Sarah has never been an outstanding woman. She was born in a middle-class home, she was brought up by normal, loving parents, and while she never excelled at school, she also never failed.
Her social skills were there, she had a good physical appearance, and the friends she made during her adolescence lasted through her short adulthood. Besides that, she had many hobbies, reading online books being one of them, and had settled most of her future by the age of 25.
An average but fulfilling life with friends, family, and a normal-paying job. The only thing she never had was a lover, or, to be more precise, a serious lover. She had gone on dates but never crossed the last line, finding her partners not good enough to choose them to spend the rest of her life with.
She was undoubtedly not a blessed or wealthy person, but her day-to-day life was not complicated, and she lived a happy and primarily stress-free life.
Yet, without knowing when or how, she suddenly appeared in the middle of a forest.
At one moment, she was driving toward her workplace, and at the next moment, she was standing in the middle of nowhere.
What surrounded her were trees so tall and wide that she doubted her eyes. Not even on the internet had she ever seen trees this big. Trees that stretched upward higher than even the skyscrapers of the city she lived in.
'Am I dreaming?'
That was her first thought; after all, the sight was so absurd that everybody would be confused.
And while she looked around, lost and confused, a mechanical and cold voice rang in her head, startling her.
Reading the messages, she realized that she was no longer in the place she previously lived. She was no longer even on the same planet or reality.
Instantly, she realized that she was in a fantasy World. Moreover, it was one of her favorite cultivation novels.
'A cultivation world!'
The world of cultivation, a place where powers that can move stars and allow people to move between worlds, existed.
However, while she was excited at first, her surroundings suddenly felt many times scarier.
Thankfully for her, she wasn't thrown here without anything. She had a system with her! A thing she knew that if the people of the cultivation world knew about, they might hunt her down. So, afraid of being discovered, she swore never to reveal the existence of the system.
What she learned next was that this system called itself the [Harem Goddess System], making her feel excited. She could already picture her future of being surrounded by handsome men, all coddling her and loving her.
Still, it seemed that her Fate wasn't as such.
She met someone who twisted her sexuality so severely that she became as bent as a 'mosquito coil.'
'Beautiful women are the best!'
That's what she thought, and a thought that held up for a while. While she wasn't successful in wooing the absolutely gorgeous woman who made her heart thump just thinking of her, she managed to create her own harem.
The women of a fantasy world, with beauty standards that would make any model of her past life feel ashamed, took care of her so nicely that she was drowning in passion.
Sarah was satisfied with her first lover. However, her system, the cheat code that could guarantee an easy-sailing life in this world, was a Harem System, owning many tools that helped her get stronger the more lovers she gained. So, she decided to seduce all the girls she found interesting.
'After all, there shouldn't be any real dangers with a cheat-like system. So, let's create a harem of beautiful women!'
And she was very successful at that.
However, the place she was in after the secret realm was a place where humans were detested to the point that cattle in her past World might have been treated better. Although the cows were eventually killed and eaten, at least they were fed and left alone until that day. Humans in Distancia were treated much worse, used for things that made her stomach churn just thinking about it.
'If I fall in the hands of a beast human, I'll be in trouble.'
And so, she chose to hide her identity, even to the new lovers she gained. While she thought that beast humans would be very harsh, the four beast-human women she seduced were fantastic and exciting to be with.
One of them, a tall and voluptuous dragon woman, reminded her of her "first love." Still, unlike that person who seemed to be perfect, this dragon girl was a bit shy and childish. Either way, the contrast of appearance and body made her very attractive.
And then, she heard about the existence of her "first love."
Armed with new confidence, she decided to chase after her and try to seduce her. 'Now I'm much stronger. I'm sure she will look at me with new eyes!'
But, unlike the easy-sailing that was seducing the rest of her harem, her "first love" appeared to be a mountain that was impossible to conquer. Even those around her were so exceptional that they made her feel slightly inferior.
But, Sarah's ego, even when her system was shut down for six months, was untouched. What losing the system felt like for Sarah was dreadful, as she realized that her talents for cultivation were non-existent without its help.
Therefore, instead of becoming less reliable, she became even more reliable on the System.
And, to Sarah's delight, or plight, depending on how you looked at it, it worked.
A few women who previously didn't budge to her attempts, once she used the system tools, started looking her way. A woman who looked very similar to those around her "first love" began falling in love with her. An extraordinary Fate user with white hair, blue eyes, and a lonesome beauty that reminded the onlookers of the Moon.
Sarah's confidence was significantly boosted.
So, even when her attempts were not landing, she didn't give up.
'I'll eventually make her fall in love with me!'
And yet…
"[Draconic Sunset]."
BOOM!
Sarah's entire body shook as a sword massive enough to be impossible to lift by people from her original World was being violently swung at her.
The explosion of Sun energies from the heavy hit burned her skin, making her feel pain all over. Moreover, her physical strength was unable to match the person fighting her, and her body was blasted flying backward for tens of meters.
Thankfully, her defense was strong enough to resist the shock.
The cold and ethereally beautiful voice chanted again. "[Starfall]."
Enormous stars that could be compared in size to her house back in her original World rained at her from all directions in the hundreds, making her entire body feel chills of fear.
"[Stoneheart Stance: Earthen Sanctuary]!"
Earth-attributed spirits sunk into the volcanic region, lifting a massive black dome made of volcanic rocks.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Her dome trembled with each strike, and through her connection with it, she could feel how heavy each explosion was, making her throat move up and down as she swallowed.
"[Draconic Star Charge]."
BANG!
Her earthen dome shattered as her opponent smashed through it, surrounded by a spiral of white energy and white orbs while her giant broadsword pointed at her.
"[Mystic Blade Art: Elemental Veil]."
Her feet moved on their own, following the technique automatically with the help of her system, and her body "split" in five different colored images, dodging the white meteor.
BOOM!
An explosion big enough to make her "split images" disappear and push her back smashed on her like a wall of metal, making Sarah gasp.
From the crater, her enemy stepped out and charged at her, not allowing her a single moment of rest.
The woman she was facing was sadly her "first love."
A woman beautiful enough to make any other person she had ever seen in her previous or current World feel inferior was looking at her with a cold and emotionless face, making her chest hurt.
A dragon beauty that had captured her heart with just a glance, a smile, and a comforting hug was now trying to kill her.
'How did I end up in this situation?'
What was worse, Sarah, for the first time, felt the threat of death close by.
Even with all her system cheats that always calmed her down and gave her confidence even in the face of usually desperate odds, Sarah was afraid of the creature attacking her.
She knew, or better said, she realized that the dragoness attacking her had the strength to overcome her system cheats with raw strength and overwhelm her. Sarah couldn't help but think.
'What if Yasenia was the one with my system instead of me? What kind of monster would that create?'
While fighting, Sarah felt helpless. She couldn't counterattack, she couldn't use her skills comfortably, and the only thing available for her was defending the onslaught. If she lost concentration for a second, that giant sword might be lodged through her chest in the next instant.
'How can fighting someone feel so overwhelming?'
Their mastery over weapons, their knowledge of combat, their ability to judge, their reaction time, their natural talents… Sarah knew that nothing could be compared between them.
Sarah understood, deep inside, that she was utterly outclassed.
Blocking Yasenia's attacks with her [High-Level Sword Mastery], Sarah managed to parry many of them.
[Host. Be careful.]
Sarah focused and saw energy gathering toward her enemy's throat. 'A breath attack?'
"[Elemental intent Level 3], [Pyraforge Prowess: Emberweave]!"
Sarah swung the [Elemental Spirit Splitting Sword] several times, and red spirits gathered around her sword, sending a massive wave of burning crescents toward Yasenia.
The power behind them was no joke, and even middle-level Epoch Core cultivators would feel threatened.
'This should stop the breath attack.'
However, a silver dome spread from her enemy's body, smashing against the flames and shattering both attacks.
But, the silver dome's destruction felt strange, as Sarah sensed it could last for more attacks.
She didn't realize that the path between them was now clear.
"[Sun Dragon Roar]!"
ROAR!
A massive golden ripple slammed onto her body, making her ears ring and her very soul tremble and burn. She could feel her very existence, the soul that she previously thought of as a metaphysical and invented thing, being attacked and damaged.
Sarah didn't like to fight. She didn't want to face the dragon attacking her. 'Why couldn't we just be friends?'
The dragoness appeared before herself with a speed she couldn't comprehend, lifting that enormous sword high up and lowering it like an executioner's blade.
"[Draconic Dusk]."
"[Aerospire Artistry: Tempered Blade Technique]."
A goldish color surrounded her sword, while metal elements and spirits increased the sword's quality and strength many times over.
BOOM!
Sarah's sword was blasted backward, almost forcing her to lose her grip on it, and a large part of the attack hit her frontally.
"AAAH!"
Sarah screamed in pain as her body flew across the place for several hundreds of meters. Burning and freezing feelings attacked her as the Sun and Moon energies in Yasenia's attack seeped inside her and increased her injuries and burns.
[Host. That attack has changed all the Moon energy into Yasenia to Sun energy through complex skills and mastery.]
'Why would she focus all her energy toward one element? Is she preparing something?'
Thinking of that, Sarah began healing herself. "[Aquaflow Mastery: Healing Ripples], [Sylvanweave Sorcery: Blossom Blooming Healing]."
With her powerful level three intent, the water and wood elemental spirits surrounded her body and healed most of her wounds. The Moon Energy and Sun Energy damaging her insides were also expelled, recovering Sarah to almost a pristine state.
Sarah looked up, but she couldn't see Yasenia's figure, making her panic.
[Host. Use your spiritual sense!]
Even her system sounded rushed, so she quickly did so and felt Yasenia approaching from her southwest direction, a blind point.
However, it was too late. Sarah could only turn around and see how Yasenia approached and attacked her with a skill that made her heart sink in despair.
The enormous sword dragging behind Yasenia's figure spewed golden flames as if they were propelling Yasenia forward, and even more Sun energies gathered crazily around the dragoness.
"[Sun Dragon Body]."
A golden glow surrounded the dragoness, and the gorgeous blue tail with rings was dyed entirely golden.
Then, the woman who could steal her breath away with her appearance disappeared before her eyes and reappeared at her side in a ready-to-attack position.
"[Empyrean Sun Collapse]!"
WHOOSH!
Sarah felt a mountain of pressure as a hurricane of Sun energies coiled around the enormous blade that was swinging at her.
The attack felt colossal, and Sarah knew that if she tried to block that, she might receive much more than a few burns.
Sarah wanted to close her eyes, but she didn't do so because something had happened.
The amateurish movements of the woman changed, and the energy inside her rotated perfectly.
On her system menu, her points had decreased by 75,000, almost three-quarters of her entire points.
On the other side, Yasenia saw Sarah's scared expression flatten, and then, while she was swinging her sword with one of her strongest skills, she saw Sarah also slashing toward her attack.
In front of Yasenia's eyes, in a time frame that felt too small, Sarah's body burst with a five-colored light, and her lips parted to utter a single, cold sentence.
"[Elemental Warding Lotus]."
An enormous lotus with five leaves of different colors bloomed and surrounded Sarah.
Then, both attacks collided, releasing a metallic sound, followed by an enormous golden explosion that engulfed everything.
CLANG!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!