Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Serena POV.
I looked around while completely invisible. I floated above the ground, surveying the Hero Faction's secret base of operations. To my surprise, there were far more members than I expected.
I knew the Hero Faction had several members. In the canon, only the main groups were shown, but those weren't the only ones. There were more members. And a large number of them had been kidnapped, brainwashed, or coerced in some way.
I felt sorry for them, at least those who hadn't joined willingly. Especially since they were being forced to reach Balance Breaker at all costs. Whether that meant being sacrificed in battles to reach that level, or dying as Ophis's snakes destroyed their Sacred Gears, none of the leaders seemed to care.
I could understand humans forming a group to fight against 'evil beings' such as devils, fallen angels, and anyone who harmed humans. But I completely disagreed with their methods and how they carried them out, especially Cao Cao.
Could they improve as people? Yes, in fact, they did much later on. Did I care? Not really.
So I didn't really feel any remorse about coming here, taking the Sacred Gears from all of them, and then killing them or selling them to The Company. I would free those who had been kidnapped and were here against their will, but the rest were fair game.
That they might regret it in the future didn't matter now. It didn't change the actions they had taken.
So I moved under Aria's invisibility, moving around without any of them noticing. I used Legilimency on them. My Six Eyes allowed me to be subtle enough that none of them realized I was entering their minds and extracting their memories.
Once I identified who had joined voluntarily and who hadn't, I used a slight confundus on the latter so they wouldn't notice anything strange, and enchanted one of their articles of clothing in a timed portkey before moving on to the next one.
Meanwhile, I began drawing a magic circle around the entire Cao Cao base of operations, which I admitted would have been impossible to find without Mors. It was an artificial dimension created by Dimension Lost by Goerg. They had enough protection to go completely unnoticed if I didn't know where to look.
As I continued moving around, I finally found one of my primary targets. Apparently, the armored super-dreadnought was already operational. I almost whistled in awe as I stared at the aircraft that had once been a super-dreadnought.
I placed a portkey on it to send it to GLaDOS. Then I continued marking and creating everything necessary without anyone noticing. After several minutes, I checked the entire place with my Six Eyes and saw that everything was in its place, then headed toward where the main groups were discussing it.
Everyone was too busy deliberating their plans. After Cao Cao's defeat at my hands, Charlemagne's subdivision almost seemed pretentious. Or at least, mocking of a wounded Cao Cao.
I could see that many of them were in better condition. Apparently, someone had enough healing skills to heal them enough to stand, but not to full fighting condition.
Finally, I approached the more troublesome members. Georg and Leonardo. Dimension Lost and Annihilator Maker. The most annoying Sacred Gears I would have to fight. Good thing I wasn't there to fight.
Take a deep breath before striking both of their shoulders simultaneously. They both tried to turn around, but immediately vanished and were forcibly teleported through the hole in the defenses I had left.
I could see GLaDOS cheerfully greeting them inside their respective prepared prisons. The two immediately went on guard and attempted to fight back, but were both sprayed with gaseous Draught of Living Death. They both seemed to panic as they exhaled and felt their limbs begin to go numb before falling unconscious.
GLaDOS let out a sadistic laugh as several cables emerged from the walls and began chaining them up.
"Georg! Leonardo!" shouted Cao Cao, standing up with True Longinus in his hands.
"Who's there!" Charlemagne exclaimed, brandishing her sword. Everyone else immediately went on guard. I chuckled as my invisibility faded.
"Prince!" Cao Cao growled furiously. "Give me back Georg and Leonardo!" Cao Cao exclaimed. I just smiled mockingly.
"Why would I do that? This is an attack on the Hero Faction." I mocked Cao Cao.
"You're too bold to come here alone, Succubus," Charlemagne said mockingly, pointing Another Longinus at me. "You may have defeated Cao Cao, but don't compare me to him. Unlike him, I will kill you," Charlemagne said grandiloquently. I burst out laughing.
"Actually. No one will die today." I said with a wild grin. Everyone looked confused, but I just clapped loudly. The enormous magic circle appeared beneath our feet. At the same time, all the non-volunteer members teleported away, and everything I had marked as necessary was sent to GLaDOS for storage.
The circle's creation and activation lasted barely a fraction of a second. Just enough time for some of them to react, but not enough to prevent it. So they were all forcibly pulled out of Georg's dimension and sent elsewhere.
I really didn't want to create a dimension in the dimensional Gap. It would be easily destroyed by the fight, and very easy for Ophis to find if necessary. I didn't know if Ophis would intervene if I defeated her completely right then and there, but the last thing I wanted was to fight her. So we had devised a plan to send them to another universe. We were in the magical world, on the surface of Wolf 1016 C.
I could have easily left this place as it was, and most of them would have run out of oxygen in minutes. But I had put in place many defenses and an artificial atmosphere for this purpose. The others really wanted to have some fun.
"Let the chains close again!"
Let Death be chained!
May the last breath be denied!
Let no soul leave its body!
May no being reach its end!
As long as I remain standing and chained,
Death will remain captive!
And by the others, I meant Bellatrix. Bellatrix's voice echoed across the entire surface of Wolf 1061 C, and we all felt death's embrace close in. Everyone looked up at the sky and saw an enormous sun and an enormous moon. Both high in the sky, huge, gigantic, and too close.
"SUNFALL!" "MOONFALL!" Lucy and Rebecca's voices echoed through the area as they released the sun and moon they had prepared over several hours. The sun and moon they could create couldn't move, but they could bring people here, and that's what they had done.
And most importantly, from what we discovered, they could grow indefinitely. Their growth slowed down after a certain point, which caused great stress for Rebecca and Lucy, but they could continue to grow, and even more so if they continued to feed them with the respective magic.
All members of the hero faction watched as the moon shattered into thousands of pieces and began to fall like a meteor shower while the sun slowly fell, but loomed dangerously over us all.
"Everyone! Teleport away from here!! " Cao Cao shouted furiously.
"We can't! Something's stopping us! " another member shouted. I laughed mockingly. Cao Cao turned to glare at me. I sneered as I watched the moon meteorites plummet down. Everyone tried to move away from the impact zones, but after several hundred meters, they crashed into my defenses and couldn't get through, so they just panicked even more. At least, the normal members did.
"Balance-Breaker: Polar Night Longinus Chakravartin!" "Balance-Breaker: Another Longinus Requiem!" Both Cao Cao and Charlemagne unleashed their Balance Breakers. Cao Cao's were seven orbs called the Seven Treasures. Charlemagne's was an armor that covered part of her body and released a powerful divine aura.
"Maniratana!" Cao Cao shouted as one of his orbs positioned itself in front of him and began deflecting the fragments of Lucy's moon. "Assaratana!" CaoCao shouted again. The second sphere moved, and the orb touched Jeanne without any effect. Assaratana, the treasure that allows the person the orb touches to be teleported. My anti-teleportation protections were strong enough to prevent it. "Hathiratana!" The orb struck Cao Cao, allowing him to fly freely.
Cao Cao took off into the sky while dodging and deflecting attacks from the moon fragments, either with True Longinus or the orbs that moved from side to side, and tried to help his companions below him. Still, there were thousands of fragments, and they caused huge explosions that destroyed everything in their path.
On the other hand, Charlemagne used Another Longinus, carving enormous slashes of holy light to eliminate all the fragments heading in her direction. However, she couldn't defend her group as effectively as Cao Cao.
Cao Cao finally clicked his tongue, and his spear shot toward the defenses that kept them trapped. His spear struck and began to crack the defenses, but it was too late. If he had had a little more time, he definitely would have destroyed them. But Rebecca's sun finally reached the ground.
"Damn it! Charlemagne!!" Cao Cao shouted, retracting his spear with a furious and annoyed look.
"Don't give me orders!" she exclaimed, but she stood her ground. They both stopped and looked up at the sky before shouting.
"Parinayakaratana!" shouted Cao Cao as his most powerful orb launched a huge, powerful, and destructive attack.
"Shine, sacred sword. Punish the wicked and guide the path of light!" Beside him, Charlemagne screamed, unleashed all his divine aura, and launched a huge cross attack that split everything in its path.
Both blows collided with Rebecca's sun and exploded against it; they stopped it in its tracks, and it remained there. At the same time, Cao Cao and Charlemagne screamed.
I moved my hand. A massive burst of fire and magic erupted at my fingertips—enough to rival Rebecca's sun. I hurled it toward a portal. Rebecca grabbed it and devoured it without hesitation.
Rebecca's sun shone brighter and stronger, and both attacks fizzled out as the sun continued to set. I could see the desperation in both of them.
"O Spear. The true Holy Spear which pierces through God-" " O Sword. The true Holy Sword which pierces through God –"
I silenced them both, and they froze mid-sentence as they tried to speak. I silenced their last attempt to create a joint miracle to prevent them from escaping the attack. It worked mainly because they had both forgotten about me, allowing me to catch them off guard.
And then the sun struck the ground, and everything was consumed in blazing fire as we were consumed by Rebecca's sun. A sun that had been burning for hours, growing beyond its point. It wasn't something you could use in the middle of a fight. But for an elaborate, well-planned trap like this? Definitely.
The attack was powerful enough to surpass even a Satan, without a doubt. But I wasn't going to stick around to take the full force of it. I would definitely survive it, but I didn't want to be constantly burned to ashes. So I grabbed Lucy, who shared the same opinion, and we teleported high above Wolf 1061 C to watch the fireworks from a safe distance.
Meanwhile, I looked through Rebecca's eyes as she waited anxiously for several seconds before plunging into the sun and devouring it ravenously. I looked back at the enormous charred crater that now stood on Wolf 1061 C, on what was supposed to be my mechanical planet; the defenses I had placed there had been destroyed. I replaced the artificial atmosphere as I descended.
The heat from Rebecca's sun was overwhelming, but it diminished rapidly as Rebecca fully absorbed it. My eyes scanned everything around.
Bella was still here, her authority still held, and that meant no one had died, no. But the bodies of most of those who were here had vanished, completely reduced to ashes. Those who weren't so lucky remained charred masses in the shape of moving bodies. Still alive thanks to Thanatos's Authority.
The Authority prevented death, but they could still suffer harm, harm that did not regenerate on its own. So there were bodies completely shattered, torn to pieces, reduced to ashes, still moving while their souls clung to the bodies.
Those fortunate enough to have their bodies destroyed, their souls floated near where their bodies had been. I simply gazed at them. They weren't dead; they hadn't entered the cycle of reincarnation, and their Sacred Gears were still bound to them. It was perfect.
Finally, my gaze fell upon Cao Cao and Charlemagne. Both were still alive and standing, surprisingly, but utterly broken. Despite both being human, and their bodies truly fragile, they had somehow managed to survive.
Though not without damage, Cao Cao had lost an arm to the shoulder, where a horrific burn cauterized the wound. He also had burns all over the rest of his body; half his face was burned, and there was a huge burn on his remaining arm that held Longinus.
On the other hand, Charlemagne was in worse shape. She hadn't lost any limbs, but half her body was charred. Like, literally completely blackened by Rebecca's intense sunburn. Even so, to my surprise, they both moved immediately.
"Gahapatiratana!" CaoCao shouted in a hoarse, dry, and slightly distorted voice; apparently, his throat was also burned, but he didn't seem to care. He wore a look of pure fury and rage. The orb shot forward and began creating hundreds of warriors, who were immediately confronted by a Rebecca made of solar fire, who began destroying everything in her path as she cackled. "Itthiratana!" CaoCao shouted as one of the orbs headed toward us.
"Ha! You won't! Fight me!" Bella shouted in a masculine voice. She had transformed into her Alucard form. She tightly grasped the Itthiratana orb that had been launched toward Rebecca and stopped it mid-flight. Itthiratana glowed in a light that enveloped Bella. Initially, Itthiratana can seal the abilities of women within its area of effect for a short period of time.
I watched intently as Bella was struck by Itthiratana's effects, only to burst into laughter and dash off toward Cao Cao, her Kazikli Bay enveloped in earthquake power. I suppose Itthiratana was easy for Bella to avoid, since she could completely transform into a man if necessary by using the souls within her body.
I quickly dodged Charlemagne's attack before focusing on her. Like Cao Cao, she seemed extremely furious as she tried to kill me with all her might. I was truly impressed; even with her injuries, she moved fast enough to keep fighting.
It was a shame it wasn't enough. I didn't even have to use magic properly. I summoned Kanshou and Bakusha while Cia was inside them, then pushed out my magic, and my physical strength increased enormously. Enough to overpower an injured Charlemagne.
"Cakkaratana!" CaoCao shouted after several high-speed exchanges with Bella. One of the orbs flew swiftly toward Bella. I stopped and was about to intervene when an attack from Charlemagne forced me to dodge.
"Dodge it!" I told Bella, though it was too late. The orb slammed into Kazikli Bay, shattering it to pieces. Bella went from shocked to furious in a split second. She stopped playing around, summoned Jackal and Casull—she had prepared beforehand. While her authority was active, she couldn't sacrifice souls, so she had prepared a large quantity of bullets made from sacrificed souls.
She didn't even hesitate to fire every bullet at Cao Cao. Cao Cao was already wounded and exhausted from our fight yesterday, and with this new injury, he still tried to defend himself as best he could with his one arm, his spear, and his orbs. But the god-killing bullets were getting faster, wider, with different effects, and they slowly began to overwhelm the wounded Cao Cao.
If Cao Cao had been in top condition, the bullets wouldn't have been able to overwhelm him, but after the first one hit his shoulder as he slipped, the others slipped past his defenses.
Bullets riddled Cao Cao. They shattered his remaining arm, and True Longinus fell to the ground. Half of his body vanished as enormous holes appeared in his flesh, including one right where his eye would have been.
Cao Cao's Balance Breaker finally deactivated as he collapsed to the ground, utterly defeated. Bella clicked her tongue, approached Cao Cao, and continued firing at him from the ground until she ran out of bullets.
I could only sigh as I focused on Charlemagne. I moved swiftly, using Mirage to duplicate my movement. Charlemagne parried the first time. But using it repeatedly, each time with greater force, caused the blows to begin overwhelming her.
Especially as they exerted enormous pressure against her completely wounded body, making her move slower and weaker. Finally, my attacks broke through her defense, and I cut one of her arms, causing her to release Another Longinus.
She breathed heavily as she looked at Another Longinus on the ground, her hand still clutching the sword's hilt. She stepped forward to try to pick it up, but tripped and fell to one knee. Even so, she tried to crawl forward to try and grab it.
I could only sigh as I cast a spell to knock her unconscious. With her body so badly wounded, the enchantment hit hard, and Charlemagne fell unconscious immediately. I could only sigh. I guess that's how it ended. It was a shame she was with the Hero Faction.
I looked up and saw Bella firing Jackal completely empty. I rolled my eyes. I guess I'd have to calm her down first.
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