Regarding Kurumi Tokisaki's furious curses, Selene could not exactly say they went in one ear and out the other—she simply did not care at all.
After all, the person truly being scolded was not her. It was only natural for Kurumi Tokisaki to hate the Spirit of Origin, Mio Takamiya.
The most direct reason Mio Takamiya was despised was the 150 million human casualties caused at the moment of her birth.
Secondarily and indirectly, she had continuously distributed Sephira Crystals, creating countless tragedies for young girls, spreading Spirits and Spacequake disasters, and leading to massive indirect human casualties and property loss.
As for Kurumi Tokisaki... she had suffered both.
She had once been an ordinary young lady from a respectable family, living the life of a sheltered heiress. But one day after school, she encountered an unidentified monster attack and was rescued by Mio Takamiya.
Mio Takamiya claimed to be a partner of justice and insisted that Spirits were evil beings, hoping Kurumi Tokisaki would help her eliminate them. Kurumi believed her.
And so, Kurumi Tokisaki became the Third Spirit—the Spirit of Time. She assisted Mio Takamiya in eliminating countless Spirits, until she killed the previous Spirit of Flame and discovered that Spirit had been her close friend.
Learning that every Spirit she had eliminated had once been human... that she had personally killed her friend... and that Mio Takamiya had deceived her all along—when she continued to question Mio, her memories were erased and she was sent to the Neighboring World.
If not for the Tenth Bullet restoring her memories, Kurumi Tokisaki might have remained deceived yet again.
What was this supposed to be? Some melodramatic soap opera development?
A pure and innocent young lady encounters danger and is saved by a prince on a white horse... no, a princess on a white horse. Their bond deepens, and in one party's eyes their affection is unbreakable.
But the wicked woman reveals it was merely deception and exploitation. In her heart, there is another "fatal beauty"—Shinji Takamiya. After draining the innocent young lady of her value, she discards her without hesitation.
Ahem...
Therefore, Selene declared that she was a "compassionate" Herrscher, a "merciful" Empress. Taking a few insults on someone else's behalf—she was not angry at all.
Really. Not angry in the slightest...
Like hell she wasn't!!
Since when had anyone ever dared dump blame onto her? Only she was allowed to make others carry the black pot—who the hell had the audacity to slap one onto her head?
Bzzzz—!
"Hmph. Taking the blame for her for no reason... truly—"
"How unpleasant!"
Crack—splat!
Kurumi Tokisaki's heterochromatic eyes widened to their absolute limit. She could not move at all. A terrifying pressure descended like an ocean, directly crushing her delicate body into pieces.
Boom!
At the same time, the department store beneath her exploded apart.
A violent blast erupted from the top floor like festival fireworks, countless fragments trailing black smoke as they scattered in all directions. Thick smoke billowed upward endlessly like a chimney.
"Come out, Kurumi Tokisaki. Even if I were to sink the entire Japanese archipelago into the sea, you likely would not die."
Whoosh!
Letting out a light breath, Selene felt much better. With a flick of her finger, a gale swept through, revealing a department store shaved down by nearly ten floors—and a freshly reassembled Spirit of Time.
"Ara ara~, why is the Spirit of Origin-sama in such a foul mood? The one who should be angry, who should hate you, ought to be this humble self. You worthless scum who cannot even descend into hell."
Reemerging from a black cavity, Kurumi Tokisaki lifted her skirt and performed a flawless lady's curtsy toward Selene, a sweet smile curling at her lips.
Her posture was worthy of praise. But the killing intent and hatred in her mismatched eyes—so dense they seemed tangible—could not be concealed.
Forget it. If she was misunderstood, so be it. Selene had no interest in explaining. The result would be the same regardless. After all, Selene's objective was far greater than Mio Takamiya's.
Compared to Selene, Mio Takamiya could practically be called pure and innocent.
One merely wished to resurrect her beloved and remain together forever.
The other wished to conquer the entire world and make everything in it pay for her desires.
"Zafkiel. Time abilities. Shadows... In terms of survival capability and hidden trump cards, in some sense, no one in this world surpasses you, Kurumi Tokisaki."
After a brief pause, Selene's gaze drifted northward toward the AST garrison base in Tengu City before she continued, "Even Mio Takamiya cannot compare to you."
"Mio... Takamiya..."
Hearing the name she hated most in her life, Kurumi Tokisaki bit down on each syllable, forcibly suppressing the disgust rising within her and lifting her head to meet Selene's eyes.
"'That woman?'" she repeated, savoring Selene's choice of words. Having already been crushed to death once, her emotions had calmed somewhat.
"So... you are not her. Then where is she now? And who are you?"
"She? Closer than you think. And I—"
Flash!
Not good!
The moment a curve formed at Selene's lips, alarm bells rang in Kurumi Tokisaki's mind. A long and short flintlock gun materialized in her hands.
Though it was only a clone—its death was no great loss—gaining combat experience against a suspected Spirit of Origin was, in Kurumi's eyes, something that demanded utmost seriousness.
The next instant—ding.
A warm sensation touched her forehead.
Kurumi's gaze lifted. A slender finger tipped with a crystal-like nail extended from within the resplendent imperial robes.
That perfectly proportioned face made it difficult for Kurumi to look away. Lips as delicate as rose petals parted and closed.
A cool voice entered her ears.
"—The End of the World."
"Was that Spatial Shift?"
Before she could even raise her flintlock, the thought had just formed in her mind when a dazzling violet-crimson sun ignited in the heavens. A raging torrent of energy poured down from Selene's fingertip.
Boom!!!
The atmosphere convulsed. Fierce winds howled. A terrifying shockwave erupted like a surging flood.
The department store shattered in an instant. Kurumi Tokisaki could not even scream before her body disintegrated into dust, blasted outward along with the Honkai energy torrent.
Rumble—!!!
A sky-piercing arc of light descended with unparalleled momentum. It was a power beyond the limits of human imagination. Blazing violet-crimson brilliance exploded outward.
Where it passed, everything seemed to be erased directly by a god. All things dissolved beneath the radiance of the end. The earth lost its color. The world fell silent.
Soon, the arc cleaved Tengu City in two and surged toward the horizon. Both land and sea issued mournful cries. The ground rippled like feathers in the wind, rising and falling lightly, impossible to stand upon steadily.
Before the hurricane it unleashed, the clouds overhead were pierced through in an instant, shockwaves crowding and racing outward in all directions.
The frozen sea beyond the shoreline vaporized immediately. The immense volume of steam even distorted the sunlight, dimming the sky.
The violet-crimson arc continued to extend without end. Viewed from space, from Tokyo Bay to the Pacific Ocean, the sea was visibly split apart.
Those waves piled upon one another, as if alive, spiraling madly and surging into monstrous walls of water hundreds, even thousands, of meters high.
Within the sea, countless fish and shrimp were stunned or killed outright, their pale bellies floating across the surface.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty, you..."
Only upon hearing Roboute's transmission did Selene belatedly cease her power output. She scratched the back of her head, somewhat embarrassed. "Uh... I may have used a bit too much force."
At this moment, standing within the command chamber of the flagship in outer space, Legion Commander Roboute of the Thirteenth Legion stared wide-eyed at the live feed. On the screen, Selene had carved a massive gash across Honshu, parting the Earth as though combing its hair down the middle.
This is what you call not using large-scale destructive abilities?
Selene: Ahem. That's right. That was just a basic attack.
"Your Majesty, please restrain your—temper. The system has detected that following your strike, the Pacific Ring of Fire beneath the Japanese archipelago has become active."
Choosing his words carefully, Roboute reported with utmost caution.
"Yes, yes, I know. I'll handle it," Selene replied humbly, immediately promising not to repeat the mistake.
Looking toward the distant sea, she saw that the glacier Esdeath had created had already been completely vaporized. The undersea quake had triggered a tsunami, and magma within the crust was unprecedentedly active.
If left unresolved, once the Pacific Ring of Fire triggered a chain reaction—earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis erupting together—virtually all of Southeast Asia would be unable to escape the catastrophe.
Of course, as a diligent and benevolent ruler, how could Selene ignore it? One hand shone with deep yellow light, the other with oceanic blue.
"Under the Light; Back to the Wharf."
...
Elsewhere.
The members of the Jaegers, who had barely managed to climb back to their feet, stared in stunned disbelief at Tokyo—the Tengu City metropolitan area—whose terrain had been almost completely rewritten.
Before them, the remaining buildings leaned crookedly. A chasm carved by the torrent of Honkai energy particles stretched over a dozen kilometers wide. Within it, molten magma flowed steaming and bottomless.
This single strike far exceeded their understanding of what constituted power.
But then again, if it was Her Majesty... perhaps it was only natural.
"Was that Her Majesty?"
The shockwave's aftereffects came and went swiftly. Cornelia rose from the ground, dusting off her uniform as she asked Wave.
"That dazzling figure—it was undoubtedly Her Majesty."
Empowered by the Teigu: Carnage Incarnate · Grand Chariot, Wave's eyesight allowed him to clearly perceive Selene's radiant form tens of kilometers away in the sky.
"I never expected Her Majesty to come personally."
"That aura... that power... It's her?!"
Climbing out from the rubble of a collapsed building, her pure white bridal Astral Dress spotless, her skin only faintly reddened from high-speed friction with the air, Origami Tobiichi straightened and stared coldly toward the western sky of Tengu City.
That radiant figure in the heavens, like a divine king descending—there was no mistake. Five years ago. Identical. She was the one who killed her parents.
In an instant, reason in her mind was devoured by boundless hatred. Her angelic face twisted with killing intent.
"Aaahhh—! Spirit! Even if I fall into hell, I'll drag you down with me! I'll kill you!!"
With a roar, Origami Tobiichi shot into the sky, streaking toward Selene's position.
"Kurumi Tokisaki, you're still alive, aren't you? As expected—if one truly wishes to eliminate you completely, along with all your contingencies, aside from bombarding you with solar flares, everything else feels rather troublesome."
After resolving the earthquake and tsunami issue, Selene resumed searching for Kurumi Tokisaki's position. Suddenly—
"Damned Spirit! I'll kill you!"
"Spirit? What now?"
Hearing this, Selene frowned slightly and turned around. That intense killing intent locked onto her with absolute focus.
...Was that something I just did? Or have I taken the blame for someone else again?
...
Somewhere within the AST garrison base.
"...So they are visitors from beyond the stars?"
At this moment, "Phantom" finally understood why Esdeath's descent had always felt strangely incongruous.
Originally, she had believed Esdeath to be a countermeasure born from Earth's own leylines—a force meant to return the Spirits' power to the world.
After all, she knew the origin of her own existence.
She had been born from the deliberate exploitation and aggregation of the Earth's natural energies—forces stored within land, sky, and sea over centuries, even millennia—compressed together by those who manipulated Spirit rituals.
The degree to which she had plundered the planet was obvious. It was no different from draining a pond dry to catch the fish.
From another perspective, even if Earth possessed no consciousness, its simple self-regulating mechanisms would seek to reclaim what had been taken.
At least, that had been her immediate assumption upon seeing Esdeath—a "Spirit" not born from her Sephira Crystal system.
Now, the situation was completely out of control...
Thinking of the possibility that she might never reunite with her beloved, Phantom's mosaic-rendered body fluctuated violently, emitting a static crackle like an old television losing signal.
Bzzzzt—!
For a brief instant, a corner of silver-white shimmered beneath the prismatic mosaic of her form—but soon it was swallowed once more.
At that moment, the Spirit of Origin's mind rapidly weighed gains and losses.
Should she reveal herself before the resurrection ritual for Shinji was fully prepared? Should she reclaim all Sephira Crystals to restore her full strength?
"No... not yet."
Very quickly, she made her decision.
"The invasion of another world has nothing to do with me. If Spirits die, I can simply create more. As long as Shinji can be revived—no matter the cost, no matter how long it takes—I am willing."
She had divided her spiritual power into Sephira Crystals, given them to humans for refinement, gradually allowing Shido Itsuka—Shinji Takamiya—to absorb them, ultimately resurrecting him into eternal life and becoming her everlasting lover.
If it were only Esdeath, perhaps she would have acted rashly. But with Selene's descent, she hesitated. That fluctuation—no weaker than her at her peak, perhaps even surpassing it—made her unwilling to move carelessly.
Her wish was not yet fulfilled. The timing was not ripe. She remained in a weakened state.
She dared not gamble.
She did not want to die.
She could not afford to die.
"Shinji... just give me a little more time. Soon..."
But just as Phantom murmured softly—
Boom—crack!
Frost swept outward. The dilapidated building where Phantom hid was instantly frozen brittle. An ice-blue figure descended from the sky, holding a violet-crimson cube.
"You certainly made me search for you. The strongest transcendent lifeform of this world—the first Spirit."