The platform raised Joan into the usual arena. Her electric blue armor glistened under the specks of light shining through the thick foliage.

Lines of lightning danced along her armor as she summoned her sword and began walking in a seemingly random direction.

Faith, as always, provided sufficient intel, while Joan hunted down everyone. She made sure to use as little Essence as possible, since she'll need every bit for her upcoming last battle.

The hunt wasn't difficult. There weren't as many fighters as in the other matches. They were running out and soon would've no excuse to use this type of arena.

The first week was nearly over, and soon everyone would Evolve, leaving only Sera for last. This way, even if she failed to kill the most dangerous enemy, they could all fight and kill him.

This plan was far from perfect, judging by how much time Sera spent silently pondering, but Joan didn't care enough to ask about her worries. Bea and Melinda were there to support her, and she never was close with the Angel.

Instead, Joan focused on her current objective: to kill her enemies and survive until Evolution!

At first the task wasn't difficult, but as time passed, her opponent's numbers decreased, leaving only the most powerful behind... That's when Joan stopped hunting...

She used Faith and Bea to hide herself in a tree's crevice, then she began waiting. For hours she didn't move. She just listened to the ground shaking explosions, awaiting her moment.

Faith kept feeding her information about the battle until her prey was alone and battered, giving her the perfect opportunity to strike.

Joan didn't try sneaking up on the primordial god. He didn't deserve any honor, but Joan still wanted to stare into his eyes while taking his life.

In a small clearing stood a tall, muscular man wearing nothing but a dirty once white piece of fabric wrapped around his right shoulder and reaching down to his mid-thighs.

His sweaty white beard and long hair danced in the light breeze as his grim, annoyed face glanced towards Joan. Two spheres of electricity stared out from his empty eye sockets.

The man took a step forward and spoke in a voice similar to the sound of thunder...

"You're the last one, I suppose. Sent by the Last Angel herself... Don't worry, girl, I'll take everything nice and slow... I like your curves, especially that thick ass and thighs... I'll make sure to enjoy them thoroughly before taking your life!"

Upon hearing his words, Joan simply brandished her sword and swallowed down her vomit of disgust. She took a few steps forward, closing the distance between herself and the primordial deity.

"What? Won't even acknowledge my threat? Are you truly wish to die without actually saying your last words?... Fine, I guess your screams will have to do!"

Joan's silence achieved exactly what she desired... It pissed off her opponent!

The man summoned a giant cloud of lightning around himself, then shot it straight at Joan's lone form.

The enormous electric cloud illuminated the otherwise dark world, blinding both Joan and her opponent. However, while the attack should've been impossible to block or evade, Joan did neither.

She simply held out her electric blue sword at an angle, then let the cloud hit her armored body, like a meteor. It sent her flying backward, but the cloud got redirected back to its unsuspecting origin!

It didn't manage to fully hit her enemy, but since he didn't wear any armor, the lightning did much more damage to his deeply tanned skin than Joan.

A second after getting struck, she was already up on her feet, running towards the primordial god, whilst he still barely got up from the ground.

The lightning itself couldn't do much damage to him, but it made his muscles spasm, slowing his movements.

The perfect time to strike has arrived. Joan's feet shot electricity into the ground, propelling her straight towards her opponent.

The man's electric sphere eyes went wide with surprise as Joan nearly teleported herself before him. However, her enemy was still a powerful being, who wouldn't go down without a fight.

A lightning struck the ground in Joan's path, but she simply raised her sword again, this time aiming it behind herself. The strong electric current moved across the metal, then bounced back from the pommel and pushed Joan even closer to the shocked deity.

Before she realized, his feet were moving backward, reeling from Joan's unrelenting advance. The smell of burned skin filled the air as a gentle sizzling noise echoed from inside Joan's armor.

The electric blue metal couldn't hold all the electricity coursing through its structure, so it got turned into heat... Painful, near unbearable, melting heat...

However, Joan didn't scream. Under her helmet, an impassive face stared out at her prey while all her skin fused with the metal armor.

She didn't want to give her enemy the satisfaction of hearing her agony. Instead, she wanted to take his life without ever acknowledging his presence!

Joan continued running, while her opponent backed away, until finally his back met a tree trunk. Suddenly, tiny vines pierced his back and moved around his spine, holding him in place.

Then there was a thin vine, which went under his skirt and grew around the instrument of many innocent people's suffering. It also went through the tiny hole, crawling further inside, then when the being bit his lip in pain, Bea suddenly grew spikes from the thin vine.

Blood flowed from the man's skirt as he screamed in agony. His body seemed to lose all its power as Bea's torture continued. She made sure nothing would remain of his reproductive organ, before he found death's peaceful embrace.

Joan just walked forward. She stopped sprinting upon noticing the primordial god's suffering.

With small, measured steps she arrived before his body. The man heaved in agony, his face contorted in pain, while a mix of vomit, saliva and blood dripped from his mouth.

A few seconds passed as Joan let the man suffer, then she raised her longsword and with a single slash separated the creature's neck and head.

It flew a few meters away, drawing a bloody arc across the air. The vines also stopped holding up his body, so it fell to the ground naturally.

As for Joan, the moment her enemy died, she fell to her knees and dismissed her armor. A few burned pieces of fabric remained from her outfit. It was enough to keep her dignity, but even without the armor, her melted skin brought only agony.

She took a few deep breaths, then tried raising her arm towards the dead primordial deity corpse. A gasp of pain escaped her lips as the fused skin broke apart at her shoulder and lines of blood flowed along her arm.

However, she pushed past the pain and continued raising her arm. Like a mantra, her words came slurred as her entire body burned with misery.

"Don't scream... Don't scream... Don't scream..." she said over and over, as her trembling, blood-covered hand inched closer to her dead prey.

It felt like an eternity passed between each movement, yet she kept pushing, until she felt the soft, white fabric between her fingers. The question popped up in her mind immediately...

'Do you wish to evolve?'

She hesitated, though. For a single moment, all the physical pain pressing on her body seemed to disappear, leaving a dark emptiness in her heart.

Joan's electric head moved upward, while her electric blue eyes focused at the glimpses of sunlight shining through the foliage. A feeling of despair and uncertainty appeared in her mind as the shaking of her hand increased and tears began running down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Eula..." she whispered in a broken, guilty voice.

"I should've died... You were much stronger... Better in every way... You should've lived..."

Her shaky voice echoed through the silent forest as her gaze moved away from the hidden sky. A strange determination grew in her eyes as she stared at the corpse before her.

"I'm sorry, Eula... You should've live... But... I'll make sure to write my wrongs and bring you back... We'll meet again, one way or another..."

Joan took one final deep breath and finally answered the question in her mind silently.

A moment later, she fell unconscious, and her wounds healed immediately. However, after she didn't awaken a few minutes later, Vicky opened a portal under the barely clothed woman, bringing her away from the arena.

The spectators barely noticed. They were too happy celebrating the death of Zeus, the King of the Gods.

Much similar to the Greek Pantheon's other members, everybody hated Zeus's guts. He was nothing but a disgusting rapist who used his power to live out his sick desires.

Not a single person missed Zeus, not even Hera, his supposed wife. Right now, only she remained of the entire Greek Pantheon. Not that she cared, though.

The pale, mature woman spent each day sleeping. She hasn't even noticed that the lounge room became empty.

She'll only fight in the latter half of the second week, leaving her plenty of time before her inevitable death sentence.

Hera didn't live on hopes and dreams. She knew exactly the purpose behind this tournament, from the first day... This wasn't a fight for Earth, but a fancy execution ground...

However, even knowing this fact, she was content in wasting away. Her desire to live died centuries ago... She was looking forward to the peace of death, but was too much of a coward to kill herself...