Belle felt it before she saw it.
A wave of unstable mana surged through the battlefield, sending a violent shudder through her Aura Sense.
It was suffocating. Chaotic. Unnatural.
Her silver eyes snapped toward the source, and what she saw made her stomach drop.
The knights were already being crushed.
A single swing from the Mana-Titan had shattered the battlefield—knights and adventurers scattered like broken dolls, their weapons splintered, their defenses shattered.
They didn't stand a chance.
She couldn't afford to wait.
BOOM!
Before the dust could settle, Belle was already moving.
Her body blurred into motion—faster than the eye could track.
A surge of lightning tore through the battlefield, striking a cluster of ogres that had been bearing down on the remaining forces. Their bodies convulsed violently before collapsing, steam rising from their charred flesh.
She pivoted—twisting mid-air as she unleashed a razor-thin arc of lightning magic.
ZAP!
A massive ogre staggered back, its head severed cleanly before its body collapsed in a heavy thud.
The remaining monsters hesitated.
They sensed it now.
The presence of a predator far beyond their understanding.
But Belle had no time for them.
Before another second could pass—she vanished.
WHOOSH!
A sonic shockwave split the air as Belle reappeared mid-flight, her body already twisting into a full-force strike.
Her fist—coated in raw energy—slammed into the Mana-Titan's obsidian chest, the sheer force sending a deafening crack through the battlefield.
The earth shook violently from the impact.
But the Titan didn't even flinch. Instead, it retaliated instantly.
A colossal fist came crashing down, moving far faster than something its size should be able to.
Belle's instincts screamed.
Too fast!
She barely twisted out of the way.
BOOM!!!
The Titan's attack obliterated the ground where she had just stood, sending a massive shockwave of debris and shattered earth in all directions. The force alone sent her skidding backward, her boots dragging deep trenches into the dirt.
Belle gritted her teeth.
"Tch… it's even tougher than I expected."
This wasn't like the ogres. Or the goblins.
This thing was on another level entirely.
It wasn't just strong—it was infused with pure mana, making it insanely durable and overwhelmingly powerful.
And worse… It was learning.
The Titan's crimson eyes flickered. Its massive frame shifted slightly, as if recalibrating its movements based on Belle's speed.
Shit.
Belle launched forward again, weaving through the Titan's range in a blur of motion.
She struck—a direct hit to the side of its head.
Nothing.
She followed up with another—a burst of raw kinetic force to its knee joint.
Still nothing.
The Titan moved again.
Faster.
Belle barely had time to react before a monstrous backhand came flying at her—
She raised her arms to block.
CRACK!
The impact sent her hurtling through the air, her body smashing through the thick trunk of a tree before she slammed into the dirt, rolling several times before grinding to a halt.
Dust and debris swirled around her, the impact leaving a deep crater where she had landed.
Belle gasped sharply, her body screaming in protest.
That was bad.
Even with her enhanced durability, that hit had rattled her to the core.
She staggered to her feet, her vision blurring for a split second before she shook it off.
The Titan was already moving toward her again.
She clenched her fists.
Her stamina was draining fast.
Her attacks weren't breaking through.
And to make matters worse—the artifact was still active, feeding the Titan even more mana.
This fight wasn't just difficult.
It was impossible.
The knights and adventurers, still locked in battle with the remaining monsters, could do little more than watch.
Belle—who had effortlessly torn through ogres and armored beasts just moments ago—was now struggling against the Mana-Titan.
A girl who moved faster than the eye could track.
A girl who could shatter monsters with her bare hands.
A girl who had single handedly turned the tide of the battlefield.
And yet—against this colossal nightmare, even she was being overwhelmed.
Gale Valtor, the Vice-Captain of the Dawnstead Knights, clenched his fists so hard that his knuckles turned white. His body screamed at him to do something, but deep down—he knew.
There was nothing they could do.
"She's—actually struggling?" one knight muttered, his voice laced with disbelief.
Another adventurer, gripping his bloodied sword, swallowed hard. "She—she lifted an armored war-beast like it was nothing. She was faster than we could even see. And now—" He turned toward the Titan, which stood like an unstoppable force, shrugging off Belle's blows like they were nothing.
"If she can't win…" his voice faltered.
What chance did the rest of them have?
The realization hit them all at once—a creeping, suffocating dread settling into their bones.
This wasn't just another monster.
This was a force of destruction.
A walking calamity.
And even their strongest fighter—the only one among them who could face it head-on—was losing.
Belle gritted her teeth, barely avoiding another devastating strike. She had already taken a hit—a direct one. If she were anyone else, her body would have been pulverized on impact.
And yet she still stood.
Still fought.
Still pushed forward.
Even as the Titan's attacks came faster.
Even as her strength threatened to give out.
Even as she knew—deep down—that she couldn't hold out forever.
Gale forced himself to act.
He grabbed his communication crystal, his voice sharp. "All units, fallback immediately! Defend the wounded! Anyone still capable of fighting—focus on destroying the artifact! If that thing keeps feeding off the mana surge, we're all dead!"
The knights and adventurers snapped out of their trance, moving into action.
But none of them could shake the feeling.
That for the first time since this battle had begun—they might not make it out alive.
Unless… She pushed past her limits.
The battlefield blurred around Belle as she braced for the Titan's next devastating blow.
BOOM!
The impact shook the earth beneath her, sending cracks splintering across the ground.
Her arms trembled under the sheer weight of the attack—her bones groaned, her muscles strained.
Too strong. Too fast.
For the first time, she felt her body reaching a limit—a threshold she hadn't known existed.
Her breath came in sharp gasps. The weight of the Mana-Titan's strike pushed her down, her heels digging into the fractured earth. She could feel the sheer force threatening to break her—to grind her into dust.
But then—something shifted.
A sensation, deep within her core.
It wasn't just power—it was something more.
Something ancient. Something primal.
The draconic energy that had always coursed through her veins, wild and untamed, began to change.
Instead of flaring out recklessly—it coiled inward, wrapping around her very being like a second skin.
Her ragged breaths steadied.
Her pain vanished.
Her vision sharpened, the battlefield no longer a chaotic blur but a realm of absolute clarity. Every movement of the Titan, every tremor in the earth, every particle of energy surging in the air—she could see it all.
Her heartbeat was thunder in her ears—but not from exhaustion.
From power.
Belle slowly exhaled.
And then—she let it all flow.
WHOOSH!
A shockwave erupted from her body—not from sheer force, but from something even more refined.
A controlled storm of draconic aura.
The knights and adventurers staggered back, shielding their faces from the sudden burst of energy.
Her silver hair whipped wildly, glowing strands shimmering like molten steel. Her skin pulsed with a radiant intensity, her aura no longer lashing out uncontrollably but instead fusing with her very form.
She wasn't just exuding power.
She was becoming it.
Her muscles tightened—denser, stronger, more efficient.
Her movements quickened—not just fast, but instantaneous, precise, deliberate.
She clenched her fist, feeling the sheer difference.
This wasn't like before.
This wasn't just raw strength—this was refined dominance.
The Titan moved again, its crimson eyes flaring. It swung another colossal fist downward, aiming to crush her into the dirt.
But this time—Belle didn't brace.
She vanished.
A blur of motion—too fast to see.
And then—BOOM!
The Titan's arm snapped backward—its massive stone flesh shattering as Belle drove her fist into it, a shockwave tearing through its entire body.
A gasp rippled through the battlefield.
This wasn't just brute force.
This was something far beyond that.
A new level of combat. A new form of enhancement.
She had finally refined what had once been chaotic energy into something she could wield with absolute control.
She would later call this ability—Aura Amplification.
The ground trembled beneath Mana-Titan's next devastating punch.
A strike powerful enough to flatten mountains.
A blow that had sent knights flying like ragdolls.
But this time—Belle didn't dodge.
BOOM!
She met the Titan's fist head-on.
A thunderous shockwave erupted from the collision, tearing through the battlefield. The sheer force sent nearby monsters hurtling backward, while the knights and adventurers scrambled to shield their faces from the violent burst of energy.
The impact was so immense that the earth beneath them split apart, cracks spiderwebbing in all directions.
But Belle—stood firm.
Her fingers had dug into the Titan's stone-like knuckles, stopping the full force of the monstrous strike dead in its tracks.
The knights could only stare in disbelief.
"How…?" one of them whispered, their voice barely audible over the howling winds.
Another adventurer, still gripping his sword tightly, couldn't tear his eyes away.
"She's… overpowering it."
Kai, who had been watching the entire exchange, tightened his grip on his katana. His crimson eyes flickered with something between admiration and awe.
"Damn," he muttered. "She's not just strong—she's on another level."
The Mana-Titan snarled, its crimson eyes burning brighter as it reared back to attack again.
But Belle was already moving.
In an instant, she became a streak of ethereal light—her body no longer bound by normal speed. She vanished from sight, appearing mid-air with her leg cocked back.
Then—she struck.
BOOM!
Her kick connected with the Titan's side, sending the colossal monster reeling backward. The impact tore through its hardened stone-like armor, causing massive fractures to ripple across its body.
But she didn't stop.
She couldn't.
This thing was still absorbing energy from the artifact—it wouldn't stay down for long.
Belle pressed forward, her movements a dazzling display of raw power and precision.
A lightning-infused uppercut snapped the Titan's head backward.
A spinning flame-enhanced kick sliced through its arm, severing it clean off.
She weaved through its desperate counterattacks with effortless fluidity, her every movement refined and lethal.
Then—she saw it.
The core.
Deep within the Titan's chest, a pulsing mass of raw mana—the very source of its power.
Her target.
She clenched her fists, draconic energy surging through her veins.
She could feel it—the moment to end this fight.
The Mana-Titan sensed the shift in her aura. Its burning eyes widened.
It knew. It was about to die.
It lunged in a final desperate attempt—its remaining arm swinging toward her with enough force to crush mountains.
But Belle vanished again.
In the blink of an eye, she was already inside its guard.
Her fist was pulled back—a single strike to end it all.
She drove her fist forward—PIERCING STRAIGHT THROUGH ITS CHEST.
BOOOOOM!
The explosion of force sent a massive shockwave tearing through the battlefield, kicking up a swirling storm of dust and debris.
The Titan's roar turned into a distorted, fading echo.
Its body began to crumble.
Deep fractures spread like veins of molten fire, the once-indestructible form now falling apart, piece by piece.
The knights and adventurers watched in stunned silence as the monster disintegrated into nothingness, its remains scattering like ash on the wind.
At the center of it all, standing amidst the fading embers of battle—
Belle lowered her smoking fist.
The artifact, now severed from its source, cracked apart and crumbled into pieces.
The unstable mana surge that had driven the monsters into a frenzy?
Gone.
The battlefield fell into an unnatural silence.
The battle… was over.
The battlefield was silent.
Not the kind of silence that came after a battle.
No.
This was the hushed, uneasy stillness that followed something beyond comprehension.
The knights and adventurers who had barely clung to life just moments ago now stood frozen—not in exhaustion, but in disbelief.
The air was thick with the scent of scorched earth and blood, yet no one moved. No one spoke.
All eyes were on the silver-haired girl standing amid the rubble, illuminated by the soft glow of embers still burning in the wake of destruction.
Belle.
She barely felt the weight of their stares, her body still thrumming from the lingering effects of her draconic aura. Her fists trembled—not with fear, but from the sheer force she had unleashed upon the Mana-Titan.
The remains of the colossal creature were scattered across the battlefield, crumbling like ash caught in the wind. The artifact that had fueled the chaos lay in pieces, its energy extinguished.
It was over.
A heavy breath left her lips, her shoulders sagging slightly. She had pushed herself to the brink.
She could feel it now—the burning ache in her limbs, the exhaustion clawing at her muscles. But for now…
They had won.
Kai, still half-conscious on the ground, let out a dry chuckle, his usual smirk creeping onto his face.
"...Show-off," he muttered weakly.
Gale stood rigid, his fingers gripping the hilt of his sword so tightly his knuckles turned white.
His sharp eyes flickered between the shattered battlefield and the girl who had just faced an abomination alone and won.
His mind raced, trying—and failing—to rationalize what he had just witnessed.
That wasn't magic. That wasn't just raw strength.
That was something else entirely.
A younger knight, still catching his breath, finally broke the silence.
"D-Did she really just… take that thing down… by herself?"
Murmurs spread through the ranks, disbelief turning into a slow, creeping realization.
"She was fighting that thing alone, while we could barely hold the line…"
"That was beyond human."
"What… the hell is she?"
Some knights refused to believe what they had seen, as if speaking it aloud would somehow make it less real. Others simply let out deep, unsteady breaths—grateful that they were still alive at all.
Belle remained silent, her silver eyes flickering toward the sky. The battlefield, once a chaotic storm of blood and fire, now lay in eerie stillness.
She had fought battles before. She had killed before.
But never had she done it under so many watchful eyes.
Never had so many people witnessed what she was truly capable of.
And from the way some of them looked at her now…
She could tell.
This victory had changed something.
She wasn't just a stranger anymore.
She wasn't just another adventurer passing through.
They had seen it with their own eyes.
She was a monster.
And she wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
End of Chapter 24