The green fire sphere protecting Eissen suddenly breaks apart and disappears.

  “MARI-CHAN?!”

  The first things Eissen sees are two people who are inside a green and blue light sphere, with a light, with their respective colors, shooting out from the top of the sphere. After a brief moment, the two light spheres slowly break apart and fade away, revealing the two Believers in their Second State’s appearance.

  “Second State: Aqua Empress!”

  Lukia’s skin color changes to pure white with blue stripes that mimic the shape of scales across her entire body. Her pupils are bright ocean blue, and her sclerae are the same blue in a lighter shade. Her hair now looks very similar to the color of the ocean, complete with the color shading and white waves. Her hair is also styled into twin tails that almost reach her shoulders. There’s a shiny golden and blue crown floating above her head. She wears a golden ornament around her neck with dark blue fabric hanging on the front side. The dark blue fabric covers her breasts down to her waist, but it leaves her belly and both sides of her upper shoulder open. Her back is also entirely left bare open and the dark blue fabric only covers her lower back to her butt. She wears a skirt made out of water that only covers down to half her thighs on the front side, but it covers down to her kneecaps on the side, and it covers down to her upper ankles in the back side. Her feet are left bare. Her left hand is also left entirely bare, but on her right hand, she wears two golden rings on the middle and ring fingers. From those two golden rings, another dark blue fabric hangs out that covers half of her back palm all the way to the half of her upper arm, fully covering her forearms from the wrist. From her open back, two pairs of draconic wings made of water grow, but the lower pair of wings is smaller, with a wingspan of 1 meter across both ends, and the upper pair is much larger, with a wingspan of 4 meters across both ends.

  “Second State: Lady of Death!”

  Mari’s entire skin color changes to pure white. Her hair is much longer than it reaches her back, and it is now in pale light green. She wears a black flat headdress on her head with a crescent shape; it has seven diamond-shaped holes in the middle across the entire length. For every diamond-shaped hole, small spikes are coming out on the top and bottom edges. The diamond-shaped hole in the middle is special as it serves as a base for one tall, 5cm long spike sticking out of the flat crescent headdress. The top of the tall spike burns in green flame. There is a gray skull ornament in front of the base of the tall spike. She wears a very long, dark blue halter-neck dress that falls past her knees, with her back left bare. The fabric around her neck was also tied into a ribbon behind her neck. She wears a pair of black high heels with soles constantly burning in green flame, bursting out in small amounts every time she takes a step. She wears a black gauntlet on her right palm, but it only covers the back side. The armor on her fingers goes past their lengths, but it serves more as an intimidation than a functional one, as even though the tips look spiky, they’re really not. There’s a subtle light blue outline engulfing her entire body that is barely noticeable unless anyone stares at her quite long enough.

  Everyone in the audience was in awe of both of their Second State appearance. Lukia looks very gorgeous and even prettier than before. While they see the Green Reaper, AKA, Kobayashi Mari as a terrorist who took them hostage, her appearance also took their breath away that most of them were frozen for a few seconds, though they don’t wanna admit it, given their situations.

  “Beautiful. . . Both of them.” said Ardina.

  “Strength and beauty come together in harmony. As expected of those two.” said Selam.

  *CRING CRING*

  “Heee? Didn’t expect us to have a similar color palette on our Second State form!” said Mari as she placed her hand on her right cheek, tapping it a few times as she talked with her index finger.

  “I should be the one saying that to you! My color palette should be obvious given my Faith power! Your attacks are all green colored and yet. . . You know what? Forget it! Let’s enjoy this fight to our heart’s content, shall we?”

  Lukia raises her right arm, and she creates a giant sword handle of water, and then a giant dragon wing made of water grows from the handle to act as the blade of the sword. Its length was 5 meters and its width was 2 meters. It has the thin flowing water across its entire shape that constantly moves at the speed of 15,000km/hour.

  *BAAAAM*

  *GRAAAAHHKKK*

  Lukia slams the giant sword towards the ground, and it splits the ground open in front of her.

  “Here I go!”

  Lukia jumps forward with her giant sword, and she swings it at Mari’s neck once she is in range. Mari simply raises her left hand towards the incoming giant sword.

  *GRAAAAHHHHKKK*

  *!!!*

  Mari easily stops Lukia’s giant sword swing simply because it touches her left hand. She raises her right hand and swings it across Lukia’s belly.

  *ZRAAAASSSHHH*

  At the top of all five of her fingers, five green flames appear, and they slash Lukia’s belly, acting similarly to a claw. Lukia’s belly immediately drops a lot of blood, and she jumps back down away from Mari.

  *SSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH*

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  But the wound on her belly quickly closed and completely healed on its own.

  “Don’t you forget? Elemental type Faith power’s Second State makes our entire body into the Source; therefore, we are immortal as long as we are in this form!”

  “I perfectly realize that, but didn’t it hurt having your belly forcefully opened like that?”

  “Huh? Didn’t you remember about the body part that became the Source? They became numb to pain at all, so we wouldn’t feel anything, no matter how badly damaged it was.”

  “. . . Oh yeah, I kinda forgot that part. Well then---”

  Mari suddenly appears in front of Lukia mid-sentence. There was no movement or anything; she just instantly appeared like it was teleportation.

  *ZRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH*

  Mari thrusts her straightened palm that was engulfed by her green flame into Lukia’s head, and her head bursts open. Blood splattered everywhere, leaving her body headless. The blood that splattered on Mari immediately evaporated in an instant, leaving her body clean.

  *WHUNG*

  *GRRAAAAHHHHHKKKK*

  Suddenly, Lukia’s headless body swings her giant sword at Mari, but she blocks it with her left hand once again. Her head quickly regenerated afterwards.

  “Wow, how rude! Please don’t blow my head off again, Terrorist-san!”

  “Hmm, I thought blowing your head off would cease your bodily functions, but I guess I was wrong!”

  “You said you don’t wanna kill anyone, so I doubt you didn’t know about it, you’re bluffing, didn’t you?”

  Mari smiles at Lukia.

  “Yeah, pretty much!”

  *GRROOOOOOOOOOOO*

  *GRRAAAAHHHKKKK*

  *ZRRRAAAAAASSSSHHHH*

  Suddenly, from under Lukia’s feet, a giant human skull burning in green flame appears, the size of a car, and it bites her entire lower half off.

  “Oh, my! Please stop dissecting my body, Terrorist-san!”

  “Eh? It doesn’t hurt you anyway!”

  Mari jumps and opens her right palm, and it is engulfed by her green flame, but this time, it also shapes itself into a skull.

  *BAAAAAMMMM*

  *FWWOOOOOMMMMMM*

  Mari thrusts her open palm and sends Lukia’s upper half away, and she lands on the water wall, protecting the audience.

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

  “KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

  People sitting near the water wall where her body landed were screaming their lungs out, seeing the gruesome state Lukia is currently in.

  “Uuumm, everyone! Please do not panic!! This may look very disturbing, but in Second State, I won’t die no matter what, so please, calm down, alright!”

  Lukia tries to convince the audience to calm down, which was somewhat successful as they gradually calmed down over the course of the next few seconds.

  “Hmmm, I guess it’s not every day you see someone get cut in half. . . Hey, wait a minute?!”

  Lukia looks towards her missing lower half and notices that it wasn’t regenerating.

  “Huh? What’s going on here?”

  She looks towards Mari, and the giant skull burning in green that bit her lower half is still present behind her.

  “Hehehehe! Did you forget, 7th Strongest-san? I still have dominion over souls! When my skull bit you in half, it wasn’t just a physical attack, as it also damaged your soul! And since Faith power is connected to the soul, I figured you wouldn’t be able to regenerate anything. Seems my assumption was right!”

  “Oh, cmon! That Faith power is so OP! This is so unfair! Maybe you should be the one to be within the ranks of the Ten Commandments of God!”

  “Ah, I apologize! I have no intention of hanging out with people who claim to be following God!”

  “. . . In other words, you claimed that you do? You who took people hostage and wanted to exact revenge, are you someone who follows God, Kobayashi Mari-san?”

  *DEG*

  With that one sentence, Mari was struck by a sense of great hesitation. She starts questioning herself whether what she is currently doing aligns with what God would want her to do as a Judge. She was frozen still for a few seconds.

  *ZRAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH*

  In that moment of hesitation, Lukia’s upper half flies over to her without her ever reacting, and she freely slices Mari’s head off with her giant sword.

  *THUD THUD*

  Mari’s head bounces off the ground and rolls for a few seconds until it stops. Her headless body falls motionless to the ground.

  The giant burning skull suddenly bursts and fades away, releasing Lukia’s lower half as it falls to the ground. Lukia quickly flies towards it, grabs it, and plugs it back into her body. Her body regenerates quickly and successfully rejoins with her lower half.

  “Yay, I am back!!”

  *!!!!*

  Everyone in the stadium takes a few seconds to process what just happened.

  “L-L-LUKIA-CHAN KILLED THE TERRORIST!!!”

  “GUYS, LUKIA-CHAN KILLED THE TERRORIST!!”

  *!!!*

  And then everyone else cheered at Lukia as well.

  “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!”

  “WE’RE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”

  “YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

  “HOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! WE’RE GOING HOMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!”

  “W-Wow, I didn’t expect her to be that brutal,” said Daniel.

  “Like we have any room to criticize her decision. She stopped that woman all on her own, remember!” said Sylvianna.

  “Well, yeah, but there are children in the audience. . .” said Daniel.

  “Let’s just say this is the duty of the Ten Commandments of God to protect us, okay?” said Radomin.

  “Y-Yeah, what am I saying? We should be thankful to her right now!”

  . . . . . . . .

  “(Something feels off.)”

  When the entire audience has already celebrated her victory, Lukia herself is pondering something that felt wrong to her, something really obvious that everyone had overlooked.

  “(What is this weird feeling? I definitely sliced her head off. . . but it didn’t feel like a conclusion. . .)”

  *!!!*

  She finally realized something, and she quickly turned her head towards Eissen, the Green Reaper’s ally.

  “(W-WHAT?)”

  Lukia was shocked by what she saw because Eissen seemed very normal and relaxed. His eyes don’t show any worry or distress over what happened to Mari. She immediately shouts at him.

  “YOU!! ARMY-MAN!! WHY AREN’T YOU REACTING TO YOUR WOMAN GETTING BEHEADED? ANSWER ME!”

  *!!!*

  Everyone in the stadium was startled and fell silent as soon as they heard Lukia’s shout. Eissen simply points to Lukia’s behind and replies.

  “(M-My woman. . .?)” said Eissen in his head.

  “You should never turn your back when you’re fighting against someone one-on-one, especially against someone whose Faith power you didn’t completely understand!”

  Lukia was immediately stunned by Eissen’s words as she felt the presence of someone behind her.

  Mari’s headless body gets up, stands up, and turns around towards her. The headless body raises her right hand to the side, and Mari’s head that lies on the ground slowly floats up towards her right hand. Mari’s head suddenly spoke.

  “Ah! Being overconfident, are we?”

  *!!!!!*

  Everyone in the stadium suddenly got chills all over their spine, and fear had overtaken their hearts once again.

  *WHUP*

  *CLAK*

  Her headless body lifts the head towards the neck and slams it into the neck hole and snaps it to the left, and her body and her head suddenly get reconnected perfectly as if nothing happened.

  *!!!*

  Lukia quickly turns her body around towards Mari.

  *ZRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHH*

  But she was suddenly cut in half by Mari, who swung her straightened right palm, engulfed by her green flame. Her swing also splits the ground below open all the way towards the audience’s seats, but it stops without reaching them.