"Damnit!" Madam X cursed under her breath. Her companion, Ria, was captured, and the coordinates that were on her bracelet were lost.
'This mission is a complete fail! All because of this bitch, Morgana!' she growled in her mind, and to make matters even worse, the target knew who was the mastermind behind the attack.
'I need to get out of here!' Madam X was smart enough to understand the situation that was unfolding before her eyes. She couldn't even use her full strength to defeat Morgana, or the Nexus would get notified that unauthorized use of the Collector's divine energy was being used.
So her best course of action was to leave the scene, regroup, locate Ria, and rescue her. The coordinates were still in the bracelet, and even if it was destroyed—as long as the core component remained intact—the data could be retrieved.
Too bad Madam X's bracelet was destroyed before it had the chance to record Morgana's world coordinates.
"Going somewhere?"
Suddenly, a voice came from her right.
"!!!" Madam X gasped and turned to see Morgana standing a few meters away, smiling.
'She's fast…' Madam X thought, not even surprised that Morgana had closed the distance so quickly, her good eye narrowing. The flames that danced across her skin flared brighter in instinctive defense, twisting around her like a living storm. Across from her, Morgana stood amidst the ruin—blood-soaked, radiant, calm. The black monolith of the Unspoken Realm still loomed behind her, pulsing faintly like a heart that refused to die.
"..."
For a moment, neither spoke.
Only the whisper of burning wind between them.
Then, slowly, Madam X reached into her pocket, attempting to pull a metal card that was used to open a portal back to the Nexus. Since she lost the status of a goddess and became a Collector, Madam X lost the right to use the Nexus system that gods normally used to travel. She could only rely on the bracelet the Nexus gave her or use these cards.
Whoosh!
The moment she pulled it out, Morgana made her move, using her extraordinary speed to lunge forward with the sword in her hand. Madam X panicked for a moment; she didn't expect Morgana to be that fast.
But it was too late—the blade was already inches away from her neck.
FUSHH!
She had no choice but to transform her entire body into flames to dodge, and for a moment, that worked. Morgana's blood sword passed through her with ease. I mean, cutting divine flames with a sword? Don't be absurd.
But Morgana wasn't planning on attacking her; she was waiting for Madam X to transform. Her Blood Knights had already reported everything that needed to be known about the red-haired Collector's power.
"You won't be needing this." Morgana's smile grew even wider as she showcased her long-lost swordsmanship.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
With three swift motions, the Goddess of Breeding, Blood, Night, and War sliced through the air—her blade moving so fast it seemed to exist in several places at once. The ground beneath her feet split apart from the sheer pressure of her swings, the very air screaming from her passing.
The first strike shattered the metal card in Madam X's flaming hand. The second tore through the space behind her, sealing off the unstable portal that had begun to form. The third didn't touch Madam X at all—yet it cut the air so cleanly that her flames faltered, split apart, and reformed several meters away, her fiery body momentarily destabilized.
"Damn you!" Madam X roared, reforming her arm with a burst of molten light. The shock on her face was unmistakable. "Y-You... cut through my flame?!"
"..." Morgana said nothing as she prepared herself for another strike.
"!!!" Madam X, sensing the danger, threw the cigar that was in her mouth toward Morgana's face, igniting the cigar into a big cloud of black smoke as she used that moment to escape.
'She can cut through my flames?! That's not possible!' She tried to gather her composure, but it was hard. 'That means she's on a higher level than me! Impossible, she's Iron Rank!!... I have to take her seriously!'
"Sigh..." Morgana, standing in the middle of the black cloud of smoke as it surrounded her, obscuring her vision, let out a long, disappointing sigh. "I'm tired of this old damn trick."
She bit into her wrist and sprayed blood in the air, mixing it with the smoke. Even if she couldn't see the Collector, she could sense her through blood. At the same time, the two Blood Knights silently reached their master and stood behind her, waiting for a chance to strike.
Fush! Fush!
"Hmm..." Morgana closed her eyes, focusing. Each droplet pulsed with her will—breathing, listening, seeing.
Fush!
"Found you," Morgana whispered.
Before the words even left her lips, one of her Blood Knights lunged forward. He dashed toward the right side and self-exploded into a red jelly-like blob that intercepted Madam X's attack and trapped the fire being in a vortex of blood.
"AHHHH!" Madam X cursed under her breath as she burned her way out of the jelly. But even as she burned away the blood, her senses screamed that something was wrong.
"Her blood is attacking from the inside!!"
She couldn't burn it away completely; Morgana's blood was alive and resisting her flames. Moreover, it caused some parts of her body to become unable to transform into flames.
"GAAAHH!" Madam X roared in frustration as she thrashed around. She could feel the blood move around inside of her, pulsing through her veins, burrowing into her organs, and blocking her own divine essence.
"GRR!" she growled. She was panicking now, but her mind was still thinking. She was a powerful Gold-Rank goddess who had lived for thousands of years; she had an abundance of experience.
This wasn't the first time she had encountered blood magic. She could easily get rid of Morgana's cursed blood; however, in order to do that, Madam X had to lift the limitations on her divinity and use more strength.
But again, the Nexus would notice.
'I need to leave,' she made up her mind and decided to take a gamble—one that, if it succeeded, would spell Morgana's doom.
"Are you done?"
"!!!" Again, Morgana surprised her with the speed she used, but this time Madam X decided to fight, not evade—especially after she saw that the big black cursed gate disappeared.
Morgana couldn't keep the gate open for long; in fact, right now, she had no command over the gate at all. She simply invited the gate to this world using the runes and language that Lilith taught her. The gate sensed her former High Queen and answered the call, but without the link to the realm, Morgana couldn't command the gate to remain open for long.
Even calling it again was impossible unless she wanted to risk this world being destroyed by the gatekeepers, who would definitely come investigating why the gate was being called.
And let me tell you, those guys don't mess around. They answer to no one, and they don't give a fuck if Morgana was the High Queen, whose side you're on, or if this is a mortal or divine world. The gatekeepers will not stop until every soul, every concept, every scrap of life has been dragged into the gate.
If Morgana called the gate again, she would die. This world, with everything in it, would die. She knew that for a fact.
'I still have plenty of holes to breed, cocks to suck, worlds to destroy, and gods to kill,' Morgana thought dryly, letting out a small chuckle despite the chaos. 'No way I'm dying yet.'
....
FUSHHH!! BOOM! BOOM!
The fight dragged on for another 15 minutes, Morgana showing her superior speed and swordsmanship against Madam X's fiery explosions.
The battle was in favor of no one; neither of them was willing to give in. Their attacks were evenly matched; both women focused on defense as they waited for an opening to present itself.
"Ughh! This is getting me nowhere!" Madam X growled in frustration as she dodged an incoming slash from Morgana, only to lose her balance momentarily.
'This is my chance!!' Morgana's eyes glowed crimson as she lunged toward the red-haired Collector, her sword in tow, aiming for the head.
Unfortunately, that was Madam X's plan all along.
Just as the sharp edge of Morgana's blade was about to slice her head in two, Madam X transformed that part of her body into flames, allowing the blade to pass right through her. However, this time, there was something the blade did cut.
A small diamond-looking blue crystal appeared out of thin air, and the moment Morgana cut it—
WHOOSH!
It released a powerful burst of mana, creating a vortex that instantly began to suck Morgana in.
"WHAT!" Morgana blinked, surprised as she found herself unable to break free. The spell was not just a mana suction spell; it was also a portal of some kind.
"Hehehe... Goodbye!" Madam X grinned, standing 20 feet away from the vortex, but she made the mistake of letting her guard down.
"NOT A CHANCE!"
Since there was no way for Morgana to break free from this suction, she decided to... well, not get sucked alone.
Multiple blood-crafted chains and Hunger tentacles burst out from her body and armor, grabbing and latching onto the goddess of fire. In that split second of relief, Morgana's surprise pull managed to bring Madam X into the effective range of the vortex spell.
BOOOOOM!
"AHHH!" Madam X gasped and felt the suction spell pull at her soul. Her body instantly transformed into a roaring inferno, scorching everything around her. Not caring about the Nexus or anything, she unleashed all of her divine power.
But Morgana's grip was unyielding.
"Don't think you can get away so easily," Morgana growled, her teeth clenched as her eyes glowed with an unholy rage.
"Gah! You crazy bitch...!" Madam X cursed, feeling her strength begin to fade. "LET ME GO!!!"
The two women screamed and shouted, their words mixing together in a blur of fury. Yet no matter how hard they tried, the vortex kept pulling them closer and closer to it. Until finally...
"NOOO!"
It ate them both in one single gulp.