Chapter 50: Beyond Human: The Inevitable End

Ileia closed her eyes.

The demon army swarmed around them.

Valentina’s aura pressed down, suffocating the very air.

The tension on the battlefield escalated.

But Ileia remained unmoved.

Even her breathing was steady, rhythmic.

Then,

she raised a hand, her voice soft yet commanding,

“Let’s move this… elsewhere.”

The world trembled.

A resonating roar ripped through the air.

The sky twisted,

the earth quaked.

A primal fear gripped every demon.

They knew.

This wasn’t mere teleportation.

This was dominion over space itself.

Not moving through space,

but rewriting it, transforming this location into another.

As she raised her hand,

the laws of the battlefield rewrote themselves around her.

The demons tried to react, to move,

but it was too late.

Not ‘teleportation.’

‘Rewriting.’

Like a curtain being drawn,

the world shifted.

The air changed.

The sky warped.

And in that instant,

they were somewhere else.

The demons looked around in terror.

Moments ago, they stood on a vast battlefield.

But now…

they were in a boundless void, a swirling mixture of darkness and blue light.

An endless expanse of nothingness.

The ‘Rift Between Worlds.’

Where nothing could escape,

where nothing existed.

A realm of perfect isolation, where all concepts of time and space ceased to exist.

Ileia stepped forward, her gaze fixed on Valentina.

“Now, we won’t be interrupted.”

Her blue eyes shone with an otherworldly light.

Valentina’s yellow eyes flared in response,

her aura boiling like the depths of hell.

Crimson energy erupted, twisting the space around her.

The ground cracked, the sky warped as immense power surged outwards.

“Raaaagh!!!”

Valentina roared,

her body radiating overwhelming force.

The authority of Wrath.

And…

Gargantua, her absolute power, fully unleashed.

A black hole, consuming all.

Darkness.

Not mere darkness.

Not simply magic power.

Her power wasn’t ‘night,’ nor ‘shadow,’ nor ‘dark magic.’

It was an ‘endless hunger.’

Absolute consumption.

A force that eroded the very foundations of the world.

As Gargantua unfolded,

space itself was negated,

and everything began to be devoured.

Space rippled.

Light vanished.

Sound died.

And…

she emerged from the black abyss.

Valentina’s form had long since transcended humanity.

Wreathed in darkness, she seemed almost divine.

Eyes burning with a yellow light.

The black aura swirling around her throbbed like a living beast.

With each step,

the earth buckled.

The air shattered.

It wasn’t simply overwhelming force.

Everything she walked upon crumbled,

everything she touched was absorbed.

Nothing could stop her now.

She had become the embodiment of despair.

“Die, Arrogance.”

Valentina moved.

As she charged,

the heavens and earth split apart.

Space itself fractured, a black shockwave erupting around her, a vortex of destruction.

Her charge wasn’t merely ‘speed.’

It was ‘inevitable death.’

But…

in that moment,

what she faced was…

A gentle sway.

A silver figure, moving effortlessly, without a sound.

A simple step.

And yet…

that alone,

was enough to render Valentina’s attack useless.

The massive black shockwave

tore through the sky and shattered the earth,

but Ileia wasn’t there.

She had simply swayed.

Without a hint of effort.

Without any drastic movement.

She just…

dodged.

Valentina’s eyes widened.

“…What?”

She couldn’t comprehend it.

The blow she’d just unleashed was powerful enough to split heaven and earth.

And yet…

dodged with a simple movement?

It was…alien.

Incomprehensible.

Ileia still looked at her, her gaze calm.

No anger, no fear, no tension.

Only,

perfect serenity.

Absolute dominance.

“Shall we try that again?”

She smiled gently.

And…

swayed again.

And with that,

 

***

 

everything changed.

“…Gasp…gasp…”

Valentina struggled to breathe.

A single instant.

A single attack.

But that brief moment had sent her heart racing.

Every nerve, every sense screamed in warning.

The absolute certainty of facing something incomprehensible.

This wasn’t simply strength.

This wasn’t a mere difference in power.

This was…

an insurmountable chasm.

Valentina’s mind screamed in warning.

But Ileia, oblivious to her turmoil, or perhaps simply not caring,

maintained her serene smile.

The wind gently ruffled her long silver hair.

Clear, blue eyes calmly regarded Valentina.

No animosity.

No intent to instill fear.

Just a calm, almost casual,

gentle smile.

“Would you like to try again?”

And in that moment,

Valentina’s heart seemed to stop.

A shiver ran down her spine.

A cold dread crept up her neck.

Was it fear?

Or awe?

Or rage?

Or…

something she couldn’t even name?

“…”

Valentina gritted her teeth, her grip tightening until her knuckles turned white, as if trying to crush the strange feeling, the unsettling emotions the woman before her evoked.

She tightened her grip on her sword, her body burning with rage.

But even that seemed…fragile, as if her very existence were crumbling.

Ileia’s smile remained.

Not a sneer,

not a mockery.

Just a gentle smile.

And that alone, was enough to shake the world.

“Shut up!!!”

Valentina screamed, and once again,

she raised her sword.

This time, she would—

tear that arrogant smile from Ileia’s face.

But Ileia’s gaze remained gentle.

Without a single flicker of doubt,

she simply waited.

“Why is Arrogance gone, and you’re standing there?!”

Confusion.

Valentina, lost in confusion, simply swung her sword.

Bang!!

Valentina’s sword cleaved through the air.

The earth trembled from the immense impact.

Dark energy surged from the blade, threatening to consume everything.

Explosive rage erupted.

Everything shattered, everything crumbled.

Her Gargantua, as if heralding the end of the world, unleashed its overwhelming destructive power.

But—

there was no one there to receive it.

Valentina’s eyes widened.

A gust of wind swept past.

A soft, gentle movement.

And yet, that alone

was enough to render her attack useless.

Ileia moved like the wind itself, her feet barely grazing the ground. She was there one moment,

and gone the next.

And now,

she stood on the opposite side, calmly watching Valentina.

“…”

Her eyes were calm,

holding neither fear nor mockery.

Just serenity.

Just composure.

As if all of this was…expected.

And that drove Valentina further into madness.

“Damn it…!!!”

Valentina swung her sword again.

Not a simple slash this time.

Endless darkness followed the blade.

A wave of shadows crashed down, engulfing everything.

The earth shattered, space tore.

This was her all, her everything, unleashed in a single blow.

Nowhere to run.

Nowhere to hide.

This time, surely—

But.

Nothing.

Once again.

There was no one there.

“What?”

Valentina’s face hardened.

A gentle breeze stirred.

And through that breeze,

Ileia walked, as if dancing.

She waved a hand dismissively.

As if the fight was already over.

And that pushed Valentina over the edge.

“Stop dodging!!!”

With a roar of rage,

Valentina unleashed the last of her power.

Everything she had, poured into

one final, devastating blow.

Kwaaang!!!

The sky split open.

The earth buckled.

Space distorted, everything collapsing inwards.

Absolute power.

Everything she had.

Her ultimate attack.

This time, surely—

But once again,

it struck nothing.

Valentina gasped, her hands trembling.

She couldn’t understand.

This was…impossible.

She had blocked every possible escape route.

Her sword should have connected.

There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

And yet,

her attack missed.

The one she was meant to strike down vanished before her blade could reach her.

And then, a quiet voice,

“Would you like to try again?”

Valentina’s eyes widened.

That gentle smile.

That soft voice.

And yet, those words, so casually dismissing her all-out attack.

“…”

For the first time, Valentina understood.

The being she was fighting,

the enemy she faced,

was unlike any she’d encountered before.

She wasn’t human.

She was something…more.

And,

she hadn’t been fighting seriously. Not even close.

“Impossible…”

Valentina whispered, her voice breaking.

But Ileia’s expression remained unchanged.

Just…calm.