S-rank skills are extremely, extremely broken/balanced
Why? Because at least A-rank and below are still within an acceptable range—you can still beat them if you find the right counter or exploit.
But S-rank? Oh my god. They're strong for no damn reason. In the end, it all comes from a porn book anyway, so the power system was never meant to be coherent or fair.
Remember: one person with an S-rank skill can wipe out 10 A-ranks, or even 100, or 1,000.
Destroying the whole world? Totally doable.
Though there are rare cases where an S-rank skill can't beat 10 people or can't beat anyone at all — that just means it's insanely strong in a different way.
And then there's Aura… ugh.
She can straight-up be considered the strongest character in this entire fic.
So strong that when the final boss finally shows up, that boss can only run away — no way they can fight a prolonged battle and get casually killed.
Even if an omnipotent god appeared, they'd avoid Aura like the plague.
Because she can make the word "omnipotent" look like a joke.
Luckily, the bigger the power, the bigger the drawback.
Almost every S-rank skill has a brutally heavy side effect on the user — that's an extremely effective nerf.
…or rather, it's just the book's way of dirtying them up for the readers' porn enjoyment.
Prime example: Aura Clint.
"Is she even still alive?" Vakoth asked.
"…Yeah," her tiny voice replied, face still planted into the ground.
"Her side effect is hilariously cruel. One use of the skill and she ends up like this," Lily said, scratching her head. She'd been hiding the whole time and only came out once it was safe.
Aura's side effect is perfectly suited for hentai books:
For every second she spends in her invincible state, she gets paralyzed for an hour in her normal state.
So if she uses her skill for just 30 seconds — congratulations! She'll be paralyzed for 30 hours!
And while paralyzed, all her stats drop to 1.
That's why she rarely uses it — because the next target after her skill ends… will be her.
"Kai… Is Kai still alive?!" Kanna asked in panic while clutching the chest.
Lily quickly pulled out a life detector from her bag and sighed in relief.
"He's alive. Just… still inside the chest."
"Phew… So how do we get him out now?" Reito asked her.
"No clue. I'm a doctor, not an all-knowing sage. As long as it doesn't turn into a Made in Abyss situation, we're good." (becoming a suitcase, lmao)
After the boss was killed and vanished, everyone finally relaxed their guard. Now they were just trying to figure out how to free Kai from the chest.
Except Vakoth, Abaric, and Irelia.
Especially Irelia — she kept staring at that stone throne.
Abaric was watching her every move very carefully.
He'd been suspicious of her since the moment they met. Seeing her this calm now only made him more suspicious.
And as expected, Irelia started walking toward the stone throne.
'…Kill her or… nah, better restrain her. She still from the academy after all."
After thinking for a second, he charged with his knife.
Instantly, an ice wall blocked him.
He turned into a shark and flopped onto the ground.
Everyone turned to look at Irelia in confusion. Vakoth just stood there doing nothing.
Only Baron felt something was very wrong.
"Irelia?" Violet called out, seeing her blocking Abaric's attacks and standing in front of the throne.
Then she took something out.
Abaric lunged again, pinned her down, and forced her face to the ground.
But her Gear was floating.
"…What did you do?"
Irelia glanced up, eyes full of contempt.
"Destroying this fucking kingdom."
"?!"
Right after, her Gear glowed and erupted with massive energy.
By absorbing all the mana from the trapped souls, it refined them into pure mana —
and fed it straight to Irelia.
Abaric was blasted back, landed safely, and stared at Irelia absorbing that terrifyingly pure mana.
Don't tell me she's planning to…?!
Snap!
A lightning bolt shot toward her — only to be blocked by the mana surrounding her body.
"Tch!" Baron growled, finally realizing why she formed an adventurer party and came here.
She was planning to sacrifice everyone — including Kai!
"My plan got a bit derailed because some of you are still alive, and having Aura Clint here made things difficult. So I decided to activate it earlier than usual."
"And luckily, Aura Clint used her skill. Now I don't have to worry — I can just absorb all of you."
Her voice came out completely changed.
"Consider this my thanks for becoming my power. Let me introduce myself a little."
She was now wearing an ice-queen dress, long white hair reaching her feet, cold blue eyes.
"Gerda Irelia Winterbell, the Snow Queen."
"…" Everyone was speechless. They didn't even know what to say.
The Snow Queen was a fairy-tale creature based on a real being from ancient times here.
Her crimes were horrifying: eating children, kidnapping, creating eternal winter, mass slaughter, destroying kingdoms.
And she dares call herself the Snow Queen?!
"Vakoth, you let her become this. This is on you," Abaric glared.
"She pay me so I don't care."
"I'm reporting this to the Adventurer's Guild. They'll review your crimes you asshole greed."
Violet stood stunned. She never expected her friend to turn into this.
At first she befriended her because few people could stand her personality. In the end, she always listened quietly.
Turns out… she was planning this all along…
"So cool!"
"Violet, what the fuck are you talking about?!" Reito next to her looked openly disgusted.
"This kingdom — I've had enough," Irelia's voice rang out.
"Crime happens every day, corruption is everywhere, the people are idiots who'll join any party if you just offer something tempting."
"And especially the sex — it's everywhere, to the point of being disgusting."
"So rather than let this place continue to exist, better to destroy it all and spare the world a catastrophe."
…You know what? That's actually a pretty valid reason to go through with it. This place is trash anyway.
"I… I won't let you do that!"
"I don't want to hear that from someone who's paralyzed, Aura."
She looked at her with pitying eyes.
"Besides, your justice is outdated. You save the people — so what? The moment you're at your weakest, they'll gang-rape you."
"Luckily most of the survivors here are decent people, so you've been safe. I don't hate any of you, but I know you'll try to stop me anyway — so killing you is basically setting you free."
"That's way too extreme!" Baron yelled.
"I don't want to die yet!! I haven't talked enough with Kai, gone out with Kai, confessed, held hands, kissed, gone to bed, gotten married, had kids, had grandkids, died of old age together, then loved Kai again in the next life!!" Kanna was on the verge of tears knowing she was about to die.
'What the hell is this dummy even thinking?' everyone thought — including Irelia.
"Alright then… So the reason for all this is… you just hate how this kingdom operates?" Lily asked calmly.
"Yeah."
"Oh cool. Then you don't need to kill us… Just let us leave the country, yeah?"
"I already thought about that."
Then Irelia pointed at Aura.
"Except her. She's ridiculously overpowered. Once her side effect wears off, she'll come back and kill me like it's nothing."
"Oh, and her mana is way too good. If I absorb it, I'll become ruler of the world."
"Then… what about us?" Lily asked again.
"I already said I thought about it."
"And?"
"…You already know."
Lily sighed and looked at the group.
"Great. She wants to kill us all, take our mana, and power herself up. She's completely lost it."
"Then let's kill her already!"
The whole group got into fighting stance. Irelia looked at them with pity.
"Whatever you choose, I'm killing you all anyway. Consider it liberation for daring to oppose me."
Gerda Irelia Winterbell, the Snow Queen, has become the final boss of the dungeon!