When she first laid eyes on Joe, the Goddess thought little of him

  He was an average human, one who failed to match the image she had formed in her mind of the mortal who had captured her soul. If anything, he fell short even of that. He was Unawakened, an insect deemed worthless even by mortal standards. She had expected someone older, an ancient man standing at the peak of his power, a breath away from immortality and godhood.

  So when the young man appeared before her, disbelief took hold. She assumed an outsider had invaded the soul of the one who imprisoned her spirit. Yet that idea collapsed the moment it formed. For such a thing to be possible, a young mortal would have needed to shatter the soul defenses of a being capable of capturing a god. The notion was laughable. She doubted even a once in a billion prodigy could accomplish such a feat.

  The soul of her captor was the strongest any mortal could ever hope to possess.

  Another possibility surfaced. Perhaps someone close to her captor had been granted access to his Soul Space, invited inside to mock her imprisonment or prove it was real. That thought, too, rang hollow. Awakened beings never allowed others into their Soul Space, no matter how close the bond, and never without strict supervision. More importantly, it was likely her captor did not even know she existed. They had never communicated before this moment.

  That left only one conclusion.

  The one standing before her was the real captor.

  When the mortal confirmed it, shame surged through her. She stood at the pinnacle of divinity, the strongest of all gods, yet she had been captured by a boy not even twenty years old. If word of this ever spread, she would become the laughing stock of the Divine Realm.

  That was why she tried to impose her dominance. It was refusal made manifest, an act of denial that such a young mortal could ever have subdued her. But when he shattered her suppressing aura and blasted her away, something shifted.

  For a brief moment, as she looked into his eyes, the Goddess understood.

  Even at his age, there was a reason he had been the one to capture her. His spirit energy was immense, magnified further by the fact that they stood within his Soul Space. For the first time, she did not see him as a mere mortal. She saw potential, something capable of exciting her once it reached full bloom.

  Beyond godhood lay an unpleasant truth. The higher one climbed, the lonelier existence became. Yet as she watched him, a thought took root. Perhaps this mortal could one day fulfill her thirst for excitement. That desire was what led her to challenge him to battle.

  The initial stages were predictable and disappointing. She began to wonder if she had been wrong. Then she cornered him, and a violent wave of soul energy erupted from his body. In that instant, she was reminded of the potential she had sensed. For a fleeting moment, he even surpassed her expectations, forcing her to block a strike that sent her crashing into the orb behind her.

  All doubt vanished.

  If allowed to grow, this mortal could one day pose a genuine threat, even to her.

  As she watched the buildup of soul energy within him, disbelief crept into her expression. An Unawakened, untired spirit could endure at most ten souls. A prodigy born once in a billion years might withstand a hundred. Yet the mortal before her exceeded those limits with ease. Hundreds of souls surfaced within him, only to be devoured and refined into fuel for his spirit energy.

  Even so, the Goddess did not panic. Given his absurdly overpowered ability, she could imagine him containing hundreds, perhaps thousands of souls. That should have been the limit, unless he intended to destroy his own soul.

  But he did not stop.

  Thousands became tens of thousands. Tens of thousands became hundreds of thousands. When she believed he had finally reached his threshold, more souls emerged. Her confidence in her own perception began to waver as he devoured over a million souls, ten thousand times more than a mortal should endure.

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  And still, he continued.

  Ten million. A hundred million. Five hundred million.

  With an expression she would never allow a mortal to see, the Goddess watched as the count surpassed a billion souls.

  “What a monster…”

  The Goddess had barely finished muttering when Joe appeared before her.

  His arm was already in motion, fist clenched as it swung toward the side of her face. For the second time, she found herself unable to dodge, the sheer speed of the mortal surpassing her expectations. She chose the next best option and raised her forearm to block.

  Spirit energy detonated on impact.

  The Goddess was hurled sideways, a white beam trailing her body as she skidded across the void. She struggled to regain control, yet her momentum refused to yield. When she finally came to a halt, she had no time to breathe.

  Joe was already above her.

  His heel descended toward her cranium. She threw both arms up to defend, and an explosion of energy erupted as the strike landed. Her feet were driven deep into the solid void as it groaned and cracked beneath the pressure. She grit her teeth and forced her arms outward, barely managing to fend him off.

  She gained no reprieve.

  Joe flipped midair and landed before her, instantly lunging forward with a fist aimed at her stomach. She sidestepped at the last moment. His knuckles grazed the fabric of her dress, and the pressure alone shredded a portion of it. She paid the damage no mind and countered with a straight palm to the side of his face, pouring all her strength into the blow.

  It struck cleanly.

  To her astonishment, Joe did not move.

  A shockwave burst outward, yet the mortal remained rooted in place. Instead, he answered with a punch of his own. The Goddess barely ducked beneath it, strands of her hair evaporating as raw energy tore past her head.

  She leaped back, attempting to separate herself from the bloodthirsty mortal. Joe refused to allow it. He closed the gap instantly, catching her mid jump and driving a fist into her chest. She blocked with crossed forearms, but the impact triggered another violent explosion. Her bones rattled as her arms were crushed into her torso, her airways briefly collapsing as pressure threatened to cave her chest inward.

  She was sent flying through the void with a grunt of pain.

  The thought made her pause.

  Endure.

  That word had never once applied to her existence. She was the one who applied pressure, who forced the weak to scramble and fail as they struggled to preserve their lives. For a mortal to force her into the mindset of prey was a shame beyond measure.

  Yet she knew it was the truth.

  Joe was relentless. She felt trapped, pinned against an invisible boundary, desperate for a moment of reprieve that the human refused to grant.

  For the first time in her life, she felt like a cornered rat.

  As she attempted to stabilize herself and skidded backward, Joe manifested behind her. His fist shot forward, aimed at the center of her spine. The Goddess kicked off the void and flipped gracefully, soaring over him as his strike tore through empty space, energy carving a violent path in its wake.

  She landed behind him, but before she could blink, Joe unleashed a back kick toward her face. She barely ducked as a wave of soul energy erupted from his soles.

  He prayers weren't answered. Instead, a knee slammed toward her chest.

  She blocked with her forearms, yet the force launched her upward, soul energy reinforcing her unwilling ascent. Joe appeared behind her mid flight and unleashed another strike aimed at her back. She twisted mid motion and blocked once more, only to be driven downward at terrifying speed.

  She landed on her feet, but the momentum carried her backward as she skidded across the emptiness.

  .’

  Joe appeared before her again and unleashed a barrage of punches. Each strike detonated with bursts of soul energy. She blocked with her remaining arm, struggling to track his movements as her eyes failed to follow his speed. She had expected him to slow as his energy waned.

  Instead, he only grew faster.

  She leaped back, no longer attempting to counter. Retreat became her sole focus as she moved away as quickly as her battered body allowed.

  She dodged and fled whenever she could, but Joe repositioned instantly, his velocity overwhelming her senses. Her vision became useless, forcing her to rely purely on instinct.

  She had believed herself a cornered mouse before.

  That was wrong.

  She was a rat trapped against the ropes, locked in a cage with a savage beast that yearned to tear her apart.

  The truth of that realization struck her when her back slammed into something solid.

  The void had transformed into an impenetrable wall.

  Her escape was cut off as Joe closed in.

  For the first time in her existence, the Goddess felt true fear.

  In a blink, he stood before her. His fist surged forward at a speed beyond even her instincts. A heartbeat later, it tore past her face by a whisker. Soul energy erupted from the missed strike, annihilating the wall behind her as it surged freely into the nothingness.

  Frozen, she turned her gaze back to him.

  The pale light surrounding Joe evaporated. His body fell forward, collapsing on the void surface beside her.

  Her eyes drifted to her right hand.

  A dense concentration of soul energy clung to her palm.

  Subconsciously, she had nearly broken her vow. She had almost used a technique. It was her weakest, but it was still divine. To employ it against an Unawakened mortal would have been unthinkable.

  Essence sprayed from her left cheek as a deep gash split her skin. She sank to the surface, her body trembling as the aftermath caught up to her.

  Despite everything, only one thought remained.