Black hair, black eyes, and plain clothes.
Yet the aura radiating from his very bones, an aura that stood above all living beings, made everyone who saw him feel an instinctive urge to kneel and worship.
That divine figure was Heimer.
Without the restrictions placed on his divine power, Heimer floated in midair in defiance of physical common sense.
Step by step, he descended from above as though walking down an invisible staircase.
His feet touched no solid object.
Yet beneath him, the air seemed to form unseen steps of jade.
With every step he took, visible ripples spread through the void.
That was not magic.
It was an abnormal phenomenon created by pure divine power pressing against the fragile physical laws of this world.
The noise below had long since vanished.
Whether it was the girls swinging bamboo swords or the boys with makeup smeared across their faces, everyone had become like puppets whose pause buttons had been pressed.
They could only raise their heads and watch that figure descend from the heavens, step by step.
At last, Heimer stopped roughly ten meters outside the floor-to-ceiling window of the Headmistress’s Office.
His gaze pierced through the specially made bulletproof glass without obstruction and landed on the black-haired girl inside.
Their eyes met in midair.
Heimer slowly spoke.
His voice was not loud, yet it entered the ears of everyone present with perfect clarity, as if a great bell had been struck deep within their souls.
“Do you want to understand the meaning of life?”
“Do you want to know what it feels like to truly be alive?”
Those classic words had echoed through countless planes of the universe.
But now, spoken by a true god, they were no longer a simple question.
They became a dialogue that pierced straight into the soul.
The moment those words fell, the girl behind the window slightly raised the corner of her mouth.
The Empress.
There was no fear.
No panic.
In those black eyes, which had always shown only arrogance and boredom, a flame called fanaticism finally ignited.
“Interesting.”
Amou murmured softly.
Facing that suffocating divine majesty, she raised her head and revealed an excited smile.
“If you can truly let me experience what it means to be alive, then anything is fine.”
The moment Amou Kirukiru finished speaking, Heimer’s figure suddenly vanished.
There was no afterimage.
No sound of wind being torn apart.
It was as if that single frame had been cut out of reality itself.
In the next instant, Heimer was already standing in front of Amou, less than half a meter away from her.
They were so close that each could clearly see their own reflection in the other’s pupils.
At the same time, Heimer sensed the tremor born deep within Amou’s heart because of his descent.
“I can feel it from your heart.”
“You desire to challenge me?”
“Do you wish to try?”
“To challenge a god with a mortal body…”
“Such ambition is indeed rare in that world.”
Heimer did not dislike Amou’s fighting spirit.
On the contrary, he appreciated it greatly.
After all, in Orario, among those Lv.6 and even Lv.7 adventurers who stood at the top, which one of them did not possess intense ambition?
Some among them had even truly gained the qualifications to touch the domain of gods.
“I do.”
“In that case…”
Heimer lowered his eyes and looked at the girl whose muscles had instantly tensed to the absolute limit.
“Come.”
“Whoosh—”
The instant Heimer’s words fell, Amou moved.
No, calling it “movement” was too slow for what had just happened.
Her center of gravity sank in an instant.
Her right foot stomped down and shattered the floor beneath her.
Her entire body became like a fully drawn bow, and the brutal power she had accumulated over years erupted without reservation in this single moment.
Her hands turned into knife-hands, her fingertips gleaming with a cold, metallic hardness.
Ryukyu Kobujutsu: Uechi-ryu.
It was an ancient martial art that tempered the body to its limit and turned every inch of flesh into a lethal weapon.
Spear-hand thrusts, elbow strikes, knee attacks…
The instant she assumed her stance, thousands of attack routes, force techniques, and muscular rhythms unfolded, broke apart, and reorganized in Heimer’s mind like a holographic projection.
The authority of the Lord of War allowed him to instantly perceive every secret of this martial art.
His understanding was even more thorough than that of the founder who had created it.
“Too slow.”
Heimer said softly.
“Bang!”
A dull explosion erupted between the two of them.
Amou’s knife-hand, sharp enough to cut through steel, was forcibly repelled by an irresistible force the instant before it touched Heimer.
That force tore through her stance with brutal dominance.
It penetrated the steel-like muscular defense she was so proud of and slammed directly into her body.
The impact was strong enough to cripple a seasoned Lv.1 adventurer.
“Guh—!”
A flower of blood bloomed across her fingers.
Her blood vessels had burst from the instantaneous pressure.
Amou was sent flying backward and slammed hard into the office desk behind her.
The solid wooden desk instantly shattered into pieces.
She fell awkwardly into a pile of splintered wood, clutching her fingers as bright red blood flowed between them.
Drop by drop, it fell onto the floor with a steady dripping sound.
Pain.
Intense pain.
How long had it been since she last felt this sensation after reaching the summit and tempering her body into bronze skin and iron bones?
Three years?
Five years?
Ever since those so-called strong opponents had fallen one after another beneath her feet, her world had contained nothing but boring domination.
And now…
That long-lost pain, as if it were tearing her soul apart, made her body tremble uncontrollably.
Not from fear.
But from excitement.
“Ha… haha…”
Amou staggered to her feet and looked at her blood-covered hand.
The smile on her face grew wider and wider, even becoming somewhat distorted.
“So this is blood?”
“So this is pain?”
She raised her head, her black eyes locking firmly onto Heimer, who still stood where he was.
Her gaze was filled with fanaticism.
Heimer looked at the girl who had clearly been injured, yet whose aura had only grown stronger, and a trace of admiration flashed through his eyes.
As expected of someone he had chosen.
The strength he used in that attack was enough to break the bones and tear the tendons of a veteran Lv.1 adventurer.
But Amou had endured it purely with her body and suffered only a minor injury.
A few bones had not even broken.
That level of physical strength was already no worse than low-level adventurers wearing light armor.
Once she received a Falna, her potential would be immeasurable.
Heimer gave her a fair evaluation in his heart.
However, before he could say anything, Amou, who had just been displaying that wild madness as though she would charge in again and fight to the death, suddenly did something even Heimer did not expect.
She did not hesitate at all.
One knee bent.
She knelt heavily on the floor covered in broken debris.
Then she lowered that head which had never bowed to anyone before, kneeling before Heimer in a posture that was almost submission.
“O god.”
“Please take me with you.”
“Take me to that place you spoke of, where I can truly feel alive.”
Amou Kirukiru only respected the strong.