CHAPTER 243: CHAPTER 242 - THE THIRD PHASE 3.

Arietta, still half-asleep in Raven’s lap, waved her hand like a drowsy queen blessing a ritual. "Next... Stabby Girl."

"That’s a nice nickname," Siris grinned at Arietta as she stood up. "Still, I would’ve liked it more if it were ’Raven’s Stabby Girl.’"

"Too bad, Stabby Girl. I get to decide the nicknames, not you," Arietta shrugged, waving her hand.

Siris didn’t respond to the goddess’s words as she brushed her fingers across Raven’s shoulder. "I’ll be back with blood."

"Don’t kill the simulation too fast," Clara warned. "Show us something, alright?"

"Accidents happen," Siris muttered, her lips twitching upward as icy mist curled from her hands.

Nibbles held up a sign: "Warning: Ice Gremlin Mode Activated."

Arietta’s glyph spun lazily. "Simulation loaded: Level Nine Beast—The Screamaconda."

A thundering screech shook the realm.

From a rift in the sky slithered a massive, serpentine monster—pale white, eyeless, with a mouth that ran down half its body like a zipper from hell.

It screamed again, warping the air.

Raven blinked. "...Is it just me, or does that thing look like a banshee mated with a tapeworm?"

"Gross," Jessy muttered. "Kill it with ice."

"Gladly," Siris said, her breath fogging.

She raised both hands.

SHHHTINK!

Twelve daggers of Cryovoid materialized midair around her, each bound to her fingers by shimmering mana strings. The air dropped a full twenty degrees.

Siris wasn’t using her twin daggers or the bone dagger right now.

She had decided not to use them until she had reached the tenth plate, as she could use her Cryoblades efficiently.

The Screamaconda, on the other hand, lunged, mouth yawning open with a sound like a blender full of bagpipes.

Siris vanished.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

Her daggers embedded into the monster’s hide, and she yanked herself upward with graceful tugs, swinging from knife to knife like a frosty Spider-Man. "Oh, you have so much flesh. Thank you."

She zipped across the beast’s side, dragging a blade as she passed.

Every slice left a glowing Cryovoid trail, and the flesh beneath began frosting from the inside out.

These mana threads she had been using to keep the daggers in control while also propelling herself were what she had been working on—the game-changer skill she created.

She still didn’t have a ranged attack in her arsenal, but in close range and mid-range, she was a menace.

The Screamaconda could tell that as it hissed and thrashed, but every twitch only deepened its doom.

Selena leaned back. "You think she’s... enjoying this a bit too much?"

"She giggled," Lia confirmed, concerned.

"She’s humming," Clara added. "That’s a kill song."

The serpent screeched again—an ear-splitting sonic boom that cracked stone.

The way Siris fought made it impossible for the monster to use its deadliest attack—the breath attack.

After all, she was running over its body.

Siris then stopped halfway up its neck, raised both hands... and snapped her fingers.

"Absolute Freeze."

The world stilled.

The frost spread from every wound she’d inflicted, rushing through veins, organs, and nerves. The beast froze from the inside out—every movement making it shatter by fractions.

The Screamaconda tried to scream again... but its throat cracked, and—

KRSSHHHHH—!

A chunk of its face fell off like shattered glass.

Siris leapt off the beast, landing in a swirl of icy mist just as the entire monster crumbled—bit by bit—into a glacial graveyard.

She turned back and whispered, "Take your time dying."

Even Arietta, now fully awake and upside-down in Raven’s lap again, blinked. "...Wow. That was extra."

"She’s efficient," Clara said automatically.

"She scares me," Rufus added.

"She’s mine," Raven replied with a proud smirk.

Nibbles raised a sign: "10/10. Cold-Blooded Queen."

Siris returned to the group without saying a word. But as she passed Raven, she muttered just loud enough for him to hear, "Hope you liked the show."

"I did," he replied smoothly. "Let’s talk about your kill count later."

She smiled, satisfied. "Hehe~"

Arietta stretched. "Alright... who’s next before I nap again? Is it the Vibrator or the Princess with daddy issues?"

Clara and Selena froze when they heard their respective nicknames.

"...Vibrator?" Clara muttered, staring at Arietta with a ’Really now?’ expression.

"I don’t have daddy issues," Selena declared firmly, only to see everyone staring at her with a deadpan look.

"What?" She frowned.

"You are literally clinging to him," Jessy replied, her lips twitching.

Selena glanced down at her arms coiled around Raven’s, then she turned to Raven, who made a zipping gesture on his lips and threw the pin away, raising his hands in surrender.

It was clear that he had decided not to comment on that.

He wasn’t going to say anything about his girls’ personalities. He would love them, regardless of the issues they had.

................................

Soon, it was decided who would go next.

Arietta twirled her finger lazily, glyphs dancing around it like sleepy fireflies. "Alright, next up—Princess with daddy issues."

Selena sighed, letting go of Raven’s arm with the elegance of a departing queen. "I’m going to ignore that."

"She didn’t deny it this time," Clara whispered with a smirk.

Selena brushed down her skirt with practiced poise and stepped forward, eyes half-lidded and calm, like a noble attending a midnight ball.

The air around her dimmed, shadows stretching unnaturally in anticipation.

"Simulation loaded: Level Nine Beast—Dreadhulk Minotitan," Arietta announced.

From the far side of the arena, a mountainous, ox-headed monster stomped into view, steam hissing from its nostrils as it carried a glowing warhammer the size of a carriage.

It roared, shaking the ground.

Selena barely blinked. "Big. Loud. Predictable."

She lifted her hand, and her shadow surged.

With a whumpf, shadowy forms exploded from beneath her. Dozens of small, fanged beasts with gaping mouths and wriggling limbs skittered out, eyes glowing red.

Nibbles held up a sign: "Let the shadow buffet begin."

Rather than sending them out, Selena did something new.

"Link."

The beasts lunged for one another—not to fight, but to bite onto each other’s tails, forming long, writhing chains of devourers.

They were like serpentine ropes.

She flicked her wrist and whipped one at the Minotitan’s ankle. It wrapped tightly.

The beast tried to smash it, only to have another chain whip up and coil around its hammer arm.

As if that shadow whip wasn’t enough, Selena had used her necromancy powers to summon skeletons, only to make them cover the rope like a hard exoskeleton.

Because of that, the strike from the whips hurt more.

"GRAAAAAAA!!!!!!" The beast roared in pain as a part of its skin was ripped off by the whip.

"Still predictable," Selena whispered.

The chains dragged, tangled, and snapped taut, pinning the monster like sticky black vines from the abyss.

But she wasn’t done.

From her shadow, they came—four massive devourer creatures, climbing on top of each other’s backs in a grotesque imitation of a structure.

They couldn’t be summoned before, as her shadow was small, but now, she was using her shadow beasts to help her extend her shadow using their shadows.

This was the new trick she had learned.

As long as her shadow was touching another shadow, she could summon her beasts from that other shadow as well.

This ability worked best at night, but that didn’t mean it was useless in sunlight.

No—it was, in a way, better.

Although she couldn’t summon many creatures because of the lack of shadow, she could still create denser shadows thanks to the sunlight, and that was why the beasts she could summon would be stronger.

Now, as the huge devourer beasts coiled around her in a human-shaped outline, a massive skeletal ribcage burst forth from the ground, covering them like a shell.

Skulls, bones, and jagged joints formed a towering avatar—part demon, part deity.

Nibbles flipped a sign: "Shadow Susanoo?!"

"God, she made a beast Megazord out of meat gremlins," Rufus muttered, awestruck.

The bone-armored monstrosity—Selena’s Shadow Warden—mimicked her movements perfectly as she stood calmly within its ribcage, floating in a core of dark mist.

The Minotitan roared and ripped one arm free.

Selena exhaled. "Fine. Let’s end it."

From every direction, her devourers converged, forming dozens of clawed mouths over the skeleton’s exterior. Their maws opened in unison.

She raised a hand.

"Devourer’s Judgement."

A blinding beam of concentrated devouring shadow energy erupted from the Shadow Warden’s mouth—no, from all the mouths.

The air collapsed inward before the wave of destruction tore forward like a banshee’s breath.

BOOOOOOM—!!

The Minotitan disintegrated under the bombardment, leaving not even bones to bury.

Silence fell.

Selena descended back to the ground in a swirl of midnight mist. The Shadow Warden collapsed into fanged puddles that scurried back into her shadow.

She turned back to the group, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "So... was that overkill?"

"...A little," Clara said, blinking.

"I loved it," Siris grinned.

"I think I heard it scream ’I surrender’ in seven languages," Jessy added.

"She’s mine too," Raven chimed in proudly.

Selena walked past him and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Of course I am."

Nibbles held up a final sign: "Your honor, I rest my case."

Arietta, scribbling notes, yawned. "Alright... the next is Vibrator. Please go on so I can finally get this over with."

"Alright, alright," Clara waved her hand and got up, jumping down toward the arena.

Raven, however, frowned as he noticed something.

’What’s wrong with her?’

It was Arietta. She had her fist clenched, and there was this subtle shiver in her body now and then.

Raven had been ignoring it until now, thinking that it was something she did, but as time went by, the interval between the shivers kept decreasing.

Above all, Arietta was sleeping a lot today—something she never did when she was with him.