinity.

'The hell!? What happened!?'

As she thoughts of that, her insticts warned her and she moved her body, seeing as a red object was rushing towards her.

Not even a second later, a violent force had shattered the wall completely as the cracks spread from where Layla's head was.

As she rolled and stood on her two legs, now fully healed, she saw a long arm made of red liquid, -blood, she realized- and attached to it, the face of a very familiar woman.

"Hmm~ it's been a long time since I dealt with assassins~! And you managed to survive through two attacks. Impressive~!"

The demon queen, the one that Layla erased the entire upper half with spatial slash-

Layla looked in befuddlement as her target's body was regenerating, not from the lower half that was still on the bed, but it looked like it regenerated from nothing.

'No, her body started regenerating from her blood...'

In that instant, Layla had decided on what to do; get some distance if not aborting the plan for now.

Time stopped by her will, and she turned arou-

Pain entered her body once more.

"Guh!? What-!?"

Her eyes looked down, and she saw much to her shock as a hand was piercing her chest.

"Oh~ A Time manipulator~? So rare, indeed~"

Her eyes widened as from the corner of her eyes, she saw as the demon queen was looking at her, smirking.

While time was stopped.

'How!?'

She could only think that as her concentration slipped from the surprise and pain, and the flow of time resumed.

Her body fell on the ground, blood spilling on the floor as she used her mana to heal herself.

Rolling rapidly, she stood on her two feet looking at her opponent.

"Hah~ Life element as well~?"

The demon queen's voice, a mix between a flirty tone and a curious one resounded in the room, easily catching Layla's attention as both ignored as the servants were screaming and running in fear as they realized the destruction that was occuring.

"Interesting, for sure~!"

Layla felt herself shudder as the demon queen moaned in esctasy as she looked at the white-haired girl.

This was not how she planned to do this at all!

How!? How did this Himejima Akeno clone move in the stopped time? She wasn-

"-n"t supposed to have a Time affinity, was that what you thought?"

"What...?"

Layla's eyes widened as the demon queen's hair distorted, becoming longer, turning into blood, as it fell on the ground, hands looking like they belonged to all sorts of different races manifesting from the blood. All linked to the demoness' body.

But she didn't focus on that, instead finding herself in a momentary shock for a second as she realized what just happened.

"You- you read my mind?!"

It wasn't a question.

The hands grew larger, as if trying to reach the sky, as the demon queen looked at her, amused. As if this whole thing was just a boring and normal past-time hobby.

"Hee~ you have already known about me, didn't you? 'She wasn't supposed to have a Time affinity' wasn't it? You should have already known, that I can read minds at the very least, and that I can manipulate my body, right?"

Fuck.

The smirk grew wider as she kept talking towards Layla "In fact, I think you know more than you let on. Don't worry. We will have plenty of time to know each other, young girl~."

With that the hands moved as one towards her.

"Dman it!"

Layla unleashed another wide spatial slash, erasing the hands completely, but it didn't really matter as more hands immediately appeared, and the demon queen moved towards her at blinding speed, throwing a punch that could easily vaporize the entire body of a pyrohydra.

The white-haired girl avoided it by teleporting just out of the room using the Space affinity, but it did little to stop her enemy as the entire floor was now consumed by blood, as eyes started to appear- No. It wasn't just eyes. Arms, legs, torsos, mouths.

Whole creatures were appearing, taking a slightly red shade as they manifested, red liquid beneath them spreading, consuming and drowning all the screaming servants who weren't quick enough to escape.

"Just what the hell is this!? I can feel each of these creatures having their own life force. Is this her Soul element!?"

Layla couldn't hold her shock at the sight as she evaded the creatures, along with a huge mana blast from their mouths.

This was completely above what she had expected. Way above it.

She did not expect the demon queen to resist the Time Stop, nor being able to regenerate with half her body erased.

And she definitely did not expect to fight some pseudo-Level-Zero-Alucard with hundreds of bodies and sould under her control.

"Indeed it is~!"

Reappearing on her left, the demoness threw a blast of magic that would have sliced Layla in two if she hadn't evaded it.

"Leave me alone!"

Mana pulsing around her, Layla transformed the air around the demoness into an orb of diamond stopping her for a moment but it was already breaking apart.

'Tch! How annoying!'

The white-haired girl gritted her teeth as she once more used wide Space spells to destroy the majority of the miniature army around her, and and almost the entire body of her opponent, who was already regenerating from the single finger that was not hit.

For a moment, she could catch her breath that was getting ragged from the rapid situation. Her mana was deminishing way more than she could naturally restore, and she can feel it.

'I am slowly running low on mana. I'm not used to this amount of mana-costly spells so quickly!'

She watched as the demoness was already fully regenerated, not looking even the slightest bit tired.

"Ara~? You're getting tired, aren't you? Well, you are indeed far stronger than the normal humans that I deal with sometimes."

A sigh escaped her lips, and immediately, something felt wrong.

Layla made her best to guard against the change in atmosphere.

"It's useless to worry about any traps, now. You've already, fallen into one. One that is in front of you."

A smirk appeared on the demon queen's face, and Layla could only shudder as she looked at that grin.

'Wh- what was..?! That smirk, it looked so rig- wrong!'

She blinked at that in surprise.

'I- I lost focus? Just by her grinning!? What just happened!? And why did she-'

"-Not attack me when I was distracted? I've already told you; There was no more reason for me to just kill you."

Layla could only feel as something wrong entered her min-

"That's right... Just focus on my body..."

A voice she could only describe as the epitome of sensuality entered Layla's ears.

"What...!?"

Her eyes tunneled their vision on her enemy's body.

'I- I looked at her just by her command!'

Uncaring of the young girl's screams inside her mind, the demon queen, completely naked, walked slowly.

Distance closing, a step by step, eyes almost closed as her face looked almost serene.

"Focus on my body... My nude form... As it consumes your brain..."

Slowly, but surely, the Mind spell oozing from her was overflowing the area, as the ones still alive became under her influence.

'This is not good! Not good at all!'

Layla's breathing was getting really dificult as she tried to muster her will and mana.

"You sure can resist my temptation this far, with that huge amount of mana you have, along with that Life affinity. Imressive indeed. But ultimately, it's useless."

Layla could only look, almost paralyzed as her enemy was barely an inch away from her at this point.

"Now, why don't you try to attack me again?"

How can a mocking voice be so damn charming and seductive?

"Come on. Do it. Surely, someone as young as you, controlling Space, Time, Life and Matter, can do that much?"

'Damn... I... underestimated this monster...'

Her face, looking up, Layla could only see the monsterous breasts, with only the eyes of the demoness being the only visible thing of her face.

'I can't move... I can't resist... Not for much longer...'

She couldn't help as her mouth started drooling at the sheer aura and power her mind was being assaulted with.

"It seems, that this is the end for you, huh? Okay, then. Your resistance was fun while it las-"

STAB!

Blinking her eyes, the demon queen casually looked at the blade piercing both her and Layla, the white-haired girl breathing hard as blood seeped from her torso.

'Using the pain to stop my control? You are quite stubborn, brat.'

The Akeno-lookalike pondered, her mana concentrating into her fist-

And a red energy came from Layla, swallowing the demoness.

Eyes widening, she jumped away, as a chunk of her life-force, a monsterously large one compared to Layla, was ripped away from her.

"Death element as well? Now, that's a problem..."

Eyes almost glaring this time, the demon queen stated. All teasing and joking had stopped appearing in her tone.

Layla used that moment to absorb the raw power of that life force stolen from her opponent, healing her wounds and restoring her mana fully.

"Are you even a human, girl? I thought it was a rare thing for a normal human to use Time, Space, Matter and Life. But Death?"

It was clear to Layla that annoyance was there in that tone.

"I didn't meet a human able to use both Life and Death before. And using it that well? How can you use it better than beings who lived for a century at least?"

"I am a human. Though I sometimes question that myself. And as for using it well... I just can."

Layla stopped talking as a black substance exploded from the demoness, clinging to every wall and ground it can latch onto as creatures started appearing once more.

"That will no longer work on me anymore. I now understand what these are."

Red aura was blasted from the white-haired girl, disintegrating all of them, and absorbing the life force they were made of.

The demon queen looked at her.

"You understand? Maybe you do. But how can you defeat me? So what if you have Death affinity."

In that moment, she vanished from Layla's senses.

No time to be surprised, Layla simply reacted, jumping back, avoiding a puch that created a 10-meter crater.

She had to duck mid-air, only few strands of her white hair being sliced due to a hand chop that would have sliced her head clean.

The sheer pressure of the attack was enough to throw her away though, resulting in her hitting the wall with a twitch of pain.

'So she still has that much power. Her speed is also way too high, and I am barely able to keep up as is. I guess I have no other way, huh?'

With such thoughts, she knew what to do and had decided her course of action, even as a kick was heading towards her face.

Mana bursting from her body, Layla instictually changed it into pure life force, and burned that sheer energy.

The change was immediately noticeable enough that the demoness had widened her eyes as her kick was about to connect-

And suddenly Layla was literally not there, and the demon queen was sliced in half.

It was nothing but an annoyance really, but it was clear, that this was beyond her expectation.

As she looked to where Layla was, she could see it, even as the power of Death element consumed the area.

"Time?"

She asked in bafflement at the readings her senses gave her.

"You... You're using Time to accelerate yourself?"

White hair seemingly free from gravity, and red eyes looking at her with intensity as a green aura was being unleashed and burned in the form of intense steam.

That was how Layla looked right now.

"Made In Heaven. My Time will keep accelerating as long as I have life force or mana to consume."

Came the answer as Layla raised her arms, amassing the life force of the beings ensnared in her Death aura domain, and absorbing it, increasing her Time even more.

"Farewell."

And red consumed everything.

There was no chance in avoiding, no chance in blocking or resisting.

Time Acceleration affected everything that counted as part of Layla.

Even her own Mana and magic counted as well.

What would have been a relatively slow process of having her life force drained, ended up as an almost instant-death attack, as all of the demon queen's life force was immediately consumed and absorbed.

There was no time for her to react in anyway except her eyes widening, before her body crumbled into dust.

Layla looked around for a "second" before she went down on the ground, her aura slowly disappearing, and her Time returning to it's original speed.

"... I won..."

She smiled, even as blood trickled from her mouth, a side effect from burning that much life force in such short time.

She spit blood for a few seconds, before healing the internal damage, her hands shaky and her heart beating rapidly.

"I overdid it, but I won..."

Layla couldn't contain her happiness as a monsterous mass of pure Mana materialized out of the tiny dust that was the demon queen's corpse.

She could feel it, how utterly large it was.

That amount, it was practically a dozen times higher than the maximum amount she currently had.

"And I won against someone having what must be thousands more than my own mana pool, alone."

Truly, an achievement.

The remains of the demon queen's mana went towards her, integrating with her own energy, rapidly expanding her own reserves.

Grimacing, Layla clutched her heart.

She shuddered as she stood up on her legs, and used Body Augmentation to quickly leave the castle that was severely destroyed.

"Fuck. This much energy is too overwhelming. I guess, I should have gained more mana before fighting that monster."

Doing her best to contain the raw energy inside her, she rapidly flew towards her castle to get much needed sleep.

For a second, she closed her eyes and reopened th-

Her senses flared.

"Huh?"

She stopped on the roof of a building as she looked around.

It was currently way after midnight.

And while some people might still be awake (AKA guards and such), she doubted they would be around here at the moment.

So why did her senses tell her that someone used magic? And there was also sounds of screams and explosions as well.

A slight sensation of pain invaded her body and she winced.

"Tch, my mana had not been fully integrated yet. But, I think I need to see what's going on just in case."

Plus, using some of the currently volatile energy inside her will make her body recuperate faster.

With that, she went towards the source of trouble she had detected.

---

"Fuck! Why is she still alive!?"

A man shouted as he threw an arrow towards his target.

'How?' He thought to himself. 'How did things end up this way!?'

He was nothing special. Just a random thief who occasionally worked with slavers.

Sure, he was a little good with using a bow, but nothing exceptional, and he knew it.

He knew his place in the pecking order very well, the same with most of his comrades.

They were just some muscle tasked to help with capturing slaves, and occasionally, they would be sent along a carriage or two to bring slaves to the clients, and maybe, if lucky, catch someone who could sell plenty.

So, how could he resist when he saw a girl wearing a rag, looking tired, and alone, walking in the forest?

It was easy money, as far as he believed.

The girl in question only resisted for a few moments before she surrendered when he showed her his sword and was put into a cage like the rest of the slaves.

He didn't expect anything from that. He only believed that she was just a lost girl who could give him some good money.

So when he and his group reached one of the the warehouses their shady activity was done in, when he commanded the slaves to leave their cages, wearing the cuffs put on them before..

How could he have expected that the same girl would easily shatter her cuffs? That she could create blasts of fire he only saw silver-rank adventurers pull off?

How could he have dealt with the girl who casually sliced the limbs of his comrades with seemingly nothing? And with no sign of care or remorse?

This girl- this monster was planning to murder him!

And it was clear that nothing will stop her.

The arrow he shot ended up being grabbed by her arm, and snapped like a twig.

"Don't come closer!"

Falling on his butt and trying to retreat while swinging his sword wildly, he screamed in terror.

The girl, blond hair moving wildly as the winds moved and twisted around her, blue eyes looking at him with rage, marched towards him.

Flames and water coming to life around her body, as she looked like a giant towering over him.

There was no words for her to say.

Her response to his useless threat clear.

DIE!

That was all she wanted him to do, as water, so pressurized that it could pierce steel like paper, and flames so hot they could glassify sand moved at him-

And the roof of the warehouse was destroyed, as both elements vanished, saving his miserable life for the moment as he almost fainted from relief.

"What?"

The blond girl asked no one, looking surprised.

"Now, now. If you can tell me what's going on here?"

A new voice for them answered, as the dust settled.

Both could only look at the intruder who sounded casual.

'W-what...?'

The man looked in bafflement as he saw who had just saved his life, even by chance.

White hair, dark skin and red eyes. Expression looking serious, but the tone of her voice felt more like this was a normal thing for her.

"After all, I don't want to kill you by mistake if I don't need to."