Boom!
Ankh lowered his body and sprinted through the narrow passage, the corridor behind him blasted apart again and again by waves of liquid bombs.
"Medical Record Blade!"
Ophiuchus flattened the chart in one hand and flicked through it with the other, sending its pages slicing through the air like razor-sharp knives.
With a wave of his hand, Ankh conjured a massive, sinister-looking scythe out of thin air.
A pair of black wings formed from deathly aura burst from his back as he brought the blade down on Ophiuchus.
A flurry of sharp clashes rang out.
The Reaper's Scythe in Ankh's hands spun like a meat grinder, shredding the record pages out of the air as they fell in droves.
Ophiuchus's pupils shrank.
Seeing the monstrous scythe right in front of her, she hurriedly rolled aside.
A pitch-black slash tore across the ground, and the entire cavern shuddered like it might collapse at any moment.
Ankh, now a terrifying scythe-wielding specter, chased her down with wide, merciless swings.
Every arc of the blade carried a suffocating aura of death, and every near miss sent a fresh wave of fear through Ophiuchus's heart.
'Damn it…'
She cursed under her breath, but didn't dare take even one hit head-on.
After becoming Eclipse Spirits, each Celestial Spirit had grown far stronger, but every one of them had also developed a serious flaw.
Taurus, for instance, had become even more monstrously strong, but his fighting style had turned absurdly refined, to the point where his obsession with cleanliness could interrupt his attacks.
Gemini's power had changed from transforming themselves into anyone to transforming other people instead, completely altering the way they fought.
The same pattern held true for many of them.
Aquarius's original tsunami-like, violent fighting style had turned into childish, easily manipulated water-cannon attacks.
Pisces's once-perfect mother-and-son teamwork had become the messy combination of a rebellious son and an overindulgent mother.
Aries's timid personality had only grown worse, while her soft wool magic had become impossible to use...
Compared to all that, the only Spirit who had truly grown stronger without developing an obvious flaw was Leo.
His original light-based power had changed into darkness and fire, and his personality had become colder and more ruthless.
As for Ophiuchus, her absurdly broken ability to transfer negative conditions had been weakened, but in exchange, her physique and physical attack power had been greatly enhanced.
Ankh spun the giant scythe once and rested it behind him. "You said I coveted your power. So take a good look now. Do I really seem like I need to?"
In terms of raw combat ability, Ankh had never treated Ophiuchus as his main force.
Most of the time, he used her to deal with lesser enemies or protect their allies.
Since when had he become someone greedy for a Celestial Spirit's power?
Seeing him pause, Ophiuchus finally got a brief moment to breathe, but her eyes were still full of hatred.
"You're always like this, arrogant and full of yourself! If it hadn't been for me on Tenrou Island, you'd have died long ago! You wouldn't even be here now, acting superior to me!"
Ankh narrowed his eyes. "That's exactly why I haven't been willing to go all out."
"You're not like the others, Ophiuchus."
Her expression stiffened.
Ankh looked straight through her, as if he could see the truth beneath her current facade.
"The other Spirits all lost their memories after being Eclipse-corrupted. You didn't. You still remember what happened on Tenrou Island."
"You haven't lost your memories, and yet you still chose to settle things with me. Why?"
For a fleeting moment, Ophiuchus's expression twisted with conflict, but it was quickly swallowed by something far uglier.
"Shut up! From now on, I'll live in the Human World on my own!"
Ankh sighed and slowly raised the scythe behind him, pointing it at her.
"I want the truth, Ophiuchus."
"Back at Star Hill, I asked you about your dreams and what you wanted."
"At the time, your eyes were full of longing, and you told me you wanted to help look after my future children. You said that newborn life was the purest thing in the world. Even though you carried the name of the Cursed Serpent, you were utterly fascinated by something so pure."
"I could tell then that you weren't lying. But now, you're nothing like that. Violent, arrogant, contemptuous of life..."
Ankh raised the scythe higher.
Black magical energy began to surge toward the blade, drawn in from every shadow in the space like a black hole.
"Ophiuchus, this version of you isn't who you really are."
A vicious light flashed in her eyes.
She spread her arms wide, and the entire corridor began to tremble. Her body sank into the earth as her furious scream echoed through the cavern.
"Shut up! That was just the version of me you wanted to see!"
"And now, I'm free!"
Ankh's gaze darkened. He swung the scythe in a single brutal arc, and a ring-shaped black blade of death spun forward, instantly slicing the entire ancient structure to pieces.
But amid the violent collapse, a gigantic figure suddenly appeared and blocked the scythe's deadly aura head-on.
An enormous spray of blood burst across the ground, staining the earth crimson, and that massive body threw back its head with a scream of agony.
Ankh darted through the collapsing ruins, weaving between slabs of falling stone.
The next moment, he was back under open sky, and his eyes widened at the sight before him.
The ground was now gray, barren rock.
Above them stretched a vast star-filled sky lined with constellations, endless at a glance.
The place looked nothing like the domain they had entered. It was as if they had been thrown into an entirely different world.
"Ahhh!"
A scream rang out nearby.
Ankh glanced over and saw a pink-haired idiot crash into the ground.
Happy struggled to yank Natsu's head out of the rubble while Natsu blinked at the suddenly changed surroundings in confusion.
"Where the hell are we? Wasn't I fighting Loki just now?"
In the distance, Loke landed smoothly atop a high ridge, having also been thrown back by the sudden shift.
He looked up at the enormous figure ahead of them, his expression grave.
"Ophiuchus... so you used this form early."
"Loke... he isn't like those weak humans."
That strange, booming voice echoed across the sky as the colossal figure finally began to move.
It was a monstrous creature. Its body was covered in crimson armor-like plating, long and serpentine, with a grotesque, oversized head ringed by golden ornaments.
Its eyes radiated pure ill omen.
This was Ophiuchus's enhanced serpent body, far larger and tougher than the mechanical snake form she had once used.
At the center of the serpent's head, Ophiuchus's human upper body in her nurse uniform was embedded like a core, though it seemed she had already fallen asleep.
The huge scar Ankh's scythe had carved across the crimson serpent was already healing at a visible rate.
Then her voice emerged from that bloodstained maw.
"Ignorant humans. What holy ground? From the moment you arrived, all of you have been fighting on top of my body."
"None of you are leaving this place alive!"