The shards of the shattered SSS-Rank Holy Aegis rained down on the Golden Valley like shimmering snow. Before the shards even hit the dirt, Ren Hanshin was already moving. He didn't use the massive, apocalyptic area of effect spells of the goddess. He kept the door to The Weaver's Loom firmly locked in his mind, protecting his 37% synchronization rate. Instead, he relied on the intimate brutality of a martial artist wielding demigod stats.
"Form up! Shield wall!" a Paladin Commander screamed, raising a tall shield shining with S-Rank holy enchantments.
Ren's crimson eyes flashed as Arcane Nullification kicked in. He saw the flow of the S-Rank enchantment on the shield, a simple interlaced faith matrix. He simply flicked his left hand, releasing a needle of Divine Mana into the matrix's keystone. The shining shield instantly turned into mundane steel.
The Paladin's eyes widened in confusion just as the Severance of Destiny cleaved cleanly through the steel, his armor, and his torso. Ren spun, using the momentum of the swing to carry him into the ranks of the Wealth Guild's mercenaries. They thrust spears thumping with lightning and hurled axes coated in volatile explosive mana.
Ren danced through them. Jubei's Flow allowed him to perceive the physical intent of the attacks before the weapons were even swung. He stepped to the right, letting a lightning spear graze his coat, and brought the scythe up, severing the mercenary's head. He pivoted, dropping to one knee as an explosive axe flew over his head, and slashed the tendons of three advancing knights in a single, fluid arc.
It was a massacre orchestrated with the cold precision of a ticking clock.
[Target Eliminated: A-Rank Paladin (x12)]
[Target Eliminated: S-Rank Mercenary (x5)]
[Target Eliminated: A-Rank Heavy Knight (x18)]
The crimson chat box hovered at the edge of his vision, shining with a soft, euphoric light.
[The God of Fate is resting her cheek on her hand, mesmerized.]
[God of Fate]: They are throwing themselves onto your blade. They want to be cut by you. Who wouldn't?
[God of Fate]: Wash the gold with their blood, my love. Paint the valley red.
But Ren could feel the drain. Every time he swung the massive scythe, every time he flared his Divine Agility to break the sound barrier, he was burning through his Divine Mana core. Without the Goddess's Tapestry to infinitely sustain him, he was fighting on a mortal battery, albeit a massive one.
Standing fifty yards back, safely behind the dying front lines, Valerius and Lucius watched their elite army being destroyed.
"He isn't slowing down!" Valerius screamed, his jewel encrusted armor rattling as he took a step back. "Your Light is doing nothing! He's just cutting through them!"
"Have faith, merchant," Lucius gritted his teeth, his six ethereal wings expanding to their wingspan. The Avatar of Light raised his glowing white broadsword toward the sky. "He is an anomaly, but he is still bound by the laws of energy. Keep him occupied! I need ten seconds to charge the Seraph's Judgment!"
Valerius cursed, reaching into his spatial inventory and pulled out a small, ornate golden ledger. It was an SSS-Rank Relic, tied to the core concept of the God of Wealth.
"I'll buy his life!" Valerius roared.
He opened the golden ledger and bit his thumb, pressing his bleeding finger onto the blank parchment. He poured millions of stored Karma Points, his entire Guild's fortune, into the relic.
[System Warning: Legendary Avatar 'Valerius' has activated SSS-Rank Relic 'The Ledger of Debt'.]
[Hostile Concept Detected: Economic Suppression.]
Ren, in the middle of executing a Wealth mercenary, suddenly felt a suffocating weight crash onto his shoulders. The Executioner's Block manipulated physics. This was something different. The weight pressing down on him was metaphysical. The air around him suddenly shimmered with floating golden numbers.
[Warning: You have been forcefully placed into 'Absolute Debt'.]
[Every physical movement now costs 10 Divine Mana.]
[Every attack now costs 50 Divine Mana.]
[If Mana reaches zero, your soul will be foreclosed (Instant Death).]
Ren's boots dug into the dirt as he struggled to stand upright. The concept of wealth had weaponized the system against him. He was being taxed to death.
"I bought the space you occupy, Anomaly!" Valerius laughed from the back lines, holding the glowing ledger high. "You cannot fight the economy! Every breath you take makes you poorer!"
Ren grunted, his crimson eyes flashing. He tried to use Arcane Nullification to unravel the golden numbers floating around him, but the density of the SSS-Rank Relic was too thick. It was anchored by millions of Karma Points and the divine authority of a Sovereign. It was a hard cap.
"Then I won't pay," Ren whispered.
Above him, the sky turned into a scorching white. Lucius had finished his chant. The Avatar of Light hovered a hundred feet in the air, his six wings burning with pure holy fire. In his hands, he held a hundred foot long spear made of concentrated solar energy.
"BE PURGED IN THE LIGHT OF THE HEAVENS!" Lucius's voice boomed with fanatic zeal.
He hurled the Seraph's Judgment down at Ren. The heat of the descending spear vaporized the remaining mercenaries and Paladins in its immediate radius. It was a strike meant to eradicate a Catastrophe-Class anomaly, leaving nothing behind.
Ren looked up at the falling sun. He looked at the golden numbers of debt clinging to his body.
He was trapped. If he dodged, the Debt would drain his mana. If he blocked, the thermal force of the SSS-Rank holy spear would crush his guard.
The red chat box exploded in his vision.
[WARNING: CRITICAL LETHAL THREAT DETECTED!]
[God of Fate]: REN! THE LIGHT WILL BURN YOU! LET ME IN! OPEN THE DOOR!
[God of Fate]: I WILL SHIELD YOU! I WILL SHATTER THEIR FALSE SUN!
The brand on Ren's chest burned like white-hot iron, spreading up his neck as the synchronization rate threatened to spike. She was trying to force her way in to save him.
"I SAID NO!" Ren roared, his voice tearing his own throat.
He slammed his barriers shut, gripping his own chest to suppress the Weaver's brand. He wasn't going to surrender his soul. He gripped the scythe with both hands. He pulled it inward, condensing the entire weight of The Executioner's Block into the crystallized blood blade until the scythe reverberated so violently it hummed with a low-frequency roar.
He aimed at the shining golden numbers of the Debt surrounding him.
"Third Form," Ren commanded, pushing a surge of his remaining mana into the strike. "The Sovereign's Guillotine."
Ren swung horizontally, slicing through the empty air around him. He applied the concept of Severance to the concept of the Debt itself. He cut the contract connecting him to Valerius's ledger. The thin crimson crescent passed through the golden numbers.
SHATTER!!
The levitating numbers exploded into dust. The suffocating weight of the economic suppression vanished. In the backlines, the SSS-Rank Ledger of Absolute Debt in Valerius's hands combusted, exploding in a shower of molten gold that melted the Avatar of Wealth's hands to the bone. Valerius collapsed, screaming in agony. Freed from the Debt, Ren pivoted his footing.
The Seraph's Judgment was ten feet above his head, the heat already singeing his dark hair.
Ren swung the scythe upward, meeting the hundred foot spear of holy fire.
"Sever!" Ren roared.
The blade of the Severance of Destiny, coated in the gravity of his micro domain, struck the tip of the holy spear. For a fraction of a second, the universe held its breath. Then, the concept of severance won. The crimson blade cleaved cleanly up the center of the massive SSS-Rank holy spear, splitting the solar energy in half. The two halves of the Seraph's Judgment evaded Ren, crashing into the earth on either side of him.
The Golden Valley erupted. Two massive nuclear explosions tore through the canyon, vaporizing the gold plated walls and incinerating the remaining eight hundred Avatars of the combined army. A mushroom cloud of dirt, gold dust, and holy fire rose into the sky. When the dust finally settled, the Golden Valley was gone. It had been reduced to a pair of massive, glowing, glass lined craters.
Standing on a thin, untouched strip of earth between the two craters was Ren Hanshin. The Embrace of the Weaver had protected his flesh from the heat, but he was breathing vehemently, his chest heaving. His arms trembled slightly. He had burned through nearly half of his Divine Mana core to execute those two cuts back-to-back.
A few yards away, Lucius had crashed into the dirt. The Avatar of Light's six wings were shattered, his pristine armor cracked and blackened by the backlash of his own severed spell. Lucius coughed up a mouthful of glowing white blood, staring at Ren with broken disbelief.
"You... you cut the light..." Lucius gasped, trying to crawl backward. "You are... a devil..."
Ren walked slowly toward the fallen avatar. His crimson eyes were cold and hollow.
"No," Ren said softly. "I'm just the guy holding the scythe."
Ren swung the blade, decapitating the Avatar of Light in a single slash. He walked over to the whimpering Valerius, and did the same.
[Target Eliminated: Legendary Avatar 'Lucius'.]
[Target Eliminated: Legendary Avatar 'Valerius'.]
[The Gods of Light and Wealth avert their eyes in shame!]
The silence returned to the Savage Lands, broken only by the crackling of the dying holy fire in the craters. Ren dismissed his scythe. He fell to one knee, resting his hand on the dirt. The magical exhaustion was heavy. He had survived without using the Tapestry, but it had pushed him to his limits.
The crimson chat box popped up, its text frantic and filled with relieved, obsessive tears.
[God of Fate]: You are safe! You are safe! You are safe!
[God of Fate]: I was so scared, my King. I thought the fire was going to touch you. I almost broke the door down.
[God of Fate]: You killed them perfectly. You are the only true Sovereign on that island now.
"Not yet," Ren muttered, forcing his breathing to steady. "There's one left."
High above the devastation, sitting on the edge of the distant cliff, Loki casually lowered his enchanted binoculars. The Grand Illusionist smiled, a genuine, delighted grin.
"He's exhausted. He burned his mana to avoid using her power," Loki whispered to the wind. "He has a defense against concepts, but his stamina is finite. He is a mortal playing with god's toys."
Loki stood up, dusting off his purple suit. He pulled the Joker card from his deck, the image on the card changing into a chaotic vortex.
"You killed the zealot and the merchant, Executioner," Loki said, his emerald eyes flashing with dangerous mischief. "Now, let's see how you handle a joke with no punchline."
Loki stepped off the cliff, freefalling toward the ruined valley, vanishing into a flock of chaotic, cawing ravens before he hit the ground. The final act of the Sovereign's Draft was about to begin.