When the developers announced the global poll of the Top Ten Most Beautiful Women of MoDS, it wasn't just a list. It was a ritual.
The community forums caught fire. Debates tore through friend groups. I watched it all happen with my best friend and we also argued about it.
At tenth place was Lucretia Maisie, The Silken Shadow.
She ran her empire not from skyscrapers or palaces, but from underground businesses in Las Vegas, the United States. Every rumor in the game's underworld led to her. If you wanted something like information, relics, or someone erased, Lucretia's hands had already touched it three times before you asked.
The devs coded her with one of the most haunting eye shaders I've ever seen. She had deep amethyst eyes that calculated the worth of someone. She was called The Silken Shadow.
Shuyi Ling, The Demonic Sect's Daughter, ran at ninth place.
Shuyi Ling is the daughter of the Demonic Sect's leader, but she wasn't the villain they wanted her to be. The first time players met her, she was meditating in the rain, her robes floating like torn flags. Her sect was destroyed by other sects who conspired against them.
She's the kind of woman who would break your bones just to teach you the meaning of mercy. Still, there's a sadness in her design. There is fragility in her crimson eyes that makes one think she's been apologizing for generations she didn't even live through.
Verdamona Alaric was eighth.
Now here's where the world started arguing. Verdamona Alaric is the protagonist. She is the woman who carried MoDS on her back and yet still placed eighth.
Why? Because perfection is tiring. She was the kind of protagonist who didn't inspire you to be better. She made you realize how much it hurts to keep trying. She could walk through a field of corpses and still whisper apologies to the dead. The devs gave her over fifty idle animations, each one more heartbreakingly human than the last.
At seventh place was Hinesia Ahmose Rameses.
Killed by her own brother, she ewe remembered only through Asmarion's broken memories. Her presence in the game was a nothing more than an echo.
Players never met her truly alive. They saw her through fragments, flashbacks and memorials and yet they still loved her. She became the ghost everyone wanted to save.
Nefira Ahmose Rameses, the Shy Sadist, came at seventh. She was a sister to Hinesia and every bit as mesmerizing. Also killed by Asmarion, she was seen as memories and flashbacks.
Players argued for weeks that she deserved top three. Her personality was a contradiction. She was gentle, shy, and yet with a streak of sadism so subtle it made people blush more than flinch. Her smile looked like sunlight seen through tears. When she tilted her head while speaking, the entire fandom lost its collective mind.
If MoDS had saints, Nefira would be the patron of soft cruelty.
Chancellor Marzophine Nivarea, The Queen of Seals, came at fifth place.
She is the Chancellor of Reversa University, head of one of the three most prestigious Flux Universities. Her lore alone made players cry and if it wasn't for Anastelle, she would have suffered a lot.
Xaessiarerich Vecria Argemenes came at fourth.
Xaessia is the the true villainess of MoDS. She started as the enemy, cruel and proud but after Phasnovterich's death, her rage became sacred. Players hated her, then pitied her, then worshiped her. They liked her better than the protagonist, apparently.
Haruno Nishikata, The Illegitimate Blade, fell as number three on the list.
She came from Japan. Players know her as the fifteen year girl who killed her entire bloodline for revenge, not redemption.
When she appeared on screen, it was showing her annihilating the Nishikata Bloodline. Her kimono was stained at the hem with her odachi dripping with blood. Players couldn't stop watching her. There's something dangerously holy about a woman who destroys her bloodline just to reclaim her mother's dignity. And maybe that's why she placed third. Also, she was unbelievably hot.
At second place was Aurelia Aurea Augustus, The Empress of Dawn.
When she first appeared in the World Quest, The Duel of Champions, the in-game text described her as:
"Aurelia, the Empress whose gaze turned dawn into an obedient lover, whose breath smelled of new wars, and whose footsteps left Rome in perpetual spring."
Long curly, golden hair, eyes like liquid topaz, bright enough to blind marble statues into kneeling and her freckles made her even more charming. Her every word felt like an edict from divinity itself. Being a reincarnated soul for centuries, she is known to be a very important figure in the six open world quests that I was about to do with Verdamona.
At first place and the undisputed one was The Moth Maiden.
The Moth Maiden is 250 centimeters tall in base form and 420cm in her true form. She is a being who once burned part of Moscow into ash and still found forgiveness in the hearts of her worshipers. She stood in-game as both nightmare and miracle and yet, despite her genocide, people adored her, especially the male player base community. Actually, 90% of the male player chose her as number one. Who wouldn't want a six ten foot tall woman who loves revenge and death and a simple life as a wife?
Even I chose her as number one. I wouldn't be a real man otherwise. The fan art of her are even more popular than other characters.
It's strange the things memory decides to keep. That is why I remember that stupid poll so clearly because at exactly 6:00 a.m., the Tower of Pisa stopped existing.
One second, Thales and I were standing close to it, watching the sunrise spill gold over the city, and the next, the sky was a wound of glass and ash.
The blast came from the base. People screamed, birds vanished and alarms fractured the dawn into static.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa exploded. In that split-second of chaos, I saw her.
The reason every nerve in my body remembered that poll was because of her.
Haruno Nishikata.
She was standing right where the explosion had bloomed, the smoke curling around her. She gave a quiet scoff when she saw us. In her left hand, she held a lantern that glowed faintly blue. In her right, she was clutching the second fragment of the Azure Sword.
It was a C-shaped disc,. When I saw it, the sound in my ears died. The entire world tilted on its axis, as if reality had just exhaled the truth.
"Thales. Don't move."
He didn't listen at first. Thales never listens when he's angry. His entire Flux activated, flickers of gold spiraling around him as he took a step forward.
"Was that you? You destroyed the Tower?"
Haruno didn't even blink. She tilted her head, her gray eyes meeting his with a bored expression. Then she lifted the remote in her hand, pressed a button, and behind us, somewhere in the distance, another explosion rolled across the skyline.
"Now it's two towers. Are you satisfied?"
Thales growled. "You—!"
I stepped in front of him before he could take another breath. My palm hit his chest lightly.
"Don't."
He looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
"Phaser, what the hell are you doing?"
"Stopping you."
"Why?"
"Because you can't win this fight. Not if you don't have the Azure Sword."
Haruno smiled faintly when she heard my words.
"You're… quite perceptive. Didn't expect you to figure it out that quickly."
"You're Outer Seven," I said quietly.
"And you, Phasnovterich… I should be calling you an Outer too, shouldn't I?"
Thales froze beside me. His head whipped toward me in disbelief.
"What did she just call you?"
I didn't answer. Then Haruno said something I didn't expect. Her tone was suddenly curious, almost playful.
"You're really good at analyzing people, but I didn't expect someone like you to end up inside the body of… the brother of the villainess."
Thales' gaze snapped between us, his confusion morphing into something heavier.
"What the hell is she talking about?"
I sighed.
"Nothing you need to worry about right now."
"The hell it isn't!"
Before he could argue further, Haruno tilted her head and spoke over him, her voice sharper this time.
"Phasnovterich, let's talk. Privately."
I turned to Thales.
"Go back to the meeting point. Tell the others what happened. I'll be back with the piece"
He stared at me. "You can't be serious. You're going to talk to her?"
"She's not going to kill me. Not yet at least."
He hesitated, but then he nodded reluctantly.
"Fine. But if she touches you—"
"She won't."
He gave me one last look before vanishing into the smoke. And just like that, the chaos felt quieter.
Only the two of us remained.
Haruno slipped the remote into her pocket and turned toward me.
"You're a strange one, Phasnovterich. Most people would have tried to kill me by now."
"Most people can't do math. You're Outer Seven. I'm not suicidal."
She laughed, a short, almost human sound. Then she gestured with her lantern toward the street.
"Come on. Let's have breakfast. My treat."
"Breakfast?"
She nodded, smiling like the explosions behind her were fireworks for her amusement.
"You think I can talk about fragments and transmigration on an empty stomach? Please. Even gods need tea."
I stared at her for a few seconds before sighing. Seriously, why did I have to encounter someone like her here?
"There's a restaurant a few blocks away. If it's still standing."
"Then we'll find one that is. Lead the way, Outer."
Her tone made my skin crawl because as I watched her walk ahead, lantern swinging at her side, I finally understood.
That wasn't Haruno Nishikata anymore.
That was another Outer, someone like me. She is someone who knew the rules, the players, the fragments, and the game's plot. And she was holding the second clue of the Azure Sword too. As we walked through the shattered streets, the sunlight struggling to pierce the smoke, I couldn't shake the feeling that the universe was playing chess with itself, and we were just the kings waiting to die last.
"Haruno Nishikata."
She looked over her shoulder, her eyes glinting with a mischievous warmth that didn't belong to the character she inhabited.
"Hmm?"
"I know who you really are."
She smiled wider. "Then I guess this breakfast is going to be interesting."