However, the moment Lilith sensed movement behind her back, she was ready.
Thanks to her doubled agility, her body moved with a speed that defied the laws of physics. She performed a lightning-fast somersault in mid-air, flying just over the beast, and her 40-centimeter talons sliced through the monster's leathery wing from the very base to the tips.
"RRRAAAAAAAAGHHHHH!!!"
The Chimera's scream was so deafening that the goblins below began to bury their heads in their hands out of terror.
The desperate beast, sensing its territorial dominance turning to dust, let out a damnable roar from both its throats. It accumulated all its remaining mana, and its body began to pulse with a sickly, violet-black light.
The sky over the forest suddenly darkened as the Chimera activated its wildest area-of-effect skill: "Shroud of Desperate Lightning."
From the thick, unnatural clouds, not just single bolts began to strike, but entire cascades of dark energy that rushed toward Lilith with a terrifying whistle. Each of these discharges carried a destructive force capable of turning rock into dust.
However, the Monarch, instead of fleeing, began her dance of death.
She moved between the whistling rays like a purple flash, spinning and performing acrobatic dodges in the air at a dizzying speed that exceeded 100 stats. The lightning bolts intended to incinerate her missed by millimeters, striking the surrounding forest with an ear-splitting roar.
The consequences were catastrophic.
Wherever the dark energy touched the ground, massive, centuries-old trees exploded, turning into a rain of splinters and burning rot. The earth around the goblin settlement was plowed by deep, smoking craters, and the shockwave of each missed shot laid waste to further reaches of the wilderness.
The Forest of Chaos groaned under the weight of this brutal force, and smoke from the burning vegetation mingled with the dust of the ruined tower.
Despite this apocalyptic chaos, Lilith remained elusive. Not a single bolt, not a shard of dark energy managed to so much as brush against her new, shimmering scaled armor.
The Monarch glided through the very heart of the storm, and her laughter, full of pure, doubled excitement, cut through the roar of thunder, heralding the inevitable end of the Guardian of the Ruins.
The beast, seeing the silhouette flying toward it, tried a "Death Grip" in a final reflex of survival. Its serpentine tail shot out and wrapped around Lilith's waist, tightening with the force of a powerful hydraulic press.
The Monarch, instead of panicking, bared her fangs in a predatory smile.
She grabbed the writhing snake-like body with both hands, sinking her talons into the flesh. Her doubled strength caused her muscles to tense like steel cables. She began to squeeze the tail with such power that a macabre crunch of breaking vertebrae carried through the area.
The beast arched in convulsions, losing the remnants of its aura, while Lilith towered over it, emanating a power that stifled all resistance.
The goblins below watched in total bewilderment. Their powerful "god," who had terrorized them for generations, was now being handled like a rag doll by a being who radiated pure, regal dominance. Every collision of these two powers triggered gigantic blasts of air.
"This is not a fight..." whispered one of the shamans, trembling all over. "This is an execution."
Lilith spread her arms in the air, her armor pulsing with dark light. She laughed wildly, feeling every cell in her body vibrate from the excess of power.
"What happened, Guardian?!" she shouted, her voice drowning out the thunder. "Is this all the 'god' of these wretched creatures can manage?! Show me something more, because your time on the timer is running out!"
The Chimera thrashed in the air, gasping heavily with blood dripping from numerous wounds, looking at Lilith with a mixture of hatred and primal dread.
The Chimera, whose body was now one massive, bleeding wound, felt something it hadn't known for centuries: absolute, paralyzing fear. The alpha predator instinct that had previously commanded it to fight was replaced by the primal instinct for survival.
The beast suddenly folded its tattered wings and, with a violent jerk, turned its back to Lilith, desperately trying to plunge deep into the forest.
Lilith was momentarily stunned. She hung in the air with a raised hand, blinking in disbelief.
"What...? You're actually running away?" she snorted under her breath, a look of deep contempt blossoming on her face. "Don't think I'll let you escape like a mutt with its tail between its legs!"
She slammed her wings, leaving behind a sonic wave that crumbled the ruins of the tower. Thanks to her doubled agility, she caught up with the beast in a fraction of a second.
She appeared over the Chimera like a dark angel of death and drove ten powerful, amaranthine talons into its back with all her momentum.
With an inhuman roar, both silhouettes plummeted vertically down, straight into the middle of the goblin village.
The impact with the ground was like a bomb exploding. The earth cracked, forming a deep crater, and the shockwave swept away the surrounding shacks. The goblins squealed in terror, scattering in all directions, while a bloodbath broke out in the center of the dust clouds.
Lilith, fueled by fury and the power of the Monarch, gave the beast no chance to breathe.
She slashed again and again, from top to bottom, tearing through muscle, tendon, and bone. In the cloud of dust, only the rhythmic splashing of tearing flesh and the agonal howling of the Chimera's heads could be heard, which slowly weakened, turning into a gurgle.
Lilith slashed like a madwoman until a golden notification flared before her eyes:
[You have killed: Cursed Void Chimera! Gold +10,000!]
Only then did the Monarch stop.
She took a deep, wheezing breath, her chest heaving violently. She looked at her forearms and armor, which were now completely bathed in the hot, black blood of the beast.
"This truly is a terrifyingly powerful skill..." she thought, feeling the power still pulsing in her veins.
When the dust finally settled, a grave silence fell over the village. Thousands of goblins stood motionless, staring at the crater. Their eyes widened to their limits when they saw Lilith in her majestic, armored form, standing proudly over the massacred carcass of their "god."
"O gods!" cried one of the shamans, dropping his staff.
"That Demon... killed the sacred beast!" yelled another, recoiling in panic.
"She did it with her bare hands! The Guardian of the Ruins stood no chance!" came from the crowd.
"Is she stronger than God himself?!"
"Look at her talons... it's over, we're all going to die!"
"This is no ordinary demon; this is a monster above monsters!"
The goblins shook with fear. Their faith, built for generations on the terror of the Chimera, had disintegrated in minutes. Their sacred beast lay at the feet of a woman who looked like the embodiment of their worst nightmares.
Lilith slowly raised her head.
Her eyes swept over the goblins as a predatory, dark smile appeared on her face, re-entering the role of a ruthless sovereign. She straightened up, and her wings spread wide, casting a gigantic shadow over the settlement.
"Listen to me, wretched creatures!" her voice, low and saturated with power, rolled through the village like thunder. "The monster you worshiped is dead! It has been swept from the face of the earth by my hand!"
She took a step forward, and the goblins before her fell on their faces, whimpering.
"From this moment, I am your new Master! Your blood, your labor, and your lives belong to me. Submit and serve me faithfully, or you shall be utterly destroyed! Choose for yourselves: life in the shadow of my power, or the eternal darkness of death!"