The view narrowed, closing in on a scene pierced by a single streak of thunder that split the dark sky above.
Beneath that flash, something stirred, a strange, pulsing mass of energy nestled between Mize's hands.
She held it with delicately, slowly pressing the two halves together.
The closer they came, the more the air around her began to distort.
Her motions were smooth, almost hypnotic, but her face remained void of expression, cold.
She haven't noticed it yet...
Behind her, strands of hair lifted and swayed, caught in the updraft.
Her dress rippled like silk in slow motion as gusts formed from the surging pressure between her palms.
Wind howled softly around her, the result of invisible currents fighting against the tightening sphere.
Then, amidst the world of shadow and smoke, a piercing light bloomed.
It came from her hands, a glow breaking through the gloom like a foreign sun.
She stopped pressing.
Her fingers stilled, holding the volatile energy steady as she looked downward, toward the terrain below.
Her gaze was unreadable, as if even she hadn't decided what emotion, if any, belonged there.
"Then…"
Her voice rang out, not loud, but impossibly clear.
A quiet murmur that reached everyone in that twisted space.
"This farce shall end."
The words were dry...
Detached.
Final.
Whatever it meant, those who heard her felt something shift.
As if the edges of their breath had grown colder. A quiet warning that something irreversible had begun.
The back of their heads felt strange needles poking there, danger... Danger.... Danger.
Death...
Liam reacted first.
His entire body tensed, nerves screaming at him to move, to run, to disappear from this place before whatever was coming finished loading.
But his feet stayed rooted. One hand slid into his pocket, the other extended outward, palm open, casual.
A small diagram hovered just above it, glowing faintly.
He looked up as Mize spoke, and his mouth twisted into a thin smile. "Oi… she's really taking this way too seriously."
His brows drew together slightly, thoughts moving quick beneath the surface. "This is getting a bit too intense"
"Troublesome," he muttered, and then, he moved.
Boom!
The diagram above his palm lit up, and with a flick of his hand, he dragged it downward.
In response, dozens of hidden formations scattered across the battlefield pulsed and responded.
The lines, previously invisible, came alive, crisscrossing beneath the ground like veins made of light, shifting in perfect synchronicity.
Boom!
A second pulse followed.
Something in the earth groaned. Mize's head turned, eyes sharpening as her senses spiked.
Her expression didn't change much, but her voice dropped low with mild disdain. "Futile attempt."
For the first time, her eyes narrowed.
She pressed the volatile energy in her hands together again, the light growing sharper, the winds shrieking a little louder.
Then, all at once, the darkness that had blanketed the battlefield vanished.
In its place, a massive diagram lit up beneath her.
It stretched outward in all directions, an intricate construct over a kilometer wide, rotating clockwise.
The ground beneath her ticked with each turn, like gears locked to something far beyond mortal craftsmanship.
Every shift brought with it a deep, metallic groan, like an ancient engine winding up.
The sky above trembled faintly in response.
Mize's expression finally cracked, just slightly.
Her brows furrowed.
"Foolish."
"I can sense no danger from it"
Her voice was sharp now.
She lowered her gaze, scanning the mechanism below.
And then.
She saw him.
Liam.
Standing dead center of the diagram, casually flipping a rock in his hand.
He caught it lazily, juggling it once more before tossing it aside like it meant nothing.
"Mimi," he said lightly, taking a few slow steps forward, "you need to change back. There's something seriously off about your current state."
He smiled.
"How about admitting defeat? I can spare you one for today"
Each footfall echoed faintly.
The diagram beneath him ticked with every step as if acknowledging his presence.
Her eyes twitched, just a flicker, but enough to mark a reaction.
"Stop?" she repeated, voice faint.
For a breath, something flickered across her face.
Uncertainty, maybe.
But it was gone as fast as it came.
Her focus returned. Her irises darkened into a deep, blood-red hue, reflecting back the distorted light above like the surface of a still pool stained crimson.
"And why," she asked softly, "should I follow the command of a mortal?"
Liam chuckled at that.
Not mocking, just amused.
"Yeah, there's definitely something wrong with that goddess form of yours," he said, strolling across the glowing diagram like it was just another day.
The ground trembled, deep and unsteady, as if the entire world had suddenly remembered how fragile it was.
The shaking ran deeper than stone, it reached into the bones of the sky itself.
Even the heavens, high and proud, seemed to shudder.
And it all centered around her.
"Well…" Liam exhaled a half-laugh, brow furrowing with a mix of wariness and dry amusement.
"Didn't think the training session would spiral this far."
"It seems I may have underestimated her power once she goes indifferent"
His eyes rose toward the sky, watching as fragments of the world were drawn upward.
Dust, loose gravel, bits of broken rock, all of it floated, circling high above like leaves caught in a silent vortex.
But it wasn't random. Everything was being pulled, slowly and surely, toward the still figure in the sky.
More precisely, toward the center of her palm.
Whatever Mize was holding, or creating, was disrupting the very structure of the space.
The air itself thinned, the sky wavered, and something catastrophic was being created today.
Liam scratched his head lightly, letting out a breath. "Probably shouldn't have told her to use everything she had."
A flicker of regret passed across his face, but he kept his tone light. "Path of a goddess, huh? Should've done a bit more homework before greenlighting this mess."
The corner of his mouth twitched into a faint, self-deprecating smile.
It didn't quite reach his eyes. Because under the banter and surface calm, he was worried.
"It's like that, huh?" he called, voice steady as it carried up into the air. "You're really going all in, Mimi?"
Her head tilted slightly at the sound, and her eyes found him.
"For a mortal like you to have once touched me so shamelessly…" she said, her voice stripped of warmth. "I applaud you for being able to survive this long before me"
Liam's brows rose slightly as he nodded. "So that's how it is."
Even as the ground continued to pulse, even as the sky vibrated like a stretched wire, his tone never faltered, cool and casual.
His right hand was in his pocket, his posture loose, casual.
"Just bear with me a little bit longer, this will end soon"
There wasn't anything more to say.
Liam lifted a finger and spun it once. Instantly, the massive diagram overhead began to rotate.
A grinding hum echoed like thunder as its lines shifted and intersected, each motion triggering a mechanical groan across the sky.
It sounded as if the very fabric of the space was being rewired.
Then, with a pivot of his foot, he angled his hand to the side, ninety degrees, and the diagram followed, clicking into a new position.
Another deep reverberation shook the atmosphere.
Mize didn't blink.
Her eyes followed the movement without emotion, but her hands never stopped.
The glowing energy between them pressed closer, tighter, denser.
The wind around her howled silently now, more felt than heard.
With each heartbeat, the sound grew louder—ba-dum... ba-dum—until it wasn't clear whose heartbeat it was anymore.
Hers? His? The world's?
And then, they both stilled.
Mize opened her hand.
A burst of light exploded outward, flooding the air with a searing brilliance.
But Liam didn't shield his eyes. He stood still, watching her, the glow reflecting in his gaze.
A second light answered.
The diagram beneath him blazed to life, its blue brilliance rising up like a tide.
The two lights met midair, one descending from above, golden and divine, the other rising from below.
They didn't clash.
They layered. One a sharp gold halo from the sky, the other a wide wash of blue from the earth.
The space between them stabilized, caught in balance.
"Alright," Liam muttered, brushing off his hands with a few light claps, "that should keep things steady for what comes next."
As for Mize, she was confused directly, stunned even.
Without a second glance at the ground, he stepped forward, and up.
Air didn't resist him. It held him.
He ascended smoothly, as if the air itself had remembered how to become solid just for him.
Each step carried him higher.
"Then let's dance," he said, mostly to himself. "Can't stand it when she forgets who's who."
His tone was quiet now.
"Just a little bit more, I want to see"