The moment Selene dropped into the city below, the heavy pressure instantly lifted.

Maya fell to her hands and knees, gasping for air. Valeria and Nyx both let out long breaths as the tension finally left the ruined penthouse.

But the peace lasted for just three seconds.

Golden light flashed as Valeria’s Aegis gauntlets appeared on her hands. Quickly, she spun around and stared right at the Spymaster.

"A virus? Seriously?" Valeria snarled, taking a heavy step forward that cracked the remaining floorboards. "You were going to cut me out? After I stood by your side against her?"

Nyx didn’t back down. Twenty combat drones detached from the ceiling, their blue targeting lasers instantly painting Valeria’s chest. "It was a contingency plan! You’re a walking natural disaster, Valeria. Somebody had to have a kill switch just in case you decided to level half the continent!"

"I’ll show you a natural disaster, you digital rat!"

Valeria lunged, moving faster than Maya’s eyes could track. In an instant, the Goddess of War closed the gap and threw a powerful right hook.

Nyx didn’t flinch. A thick, hexagonal hard-light shield appeared between them just in time. Valeria’s golden fist slammed into the barrier with the force of a meteor.

CRACK!

The shockwave blew the remaining furniture into splinters and shattered the rest of the floorboards. Maya screamed, throwing her arms over her head as the debris flew toward her.

But it never hit her.

Zen stepped in front of Maya, casually raising one hand. A curved wall of heavy, gold-purple Emperor mana deflected the flying shrapnel effortlessly.

"Is that all you have, Vanguard?" Nyx mocked, hovering backward as her drones moved in the air and formed like a protective ring around her. "All brawn, no brain!"

Her eyes glowed with violent purple circuitry. "Lethal force authorised!"

The drones immediately unleashed a barrage of superheated plasma bolts at Valeria.

Valeria crossed her arms and let her Aegis armour absorb the plasma bolts; the intense heat did nothing but make her golden gauntlets glow even brighter.

With a roar, Valeria swept her leg, sending a massive blade of compressed air slicing toward Nyx. Nyx teleported, her body dissolving into purple pixels and reappearing ten feet away on top of a ruined server rack.

She swiped her hand, manipulating the localised gravity in the room.

Valeria suddenly slammed into the floor, pinned by a gravity one hundred times stronger than normal.

But the Goddess of War just gritted her teeth and slowly stood back up, using pure, terrifying strength to fight the crushing weight.

Zen looked around the chaotic room. Just a few feet away, there was a large, black leather armchair that had been flipped by the shockwave but was still intact. With a casual flick of his wrist, a pulse of invisible mana righted the heavy chair.

Zen walked to the chair, brushed off a piece of glass, and sat down comfortably. He crossed his legs and leaned back, like he was watching a sparring match at the Academy courtyard.

Maya stared at him in disbelief. She ducked as another stray plasma bolt singed the ceiling above her. "Zen!" She yelled over the deafening crashes. "Are you not going to intervene? They are going to destroy the entire building!"

"Sometimes, it is good to allow them to blow off some steam," Zen replied calmly, resting his chin on his hand. "They have been at each other’s throats for centuries. Let them get it out of their systems. It will help them cool off."

Maya watched in horror as the battle escalated.

Valeria reached her hand into the empty air. Golden light gathered in her palm, forming a massive, six-foot-long broadsword made of pure Aegis energy. She swung the heavy blade in a devastating horizontal arc.

Nyx didn’t bother dodging. The Spymaster swiped her hands downward, and two bright, neon-purple energy blades extended from her wrists. She used them to meet Valeria’s broadsword head-on.

CLANG!

Sparks flew like fireworks. The force of their blades hitting each other made the air ripple. Nyx was pushed back an inch, her boots leaving deep marks in the concrete floor. But she retaliated immediately. Her combat drones quickly moved into a V-shape and fired a strong, combined beam of blue heat energy straight at Valeria’s face.

Valeria just tilted her head, letting the beam slide off her golden shoulder pad. She turned around quickly, using the momentum to bring her broadsword crashing down toward Nyx’s head.

Nyx warped gravity around herself, floating backward just as the blade cleaved the concrete floor in half, exposing the steel beams of the lower level.

"Is that the best you can do, Vanguard?" Nyx taunted. Her digital circuitry flared violently across her neck and cheeks. "I calculate a ninety-eight per cent chance that your brain is as dense as that sword!"

"I am going to cut you into scrap metal!" Valeria roared.

The air pressure in the room suddenly changed. Valeria raised her broadsword high above her head. The golden light grew brighter and blinding as she gathered her S-Rank mana. The heavy energy she gathered started to bend the walls of the penthouse.

Across the room, Nyx’s eyes turned entirely purple. "Activating Orbital Protocol. Let us see your armour survive zero." A massive, swirling vortex of dark gravity and freezing digital energy began to form above the Spymaster’s hands.

They were about to employ their biggest guns. If those two attacks collided, the entire city block would be vaporised.

"ENOUGH."

Zen’s aura slammed into the room as he stood up, dropping the temperature to freezing.

Both Goddesses froze, their feral instincts instantly subdued by his command.

The sudden silence in the room was deafening.

"Aurelia is waiting for me in the Crown Domain, and Selene is building a cage in the Sanctuary Domain," Zen said in a deadly calm voice.

He stepped between them, glaring at his Vanguard and Spymaster. "We do not have the luxury of infighting. You are under a strict truce. If either of you takes a single shot at the other, I will personally shatter your fragments and leave you in the dark. Do you understand?"

Valeria lowered her head, her fists trembling as she forcibly pulled back her sword and deactivated her gauntlets. "Yes, Emperor."

"Understood," Nyx muttered, looking away as her drones powered down and returned to their charging ports on the ceiling.

Zen turned his attention to Maya, who was still kneeling on the floor, clutching the white towel around her. The sheer volume of mana in her new Mid D-Rank core was making the air around her hum, but she had absolutely no idea how to control it.

"Get dressed, Maya," Zen ordered gently. He looked back at the two sulking Goddesses. "Aurelia demanded I come alone. She thinks I will walk into her territory unprotected. Instead, I’ll be bringing her with me. And the two of you are going to train her."

Valeria’s head snapped up. "What? Emperor, please! You can’t be serious. Train this... this little rat?"

"I guess some of those beatings knocked some sense into the brute," Nyx chimed in, crossing her arms with a cold scoff.

"Careful, Nyx," Val warned.

But Nyx ignored her and continued. "I am the ruler of the Omni Domain, Emperor, not a wet nurse. Her mortal neural pathways are far too primitive for my tech. If I give her a localised hard-light shield, she will likely activate it backward and sever her own arm."

Maya shrunk back, instinctively pulling the white towel tighter around herself.

She looked between the two terrifying women and swallowed hard. "Zen, really, it’s fine," she stammered quickly. "You don’t have to force them. It’s not exactly necessary; I can just stay behind you and..."

"It is absolutely necessary," Zen cut her off gently, but his tone left zero room for argument.

He looked back at the two Goddesses. His Emperor aura flared just enough to make the air instantly heavy, silencing any further complaints.

"She has to survive the Crown Domain’s elite in less than three days," Zen said flatly. "Valeria, you will teach her how to take a hit. Nyx, you will outfit her so she doesn’t lose that arm. And that’s on period. Am I clear?"

What followed was a total nightmare for Maya, playing out like a dark, twisted comedy.

Once Maya had changed back into her slightly singed academy uniform, Valeria dragged her to the centre of the room.

"Posture!" Valeria barked, kicking Maya’s ankle to widen her stance. Maya yelped, nearly toppling over. "Pathetic. If an Elite Guard in the Crown Domain swings at you, they aren’t going to politely ask if you are ready. You have to brace your core! Now, take the hit!"

Valeria threw a punch.

She held back over ninety-nine per cent of her S-Rank strength, but the wind pressure from her fist alone still sent Maya flying backward, skidding painfully across the floor.

"I barely touched her!" Valeria complained, throwing her hands up as Zen shot her a warning glare. "She’s too squishy! How am I supposed to teach a mortal who bruises when the wind blows?"

"Get up, Maya," Zen encouraged, watching closely. "Again."