The instant Antares froze mid-bite, Artemis and the women around her all blanked out.
Before anyone could even process what had happened, the ceiling began to shudder—no, not just shudder. It was impact, over and over, like something enormous was crashing downward through layers of stone.
Rumble—RUMBLE—!!
A heartbeat later, the ruin's roof exploded inward.
A humanoid, white giant smashed through the rock like it was wet clay and dropped straight into the corridor.
"ROAAAR—!"
Mahoraga hit the ground running, its roar filling the ruins. It swung its right arm and drove the Exorcising Sword forward—
SPLASH!
The blade speared clean through Antares's torso, pinning it in place. Purple blood erupted and splattered across the stone as the Divine Assassin convulsed from the pain and thrashed hard enough to shake the floor.
"SSSSS—!!!"
The humanoid upper body of Antares let out a shrieking howl. Its four-part mouth split wide, and a terrifying purple beam condensed in an instant—inside the beam, a faint streak of pure white light flared.
It was mixed with the moon-god divine power it had just stolen.
And with that divine boost, the beam's power surged—not doubled, not tripled, but exploding to something absurd.
BOOM—!!
The blinding blast fired and punched straight through Mahoraga's torso on the spot. The heat and force tore through the surrounding rock and made the entire ruin-palace quake like it was about to collapse.
And yet, to everyone's disbelief…
Mahoraga tanked the beam and didn't even slow down.
Ignoring the hole blown through its body, it reached out with its left arm and grabbed Antares by the tail.
RIIIP—!
Right in front of them all, Mahoraga tore the scorpion tail off with raw, brutal strength. Blood poured down in sheets. Antares hadn't even managed another scream before the Exorcising Sword came down again.
Slash—slash—slash!
Mahoraga butchered the torso into chunks, leaving only the still-twitching upper half. That upper half snapped its pincers shut and clamped onto Mahoraga's arms, trying to stop the next strike.
But the truly horrifying part was Mahoraga itself.
The hole in its torso wriggled and knitted together—seconds, that was all it took—until it regenerated like it had never been hit.
Even after absorbing Artemis's divine power, Antares's healing wasn't even a third as fast.
Artemis whispered, stunned beyond words, "That regeneration… it's faster than Antares…"
For a moment, she honestly couldn't tell which one was the real monster—then realized the answer was probably both.
Up above, through the broken ceiling where the collapse had opened a shaft to the outside, a figure dropped down into the ruins.
Takumi landed lightly.
"Looks like I made it," he said with an easy, sun-bright grin. "Everyone okay?"
He extended a hand toward the women who were half-kneeling on the ground.
The moment Rethusa and Lante met his eyes, their hearts kicked hard in their chests—one violent beat, then another—like something inside them had woken up.
That sweet, dizzy feeling they'd only talked about before… was suddenly real.
So this was what falling for someone felt like.
"Y-you… hi, I—" Rethusa stammered, tongue tying itself in knots.
Takumi just smiled, reached down, and pulled both her and Lante to their feet.
"Breathe. You're safe now."
He brushed dust off their shoulders with a calm gentleness that made them feel even more unsteady, then turned toward Artemis, who still stood frozen in place.
Their eyes met—and Artemis felt it like a shock running straight through her nerves.
She'd just been talking about love, about what it might mean… and now her chest tightened with a sudden, unmistakable flutter.
Artemis had the kind of beauty that made the air feel cleaner. Waist-length blue hair, perfect features, and a presence that was both noble and dangerously captivating. Her battle skirt and armor were torn from the fight, and the exposed pale skin stood out starkly against the ruin's darkness—soft, radiant, almost unreal.
The waist cinched by her armor looked slim enough to wrap a hand around. Her breasts were a perfect handful—too full for one hand to fully cover—then her hips flared wider, high and tight, with a rounded shape that looked like it belonged in a painter's obsession. Below that, her legs ran long and straight, smooth and flawless, the kind of legs that made a man's thoughts go hot.
Even after conquering Slaughter and beating down Kali, Takumi still felt a fresh rush of lust stir in him.
But he kept it locked down. He stepped forward, controlled, and held out his hand in a proper greeting.
"I'm Takumi—Hestia's Familia, more or less. I took the commission to investigate the Great Tree Labyrinth and ran into you. Artemis-sama… it's a pleasure."
Artemis, who had never truly held a man's hand, moved on instinct and placed her fingers into his.
Only after she did it did she realize what she'd done.
Her delicate hand was already in his grip.
Takumi tightened his hold and helped her up, then immediately shifted in front of her—protective, firm, like he'd decided she was his responsibility now.
Artemis stared at him, unable to find words.
A goddess who was supposed to remain unchanged… felt something inside her quietly tilt.
Meanwhile, in the other half of the corridor, Antares was already being crushed into meat.
Mahoraga had it completely outclassed—an overwhelming, one-sided beatdown—yet the thing still refused to die, barely clinging on with the divine power it had stolen.
Half-dead, it even tried to form moonlight arrows out of that power.
But Mahoraga's wheel turned.
It had already begun adapting to Artemis's divinity—building resistance with every second.
Swish—swish—swish!
A storm of moonlight arrows slammed into Mahoraga, but none of them pierced through. They left only a scatter of shallow pits across its body… and those pits vanished almost instantly as its flesh regenerated.
Takumi raised his hand.
The Boosted Gear manifested on his arm, its red presence pulsing with restrained violence.
"That's enough," he said, voice flat. "Divine Slayer."
"Devour."
Flames surged—yet the shredded flesh didn't burn to ash.
Instead, it was dragged through the air and swallowed into Takumi's body as if the fire was only the delivery method.
A few breaths later, Antares was simply… gone.
The monster itself wasn't that strong, so the raw boost it provided wasn't huge.
But its trait?
That was what Takumi had come for.
[Ultimate Lifeform (Gold)] activated, perfectly absorbing and editing Antares's genes.
[Ding! Randomly plundered trait: Scorpion Venom (Blue)]
[Ding! Gained traits: Godslayer Power (Purple), Colossal Beast Physique (Blue)]
[Scorpion Venom (Blue): You can cultivate scorpion-grade venom within your body. Its toxicity is extreme and can easily kill other living beings.]
[Godslayer Power (Purple): You naturally possess a god-killing power that suppresses divinity, allowing you to steal a portion of a god's divine power for your own use.]
[Colossal Beast Physique (Blue): The tough physique of an ancient monster. Regeneration is extremely powerful, allowing easy limb regrowth.]
Takumi barely spared the first and third a glance.
His eyes locked onto the second line like it was glowing.
Godslayer Power didn't do much against anyone who wasn't a god—but against gods, its value could rival a Gold trait in the right situation.
He felt the newborn Godslayer power spreading through his body, threading itself into his magic like a second bloodstream.
His grin stretched wider and wider, sharp as a blade.
A god… who possessed the power to kill gods.
That meant he could also neutralize the same trait when it was used against him. If another godslayer monster appeared, he could crush it with divine power—because his own divinity, laced with Godslayer suppression, could cancel theirs out.