In the Clock Tower's office, Barthomeloi was buried in reviewing intelligence sent by her subordinates.
The Barthomeloi family had long been dedicated to dealing with Dead Apostles. As current family head, Barthomeloi Lorelei naturally inherited this mission.
As the pinnacle mage of the Clock Tower, Barthomeloi had even successfully eliminated two Dead Apostle Ancestors, with illustrious battle achievements. In terms of strength alone, she indeed had capital to make people fear.
Just as she reviewed intelligence about Dead Apostles, the room's door was opened from outside—this made Barthomeloi frown.
She was a very conservative person who valued rules highly, so she never allowed anyone to push open her door without permission.
She raised her head to look at the figure entering through the door, then froze.
Standing at the doorway was Zuke—however, Barthomeloi didn't recognize him, instead recognizing Waver standing behind Zuke.
Although Barthomeloi looked down on Waver's inferior bloodline, Waver currently acted as El-Melloi's Lord position and represented a force not to be underestimated in the Mage's Association.
Yet now Waver stood like a servant behind Zuke, clearly viewing Zuke as the central figure for speaking, immediately angering Barthomeloi.
In Barthomeloi's creed, bloodline and status were unshakeable. How could Lord El-Melloi be so respectful to someone of unknown origin, even to the point of groveling?
Just as she opened her mouth to rebuke, an ominous feeling came from ahead.
Due to long-term combat with Dead Apostles, Barthomeloi wasn't just a scholar conducting closed-door research at the Clock Tower—her combat experience was very rich.
Even in the Mage's Association headquarters, Barthomeloi always maintained vigilance. Her body had quite a few warning and defensive techniques.
In that instant just now, she felt something invisible rush into her warning range. Her entire body issued warnings, telling her to quickly evade.
Without time to think, Barthomeloi flashed from her original position, jumping away. Her speed was so fast one couldn't tell she was still a young woman.
Whoosh—!
And the instant she dodged, a faint wind sound came from before her—of course Barthomeloi couldn't see that it was actually "Blackbird Lovers" thrown by Zuke flying past her.
"Oh?"
Zuke raised an eyebrow, watching Barthomeloi dodge "Blackbird Lovers" with interest.
Although "Blackbird Lovers'" speed wasn't fast, as a Stand it couldn't be seen by most people in this world, even if Barthomeloi's strength was strong.
Just now when Zuke, led by Waver, found other Lords, without exception he'd released "Blackbird Lovers" at them, and they'd all failed to dodge or even notice.
That Barthomeloi could sense abnormality from "Blackbird Lovers'" faint, nearly imperceptible wind sound and decisively dodge showed quite rich combat experience.
However, she could only barely dodge "Blackbird Lovers'" speed. In Zuke's view, this still didn't constitute a threat.
"...It's an enemy!"
After dodging "Blackbird Lovers," Barthomeloi immediately made a judgment and, gritting her teeth, drew a whip-like weapon from her waist.
Zuke sensed that whip gathered large amounts of magical energy and should also be some magical artifact—moreover, that magical energy's nature clearly resembled "cutting."
"Is Barthomeloi's attribute wind?"
Because Barthomeloi had few scenes in "Tsukihime," although Zuke remembered such a person existed, he couldn't recall her specific settings clearly.
However, judging from the magical energy gathered in Barthomeloi's whip, if she could release this move, she should be able to instantly cut through the entire room, enough to turn this enclosed room into an open-air balcony.
"The Mage's Association will be mine afterward. Better not cause too much damage here."
Although even if Barthomeloi released her technique and cut this place to pieces, it wouldn't threaten Zuke at all.
But after all, as long as he controlled Barthomeloi, Zuke would be equivalent to controlling all the Mage's Association's Lords, substantially controlling the Mage's Association and making this his territory.
Since that was the case, Zuke didn't want the Clock Tower to have a chunk cut off by this person.
"Blackbird: The World!"
Zuke activated "The World's" ability, stopping time the moment before Barthomeloi released her magical power.
Instantly, Barthomeloi, still angrily swinging her whip, froze in place. The air stopped flowing. The raging "wind" also stilled like a sleeping child.
Walking before Barthomeloi, Zuke grabbed her, then jumped out of the room, instantly teleporting to a nearby forest.
Because the Clock Tower was originally in London's outskirts, Zuke was too lazy to run far and just randomly found a nearby forest, placing Barthomeloi on the ground. The entire process took only one second.
"Then time begins to flow."
The next moment, the surrounding air became turbulent. Under Barthomeloi's control, the violent "wind" swept like a tornado, cutting all surrounding trees at the waist.
Wind blades also continuously struck Zuke's body like sharp weapons.
Of course, forget breaking Zuke's skin—with Zuke deliberately protecting himself with "ki," they couldn't even tear his clothes.
"...You, what kind of monster are you!?"
Seeing Zuke completely unharmed under her attack, Barthomeloi was shocked and instinctively asked.
However, soon she noticed another more important matter—that was, the environment around her seemed to have suddenly changed.
She quickly raised her head to look around, only now discovering that the instant before she launched her attack, she'd still been in her office, but after launching her attack, she and Zuke had appeared outside.
"As you can see, your attacks have no effect on me. However, I have no intention of destroying the Clock Tower, so I could only move you out first."
Zuke looked at the pale-faced Barthomeloi and smiled as he explained.
"The other Lords have all surrendered... Barthomeloi, I suggest you obediently listen. That way you can continue being your Lord. Except for having to obey my orders from now on, there'll be no changes."
"Don't joke around!"
Of course Barthomeloi couldn't accept such a thing. She raised her whip and swung it at Zuke, her face showing anger.
However, her whip had just swung out when Zuke grabbed it—not knowing what method Zuke used, Barthomeloi immediately felt the magical power in her whip disappear.
In an instant, Barthomeloi felt the power in her body gradually disappearing... something was devouring her power.
"You seem to have misunderstood something. Just now giving you a choice was merely providing a method to gracefully accept reality."
Zuke gripped Barthomeloi's whip, looking at Barthomeloi gradually losing power as he extracted her "life energy," and sneered.
"If you won't accept gracefully... then you'll have to suffer some pain."
Although Barthomeloi's personality was overly arrogant, her appearance was still quite good.
Since Barthomeloi wasn't willing to obediently submit, she could only be made to accept reality using special methods like Psykos from the Monster Association.
To be continued…
The finale 50 Chapters are up on my Patreon!
Head there to raed them!
pat reon.com/AlphaSenatus