"Lux! Come have some soup!"
Mid-air, Perona, dressed in her Gothic Lolita outfit, waved enthusiastically.
By now, the solid wood dining table, large enough to seat ten, was already laden with a sumptuous feast.
Just as she spoke, with a muffled "thud," the suite's door was pushed open.
Reze, who had slipped away from the cemetery long ago, had only just walked through the door.
This highlighted the absurdity of a portal—even if Reze used her Bomb Devil incarnation to "blast" her way back to Hell's Kitchen with sparks and lightning, her travel efficiency couldn't compare to Lux's point-to-point spatial magic.
"I'm back!"
Reze kicked off her canvas shoes and, too lazy to even put on slippers, stepped onto the soft wool carpet with her bare, fair feet. She walked straight behind Su Modie, who sat at the head of the table, and naturally wrapped her arms around Su Modie's pale neck.
She leaned in and gave her a loud "mwah" on the cheek.
"Did you miss me, Modie-chan?" Reze asked with a grin, nuzzling against her.
"Of course I did, my great hero," Su Modie said, dotingly ruffling Reze's hair. She then used a spoon to scoop a mouthful of steaming soup from the white porcelain bowl in front of her and held it up to Reze's lips. "Try this."
Reze took a sip.
It was a perfectly simmered seafood cream chowder; the sweetness of the clams and the richness of the cream exploded on her tongue.
The texture was silky, leaving a lingering aftertaste.
"Wow!" Reze's eyes lit up, and she smacked her lips, wanting more. "This tastes amazing!"
Hearing this praise, Perona immediately jumped out triumphantly.
Wearing a pink bear apron, she lifted her chin proudly and playfully stuck her tongue out at Reze.
"Of course! This princess cooked it herself!"
Isn't your Big Sis Perona amazing?
Hearing this, the smile on Reze's face vanished instantly, replaced by a look of disdain and dead-fish eyes.
"Oh, is that so... It's not good at all then..."
"You jerk—you're not cute at all!!!"
Perona's face turned pink with rage, and she raised her fists, ready to pounce and fight Reze to the death.
Reze: Is that expression for real?
Watching these two goofballs bicker as usual, the group of Villainesses in the dining room burst into laughter.
The atmosphere was so cheerful it was as if the brutal Battle of New York that had just occurred didn't even exist.
Just then, Lux came over and sat obediently in the empty seat next to Su Modie.
"Welcome back," Su Modie said, looking at Lux with a smile, not holding back her praise.
"In this Battle of New York, our Lux is definitely the well-deserved MVP."
Thinking back on it, it was indeed the case.
Not only did Lux successfully intercept and thrash Thor on her own early on, but she also participated in the "righteous gang-up" against Hulk in the mid-game. She even handled the post-war public relations and the tedious cleanup work of haggling with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers.
It was hard to imagine that Lux, who had achieved such great things, was only a B-Rank incarnation.
One could only say that Kamar-Taj was truly authoritative; they had taught Lux well.
For a magic genius like Lux, staying in a dump like Demacia would have been a complete waste of talent.
Su Modie reached out and pinched Lux's collagen-filled cheek, praising her in her heart—
My Light is truly a capable and good girl.
Hearing her Sister Mo Die's praise, Lux squinted her eyes in satisfaction, giggling like a cat being stroked. Following the thought of incarnation ranks, Su Modie leaned back against the soft chair and recalled the recently summoned Esdeath.
She couldn't help but gain a deeper understanding of the "Villainess Rank classification."
She realized that the Villainess ratings didn't seem to be ranked simply and crudely by "combat power."
Take Unohana Retsu, for example; even now, Sister Hana remained the strongest individual killing machine in Su Modie's hands. On the front lines, she was even more formidable than the S-Ranked Makima and Esdeath.
But why was Sister Hana only A-Rank while those two were S-Rank?
Su Modie picked up her bowl, took a sip of soup, and came to a conclusion—it probably had to do with "mechanics."
Unohana Retsu although strong, she was essentially just a stat monster.
Even with her Bankai "Minazuki" active, it only granted her exaggerated recovery speed and lethality; it wasn't "invincibility" or "immortality" in the true sense. Otherwise, in the original God of Death timeline, she wouldn't have ultimately fallen to Zaraki Kenpachi's blade.
But Makima and Esdeath were different.
These two were "mechanics monsters" with rule-based abilities. Take Makima, for instance; her very existence was almost equivalent to a living Mind Stone, and in some rule-based judgments, she was even more overbearing than the Infinity Stones.
The Mind Stone Controls people, but as long as the victim suffers a heavy physical blow, or either the caster or the victim is defeated, the Control effect is lifted. Furthermore, the Mind Stone's brainwashing often infinitely amplifies the victim's negative emotions.
But Makima's Control doesn't follow those rules at all.
As long as she subjectively believes you are inferior to her, once the Control is successful, it is almost impossible to break free. More terrifyingly, this Control doesn't produce any discordant negative side effects.
If she makes the controlled person happy, they feel happy from the bottom of their heart; if she makes them sad, they will cry.
Unless someone was particularly knowledgeable, an outsider wouldn't be able to spot any clues.
This meant that even if Makima's own physical combat power wasn't top-tier—
Setting aside the damage-transfer contract bound to Fisk, let alone the B-Rank Lux, even Annie relying solely on her fighting skills would have a high probability of instakilling Makima's main body if she managed to get close and launch a sudden attack.
Even so, with this unsolvable rule-based mechanic, Makima remained an unquestionable S-Rank.
Similarly, the same applied to the recently summoned Esdeath.
Setting aside her already exaggerated base combat stats, Esdeath also possessed a rule-based divine skill comparable to Makima's, namely—
[Active: Mahapadma]
[Description: A rule-based secret technique developed by Esdeath herself. By freezing space and time, it plunges the entire World into absolute stillness! (Note: Can only be used once per day; currently lasts for only a few short seconds per use.)]
Mahapadma is a Buddhist term, representing the eighth level of the Eight Cold Hells.
That's right. Earlier on the battlefield, Esdeath used this move to give the devious Loki no chance to react, instakilling him and turning him into a crimson ice sculpture.
Forcibly freezing time was practically like carrying around a lite version of the Time Stone. What was even scarier was that the development of this ability was just a flash of inspiration for Esdeath; if she were to study it seriously...
If she could freeze it for one second now, in the future, it might be ten seconds, or even ten minutes, ten hours, or even...
Infinity.
Thus, she deserved an S-Rank.
In other words, even without counting the Mind Stone, the current Su Modie truly possessed two "humanoid Infinity Stones" under her command.
Ãdvåñçé çhàptêr àvàilàble óñ pàtreøn luffy1898