Zen pressed his back against the rusted chariot so hard that he felt the metal digging into his spine.
"System " Zen whispered, his heart pounding against his cracked ribs. "Are you sure that's her?"
[Affirmative. The combat pattern matches the Vanguard, Goddess of War, with a 100% certainty. She is currently suppressing her mana aura to avoid detection by local authorities.]
"She's wearing a cloak in a slum dungeon." Zen hissed, peeking around the corner. "Why is the ruler of the Ares Domain fighting a junk golem in District 7?"
[Analyzing host memories and historical behavioral patterns…]
[Conclusion: She is blowing off steam. The Vanguard historically utilized extreme violence as a coping mechanism for stress.]
"Yeah, stress she caused by ripping my soul in half," Zen muttered.
He watched as Valeria fought the golem. It was huge, made of welded tank treads, iron beams and glowing purple Heart-Stones. It roared, swinging an arm the size of a city bus.
Valeria didn't flinch. She ducked under the swing and the wind from the attack tore the hood of her cloak back. Her fierce crimson eyes locked onto the monster.
"Is that really all you have?" Valeria yelled, her voice echoing off the scrap piles. "I came down here for a workout, you rusted piece of garbage! Hit me harder!"
She swung her broadsword. There was no magic, no glowing Aegis aura… just pure, physical strength. The blade connected with the golems kneecap shattering the iron joint completely.
The golem shrieked and collapsed onto one knee.
Zen glanced at the edge of his vision, where the System was projecting the live chat from his GE Link-Eye drone. The viewer count had spiked past two hundred.
User_992: Bro, who is that chick? She's insane!
VanguardFan1: The way she holds that broadsword... looks like high-tier Ares military.
ScrapRat: She just shattered an iron kneecap with zero mana! What is happening?! Is this real?
MetalHead: Ghost Scrapper found the craziest fight in the whole Domain right now.
"Zen!" Jax's voice suddenly buzzed loudly through the comms-link. "Zen are you alive?! Hide!"
"Keep your voice down, Jax," Zen whispered harshly. "I told you I was going radio silent."
"You have to check out the GE network right now!" Jax panicked. "I just found this crazy new anonymous stream called 'Ghost Scrapper'. Some woman in a black cloak is fighting a D-Rank golem with her bare hands, and the location data says it's in your Zone! It's going viral! Are you near the center courtyard?"
Zen rolled his eyes. He had completely forgotten the GE drone was still hovering right over his shoulder, broadcasting everything.
"Jax shut up and listen " Zen hissed. "I'm kinda busy trying not to die. Just stay off the comms."
[Warning: Extreme ambient mana spike detected.]
Zen stopped. The air in the courtyard tasted like copper and ozone all of a sudden.
The golem wasn't dying. The purple Heart-Stones embedded in its chest began to glow with a blinding, radioactive light. The rusted metal around the courtyard began to levitate, vibrating violently before shooting toward the golem like magnets.
"Oh come on " Valeria groaned, lowering her sword. "A second phase? In a Grey Zone? The world's system is glitching again."
[Target: Scrap-Golem (Mutated). Danger Level increased to Mid-D Rank. The entity is preparing a highly unstable Area-of-Effect mana discharge.]
"System, what's the blast radius?" Zen asked, already looking for a path out.
[Calculating... 50 meters. Your current cover is 15 meters from the epicenter. Probability of survival behind this chariot: 0%.]
"You're telling me this junk pile is going to vaporize me?"
[Affirmative.]
The golem let out a loud mechanical roar. A shockwave of purple energy erupted from its core.
"Get down!" Valeria shouted, slamming her broadsword into the dirt to brace herself against the wind.
The shockwave hit Zen's cover. The rusted chariot instantly disintegrated into shrapnel.
CRASH!
A flying piece of iron clipped the GE drone hovering near Zen's head. The small silver ball shattered, falling to the dirt in a shower of sparks.
"Zen!" Jax screamed over the comms. "The stream went dead! There was a blas… Zen answer me!"
"I don't have time fo this!" Zen yelled over the roaring wind tearing the comms-link from his ear and tossing it away.
He had no cover left. The secondary blast of the golems attack was swelling, turning the air around the monster into a dome of burning mana. If that dome expanded, Zen's F-Rank body would be turned to ash.
"System!" Zen shouted. "Give me the odds! If I use Primordial Void Breathing now to escape the blast radius what happens?"
[Warning: Activating S-Rank techniques with a shattered core will result in severe physical trauma. However, your probability of avoiding immediate vaporization increases to 82%.]
"Good enough!"
Zen closed his eyes, and forced his lungs to pull the ambient mana straight from the chaotic air. It was a forbidden technique that forces a mortal body to act like a god's for a fraction of a second.
It felt like inhaling liquid fire.
Zen's eyes snapped open. The world around him slowed down. The expanding dome of energy inched toward his face.
First Step: The Emperor's Stride
Zen turned his foot at an exact, impossible angle and pushed off the ground, his body sliding across the dirt smoothly. It was a footwork technique designed to slip between the atoms of an attack, bypassing momentum entirely.
He slid through the edge of the blast wave, the heat singing the edges of his jacket.
He didn't stop. He linked the first step into the second sliding across the open courtyard, trying to create as much distance as possible between him and the golem.
But his new body couldn't handle it.
On the third step, Zen's muscles tore. His right calf gave out completely, and his broken core pulsed with agonizing pain. He collapsed into the dirt, rolling until he hit the base of a stone pillar.
"Gah!" Zen coughed, spitting blood onto the ground. His chest was burning. He couldn't feel his legs.
[Warning: Severe tissue damage sustained. Core fracture widened by 1%.]
"Yeah… hared not to notice," Zen wheezed, trying to push himself up.
Suddenly, the deafening noise of the battle stopped. The heavy thud of the golems footsteps halted. The roaring wind died down, throwing the entire courtyard into dead silence.
Zen slowly raised his head. Twenty feet away, Valeria was standing still. The golem was raising its arm to crush her, but she wasn't looking at the massive monster… she didn't even seem to notice it existed.
Her red eyes were locked entirely on Zen.
Her mouth was slightly open. The broadsword in her hand was trembling.
"That step " Valeria whispered. Her voice carried across the courtyard, completely devoid of her usual brash confidence. It sounded fragile. Broken. "The Emperor's Stride."
"Damn it," Zen thought, his blood running cold. "She saw it."
The golem roared, swinging its iron fist down directly at Valerias unprotected head.
"Hey! Move!" Zen yelled.
But she didn't move. She didn't even look up.
Just before the fist crushed her, Valeria casually raised her left hand and opened her palm.
BOOM.
The golems massive iron fist slammed into her hand, and stopped. The shockwave cracked the ground beneath her, but Valeria didn't budge a single inch.
"You're interrupting," Valeria's voice dropped to a terrifying whisper.
Without breaking eye contact, she gripped the golem's iron fist. Golden Aegis mana exploded from her body. She squeezed. The solid iron of the golems hand shattered into dust.
She swung her broadsword upward in a lazy arc. A wave of energy detached from the blade slicing the massive golem cleanly in half. The two halves of the D-Rank boss fell to the ground with a crash.
Valeria dropped her sword. It clattered against the stone.
She started walking toward Zen, breathing heavily.
[Calculating... 0%. Her psychological state has bypassed logical parameters. Her obsession imprint has been triggered.]
Valeria closed the distance, in an instant dropping to her knees in the dirt in front of him. "It's you," she breathed out.
Zen froze. Up he could see the madness swirling in her red eyes. It has always been there from what he remembered, but now, it just seemed more intense.
"That move you just did " she whispered, her hand shaking as she reached out. "Only you could do something like that. You came back."
"Listen " Zen started, trying to sound really scared. "I don't know who you think I am. I'm just a student okay? A scrapper… a nobody."
Valeria didn't let him finish talking. She quickly moved forward her hands slamming against the stone pillar on either side of his head. She leaned in close her face almost touching his.
"Don't lie to me " Valeria growled,. Tears were welling up in her eyes. "Do you know how long I've waited for you? Five hundred years. Five hundred years of keeping this rotting world safe for you. And now you're here. You're actually here."
Zen tried to move his arms, but she was too strong. She pressed her body against his pinning him down.
"Please, let me go. You're crushing my ribs" Zen said, wincing in pain.
Her eyes widened in horror. She quickly pulled back a bit her hands hovering over his chest.
"You're hurt " she gasped, looking at his bleeding hands and bruised face. "Your core is shattered. You're so weak. Why are you so weak?"
"I just took a bad fall trying to dodge that blast," Zen lied smoothly. "Give me a break."
"No this can't be right " Valeria said, her voice rising in panic. She grabbed his shoulders tightly. "You're not safe here. There are people everywhere. They'll hurt you!"
"I can take care of myself " Zen argued.
"You can barely stand up!" Valeria shouted as her yandere side fully took over.
She pulled him against her chest wrapping her arms tightly around him. Zen felt the soft, heavy weight of her breasts pressing against his chest through the cold metal of her armour. But her grip was tight, making it hard to focus on anything but breathing.
Zen tried to struggle but it was no use.
"I won't let anyone touch you " Valeria whispered into his hair. "I'll kill anyone who looks at you. I'll burn this district to make sure you're safe. Then I'll lock you in a deep underground vault where it's safe. Where you can never ever leave me again."
"System " Zen thought desperately. "Tell me you have a plan to get me out of this."
[Analyzing escape routes... Zero found. Welcome to the Golden Cage, Emperor.]