"Are the wagons not stocked, yet!?" a wizard yelled to his comrades as he looked over a supply wagon that was half-filled. The entrance hall of the wizard's tower was a large, open room that was used as both an entrance and a supply depot since the massive doors could easily fit carriages and wagons. Humming magic crystals bathed the hall in a fluorescent-white light as they gingerly hovered in the air. Magic-powered lifts disappeared up an elevator shaft along the far wall. "We need to support the palace before anything happens!"

  "But we already rushed them the shipment of elixirs," one of the wizards complained as she helped load a crate of aura elixirs into the waiting wagon. "A mob of peasants is no match for a whole order of Auristers. Why the further rush?"

  "Because it's obvious who instigated them," the first wizard replied as he looked over his clipboard. "I don't believe, for a second, that the Second Prince would let us continue our research; he's practically already a pawn to those cultists." He checked off a box on his sheet and turned toward another group of wizards. "You four, make sure you-!?!" Before he could issue his order, a boulder crashed through the two entrance doors. The doors were torn off their hinges and thrown across the room, crushing a group of wizards and plastering them across the floor as a red stain. The boulder bounced against the ground, leaving a crater, and pulverized the horses and wagon before rolling to a stop against the wall. Screams filled the air as panic gripped the wizards who started rushing toward the entrance to see what was happening.

  "Hello~!" Through the now open doorway, Lucina strode into the tower followed by her Hellhounds. All the knights had their great helms on with the red hoods of their robe-covered armor pulled up, giving the Hellhounds a frighteningly inhuman presence. Lucina hopped over the remains of one of the doors as she addressed the wizards, "Since I'm in a good mood today, anyone who willingly surrenders will be spared and reeducated back into our Violet King's embrace~. Any takers?"

  "…Huh?" The wizards were too stunned by the violent entrance and the moaning of their injured comrades to properly respond to Lucina's words. They all blankly stared at her in bewilderment.

  "No one?" Lucina never intended to actually wait for a reply. "That settles that, then." Giving a hand gesture, Lucina ordered her Hellhounds to advance and the armored knights poured into the tower.

  "F-Fight back!" A wizard grabbed their crystal orb, focused their magic, and shot out a fireball at the advancing knights. The lead Hellhound in the fireball's path didn't even flinch as the fireball enveloped them only to be harmlessly dispersed as if it never happened. "…W-What!?"

  "Separate into your teams!" Lucina shouted as her Hellhounds drew their weapons. In total, Lucina brought the Hellhounds back up to eighty trained knights, fourteen of which were Auristers, and eight of which could use the technique to negate magic. While the technique was hard to master, Lucina and Peter pushed her Auristers to the brink over the years and were able to make sure at least eight of them could somewhat reliably use it in a fight. The Hellhounds moved into eight groups of ten knights each, led by the Aurister who could negate magic, and started prowling through the tower. "Spare no one! Suffer not these heretics to exist!" When the first wizard was chopped in half by Carl's axe, blood filled the air and whipped the knights into a frenzy.

  "Pull back!" one wizard yelled as they fruitlessly sent a wave of water at the closest group of Hellhounds only for it to plop onto the ground as a harmless puddle when it touched the Aurister who negated the magic holding it together. "Pull ba-" Peter's greatsword cleaved the wizard in twain. The wizards ran like scared animals as the Hellhounds chased them through the corridors, rooms, and stairwells of the wizard's tower. Normally, the imperial family would have Aurister guards stationed in the tower, but the guards were recalled to assist with the riot earlier that day; leaving the tower defenseless against an Aurister attack. Distant screams echoed through bloodstained halls as the purge was in full swing.

  "…Hmm." Lucina, however, stayed behind in the entrance hall as she inspected the strange indent in the floor and the weird shaft that stretched up into the heights of the tower. Looking up the shaft, a platform was slowly descending toward her. "…" Lucina reached out her hand to the platform, activated her gravity magic, and flicked her wrist down. The elevator platform rocketed down the shaft and slammed into its indent in the floor with a loud thud. "How curio-" The first body splattering in front of her stopped Lucina's thought. The wizards who had been using the elevator to come down were sent into freefall as Lucina ripped the elevator out from under them. Bodies rained down and screams cried out before being snuffed out with a sickening splat. "…Gross," Lucina annoyedly complained as she wiped blood off her face and stepped onto the elevator platform. Completely ignoring the gruesome display that surrounded her, Lucina inspected a pedestal that was attached to the elevator. Numbers on buttons adorned the pedestal, but when Lucina pressed one of them nothing happened. There was a brief pulse of light from the ring around the platform, a spark of defiance, but the platform didn't move. "Guess I broke it." Stepping away from the pedestal, Lucina walked to the middle of the platform, stretched out her gloved hand, and set the point of gravity for the platform to the metal ring in her glove. Taking it slowly so as to not throw herself off balance, Lucina intensified the gravity until the platform lifted off the ground and started ascending up the shaft. "Let's see," Lucina mused to herself, "I should start with the top floor to pincer them with my knights." After a few seconds of silence, Lucina saw the top floor, slowed down the platform, and set its point of gravity to itself so it would remain suspended in the air. A long hallway stretched out before her as she stepped onto the top floor and released her magic on the platform, sending it crashing back down the tower. The hallway was sterile with empty walls and the same fluorescent-white light coming from magic crystals that were embedded into the ceiling. Like the exterior, it lacked any kind of flare or life to the architecture; completely function over form. There were adjoining rooms that all had their doors open, but not a soul was in sight. Occasionally, Lucina would feel some invisible force try to stop her before being quickly shattered by a different invisible presence. As the Harbinger of Zulm walked, so too did she radiate Zulm's will upon this unholy place such that no ward could stop her.

  "~~~" As Lucina continued down the hall, a soft melody started to fill the air that was coming from a door at the end of the hall. Calmly opening the door, Lucina founder herself in a laboratory that was filled with strange vials, test tubes circulating concoctions, strange devices powered by magic stones, and at the center of the room stood a lone wizard staring up at the meteor that softly sang its spectral dirge.

  "You're here?" Andrew calmly asked as he turned away from the meteor to address Lucina. "I'm surprised you could even figure out how an elevator corr-"

  "Be quiet." Lucina ripped Andrew's magic staff out of his hands with her gravity magic and hurled a fireball at him; she didn't want to waste time on someone like him. Her fireball crashed and burst into a cacophony of flames as it hit Andrew. Turning her attention to the floating meteor, Lucina started walking toward it, and muttered, "Now, let's take care of-!?!" From out of the flames where Andrew stood came a spear of water that traveled so fast that it sliced Lucina's cheek and blew a hole through her left ear lobe.

  "Such tactics…won't work again, Countess." Andrew stepped through the raging flames, completely unharmed, and lifted his hand up to his chest. The flames danced to the tune of his magic and coalesced into his palm before being snuffed out as he clenched his hand into a fist. Andrew's robe had burned away from the fire to reveal a sickening sight for Lucina.

  "…Disgusting." Lucina started at Andrew's naked body that was covered in softly glowing tattoos; ground up magic dust from the meteor that was inked into his skin. "Not even Solomon was as revolting with his magic tricks as you are now." While cosmetics, makeup, and even piercings to an extent, were perfectly fine to use, permanent body art like tattoos were considered sacrilege against the forms Zulm granted humanity.

  "What I wield is no trick," Andrew corrected as he brought his fingers together as if to snap and pointed his left hand toward Lucina. The tattoos along his left arm hummed and glowed a pale blue. "But a new age of Wizardry!" Snapping his fingers, a blast of air rocketed toward Lucina. He could use all four elements of magic, even without a staff or orb.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "!!!" Lucina conjured a wall of water to dampen and absorb the air blast. Sizzling ripples and bubbles escaped the wall as the water was sliced from the blast. Immediately losing all sense of jovial calm, Lucina sprinted off to the side while sending three large fireballs rocketing toward Andrew.

  "Hm?" But none of them hit and instead looked like they were going to fly past him. "Too scared to-"

  "…!" Lucina flicked her wrist and clenched her hand into a fist as she used gravity magic to instantly compress the three fireballs into points less than a millimeter in diameter. The energy ruptured and exploded, sending shattered glass and broken equipment scattering across the room from the shockwave. When the dust cleared, a shell of stone surrounded Andrew as he used the stone of the building for his earth magic.

  "Not enough!" Andrew shaped the shell of stone into spikes and sent them blasting toward Lucina with air magic.

  "…" Lucina ducked, dodged, and weaved using the upturned tables from the earlier explosion as cover, and started approaching Andrew. When she was close enough, Lucina clapped her hands together as another stone spike was hurling toward her. With all the debris around her, Lucina had plenty of material to create a small portal that led directly behind Andrew.

  "W-What is-!?!" The stone spike flew through the portal and impaled Andrew in his stomach from behind. "GAH!?!"

  "…!" With Andrew off balance, Lucina lunged toward the wizard and drew the dagger she had hidden in her robe's sleeve.

  Getting flashbacks from their duel in the academy, Andrew summoned a torrent of magic, and cried out, "Get away!"

  "!?!" Gale force winds erupted from Andrew's throat as his scream was enhanced with magic, and sent Lucina flying away. Her back slammed into the stone wall of the room and Lucina felt her right shoulder dislocate from the impact. Lucina fell to the floor in a daze but quickly smacked herself out of it.

  "You…!" Andrew engulfed his arms in fire as he summoned more magic. The meteor happily sang its song as it seemed to fed Andrew more power. "Damned freak!" Streams of flame leaped from Andrew's arms and danced through the air like two ballerinas.

  "…!" Again, Lucina used the various debris around her to create a portal behind Andrew.

  "That won't work, again!" Andrew taunted and flexed his arms to adjust the course of the fire streams to bend around the portal. "You-!?!" Andrew felt a presence behind him which was all the warning he got as Lucina dove through her portal and plunged her dagger into the back of his shoulder. Lucina was aiming for Andrew's heart, but her dislocated shoulder threw her off balance and she missed her intended target. "Bitch!?!"

  "!?!" Another blast of air sent Lucina sprawling away, but she was able to land on her hands and knees to not be completely helpless.

  "Let's try that again!" This time, Andrew surrounded himself with rings of fire to not give any openings. Not able to control himself, Andrew laughed, "What's wrong, Countess? Thought yourself invincible since you were Zulm's favorite toy!? Where is your god now!?" Andrew gestured wildly to the room around them as the meteor kept up its song which pulsed as if to resonate with Andrew's tattoos. "Those monsters! We don't need them! I'm living proof we've surpassed them!"

  Through clenched teeth, Lucina popped her shoulder back into place, and spat, "Says the guy using power from a rock! You're just as weak without your precious meteor!" The more power Andrew drew to him, the clearer the link was between him and the meteor as bands of rainbow-colored magic wafted down from the meteor to Andrew.

  "Science is a strength that can be reproduced, faith is something fickle and fleeting depending on how those monsters feel a certain day!" Andrew shouted back as he ripped Lucina's dagger out of his shoulder. "You're perpetuating the further control over humanity by-"

  "Will you shut up!?" Lucina shouted, completely annoyed by Andrew's bullshit. "Don't act like this isn't anything more than you feeling sorry for yourself over the fact Beatrice was a Saintess who was more devoted to the gods than you!" A mocking smile plastered her face as her rotting stare dug into Andrew. "Did you feel bad every time you fucked her? Where was your precious 'science' in the face of the Saintess' pleasure-filled moans!?"

  "BE QUIET!!!" Andrew roared and called on all his tattoos to summon forth the power of all four elemental magics. "I'm sick of you and your constant torments!"

  "Likewise, so do us both a favor and die!" Lucina raised her arm into the air, extended her hand out to the meteor, and poured all of her remaining magic reserve into her gravity magic.

  "What!?" Andrew looked up as he watched all the tables, broken equipment, and various debris that littered the room fly toward the meteor as Lucina attempted to crush it with her magic. "I won't let you!" Andrew combined earth and fire magic to produce a ball of molten magma that he hurled toward Lucina.

  "…!" Lucina raised her other hand as she started rapidly burning her magic to further intensify the gravity magic. The magma ball flew toward Lucina, slowed down, stopped for a moment, and eventually started flying up toward the meteor.

  "H-Huh!?!" The floor around Andrew was cracking and breaking, the walls groaned and crumbled, and the ceiling caved in as Lucina affected everything she could with her magic to crush the meteor. The materials compressed and released a hissing heat as the intense force was compressing their very molecules closer together. Andrew jumped off the slab of floor that he stood on as it was ripped away and hurtled upward. "S-Stop! Stop it!" Andrew tried sending a tidal wave of water at Lucina, but he was in such close proximity to the meteor and Lucina's magic was creating a gravitational field around the meteor that pulled the water to it. It instantly burst into steam when it touched the glowing material ball that was forming around the meteor. "Our future!!!"

  "!!!" Blood shot out of Lucina's nostrils and ears as she kept up her assault and Lucina felt some blood vessels in her eyes burst, but the meteor refused to break. All the material that surrounded it was glowing and screaming with heat as the mass of matter melted and molded together like a casket around the meteor. It was under so much pressure and stress yet refused to shatter which only pissed Lucina off more. "Just…DIE!"

  "~~~!?!" The song the meteor sang took on a panicked tone as Lucina kept intensifying her gravity magic. If she kept up, even the meteor would eventually break. For the first time since arriving on this planet, the meteor was afraid, and in that fear came about its most vital of mistakes.

  "You-!?!" Lucina's eyes widened, adrenaline poured through her veins, and time seemed to slow as a beam of solid light broke through the molten coffin toward Lucina. The beam was aimed perfectly to pierce through Lucina's right eye and right through her brain. Tears started to well up and then evaporate away in Lucina's eyes as the intense heat of the beam crawled closer and closer to her in the slowed time. A direct attack by an otherworldly entity upon a human in the physical world. A fatal mistake by the meteor that a certain god was waiting to capitalize on.

  "Violation!" Faster than even the beam of light, the sky over the wizard's tower shattered like glass and the clouds rapidly dispersed as a deep, commanding voice broke against the world. Black tendrils of flesh that were barbed with purple bone thorns poured out of the portal in the sky, broke through what remained of the top floor of the tower, and grabbed Lucina out of the way. The molten coffin the meteor was in immediately dissolved away as Zulm's black tendrils attacked and wrapped themselves around the meteor. "Justification! Vindication! You dare sully my world and think I would not see!? That I would not act!?" Zulm's voice boomed across the forest as the furious god addressed the meteor, the living fragment of a god sent to Pianeta to bring it to ruin.

  "~~~!!!" The meteor sang a pained song in a language Lucina couldn't understand.

  But Zulm could, and they replied, "Save your prattling, for I will not heed it!" More tendrils reached down from the sky to further suffocate the meteor. Finally, under the pressure of another god, the meteor's form started to crack and splinter. "Now, fall!" With a final squeeze, the meteor ruptured in an explosion of light that unseen maws along Zulm's tendrils devoured with wicked delight.

  "…W-…What?" Andrew was also being held by one of Zulm's tendrils and was suspended in the air. Looking at the flesh vine that was wrapped around his waist, Andrew started incoherently screaming as the maws along the vine opened to reveal eyes that stared back at him.

  "…" But while Andrew struggled, Lucina was completely still. Her breathing was hoarse from burning through her all her magic and her body attempted to recover, but her eyes remained fixated on the portal above her. Deep within the darkness was an eye whose pupil was an unknowable obelisk, and the eye stared back at her.

  "Countess!?!" Peter and a group of Hellhounds exited the tower as they had finished sweeping through their section and were patrolling around to make sure no wizards tried to sneak out some hidden exit. But when the sky tore open, and Zulm's voice rang out, all eyes were drawn to the spectacle. Both Hellhound knights and surviving wizards that were still on the upper floors looked out the closest windows to witness Zulm.

  "…" Lucina and Andrew were gently lowered to the ground, though Zulm intentionally dropped Andrew a few feet too high so he would fall prone when he hit the ground. The tendril around Lucina's waist tenderly released her and allowed Lucina to collapse to her knees from exhaustion.

  "Well done, Harbinger," Zulm directly addressed Lucina in a kind voice. As the tendrils retreated back into the portal in the sky, Zulm gave one last farewell, "Make your Lily proud." And, with that, the hole in the sky sealed shut, leaving Lucina kneeling in the grass as the dark clouds that once hung over the capital dispersed and Sailest's light washed over her.

  "C-Countess?" Peter's words were hesitant to leave his throat as he was filled with awe and reverence. "Th-That-"

  "Monster!?!" Andrew was rolling in the dirt, desperately reaching his hands out to Sailest, but nothing happened. The tattoos that adorned Andrew's naked body were dull and inert as all power that once coursed through them vanished with the death of the meteor. "Give it back! Give it back!!!" He was nothing more than a normal human, now.

  "…Aha…haha…" Lucina lowered her gaze to Andrew and started chuckling. Then, she threw her head back and erupted into full-blown laughter. "AHAHAHA!"

  "Give it-!?!" Lucina coughed up blood, slammed her hands onto the ground and a pillar of fire erupted out of the earth as Lucina continued to push herself beyond what she should and consumed Andrew in flames. "AGH!?!"

  "Blessed be!" Lucina clasped her hands together in prayer and shouted to the heavens as the pyre of Andrew's burning corpse lit the night. "Blessed be!"

  "Blessed be!" Peter and the Hellhounds outside all fell to one knee and clasped their hands in prayer, repeating Lucina's words. "Blessed be!"

  "Blessed be!" New screams echoed out as the now powerless wizards were hunted down by the Hellhounds in the tower, filled with new fervor as their god had descended, aided them, and validated their Harbinger. Out of the pyre that was Andrew's charred corpse, a wisp of flame danced over to Lucina before snuffing out and blooming into a white lily. Lucina clutched the flower to her chest, eyes broiling with virtuous rot, a smile radiating untold joy, and she happily cried, "Blessed be~!"