"Hua...."
Softly murmuring her comrade’s na, Mobius montarily recalled the ever-ticulous, stern, and incredibly dull Hua.
"She is now called Fu Hua," Selene said, pausing deliberately for effect. "I can assure you, I haven’t altered her consciousness. She chose this willingly."
"Soone like her would voluntarily surrender...?" Mobius’s expression darkened with disbelief as she shook her head decisively. "Impossible, you’re lying!"
Although Mobius’s inhumane experints often caused minor spats between her and Fu Hua, Mobius had to admit that Fu Hua was an outstanding warrior, soone who valued her promises more than her own life.
"It must have been your doing!"
"My doing?" Tilting her head slightly, Selene let out a soft chuckle. "What a ridiculous assumption." Her expression remained calm as she spoke in a detached tone. "Sotis, forced consent is still consent."
In the blink of an eye, Mobius suddenly leaped up and lunged forward, leaving behind a massive depression in the ground from the force of her takeoff.
"Collapse!"
Crash!
Countless dark plasma spikes coalesced and shot straight at Selene.
Bang!
A piercing clash reverberated, kicking up dust and debris.
Selene opened her eyes, her imaginary claw held defensively in front of her, perfectly blocking Mobius’s sudden strike.
"Tch... so vigilant?" Seeing her attack deflected, Mobius’s pale face turned grim as she clicked her tongue in frustration.
Selene’s aloof and arrogant deanor—so certain of her control over the situation—infuriated Mobius to no end. She wanted nothing more than to punch that smug, self-assured expression off Selene’s face.
Just a Herrscher of the End—what’s there to be so smug about? Give another fifty thousand years to develop, and then let’s see if you dare ambush a scientist like unannounced!
"It seems you’re a thorny rose, unaccustod to gentler thods."
Boom!
The massive imaginary claw clashed in mid-air. In an instant, the surrounding Honkai energy particles vibrated violently, and the spikes disintegrated into atoms.
"Rose? Heh, let repeat myself—I’m a delicate flower of a maiden," Mobius quipped.
Narrowing her snake-like eyes, now shimring a dark gold, Mobius stuck out her tongue playfully, her voice dripping with seductive sarcasm.
Zzzzzt—! Crackle—!
Selene let out a soft snort, a pitiful smile gracing her face. "Are you so desperate to anger ? Clinging to that pathetic glimr of hope?"
Despite her haughty exterior, Selene was far from underestimating Mobius. A mask, after all, was just a mask—for others to see. The mont one believed in it themselves, it beca sheer folly.
Your true thoughts are known only to yourself. As long as you don’t reveal them, the narrative remains uncertain, always leaving room to maneuver.
"How will I know unless I try?" Mobius retorted coldly, dropping her smirk. Standing amidst a sea of dark lightning, she spread her arms wide, her expression icy.
"Collapse—Hearts That Never Were!"
Boom—!
With a deafening roar that seed to crack the earth itself, a thousand-ter-long fissure erupted from the epicenter, spreading out in all directions. The fissure was filled with a flowing, plasma-like substance, almost tangible in its brilliance.
This was Mobius’s first all-out eruption in fifty thousand years. The collapse lightning of the Domain of the Devourer unleashed its full might.
Unmatched speed, explosive force, and penetrating power combined into an absolute truth of destruction.
In an instant, the sky changed color. Dark clouds spread across the heavens, tainted by the black lightning radiating outward, morphing into storm clouds streaked with green electric serpents. These clouds rapidly expanded, enveloping dozens of kiloters.
The vast cloud cover grew more turbulent as positive and negative charges clashed within the storm.
Boom! Boom!
Suddenly, thunderclaps erupted, and the rapidly heated air expanded, causing violent shockwaves.
The concentrated current was overwhelming.
The surging electric discharges produced a terrifying roar across the sky. Ground zero—the Padmanabhaswamy Temple—beca a storm of destruction. The surrounding ground undulated violently, making it nearly impossible to stand upright.
It was like a natural disaster descending upon the world.
Furious hurricanes swept through with unstoppable force, toppling buildings and uprooting trees. Even the distant Imperial military outposts fell into chaos amidst the thundering waves.
In that mont, the form of Mobius’s green-haired loli vanished, replaced by the image of an enormous serpent.
Hisssss!
Only then did Selene get a clear look at the true face of the serpent. "The World Serpent organization... quite fittingly nad. Kevin was just a placeholder, wasn’t he? The true sovereign is you, the Mother Serpent."
The head was massive, as large as the Padmanabhaswamy Temple itself. Its form—a human-serpent hybrid—was a grotesque fusion of tal and organic matter.
The serpent’s body glowed an eerie green, with a black exoskeleton. Its limbs and torso were entirely black, marked with golden streaks. Its head resembled the broad blade of a spear.
"I must say, I truly pity Kevin Kaslana," Selene remarked mockingly, her tone laced with insincerity. Even crocodile tears would fail to surface on her face—it was all a theatrical display.
"Disgusting posturing!" Mobius retorted angrily.
Boom!
In the next instant, a massive tail swept toward Selene, slicing through the air and shattering the sound barrier. The resulting gale was as destructive as a hurricane.
Unfortunately...
Clang!
The sound of glass shattering reverberated.
A surge of golden energy created a powerful illusion, making Mobius montarily disoriented.
Her massive serpent form froze abruptly. Without warning, countless cracks in the void appeared beneath her, swallowing her lower body and locking her in place.
"Roooarrr—!"
The serpent let out a feral roar, its frenzied cry piercing the ears as Mobius struggled violently to escape the binding force of the void field.
"The outco is already decided," Selene declared, extending her hand. Her glowing eyes radiated an intense light.
"No! It’s not over yet!" Mobius’s voice, filled with a hint of terror, bellowed from the serpent’s mouth.
In an instant, a bolt of lightning materialized at Selene’s fingertip. The raw electrical power emanating from it was far greater than Mobius’s natural disaster-infused lightning.
Already restrained by Selene’s hold, Mobius had no room to evade.
Boom!!!
A blinding flash of white light consud everything. Mobius felt her entire body grow weightless as a strange invasive force coursed through her muscles and bones. It sent her flying with imnse force.
The manifestation of the [Devouring Serpent] began to disintegrate mid-air. Her massive body smashed into a cratered wall, creating a massive, web-like impact fissure.
Before she could recover, an unrelenting surge of lightning blasted everything around her into dust. The overwhelming force propelled her further back.
Mobius’s body, like a battering ram, carved a path through the ground, shattering hills, forests, and buildings as she went.
Massive trees and solid concrete structures offered no resistance, disintegrating instantly without even a sound.
Whoosh....
...
Lowering her finger, Selene did not pursue in the direction where Mobius had been blasted away. Instead, she looked down at the deep pit beneath her feet, letting out a soft laugh before descending to the ground.
"Found you."
Pulling back the layers of earth and digging down, Selene unearthed a chunk of black-gold remains emitting a faint green glow near a pool of molten lava.
"The golden cicada shedding its shell... Provoking and attacking while acting out emotions of defiance, desperation, and fear so convincingly. Tch, I feel like giving you an Oscar."
At this mont, the outer shell of the black-gold remains had vanished, faint wisps of green smoke curling from it, revealing charred, writhing flesh within.
Holding the remains in her hand, Selene’s rhomboid pupils began to emit a dazzling purple-red glow.
"Isn’t that right... Dr. Mobius?"
"Where... is this... How much ti has passed? That perverted maniac should be gone by now, right?"
When Mobius’s consciousness reawakened, she found herself in an indescribably strange and distorted space—hazy yet real.
Faint Honkai energy dissipated around her, seeping into her being with a sound like water sizzling in hot oil. Fortunately, part of her core essence had been preserved, allowing her the possibility of recovery over ti.
"You’re awake?"
Suddenly, a voice echoed directly in her mind, startling Mobius, who had been contemplating ways to accelerate her recovery. Her emotions went on a rollercoaster of highs and lows.
If she had a physical body at that mont, Mobius’s facial expression would undoubtedly have been spectacularly exaggerated.
"Finality?!"
That voice—Mobius knew it all too well. Even though her interactions with the Herrscher of the End had been brief, she could never forget that voice.
As the lock on her senses was lifted and her perception expanded, Mobius realized she was cradled in the hand of the Herrscher of the End.
All around her were the low, crowded residential areas characteristic of the South Asian subcontinent, not far from the ruins of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple.
"You’ve got guts," Selene remarked, her tone light yet cutting. "Leaving behind just a tiny, nearly extinguished core while using the rest—ninety-nine percent of your essence—to bait . Quite the gamble, shedding your shell like that."
A true mad scientist indeed. Mobius’s escape plan teetered on the edge of death, a complete gamble with her life.
The "resurrection seed" she left behind had minimized its core presence to evade Selene’s perception, reducing its life force to almost nothing.
In truth, even if Selene hadn’t uncovered this backup plan, there was a significant chance Mobius might have failed to revive due to insufficient stored energy—essentially killing herself in the process.
Still, her approach was as expected. After all, a scientific maniac isn’t just ruthless to others but to themselves as well.
"Don’t go silent on now. Co, keep up your defiance," Selene teased, noticing Mobius’s halted thought process. Her smile grew even gentler as she infused more Honkai energy into the remains, substituting for the energy required by the "snake molt."
"...." Mobius remained silent, as though utterly defeated and resigned.
Squish... squish...
With Selene’s continued infusion of ample Honkai energy, the remains began to wriggle and visibly grow.
Soon, as if reaching a critical point, the remains burst forth in a dazzling glow. Erging from the shell was a miniature version of Mobius.
Compared to the green-haired loli form she previously held, she had now regressed into a green-haired childlike figure—a punishnt severe enough to be a lifeti sentence.
"Ha, why did you save ? Even if you saved , don’t think I’ll thank you! I’ll say it again—I won’t be your dog!"
The miniature Mobius, her tone full of feisty defiance, yelled loudly.
"Fine, not a dog then. Be my warm-bed handmaiden, how about that?" Selene casually lifted the tiny Mobius with one hand, flicked her on the forehead, and spoke with a mischievous grin.
"I’d rather die here, or jump from this spot, than submit to you—"
Smack!
Before she could finish, a crisp sound echoed. A burning pain shot through her lower half, and Mobius’s eyes widened in shock. "You—you dared to spank ?!"
Smack! Smack! Smack!
"Ahh—! I’ll fight you to the death!" Kicking her short legs wildly, Mobius shrieked in humiliation and fury.
"Don’t even think about it, little brat. This body you resurrected with? It’s entirely made from the energy I infused into it." Laughing heartily, Selene dropped the pretense of formality and tugged at Mobius’s small cheeks.
Revived using her energy, and as the Herrscher of the End, how could Selene not leave her mark? A handmaiden rebelling against her master? Ridiculous.
"Huff, huff..."
After flailing about in vain for a while and realizing Selene genuinely didn’t have any intent to kill her, Mobius stopped struggling. Fine... make the best of it. Unable to resist, she resigned herself to the situation.
Curiosity still burned within her, especially regarding Selene’s existence and her subordinates, particularly the genetically enhanced warriors.
"Hey, Finality, those Astart—"
"Astartes," Selene corrected. "And don’t call Finality—it’s too distant. My na is Selene. Rember it, little handmaiden. That is the na of your master from now on."
"Ugh..." Grinding her teeth, Mobius had no choice but to swallow the insult. She couldn’t resist the urge to investigate further—giving up wasn’t an option!
Taking a deep breath, she began, "So, can I—"
Before she could finish, a loud chorus interrupted her.
"Your Majesty!" ×N
A large contingent of Death Angels descended from the sky.
Their midnight-blue power armor was trimd with silver-gray, and their blood-red insignias stood out starkly. The bat wings on their pauldrons left no doubt about their identity.
They were the 8th Legion of Astartes—the Night Lords. Selene’s dark hunters, harbingers of terror and pain.
With their arrival, the world seed to fall silent. The wind stilled. Overhead, the thick storm clouds parted slightly, as if in reverence, creating a gap.
The last light of the setting sun descended like a divine miracle, falling squarely on Selene. Her entire figure seed bathed in radiant brilliance, leaving only an overwhelming aura of sanctity and light.
Among the kneeling butchers, the scene carried an odd, almost paradoxical poignancy.
This spectacle did not go unnoticed by the many hiding in the shadows of alleys and ruins. Awestruck, the onlookers fell to their knees, murmuring fervent prayers, offering their devout reverence to the divine figure before them.
"Go ask them yourself," Selene said, her voice playful. "You’re lucky, little handmaiden—they’re here."
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