The chaos slowly settled, leaving behind a land that no longer resembled anything natural.

Crater? Not really. It wasn’t even that tidy.

What lay before her was pure devastation. 

The plain had been shredded apart like paper, exposing layers of earth that weren’t meant to see the light. 

The ground was torn open so deep the bedrock itself seemed to flinch.

And in the midst of that silence, she blinked.

“You’re alive,” she said, surprise flickering across her face, the words slipping out like an afterthought.

Her tone was light, but there was an edge to it, like she hadn’t fully decided if that was good or bad news. “So Liam’s little trick is keeping you breathing, huh?”

She narrowed her gaze. “Almost immortal? And since I can’t tear this space apart by brute force, I needed to kill you. But now that’s out of the question too.”

Her eyes swept over him, calculating. Mize’s thoughts moved fast, her analysis complete in the span of a breath.

Aizen, meanwhile, wiped a cold sheen of sweat from his forehead. 

His face was chalk-white, breath uneven.

Getting reduced to atoms and then pulled back together again wasn’t high on his list of favorite experiences.

If he had to describe it, he’d probably go with, “Let’s never do that again.”

But he didn’t get to say a word.

Mize’s voice carried on, smooth and unnervingly casual. “Still, I doubt Liam granted you perfect immortality. Even someone like me can die if the right methods are used.”

She lifted her hand, delicate fingers drifting forward, and instantly, the air thickened like syrup.

Aizen’s entire body froze, trapped by an unseen force that tightened around him like a vice. 

Space itself constricted under her will, squeezing out the illusion of choice.

“I’ll just kill you again,” she said, smiling sweetly, “and again"

"And again"

"And again"

"Let’s see how many times you can come back.”

The brightness of her grin was at odds with the words, like a cheerful girl suggesting a game.

Aizen forced a smile in return, strained and trembling. “P-please go easy on me, Your Highness…” he managed, the words dry in his mouth.

And so, the hours ticked by.

When the clock struck midnight, 00:00, he was reborn once more, right before her.

It was like watching ashes reassembled into a man.

It reminded her of a story, one where the dead stitched themselves back together again and again.

Maybe it wasn’t just fiction after all.

Mize stood silently, murmuring to herself. “So… as long as the caster’s alive, there’s no way to kill it?”

Aizen had already lost count of how many times he’d died.

His face was ghostly, his body twitching with residual fear. No matter how he struggled, he couldn’t budge. 

The space around him remained locked tight from the very start.

“M-mercy,” he pleaded.

But Mize tilted her head, lips curved. “Then release me.”

He shook his head instantly.

Her hand dropped to her hip, and she gave him a look that was halfway between amused and annoyed. “You’re seriously that scared of Liam? Even after dying this many times?”

“Is he really that terrifying?” she muttered, discontent rumbling beneath her tone.

It wasn’t that her power was running out, but mentally, she was wearing thin.

More than that, something was wrong.

Her immunity to abnormal states wasn’t working like it should have. 

It wasn’t just irritating, it was disturbing. Liam had planned every step, every loophole.

If she gave in now… she didn’t even want to imagine what he’d do to her once she got out.

Losing?

Not a damn chance.

Her eyes glinted, sharp and burning.

She looked upward, then around, scanning the warped sky, the fractured space.

If Liam sealed off her divine mind, expecting that alone to be her path to freedom…

Then he underestimated her.

Who said she couldn’t become physically powerful too?

If she willed it, then she’d become it.

She let out a long, quiet sigh.

Aizen blinked, caught off guard.

Then, seeing her expression, he straightened, smile eager. “Is Your Highness giving up already? Come now, I’ll inform the Lord immediately"

“Yes,” Mize interrupted, stretching and yawning. “I’m giving up.”

But then her smile shifted. Her gaze slid to him, and a slow, creeping grin spread across her lips. “Tell me, Aizen,” she asked softly, “how big do you think I could get?”

“…Huh?”

Then.

The change began.

Her voice deepened, resonating through the air like thunder muffled behind clouds.

A massive shadow stretched over him, growing wider, darker, heavier with every breath.

And then, he saw it.

With his own eyes.

A goddess… awakening.

Mize’s form rose into the sky, twisting and changing. 

Her shape expanded, her body shedding its human guise as it bloated into something divine.

Above, a colossal eye formed, ringed with countless wings unfurling like sacred banners.

They opened wide, endless and terrible.

She grew.

And grew.

Until the very space around them groaned under her presence.

Aizen stumbled back, but it didn’t matter, her wings swept outward and swallowed everything. 

He was pinned, consumed, helpless.

"Not again" 

He smiled helplessly, wanting to cry but not knowing where. 

Boom.

She had reached the “infinity” barrier of the space.

And she smiled.

Because the word “infinite” was a lie.

This space wasn’t limitless. It was a constant loop, a fake vastness. A self-repairing illusion designed to trap anyone who couldn’t outgrow it.

But now she had grown too large.

She outgrew this place limitations.

The illusion cracked.

And Mize roared.

The entire world trembled. Space ruptured violently as her wings flared outward like a collapsing star tearing itself loose from gravity.

Reality screamed.

The dimensional shell shattered like glass under pressure.

From the outside, Liam sat with one leg crossed, absentmindedly flicking at his nails inside his study.

His eyes twitched.

In the next second, his entire face drained of color.

He vanished.

And reappeared in a vast ocean, flat, endless.

His expression was grim.

He saw everything.

And he hesitated.

Just for a moment.

Then, he vanished again.

Back inside the space, Mize’s form breached the edge, and a jagged crack split open in midair.

She laughed, delighted.

Her gigantic shape twisted again, less monstrous now, returning to a massive, radiant version of her original self, her wings like mountains draped behind her.

A ring of light spun slowly at her back, and she lifted one vast hand, her fingers spread as wide as cities.

“Break,” she whispered.

Her divine mind erupted.

A shining orb formed before her, tens of kilometers wide, glowing with impossible energy.

She didn’t hold back. Not even a little.

And then. 

BOOM.

The sky above the western territories flared with unnatural light.

Not just there, everywhere.

The entire western area of the region blinked under a strange, terrible glow.

And then, the sound.

BOOM.

It was the loudest thing the world had ever heard.

Everyone felt it.

Lords. Hidden entities. Beasts of the deep.

They all dropped to their knees.

Even the mountains bent, and the heavens fell into silence.

Back inside the space, Mize’s face showed no emotion.

She stepped forward, the cracks opening wider until she walked straight through.

Now she stood in a different realm, some twisted underworld of darkness.

But her light followed.

And it burned.

For ten thousand kilometers, her presence lit everything.

She glanced around, frowning.

“…Why does this place feel familiar?”

Her voice was calm, serene, echoing like a divine bell through a dead world.

Around her, the air retreated, refusing to touch her form.

Behind her, the broken space stitched itself back together.

She couldn’t tell up from down here, but she could see them.

Creatures swimming through the void, grotesque and malformed.

They repulsed her.

Her gaze sharpened.

"What are these?"

"Where is this?"

“Unsightly!"

BOOM.

Shreeeiiikkk!

Millions of them died on the spot.

Her divine light scorched the dark waters, reducing everything in its path to ash.

This place, whatever it was, felt both strangely familiar and completely foreign.

Mize couldn’t shake the feeling she’d been here before, though she couldn’t think of a single reason why anyone would willingly return.

It was just… endless.

A true infinite expanse, stretching so far that even with the full scope of her divine perception, she couldn’t touch its edges. 

No walls. No ceiling. No floor.

Just an oppressive vastness that was neither illusion nor trick. 

That much, at least, she could confirm.

But in the end, did it matter?

“Let’s go home,” she muttered, the words coming out tired, quiet.

She lifted her colossal foot, preparing to trigger her teleportation skill, ready to vanish from this godforsaken void, but then paused, one foot hovering mid-air.

Teleportation was banned again. 

Then... 

Something shifted.

A ripple, faint but she noticed right away, stirred in the water far off in the distance.

Her gaze snapped toward it, brows tightening.

And what she saw froze her blood.

“What the hell...”

The words slipped from her lips, low and stunned. 

She flinched, visibly, even in her massive form that towered over a hundred kilometres high.

Because something, far larger than herself, had just opened its eye.

A single, ancient eye.

It emerged slowly, impossibly large, golden and deep, seemingly older than time itself. 

At its center, a long, narrow slit glinted like a predator’s gaze, narrowing onto her. 

It stared at her.

Not with hostility. Not with curiosity. But with that cold, unblinking apathy only something eternal could possess.

And then it moved.

From the blackness, countless tentacles unfurled, thick as mountains, fast as lightning, and surged toward her like a tidal wave made of flesh.

Mize didn’t hesitate.

“Hmph! I’m not scared!!!”

Her voice cracked through the void like thunder, and with a sharp wave of her hand, a shockwave burst outward, shaking the space.

At the same time, her wings moved, unfurling with terrifying speed, sweeping through the tentacles like a divine hurricane. 

Feathers sharper than blades and heavier than mountains slammed into the incoming limbs, knocking several of them back with crushing force.

The noise, if it could be called that, was overwhelming. 

A thrum so deep it bypassed sound and rattled existence itself.

Then, silence.

A brutal, haunting silence that stretched across this endless place despite the scale of their clash.

The eye didn’t blink. Didn’t twitch. It simply stared, as if nothing that Mize did mattered in the slightest.

And all the while, the tentacles returned.

 Again. 

And again.

More and more of them. Each bigger, faster, more grotesque than the last, closing in on her from every direction.

“I won't give in!!!” her divine mind screamed.

But so was whatever this thing was.

Mize’s wings, now dulled from repeated impacts, struggled to keep up. 

Each movement felt heavier, her speed faltering. She could feel the fatigue clawing at her limbs, slowing her defenses.

“Damn it!”

She snarled, fury and disbelief mounting. Her colossal hands clenched. 

Even now, she couldn’t comprehend what this thing was, or how it was doing this to her. 

But deep down, a terrifying truth clawed its way up from her gut.

She knew.

She didn’t want to believe it.

But she knew.

Whatever this creature was…

It was Liam.