A demigoddess. That’s what Serrena just claimed to be. And considering how powerful she is and how easygoing she acts even when fighting at this intensity, I can’t exactly disbelieve her. What was it like for Madison? She was certainly powerful enough that someone who didn’t know better might have likened her to a deity. Hells, the reverence some people showed to her wouldn’t be that far removed from deity worship. There's a lot of questions about what's going to happen in the coming weeks and months. We have to get stronger to confront what the System will send our way next. But not everyone will gain equally. Some will grow stronger and gain the power to be likened to demigods, able to enforce their will through physical power.

I wonder if it’s the same for Serrena, getting powerful enough that she can claim the title of demigoddess for herself without objection. Or perhaps, she really isn’t human anymore… Just like me, in a way.

My musing is cut short. Serrena no longer exudes the immense aura of flames around her body, but her movements are somehow even faster. Her punches hit with enough force that I’m knocked backwards even when I perfectly guard against the attack. My [Health] is falling at an accelerated rate, and I’m starting to feel the injuries adding up.

I’m forced to cycle through my glyphs just to barely keep up. [Impulse] and [Wind] into a makeshift [Acceleration] variant to increase my speed. [Repulsion] to help deflect her attacks, [Sharpness] and [Intensity] on the rare occasions where I see an opportunity for a counterattack. [Ice] is modestly effective at keeping her onslaught at bay, but it’s too weak to do much damage. All the while, I’m forced to leave [Archangel’s Gaze] in omnidirectional mode, because Serrena is also capable of creating simulacra of flames to attack me from my otherwise blind spots.

I create makeshift [Flaming Barriers] to resist the onslaught, beating back each effigy of fire all while avoiding what attacks I can. But I am going to lose this fight if nothing else changes. It’s the simple, unvarnished truth. I keep fighting with everything I can, but I’m barely even to lay a scratch upon the self-proclaimed demigoddess.

I’ll never give up, though. Not as long as I draw breath and my muscles continue to heed my call. I backflip to evade the flaming doppelganger trying to punch me in the small of the back, then extend my wings and fly into the skies above. Serrena follows suit, sticking to her plan of granting me neither quarter nor reprieve from her relentless assault. But here, at least, I should have a few more avenues for defense and evasion.

Serrena rushes me. I try to get the hell out of the way, but she’s faster than me, even when using the maximum [Ether] expenditure on my [Angelic Form] and supplementing that further with additional movement glyphs. Her fireball singes my back, but I beat back the pain. Adrenaline keeps me from wavering.

Right as she throws a blind-side punch at my neck, I spin around and catch the flaming fist with my bare hand, extinguishing it with an inverted [Heat] glyph. She launches a slightly weaker attack with her left arm. This one I again catch, though I suffer mild burns with my organic right arm from repeating the maneuver.

Serrena pushes, attempting to slam me back into the ground. But I’m able to fight that off. Then she pulls, trying to wrest her hands free from my grasp. I maintain my focus and hold fast even as she attempts to headbutt me while in midair. At the last second, I Manifest [Repulsion] and meet her attack head-on, literally.

And… it actually works? I’m a little stunned by the interaction, but I’ve actually managed to draw blood for the first time in this fight. Serrena is even more dazed than I am, giving me a chance to land a punch to her stomach, followed by another kick across her back and a [Freezing Bullet] follow-up that sends her crashing into the ground.

But she’s nowhere near defeated. I don’t even need to wait for her to leap out of the ground to see that. Her lifeforce is still full of vitality, and that grin on her face as she turns to me is as big as I’ve ever seen.

“Hah! And I thought I was hardheaded and stubborn! But no, here you go, absolutely pummeling me with an attack like that! Brilliant, simply brilliant, Seraphina! I love it!”

Okay, I lied. I thought I was a battle junkie, but Serrena takes it not only to a new level, but away from the concept of levels entirely. If she really is a demigoddess, she must be some sort of demigoddess of war and victory. Maybe passion

, considering how fond she is of fighting and combat.

“I’m enjoying this as well,” I say.

“You don’t have to be so reserved about it, Seraphina. This isn’t some fight for the fate of the world. It’s okay to just enjoy the rush as we clash with one another. After all, what better way is there to get to know a warrior than by clashing with them, both of you coming out stronger and more refined for the experience?”

I glance back at Chloe with a shudder. I can’t help but feel a certain draw to Serrena’s words. I don’t know if I agree with them in a cerebral sense, but seeing her having such fun in battle has a certain vicarious spillover effect on me. I want to push myself to get stronger, and I want to see the limits of what Serrena is capable of.

And I have an idea. I’ve always used my barriers for defense. But seeing how the green knight from two floors down wielded his shields offensively, I realize that I can— and should— be doing the same. The [Reflect] glyph is a step toward that end. And if I want to defeat Serrena, I need to reverse the common saying and demonstrate conclusively that sometimes, the best offense is a good defense.

“Round three?” I ask.

“Round three,” Serrena says.

She sprints forward so fast I can barely keep up, feinting toward me before spinning around and preparing an attack from behind. No trickery or special techniques. It’s pure speed and strength, aimed directly at my blind spot. In the split second before I have to act, I wonder why she’s doing this. She must know that I have some sort of sight Skill, considering I’ve been able to deflect all her other back attacks to this point. Unless…

I force myself prone, dodging both the attack from the Serrena I see and the one I don’t. As expected, it was a trick, moving so quickly that my brain couldn’t fully process what [Archangel’s Gaze] was perceiving. I Manifest [Impulse] in the palm of my hand to push myself back to my feet, then prepare to follow up with a [Freezing Barrier] crudely linked to an [Expansion] glyph.

It won’t be enough to win by ring-out as I’d like— Serrena can fly as fast as I can, and she could easily outrun the barrier’s top speed even if I attempted to add yet another glyph like [Enhancement] or [Intensity]. But it should be enough to knock her off guard for a few crucial instants. And in a battle taking place at this intensity and speed, even the blink of an eye is more than enough time for the fight to be won or lost.

“More cheap barriers?” Serrena says. “You should know that you can’t win just by guarding and deflecting and dodging!”

“Oh?” I ask as I parry another punch to the face. “You’ll have to forgive a girl for trying anyway. Besides, maybe I can come up with a few new tricks along the way.”

Serrena chuckles. “Show me, Seraphina. Advance your Skills, develop your techniques. Overcome the challenge I’ve laid before you!”

I charge Serrena once more. And she makes no move to dodge. Confidence in her ability to tank my attack? Or maybe she plans to counter my strike after I make it. Either way, it doesn’t change my decision. Exploiting a person’s overconfidence might not be the most impressive way of winning a fight, but I’ll use every tool I have in my arsenal to win.

Twenty-five feet left and Serrena hasn’t made a move. Twenty, then fifteen. Ten, nine, eight. Time itself seems to be slowing down, anticipating the clash to come. Six, then five. Serrena remains motionless in her fighting stance. Three, then two. I can feel the warmth she exudes. Not just the heat of her body, but also…

Yes, she’s doing the exact same thing I am. As I collect [Ice] energy in the palm of my hand, she’s doing the same with her unquenching flames. My cold blue shimmer meets her fiery red one, and as the two meet, the spheres of ice and fire expand outward. Serrena and I are pushed back as our energy spheres expand, but neither of us cedes an inch from one another. Every time she pushes me back, I conjure more energy to push two steps forward. And then she does the same to me. It’s not just about our power, swirling all around us, blues and reds annihilating each other and also combining to form violet wisps of chaotic energy that crackle like lightning.

It’s our relentless wills. It’s the force of every encounter to this point that has sharpened my will and honed my power. It’s respect for another who also took up the path of the warrior, who has gone through just as many trials and hardships as I have. Maybe even more, considering how powerful she is.

And so we clash, on the field of battle as well as the field of our minds. I hear her whispers in my head. They taunt me, telling me that I’m too weak, that I should give up and go home. I drown them out and push forward. They taunt me again, telling me that even an angel is powerless against a goddess. But I ignore that too. Even if she is above me in terms of what she is, I’ve already seen the naked truth. She can be made to bleed. Demigoddess or not, she is not invincible. And if she’s not invincible, then neither are other beings that are thought of as gods. Including the System itself.

The wisps of energy disperse— usually in violent ways— and before long, Serrena and I are once again alone on the battlefield. The others are now in the stands, being shielded from the debris and the energy of our attacks by Chloe’s [Sanctuary] spell. Chloe herself is standing with eyes closed and hands folded, chanting her spell. I’m sure it must be hard on her. I’ll need to apologize later. But for now, I need to finish this fight, and quickly.

My strength is once again starting to wane. Serrena doesn’t exactly look fresh, but she’s far from fatigued. I can’t win the battle via attrition. Instead, I gamble it all on one final attack. I combine [Repulsion] with [Expansion] and [Sharpness], a combination I’ve never employed before.

We charge at one another. No tricks this time around. Just one final clash of wills and powers. Despite it all, Serrena is smiling something fierce. And I am as well.

I release my spell, creating a needle-like spear over my left arm. And with it, I thrust directly at Serrena’s torso. Her punch connects, cracking several scales on my [Wyvernscale Armor] and causing me to cough up blood. But my [Barrier Spear] pushes outward, piercing through her steel armor and landing a nasty blow directly in the middle of her abdomen.

We both fall backward, landing side by side on the stone dais. The sky is dim and my vision is blurry and our fight can really only be called a draw.

Serrena is chuckling, despite the hole I left in her stomach. And I do the same. Because in the end, it really was a lot of fun to go toe-to-toe with her like that. No hostility, and despite the Tower and its own objectives, neither of us was fighting out of a desire to kill. Just to test our own strength and force one another to improve. If only every fight could be that way.

“Well, I think that’s that,” Serrena says.

Her voice is steady, and I can see that she’s already healed off her injuries. Another flask sits at her side. Of course. Why would she have just a single dose of such a panacea?

“Here. Put this on,” she says, pulling out a star ruby brooch. “It contains my blessing. And I’m sure it’ll do you some good, wherever you end up.”

I do so. “You think we’ll see each other again, Serrena?”

“The dimensional boundary is supposed to be immutable. It shouldn’t be permeable, as far as I understand. Worlds separated are supposed to remain separate. I’ll have to go back to my world, and you to yours. But… I do appreciate whatever being allowed us to meet. And, who knows? Perhaps that entity will allow us to meet once more. Until then, Seraphina.”

And then, like the others before her, she vanishes.

[You have equipped [Brooch of Ambition]. Increases Experience gain by 20%. (Experience Gain multipliers stack multiplicatively.)]

[You have defeated Serrena Raesh, Ambition’s Flame (Level 52). You have gained a boosted 240,000 Experience.]

[You have gained enough Experience to reach Level 50. [Strength] +1, [Speed] +1, [Vitality] +1, [Mind] +1. Please assign free stat points (Remaining: 4).]

I put two points into my [Strength] and the other two into my [Speed]. While my [Glyphcasting] is still my most powerful ability by far, it’s clear after these last few fights that my physical stats still aren’t where they need to be. I’m reaping the benefits of my decision to invest heavily in my [Vitality] and [Mind] early on. Now, it’s time to shore up the weaknesses of that decision.

[Maximum Health increases by [Vitality] x 2 + Current Level + Rand[1,3] = 254]

[Maximum Ether increases by [Mind] + Current Level + Rand[0,2] = 197]

[Level: 50; Experience: 2,189,100; To Next: 95,795]

[Current Stats: [Health]: 1,447 / 7,476; [Ether]: 479 / 5,493]

[Current Stats: [Strength]: 133 (Base: 70); [Speed]: 127 (Base: 67); [Vitality]: 192 (Base: 101); [Mind]: 277 (Base: 146)]

[Your [Archangel’s Gaze (Rank VIII)] has upgraded to [Archangel’s Gaze (Rank IX)].]

[Your [Glyphcasting (Rank XXII)] has upgraded to [Glyphcasting (Rank XXIII)].]

[Your [Intermediate Glyph Manifestation (Rank IV)] has upgraded to [Intermediate Glyph Manifestation (Rank VI)].]

[You have unlocked [Inventory].]