Sophia Demiurge

Eleanor and Liyab looked at each other, Eleanor looked calm, so calm she looked that the man laying on the ground was shuddering at the sight of her eyes that reflected the crimson-colored sand and himself.

Liyab could not even catch a breath as he started to gasp because of the slowly increasing volume of sand in his lungs when the ground beneath his still-laying self poked slightly and formed spears that targeted only his limbs, making it obvious to him that the lady in front of him is here to torture him, he immediately jumped in an awkward position but suddenly, through the illumination of his now burning fist, brown-colored mini-orbs appeared in his sides, once again, Liyab can see that the bullets aiming at his four limbs.

_Fuck she's out for revenge!_

Liyab did not even try to stall for time for his fellow vice-captains by striking up a conversation as he finally realized that the lady in front of him was someone who was here to avenge, or most likely vent her anger because she could not defeat their captain, Hebi Tsukaiza who is the true murderer of the queen of Gjallarhorn.

Talking to her will just cause Liyab to be caught and tortured, though that doesn't mean that he will not fight back, after all, he still has his pride. As the bullets descended and targeted Liyab, he immediately made his arms fold as he dodged the bullets aiming at his shoulders and legs with extreme precision, Eleanor just looked on at the gymnastic-like dodging feat of the man in front of her.

The man is still looking at her as if he wanted to retaliate, as if he had a chance to do such a thing, for alas, the once almost bottomless stamina signature to devils of Liyab stagnated hours before his estimated time, causing him nearly to be pinned down countless of times, Liyab immediately looked for a tree, ignited it and phased towards it dodges the bullets and to plan his retaliation, he looked at his opponent but what he saw is her ever calm eyes, she did not even think that Liyab will attempt to escape Eleanor is not even thinking that Liyab CAN escape her pursuit.

"Huff... Huff... Huff..."

Liyab glared at the woman who stopped attacking him for some reason, panting and sweating as if he were a human, though this was not the first time Liyab felt exhausted, it was the first time that he was huffing when he was just fighting for an hour, it was completely absurd for a devil like him as he was once again reminded that his whole body was slowly being filled with sand.

"Is that how he looks like when she's at her wit's end?"

Eleanor smiled as she slowly approached Liyab, Liyab did not even answer and flicked his finger as a large volume of flames immediately engulfed Eleanor who was inching nearer and nearer to him, the ejection force was so powerful that the ground on the straight line of the "Brilliant Flame's" wake was scraped, creating a trench-like mini crater, it's temperature was so high that the land got molten.

But the brilliant flames did not even stop creating molten a crater in a straight line when Liyab suddenly heard a voice on his back.

"I just wanted to ask how my friend died, are you that shameless that you fear replying to me? Do you think that what you did is something that you just did as a side quest? Do you still think that you are innocent?"

Liyab glared at the lady further, wondering if she had gone crazy, if not for the fact that the sand bullets earlier were very targeted and slowly but surely nearing his limbs as he dodged, he would have thought that Eleanor was going insane, but there is no crazy woman that can do such a pinpoint assault that aims to slowly torture a person.

_How can a person be mad enough to misinterpret the actions of her target, yet be calm enough to think out such a surefire torture method?_

Liyab was confused, but feeling the squirming inside his lungs that already started to rumble because of the sand blocking them and also noticing that the sand started to squirm through the other organs in his body, he did not hesitate any longer as he pounced on Eleanor, trying to create a hand to hand combat scenario that he was most familiar with to at least gain a slight advantage over his opponent and have the chance of defeating her.

Liyab already thought of burning his insides, but he is not confident enough to recover from the damage he will take if he incinerated all of his internal organs, he is not Hebi after all, he is not even a hero prospect.

 But Eleanor was not here to fight, she was here for revenge, to vent her anger towards Hebi that she couldn't vent on the person herself, the Eleanor in front of Liyab crumbled and immediately became sand bullets that once again targeted the limbs of Liyab, causing Liyab to be shocked.

_Shit I forgot that she's doing that!_

Liyab immediately fell into a trap as instead of having a close-on-one, he was once again reduced into a passive position that made him dodge like crazy, he could not see any tree to burn and phase as the trees in the city started to sink at the bottom of the ground, meaning he cannot burn them, the attacks now are more intense than the previous one that he cannot even spare a single second to snap his finger and forcefully scorched the ground, and worst of all is what Liyab realized as he felt squirming in his brain.

_SHIT! SHE'S BLOCKING MY BRAIN AND MAKES ME FORGET THE THINGS I SHOULD HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN WHILE IN A FIGHT!_

And what is worse is the fact that even though his brain can be crushed by the sands, the lady opted not to do so, she was determined to torment him slowly, and it was working, his movement was waning by the second as he can feel his lungs slowly being blocked, making his breathing sounds like he has asthma, his organs started to be filled with sand too as it started from being a slight discomfort and escalated to the point that even his tummy started to squirm as if snakes were crawling under his skin.

Liyab's condition worsened and worsened whilst Eleanor just looked on, his stomach started to grind sand, his kidney filter sand, his lungs exhale sand hell even his heart started to pump sand, even his brain started to slow down little by little and finally, his brain cannot keep up with the relentless bullet rain that soon hit all of his limbs, in the end, the target of the bullets did not change.

_ARRRGH!_

As the bullet rain pierced through his limbs countless times, crushing all of his bones and tearing all of his flesh, bloody sand came out of the gashing wounds, he stumbled hard on the ground, without any arms or legs, at this moment, Liyab's mind was already so muddled that he cannot think to heal himself, in despair he looked at Eleanor who is still walking towards him casually, usually, such casualness will make him feel that his pride got hurt, but now, all he can think of is his impending end.

Scenes of his life started to flash through his muddled mind, from his childhood and then his training and all of his successful and failed assassinations under the guidance of his teacher, finally as all of these thoughts ended, Eleanor stopped right beside Liyab and squatted in front of him and asked him a question.

"For the last time, how did Khearshebelle die on your hands?"

Liyab's eyes suddenly widened as he felt his brain back to normal when he heard without delay the question of the lady, this caused his once despairing heart to be suddenly engulfed with a seemingly holy ray of light as he did not even hesitate to answer such question but as he opened his mouth and was about to answer "She was stabbed in the heart.", no voice came out, this made Liyab puzzled as he continuously tried to make a voice.

He continued for a while and when he saw the lips of Eleanor slowly curl up into a v-shaped smile, her heart once again sank and engulfed by endless darkness of despair.

_SHE NEVER UNBLOCKED MY VOCAL CORDS!_

He finally remembered this opponent of his, the lady was not here to deal with him but to torment him as revenge for the queen of Gjallarhorn, tears started to break out of his eyes as the sand in his guts and whole internal anatomy violently rose, sure enough, it was violent but it was also slow to make sure that he feels how all of his organs, muscles, tissues and bones are torn apart one by one, making him scream in pain without actually making any sounds

But did not end there, Liyab's amazing vitality did not let his suffering end when every single known and unknown organ inside his body was ruptured, he still felt with whole clarity how his muscles were ripped off and he still screamed as a mortal instinct to excruciating pain.

Until the end, Liyab was never given respite by Eleanor, as for the first in her time with her wife, she felt a sadist's pleasure in seeing the suffering of someone, just as she was relishing this one-time pleasure of hers, she looked at the devils and vampires who wanted to help their vice-captain but stood rooted to the ground when they saw him explode.

She immediately stood up and patted the dust on his robe, but just as Eleanor was about to take a step, something rang out inside her mind.

Notice: [The Goddess of Earth has seen your performance and has deepened her love for you, she decided to make you her official Hero Prospect]

_______

At the same time when Eleanor was tormenting Liyab, a woman was laying on the ground with her chest up to her lower stomach caved in with intestines and several organs bulging out of her eye sockets ears, and mouth, at her sides were corpsed with rotting smell that accompanied her with her abrupt eternal slumber.

_Who would have thought that one punch was enough to kill her..._

Sitting on a window she had broken in the very short fight with the puppeteer vampire who looked like she was a frog that got run over by a truck, Bakunawa sighed as she looked at her unstained hands, the blow she gave to the woman she did not even know was so fast that not even the splattered blood can catch up to it, it was a very pathetic excuse of a fight.

_It looks like I was bullying her._

Bakunawa once again sighed as she grumbled, if that was Sophia, then the fight would have continued for a day or even days, and given the fact that she was not given a lot of chances to fight weaker opponents, she doesn't know how to have fun in fights and opted to do her best. Thinking about it, that was maybe why Bakunawa was mesmerized by Sophia, as she was the only one who could match the serpent's powers.

_But I have to actually 'defeat' her for me to complete the first part of my Hero's Test..._

Upon thinking as such, Bakunawa looked at the wall containing the throne room that was being embroiled in a battle between royalties, thunder bellowed relentlessly as if a storm was brewing in the contained space, her mission was simple, the queen of Kamatayan was predicted that Roselle will not be able to kill his brother, so Bakunawa was stationed near it so that the escaping Noir can be killed off.

_I wonder why is he not a hero prospect yet._

Bakunawa suddenly thought that a voice rang out in her mind, it was [Guide] who was permitted to talk to Bakunawa and Eleanor as they were Sophia's strongest fighters in this war.

[That is because the god of the sun and the god of thunder are the same people, and one god can only have one hero, he cannot appoint the King of Gjallarhorn to his supposedly rightful title, and yes, that is also one of the reasons of the hostility of the whole royal family towards Urduja.]

Knowing such a thing, Bakunawa slowly nodded, in Sophia's terms, Urduja already become a beneficial cancer to the Royal family that gave them a lot of benefits despite being a sword that was hanging above their heads, she was simply too terrifying.

The casual conversation continued as Bakunawa reminded herself of her debt to Urduja for giving her ideas about her completion of her hero's test.

[Speaking of Hero's test, is that really the method you want to employ?

_Yes, I cannot think of anything else that is within my borderlines._

[Sophia is mad if she is mad, I can help you in manipulating a random woma-]

_No, no, I have my pride... also, you should have already know why I want to do it personally, right?_

At the end of the conversation, [Guide] metaphorically sighed.

[Well, you can do whatever you want.]