Chapter 114:Never Draw Conclusions Before the Curtains are Closed

The scythe of the grim reaper that was conjured through [The Shadow at the Valley of Death] slowly descended on the petrified opponent of Sophia, she was already relieved as she started to recall how she came up with such a plan. Of course, for starters, Sophia relied on all the information Urduja gave her about her opponent and thanked her god for the first time in her second life because Hebi has such an easily exploitable weakness that is her students. Of course, Sophia also took certain risks, like banking on her initial observation that Dark Magic needed a vessel to be fully manifested, in short, some kind of Buff-Debuff magic on steroids.

What she came up with is a straightforward plan, well, even though Sophia knew that she was outmatched in terms of power and experience, she also knew that Hebi's experience in terms of plots targeted for killing and countering her were all long drawn out plans spanning for months or even years before actual realization, so Sophia opted out of complexity and made her plan a linear one, true that such plan can easily be discovered, but the confidence of older people and their overreliance on their experience made it so that Sophia's little plan will never be sniffed out.

It started when Flou stated that Khearsenbelle is a master in the [Counter] skill, and is an expert in swords and any kind of throwing weapons, Sophia immediately made her undead and tested on a random undead if there is any bane to undead if they stayed inside the 4th dimension and when she learned that there are none, she asked for daggers to Roselle, a lot of them, even though she estimated 2-3 stabs for her plan to work, this is so that she can exaggerate her help further.

Of course, after she made such preparations, she had to execute the hardest part of the plan, the fight, she has to make it so that Hebi will think that her abilities are related to copying other abilities, and even though that is quite close to the truth, the only reason that she can brazenly use saint level techniques is that her brain capacity was upgraded several times when she became a hero, this is especially dangerous because she has to look out for Hebi being insulted and prematurely using her full power, the amounts of dark magic that will be injected by the stab of the dagger will not be delivered fast enough to the brain if she did something like that and for that, Sophia has a backup plan but thankfully, she never had a chance to use such a plan.

After all that planning, the result is here, Hebi lost control the moment she saw her dead students and was stabbed by the last dagger that caused the dark magic in the daggers to materialize and end the serpent bearer's life.

_Well, if my main and backup plans did not work, I would really snatch the relic away and run with all my might, it's a good thing that I don't need to do something like that._

Sophia was relaxed, the tension of the fight was already that of a distant past, however, she did not know that a being with exceptional intelligence such as herself would be taught a valuable lesson at this very moment, a lesson to never draw conclusions before the curtains are closed because the moment when the scythe of [The Shadow at the Valley of Death] is just an inch away from touching Hebi's face, the grim reaper suddenly halted, causing Sophia's eyes to widen, a very bad feeling soared up form her very soul as she immediately flared up her mana to finish Hebi herself, however, even her movements came to a screeching halt as a massive pressure that not even that of Hebi can compare spread throughout the whole battlefield, or perhaps even the whole city.

The pressure was so strong that Sophia's legs buckled as she was made to forcefully kneel, Sophia glared at the giant in front of her that is sucking [The Shadow at the Valley of Death] at a rapid pace, she knew that the person in front of her is not Hebi anymore and because of the identity of the serpent bearer, Sophia immediately linked a certain person to this occurrence.

_FUCK! I neglected his existence and never thought that he could intervene! I was using myself as a reference for the interference that can be done using hivemind and other similar abilities and didn't consider that he can directly use his wife's eyes to suck mana like that!_

Sophia tried her best to stand up to no avail as she watched her spell being sucked through the eyes by Hebi Tsukaiza, or more accurately, her husband, Loki Darkbringer, the eyes of Hebi was pitch black as she tilted her head and looked directly at Sophia who is still kneeling but refused to bow down.

"Sophia..."

A sonorous voice was heard as Sophia continued to glare at her opponent, however every second, she could feel a searing migraine slowly creep up to her head, at first it was something negligible but soon became so painful that it felt like a jackhammer is on top of her head and was forcefully drilling a hole from her skull through her brain, Sophia's supposed to be high brain processing power failed to resist such a potent mental attack as she clutched her head in hope to alleviate the pain.

"AAAARRRRRRGH!"

Sophia shouted from the top of her lungs, the shout was so loud that all of the people who had evacuated because of the fight earlier to the other side of the city still heard the soul-retching cry of pain, the subordinates of Sophia as well as her wife immediately abandoned their posts and mission as they dashed towards the location of the battlefield. Sophia's eyes were bloodshot as blood rolled down like tears, her consciousness started to wane and her vision shrouded by darkness.

What she saw before her whole world changed was Hebi's gigantic figure slumping to the left of the battlefield and a giant door appearing under her she was swallowed by it and disappeared unceremoniously, leaving Sophia as if they did not fight a battle of city-destroying proportions.

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In an unknown place with darkness dominating the skies for all eternity, a blood-red moon is hanging high up in the heavens, yet despite the absence of the sun, the place's landscape is still filled with lush planes and tall grasses that seem to have the ambition to eclipse the tallest peak of the world, and in that world there is a house, the house look normal outside, it has a red roof two floors a balcony and a fence, the house was in a clearing 100 meters in radios.

Despite such a very mundane appearance, in such a world where not even a bird nor an edible plant can be seen, such a "normal house" is still too out of place.

Such is the cause of confusion of a boy who is watching a scene whilst his feet are smeared with blood.

_Huh? Why am I... No this is my house, right?_

The boy is confused, yet, is also convicted that everything in front of him is normal, even the blood at his feet and the knife on his hands do not look out of place, and yet he still feels like all of this looks strange, as if he was in a dream, a dream so vivid that the boy started to take pity from the bloody beatings that the woman in front of him is taking from a man that is currently on top of her lap whilst the woman is laying down flat in the ground, a hand choking her slender neck whilst she is being punched with no restraint by the man that is sitting on top of her.

The man shouted again and again what seem to be incoherent screeches and the woman cried out, saying it was painful but never begged for mercy nor any kind of help, the boy was once again confused as a crippling feeling of anger, sadness, and despair boiled up inside his tiny heart.

_Who... My father and mother... is he drunk? Why is he punching her as if she is the worst evil to ever graze the planet? What should I do?_

The brain of the boy swirled as he continuously watched the sight whilst his heart churned in a bid to speak up to his "mother" but to no avail. He still feels like everything about this situation is wrong while also thinking that everything is normal, such contradicting inference coming from a single person will normally make a person go insane, yet the boy stood strong and only a frown of confusion appeared on her eyebrows, the boy looked down at his hands, on it is a knife that is being pointed at the man, tears started to trickle down the cheek of the boy as he remembered the swollen and bloodied face of his mother.

_Do I have to... stab him with this?_

The breathing of the boy became heavy, and tears continued to mix with the blood at her naked feet, even though he was in a state of confusion, he knew that stabbing people would most certainly kill them, and at such a young age, he is sure to not even killed a rat, and yet the boy feels like he can do this to a rodent and a human alike, the confusion grew that was only suppressed by the voice of the boy's mother, saying it's painful, saying she will die.

The boy's feet involuntarily moved slowly towards the man who was emersed to his beatings and when the boy was already in front of the man who did not even notice him coming near, he raised the knife in his hands and made it descend down the scalp of the man, from the moment the boy put up his hand to the moment the knife plunged down deep into the brain of the man, rendering him dead, the man he presumingly calls father did not notice him, so the boy's "father" looked at him in confusion as he slowly slumped to the ground.

_He really did not notice me until the end..._

Silence permeated the room for several minutes, the boy was too shocked by his calmness, and the "mother" could not speak as a dumbfounded expression was visible on her face, soon the boy's mother's face visibly crumpled as if it was a paper about to be tossed as she looked at the knife on top of the scalp of the man who is pounding her just a moment ago.

"...band... MY HUSBAND! HE'S DEAD! HE'S DEAD! AHHHHHH!"

The boy was petrified and at the same time confused, a feeling that seemed to linger on him for eternity, the boy thought that he had to save his "mother" from his abusive "father", but somehow, his mother turned hysterical when the boy finally ended the life of the abusive father in front of him, he somehow angered his mother who has his whole right cheek blunted repeatedly to the point that her bones already caved in, it was confusing, really confusing.

The boy cannot move in his spot as several thoughts pop up in his mind, is he a burglar? No, his mother clearly shouted that he was her husband, is he the burglar? No, a boy who is not even a teenager will certainly not be a burglar, such thoughts bombarded the young man, and even though he was surprised by his imagination being so bottomless that he could think of millions of possibilities, his problems still lay bare as her weeping mother finally looked at him, the woman unsheathed the blade that is in the scalp of his father and looked at the boy with hatred in her eyes.

"You... What have you done!?"

The woman then started to run towards the boy, and because the distance between the head of the man and the boy was not that far, the mother immediately arrived in front of the boy, or at least that's how it should be, the boy saw the woman in slow motion as all his thoughts disappeared, he just watched as slowly but surely, the blood dripping face of the woman went near him second by second, the woman is holding the knife loosely, obviously she was a rookie in stabbing people, but the boy did not care as his heart wretched in pain whilst tears continuously flowed down his eyes.

He did not know where the pain came from, maybe the fact that his mother was waving a blade in front of him despite him just wanting to save her from an abusive husband, or maybe because he could not move away from his spot, he did not know for all he did when the blade finally was raised in front of his face and started descending on him was to close his eyes shut, bracing for the pain and wishing for a quick death, that is also the reason why he failed to see when a light suddenly appeared on his left side and quickly spread itself throughout his house and his whole "world."

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Sophia woke up from such a strange dream with a throbbing head that was being amplified by a soft hand grabbing her cheeks and shaking her head violently, she opened her eyes and what she saw was a beautiful woman who was crying as if she was dying whilst shouting something she cannot understand and only after waiting for 5 seconds for all his senses to return to normal did she listened to Eleanor's words.

"...phia...! Sophia!"

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AN: Any thoughts about the fight the good and bad (and how to improve them) aspects will be greatly appreciated.