Leofwynn flew toward the strange aura.
The lush, pastoral cities passing below were a moment of tranquility before what awaited her.
The image of Neeth Hel Mess Oop Ah Ris Ta emerged as a small dot on the horizon, at the border between Angra dos Chifres and Tundra Boreal.
Tentacles spread through the air, and the great eye observed the Vulcana. It measured her aura.
With a single movement, Neeth Hel Mess Oop Ah Ris Ta turned its twelve-meter-long body per tentacle, evading the swordswoman.
It would not fight her, it did not even acknowledge her.
Leofwynn then withdrew her Seals and conjured the Sword of Fire and the Igneous Shield, flying at absurd speed toward Neeth Hel Mess Oop Ah Ris Ta. Still approaching, accelerating further as she initiated a chase across the sky, the Vulcana exploded in flames within her Armor of Fire, at the very instant her Aura and weapons became nothing but Flames of Darkness.
Close to Neeth Hel Mess Oop Ah Ris Ta, which closed its enormous eye, the Pillar of Fire was conjured.
Below, the fire set the forest ablaze. Animals ran to escape, and a mountain was struck at its base.
The rocks melted and incandescent magma scattered earth as if it were water. Above, among the clouds, lightning formed around the Pillar of Fire rising until the end of the oxygen layer, where it extinguished.
Struck head-on, the Tentacular lost many tentacles, which plummeted through the air; however, its burned eye opened, filled with veins and hatred.
With its body wounded, Neeth Hel Mess Oop Ah Ris Ta focused on Leofwynn's mind and spoke directly into her thoughts:
— You are nothing compared to my terror. — and the Tentacular placed into the loli's mind images of its past, of its group, the Waltz Over the Corpses of My Enemies' Children. — That is me. Who are you?
Leofwynn tried not to listen to what the Tentacular showed and said, but it was impossible. It was inside her mind.
The vision of the Monster Continent and brutal assassinations, of many different species, made Leofwynn falter. She trembled and plummeted hundreds of meters.
She wanted to focus on the enemy, but with her eyes open, all she saw were bloodied corpses and terrible creatures killing and devouring even more brutal ones.
Gigantic bodies torn apart in baths of blood and viscera. Screams of agony.
Leofwynn remembered the Demon King saying that this thing, this Tentacular, was a lie, so she imagined she was seeing illusions, but she could not awaken, falling freely.
Until the Vulcana recalled something from her own memories, the delinquent smile of Æthelflæd, as she looked at the beggar, one of her alchemy users, and begged Leofwynn not to tell Cwenburg. And the Vulcana began to laugh at the memory, because the beggar was not dead; he got up with a knife and tried to rob the two lolis, only to get beaten by the Vulcano.
— What a horrible memory. — Neeth Hel Mess Oop Ah Ris Ta commented, and Leofwynn saw the sky, breaking free from the enemy's memories.
The Vulcana understood two important things:
— You showed me only the memories of your subordinates hearing your voice and committing atrocities. In other words, from a distance, are you useless? Do you not know magic? Or were you so damaged by my attack that you are spending all your aura to regenerate? — and Leofwynn conjured flames tearing through the air toward the Tentacular.
It tried to place even more degrading images into her mind, but Leofwynn closed her eyes, moving solely by its aura, rotten and filthy, a creature without any morals, nothing but terror and the pursuit of power.
It was a shell of hatred and illusions; it was the embodiment of lies. Even to itself. Therefore, there was no discourse or dialogue, the sword was the solution.
With screams and fury, the Vulcana moved her sword swiftly. The tentacles of Neeth Hel Mess Oop Ah Ris Ta's body defended, burning upon contact with the Flames.
Each strike created new fissures in the Tentacular's skin, and its blood began to burn.
The speed of the blows made tentacles and sword disappear amid hundreds of impacts.
Leofwynn kicked the Tentacular, sending it hurtling through the air toward the ground. She launched her flaming sword, and it struck with its tentacles, injuring itself but preventing the great eye from being hit.
Leofwynn then launched the second sword, the third, and while flying in pursuit, she did not stop hurling fire weapons, which were deflected and vanished into the air.
Until she reached it, and with her right fist wreathed in magma and flames, she struck so hard that she melted the tentacle defending its eyes, plunging her hand into the Tentacular's eye, and conjuring the next Pillar of Fire from within the creature.
At that moment, she saw Æthelflæd being killed, and that instant was all it took for the blow not to be fatal, allowing Neeth Hel Mess Oop Ah Ris Ta to fly far away. All its tentacles had been severed, and its eye was blinded.
Leofwynn turned toward the Black Castle and felt her friend's aura. Æthelflæd was alive.
— What was that?
— A memory of the future. — Neeth Hel Mess Oop Ah Ris Ta spoke into Leofwynn's mind.
The Vulcana repeated to herself that it was nothing but a liar, but it had felt so real, Æthelflæd covered in blood; the vision was too much, and it threw her off balance.
However, there was one thing in which Leofwynn was unbeatable, and even Neeth Hel Mess Oop Ah Ris Ta recognized it. She laughed at it, certain that it had only been a lie, and she was so stubborn that she convinced herself of that, never even entertaining the possibility that the future vision could be real.
— You are nothing. You won't escape my next attack. Dimension of Flames, release yourself! — Leofwynn promised and broke the final Seal, setting the skies ablaze.
Above the burning sky, the Demon King soared through the air and struck an enormous rock.
Fallen, he moved his body without gravity, in an unexpected conjuration:
— Meteors! — and the myriad of rocks from the asteroid rings moved toward the One.
Many of the asteroids circled the planet, creating incandescent rocks that exploded against Sceadu Gestréon Ungemynd, sending him kilometers away only for him to be struck again from the opposite side.
The Demon King's arms conducted like an orchestra as they tore through space and exploded against the enemy.
At the center of the assaults, the One punched the rocks, kicked them, and turned whatever it could into dust; however, other rocks miles high crushed it, being struck by millions of others, billions of others, using the planet's gravitational tangent to accelerate and loop above the continents, hitting the One from the opposite side.
It was completely covered in blood, trapped.
And from the planet, everyone saw the meteors moving, a shower of shooting stars, and then the smaller fragments began to fall, and countless cities started to be struck, destroyed.
Some impacts were so powerful, creating kilometer-wide craters, that they hurled entire streets and avenues, districts with thousands of corpses, up into the clouds, into the sky, and even outside the planet into space, where they entered the collision path of the Demon King's magic and returned to strike the great rocky mass surrounding Sceadu Gestréon Ungemynd.