The Black Lightning clone faced Seris across the cracked pavement of the abandoned colony.

The morning sun had climbed higher, casting pale light across the ruins, but neither of them noticed. Their eyes were locked on each other.

Seris was already in True Beast Form, her golden eyes burning, her claws extended, her fangs sharp.

She was a [Gold 2] ranker at full power, and she intended to end this fight quickly.

She had also entered the State of Resonant, her presence pressing against the air like a physical weight.

Her combat prowess could rival even [Diamond 3].

The clone waved his hand. A simple breeze passed through Seris.

Her True Beast Form unraveled.

The claws receded. The fangs dulled. Her golden eyes faded back to amber.

The transformation that had taken her months to master was stripped away in an instant, just like in the Rainfall forest.

Seris’s eyes widened.

The clone did not stop. He activated Battle Reaper’s Dominion.

A field expanded around him, spreading outward in a silent wave. The moment it touched Seris, her mana compressed.

Her rank was forcibly pushed down. She was a [Gold 2], but the field suppressed her rank to the threshold between [Silver 3] and [Gold 1].

The clone moved as he dodged Seris’s punch.

Each of Seris’s strikes passed inches from his body. Her fists tore through empty air. Her kicks grazed his clothes but never landed.

She had only one arm. Her right hand was gone, severed by Cael during their fight in the Rainfall Forest.

She had not yet grown accustomed to fighting with her left. Every strike was slightly off.

Every movement was slightly slower. The imbalance threw off her rhythm.

The clone was long since noticed.

"Hmm," he said, dodging another punch.

"Why did you not heal your other arm? After all, it is not impossible to regenerate a limb."

Seris did not answer. She gritted her teeth and kept attacking.

The clone’s thoughts ran. When Cael had cut off her arm, he had used Mana Sovereignty.

The nullification properties of that skill might still be affecting the wound.

Or perhaps Seris had simply chosen not to heal it, as a reminder.

Either way, it was working in his favor.

Seris persisted. She waited for an opening. An opportunity to escape. She realized she could not win this fight.

The clone was too fast, too precise, and his skills were perfectly suited to counter hers.

So, she waited for the right minute.

’Now.’

When the moment came, she turned and started to run.

The clone smirked. He vanished from his spot.

Seris had already learned to anticipate his shadow movement. The moment she felt the distortion beneath her feet, she jumped.

Her body launched into the air, clearing the shadow just as the clone emerged from it.

But it was too late.

"Time Deceleration."

The world slowed.

The clone was not the main body. He did not have to worry about the same physical strain.

The backlash would still come, but he could push further, harder, longer than Cael ever could.

He reached out and touched Seris’s remaining hand.

Wind gathered around his palm, forming a mana construct sword. The blade was invisible, humming with Mana Sovereignty. He swung.

Seris’s left hand separated from her body.

Black lightning chains erupted from her shadow, coiling around her body, binding her arms, her legs, her torso.

The chains carried the same nullification properties as the sword. Now, she couldn’t use mana.

The clone deactivated Time Deceleration.

The world snapped back to normal. Seris’s body went limp, the chains holding her upright. Blood dripped from where her hand had been.

The clone took deep breaths.

He had used Time Deceleration, Mana Sovereignty, wind, and Black Lightning simultaneously.

The focus required was absolute. Without Battle Reaper’s Focus and Calm Mind, he would not have been able to do it.

Even the main body might not have managed without suffering serious backlash.

The black lightning clone looked at Seris. Her eyes burned with hatred.

He took a step forward. Then his knee hit the ground.

His eyes widened as he looked at his hand. Cracks were spreading across his skin, branching outward like fractures in dry earth.

They did not stop at his wrist. They crawled up his arm, across his shoulder, spreading toward his chest.

He had no time to ask for a swap.

He was about to dissipate.

He needed to take action.

Now.

With a swift movement, he lunged forward. The wind mana construct sword was still in his hand as he swung.

Seris’s head separated from her neck.

The slash was so sharp, so precise, that it did not stop there.

It carved through the air, cutting through several trees behind her, leaving a deep scar in the wall of a crumbling building before finally dissolving.

The clone watched Seris’s head roll across the cracked pavement. Her body crumpled, held upright only by the chains.

He let out a sigh of relief.

"Explode."

His dissipating body exploded with a thunderous boom.

The blast was strong enough to burn Seris’s body, to shatter the chains, to scorch the trees, to leave nothing but ash and rubble.

He had learned this lesson from the blood drop issue. In an emergency, there could be no evidence.

...

Minutes passed. People arrived, drawn by the sound of the explosion.

They found nothing but scattered debris and scorched earth.

An hour later, Council agents arrived.

They surveyed the scene, searched for cameras, and checked for surveillance. Sadly, there was nothing.

They learned the protective barrier in the area had not been working.

Three hours later, the Council fixed the barrier and left.

Four hours later, the onlookers grew bored and dispersed.

The colony fell silent.

---

Midnight.

The sky above the abandoned colony slowly turned red.

A leaf that had been falling from a tree paused in midair.

It hovered for a moment, suspended, as if time itself had forgotten it.

Then slowly, impossibly, it floated back upward, retracing its path, reattaching itself to the branch it had fallen from.

Other leaves followed. Scattered debris reassembled. Ash swirled and condensed.

The tree that had been cut began to heal, its trunk mending, its branches reattaching.

Time was rewinding.

Small particles of light drifted through the air, converging on a single point.

They formed into pieces of a body. A head. A torso. Hand.

Seris’s head reattached to her neck. Her left hand reconnected to her wrist. The wound sealed. The blood reversed.

The scar on the building wall faded. The destroyed trees restored themselves.

The red sky above her began to fade as a red-colored wing appeared on Seris’s back.

The feathers were crimson, glowing faintly, pulsing with a warmth that did not belong to this world.

Seris’s eyes snapped open.

She took quick, ragged breaths. Her left hand went to her neck.

She felt the skin where her head had been severed.

The red wing slowly vanished, fading into the night air like a dying ember.

But the shiver running down her spine did not vanish.

"I... I died?"

Seris shook her head.

"No. No, I am still alive."

She had died. And she had come back to life.

"Yes," she whispered, her voice trembling.

"I am alive."