It has only been a few minutes since Miko and Hana successfully escaped from the Shrine, yet the situation became progressively more dire. The disgusting creature before her somehow had second form and each of its tendrils was much stronger than before, so every hit was as heavy and difficult to defend. Even the blunt sword had started to cracked under such intensive force. Yet she had no choice but to continue buying more time.
However, Valerie's thought quickly spiralled to despair. After all, God of the Mountain truly looks hideous and reeks impurity beyond imagination. Furthermore, the pressure it emitted was almost suffocating and her shoulders feels extremely heavy. Kousuke had once wanted to heavily armed her with all kind of protection accessories, but she refused them all. Back then, she thought there was no need for something like that when she was always around him, or stayed in the house with heavy defence and hidden mechanisms against threats. And whenever she was allowed to get some fresh air, he also accompanied her, either by her side or from afar. Perhaps, she may have been too spoiled for her own good.
Despite having restored her stamina a moment prior, Valerie was already having hard time holding onto her weapon. If she lost her grip, it will be all over for her. So, she purposely jumped toward the creature and it slapped her with the tendrils, thus, sending her flying a few feet away. This gives her the opportunity to tear up some of her sleeves and tied one of her hand to the handle securely, now she won't lose her grip even if she were to become unconscious.
[FUTILE.]
[THINE RESISTANCE IS MEANINGLESS.]
Everytime she parried against the tendrils, God of the Mountain also said something. it was as if THEY understood she was not a threat to THEM, so THEY weren't in a hurry to kill her either. After all, time were always on THEIR side. Just like how little inducement on the altar was enough for a normal person like Hana be influenced and subconsciously brought her friends to the Shrine, like the clueless rabbit bringing their family into the lion territory, unaware of the danger lurking in the dark.
[THE MOMENT THEE AND THY FRIENDS ENTERED THE SHRINE.]
[THINE FATE ARE SEALED.]
God of the Mountain thought it would only got some measly souls, but unexpectedly, there was one amongst them who had a powerful Sacred Gear, and another one laid dormant. Even more, it involved the domain of the death and souls. THEY were beyond elated. Only humans could awaken Sacred Gear, that was common sense. However, awakening a powerful Sacred Gear is even more of a rarity. Especially when one allow temporary authority over life, now that is true miracle.
[SURRENDER THY SOUL TO GOD.]
"...Shut up! You... are not God!" Valerie shouted, exhaustion evident by the sweat trickling down her cheeks. But she refused to fall here, at least not to a cruel creature before her. "God does not torment people for fun! You are just hideous and vile monster!"
[FOOL.]
This time the word THEY uttered unleashed gravitational force that suppressed Valerie in place. Her legs trembled, but she remained standing with sheer will. The unwavering look on her face infuriated God of the Mountain more than her words. It feels almost insulting, THEY had gone easy on her because it had been a while since THEY had a good treat, and yet, her expression is akin to mocking THEM that THEY are falling into her scheme.
[RIDICULOUS.]
[THY THINKS GOD WERE PLAYING AROUND FOR FUN THIS ENTIRE TIME?]
Valerie feels like she was being crushed under intense gravity, yet she forced herself standing by firmly stabbed the blunt sword into the ground, before putting her entire weight onto it. Even so, it still feels like a giant is pressing down on her by their fingertip. Then suddenly, the pressure vanished as if it was all a dream. She was stunned at first, is it over now? But when she looks up at the creature, her already paled face was stricken with despair.
[SO BE IT.]
God of the Mountain was covered in bright yellowish light, until the color grew faint and disappeared completely. However, what stood before her was no longer the ugly creature. In fact, THEY resembles human. Human male to be exact. He had long black hair and worn a white shinto robes. What should be the white part of his eyes were dark in color and his pupils are bright red like that of fresh blood. She had almost let her guard down until his gaze locked onto her. It was then that her body felt cold, shaken by the extreme bloodlust toward the living lied within those eyes.
"Haaah, it's been a while since we were in this form." He muttered calmly while brushing his long hair back. Then he grins. "So small, yet so satisfying when crushing an ant!"
Valerie widened her eyes when he suddenly appeared only a few feet away from her, closing the gap between them so quickly that it caught her off guard. She tried to pull the blunt sword off the ground, but was too slow and was sent crashing into the ruined shrine. God of the Mountain looks at his hand with a smug, clearly pleased that his strength hadn't wanned at all in the time he had been mostly slumbering. Then he zeroed in at the figure slowly rising from the smoke scattering in the shrine, before kicking her up to the sky with his knee to her guts. She let out a mouthful of blood before shooting upward.
As she was descending quickly to the ground by the force of gravity, Valerie suddenly recalled what Kousuke had told her about the hidden mechanism on the Ring of Transformation. She feels like facepalming herself for only remembering it now, as her life flashed through her mind. She then pulled the ring off as the disguise immediately deactivated, as her appearance returns to normal. It was the blond hair and red eyes dhampir, Valerie Tepes.
"A dhampir? How did we just noticed it now?"
Ignoring God of the Mountain muttering to himself, Valerie threw the ring straight at him with all her might. Despite having the belief that no ants could possibly injure him, God of the Mountain still choose to hurl a slightly strong attack and obliterate the object before it could do anything. However, instead of mocking the ant for such feeble attempted to trick him, God of the Mountain frowned in displeasure. After all, what reflected on the crimson orbs were the smiling face of Valerie.
"Have you lost your mind? So be it, now die!"
Looking at the knife-hand speeding toward her, Valerie closed her eyes shut out of fear. She didn't know whether he would immediately came for her, but she believes Kousuke would take revenge on her. That was good enough for her.