"..."
After a brief silence, a calm, mechanical voice slowly echoed from within the glowing cylinder.
"Selene, it seems the arrival of the God's Right Seat has sparked some new ideas in you."
When Selene suddenly appeared inside the Windowless Building, with her hand outstretched like that, Aleister Crowley knew instantly—here we go again.
What did she want this time? Or was it that the attack by Terra of the Left had provoked her into seeking revenge?
"I'm curious. If it were you, how would you obtain the 'Holy Right'? What is your plan, and how do you need me to cooperate?"
Though submerged in the faint pink, weakly alkaline nutrient fluid within the life support capsule, Aleister remained completely motionless—even his mouth—but that electronically synthesized voice still rang out clearly in Selene's ears.
"I'll just deal with each move as it comes."
Standing before the cylindrical life support device, Selene raised an eyebrow slightly. "The Roman Orthodox Church has already made their move. Enduring it isn't my style."
"Among the God's Right Seat, the only one truly worth taking seriously has always been Fiamma of the Right. Of the remaining three, two are now gone, and Vento of the Front is no cause for concern."
"Two gone? As far as I know, your subordinate, Alyssa Benares, only killed Terra of the Left. Acqua of the Back is still alive, and together with Vento of the Front, they've escaped Academy City. Their combat power seems intact. How can you say two are gone?"
In Academy City, very few events escaped Aleister's notice. The dispute between Alyssa and Ferdinand at the District 23 international airport, the battle with Terra of the Left—the UNDER_LINE system wasn't offline. Knowing was inevitable, and Selene hadn't intended to hide it anyway.
"Don't lump Acqua of the Back together with the rest of the God's Right Seat."
A flicker of sky-blue data flow flashed across Selene's eyes. In response, the glass dome in front of Aleister's life support capsule flickered momentarily. Then, a light screen materialized in front of him. On the holographic display appeared a girl in a frilly dress, with long golden hair and snow-white skin.
"Aren't you, the Chairman, more familiar with the magic side than I am?"
"You mean..."
Aleister ignored Selene's teasing tone and stared at the girl on the screen.
"Villian, the third princess of the British Royal Family? Villian... I see. The knight who saved the princess during the Spanish Puritan attack ten years ago—the unknighted knight, William Orwell."
"I see. You are indeed perceptive," Aleister chuckled softly. "Seems my life support system still has room for improvement."
After entering the life support system, Aleister entrusted all his bodily functions to machinery. According to calculations, he had a lifespan of roughly 1,700 years. His entire body, including his brain, was in a state of hibernation, and most cognitive processes were assisted by machines.
"Do you need my help?"
"If you're offering, then I'll gladly accept."
They smoothly shifted the topic, exchanging a knowing smile.
Regardless of how others saw it—whether under Aleister's plans, Academy City had as many tragedies as stars in the sky—Selene remained skeptical. Since her arrival in Academy City, she hadn't experienced much trouble. The Council's directly affiliated dark departments catered to her needs. In short, life was quite enjoyable.
Aleister, for his part, sometimes felt that his level of mutual understanding with Selene was unprecedented. If only, back then... sigh...
"Acqua of the Back—I'll handle him. Perhaps he can even be turned into a planted nail inside the Roman Orthodox Church. Of course, if the Chairman is interested in angelic spells and finds them useful for your plans, your priorities take precedence."
Selene didn't have deep knowledge of the magic side's complexities, but she knew well enough that the angelic spells used by members of the God's Right Seat were valuable. And Fiamma of the Right's "Holy Right"—that was something truly extraordinary.
The Holy Right—the power of the "right side" that gathers together the various miracles of Christianity—was an innate ability Fiamma of the Right was born with.
It encompassed all the miraculous powers attributed to the right hand in Christian legend: "The Archangel Michael used his right hand to slay the leader of the fallen angels," "The Son of God healed the sick with his right hand," "The Bible was written with the right hand," and so on. It could invoke all kinds of Christian miracles.
To entrust these magical treasures to someone like Aleister, who sought nothing less than the extinction of magic, magicians, and the phases themselves—Selene believed that with Aleister's genius as one of the greatest magicians of this century and the last, a reverse-engineering process that could aid her in destroying magic would not be difficult at all.
At the same time, through Alyssa's Honkai Construct present during the incident, Selene remotely extracted all of Terra of the Left's memories. Beyond gaining deeper insights into the magic side, she also caught a glimpse of the darkness festering within the Roman Orthodox Church's headquarters.
Tch. That guy Terra of the Left was even more depraved than she had imagined.
Back in the Vatican, Terra of the Left had repeatedly used children and tourists from the outskirts of Rome as experimental materials for fine-tuning his "Execution of Light" spell.
Compared to that, Kihara Gensei's experiments—though brutal in their own right for harvesting the useful and discarding the rest—almost seemed less vile.
At least Gensei used children who had been abandoned by parents or guardians within Academy City, and even then, the experiments didn't always result in death. Terra of the Left? He was essentially a kidnapper, no different from human traffickers or organ smugglers—with a 100% fatality rate.
The former might warrant execution. But the latter? Even the ten most brutal tortures wouldn't suffice.
This must be put to good use. The moral high ground—if it's there, she'd be a fool not to seize it.
After the outbreak of World War III, exposing these atrocities and adding fuel to the fire could easily shake the so-called two billion believers of the Roman Orthodox Church. How many would remain unwavering in their faith?
True, the media had a short shelf life; once the storm passed, all that remained was scattered feathers. Selene's Empire, and its centralized government, often crushed the media into mere mouthpieces. But this wasn't her Empire's territory—so it was best to use every tool available.
Snap!
"Scandals of the Roman Orthodox Church, straight from Terra of the Left's brain. Hope it's useful to you."
With a crisp snap of her fingers, several more holographic screens appeared before Aleister. On them, Terra of the Left's hideous face came into view, followed by disturbingly vivid images of children and tourists who had died in magical experiments—almost as if one were present in the scene.
Memory extraction, a type of psychic ability; converting those memories into digital data and displaying them on electronic devices required an extremely refined fusion of psychic and electromagnetic control abilities.
At that moment, Aleister suddenly felt the "Spatial-type esper" label on Selene's personal data file to be terribly misleading.
Your manipulation of repulsion and gravity via imaginary space to affect the real universe—that could be explained. Your control of electricity and fire through Honkai Energy conversion? Still plausible. But psychic abilities?
You're supposed to be spatial-type? That's just excessive!
"The power of the 'Holy Right' is so alluring. Why don't you want it? Surely no one thinks they have too much power—especially someone as avaricious as you, Selene."
After a long pause, Aleister's voice echoed quietly, returning to the main point.
This deep mutual understanding between them—was it not also a reflection of Aleister's helplessness when it came to Selene?
Nothing had worked. Every single plan Aleister crafted to target her had fallen flat. No matter how he calculated, if they turned hostile, it would mean the destruction of Academy City and the ruin of his century-long project… nearly a certainty.
At this point, Aleister was convinced that Selene likely knew about his plans targeting the magic side, the phases, and the Magic Gods. What he didn't know was how much she had uncovered.
Fortunately, their goals aligned. As for everything else? Let her do as she pleased. Once the grand design was complete, he figured he'd be nothing more than ashes.
"Because I don't need it to embellish my strength."
After listening to Aleister, Selene smiled faintly. "Prepare well, Chairman. Once the Daihasei Festival is over... ah, with Terra of the Left dead, the Roman Orthodox Church may grow desperate. We must be cautious. A full-scale war could break out during the Festival."
As she spoke—vmmm vmmm vmmm—!
A surge of dark purple Honkai Energy flared from Selene's fingertip.
Like a violet sun.
So dark it neared black, its glow dazzling to the eye.
"I hope this helps accelerate your plans, Chairman."
Clang!
The sound wasn't sharp or resonant, yet it echoed as if striking the soul.
Selene placed a cube—each edge more than a decimeter in length—onto the metal pedestal before Aleister's life support capsule.
It was a perfect cube, purplish-red in hue, crisscrossed with countless cracks on every face, dividing it into irregular fragments.
An unprecedentedly high-density, large-volume Honkai crystal.
So she had been holding back from the very start.
Aleister withdrew his gaze from the purple-red crystal and turned to the departing Selene.
"...What is it that you truly want?" he asked.
Step step!
"What do I want? Let me think..."
The beautiful woman halted, her long silver ponytail swaying gently with her motion. Her crimson, diamond-shaped pupils glowed faintly, blending with the many shimmering lights inside the building.
For a fleeting moment, a golden cross-shaped halo flashed in her eyes, like sun and moon sharing the sky.
"The old rulers will be shattered by you, Chairman. And I—I want to be the one who reaps the benefits."
"..."
"..."
"Aleister, she's gone."
No one knew how much time passed before a distorted voice—like that of a misaligned speaker—sounded in the silence.
A soft golden light followed, dispersing the deep gloom of the Windowless Building.
That "being" appeared almost angelic, with a golden halo above the head, long golden hair, a tall glowing figure clothed in loose white garments that draped over limbs and torso, and bare feet.
From a human perspective, its gender was indiscernible. Though it looked female in appearance, it leaned more toward androgyny—or even genderlessness.
"Mm."
Gazing upon the holy guardian angel summoned using the body of his beloved wife, Aleister spoke slowly, emotionless as ever: "Aiwass... it's time we accelerated our plan."
Aiwass looked calmly at Aleister, suspended within the life support system.
"Aleister, based on our summoning link, allow me a friendly reminder: she has known about me for quite some time. As for her actions—you couldn't possibly be unaware. She's using you."
"I know..."
"But calling it 'using'... it's more accurate to say I willingly let her. So long as my goal remains unchanged, she and I are unbreakable allies... Whatever I have, if she wants it, then let her have it."
...
Aiwass... a holy guardian angel. Aleister really is something else—summoning both a great demon and a guardian angel. Truly a mad genius, a mere human who dared to challenge 'Heaven' itself.
Standing atop the Windowless Building, Selene gazed out at the distant sunset and the long shadows cast by the buildings, marveling inwardly.
Even if they were all secondhand... ahem.
"Ah, the evening banquet~"
Whoosh—
The light of day faded toward dusk.
District 7, near School Garden.
Naturally, Katie was considerate of Selene's ordinary friends like Saten Ruiko and Uiharu Kazari. She hadn't chosen Selene's opulent manor—which was too flashy and gilded for a warm, friendly gathering. It was better suited for business talks or dramatic first impressions.
The area near School Garden was ideal. Modeled after small coastal towns along the Mediterranean, the setting exuded the elegance of a noble girls' academy. It was also perfectly appropriate for hosting royalty like Villian without appearing disrespectful.
Refined, balanced, appealing to all.
In the reserved courtyard, atop a two-tiered oval terrace, Villian stood up timidly as she watched Carissa ascend with knights in tow. "Sister," she said, barely louder than a whisper.
"Ah, Villian," Carissa muttered, frowning as she saw her younger sister still behaving so delicately even outside their homeland, dressed in a bright red formal gown.
She truly disliked Villian's mannerisms—but this wasn't Buckingham Palace. In public, and at Katie's dinner party, she couldn't air royal grievances. She motioned for her knights to withdraw, pulled out the chair in front of Villian, and sat down unceremoniously.
"Hey, Uiharu, look! Their sisterly bond doesn't seem all that great,"
Peeking through the curtains, Saten Ruiko whispered curiously.
"Saten-san, that's not appropriate... This is family business. Spying like this is..."
The meek girl Uiharu Kazari whimpered behind her, tugging on Saten's sleeve. "They're royalty! If they find out we're watching, we might get... executed!"
"Geez, what are you two doing?"
"Yaa—!"
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