Sevilya’s Cruelty and a Crippling Spell

“She… died?”

Before Seraphina’s eyes, the True Ancestor’s head detached from her neck like a deflated ball. It rolled sluggishly on the ground for a few circles before finally coming to a halt.

“No…” Cardo, having left Seraphina’s body, reappeared beside her. “Not yet.”

Indeed, upon closer inspection, the True Ancestor’s eyelids were still fluttering incessantly.

‘If I remember correctly… a person can survive for about… seven seconds after decapitation?’

Her lips, too, continued to part and close, as if struggling to utter something.

“It… it hurts so much…”

Sevilya’s sword was silver-plated.

Silver items, after all, were one of the banes of the bloodkin.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle…

With just a slight contact with the silver, the True Ancestor’s flesh began to boil directly.

Wisps of scalding steam drifted from the severed neck, accompanied by a nauseating scent of roasting flesh.

Instinctively, Seraphina’s hand went to her own neck, to the very spot where Ailur had once pierced her.

“Hey… Seraphina…”

‘Eh? Me?’

Seraphina had never imagined that the True Ancestor would seek to speak with her in her dying moments.

“If there’s one thing I regret most in my life, it would probably be my treatment of the Scarlett family…”

Though the words were spoken, an inexplicable sense of unease settled upon Seraphina. Something felt amiss.

“But even with such profound apologies… I still wish, in my final moments, to ask you… to do something for me…”

‘Emmm… The incongruity is growing stronger.’

“You see… I’m a dying person… so please, just help me out.”

‘Damn it.’

It was then that Seraphina finally understood the source of the profound incongruity.

‘How are you speaking when your neck, and thus your vocal cords, are gone!?’

Shaking her head, Seraphina dismissed the frivolous thoughts and regarded the True Ancestor with gravity.

“If this ensures you remain in hell forevermore… then I am willing to help. What do you need me to do?”

“Help… help me calculate how long a bloodkin can survive after being decapitated…”

“Damn it! Do you think you’re Lavoisier? Conducting experiments on your deathbed?”

‘And besides that, you’ve spoken hundreds of words since your head was severed, haven’t you? This survival time is far too long!’

“Eh, how did you know… Before I became the True Ancestor of the bloodkin, my surname was indeed Lavoisier… retch.”

‘Did your final words have to be a retort to my jab?’

With her tongue lolling out and her face flushed crimson, the True Ancestor’s eyes rolled back. She was dead.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk... Even in death, such a lewd expression, as if I’d… ravished them.”

“However… now that she’s dead, she’s useless.”

Grabbing the True Ancestor’s hair, Sevilya flicked her wrist lightly, tossing the head over.

“Here, a gift for you. After all, it’s your ancestor. Keep it as a memento~”

“Tsk, that fiend!”

Watching the severed head roll to her feet, Iqiyah gritted her teeth in fury.

Though Iqiyah, Levian, and Seraphina all harbored a deep-seated hatred for the True Ancestor, ultimately, the True Ancestor remained a symbol of their bloodkin.

To treat the True Ancestor’s remains with such casual disregard, like a mere yo-yo, was an act whose malevolence any bloodkin would grasp immediately.

Raising a hand, Sevilya pointed at Iqiyah, a wicked grin of a warped war god spreading across her face.

“You’re next, Iqiyah!”

“…Grrr!” Facing Sevilya’s provocation, Iqiyah’s fists clenched. “Sevilya!”

Not allowing rage to cloud her judgment, Iqiyah slowly advanced.

Step by step, each silent, deliberate movement thrummed with potent fury, radiating an intimidating aura.

Sevilya, however, failed entirely to grasp the depth of Iqiyah’s wrath.

“Oh, you’re actually walking towards me? Instead of fleeing from the one who severed the True Ancestor’s head, you’re offering yourself up?”

“Could it be… that merely slaying a True Ancestor isn’t enough to make you understand my current power?”

“If I don’t walk towards you, how else can I give you a good beating!?”

Outwardly, Iqiyah was formidable, showing no trace of fear.

Yet, Seraphina could see a bead of sweat, as large as a pea, trickling down Iqiyah’s forehead.

The moment Sevilya severed the True Ancestor’s head, Iqiyah knew instantly that this person’s strength was beyond anything she had previously known.

Iqiyah was a top-tier powerhouse among the bloodkin. Though her power had significantly waned due to past indulgence, she still managed to consistently suppress Godia Scarlett and the True Ancestor in their normal state during a clash a few days prior.

However, that same clash also revealed that without Seraphina’s amplification, the True Ancestor, fighting at full power, could still have won against Iqiyah; their strengths were virtually identical.

Later, the True Ancestor was crippled by a combined assault from Seraphina (in her [?] state) and Cardo, eventually forced to inhabit a maid’s body, clinging precariously to life.

Yet, in an unnoticed corner, she still endured a brutal group assault from Cardo and an amplified Iqiyah and Levian.

This indicated her defensive capabilities remained formidable.

But… this very formidable defense was breached, and she was decapitated by a single swing of Sevilya’s sword.

Behind Iqiyah, Seraphina, also sensing Sevilya’s abnormality, swiftly activated her [All-Seeing Eye] to gather intelligence.

But no sooner had she activated it than she heard Sevilya’s merciless taunt.

“Oh… my dear Seraphina, are you using your adorable [All-Seeing Eye] to scan my status?”

‘Tsk, was I seen through?’

Ignoring Sevilya’s mockery, Seraphina persisted in her attempt to access—

“But don’t forget, no one can view my status!”

‘Tsk! I forgot!’

Staring at the utterly blank status bar before her, a profound sense of unease instantly welled up in Seraphina’s heart.

‘Damn it, if I can’t see, then… Amplify! Activate, activate, activate all of it!’

Gathering countless lights, Seraphina aimed her hand at Iqiyah.

But just then—

“Hmph… It worked. Now!”

Seeing Seraphina raise her hand, a look of successful conspiracy spread across Sevilya’s face.

“Evra, use your skill to teach my poor sister a lesson!”

“Alright~”

Wobbling her ample frame, the elf named Evra produced a staff hidden behind her voluminous body.

With a speed that starkly contrasted her gentle appearance, she unleashed a spell upon Seraphina—

[Divine Imprisonment]!!!

‘Divine-tier magic?’

Hearing it was a divine-tier spell, Seraphina couldn’t help but be startled.

Prior to this, Seraphina had never encountered an opponent capable of wielding divine-tier magic as she could.

As an adventurer, Seraphina had been forced to cultivate extraordinary reaction speeds, even capable of countering Sevilya’s attacks.

Yet, against this spell, perfectly timed to exploit her skill’s wind-up, she found herself with no room to react.

The moment the magic was cast upon her, Seraphina heard a wail from within her, a cry from some wondrous magical circuit.

Buzz—buzz…

Like a nuclear reactor shutting down, the hum generated by Seraphina’s magic gradually died out.

Crackle, crackle.

Staring incredulously at her hands, the orb of light she held swiftly extinguished, sparking with countless faint electrical discharges like a short-circuited wire.

“What… what is happening?”