Chapter 104: The Goddess of Severance

’What do you mean it’s gone?!?’

Valerian writhed in pain on the white ground, unable to comprehend what Valerie meant.

The pain he felt when the woman cut through Twilight was the worst pain he had ever experienced; it felt like his soul was being torn apart and cut into small pieces.

A soft green light appeared around his body as Valerian channeled [Genesis Spark] to lessen the pain. Slowly, with each second, the pain became more tolerable, no longer making him feel like dying might be the better option.

The woman observed the whole process with interest in her sharp silver eyes.

After what felt like days for Valerian, the soul pain turned from the sensation of being torn apart alive to a deep, aching pain throughout his whole body.

Now able to somewhat think again, Valerian opened his status screen, and his eyes snapped to the bottom part.

│ ─────── BOND ─────── │

│ Bound Entity : Valerie

Twilight, who should have been right next to Valerie, was gone.

"Wh- what did you do?"

The fear he felt toward the woman became something deeper than just her mana pressing down on him. Thanks to this woman, he had just experienced the worst pain of his entire life, so he was a little cautious right now.

"That blade was horrible."

Anger welled up in Valerian’s chest. It was the blade Helias and Freya had given him on his birthday, and afterward, he had personally bonded it with his very soul. And now this random woman who had kidnapped him just destroyed it.

"So you just destroyed it?"

Valerian couldn’t understand this woman. Why would she destroy a weapon just because she didn’t like it? It wasn’t like it was hers to begin with. It was his! And he damn well liked it!

"I was told to train a swordsman, not a party clown with fifty weapons up his sleeve."

"And who told you to ’train a swordsman’? Because I clearly remember never asking you."

The woman took a cigarette out from her spatial ring and lit it with a small flame that appeared over her finger. She took a long drag and blew out the smoke.

"The elf told me."

’Again with "the elf".’

After thinking for a second, a face came to his mind, and the face had an infuriating grin plastered all over it.

"The principal..."

The woman walked back a few meters and turned to Valerian.

"Oh yeah, he’s the principal here. He asked me to train you, and because I owed him a favor, I’m now here to train you."

Valerian looked at her with cautious eyes. Everything around the principal was incredibly suspicious, but it wasn’t like he could fight against him or the woman standing across from him.

Still, he wanted to know just who this woman was and activated [Dragon Eyes], and her status unfolded before him.

│─────── STATUS ─────── │

│ Name : Ravena

│ Age : ???

│ Race : ???

│ ─────── ORIGIN ─────── │

│ Bloodline : ???

│ Physique : ???

│ Core : ???

│ ────── ATTRIBUTES ────── │

│ Vitality : ???

│ Strength : ???

│ Agility : ???

│ Dexterity : ???

│ Intelligence : SS

│ Mana : ???

│ Charm : SSS+

│ ─────── AFFINITIES ─────── │

│ ???

│ ─────── TITLES ─────── │

│ ???

│ ─────── SKILLS ─────── │

│ [Racial Skills]

│ ???

│ [Unique Skill]

│ ???

│ ─────── BOND ─────── │

│ Bound Entity : -

Valerian ignored the ??? parts, as he already knew that the woman was outside the mortal ranks and his Dragon Eyes wouldn’t work on her fully.

But he still scanned the parts he could see. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

’Ravena... that’s it? No last name? But why does that sound familiar...’

"Are you done gawking at me?"

Her voice echoed across the white space, making Valerian close her status and focus back on her.

As he looked closer at her, he slowly remembered where he knew her from.

The long, messy black hair that didn’t care for noble etiquette or how presentable it was. Her tan and muscular body that was built for the sole purpose of close-range fighting, with tightly coiled muscles.

Her beautiful yet cold and stoic face that looked more like she was disinterested than actually cold. And those piercing silver eyes, which could cut through a person with just a look.

And the fact that there was no last name, no noble family backing her. Just a commoner girl who managed to ascend to the highest rank through bloodshed and will.

As he remembered her, a name popped up in his head.

"Ravena, [Goddess of Severance]."

As he spoke the title Ravena was known for, a crushing pressure crashed down on him, forcing him to fall to his knees.

"I fucking hate that title, don’t say it again."

Her silver eyes cut through Valerian as panic rushed through him.

"O- okay."

The pressure disappeared again, and he was able to stand up.

As he looked at the woman in front of him, he couldn’t help but think about her title and who she was.

[Goddess of Severance].

People called her that because of her [Unique Skill], something she never bothered to hide and just used openly.

It was called [Severance] and, like the name implied, it allowed her to cut anything and everything. The power behind the skill wasn’t just in cutting through armor or protection.

The skill allowed her to cut even immaterial things, like space, time, or entire concepts.

With it, she could sever the hope of an entire army, leaving them in a state of pure despair, or she could sever the idea of hate, love, or fighting back. The only limit behind it was the amount of mana poured into the [Unique Skill], making it one of the most feared attacks in history.

Because how do you defend against a sword that passes right through the armor and attacks your mind directly, or cuts the soul apart without ever making contact?

And it didn’t help that she even had a [Sword] affinity, which made her perfectly proficient with every kind of sword she touched. Because of her conceptual attacks, she was one of the most feared Demi-Gods in the world of Eldoria.

Now that Valerian thought about it, what happened to Twilight made more sense to him. Ravena didn’t "destroy" Twilight; she cut through the soul bond directly.

’Wait, that would also mean...’

Reaching deep inside his body, Valerian could feel a swirling mass at the center of his being.

’It’s still there.’

"Twilight" was still inside his body; he had just lost the connection he had with the weapon.

"Stop thinking so much and let’s start with the training. Take out a sword."

Valerian looked at the silver-eyed woman with a complicated face.

"I don’t have one."

"What?"

Ravena looked at him with confusion written all over her face. She saw the weird expression Valerian was making and furrowed her brows.

"You rendered my sword useless, remember?"

"Then use a normal sword. Don’t tell me you don’t have one in a spatial ring or something."

Feeling like he was caught slipping up, Valerian quickly defended himself.

"I didn’t need an extra sword, I had a perfectly fine one just a minute ago!"

Ravena let out a big sigh and reached into her spatial ring. A pitch-black katana, still inside its sheath without any kind of decoration or engravings, appeared in her hand.

"Take this."

She threw the sword toward Valerian, who reached out to catch it. But just as he was about to catch it, he suddenly realized something.

’Holy fuck, that’s heavy!’

The blade crashed down on him, taking him off his feet.

"What the hell?"

The katana was way heavier than it looked, making even Valerian, who was incredibly strong physically, sweat just to lift it.

"It’s not even that heavy, don’t pretend and stand up."

’Of course you won’t have a problem with it, you’re a fucking Demi-God!!’

But he kept his complaints to himself and slowly stood up, struggling to hold the sword with both hands. Even when he channeled his mana to increase his strength, it was still way too heavy to use like a normal sword.

Ravena herself took out a single, straight wooden branch that looked like she had picked it up in the garden before coming here.

As Valerian looked at the branch, he didn’t feel confident at all. A single branch in the hands of the [Goddess of Severance] was way scarier than any normal Demi-God with a god-slaying blade.

Valerian raised the sword despite the protests of his body and looked at the disinterested Ravena, who still had the cigarette in her mouth.

At once, she started to move. If she wanted to, she could blitz Valerian before his perception could even activate, but she just moved fast enough that Valerian could see her while she was still faster than him.

Valerian raised the heavy katana to block against the branch, but when the simple branch made contact with the sword, something happened that made Valerian’s heart drop.

The single, ordinary branch one would find at any park or garden cleanly cut through the blade of the katana without resistance. It was like cutting through a stick of butter with a blade the temperature of the sun.

’You’ve got to be kidding me.’

The branch didn’t stop and cut right through Valerian’s body, splitting him in half.