Arya Bhardwaj was sitting in his recliner, gently rubbing his face.

  "You know, I am still upset with my red cheek," the God of Enjoyment grumbled to the audience, "but if the Writer says so, I'll continue. I know you are all wondering how he survived."

  Arya crushed his empty Coke cup, his divine composure cracking into pure annoyance.

  "The fact pisses me off," Arya sighed, pointing at the projection screen. "He called Pinaka in front of him, and the arrow hit the bow. Due to the bow's trait of regenerating by absorbing mana, it just absorbed all the force that was going to hit Ragna."

  Arya suddenly stood up, leaning over the screen and screaming at Ragna (who, of course, couldn't hear him).

  "You brat! I didn't give it to you to use it as a shield!" Arya roared, shaking his fist. "It's a freaking bow used for attacking, not something you will use to protect yourself! Thank god it's not broken... wait, why am I thanking myself? Whatever! If it would break, I too would be broken by the gods!"

  "You know what? You've done enough pissing me off. Let's end this," I declared, raising my hand forward toward the sky.

  After a second, the air violently warped, and Pinaka appeared in my grip, exerting a huge amount of ancient, terrifying aura.

  High above, Drake was visibly taken aback. He stared at the weapon, his dull eyes widening a fraction. "Gandiv...?" he muttered in a low voice that no one else heard.

  But down in the crater, my epic protagonist moment immediately crashed and burned. As the bow materialized, its absurd, crushing weight pulled my arm straight to the ground, pinning me down into the dirt.

  "You fool, it's Pinaka," I said, my voice strained with severe irritation caused by its impossible weight. I couldn't lift it with one hand. I grabbed it with both hands, my boots slipping in the rubble as I strained every muscle in my twelve-year-old body. "Ah... why don't you just, uh... get, hah... lifted already!" I grunted.

  Drake’s eyes widened even further hearing the weapon's true name. "No way, it can't be," Drake said in absolute disbelief. "Just who gave you that?".

  "The First King," I shot back, finally managing to drag the bow a few inches off the ground. I looked up at his ridiculously shiny setup. "And where did you find that?" I asked, referring to his divine armor.

  Drake's expression flattened. "A big ape gave it to me," he replied simply.

  My mind raced, instantly flashing back to the five-armed boss in the dungeon. (Could it be that ape?) I thought. But the logistics of monkey-based loot distribution would have to wait.

  "Never mind," I groaned, my spine practically screaming for mercy. "I have to use Body Boost".

  (Meanwhile, back in the Arya's Realm...)

  Arya was lounging in his recliner, casually watching the projection of my struggle.

  "He really thought he would casually lift a 100 kg with one hand," the God of Enjoyment laughed, thoroughly amused by my impending back hernia. "Whatever, let is just watch. Munch, munch," he added, tossing another handful of popcorn into his mouth.

  (Back in the arena...)

  Channeling a massive surge of Qi to multiply my physical strength, I finally lifted the heavy weapon. Mizuki didn't waste a second; the golden dragon surged with power, lifting me off the ground so I could match Drake's altitude in the sky.

  (I can't use Astras because I don't know the chants, but I can use my magic, right?) I thought to myself. (And the bow will simply multiply its power.) I decided to do the exact same thing Drake had done earlier. I raised Pinaka and pulled back the invisible string.

  High above us, the massive Yang Dragon actually paused its rampage, watching in absolute awe as my mana condensed into the bow.

  Instead of a standard arrow, I summoned a massive, hyper-dense projectile shaped like a blue dragon, violently swirling with dozens of small, phoenix-like birds made of pure fire.

  "Infernal Draco-Phoenix Bolt!" I shouted.

  I released the tension, shooting the catastrophic bolt straight at Drake while roaring, "Blue!"

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  The arrow completely turned blindingly blue as it tore through the sky. The sheer kinetic shockwave blew away every single protective barrier that the VIPs had erected around the arena. To the terrified audience, it was just two incomprehensibly powerful attacks clashing—they had absolutely no idea they were witnessing mythical artifacts at work.

  But as the dust and magical fallout began to clear, everyone froze.

  One barrier remained. And it wasn't one of the barriers made before, not even the unknown one that had survived Drake's sunflare attack. This was a completely different, entirely unknown barrier.

  It stood there, perfectly unscratched.

  Everyone in the entire Colosseum stared in dead silence, wondering just who could have possibly created a shield capable of shrugging off such an apocalyptic strike.

  The smoke and magical fallout finally dissipated, revealing the absolute, unadulterated state of the Colosseum.

  Every single VIP barrier—including the heavy-duty shields erected by the elders of the five great Half-Demon families—was completely shattered. Even the King, his royal daughter, and the supposedly unbeatable top disciple of the academy were left entirely exposed, visibly struggling to even stand against the residual shockwave.

  But one barrier remained. And inside that pristine, untouched dome of energy... stood a woman.

  High above, the terrifying, glowing Angel of Death had completely lost his nerve. Drake’s divine vanity evaporated the moment my arrow fired. He had literally fallen from the sky and was now on his knees in the dirt, trembling, entirely too scared to even move.

  (Hostile takeover successful,) my CEO-brain weakly cheered.

  But my physical hardware was completely fried. My Blue Origin transformation hit its absolute limit. The freezing blue flames died, my mana reserves flatlined to zero, and I reverted back to my normal, exhausted twelve-year-old self.

  Gravity, my oldest nemesis, immediately took over. I started plummeting from the sky.

  I braced myself for the bone-shattering impact of the arena floor, but it never came. The woman in the barrier moved.

  She wore a dark blue dress, her hair flowing in the exact same shade of midnight blue. A mask obscured the lower half of her face, making her look young and incredibly mysterious. But her eyes... they were a striking, shimmering blue that pierced right through the dust.

  She caught me mid-air with effortless grace, cradling me as if I weighed absolutely nothing. She gently laid my battered body onto the ground. She looked down at me for a split second, her shimmering eyes reflecting an emotion I was too exhausted to analyze, and then...

  Poof. She vanished entirely into thin air.

  My vision swam. The panicked screams of the audience faded into a dull ring, and the darkness finally pulled me under.

  (Meanwhile, back in the God Realm...)

  PFFFT!

  Arya Bhardwaj violently coughed out a massive mouthful of Coke, spraying it all over his divine, floating projection screen. He jumped out of his ridiculously comfortable recliner, his sunglasses clattering to the floor as his eyes went wide with absolute, unfiltered shock.

  "What the—!" Arya screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing across the divine realm. "TALESTIA!"

  A split second later, the air warped, and Talestia, the Goddess of Reincarnation, teleported directly in front of him, looking thoroughly annoyed by the sudden summoning.

  "What happened?" Talestia demanded, crossing her arms.

  Arya ignored her tone entirely. He practically lunged at the screen, pointing a trembling finger at the frozen image of the masked woman in the dark blue dress who had just saved Ragna.

  "It's her, right?!" Arya demanded, his voice cracking. "Tell me it's her."

  Talestia glanced at the screen and sighed, her annoyance shifting into a resigned nod. "Sure, she is."

  Arya grabbed his own hair, completely losing his godly composure. "But how? She died in my hands!"

  "And you left her body on the battlefield," Talestia replied flatly, judging him with the full weight of her divine authority. "She survived, but lost her memories. She also reached great heights. Look at her—blocking a Nascent Soul-level attack single-handedly with no effort."

  Talestia narrowed her eyes, adding a hefty dose of salt to the wound. "And yeah, you even tried to kill her once. Remember that forest? Where people said a witch lived who was an S-Rank threat? People called her—and you too said it—the 'Witch of Calamity'."

  Arya stared at the screen, the horrific realization washing over him for exactly three seconds before it was completely replaced by beaming, obnoxious parental pride.

  "Oh my god!" Arya cheered, pressing his hands to his cheeks. "Look at her! My girl's grown up. Daddy's daughter, as strong as her father!"

  "No, Arya," Talestia corrected, completely bursting his bubble. "She has surpassed you. She leveled up with a ridiculous speed. But for some reasons she stopped cultivating for a long time."

  "But how couldn't I recognize her...?" Arya muttered, genuinely baffled.

  "Cause she always hid herself using disguise," Talestia explained, "and her magic was powerful enough to deceive even you."

  Arya turned back to the Goddess, his competitive gamer instincts suddenly flaring up. "What is her level?"

  Talestia hesitated, looking away. "You don't wanna know."

  "Why?"

  Talestia waved a hand, and the projection screen zoomed in on the masked woman's face just before she vanished, her blue eyes glowing with terrifying density.

  "Because she is at the Soul Formation Stage 3," Talestia revealed.

  Arya's jaw practically unhinged. "The hell? She's near to immortality!"

  "The moment she reaches the Divine Core stage," Talestia continued, her tone grave, "she will be blessed by a god or goddess with one of their Divine powers."

  Instead of looking worried about the geopolitical implications of a near-immortal powerhouse running around the mortal realm, Arya pumped his fists in the air, doing a celebratory little dance on the pristine clouds of his realm.

  "I have to prepare!" Arya cheered happily, completely ignoring the stunned Goddess. "My daughter will be here soon!"

  Talestia stood there, watching the God of Enjoyment celebrate while her carefully crafted hero-plotline spiraled entirely out of her control. She gripped her glowing staff, thoroughly bewildered.

  "It's not what I planned," Talestia muttered to herself, her divine composure cracking into pure confusion. "What is going on?!"