After 60 seconds of nonstop rain of the magma fists hitting her ball of ice, nothing seems to be happening from the outside perspective. Neo can only pray to God to give Yuki the strength to persevere for the entire duration.

  Meanwhile, Claudia has come down to the pool of magma and creates a sleeping chair made of magma to rest on top of it as she observes Yuki's struggle.

  "I'm going to enjoy this!"

  Another 60 seconds have passed, and Claudia is still resting on top of her sleeping chair.

  "Hmm, she's quite strong! The temperature of my magma fissures has reached past the temperature on the surface of the sun, being 6000 degrees Celsius. And I don't see her ice ball even melt or drip a single drop of water. Well, let's see what happens at least 10 minutes from now on!"

  Claudia continues to relax on her sleeping chair, and she also lies down as she keeps watching Yuki's ball of ice being showered by tens of thousands of magma fists.

  5 minutes have passed, and Claudia has started to get bored.

  "Nnnnnnn!!" She stretches herself after yawning on her sleeping chair.

  "Wow, this is boring. I thought it would be exciting, but in reality, it’s like watching a one-second video that was put on a loop endlessly."

  "I'll spice things--!!!!"

  *!!*

  As Claudia was just about to get up from her chair, she realized someone was coming from above with harmful intent. Claudia immediately raises her right hand above. And then magma rises from the magma pool near her, forming an arch shielding her from an attack that was coming at her.

  It was Neo. He jumped down from the giant bird of ice above and transformed his right hand, and punched down towards Claudia, but the magma arch blocked his attack.

  *!*

  However, what Claudia didn't know was the massive amount of mass Neo's punch had, plus the increased mass from the velocity he got from falling quite high from the sky.

  *BLARSH*

  *BWOOOSSH*

  The magma arch covering her bursts open, and Claudia is sent flying a bit from her spot. The punch also destroyed her sleeping chair, made of magma. But Neo's silver transformation also breaks apart from the heat of the magma.

  "Oh oh! I DIDN'T THINK THIS THROUGH!! I CAN'T LAND ANYWHERE ON THIS LAVA!!"

  Instinctively, Neo transformed both of his hands and clapped downward towards the pool of magma. The mass of his clap creates a massive shockwave of air, and it pushes away all of the magma below from the spot where he falls, creating a safe landing spot for him in a large area. He transformed his feet and landed safely on the ice.

  "Under all this magma, Kouhai's ice is still frozen solid and strong. My beloved kouhai really does have an insane Faith power." Neo smiled to himself.

  "Ah, so now the loser wanna join in on the fun? HAVE IT YOUR WAY!! MY MAIN GOAL WAS TO KILL YOU ANYWAY!!"

  Claudia raises both of her hands and clenches them into a fist. She also covered her fists in a thick layer of magma. Neo transformed both of his hands as well and went into his battle stance.

  "(I don't know what I can do against someone whose Faith power is my weakness. Not to mention, this woman is the 9th Strongest Believer as well. All I need to do is hold out as long as possible until kouhai gets out of the giant ice ball behind.)"

  Claudia makes the first move; she slides on the pool of magma towards Neo. Neo claps his hands again, and he sends out a shockwave of air that clears a path for him to walk as well. Neo marches forward, readying his right fist. Claudia punches forward with her right fist, and so does Neo. Their fists clashed, but the momentum from Neo's punch was so much higher that it sent Claudia flying.

  "Hahahah! Not bad, loser!"

  *CRACK*

  But then Neo's transformation immediately breaks apart.

  "(Alright, at least I know I can hold my own in a direct clash! Though I'm screwed once she figured that out!)"

  As soon as Neo finishes his thought, the pool of magma surrounding him rises and forms two waves coming towards him from his left and right.

  "(THIS IS BAD!!!)"

  Neo transformed his legs and jumped high into the air. But then a giant hand made of magma suddenly appeared behind him. It has a palm that is five times the size of Neo's entire body.

  "Yeah, I figured your Faith power has really poor movement options in midair. NOW DIE!!"

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  The giant hand gripped its palm and swallowed Neo's entire body. Inside the giant hand's grip, Neo tried to minimize his transformation to only protect his vital organs under the 40% transformation limit. The giant hand suddenly slammed its palm downwards towards the pool of magma below.

  *SPLAT*

  The giant hand melts away, and Neo is inside the magma pool for a split second. Then he immediately transformed his right hand and swung his fist to send shockwaves, and pushed away all of the magma pools from him.

  "URGHH!! This burn stings so much!! ARGH!"

  Neo's body was burned on his right waist, on his left shoulder, on his right cheek, on his right feet, on his left forearm, and on his upper back. His sweater and shirts were also burned away, leaving holes in those spots.

  "AAAAAAAAAARRRGGHHH!!!"

  The pain of the extremely hot magma affects Neo intensely, so he screams and falls over on the ice below. He also tried to stick all of his burnt wounds towards the ice below by rolling back and forth.

  "Don't worry, loser! I won't let you die so easily! I'LL MAKE SURE TO TORTURE YOU AND MAKE YOU SCREAM UNTIL YOU DIE FROM EXHAUSTION!!"

  *pant pant pant*

  "(Not good, my Faith power really is no match against her. I have to do something to buy time!)”

  Neo thinks to himself for a moment.

  “(Wait, she really hates me. I bet she'll respond to any dialogue I throw at her.)"

  *pant pant pant*

  Neo slowly stands up while holding his burnt wounds.

  "Are you really Karin's sister? She never talked about you whenever we were together!"

  Claudia also stands up and walks slowly towards him on magma.

  "I have some circumstances that even my own parents wouldn't talk about me to anyone! It's a bit complicated and you don't need to know about that!!"

  *pant pant pant*

  "Tell me! *pant pant* Why do you hate me so much? *pant pant* Last I checked, Karin was the one who betrayed me, and then she left me to wherever she is now. *pant pant* So, why do you hate me?"

  ". . . . "

  "Betray? BETRAY!!??"

  All of a sudden, Claudia's anger explodes, and a giant magma eruption occurs far away behind her. The magma eruption sends hundreds of lava spouts to rain over a short range near where the eruption happened.

  "MY LITTLE SISTER WAS DYING AND THE ONLY NAME SHE KEPT UTTERING WAS YOUR NAME!! SHE KEPT CALLING ON TO NEO, YOU!! ON HER LAST BREATH, ALL SHE COULD EVER THINK OF WAS YOU!! SHE KEPT CRYING AND CRYING AND CRYING CAUSE SHE LOSES HER FUTURE TO BE WITH YOU!! AND WHEN I FOUND OUT WHAT YOUR ROLE IS IN ALL OF THIS, IT MAKES ME SICK TO MY STOMACH!! YOU FUCKING TRAITOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRR!!!"

  Claudia screams her lungs out so much that it hurts her vocal cords.

  On Claudia's last scream, another magma eruption occurs, and this time, a lot closer and also a lot bigger than the last. The eruption also sends giant lava spouts to fall over the pool of magma everywhere nearby.

  . . . . . .

  "(Huh?)"

  "SHE BETRAYED YOU? SHEEEEE? BETRAYED YOUUUU?? HOW DARE YOU SPEAK THAT WAY ABOUT MY LITTLE SISTER? HOW DARE YOU MENTION HER NAME!! GET HER NAME OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!! YOU WHO NEVER ONCE WAS ON HER SIDE!! YOU WHO ONLY THINK ABOUT YOURSELVES!!! SHUT THE FUCK UUUUUUUUUUPPP!!!"

  "(. . .Karin's. . .dead?)"

  Claudia takes a step forward towards Neo.

  "MY LITTLE SISTER WAS A SWEET PERSON AND A PURE SOUL!!!"

  "Neo!"

  Claudia takes another step forward.

  "SHE'S THE TYPE OF PERSON WHO ALWAYS GIVES HER BEST WHEN IT COMES TO OTHER PEOPLE!!"

  "Neo, I love you! Hehehehe!"

  Claudia takes a step forward.

  "SHE'S THE TYPE OF PERSON WHO ALWAYS SO DILIGENT AND SERIOUS ABOUT HER FUTURE AND CAREER!!"

  "Good morning, honey!"

  Claudia takes another step forward.

  "SHE'S THE TYPE TO MAKE SURE TO KEEP ANY PROMISES SHE HAS MADE!"

  "Let's keep this a promise until we get married, Neo!"

  Claudia takes another step forward. She is now directly in front of Neo. She grabs Neo on his shirt's collar with both of her hands. Claudia started crying as tears ran down her cheeks.

  "WHY? WHY DID YOU NEVER TAKE HER SIDE? WEREN’T YOU HIS BOYFRIEND??"

  Claudia's tears put Neo in shock and utter disbelief. He can only stay still and silently in front of her.

  "She betrayed you? Of course not! She was controlled! She was treated like an object! She has her free will stolen from her! She was hypnotized!!"

  Claudia's anger has gone, and now her tone is just pure grief and sorrow. Her voice was also a lot calmer than previously, as she no longer screams. The tone of her voice completely projects the emotional pain in her heart.

  . . . . .

  "(What is this person talking about?)"

  "(Karin betrayed me! Karin betrayed our promise! Karin was having sex with my own brother behind my back!)"

  "(So, someone please tell me, what is this woman talking about? Why is she so intent of covering for her? For her repulsive actions? What is this woman's intention?)"

  "She was acting weird, didn't she? That she was just smiling with empty eyes?"

  Claudia kept crying as she showed her most painful expression to Neo.

  Neo was dumbfounded by what Claudia said. More than half of everything she said about Karin was correct. Her being caring towards others was correct. Her being someone who will do everything in her power to keep her promises was correct. Her taking her future and career seriously was also correct. Neo's mind has been completely struck and stopped by Claudia's every word about Karin.

  ". . . . ."

  "I don't believe you! The pain I felt towards her betrayal was all too real for me to just accept everything you just said! What if this is another cover-up plan that she comes up with to justify her disgusting actions? What if she were the one who sent you to her family home to potentially meet me? What if you're not even her real sister? What if you were just an actress that she paid for? Controlled? Hypnotized? Spare me your silly excuses! I bet she just hired you to kill me to get rid of her crime against me!!"

  Neo uttered those words directly in Claudia's face.

  . . . .

  Claudia was left utterly shocked and speechless. She lets go of Neo's collar.

  . . . .

  Claudia's face slowly changes from her painful and sorrowful expression to a raging and burning hatred and anger.

  "YOU!!! RRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!"

  Claudia clenches both of her fists so hard that her fists bleed a bit. Her face was so red from her anger that the veins on her face became very visible.

  "YOU!! PATHETIC FUCKING EXCUSE OF A MAN! I FUCKING DESPISE YOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!"

  Claudia screams her lungs out again, and it hurts her vocal cords again. She raises her fist high, and a giant hand of magma the size of a school bus appears diagonally behind and above her.

  "GO TO HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!"

  Claudia swings her right fist down towards Neo's face. The giant magma hand behind and above her also came down towards Neo and her, following her motion.

  "(. . .I can't dodge this. . .My transformation won't be able to block this. . . I won't be able to parry this in time. . .I'm. . .dead. . .)"

  *!!!!!!*

  All of a sudden, there was someone else between them. Someone caught Claudia's giant magma right fist with their palm.

  "You've been mocking my beloved senpai so leisurely this whole time. I thought I told you; you won't get away with it next time."