'Wait, I'm Supposed to Become a Goddess?! But I'm a Guy!'

The earth groaned under, Titrus' footsteps echoed like avalanche as he advanced, each step creating minor tremors that rolled across the shattered battlefield.

Mirror like cracks emerged beneath his wake, the tiny stones and rubbles floating in the air, devoid of gravity, pressurized.

Dust swirled around them, carried by the howling wind kicked up by the prior moves.

Aizen didn't stay idle.

"Then how about this?"

The demon shot forward with a snarl, his mangled arms twisting unnaturally, forming jagged claws.

With a flicker of shadow, he closed the distance, his body weaving side to side, trying to slip past the giant’s crushing reach.

Titrus didn’t even lift his guard.

His eyes lifted like two dazzling thunderous arcs, "Hopeless"

When Aizen struck, claws raking toward his chest, Titrus simply tilted his body, letting the blackened claws scrape harmlessly off the solid steel of his armor.

In that same breath, he retaliated.

"You are a master of long range attacks, bold enough to fight against me, a master of physical strength in close range!"

"Ridiculous!"

A monstrous backhand crashed into Aizen’s side.

BOOM!

Aizen’s body folded inward around the blow, hurled sideways through the air like a ragdoll.

He smashed into the ground with enough force to carve a new crater nearly ten meters wide, chunks of dirt and stone catapulting into the air.

"Hahahaha, it's a test, it's a test!"

"Don't take this too seriously"

"A test?" Titrus frowned, but the situation gave no room for further contemplation.

Even before the debris settled, Aizen smiled and willed the shadows to gather.

Tendrils of darkness exploded upward around him, twisting into a writhing wall of jagged spikes.

Titrus stepped through them without slowing.

The spikes shattered on impact, disintegrating into dust as they slammed uselessly against his armored body.

Aizen lunged again, this time swinging both arms like wild scythes, aiming for Titrus' throat.

Titrus shifted, his massive body weaving with deceptive catch.

He caught Aizen's left wrist mid-strike, his hand so large it nearly enveloped Aizen’s entire forearm, and squeezed.

CRACK!

Bone shattered audibly.

Aizen smiles, black ichor bursting from the wound, but he retaliated by conjuring a blast of condensed dark energy straight into Titrus' face at point-blank range.

BOOM!

The explosion was violent, a roar of darkness and heat.

When the smoke cleared.

Titrus remained standing.

Unscathed. His massive frame hadn't even been nudged an inch backward.

Like a mountain, unless it was a miracle, Aizen wouldn't be able to move him.

Without a word, he yanked Aizen forward by the broken wrist, then delivered a brutal, rising knee straight into the demon’s ribs.

BOOM!

The shockwave cracked the ground beneath them in a spider web of destruction, and Aizen’s body arced high into the air, coughing blood mid-flight.

Still airborne, Aizen snapped his fingers, causing a spear of pure shadow to materialize above Titrus, aiming to impale him from above.

Titrus simply looked up, and jumped.

He met the falling spear head-on, his iron fist smashing it apart in a single blow.

Boom!

The fragments raining harmlessly to the earth.

He reached Aizen mid-air, grabbed him by the ankle, and slammed him down into the ground like a war hammer.

BOOOM!

The resulting crater stretched nearly fifteen meters wide, a deep pit lined with splintered rock and blackened soil.

Aizen lay at the bottom, coughing violently, ribs and arms grotesquely bent, but his wild, manic grin never left.

"Heh... heh... not bad... but I'm not finished!" he rasped, dragging his broken body upward.

He clapped his hands together, and the very shadows under Titrus’ feet exploded upward like a tidal wave, trying to engulf the giant and swallow him into a void of nothingness.

Titrus merely flexed his arms.

BOOM!

The force alone dispersed the shadows, tearing the dark magic apart like mist under a hurricane.

Aizen smiled, the calm facade never left his face, darkness condensing around him in a tight sphere before he burst forward, his fists wrapped in chaotic black flame.

He threw a flurry of rapid punches, aiming for Titrus' head, throat, and chest, wild and erratic.

Titrus batted them aside with casual movements, each deflection accompanied by cracks and booms of sonic explosion.

His counterattack was simple, almost too straightforward.

A straight punch.

Titrus' knuckles collided squarely into Aizen’s stomach.

BOOOM!

The earth quaked, the crater widened further, a deep BOOM shaking the surroundings like a drum of doom.

Aizen dropped to his knees, vomiting blood, his body trembling uncontrollably.

Above him, Titrus stood like an unmoving mountain, breathing slow, showing no hint of injury, no hint of exhaustion.

Aizen coughed, his body shuddering, but his grin widened into something sinister, more like a scheme.

"Splendid!" he rasped, blood coating his teeth. "If fists won’t work... Iet us try another form of attack shall we?"

"Please be cooperative"

To this, Titrus frowned deeper.

He raised his mangled hand, dark symbols searing into the air.

The sky above seemed to darken unnaturally, a pressure descending onto the battlefield.

Titrus narrowed his eyes behind his helmet, watching.

Aizen’s last gamble had begun.

From the demonic runes, a beam of black light lanced forward, not towards Titrus' body, but aimed at his very soul.

A deadly, insidious attack meant to bypass flesh and strike directly at the spirit.

Mize's ears pricked, her eyes lifted as she sensed the changes.

After all, she too possessed a skill that tied to souls.

"It's disgusting" She wrinkled her nose.

Liam caught this sight from the corner of his eyes, amused.

For a heartbeat, silence.

The beam struck Titrus square in the chest.

Nothing happened.

Not even a flicker of reaction.

The ground trembled, the air itself distorted from the energy backlash, but Titrus stood there, utterly unaffected.

He tilted his head slightly, his towering frame casting a colossal shadow over Aizen's hunched form.

"Using soul attack against a being that stood above you?" Titrus' voice rumbled, low and disdainful. "You should've known better but not to do that"

Aizen staggered back, the smile pestered.

"It's just a test, for future uses that is" he muttered.

Titrus interrupted him by stepping forward, a frown etched on his face as he felt there was something wrong with this situation.

The ground beneath Aizen’s feet fractured again from the sheer oppressive force pressing down on him.

"How cunning, you had been playing from the start for informations?" Titrus growled, his voice dripping with annoyance.

"You filthy creatures had always been the same, scheming, acting, playing. But do you think your feeble sorceries could touch me? You should have crawled back into the hole you came from."

He lifted his fist once more, slow, and almost too dramatic for comfort, as if giving Aizen a final moment to understand his helplessness.

A faint golden glow covered his gloves.

"You stand before an existence that cannot be broken by the likes of you."

"Scheming for the future?"

"You think I wouldn't notice?"

"And this place" He grumbled, "I knew from the start"

"Such schemes!"

"Presumptuous demon!"

Promptly, Titrus swung his fist down.

BOOOM!

The final punch descended.

It landed with such catastrophic force that the ground erupted upward in a geyser of shattered stone and dust, the resulting shockwave flattening the nearby area and sending clouds of debris billowing high into the heavens.

When the dust finally settled.

Aizen was gone.

All that remained was a deep crater, twenty meters wide, the earth still smoldering from the force of the blow.

Titrus stood at the edge, lowering his arm slowly, his colossal frame outlined against the fractured landscape.

Without a word, he turned his back to the devastation and began to walk away, each step echoing.

“Well...”

Mize leaned forward slightly, a subtle grin tugging at the corner of her lips.

Her ears twitched with amusement as she peeked out at the aftermath, her tone light and teasing.

“It seems to have been quite the one-sided slaughter for the so-called survivalist expert.”

The landscape sprawled in ruins before them, a wasteland of churned dirt and dust drifting aimlessly through the air.

Craters pockmarked the ground, shattered stones lay strewn in haphazard piles.

It was, in every sense... Tragic.

"Indeed," Liam murmured, his voice calm, posture almost lazily relaxed, too relaxed even, which was quite interesting.

But Mize didn't caught that.

Liam's arms folded loosely across his chest as he stared into the distance, his eyes gleaming with a quiet, contemplative light. "It was... a hard-fought battle."

He hummed low under his breath, his gaze shifting as movement caught his attention.

From the heart of the swirling dust, a figure began to emerge.

The armor he wore was untouched. His posture easy going.

Not a scratch, not a dent, a mirror image of the moment the battle had begun.

Liam’s lips curved faintly at the sight.

'It seems he knew already' He whispered inwardly.

"It was as if it wasn’t even a battle anymore, no?" Mize chuckled softly, the sound light and musical in the heavy air.

With a casual flick of her slender wrist, a ripple of energy burst outward, a shimmering, expanding ring that raced across the ruined ground.

In the blink of an eye, the devastation began to mend.

Cracked stones slotted back into place. Scorched earth softened, soot and ash reversing course.

Walls rebuilt themselves in flashes of fleeting light, until the battlefield looked untouched, pristine, as if the carnage had never happened.

"Turning back time??" Liam blinked, a note of intrigue in his voice.

Mize merely smiled, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "It’s my imagination, not time manipulation" she said, her voice warm and playful. "No spell."

"It used more mental strength, but it's enough for now"

"I don't want to fight in an uneven terrain "

The heavy thud of footsteps drew nearer.

Titrus approached through the thinning veil of dust, his steps were unhurried, his massive frame casting a long shadow over the freshly restored ground.

Mize turned to meet him, her eyes gleaming with quiet appreciation.

"You have done well, Titrus," she said, her voice soft.

The giant knelt before her without hesitation, one massive knee cracking into the ground, his head bowed low in reverence.

"It is but a small stretch, Master," Titrus intoned. "The enemy fought well... but I fought harder."

He lifted his head slightly, golden eyes burning with conviction.

"Defeat was imminent from the start despite the schemes at play"