It wasn't that Teresa summoned a new Stand. She used The World—the time-stop ability. As for why she could speak English, well, don't worry about those details.
Time froze. Dust hung suspended in the air. Birds were frozen mid-flight. Everything in the Holy City stopped, including the five perfect Awakened clones on the battlefield.
At that moment, Priscilla was stark naked. Her figure was so flat it was awkward to look at. Still, the time-stop scene was a little... sketchy. Thankfully, the one moving was Teresa—not some creepy old man.
Teresa opened her eyes, stepped forward, spun like a windmill in place. Her greatsword turned into a blur and vanished—that was Teresa unleashing her strongest high-speed sword technique. Although it wasn't as fast as when she was fully Awakened, it was still enough. In that frozen moment, she was able to use the high-speed sword three times back and forth, killing all five of Priscilla's clones.
Even without a physical body or the ability to Awaken, Teresa was still strong. At the very least, she still had powerful abilities.
Kid thought he'd misheard something. But when he snapped out of it, the fight was already over. He'd skipped a whole sequence! That meant Teresa really had stopped time.
"?" Priscilla hadn't even processed what had happened yet. Her five clones were already completely wiped out by Teresa. "Why?"
Teresa looked at Priscilla. There was no hatred in her eyes. Even though she'd been ambushed and killed before, Teresa had no resentment. That's just how the battlefield was—either you die or I die. From the day she first picked up a greatsword, she'd accepted that fate.
"Why didn't you use such an incredible power earlier?" Priscilla didn't get it. Why had Teresa pushed her to evolve step by step—only to deliver the final blow after she'd reached full power?
"Feels good, doesn't it?" Teresa smiled. "It really sucks to die before you've used everything you've got. Trust me, I know."
That's right—last time Teresa had died pathetically from a sneak attack. But she hadn't planned to repay it with the same trick. Instead, she let Priscilla die with clarity, let her see just how wide the gap between their power was—like the difference between a basic account and a premium one.
Using The World to stop time, Teresa unleashed her strongest high-speed sword within six seconds, slicing all five Priscillas into dust. The sword was so fast that Priscilla was still standing and speaking even after being cut.
"Mmm... that was satisfying." Priscilla knew she'd lost. Her body crumbled, vanished, gone. The so-called super-Abyssal still died at Teresa's hand. Turns out, the strongest Claymore still lived up to her name.
Was it over?
No one had come back to their senses yet. What just happened at the end? Why did that ridiculously strong Priscilla suddenly disappear? It didn't make sense.
Even Kid was stunned. All he'd done was activate the Ripple energy inside Clare's body—what he called her "ghost Ripple," or Stand. Activating a human's ghost Ripple was normally difficult, but Kid was strong enough now to pull it off. He just didn't like Stands, so he'd never activated his own. The ghost Ripple inside Clare clearly belonged to Teresa.
So yes, the Teresa now appearing was a Stand—but an incredibly special one. This Stand had a high level of autonomy and even its own consciousness.
"Teresa?!"
The battle was over, and now it was time for an emotional reunion. Clare's tears flowed even more than when she'd cried for Raki. She looked like a little girl all over again.
"You've grown up so much, and you still cry like that," Teresa said gently, eyes full of affection. Then Clare threw herself into her arms.
Technically, as a Stand user, Clare shouldn't be able to touch a Stand—but Teresa was a special case. The two embraced tightly.
"I have so, so much to say to you, Teresa..."
"I know." Teresa had been watching Clare all along. "You've grown up and made some great friends. That means I can be at peace."
As she spoke, Teresa turned translucent and disappeared back into Clare's body.
"Teresa! Teresa?!" Clare sobbed uncontrollably.
Raki clutched his wound, unsure what to do. Just then, he felt a hand pat his shoulder—it was the same strange man in white who had saved him earlier.
Kid said, "See? Clare belongs to Teresa. You can't win against someone who's already dead. Why not give up and learn to be a thief with me instead?"
It wasn't exactly a winning recruitment pitch. But it was true—Raki could never be Clare's partner. At most, he was sidekick material. Clare had Teresa before her, Jeanne after her, and then Irene—there was no space for some random guy.
"What exactly just happened?" Jeanne asked. She'd met Kid once before and knew he was mysterious, always saying weird things.
Kid explained calmly, "Clare merged with Teresa's flesh. So with just a bit of stimulation, I could awaken Teresa's soul and grant her ghost Ripple energy. That let Teresa appear as a Stand and help Clare."
Jeanne didn't understand. "You mean when Clare started to Awaken but stopped halfway, that was Teresa's doing too?"
"Exactly." Though even Kid didn't understand why Teresa hadn't stepped in to help during the earlier Northern chaos. Turns out, when Teresa had first become a Stand, she'd started awakening her time-stopping power. By the time she was ready to act, the battle was already over.
"Teresa!" Clare was still calling out to her—but Teresa didn't reappear.
Kid figured it was probably because Clare's body couldn't handle Teresa's presence for long. That's why she had vanished.
Isley saw that even Priscilla had been defeated. It wasn't the right time for him to act either, so he quietly withdrew. Alone again, with no idea where to go, he wrapped himself in tattered cloth and silently hit the road.
"Isley! Where are you headed?!"
"?" Isley looked up at the two Claymores standing in front of him. He hadn't seen them during the earlier battle.
"North Abyssal One, I've heard all about you. I'm the former South Abyssal One, Luciela. Pleased to meet you."
South Abyssal—but she had no visible yoki at all. Isley didn't know whether to believe her. "What do you want?"
"You came south to challenge me, didn't you?" Luciela had been annoyed ever since she learned Isley had moved south. The whole continent knew about it—it was basically a public slap in the face to the South Abyssal. Now that she'd run into him here, it was time to settle the score.
"But you don't even have any yoki..." Isley was baffled.
"Even without yoki, I'm still the ruler of the South. You dare look down on me, outsider? Today I'll teach you a lesson!"
With that, Luciela took the initiative and launched her attack.
One battle had just ended. Now the residents of the Holy City found themselves watching yet another—still at the Abyssal level.