And so, the meeting with Bishop Yoannis Bethel ended in a somewhat chilly atmosphere. After being shown to her room, Sophia, who had politely seen the bishop off, let out a quiet sigh once he was gone.

“Even in my past life, I always felt that socializing and politics were really difficult.”

Though she was good at almost everything, she was clumsy when it came to reading people’s emotions. This had been the case since her past life as a man, and with her memories intact, how could anything have changed in this life?

She had tried to improve, making various efforts, but apart from matters of strength, her nerves were too thick. Compared to others, their mental states seemed too fragile and delicate. She even wondered if tofu or cookies might be sturdier.

Sighing, Sophia decided to stop dwelling on unproductive worries. Her lack of communication skills wasn’t a new issue, and it wasn’t something that could change overnight.

Instead, she thought it would be better to focus on more constructive matters. For example, pushing herself to a higher and more powerful level.

The primal desire for ascension that had carried over from her past life remained unchanged in this life. If anything, it had grown stronger, driving her even more intensely.

Honestly, she didn’t need power, fame, wealth, or glory. She didn’t crave sympathy or comfort from others, though she wouldn’t mind it. Her thirst was solely for personal strength—greater power, the force of a clenched fist, the might of a single sword. That was her sole focus.

Though it was a bit contradictory, as she instinctively rejected anything that seemed corrupt or immoral. But what could she do? Her innate heroism, carried over from her past life, was thoroughly specialized in that direction.

As Sophia meditated, several images floated into her mind.

The diagram of the eight extraordinary meridians and twelve regular meridians centered around the three dantians, the distribution of chakras with seven major wheels and 88,000 minor ones, the mark of the anointed on her forehead, the gears inscribed all over her body, the holy scars of ‘chivalry’ and ‘trials’ etched into her flesh.

Finally, the spirit nerve network formed by the Reverse Brain Method and the spirit muscle channels formed by the Reverse Muscle Technique overlapped and projected onto these images.

For Sophia, whose concentration had dramatically heightened, the images in her mind were no different from directly observing her physical body. She began to gradually apply spiritual stress to her body, carefully observing how organically and integrally it responded, measuring the limits it could endure.

In response, her physical body’s muscles and qi swelled, reacting to the spiritual stress applied only in the mental image. Her closed eyes furrowed, drawing a vertical line between her brows, sweat beaded on her skin, evaporating repeatedly, and steam rose in wisps.

Soon, the Sophia in the image began to practice and refine her martial arts. She not only observed her body’s reactions but also envisioned spiritual adversaries, discerning the strengths and weaknesses of her techniques, constantly refining them over and over.

In her past life, the martial arts she had primarily practiced were based on mixed martial arts and military/police CQC (Close Quarters Combat) curricula. She had also dabbled in traditional martial arts, but only as part of her research into ancient mysteries, not with serious dedication.

This was largely due to the significant differences in practicality, rationality, and overall curriculum completeness between modern, scientific martial arts and traditional ones. It had been a necessary choice.

However, bringing the perfected martial arts of her past life into this world posed some challenges.

For example, the existence of battlefields closer to ancient-medieval times, the presence of the Reverse Brain and Reverse Muscle Methods, and the existence of demons and monstrous beasts were all such challenges.

The biggest reason mixed martial arts and CQC could be considered the pinnacle of martial arts was that, at the time of their emergence, humanity’s true enemy was only other humans. The battlefield had shifted away from long cold weapons to firearms, with close-quarters combat becoming the norm.

But in this world, humanity’s true enemy was not humans but ‘demons.’ Even if demons weren’t involved, there were plenty of beasts and monstrous creatures that posed a threat to humans.

Moreover, even among humans, the existence of the Reverse Brain and Reverse Muscle Methods created significant differences in basic physical capabilities. Compared to Earth, where physical limits were relatively uniform, there were far more variables to consider here.

For these reasons, Sophia’s decision to turn back the clock on martial arts was a rational one.

First, she chose the ancient longsword techniques of Earth.

Specifically, the German school of Johannes Liechtenauer and the Italian school of Fiore dei Liberi, both of which her past self, Lee Beom-seok, had mastered. Sophia began to build her foundation in weapon techniques around these longsword styles to adapt to the medieval-European-like level of weapon development in this world.

Next, she chose Tai Chi. The reason for this was twofold: Tai Chi was fundamentally similar to combat wrestling, and it was an excellent martial art for learning how to utilize body balance, muscle coordination, and the flow of qi in combat.

The crude and somewhat brutal nature of pre-modern martial arts, along with their lack of rationality, actually worked in Sophia’s favor. In a situation where the battlefield environment was so different that she had to rebuild from the ground up, starting with less refined techniques was far more advantageous than trying to adapt overly sophisticated systems.

Finally, she chose Aikido. Originally developed in an era of long cold weapons, Aikido had evolved small wrestling techniques to subdue enemies with minimal movement at a distance. Sophia intended to fill the gaps in Tai Chi’s technical shortcomings with Aikido.

Sophia’s efforts yielded visible results.

Even if there were some mismatches due to environmental differences, Earth’s martial arts had been refined over generations based on rationality, tested and verified in real combat. Moreover, they had been further filtered and supplemented through modernization and scientific advancement.

Additionally, her experience in mixed martial arts and CQC had given her a taste of what the pinnacle of martial arts could be. Relying on this past experience, Sophia continuously verified which techniques were practical and coherent within her martial arts framework, repeating this process diligently every day.

The result was clear. Sophia had become the youngest executive-level member of the Paladins, the Church’s most powerful military force against demons. Recently, she had even earned the ominous nickname “The Annihilator of Light,” whether she liked it or not.

It was during one of her sweat-drenched training sessions that something happened.

Suddenly, Sophia, who had been sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, disappeared from her spot.

With a faint sound, she reappeared in front of the window. Standing there, she quietly retracted her finger from the wooden dormitory window and slowly opened her eyes.

Opening the window, Sophia reached out, and the corpse of a dead night sparrow flew into her hand. It was a technique combining telekinesis with Void Manipulation. The sparrow had a hole the size of Sophia’s finger right through its forehead.

From the sparrow’s corpse, Sophia could detect traces of a familiar spell made from demonic magic.

“That damn whore sent this, didn’t she?”

It seemed that someone had noticed Sophia’s arrival in Strasbourg and sent a familiar to spy on her. In short, this was Erzebet’s mistake. It confirmed to Sophia that Erzebet was indeed in Strasbourg.

Sophia’s lips curled into a smile, revealing her fangs. It was an extremely aggressive and ferocious grin.

Though she tried to deny it, Sophia felt most alive when facing demons and their followers. It was a joy born from knowing that her strength was truly needed.

On Earth, there had been too few places where Lee Beom-seok’s strength was required, and most of those were unofficial, like occult incidents or inappropriate violence. But in this world, the task of slaying demons was official, legitimate, and, most importantly, a field where her strength was genuinely needed.

Sophia eagerly awaited the day when the head of the Strasbourg intelligence agency would bring her the requested materials. And much sooner than she expected, the very next day, Paul Hiltmann, the head of the agency, came to see her.