"Liver, you don't need to worry about Jackie anymore. Return to the ruins of District 13 and, together with the Honkai Legion, protect the embryo there."
"Yes!"
Still stunned by Jackie's terrifyingly rapid breakthrough in strength, Liver suddenly heard Selene's voice echo within his mind. In that instant, his mind cleared completely.
...
Rumble—!
From the sky, one could see that the vast Rocky Mountains, stretching across North and South America, had been severed in half. The enormous fragments blasted away by the catastrophic explosion had already reached more than a dozen states.
Billowing smoke and ash rose to the heavens, and in an instant, the toxic gray haze blanketed the sky. Rivers of molten magma flowed down from the shattered mountains, igniting raging forest fires.
The crimson heavens wept as the burning landscape below mirrored hell itself. On the American plains, countless wild beasts fled in blind panic.
Above the blazing inferno, Selene's pupils, once blood-red and diamond-shaped, now bore an additional golden ring. Apart from her usual Bright Knight · Excelsis appearance, three trailing hems marked with Honkai sigils extended from either side of her waist. Twelve Subspace Lances spread behind her like wings.
A violet-red crown floated above her head, and countless radiant halos revolved behind her.
She had fully lifted her disguise—entering complete Herrscher form.
With each rhythmic breath she took, powerful spatial ripples expanded outward from her body, distorting the very air.
After giving Liver his orders, Selene refocused her gaze on the sea of lava before her and spoke calmly: "The so-called Immortal..."
"Well then, entertain me—if only for a few seconds."
This was no arrogance.
The Honkai had already begun to corrupt this world. The ancient powers rooted in its long history were now continuously being transmitted to Selene through the spreading Honkai field.
Furthermore, the world's defensive barriers were in shambles. The black aura had gained overwhelming dominance. The so-called Lord Shendu, who had long possessed a massive share of that dark energy, was not someone a mere temporary pawn like Jackie could compare to.
The forces of light didn't even have a proper representative left—only the desperate attempt of empowering Jackie as a substitute, hoping to awaken the divine consciousness within his armor.
At this point, Selene possessed the advantage in every aspect—timing, location, and power. It was as though she held seventeen trump cards in her hand.
And most importantly, after what had happened with Assaka, she was taking no chances.
Though outwardly arrogant, her heart remained cold and vigilant. She would not underestimate her foe.
At that moment, as if provoked by her taunts—or perhaps reacting to the overwhelming destructive aura radiating from her—a dazzling light burst forth from the sea of lava.
The burning night sky was illuminated in an instant.
Jackie's pitch-black eyes now glowed faintly blue, his pupils rapidly shifting into the same hue as his Divine Armor.
"So, Jackie is already dead... and it's you controlling his body now. You must be the final vessel, aren't you?"
Good thing I had foresight—turning Jade, Uncle, and Tohru into dust beforehand. Otherwise, I might have faced the revival of four Immortals at once.
"The final obstacle... I can hardly wait to taste the fruit of my victory."
As she spoke, the twelve Subspace Lances behind her flared like blazing wings. Her figure vanished, the air shattering with a roaring boom as she shot forward like a meteor, the sheer force of her acceleration stirring a howling storm.
Anything in her path—stone, metal, or even space itself—was crushed and twisted.
BOOM—!
Towering peaks, averaging three thousand meters high, were violently pierced through. One after another, the Rocky Mountains were left with colossal tunnels ripped clean through their cores.
But Jackie was not one to back down.
His body dissolved into a mass of deep-blue light, surging forward to meet her head-on!
When the two collided, a massive semi-transparent shockwave erupted outward, carrying their combined power. The surrounding area was instantly vaporized into a vacuum.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Within mere seconds, the two had clashed hundreds—no, thousands—of times. Amidst their furious exchange, Selene's sharp perception caught the faint flaw within Jackie's newly reforged body—the subtle instability between host and armor.
The two Subspace Ribbons extending from her back instantly intertwined and lashed forward!
Bang!
A shower of blazing sparks erupted. Even through the Divine Armor, an overwhelming force slammed directly into Jackie's chest—its form and trajectory so sudden that even he couldn't register Selene's movement.
The weakening array engraved upon his armor failed instantly. By the time the tremendous impact detonated, Jackie hadn't even perceived the moment of attack.
Under that blow, the surrounding space rippled violently as if struck by thunder. Jackie's body was hurled backward like a hypersonic railgun shell, tearing through the atmosphere, leaving behind a trail of blinding light and searing heat as he was blasted deep into the Rocky Mountains once more.
This time, the trajectory wasn't east to west—but north to south. Following the very backbone of the Rocky range, Jackie's body disintegrated everything in its path, vaporizing tens of kilometers of mountain terrain.
Only after shattering more than a dozen of the range's hardest peaks did he finally come to a halt, his upper body embedded halfway into a mountainside like a nail driven into the earth.
At this point, the Divine Armor once perfectly fused to his body now bore a web of fractures spreading outward from the chest, chunks of armor sloughing off like flakes of scorched flesh and blood, dripping slowly to the ground.
In the brief instant when Jackie froze, Selene's remaining ten Subspace Lances arced forward, sealing every possible route of escape with impossible precision.
Then, focusing all her power, the lances pierced into the vulnerable gap in his chestplate—driving through the rupture and impaling deep within. The surge of godly power within Jackie's body—once infinite like an ocean—halted in an instant.
While draining every function of his body, Selene injected an immense concentration of Honkai energy straight into him, forcing the corruption through every nerve and cell without hesitation or mercy.
Her right hand flared with a blinding violet glow.
Without pause, she seized the opportunity and thrust forward—her hand penetrating the unarmored portion of his face, violently crushing his skull from within.
In that moment, Jackie was defeated.
Evaporating the red-and-white residue clinging to her hand, Selene hovered silently in front of his shattered, battered corpse.
Though a hint of dissatisfaction lingered, she knew this outcome was inevitable. The Divine Armor, despite retaining traces of divine power and the faint will of an ancient god, was ultimately limited.
Even with the blessings of righteousness and the advantage of fighting on home ground, to have resisted her this long—using nothing but a broken vessel and fading divinity—was already an impressive feat.
"The battle... is over."