Chapter 412: Hands of the Damned

CLANG! CLANG!

"AHHHH!"

For the past five minutes, the blue-haired Collector, Ria, was having the fight of her life... and losing miserably.

No matter how hard she swung her saw cleaver, no matter how fast she lunged or how loud she screamed, Morgana danced through every strike like it was nothing. The silver-haired goddess moved with a frightening grace—dodging, blocking, countering—and when Ria did land a hit, it was only because Morgana allowed it as a form of a test.

To make matters worse, Morgana's irregular fighting style pissed the shit out of Ria.

'Huff... How am I supposed to cut this bitch!?' She growled, kicking the dirt as she ran in circles around her opponent, trying to find an opening. 'She's so fast! And keeps changing weapons on the fly. I can't even hit her!'

Indeed, Morgana's fighting style was erratic and impossible to predict. Using her blood magic, she could craft and reshape her weapons at will.

When Ria's cleaver struck against a crimson shield, the shield would morph mid-impact into a spear that shot forward like a viper. When Ria backed off, Morgana's sword dissolved into a crossbow, firing blood-forged bolts that hissed through the air.

To make things worse, three crimson orbs floated above Morgana's head, orbiting her like sentient stars. They moved with deadly precision, firing blood arrows that harassed Ria from every direction.

But what truly pissed Ria off wasn't the pain or exhaustion—it was the look on Morgana's face.

That calm, infuriating look.

The goddess wasn't even trying.

It wasn't a battle to her—it was play.

"You're not even taking me seriously!" Ria shouted, swinging her cleaver wildly. Sparks exploded as her weapon met Morgana's blade. "STOP LOOKING DOWN ON ME!"

"Then give me a reason not to." Morgana smiled faintly, deflecting the strike and sidestepping effortlessly.

"AHHH!!" Ria roared and charged again.

Blood sprayed as their weapons clashed, lighting up the burning plains with every collision. Yet beneath that casual smirk, Morgana's thoughts were cold and calculated.

Yes, Morgana wasn't taking Ria seriously, but that's because the little Collector was way too inexperienced and foolish to understand the true power of her own concept.

Ria's concept was blood—like her own—but shallow, incomplete, bound to the weapon she carried. Her saw cleaver, that grotesque artifact, allowed her to steal life from whatever she wounded, and coupled with Ria's berserk, bloodthirsty nature, its power was immense. However, it was powerful only in theory.

But in practice?

Ria had met her worst possible match.

Morgana was the true master of blood. She didn't just command it—she owned it. Every droplet that hit the ground, every ounce of spilled life in the air, every trace of red within Ria's veins… all of it was hers to control.

And that meant Ria's cleaver couldn't steal a thing.

The longer the fight dragged on, the more desperate and pissed Ria became. Her movements grew sloppy, her breath ragged.

'But I can't keep doing this for long,' Morgana thought as she used her blood to craft another weapon. 'I have to end this fast.'

She was losing blood reserves rapidly—not because of Ria, but because of the other Collector.

Madam X was far stronger than Morgana had anticipated, and the two blood knights weren't able to fully hold her. The damage she caused to the two of them was immense; they'd already died and resurrected multiple times, and the longer they fought, the weaker they would become.

'It's a shame... if I could summon more...' Morgana cursed in her mind.

But she couldn't summon reinforcements. The strain on Lora's newborn world was already immense. Every divine clash fractured the land, twisted the sky, and risked destabilizing the fragile reality of the young realm.

'If I call more soldiers… this world will collapse,' she thought bitterly.

Her power could easily bring forth an army or monsters beyond comprehension—but the price would be annihilation.

And Morgana wouldn't allow that. Not to Lora's world.

Ironically, Madam X shared the same limitation.

The red-haired Collector could have unleashed her full might long ago, but she hadn't. The Nexus would notice. A full power signature from a Collector operating in an unauthorized world would draw the attention of the so-called 'Nexus Police'. And unlike Morgana, Madam X wasn't ready to deal with them.

So she fought cautiously, matching Morgana's restraint, wearing down the enemy while keeping herself from any serious damage.

Their unspoken strategies mirrored one another perfectly—two predators circling, testing, waiting for a mistake.

Ria, of course, understood none of this.

She just kept screaming and swinging, driven by nothing but rage and bloodlust.

Fortunately, Madam X's powers were ideal for that strategy.

Madam X was the goddess of fire; her concept allowed her to control fire and transform her entire body into a flaming one. Solid weapons were of no use against her.

It's just that the two blood knights were too skilled in combat. They were able to see and predict her movements so easily, and in less than two minutes, they fully understood her powers. If she didn't have the ability to change her body into a flame one, she would have been severely injured long ago.

In one instance, the knight with the greatsword was too close to chopping her arm off. After landing a fiery fist on the tower shield knight, the second knight seized that fraction of a second that Madam X used to revert her arm back to a fleshy one.

This entire situation was going to end badly if she didn't get the hell out of here.

Fortunately, her objective was achieved.

The coordinates of Morgana's world—already recorded in Ria's bracelet the moment the goddess forced her way here.

'Now all that remains is to get Ria and teleport away.'

However, before she could even think of her next move—

BOOOOOM!

A massive explosion sounded from the other side where Ria and Morgana were fighting, followed by a 100-foot (30-meter) tall and 30-foot (9-meter) wide black stone tablet that burst out from the ground.

"Shit!!" Madam X felt a shiver down her spine when she saw that huge pillar of rock as she quickly transformed into a fiery tornado and flew toward it.

.....

On the other side,

Ria's shrill scream tore through the smoke and flame as Morgana dragged her by the leg like a piece of discarded meat. The little blue-haired Collector thrashed, clawing at the scorched ground, but Morgana's grip was unyielding—her hand like iron, her expression utterly devoid of mercy.

The goddess of breeding had enough of the little blue shit.

"Let me go! You crazy bitch...!" Ria screamed, swinging her clawed hand toward Morgana's arm.

Morgana stopped walking. Without even looking, she backhanded the girl across the face.

CRACK!

Ria's head snapped to the side, red blood spraying across the goddess's armor. She went limp for a second, dazed.

"You talk too much." Morgana looked down at her with cold, crimson eyes.

The battlefield was silent now, save for the crackle of dying flames and the faint hum of a cursed energy that bled from the towering black monolith rising behind them. The massive black tablet wasn't a simple structure—it was a gateway to one of the darkest, cursed, brutal, and unforgiving realms in the entire universe.

The Unspoken Realm.

As the former High Queen, Morgana knew several incantations that could open a gate to specific parts of the Unspoken Realm. Some required blood, others flesh and bone, and many required the sacrifice of thousands of souls. But none were as simple and straightforward as this one.

The gate has no name—it doesn't need a name—it just exists.

Its sole purpose was to punish, torture, and destroy.

The ground quaked beneath Morgana's feet as the black stone continued to rise, the sound of grinding earth echoing like the toll of a colossal bell. The front surface began to change, morphing into something close to a gate—but not any simple gate of hell.

Skulls, bones, eyes, and screams engraved themselves onto the surface of the dark stone tablet, its edges pulsing with sickening dark energy. That part of the Unspoken Realm was not a world or even a dimension; it was a prison—a place of eternal punishment that tortured those sent there for eternity.

This was one of the worst punishments Morgana could think of for this little bitch. She couldn't kill her—Ria was a former goddess; her divine soul was immortal—but she could send her to a place that was specifically designed to torture souls.

A prison beyond the sight of gods or mortals. No heaven. No hell. Only the endless echo of one's own sins.

"Let go of me, you freak!" Ria screamed again, heart hammering against her ribs. She could feel it now—the pressure radiating from the gate. It was suffocating, like a black hole of despair. The air itself screamed around it, bending under the sheer density of the cursed power emanating from within.

"..."

Morgana didn't utter a word. Her expression never wavered as she stepped forward, dragging the blue-haired girl with her. Standing close to the gate, she grabbed Ria by the throat and pressed her lips to the little girl's ear.

"You're lucky I don't have time for you," she whispered, her voice so quiet that only Ria could hear it. "Otherwise, I would personally rip you to pieces for what you did."

The blue-haired Collector could speak no more—Morgana's grip on her throat was too tight. She tried to claw at it, but it was impossible to move the hand that held her.

Morgana lifted her up and presented her to the gate like an offering.

Rumble!

The gate slowly opened, darkness leaking from the opening. A cold, ancient power flowed outward, seeping across the battlefield.

Then came the hands.

"!!!" Ria's eyes went wide.

From the heart of the gate, dozens of black, skeletal hands began to crawl out—thin, malformed, and twitching like dying spiders. Their bones clicked with every movement, their fingers stretching unnaturally long as they reached for her. Each touch warped the air, leaving trails of ash and shadow.

"HMM!... HMM!" Ria kicked and thrashed in Morgana's grasp, but it was hopeless.

But Morgana said nothing. Her face was a mask of stillness, her crimson eyes glowing like dying stars. The black mist rolled around her, swirling in reverence as if the gate itself bowed to her presence.

"I—I'll leave! I swear!" Ria's voice broke into panic when Morgana lessened her grip a little. "I'll tell Odin you're not worth the trouble! Please just—!"

Morgana tilted her head, her tone disturbingly calm.

"Ria," she said softly, almost gently. "You are not being punished because I'm angry."

"Wh—what...?" The girl's breath hitched.

"You're being punished," Morgana continued, her voice like velvet and steel, "because you touched what's mine."

She thrust Ria forward.

The skeletal hands lunged as if commanded, wrapping around the Collector's arms and legs, pulling her toward the widening maw of the gate. The black stone pulsed with every scream she made, runes igniting one by one in crimson light.

"NO! STOP! GET THEM OFF!—AAAAHHHHHHH!" Ria's screech echoed across the burning fields as the hands began to drag her in, their grip tightening until her bones cracked. Her divine body—once radiant and strong—was being crushed, dissolved, devoured.

The gate opened wider. Inside, shadows churned like a storm, and faint shapes could be seen writhing—faces, souls, countless damned beings trapped in eternal agony. Their whispers slipped into reality, faint and cold.

"Join us…"

"Bleed with us…"

"Forever…"

Ria's body convulsed violently as more hands emerged, gripping her by the neck, her waist, her hair—pulling her deeper.

"NOOOO! LET ME GO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME! I'M A GODDE—"

SNAP!

One hand wrapped around her jaw and tore it clean off. Her scream cut short into a wet, gurgling sound. Another hand shoved itself down her throat, dragging what was left of her voice into the void.

Morgana watched it all in silence. Her face didn't show joy, nor anger—only that same, terrible calm.

When half of Ria's body was already consumed by the gate, the goddess finally spoke again, her tone low, her words carrying divine weight.

"May your hunger feed the forgotten."

BOOOOM!

Almost at the exact same time, Madam X reached the place only to witness the last moments of her companion—Ria's wide, terrified eye disappearing beneath the writhing sea of skeletal hands.

"...Ria?"

The word left her like a cinder dropped into snow. For a heartbeat, her flames went silent.

The gate did not disappear. It stood, silent and inexplicable, a doorway to eternal damnation.

Morgana simply tilted her head toward the red-haired Collector and flashed a bloodthirsty smile that caused her flames to die out like a candle in the wind.

"The other sinner is finally here."

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