Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

She was a Hero of the Unmovable Wall.

She had stood against entire hordes of demonic beasts, high-tier mages, and towering siege engines.

But she had never, in all her years of combat under Sky’s banner, faced an opponent who simply ignored the fundamental laws of feedback.

Brida was willingly taking enough redirected blunt-force trauma to turn a normal human’s internal organs into liquid paste.

Yet, the Titan was just laughing enthusiastically and swinging harder with every single exchange.

”You arrogant mindless brute,” Kassandra snarled.

Her voice dropped into a cold tone as she realized that simple redirection was not going to break this monster’s vitality.

”If simple kinetic redirection isn’t enough to crush your thick skull,” Kassandra declared, ”then I will simply use the entire domain against you!”

Kassandra slammed her tower shield violently into the dirt, channeling massive amounts of her mana directly into the crushed earth beneath her boots.

”Annihilate!” Kassandra commanded.

HUMMMMMMM.

The entire geometric structure of the translucent pink dome began to shift and hum with a terrifying high-frequency vibration.

The absorbed kinetic energy from Brida’s hundreds of heavy axe swings, shield bashes, and multi-ton foot stomps had been meticulously stored inside the walls of the domain over the last several minutes.

Now, Kassandra was preparing to detonate all of that stored physical force in a single concentrated inward blast.

The resulting atmospheric crush would turn the entire interior of the dome into a pressurized meat grinder.

Brida’s wild, enthusiastic grin finally faded into an incredibly dangerous smirk.

She gripped the long hilt of the Void Cleaver with both of her heavy leather gloves.

She planted her boots wide, drawing massive amounts of heavy, brown earth mana directly up from the crushed bedrock into her muscular arms, feeling the deep tectonic resonance of the Umbral Basin.

If Kassandra was going to try and crush her with the walls, Brida was going to shatter the entire floor to pieces.

”RAHHHHH!”

Brida roared at the top of her lungs, flooding her Void Cleaver with dense earth mana as she executed her Earth-Shattering Cleave.

Brida ripped the Void Cleaver through the air with terrifying velocity, bringing the massive battleaxe crashing straight down into the exact center of the pink runic domain.

CRRRRRRR-ACK!

The heavy mythril blade struck the bedrock with catastrophic force.

A thirty-meter line of hyper-compressed earth energy exploded forward from the impact point, tearing a massive, jagged fissure straight through the solid stone ground, aiming directly to swallow Kassandra’s boots.

However, before the catastrophic earth shockwave could reach Kassandra’s position, the pink floor of the Shield World flared with blinding brilliance.

The domain’s defensive rule engaged once more, treating the floor as an extension of Kassandra’s shield.

The massive thirty-meter line of earth-shattering force was forcefully absorbed into the runic array of the floor, completely neutralizing the tectonic attack before it could destabilize Kassandra’s footing.

Kassandra let out a triumphant mocking laugh.

Her armored hands glowed with densely concentrated energy as she prepared to release the Annihilation spell from the vibrating pink walls.

”I told you, you ignorant brute!” Kassandra yelled, her eyes flashing with guaranteed victory. ”Inside this world, you are absolutely nothing! You cannot break my shields! You cannot harm me! Now, be crushed by the weight of your own physical force!”

The pink walls of the domain began to glow with blinding, lethal intensity, ready to unleash a multidirectional blast that even Brida’s five-thousand Vitality might genuinely struggle to endure.

But Kassandra’s triumphant laughter was suddenly cut short.

HSSSSSSSSSSSS!

A strange unnatural sound echoed through the serene, isolated silence of the Shield World.

It was a soft sickening hissing noise, sounding exactly like boiling acid violently melting through thick iron plating.

Kassandra frowned behind her visor.

Her glowing hands faltered for a fraction of a second with the Annihilation spell pausing its countdown.

She turned her head, looking over her pink armored shoulder toward the eastern wall of the translucent dome.

Directly in the center of the supposedly impenetrable pink runic wall, a small pitch-black anomaly had abruptly appeared.

It wasn’t a crack... It wasn’t a shatter point caused by brute physical force either since the domain was explicitly immune to physical damage.

Instead, it looked like a deep suffocating stain of pure void darkness was actively rotting away the runic fabric of the shield.

The dark void-bleed spread rapidly, eating through the complex geometric lines of Kassandra’s defense with horrifying conceptual ease.

The pink light flickered violently, sputtered, and permanently died around the spreading black stain.

”What... what is that?” Kassandra whispered.

Her core trembled with a sudden instinctual dread. She took a slow step backward.

”Physical attacks cannot breach the domain...” Kassandra muttered to herself in sheer disbelief. ”Magical artillery cannot pierce the outer hull... what is eating through my barrier?!”

SHRRRR-IP!

The hissing sound grew louder, culminating in a sharp, horrifying tearing noise, as if the very fabric of space was being violently ripped open by a jagged rusty blade.

A tall sleek figure stepped directly through the rotting black hole in the domain wall.

Tasmin.

The S-Rank Shadow Commander walked casually into the isolated pink arena.

Her dark coat fluttered lightly as she stepped smoothly onto the crushed bedrock, completely unbothered by the heavy atmosphere.

Her piercing eyes swept across the interior of the Shield World.

She analytically noted the massive kinetic buildup humming in the walls and the heavy, paused standoff between Brida and Kassandra.

Tasmin held her twin chained shortswords loosely in her palms.

The dark mythril blades were dripping with a thick viscous aura of shadow and void mana.

It was the lingering lethal effect of her True Severing Edge passive trait—an armor-piercing property that allowed her blades to bypass fifty percent of any physical or magical armor hardness, applying a lingering void-bleed that simply rotted defensive magic away.

It had allowed her to effortlessly carve a doorway straight through the domain’s hardness.

Tasmin didn’t even look at Kassandra.

She tilted her head, locking her cold eyes entirely on the towering form of Brida.

”You are taking far too long, Meathead,” Tasmin stated flatly.

Her voice dripped with dryness.

”I already finished scouting the eastern tree line, assassinated three of their heavy artillery commanders, and reported back to the rear,” Tasmin listed off casually, twirling one of her shortswords. ”And you are still in here playing rock-paper-scissors with the pink turtle.”

Brida lowered her heavy battleaxe, resting the flat of the blade against the dirt.

She wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead as she offered Tasmin a broad unapologetic grin.

”Hey, don’t rush me, Shadow!” Brida yelled back cheerfully, her booming voice echoing in the enclosed space. ”I was just about to test how much of my own kinetic force my bedrock body could absorb! This pinky was about to give me a free full-body massage!”

Tasmin let out a long heavy sigh.

She shook her head in sheer exasperation as the dark Eclipse-Thread chains rattled softly against her leather vambraces.

”Your brain is entirely composed of solid rock, Brida,” Tasmin muttered under her breath, though a faint, highly amused smirk touched her dark lips. ”If you let her detonate that kinetic spell, the collateral shockwave would have ruptured the ground beneath my newly secured supply lines. I cannot allow you to be an idiot while I am actively trying to work.”

Kassandra stood entirely frozen in the center of her domain with her glowing pink eyes darting wildly between the towering Titan Bastion and the newly arrived Shadow Commander.

Her defense had been breached.

The perfect, isolated arena where she reigned supreme, where physical laws bowed to her will, had just been casually invaded by a woman who walked through solid light as if it were a beaded curtain.

A deep burning sense of outrage and indignation flared inside Kassandra’s chest.

”You... you infiltrated a sacred duel!” Kassandra shrieked.

Her pink runic armor flared with sudden defensive panic as she pointed a trembling gauntlet directly at Tasmin.

”This was a designated battle between heavy defenders!” Kassandra yelled, her voice cracking with fury. ”Do you have no honor?! Do you have no shame?! Stepping into another Hero’s domain just to double-team them like street thugs?!”

Tasmin stopped twirling her blade.

She turned her head slowly. Her cold eyes locked flawlessly onto Kassandra’s pink visor.

The amused smirk on Tasmin’s face vanished instantly, replaced by the chilling, pragmatic apathy of a predator looking at a loud annoying piece of prey.

Tasmin let out a sharp mocking scoff.

”Honor?” Tasmin repeated. Her voice was laced with heavy, cynical venom. ”Shame?”

Tasmin took a slow measured step forward.

The heavy Eclipse-Thread chains rattled softly against her dark leather vambraces.

CLINK!

”When I first dropped into this clearing,” Tasmin explained coldly with her eyes completely dead. ”I was immediately jumped by six of your heavy guards, ambushed by a hidden trap in the dirt, and completely surrounded by infantrymen trying to spear me in the back while I was trying to locate my primary targets.”

Tasmin raised her twin shortswords, crossing them slowly in front of her chest as her shadow mana erupted around her boots in a swirling vortex of pitch-black darkness.

”There is no such thing as free fighting on this battlefield, Pink Turtle,” Tasmin declared with lethality. ”You are fighting the Vanguard of the Blessed Land. We don’t care about your honor. We only care about putting you in the dirt...”

Brida laughed wildly, slamming her Void Cleaver against her adamantine shield to create a deafening metallic roar.

CLANGGG.

”You heard the lady!” Brida bellowed happily. ”No more playing nice! Let’s crack this shell!”

Kassandra panicked completely.

She immediately attempted to trigger the kinetic detonation of her Shield World walls before the two S-Rank monsters could overwhelm her.

”KINETIC ANNIHILATI—” Kassandra screamed, trying to force the domain to collapse inward but the dual assault of the Vanguard was already moving with terrifying, flawless synergy.

Brida completely abandoned all restraint.

She actively engaged her Full Counter skill, surging amounts of earth mana directly into her adamantine tower shield, bypassing the need for incoming attacks to charge it.

Instead of swinging her axe, Brida threw her entire multi-ton body forward, executing a point-blank shield bash aimed directly at the ground beneath Kassandra’s feet.

KABAAAAAAM!

The massive impact struck the floor of the domain.

Instead of allowing the Shield World to absorb the kinetic energy, Brida’s Full Counter forcibly reversed the flow, detonating her own stored impact force outward in a massive concussive shockwave.

”Gahhhh!”

The shockwave ripped upward through the floor, violently disrupting the delicate spell Kassandra was trying to activate.

The pink walls of the domain flickered and sparked wildly with the kinetic detonation failing to trigger!

”NO!” Kassandra cried out, stumbling backward as her footing was completely shattered by the earthquake.

That single fraction of a second of lost balance was all Tasmin needed.

Tasmin engaged her Phantom Leap, accelerating her neural reflexes to supersonic speeds.

SWISH!

She completely vanished from her physical position, leaving behind a fading residual shadow illusion that Kassandra reflexively tried to block with her massive shield.

Tasmin reappeared instantly in the blind spot directly behind Kassandra’s pink armored shoulder.

”Got you,” Tasmin whispered softly, directly into Kassandra’s ear.

Tasmin didn’t strike the impenetrable armor with her shortswords.

Instead, she whipped her wrists violently outward, initiating her Voltaic Chain Execution.

SHK-SHK-SHK!

The dark Eclipse-Thread chains attached to the pommels of her blades shot forward like serpentine vipers.

The heavy, mythril-laced chains completely bypassed the flat defensive surface of Kassandra’s massive Aegis shield.

They whipped rapidly around Kassandra’s armored wrists, coiled tightly around her elbows, and finally wrapped securely around her neck.

”GHK—!” Kassandra choked, her pink eyes widening in terror as the cold chains locked her limbs entirely in place!

Tasmin ruthlessly channeled high-voltage super-heated crimson shadow-flames directly through the metal links.

FWOOOOOOSH.

The intense burning void-bleed magic didn’t need to break the physical hardness of the Shield World armor.

The dark flames simply seeped directly into the microscopic joints and seams of Kassandra’s greaves and gauntlets, burning her skin from the inside and completely paralyzing her nervous system with high-voltage electricity.

’Heheh...’

”AHHHHHHHH!”

Kassandra screamed in agony with her grip on her massive tower shield failing completely.

The heavy pink shield slipped from her paralyzed fingers, crashing heavily into the dirt.

CLATTER!

Without her active connection to the shield, the translucent pink walls of the Shield World began to rapidly dissolve into falling sparks of fading useless light.