She's worse.

"Stay calm, just ignore the creepy title. I have this match in the bag. Just an angel using healing and life magic." Verdi mumbled, fidgeting nervously as he toyed with a silver coin in his hands, his fingers tracing over the smooth surface as he paced to and fro in the competitor waiting room. It was a plain enough room with a small table, some snacks, and an hourglass that would show when it was time for his fight. The only thing that stood out from the room was the massive wooden wagon packed with 8 barrels filled to the brim with distilled water. On each barrel was a series of formulas Verdi had inscribed with a knife, his way of storing some basic formulaic spells to be cast instantly in case of the worst occurring. He knew logically that he had the advantage if Evangeline could only heal herself or use life magic, but that did little to stifle his nervousness. As the last grains of sand fell from the hourglass, he could sense the room around him slowly elevating, the underground waiting room steadily emerging through the use of magic.

Eventually, the ceiling receded to display the blistering hot sun shining upon his body, the rays causing him to sweat as he found himself standing within a massive sandstone arena packed with millions of humans and monsters alike crying out for blood. The arena was massive, spanning almost a thousand yards with a small box in the corner for special guests to watch the battle up close. Atop the arena walls were millions of viewers eager to see blood and ****, each of them munching on snacks as they prepared for another bloodbath. He could see gambling booths in the corner where the audience was eagerly exchanging money.

To his surprise, he could detect Fenri and Eris waiting in line and chatting as they tossed over massive sacks of silver coins to the man behind the desk, with Eris serving as Fenri's interpreter for the exchange. He snapped to attention as he heard a booming voice resonate through the white noise of the crowd. With his senses he could detect a lone harpy speaking from a nearby press box, his voice amplified by powerful wind magic and echoing through a complex set of pipes situated throughout the arena.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! I hope you're ready for blood!" The harpy shrieked, his voice booming through the entire city itself as he took in a deep breath. "In the north we have the Angel Lord, the healer from hell, the Scion of slaughter, the one, the only, Evangeline the Undying!" He said as Verdi glanced over to the supposed Angel Lord everyone was afraid of. Rubbing his eyes and then closing one eye, he tried to make sense of just what he was seeing using his eyes and heightened sense of touch.

The woman before him was a woman who appeared to be in her mid-30s with a soft smile and and caring blue eyes. Her waist length blonde hair swayed in the wind while the toga she wore left little to the imagination, covering only the barest of parts and exposing her bountiful F cup chest from the slightest breeze. She was roughly 6 feet tall with a curvy hourglass figure of a mother than a young woman with flowing white wings that stretched twice her height in wingspan. Verdi scanned her for the slightest trace of corruption, evil, or deception in her, yet he saw nothing but a smiling woman standing before him. Before he could study her any further, he heard the announcer continue talking.

"Up against her is... Verdi...?" He said reluctantly as the announcer's voice went quiet for a minute. Despite that, everyone could hear him as he spoke to someone out of sight. "Is that it? No title? This girl a hero? Monster in disguise? Famous merc? Royalty? Serial ****? Come on, give me something you slack jawed ape. Give me her tournament form, we'll play by ear. Ice magic? Who the fuck uses-okay, fine, fine, we'll go with that one." The announcer said as he cleared his throat and spoke up.

"In the south corner, we have the frigid beauty, the frozen fury, Verdi the Ice Princess!" He said as a vein bulged on Verdi's forehead.

"GO FUCK YOURSELF YOU FEATHERED FUCKWAD! CALL ME THAT AGAIN AND I'LL SHOVE MY FOOT SO FAR UP YOUR ASS YOU'LL BE TASTING LEATHER IN THE BACK OF YOUR MOUTH! I'LL STIR FRY YOUR ASS NEXT TIME I SEE YOU!" Verdi shouted back, his voice somehow louder than the announcer's as he let out a stream of curses and **** threats to the accursed bird monster.

"We got ourselves a spicy contestant! Let's see how she fares in loser's bracket!" The announcer said as Verdi frowned. This was his first fight, so he was still in winner's bracket, right? As he tried to make sense of the announcer's words, he saw the angel wave to him and cup her hands to speak.

"Hello dear! It's so nice to meet you! I'm Evangeline Astorias, what's your name?" She asked, her voice flowing like a hymn across the arena.

"I'm Verdi, and it's nice to meet you too!" Verdi shouted in turn, slightly surprised at how polite the angel was.

"Before we start, do you mind if I have my lovers watch and cheer for me by the side of the stage? I promise they won't insult you or **** you." Evangeline asked, her request accompanied by thousands of screams of terror. He looked around to find every member of the audience frozen in abject terror, some even daring to leave the stadium at the simple question.

"GOOD LORD GIRL, SAY NO! SAY FUCKING NO!" One man from the stands screeched as thousands more joined in his pleas, **** to avoid meeting Evangeline's lover. A bout of nervousness hit Verdi as he had second thoughts of fighting Evangeline. He looked at he golden haired angel and searched for the slightest oddity or trace of deception, as though she were trying to get him to lower his guard. Despite the bias against her from literally everyone in the city, he couldn't see anything wrong with her. She seemed affable enough, and she lacked the creepy aura that Harvin seemed to give off.

"I don't mind. Do you mind if I do the same with my friends? I'm REALLY sorry if they insult you. They tend to be rowdy." Verdi said as he looked to the viewer's box. According to the tournament rules, the audience was protected by a divine barrier that couldn't be broken by contestants. It should be fine for them to watch the show up close.

"Of course not. Please, be as comfortable as possible. This is just a friendly spar after all." Evangeline answered as Verdi cupped his hands.

"Hey Fenri, wanna watch the show up close?" He asked, unwilling to invite Citrinas, Varrick, or the rest of his party down considering they'd spend the entire time telling him to surrender. They were still saying that from the stands, but he didn't want them closer and telling him that.

"Verdi, you better fucking win! Eris and I put all our fucking money on you!" Fenri shouted, leaping from the stands and landing on all fours like a wild animal. Hopping into the viewer's box, she leaned back in a chair and crossed her arms impatiently.

"All of it?" Verdi asked in disbelief as Fenri nodded with a giddy expression.

"All of my money and Citrinas' money. I told her to loan me some cash and that I'd pay her back double." She said before snickering. "Course, I'm gonna be walking away with 5,000 times as much money." She bragged, Verdi's odds far worse than he imagined. 5,000 to 1 odds he beat Evangeline? Something was wrong.

"Didn't take you for a gambler." He noted as Fenri snorted.

"This isn't a gamble, it's a payout." She snapped back as Evangeline clasped her hands. Despite being 300 yards away and needing to cup her hands to shout, she spoke to them.

"Aw, it's so nice seeing someone so supportive! You two make for a great couple!" She said, somehow hearing their exchange.

"Oh, she's not my lover. She's..." Verdi began before looking to the hero. "Fenri, what's our relationship?"

"Master and pet." She answered flatly as 4 figures hopped from the stands. Instantly, Verdi identified them as Citrinas, Belsach, Varrick, and Daria, the quartet noticeably on edge as they kept their eyes focused on Evangeline.

"Champ, surrender right the fuck now, and tell that psychopath she CAN'T bring her fucking victims into the arena." Belsach hissed, his usual carefree attitude absent as Varrick nodded.

"Do it right fucking now. Surrender, and we can change our plans." Varrick demanded, his voice frantic as he swore for the first time in their journey. Upon hearing everyone but Fenri demand Verdi surrender, Evangeline's mood seemed to dampen as she cupped her hands and shouted to them.

"Do you plan on surrendering before the fight even starts?" She asked sheepishly, genuinely hurt as Verdi felt a tinge of guilt. She was the second most affable and polite person he'd met in his journey after Varrick. He was terrified of Varrick the first time he'd met the paladin, and he felt stupid for ever fearing him ever since then considering how kind he was.

"No. I'd like to win if possible, so I'll surrender if I'm losing!" Verdi said in turn, Evangeline's mood improving in an instant.

"It's not possible you fucking idiot." Daria hissed as Evangeline gave them a small golf clap.

"Wonderful! It's so hard to find people who want to spar with me since nobody wants to hurt me. Please, do me a favor and don't hold anything back." Evangeline said as Verdi felt a strange kinship with the angel. She was probably treated as someone beneath contempt like Verdi himself, his warmth skill making him seem harmless to the world while Evangeline's angelic heritage gave her a similar holy aura. Suddenly, Verdi saw a white blur hop down from the audience, slowly floating down to the arena with a faint holy light permeating their very skin. It was a young man shorter than Verdi with tiny wings and an androgynous face on par with Verdi's own appearance. It seemed this was Evangeline's lover.

"My Lady, is this truly the best place to bring it... Er... Them?" The angel asked nervously as he looked to Verdi, his eyes filled with pity as his words were unable to reach the alchemist due to the sheer distance between them.

"They deserve to see me spar with someone as cute as Verdi." Evangeline said cheerily, startling the male angel. He looked to Verdi, his eyes filled with pity before sighing as he channeled power, his aura identical to Citrinas when she channeled her Domain.

"Godspeed." The angel said as a portal appeared before him as everyone in the auditorium screamed and ran away.

"Good god, Evangeline please don't whip that thing out here! Have mercy!" The harpy announcer begged, his job demanding he watch the entire match in all its horror as Verdi felt a wave of hot, musky air hit him. The stench was akin to raw meat, blood, and aged mucus as a sea of pink squirming flesh oozed forth from the portal. The second the creature touched the ground, Verdi felt a wave of disgust fill him as his sense of touch gave him insight to the creature's alien body system and the nightmare realm that lay within the portal.

The creature was a hulking abomination whose size was comparable to Verdi's own monster form, its body a twisted mass of pure flesh rather than the hybrid plant form Verdi had. What differentiated Verdi's own form from the Evangeline's "lover" was the fact that Verdi lacked any humanoid organs in his monster form, being nothing more than tendrils, roots, and fluid storage sacks. The creature before him was a patchwork mass of meat that contained countless alien organs and parts from numerous species. He could sense intestines that stretched for miles, hundreds of stomachs that were seemingly melted together into a single centralized processing center for nutrient slop, and thousands of kidneys that were fixated solely on filtering the blood. Verdi dry heaved when he noticed the many brains that the massive creature held accompanied by the many monster cores implanted within it, each one a different shape or size. Placing her hand into the pink slop, Evangeline focused for a second as the endless mass of flesh twitched.

In an instant, the pink slime seemingly spat a chunk of itself to the arena's walls, a thin thread connecting its "spitball" to its main body. Like an amoeba, the creature slowly oozed itself towards the walls at Evangeline's command, slowly engulfing the arena's walls as the audience screamed, fleeing the rapidly encroaching flesh. Rather than consume anyone, the pink slime migrated to a set of reserved seats and were content assimilating only the walls, leaving the viewer box where Verdi's party were waiting untainted. The true horror, however, was yet to come as the fleshy walls twitched and reshaped as Evangeline pumped additional magic power into the beast Before long, thousands of eyes and mouths formed on the walls as the beast's main body began pumping air through to the newly spawned mouths. The screams began, and to Verdi's revulsion he realized it wasn't just the audience he could hear screaming.

"KILL ME!"

"GODS, ANYONE, PLEASE FREE ME FROM THIS HELL!"

"SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"MOMMY, PLEASE COME GET ME, I DON'T WANT TO PLAY ANYMORE!"

"FIRE! CLEANSE ME WITH FIRE! I AM IMPURE!"

"WHERE DO I BEGIN AND END!?"

"KILL THIS PSYCHO!"

Of the people in the stadium, it was doubtful anyone was able to comprehend the sheer horror of the victims greater than Verdi. The mouths that spoke had no unifying language, each one speaking a different tongue. Devils, minotaurs, goblins, angels, amazonians, elves, northern warriors, central continent mages, dark elves, and almost 20 other languages across the vast continent could be heard howling in their native tongues for the bliss of **** to claim them. Even melted together in the biomass that constituted their current form, they were still lucid enough to grasp the horror of their situation as their inhuman forms pumped endless amounts of oxygen through their mouths so they could scream without pausing for a breath. Reshaping portions of their bodies into hearts, lungs, and other organs, Evangeline had the brains and monster cores of her "lovers" migrate to the arena and embed themselves in the wall as the portal to the entity's main body was closed. With a bow, Evangeline's underling flew out of the arena as Evangeline spoke to the creature that new spanned the arena.

"Say hello dearies! This is Verdi!" She said, her voice akin to a preschool teacher or a mother to a child as thousands of voices gave their response.

"KILL YOURSELF!"

"KILL ME!"

"RUN AWAY BEFORE SHE TAKES YOU TOO!"

"GOD LET ME DIE, THIS ISN'T LIVING!"

"YOU THERE, BITCH! KILL ME! FIND MY CORE AND DESTROY IT! I SWEAR UPON MY NAME THAT THE MELZORIA CLAN SHALL REPAY THIS KINDESS." Upon hearing the last remark, Evangeline's face went beet red from embarrassment as she looked to Verdi.

"Oh I am SO sorry about that honey. I guess little Frederick is a little grumpy today. I'm SO sorry, I promised they would be good, but seems they love me a bit too much and called you a naughty word." She said, loving stroking a portion of the wall where a series of eyes stared her down. Some of them held malice and bloodlust while others were pleading for the sweet embrace of **** as they fixated on Verdi.

"Th-that's fine. I don't mind at all." Verdi said, startled by the sheer horror of the situation and just how nightmarish life magic was. Evangeline had millions of people stuffed in her domain and melted together into a biological soup of interconnected organs that spat in the face of science by merely existing. These things should have died from a thousand different reasons, yet here they were, alive despite the laws of physics and biology declaring them to be heretics. At the sight of this travesty, Varrick threw up in his helmet as Daria pulled a handkerchief from her inventory to help him clean up. Belsach and Citrinas were busy shouting at Verdi to surrender before he joined her group of lovers, both of them justifiably concerned for his health. As for Fenri, she was giving him a thumbs up with a toothy grin.

"Don't worry Verdi, if she tries to stuff you in her box and runs away I swear I'll get you out within the hour!" Fenri reassured as Verdi felt a slight tinge of relief at the sight of Evangeline and her lovers. All this time he thought he was the most horrific thing in the city, when in reality he wasn't even in the top 200 most nightmare inducing creatures in this accursed arena. As Evangeline finished getting her lovers comfortable, Verdi swallowed nervously and pulled his wooden cart full of water forward, the barrels shaking and clanking against each other with each step he took.

"Urk... Are... Are the contestants... Ready?" The harpy announcer asked, dry heaving as a soft breeze sent the musky arena air into the stands.

"Ready!" Evangeline said with a cheery voice as Verdi swallowed a mouthful of bile as he raised a hesitant thumb's up.

"Ready..." Verdi mumbled, learning a very important lesson of why he should rely on Citrinas and Varrick for advice rather than Fenri. He desperately wanted to just surrender, go to Citrinas' bed, and cower underneath the covers trying to forget this ever happened. The only thing stopping him was the fact that he'd spent so much time hyping himself and Fenri up that surrendering without even taking a hit or hitting her would be embarrassing. Resigning himself to the inevitable beatdown, he braced himself as Evangeline made her first move.