Apart from a handful of Teigu that piqued her curiosity, most of them were nothing more than toys or ornaments to Selene. And as for the staff-type Teigu that could summon Danger Beasts—she found it utterly unappealing.
So, when faced with his provocation—and recognizing him as an enemy—Selene instinctively struck back with lethal force, crushing both the man and his Teigu into powder without hesitation...
As the Imaginary Claw faded, Selene stared at the mangled remains before her, feeling a pang of regret. "Uh... maybe I was a bit impulsive. That Teigu's probably beyond repair now..."
But while Selene was momentarily distracted, the high-ranking officers of the Revolutionary Army—who had just managed to return to the ground—misinterpreted her pause. To them, it looked like the backlash from some powerful secret technique of her Teigu. Their faces lit up with ecstatic hope.
"A perfect chance! Attack! Kill her! Don't waste the opportunity Lord Boolean created for us!"
Bzzzz—!
Seizing upon Selene's supposed "moment of weakness," one of the Revolutionary Army's elites instantly lunged forward, appearing before her in a blur.
The metallic gauntlet on his arm transformed into a massive, high-speed rotating drill. The terrifying speed whipped the air into violent currents, spiraling outward in roaring vortexes.
"Die!"
With a furious roar, the man thrust the several-meter-long, razor-sharp drill straight toward Selene's face, determined to end her life in one decisive strike.
Such a golden opportunity to kill an enemy like her—he couldn't let it slip away.
But—
BOOM—CLANG—ZZZZ...!
"Impossible!"
He knew the strength of his Shingu's single-point attack—it could pierce through several meters of solid steel without effort, its power rivaling even some Teigu.
Yet before his horrified eyes, the slender fingers of Selene's hand—adorned with what seemed to be luxurious, decorative gauntlets—had effortlessly caught the spinning drill, stopping it dead.
No leverage, no technique—just sheer power.
"You... you're not human, are you?" the man stammered, frozen in disbelief.
"Ah... perhaps not," Selene replied expressionlessly, raising her other hand.
Simulation—Repulsion, single-point burst!
BOOM!!!
The ground fractured instantly. The repulsive force shattered the drill-type Shingu to pieces, vaporizing its wielder into dust in the same instant.
Unfortunately, Selene's superhuman eyesight left her unable to look away. She saw every grisly detail of his death.
After all, Selene had never believed in the concept of "aesthetic subtlety."
First, his skin peeled away. Then, his organs were exposed. Next, only a skeleton remained—and finally, even that was reduced to powder under the overwhelming repulsion.
It was sickening, but Selene had long grown numb to such sights. She could block it out if she wanted, but she didn't bother.
From above, the destruction looked even more terrifying. Starting from Selene's fingertip, the shockwave of repulsion fanned outward, gouging a massive trench into the earth. The average depth reached a terrifying fifty meters.
Single-point bursts required far greater control than omnidirectional repulsion waves.
"She's used so many powerful Teigu techniques... and she's still not exhausted? What kind of monster is she?"
Seeing yet another of his officers die, the Revolutionary Army commander finally understood—the fortune-teller's warning of a great calamity had referred to this woman.
At that moment, the Revolutionary Army's guards stationed outside the fortress finally arrived. Seeing the devastation that had once been their headquarters—and the silver-haired woman calmly lowering her hand—they froze in shock.
"Kill her!"
The newly arrived soldiers instantly understood the situation. Without hesitation or fear, they charged toward Selene, weapons raised.
"Fall back... cough cough... hrrk... everyone, fall back! Don't engage! Run! You'll all die... cough!"
The man shouting was Timothy, half-kneeling on the ground, coughing up blood. His Teigu, Under the Light · Defender, had been shattered, and the strain on both his body and mind left him barely conscious.
As the head of the Revolutionary Army's Intelligence Division, Timothy immediately recognized the woman standing before them—white hair, crimson diamond-shaped eyes, silver-white armor-like Teigu. Those features were unmistakable.
"She's the Empire's second-highest military officer... Great General of the Imperial Guard Legion—Selene."
"You must all retreat!"
Upon hearing his plea, Selene replied coldly, "Heh... even on the brink of death, you still worry about others? Don't worry. None of you are getting out of here alive. You'll all die right here."
"Subspace Ribbon!"
Through the conversion of imaginary internal energy, a black-and-white spear, accented with flecks of golden red, materialized out of thin air.
Under Selene's control, the Subspace Lance unraveled into an extremely thin, flexible ribbon-like form.
"No! Stop!" Timothy shouted hoarsely, dragging his frail body forward, voice raw with desperation.
Before the horrified eyes of the remaining Revolutionary Army officers, the Subspace Ribbon sliced silently through the air, sweeping across the charging Revolutionary guards.
...
Where it passed, there was no sound, no flash—only silence.
The soldiers froze mid-charge, still in their fighting stances.
The scene fell deathly quiet—until—
RUMBLE——!!
The roar came suddenly and ceaselessly. The entire fortress complex of the Revolutionary Army's headquarters, vast stretches of ancient forest, and even the nearby mountain ranges all began to tilt and collapse!
It was as if the signal had been given—the sound of the mountains and trees crashing down echoed in waves, and one by one, the massive bodies of the Revolutionary soldiers fell lifeless to the ground. Blood and limbs painted the earth in crimson, a landscape of horror and ruin.
"No..."
Timothy, the Commander, and the few surviving high-ranking officers could only gape in mute disbelief, their mouths open but words failing them.
Everything was gone. Their elite Revolutionary Guard Legion—years of rigorous training and sacrifice—annihilated in an instant. The entire headquarters... devoid of life.
Hidden in the shadows, Esdeath's eyes gleamed with admiration. When she grew up, she vowed, she would become as powerful as General Selene!
"You monster!" one of the surviving officers screamed, pointing at Selene with a trembling hand, his voice cracking with rage and despair.
Realizing there was no escape, the Revolutionary Commander exhaled slowly, his expression calm at last. "Selene, do you truly think that by destroying our headquarters, you can erase the Revolutionary Army?"
"Our comrades are already spread across the world. The Empire will fall one day! Long live the Revolution!"
"Oh, we'll see about that... it's over," Selene said quietly.
She raised her right hand, and in the next instant, thousands of violet-red orbs of light formed in midair.
"Strong Nuclear Force—Void Unleashed!"
At her cold command, all the orbs detonated simultaneously, flooding the sky with blinding brilliance that illuminated the heavens like a second sun.
Under the violet-red canopy, the blood-soaked ruins of the castle looked almost ethereal—beautiful, yet horrifyingly grotesque.
The next moment, each orb bloomed like a thousand iron flowers, erupting into countless thin violet-red beams of energy that tore through the air with shrill, ear-splitting resonance.
Like a storm, the light beams rained down upon the earth with relentless fury.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
A deafening barrage of explosions followed one after another, shaking the air itself. From afar, it looked as if a rain of lasers had descended from the heavens—a spectacle both breathtakingly beautiful and lethally fatal.