"This?" Nirvana was completely stunned, looking over her shoulder at the shimmering pile of fractured brass dust that had once been her indestructible weapons.

​"You dare take your eyes off me!!"

​The commanding roar shattered her focus. She sharply turned her head back to Hitachi, only to see the young master of the Azul clan standing directly in front of her, her panicked gaze meeting the endless, spinning patterns of his fully awakened Celestial Eyes.

​"This?!"

​The world violently warped. Nirvana froze, moving her gaze around the unfamiliar, suffocating landscape in profound terror. The grand coliseum had vanished. She stared down at the sea of thick, viscous blood she was currently standing on, the metallic stench of a slaughtered world filling her nostrils.

​"What is this horrific place?"

​BOOOOM!!

​The crimson sky fractured. One hundred towering phantom swords, forged from pure spiritual intent, materialized above her, and shot down with intense, inescapable speed to pierce her soul.

​"NOO!!"

​BOOOOM!

_

​Out on the physical Arena floor, the millions in the audience stared in absolute silence at Nirvana. She stood completely frozen in place, her posture rigid, her eyes completely lifeless and clouded over by a grey mist.

​"Wow! Hitachi just caught her in an inescapable illusion!! Will she be able to break free from the Azul clan’s legendary ocular domain?" Davy asked, drawing everyone’s rapt attention back to the two prodigies.

​"This is over." Hitachi calmly drew his single sword, the blade singing a cold note as he stepped toward her, staring at her motionless form with absolute coldness.

​"Hahaha."

​".....?"

​Hitachi’s steps halted. He and everyone in the stadium blinked in utter shock, as a volatile wave of dark red demonic energy violently burst out from Nirvana’s frozen form, the concussive pressure waves throwing Hitachi backward several meters.

​’The exact same corrupt energy she used to neutralize Austin... Did she place multiple forbidden seals on her own baseline powers?’ Hitachi thought, his boots skidding across the stone as he sheathed his sword back into its scabbard.

​’It seems I don’t have to hold back a single ounce of my strength against her.’

​BOOM!

​He shot forward like a bolt of lightning, holding the polished hilt of his sword as he rapidly closed the 30-meter distance between them in a microsecond:

​"Celestial sword style—First Form."

​"...?!"

​Nirvana’s eyes snapped open, the illusion violently shattered by her raging bloodline, but she was already too late. She was completely stunned, as Hitachi appeared flush before her face, his blade drawing out from its sheath right on time.

​BOOOOM!!!

​The two destructive attacks collided point-blank. The sheer spiritual force of the impact created massive, deep cracks all over the reinforced ground, completely.

​BOOOOM!

​The ground beneath their boots violently moved deeper, collapsing inward and forming a massive, smoking crater that shook the barrier anchors.

​"Hahahaha! Is this absolutely all you’ve got, Hitachi!!" She yelled maniacally, staring directly into his face. But the next moment, she felt an invisible, agonizing dagger plunged right into the deepest layer of her soul.

​BAM!

​Nirvana flew violently backward across the crater, spurting out a massive mouthful of dark crimson blood, smashing heavily on the ruined stone ground. She desperately grabbed her chest, her face deeply grimaced in agonizing pain.

​"You?! What underhanded trick did you just do?!" She yelled at Hitachi, her soul trembling.

​"It seems a standard soul piercing attack can’t fully deal with a monster like you." He said coldly, fluidly sheathing his blade back into its scabbard once again.

​"You arrogant bastard! Attacking me with your eyes while clashing blades!" Nirvana stood up unsteadily, coughing up more blood as a single, hyper-dense red god class bangle flew back into her grasp from the ground.

​This was her true, ultimate weapon—the primary red bangle, a genuine god class artifact.

​’Do I seriously have to unlock the third and final seal just to face him?! I already unlocked two seals, and he could still effortlessly injure my soul with a single glance.’ She thought frantically, her heart racing as she stared at Hitachi’s every meticulous move.

​’Can I even physically control such forbidden, demonic powers if I let them out?’ She moved her frantic gaze around the arena, searching for a tactical alternative.

​BAM!

​"....?!!"

​Nirvana instantly froze. A chilling numbness spread from her center mass. She slowly lowered her shaking gaze to her own abdomen, seeing a cold, steel sword sticking completely out from her back through her stomach. Her eyes widened in absolute, paralyzing disbelief.

​"You!!" She slowly looked over her shoulder, staring directly into Hitachi’s cold, unfeeling celestial eyes. In utter confusion, she turned her head back to the Hitachi standing before her in the crater, watched as his figure dissolved into harmless white smoke.

​"From the exact moment your thoughts became a mess, and you started having internal doubts on this stage, I already won." He whispered coldly in her ear, and violently pulled his bloody sword out of her flesh.

"Don’t worry, you won’t die, I make sure to avoid important organs." He added.

​"You?!"

​Nirvana collapsed heavily on the hard ground, a pool of dark blood flowing out from her wound. ’Am I... Am I seriously going to lose miserably just like this?!’ She thought, her darkening vision meeting the form of Davy, who was already rapidly descending towards the stage to call the match.

​’No! I don’t want to!! I absolutely won’t lose!!’

__

​[A month ago.]

[Master Teacher Nadia’s Private Estate.]

​"Mom... Why do you care so much about Jessica? That pathetic girl isn’t even originally from our world!" Nirvana yelled, standing defiantly in front of the grand mahogany desk, staring intensely at her mother, who was slowly and elegantly taking a sip of her spiritual tea.

​"What is wrong with you?!" Nadia asked with a coldly raised eyebrow, her tone entirely devoid of maternal warmth.

​"I want you to care about me for once!!! You are always around that girl!! Why?! I am your real daughter, not her!" She yelled, her voice cracking with years of repressed neglect.

​Nadia kept her porcelain teacup perfectly on the table, her expression hardening into a mask of disdain: "If only she was my real daughter... You are simply too weak to inherit my legacy." She said flatly.

"...?!"

​The brutal words exploded in Nirvana’s head like a devastating time bomb. She stared at her biological mother, completely speechless, her chest tightening:

​"I am... Weak?" She asked in a trembling low voice.

​"Yes, you are not only weak, you are also useless to my grand designs. Jessica has a unique power locked inside her core. I want that power for the empire, but I can’t physically have it manifest in myself... So I have to meticulously control and take care of her." Nadia said, pointing a cold, commanding finger directly at Nirvana’s chest:

​"I don’t like those who are weak, now get lost out of my sight, and do something in your training that will actually fix that!" She snapped, waving her hand dismissively as if shooing away a common servant.

​Nirvana tightly clenched her fists, turned around, and walked away from the estate, crying quietly in the shadows. ’I have absolutely everything an elite could want—wealth, freedom, status, time—but I don’t have the one thing I actually need... My mother’s love. She sees me as nothing more than a useless piece of waste, who is weak... I tried absolutely everything in my powers to get stronger, to show her I am better than that specimen girl from another world! If I lose in such a pathetic state right here, she will never acknowledge my existence!’

​Down in the dust of the arena, her fingers dug into the cracked stone, her energy violently rising as she clenched her fists: ’Even if I have to forcefully undo the third and last forbidden seal... I don’t fucking care anymore!! I will not lose!!!’