Relationship between Raphael and Ophis… Well, let's just say it was like an older sister and a younger sister.

In truth, Ophis was far older than Raphael. Yet Ophis still called Raphael "Big Sister,". Over time, though, it grew into something real—a name she spoke with a trembling, hopeful heart. Even though it began as an act, Raphael slowly became the big sister Ophis never knew she needed.

It's not every day you witness a woman embrace a stranger—a stranger who's not only older than her, but who once tried to murder her only family.

Yet that's exactly what Raphael did.

No way… any ordinary woman would have turned Ophis away, would have cursed her, would have let hatred grow like thorns between them. Yet Raphael, with the gentle stubbornness of a guardian angel, accepted Ophis.

When Ophis finally revealed her cursed life and the secrets she carried like iron chains, she trembled with fear.

Would Raphael recoil?

Would she see Ophis as a monster?

Ophis expected disgust, even hatred. She braced herself for it... she deserved it, didn't she? After everything she had done?

But Raphael only drew her close, arms wrapped around her like a shield,

"It's all right… you are not alone here. Whatever you are, whatever you've done—I'm here. I choose you. I won't let you fall, Ophis."

Everything was all right....? They were there for her? Was she insane?

Had she lost her mind? Ophis was honestly stunned how could anyone accept her, after all she'd confessed?

How could this woman, of all people, forgive what should never be forgiven?

"Woman, I tried to kill your nephew!" Ophis wanted to scream. "If it were me… if I were you, I could never forgive."

Yet, here was Raphael. This woman... she looked at Ophis as something simple, something miraculous: a little sister.

In Raphael's gaze, Ophis saw shadows of the sisters she had lost—those women who had protected her even when she was only a mistake. She saw those same fierce, forgiving eyes staring back through Raphael.

Raphael's love didn't falter. Even after every secret, every horror revealed, she fed Ophis with kindness, patience, and care. There was no flinch, no scowl, no mask. Only Raphael being Ophis's Big Sister!

And that was when Ophis made a silent vow: she would protect this woman. Not because Raphael was Leo's aunt, not out of debt or fear, but because, in Raphael, Ophis found her lost sisters again.

She found family!

And when you see your big sister's blood spill… when you hear her scream, her pain echoing through ruined streets... something inside you snaps, right?

That's when the younger one rises. That's when rage and love become indistinguishable.

That's when the world trembles!!

"Look at you, so trembling~" Fallen Camazotz hissed.

His clawed hand plunged into Raphael's stomach with a sickening crunch, lifting her like a broken doll. Blood poured over his wrist, spattering the shattered asphalt beneath them. Raphael's eyes glazed with agony, red streaming from her lips, her breath sharp and shallow.

"Tasty~" Camazotz purred, his tongue slithering out to taste the crimson. He shuddered, a twisted ecstasy twisting his features. As he closed his eyes, he enjoyed it.

"What's this… this blood?" he sneered, pupils dilating as mana surged up his arm, burning like wildfire.

That's impossible! Human blood shouldn't taste of power. Sure, normal humans might gather scraps of energy with age, but this… this was different. Her blood sizzled on his tongue—was she… a mage?

But before he could ask, agony tore through his body. His eyes shot open... only to see that his forearm was gone.

He spun and saw Ophis. ]

She knelt beside Raphael, gently lowering her broken body to the ground, cradling her head against the cold stone.

Ophis brushed tangled hair from Raphael's face, her voice trembling with fury, "You are so strong…"

Raphael, eyes clouded and weak, tried to focus. Blood streaked her chin as she gasped, "R-Ru…" Her voice faded, lids growing heavier, the world slipping away as she lost consciousness.

Ophis just smiled softly, "I cannot leave you, Big Sister," she whispered. With slow, deliberate grace, she reached into her tattered bag and withdrew a glimmering white rune stone.

"Haha… Do you think I will allow that—?" Camazotz sneered, spreading his monstrous wings, black membranes shimmering. He crouched, ready to lunge, but—

Ophis turned her head in a blur. Her slit pink pupils glowed with unearthly menace. She spoke, her words sharp and chilling as a winter wind:

"You… Stay there."

Instantly, Fallen Camazotz's wings seized, refusing to unfurl, muscles locked by some invisible force. For the first time, dread twisted his features.

Her eyes—those weren't Ophis's eyes anymore. They burned with a power and undying, the kind that could freeze even Dracula's heart.

No. Impossible! Yet the truth screamed at him: she had changed.

She was literally a different woman now, something far beyond the child he remembered.

Without looking away, Ophis gently took Raphael's trembling hand and pressed the rune stone into her palm. She crushed it. The stone burst, dissolving into millions of radiant particles, each one like a falling star. As the dust settled, Raphael's torn flesh knitted together.

Ophis stood up... slowly, deliberately. She turned to Camazotz, her movements unnaturally elegant. The ruined street seemed to warp around her; the air grew bitterly cold.

Camazotz stumbled back, "W-What? Are you angry now? Oh? Little Master suddenly got angry~ I'm so scared~" He tried to laugh, lips curling in a cruel sneer,

"Daddy's Little Princess is angry… what should I do? What should I do~? Ahahhah… ah… ha?"

His laughter withered to silence as his eyes widened...

Ophis kept walking, and with each step her body changed... Her small legs elongated, stride growing stronger, more regal. Her arms lengthened with every swing, fingers curling with predatory intent. Her torso stretched, curves blooming with elegance.

Her once-cute, fluffy black clothes, still stained with Raphael's blood, strained and reshaped to fit her growing form. The spilled blood snaked across her skin, alive, merging with the shadows and weaving itself into a cloak of crimson-black that flowed behind her.

Her twin-tailed pink hair unravelled, ribbons fluttering to the ground as her hair cascaded, glossy silk pouring down her back, shimmering with unnatural length and colour.

Her face, once innocent and cherubic, sharpened... her jawline honed, cheeks shadowed, eyes deepening, brows darkening and arching with predatory intent.

Her small nose grew elegant and aristocratic; her lips, a wicked pink, parted to reveal two razor-sharp fangs jutting downward in hunger and fury.

By the time she stood before Camazotz, they faced each other as equals.... except her presence seemed to fill the street, oppressive and magnificent.

She stared into his eyes, her voice a freezing whisper.

"Camazotz… my loyal servant."

She reached out, fingers trailing across his rough, armoured skull, caressing it with a strange, sinister tenderness... metallic scales hard as diamond, yet her touch made them shudder.

Ophis nodded, gaze cool and inexorable. "I should have put you in your place long ago."

Her hand glowed with a vicious red aura. Then, without warning, she slapped him, her palm shattering his hardened skin as if it were glass.

BOOOMMMMM!!

Camazotz was driven into the pavement, the impact splitting the ruined street wide open, a crater erupting beneath him.

"Cough!"

Fallen Camazotz's eyes rolled and twisted in agony as he tried to lift himself from the rubble, spitting blood, bones crunching under his own weight. He barely managed to sit up—when a pale leg slammed down, pinning him by the chest.

BOOM!!

"ARGH!!" he howled.

Ophis looked down with eyes as cold as the void, grinding her foot into his chest, each stomp laced with power and disdain. Her flat, pale foot struck again and again, cracks spreading through his armoured ribcage.

Crack!

Fallen Camazotz's eyes widened in raw horror as he stared at his shattered chest, spiderweb cracks running through armour that should have been unbreakable.

"YOU—"

BOOM!

Crack!!!

"ARHH!!!"

He howled as Ophis's foot slammed down again, bones splintering beneath her relentless strength. Black blood erupted from his mouth, splattering across the ruined pavement. With a casual, almost lazy grace, she lifted her leg, raising him like a rag doll, her impossible flexibility letting her leg arc high, almost to her own face as if displaying a trophy.

She met his glare with an icy calm. As Camazotz choked and coughed more blood, her lips curled into a razor-thin smirk.

"Look at you, so trembling~" Her words slithered through the air.

Fallen Camazotz snarled, humiliation burning in his veins. "How dare you look down at me, bitch!" he spat, rage twisting his features. He lunged, claws flashing up to sever her leg.

However—

Thud!

His own body crashed to the ground as she vanished before his claws could even graze her.

He blinked, confused, feeling his wounds already knitting themselves together. He whirled, posture tight, eyes darting for a sign of her.

"Do you think you can hide from me, bitch? I know how weak you are… You're nothing but a pathetic girl who couldn't even get out of your father—ARH!"

His taunt died in his throat as his head snapped to the side... pain erupting before his mind could register what happened. His hand had been severed so suddenly that he didn't even see the strike. He stared, blinking in disbelief at the bloody stump, black ichor pouring freely before his monstrous flesh began to regrow.

And then he saw her.

Ophis stood just a few inches away, utterly silent. She held his severed hand in her own, raising it to her mouth. She bit into it, black blood running down her lips and chin. Her face twisted in disgust, her eyes full of disappointment.

"You taste like filth,"

With utter contempt, she tossed the mangled hand aside as if it were garbage she couldn't bear to touch.

"HOW DARE YOU!!" Camazotz roared, fury erupting as his claws stretched to twice their length.

He sprang at her, "Do you think you're the only one who's fast here? Hah… I'll show you what real speed means!" he promised with a wicked snarl, and then he vanished, his body blurring into the night.

His movements shredded the air itself... so fast not even Leo, with eyes sharpened by magic, could follow.

Camazotz leapt from ruined building to shattered street, a shadow among shadows, appearing and vanishing in an instant. He circled behind Ophis in less than a breath, claws slashing down with blinding velocity, aiming to rip her in half from behind.

Just as the razor tips reached her back—

Sshh~

She vanished again, dissolving into nothingness.

Camazotz hovered in midair, wings tensed and twitching, every sense straining for a trace of her. His head whipped around desperately, eyes wide with panic—he couldn't see her, couldn't even track her aura.

For the first time, a cold spike of terror threaded through his soul.

How…?

His mind reeled.

His speed should have been unmatched, absolute. But now—

"W-What's going on here?" he gasped, voice barely above a whisper.

His senses screamed a warning... still, he could find nothing.

And then, behind him, soft as the night itself:

"Do—"

He flinched at the whisper behind his ear. Spinning around, he found nothing... only empty air.

"You."

The voice came again, closer, colder. He jerked back, eyes wide, but no one was there.

His features hardened, fury overtaking fear as he clenched his fist so tightly the claws dug into his palm.

"Haha… so what if you're fast? Do you think you can beat me, bitch? I am the god—the fucking Underworld God! The one who rules fear! I—"

"Feel."

He spun again, body tense, searching the shadows, but the voice darted out of reach. He grit his teeth, rage and panic mixing as he extended his monstrous claws. With a violent snarl, his body began to rotate, wings snapping open and spinning faster and faster until he became a black cyclone, talons anchored to the ground.

The ruined street trembled as windows shattered, the gale howling loud enough to rip trees from their roots and send streetlamps hurtling into the darkness.

"Haha… Let's see if you can play now!" he shouted as he spun, the eye of his own storm, eyes scanning wildly for her.

But Ophis still didn't appear. No matter how he spun or searched, she was invisible. His grin faded.

"What? Scared already—?"

"Fear?"

"FUCK!" The word tore from his throat as he jerked upward, the voice suddenly above his head.

His gaze snapped up in disbelief.

Ophis hung upside down in front of him, suspended in midair without any support, her arms folded, her hair dangling toward the shattered street. Her face hovered inches from his, pink eyes aglow with cold mockery.

He lashed out with his claws in blind fury, but with barely the flick of a fingernail, she stopped his entire spinning body.

Thuck!

The sudden halt sent the roaring cyclone crashing to silence, the air collapsing in a burst of wind, debris falling as the storm was snuffed out.

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