"Nothing is working." Akutomi stared at the giant serpent's face. There were no nostrils or eyes, just a completely flat blue area with a mouth.
"We couldn't damage it. Should I use 'Vacuum'?" Shishuki turned to Akutomi.
"Not yet. I will go inside it now." He pointed at the mouth.
"You sure?" Shishuki followed his finger. "You might get trapped inside."
"I won't. Now your job is to make this thing open its mouth." Akutomi stepped back. "You are stronger, so you can do that, right?"
"I will try." Shishuki dashed backward, pouring all her strength into her fists and legs. The ground below her cracked. "Ready?"
Akutomi did not respond, yet Shishuki understood his intention without him spelling it out.
She lurched high. Her fist connected with the side of the serpent. Akutomi's muscles tightened; he was ready to jump inside it.
Its mouth opened from the impact even if only a little. Shishuki was thrown backward by the force as the serpent recoiled. Akutomi launched himself inside without waiting a moment.
"He went inside," Shishuki muttered before standing straight.
Akutomi landed inside the giant serpent.
He coughed. "It's suffocating here."
He lifted his gaze. Everything looked normal inside, except for one thing that was not normal at all.
"Why does this thing have so many hearts?" He stood. "I need to destroy them to end it. That's what this indicates, I suppose."
He closed the distance to a heart. It was beating. Akutomi could hear the slow, rhythmic sounds. His hand reached out, gripped the heart. The flesh was slippery and the smell was suffocating. Nevertheless, it did not disgust him. He coughed.
Then something seemed to close the distance from deeper inside the serpent. It was too fast, shaking the inside.
"What is coming?" Akutomi crushed the heart immediately.
The giant serpent screamed. The air around it threw trees in every direction, yet Niheart stood unaffected. It went quiet once again.
"Did this thing really scream?" Shishuki clenched her fist, anticipating something unusual.
Inside, Akutomi lunged for another heart. His second thought was not to escape but to crush all the hearts.
Then a wave of flood came from inside. Akutomi swung, slamming both hands on the flesh. Ice formed, covering the area like a wall as he moved to crush more hearts.
Though the pressure of the flood was too much, it broke through the ice. Akutomi was thrown outside with the flood from the mouth.
Akutomi landed on the surface, water all over him, his clothes wet. He stood, wiping it from his face.
"Did you enjoy bathing?" Shishuki teased. Neither of them seemed to take the battle seriously.
"Use your trump card. I am not going inside now because it will throw me outside again." He shook his head, wringing water from his hair.
"Get away from there." Shishuki swung toward the serpent, her gaze turning focused. "It's not like I have any other abilities except one."
Upon her order, Akutomi stepped away from the area.
"Vacuum." She said.
The ground around them began to shake.
"We have to go to Secondary Heaven after this," Akutomi informed her. He was not even paying much attention to the calm before the storm, as if it were nothing new to him.
Then a massively wide hole appeared below the giant serpent. As it happened, Shishuki lurched back and Akutomi copied her movement. The air around her trembled before a vacuum like pressure began to suck the giant serpent inside. Its hearts crushed, its flesh getting pulled like water being wrung from cloth. It screamed as the hearts began to get crushed. Niheart's leaves were pulled yet regrow immediately, returning to normal. Then something cracked on its face eyes formed there. Everything that came into their sight burned, not by the eyes but by itself.
Akutomi's left hand caught fire. His regeneration failed to heal him. He hit his hand against a tree. Nothing seemed to work. Shishuki looked at him.
Why is he acting so dramatic?
Even so, before it could evolve further, the giant serpent's body was pulled inside the hole. After the air stabilised as if nothing had happened, the hole closed. Akutomi's hand stopped burning and healed. He sighed.
"Now we have to go to Secondary Heaven," Shishuki said, moving away.
"I was burning and you looked uninterested," he complained before following her. "I wasn't showcasing that I am burning look how cool it is." His gestures grew more animated and dramatic.
"You could heal, you know," she said without turning around.
"I wasn't healing at that time."
"I don't care." She brushed it off. Of course she did not really mean it. She increased her pace. Akutomi followed her, ignoring her words.
The angel had reached the Sold Area.
"Be ready to go to Heaven or Hell." She took her stance. The guards there gripped their swords tightly.
She moved her palm forward mechanically. Feathers materialized from thin air.
Then a light teleported behind her, aiming for her neck. She effortlessly swung herself around him, landing a brutal strike on his waist that broke his bones.
"So you have a Cosmic outline that is related to the Divine of Existence, but you all are limited by your body's potential. What a waste." She crushed his head with her heel, emotionlessly. The feathers were still behind her, following her rhythm.
As the sight of her crushing his head was captured in the other lights' minds, some vomited, unable to bear the brutality.
"Anyone who wants to try, I want to finish this quickly." She shifted toward them, still offering them a chance without releasing the poison feathers.
The lights' hands trembled, their grips slipping again and again as they tried to hold the handles of their swords tightly.
We should attack from long range.
A lightlinger with a green outline on his Divine Scar which was on his cheek moved behind.
Then his green outline glowed and gravity began to press down on the angel. However, the pressure was too low for her to be bothered by it.
"Now my turn."
She released a feather toward him. Before he could run, the poison killed him instantly—unlike Liyoku, whose regeneration had not let him die immediately.
As he fell, the already shivering lights, alone by her presence, took a step back.
"Anyone else wanna try?" the angel questioned politely.
Then a lightrozer stabbed another lightlinger from behind.
"What are you doing?" The light beside him pushed him away. Blood poured from the wounded lightlinger's mouth and stomach.
"Why did you do that?"
The angel tapped her toes on the ground, waiting patiently.