Mutia

Mutia, the Ox that Harvests Ruins, is an ancient constellation whose authority joins destruction and recreation with time and regression. She supports Sylvia Evanail, then attacks Kim Gong-ja to enforce what she considers a god's obligation to answer the exact desire behind a prayer. Her defeat costs her horns and begins a shift from treating people as material for divine rules toward making tools that others may choose to use.

Biography

A patron's vengeance and defeat

Mutia first enters the story as Sylvia's supporting constellation. Her apostle invades Raviel Ivansia's world with a giant hammer and the blessing Invulnerable Body, but is defeated. Mutia later manifests with roughly two hundred hammer-bearing apostles, smashes the terrain into a sunken arena, and demands vengeance for the life Sylvia had once wanted. She rejects Sylvia's changed wishes, insisting that a god must fulfill the desire present at the moment of prayer without exception. (Chapters 97, 104–117, and 325–326)

Mutia combines her authority with the Eye Living in the Labyrinth's concealment and reads across Gong-ja's regressed histories. Gong-ja and Raviel's shared timeline undermines her monopoly over creating regressors, while Lady Who Walks Through the Mirage blocks her attempt to stop time. When the attack fails and the Eye deserts her, Mutia surrenders, gives up her claim over Sylvia, and agrees to help capture her former collaborator. She later explains that her contribution to Gong-ja's regression ability established its one-day limit and severe price, while another constellation supplied the death trigger and trauma maze. (Chapters 327–330)

Reforging the broken horns

Gong-ja's victory leaves Mutia with broken horns. Much later she forges one into a sword that would follow a killed regressor through every return and kill the victim repeatedly. Recognizing that the weapon arose from spite rather than her intended purpose, she immediately destroys it and starts again. With Yoo Soo-ha's help, she makes a blacksmith's hammer: a tool meant to be used by someone, not a weapon that uses its bearer. The completed work marks a change in her way of life and clears part of Gong-ja's ascent. (Chapter 390)

Appearance and personality

Mutia appears as a small girl with light golden hair, golden eyes, and a massive hammer; in her later workshop, broken horns rise through the gaps in her hair. Her slight build contrasts with the force of her blows and her status as one of the oldest Dragon Emperors. She is calm, severe, literal, and initially absolutist about divine responsibility. After defeat she retains her pride and bluntness, but becomes capable of identifying her own malice, destroying its result, and cooperating on a more constructive replacement. (Chapters 325–330 and 390)

Abilities and skills

Mutia governs destruction and recreation. She can pulverize and reshape terrain with her hammer, establish a sanctuary, field many empowered apostles, and grant defensive blessings such as Sylvia's Invulnerable Body. Her creative authority also allows her to re-form her own horn through prolonged forging. The corpus demonstrates immense material force, but not unrestricted creation without a substance, process, or jurisdiction to work through. (Chapters 113–117, 325–330, and 390)

Her time authority lets her understand possible lives, examine histories produced by regression, and help define regression skills. She identifies herself with an absolute temporal coordinate that ordinary time flows do not displace. These powers still have counters: Gong-ja and Raviel share a timeline she cannot monopolize, the Lady stops her attempted temporal interference, and Mutia says new regressors cannot simply be created without consent after Gong-ja's ascent changes the relevant authority. (Chapters 327–330 and 366)

Relationships

• Sylvia Evanail: Mutia's apostle and the object of her rigid promise; Mutia tries to restore Sylvia's former desire, then relinquishes her after defeat.
• Kim Gong-ja: The regressor whose shared time defeats Mutia's assumptions, breaks her horns, and ultimately influences her to create a useful tool instead of an obsessive weapon.
• Lady Who Walks Through the Mirage: The pillar who blocks Mutia's attempt to stop time during her surrender.
• Eye Living in the Labyrinth: Her partner in concealing Gong-ja's constellation status, who abandons the fight once Mutia loses.
• Yoo Soo-ha: The former blacksmith who helps Mutia reforge a broken horn into a constructive tool.

Items

• Giant hammer: Mutia's principal weapon during her attack on Gong-ja, used to break and reshape the surrounding terrain.
• Blacksmith's hammer: A tool forged from Mutia's own broken horn with Yoo Soo-ha's help. It replaces the regressor-killing sword she creates and immediately destroys, representing her decision to make something a person can use freely.