As much as La looked the part as a little kid, there were definitely some jarring differences between her and the average child.


    Other than the ears and tail, the most prominent difference was her overwhelming strength. That strength let her... do something strange.


    The surrounding golden pirs twisted into snake heads. They were so life-like, it was hard to believe that they were actually solid gold. The golden snakes bared their fangs and pounced towards La.


    In just a moment, La was surrounded by the gaping jaws of golden snakes in a variety of sizes.


    A loud snap reverberated.


    The golden snakes bit down hard... only to hit nothing.


    Right before they were about to reach La, she suddenly dipped down. The sudden eleration was one that seemed to defy thews of physics. Without any propulsion, La could dramatically increase her falling speed.


    ...Or more urately, she stopped slowing herself down.


    La plunged towards the ground like a bullet.


    A deafening bang resounded as a crater formed in the ground. La was standing in the middle.


    Her head perked up so that she could look at Kn.


    La''s tail swayed around enthusiastically. As for Kn, a deep frown was stered on his face.


    La shed a cheeky smile before crouching down.


    "I''ve yed many times..."


    Then, leaped into the air.


    "...but I always win!"


    La tore through the air with her hands raised like ws. The overwhelming speed caused her long purple hair to whip around violently. Despite the innocent smile on La''s face, Kn could only see a monster.


    Kn didn''t have the time to hesitate. In just a moment, La would reach him.


    As such, he flicked his golden staff to the sky, leaving a faint arc of gold in the air. Right when La was about to reach him, the golden pir beneath Kn distorted.


    The gold morphed and rose as though Kn willed up a tidal wave with his staff. La crashed into this tidal wave of gold headfirst. Countless cracks spread throughout the body of the golden pir. However, they mended in just a few moments.


    La rebounded off the golden pir. She tightly shut her eyes and covered her face.


    "Wah! What just happened?"


    La plunged downwards at unnatural speeds once again. As for Kn, he descended within the golden pir as though it was an elevator. Despite escaping unscathed, there was still a frown stered across his face.


    Kn mumbled under his breath.


    "Physical fighters..."


    He let out a soft sigh.


    "This is not my specialty."


    Kn clicked his tongue and looked towards the center of the empire.


    "...What is taking you so long, Falk?"


    Although La jumped high in the air, it only took her a few seconds to m back down once again.


    Once the dust cleared, it revealed La, who had puffed up her cheeks. She was looking at the golden pir with annoyance while iling her arms around in the air.


    "That''s no fair! Why are you so high in the air?"


    La turned her head to the side and crossed her arms. She shut her eyes, with her cheeks still puffed up. She let out a high-pitched snort with a tinge of annoyance.


    "Hmph! Since you y unfairly, it''s only right that I can too!"


    La crouched down on the ground, but did so a little differently. She got down on one knee while her other leg stretched out behind her. Then, she ced her hands on the floor while her back hunched forward.


    It was the position professional racers took before the start of the race.


    A few strands of La''s hair fell off her shoulders, then gently touched the ground. A dangerous gleam shed by La''s eyes.


    During this time, Apollo was regenerating his body. He had to remain on the floor for quite a while, since the muscles in his legs needed to regenerate before he could stand.


    Although it wasn''t instant, he healed quite fast. As such, it didn''t take too long for him to get back on his feet. His hands slowly regenerated, one growing fingers and one reattaching to his wrist.


    Willow shredded a house into pieces. Then, her eyes narrowed. She scanned the area around her. By now, the houses weren''t as pervasive as their numbers had dwindled down. There were still countless houses spread across the empire, but they needed some time to get near Willow.


    She had broken out of her trance earlier because of Apollo''s outburst of lightning.


    And now, Willow had a desire to rush over and help Apollo...


    ...but she felt afraid.


    Willow didn''t know why exactly, but she kept distancing herself. Despite that, she would still frequently look in Apollo''s direction, even if she couldn''t see him.


    As for Hex, he was sitting cross-legged on top of ckie. There were a few yellow crystals in hisp as well as one in each hand.


    Hex leisurely ate the yellow crystals at his own pace as ckie went on a rampage. It was as though he was on a vacation.


    In the watchtower, Oddryl had sat back down. One of his legsid overtop the other, like how an arrogant prince would sit on a throne.


    Oddryl''s excitement had died down by now. Instead, he was focusing his attention on minimizing the losses for his houses.


    He hardly paid attention to Kn. This was because even if Kn was in trouble, his beams of light would be deflected by the gold.


    As for Kn, he was surrounded by gold. He had strong confidence in the durability of the gold he controlled, and rightfully so. As such, he was pondering on how to defeat La.


    His head was tilted a few degrees downwards while the tips of his thumb and forefinger rubbed against his chin.


    Nobody was aware of the sudden change in La.


    But was as though the air around her got heavier.


    La''s fingers dug a little into the ground, cracking the cobblestone path. Her tail swayed leisurely, like it was underwater.


    Suddenly, a sneaky smile appeared on La''s face.


    "Hehe."