In the next instant, Nero was sent flying by a swipe from Echidna.
She crashed through a tree, landing flat on her back, every bone screaming in pain. But instead of groaning, she started laughing.
"So… that's how it works?"
Echidna loomed closer, staring at Nero giggling on the ground. "Gone mad?" it hissed.
"You wouldn't get it," Nero shot back, smirking. "Thing is, you've already lost."
That only confirmed Echidna's suspicions. It morphed back into its serpent-headed form, chuckling with a hiss, and swallowed Nero whole.
Once this weird human was turned into a seed, the new spawn wouldn't be so chatty. Echidna hated disobedient kids—especially loudmouthed ones.
Nero's world plunged into darkness again.
And there, in the void, that mysterious figure appeared once more.
A silver-haired man in a blue coat stood before her, his back turned. "You hear it?" he asked, his voice low and magnetic.
Nero grinned. Her sharp eyes softened, and her lips—soft like jelly—curved into a smile that was half-mocking, half-relieved.
"Well, damn," she said.
She'd seen this guy before, in last night's blackout. Same cryptic nonsense, same vibe. She'd brushed it off as some game cutscene from her past life bleeding into her dreams.
"…You hear it?"
The man pressed, still not turning. His coat fluttered without wind, revealing the long blade in his left hand.
Yamato.
In the dark void, Nero stepped toward him.
She didn't have much to say to this ghost of a deadbeat dad she was only tied to by blood. Her past-life self might've been a fan, but now that he was actually her father? Yeah, she wasn't thrilled about this absentee jerk.
So she stayed quiet.
"You hear—"
"Enough!"
A spark of rage ignited in Nero's chest. She leaped, planting a flying kick square to the man's head, cutting off his cryptic spiel. "You died once, so quit the spooky act and get to the respawn, you cryptic bastard!"
Landing, Nero grabbed for the Yamato in his hand. "Now drop the loot, old man!"
"You hear…"
He didn't let go, repeating the same damn line. Feeling his resistance, Nero swallowed her anger, took a deep breath, and let it out slow.
"Fine. Wanna hear it? Then listen up—"
"—I need more power!"
Her voice echoed through both the void and reality. In that moment, a massive surge of demonic energy erupted inside Echidna's maw. The serpent demon let out a piercing scream, recoiling and spitting out its prey.
Nero flipped midair and landed, the overflowing demonic power instantly evaporating the slime coating her. She clenched her fist, grinning. "Power feels good."
Echidna, wounded by Nero's counterattack, snarled, "What are you?!"
"Me?" Nero smirked, vanishing in a blur.
"Just human."
The next second, her fist slammed into Echidna's gut, making the towering demon howl and stumble back. "Didn't you say so yourself?" Nero taunted.
Yup, a human who could go toe-to-toe with demons and barely break a sweat. Nero cracked her knuckles, flashing Echidna a friendly grin.
Echidna wasn't having it. It roared "Monster!" and bolted for a stone monument behind it—a mini Hell Gate crafted by Agnus, linked to the demon world. As Echidna neared, a grassy-green rift began to open on the monument's surface, revealing the demon realm beyond.
"Leaving already? The party's not—"
Nero's eyes narrowed, her hand pressing to her chest. Countless specks of light poured from the scar there, forming a sword hilt in her grip.
"—over yet!"
She yanked the blade from her chest. In a flash, multiple sword slashes, warping the light around them, carved through the monument's core. They vanished as quickly as they appeared, taking the rift with them. Echidna froze.
A brief silence, then cracks spiderwebbed outward from the slashes. With a sound like bursting firecrackers, the entire Hell Gate shattered, collapsing into rubble.
Echidna, as if petrified, slowly turned. There stood Nero, her hair now silver, her eyes glinting with blood-red light. She held the blade in one hand and gave a mocking curtsy, bending her knee.
Same curtsy as before, but for Echidna—once a mighty demon lord—it carried a whole new weight.
A silent taunt.
Echidna let out a deafening screech, summoning every demon in the forest to save their "mother."
It was going all-in.
As it screamed, Echidna's body split into four serpent-like legs, skittering like an octopus. It closed in on Nero, spawning seed after seed beneath it, each one budding with demonic life.
The seeds weren't ready, but Echidna forced them awake. The weak demons burst from their shells the moment they hit the ground, swarming toward Nero.
"Hah!"
Nero spun with a playful laugh, swinging her blade in a wide arc. "Monsters in the blood trench!" she sang.
A torrent of demonic energy surged from the blade, forming a sharp edge that solidified three meters ahead, alongside a faint, translucent figure.
The demons collided with the energy blade and were sliced apart instantly, black smoke spewing from their wounds.
Echidna reached Nero, raising a slender serpent leg to crush the ghostly figure past the blade. Nero leaped, coming face-to-face with Echidna's humanoid upper body.
Grinning, she chanted at the tragic scene before her: "This sad, foolish rage!"
Her blade slashed downward, tearing one of Echidna's serpent legs halfway from its root. Another translucent figure lingered in front of Echidna, as if mocking her weakness.
Demonic blood, like smoke, gushed from Echidna's wound. The demon lord screamed in pain, collapsing back into its full serpent form, writhing on the ground.
Nero landed, flicking her blade and pointing it at the fallen Echidna.
"The viper's tail splits, yet the sinner clasps their legs."
Chanting again, Nero lunged forward, her blade flashing.
The gleaming sword light split into four, crisscrossing and carving into Echidna's body.