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The light distorted—and the world vanished.
When Mei and Tekio opened their eyes, they were somewhere else.
The ground was covered in damp grass, red as coagulated blood.
The trees—twisted, crimson, pulsed silently, as if breathing. The air tasted of iron.
And Vernasha was there, at the center, utterly still. Her smile cut through the scenery like a blade too sharp to exist.
The dimension was hers.
Every breath of wind, every drop that dripped from the leaves, everything obeyed her will.
Mei took a step, staggering after the sudden teleportation. Tekio nearly fell to his knees.
Vernasha moved back just a bit—just enough for Mei's fist to pass through empty air.
A perfect error.
Planned.
She smiled.
—You never change… — she said with disdain. Her eyes shone with something bordering on pleasure.
Then she looked directly at Tekio, the world falling silent for an instant.
—Now, there is nothing more you can do. — Her voice echoed in every direction, as if space itself vibrated. —I'll take care of you later, boy. After all, I need the holder of the lightning to wake up again. Until then…
I need to awaken the flames.
She raised one hand—the gesture was simple, almost delicate—and Tekio vanished.
No light, no sound, no displacement.
He vanished.
Mei's heart stopped.
Her entire body stiffened. The air grew too heavy to breathe.
She knew he was alive—Vernasha still needed him, after all.—but the fear was different.
Where had she taken him?
Vernasha's laugh shattered the trance.
—Now, Mei… — she said, walking with lightness, as if dancing. —It's just you and me. Like in the very beginning.
The tone was sweet. Dangerous.
—Like when you dared to face my cocoon body with the arrogance of a sun.
Mei clenched her fists.
Fire began to spread across her skin like a second aura.
But then Vernasha lifted her face, and her smile transformed into something monstrous.
—But now… — she whispered. —I want to see if you can sustain that pride before my true body.
The air trembled.
The forest bowed, the trees bending as if paying reverence.
—Show me, Mei Nuhay! Show me you're not strong only when fate favors you!
—Show me your fury!
She opened her arms, beckoning her.
—Come… come. Don't be shy.
Her voice was a gentle poison.
—Or is this your first time? — Her smile widened. —Let me guide you.
Before Mei could react, Vernasha was already there—before her.
The impact was thunder.
The two exchanged blows at an impossible speed to follow, Mei's flames and Vernasha's crimson energy exploding in bursts of pure destruction.
But a single gesture—just one—and Vernasha hurled Mei away.
She crashed through trunks and rocks, tumbling across the crimson forest until she stopped among smoldering wreckage.
Silence returned.
And Vernasha, standing among the pulsating trees, smiled with the calm of a predator who had won before the fight even began.
Mei spat blood and rose, staggering.
Her skin steamed, her spiritual energy flickered in unstable flames.
She breathed deeply, channeling the flame from within. Golden fire spread across her wounds, sealing cuts, stitching flesh, restoring her breath—the regeneration technique.
Her eyes began to shine like furious suns once more.
But a voice came—from all sides.
A soft sound, almost maternal, that made the air vibrate with reverence and fear.
—Mei Nuhay… — Vernasha called, the intonation echoing multiple, infinite.
—Do you know why you were reborn that day?
Mei turned her head, trying to locate the voice.
The sound came from every corner, from the earth, the crimson trees, the very blood flowing across the ground.
—Do you know why, even impaled, you returned a thousand times stronger than before? — Vernasha continued, each word resonating with an almost amused tone. —No, of course you don't. You never cared about that.
A light laugh crossed the space.
—And I even like that about you… always moving forward, always burning, incinerating everything in your path. Using your vengeance as fuel to stay alive.
The air shuddered.
—I identify a little. Just a little.
Mei tightened her fists.
Flames enveloped her again—but this time, there was something more in them. An unstable flicker, as if the fire itself were afraid to burn.
—You received a gift, Mei. — Her voice sounded closer, almost whispering in her ear. —You were chosen to be the avatar of something greater.
The ground trembled. The crimson trees bowed toward the two.
—And now you will discover… while we dance.
And then Mei located her and in the same instant charged.
Like a comet. Like a spear of sunlight.
But the moment the blow was about to reach her, Vernasha vanished.
The scenery dissolved.
And reappeared.
Suddenly, they were in the pyramids of Egypt—the wind cutting the sand in golden storms.
One blow.
The impact cracked ancient stone.
Before Mei could catch her breath, the world twisted.
Now, skyscrapers. New York. The sound of distant sirens.
Another blow.
Mei crashed through a glass wall, falling dozens of meters before being yanked back by a dimensional collapse.
The ocean.
Crushing pressure.
Another blow.
Alaska.
An icy wind tearing at her face.
Another blow.
The volcano.
Smoke and sulfur.
Another blow.
Christ the Redeemer, Mount Fuji, the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower—the entire world dragged along in a chaotic parade of reality.
And with each change, the sound of impact.
Every punch from Vernasha rang like thunder, and the echo of the blow destroyed everything around.
Mei could no longer see anything.
Her stomach churned, her body screamed.
She felt nauseous, the metallic taste of blood.
Each blow made her shudder, and the ground, wherever it was, cracked under the weight of the clash.
Vernasha laughed.
—Come on, Mei! Where is that arrogance? — she said between blows, her voice melodic and cruel. —You're fire, aren't you? Burn! Show me that fire!
The final blow came as a crimson flash.
The scenery distorted one last time—and everything returned to the crimson dimension.
Mei was hurled against the ground, rolling for meters before stopping, dizzy, her body covered in blood and soot.
Silence fell.
The world pulsed, as if alive and breathing alongside the queen.
Vernasha landed delicately before her, her gaze calm, superior.
Her smile was serene—and for that, all the more terrifying.
The silence dragged on.
Mei's breathing was ragged, every breath seemed to wound the air.
Vernasha, serene, walked around her—a predator analyzing its prey with boredom.
—Come now, Mei Nuhay… — her voice echoed softly, venomous. —Show me that flame the world respects so much.
The burning fire, the energy that completely destroyed Dante, that finished off the princes of the abyss… where is it?
She tilted her head, smiling with a touch of false pity. —Where is the Empress now?
Mei did not answer.
She just looked at the ground.
For the first time in her entire life, she hadn't been able to react.
It wasn't wounded pride—it was fear.
A pure, suffocating fear.
Each previous blow echoed in her mind like hammers of iron.
She had faced monsters, gods, demons, but never someone who made her feel so… insignificant.
So small.
Vernasha stopped before her.
The crimson dimension seemed to bend to that woman's presence.
—I need to awaken the Empress's flames soon… — she murmured with a sigh.
And then, she moved her leg.
It was fast.
Too fast.
The blow struck Mei's face squarely, the dry sound spreading through the crimson forest.
Blood. So much blood.
Her body spun with the impact, falling again.
But when Vernasha prepared the next kick—
something changed.
Mei's hand grabbed her leg.
The impact echoed like the sound of metal against metal.
Mei's eyes were different—cold, steady, burning with a silent fire.
—…I understand. — she whispered, her voice hoarse.
The flesh on her face regenerated before the queen's eyes, stitching itself with golden flames.
And when the last trace of blood disappeared, Mei smiled.
A fiery, insane, victorious smile.
She released the leg.
And advanced.
A punch straight to the skull—fast, explosive.
But before it could land, the world changed.
The scenery twisted—and Vernasha was behind her, striking.
And again.
And again.
Each punch came with a change of reality.
The ground turned to desert, ice, steel, volcano—and in each new landscape, Mei's body took another blow.
It was brutal.
It was humiliation.
And Vernasha laughed, between one blow and the next.
—Come on, Empress! — she taunted, with another's blood on her hands. —Show me why the world fears this fire!
Another punch.
—Burn for me!
Another blow.
—Is that all? Is that all, Mei Nuhay?
But then, something happened.
The next blow—did not come.
A crack.
A different sound.
And the blood that gushed… was not Mei's.
Vernasha blinked, surprised, feeling the dry impact on her face.
A punch. Direct. Violent.
She tried to teleport—
but returned.
Straight into another punch.
That's when she realized:
something was binding her.
Around her waist, a living rope of fire kept her tethered to Mei.
And every time she tried to vanish, the rope pulled her back.
Mei held the other end, her gaze burning with defiance.
And every time Vernasha returned, a new punch.
It was like a game of Paddleball.
Mei's hand was the paddle.
The queen's face, the ball.
And each smack made Vernasha's divine blood spray in flaming bursts.
Vernasha tried to escape, but the rope burned, seared her celestial flesh.
And Mei laughed.
Laughed with relish.
—You wanted to see the fire, right? — she shouted between blows. —Then look at it!
Each impact left a crater of flames.
Each blow made the air of every dimension Vernasha tried to flee tremble.
And for the first time—
the queen bled.
After all, her opponent was Mei Nuhay.
The world burned red.
With each impact, the dimension trembled—and Mei did not stop.
The blows continued, stronger each time, faster each time.
Vernasha could barely keep her balance between one sequence and the next; the sound of the punches mixed with the echo of flames, the air tore like fabric.
The queen's face was already covered in blood and embers.
Mei pulled, punched, pulled again.
The rhythm was insane, a symphony of destruction where every note was the sound of bones breaking.
And Mei laughed.
Laughed like someone who had finally found a worthy enemy—or perhaps, like someone losing her sanity.
But then, Vernasha stopped smiling.
Her once-calm gaze turned cold, tense.
She blinked the blood that trickled down her golden eye and panted.
—I really… underestimated you. — she said through gritted teeth.
The ground trembled under her feet, and Mei's flames flickered as if fearing what was to come.
—Of course you would react like this… it's you, after all. — she added, in a whisper that carried more respect than anger.
Then, Vernasha raised the level.
A dry crack ran through the air, and in the blink of an eye, they were back in the crimson dimension.
The sky was an ocean of blood.
And around Vernasha, two purple spheres sprouted, dense, pulsing with living energy—like the hearts of a god.
They spun around her, orbiting in a hypnotic rhythm, leaving trails of ethereal energy in the air.
Mei prepared to pull the rope, but before she could… the spheres severed the link in a single motion.
The sound of torn fire echoed loudly.
The rope disintegrated into ashes.
The two fell in parallel, the ground cracking under the impact.
Mei shook her fist, Vernasha's blood still dripping from her fingers, as the air twisted around them.
The queen's face was disfigured—a mask of blood and rage.
But soon, the flesh recomposed itself, as if time obeyed her will.
She licked the corner of her mouth, savoring the metallic taste of her own blood.
And smiled.
A scarlet, cruel smile.
—So, Mei… — she said in a provocative tone. —Are you good at playing with fire?
Mei arched an eyebrow.
Her gaze serious, almost murderous.
—Why don't you try and find out? You wretched bitch!
Vernasha guffawed—a sweet and insane laugh, echoing through the crimson skies.
And then, she launched the spheres.
The air screamed.
The spheres cut through space at absurd speeds, and the sound they left behind was pure destruction.
Mei dodged by instinct—the heat of the explosions passing so close it singed the strands of her hair.
The spheres struck trees meters behind and exploded.
The impact was colossal—the entire forest was swept away by a wave of energy.
Trunks flew, the earth turned to ashes, and the dimension seemed to tremble.
Mei looked at the explosion, sweating, her body vibrating with adrenaline.
She understood the message.
Those spheres weren't ordinary attacks—they were the equivalent of two moons collapsing.
But before she could even catch her breath, Vernasha was upon her.
A phantom.
A lightning bolt.
A nightmare.
They collided mid-air, the impact cracking like thunder.
Fists, legs, explosions—every movement was too fast for human eyes to follow.
And then—clones.
Dozens of Vernashas appeared, each attacking from a different angle, while new spheres were hurled amidst the blows.
Absolute chaos.
A lethal dance.
But Mei… Mei danced.
She spun, dodged, counter-attacked, as if in perfect synchrony with the hell surrounding her.
Because when it came to the dance—
Mei Nuhay never lost the beat.
To be continued…
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