Ch.189Love and Jealousy: The Correlation – 2

Serena prepared to leap, slicing through the white flames pouring from the sky to the ground and the magic circles violently exploding everywhere with a single stroke.

She enveloped her body with mana, pushed her physical enhancement to the limit, then swung Wind Shear to cut into pieces any trivial concepts that might interfere before bending her knees and kicking upward.

Without any sound or warning, Serena’s body closed the distance with Christine in the blink of an eye.

The mana nullification was still active, but the blue mana rising from Serena showed no signs of extinguishing. Despite the hostility clearly directed at Christine, the mana continued to burn.

Christine didn’t bother pointing out that the mana nullification was no longer working. At their current level, whether mana nullification worked or not was meaningless anyway.

Instead of wasting time on such useless thoughts, she clenched her fist to strike first. Serena had already arrived right in front of Christine.

The blade of Wind Shear flashed.

“Too late.”

Serena’s swing of Wind Shear to sever Christine’s neck was faster than Christine’s attempt to pull back her clenched fist and extend it forward to strike Serena’s head.

The transparent blade, like its owner, without any sound or warning, sliced through skin, flesh, muscle, and bone all at once as it changed position.

After a faint flash of light briefly sparkled, Christine’s neck was severed a moment later, her head detaching from her body. Crimson muscles could be seen writhing at the cross-section of the severed neck.

‘This certainly won’t kill her.’

But Serena never thought Christine would die, and that was the correct assumption. Even if Serena had cut away the very concept of having a neck.

The severed head smiled eerily as it rolled half a turn in midair. Just as Serena saw that smile and was about to continue her attack, a fist came tearing through the air.

With a “pa-ang!” sound, a massive shockwave spread from where the fist met Wind Shear. Serena’s long ponytail whipped about, caught in the shockwave.

Christine was holding her severed head in her right hand, bearing a sinister smile while wildly swinging her left fist at Serena.

Despite the carotid artery being exposed where the head had been severed—which should have resulted in blood gushing forth—not a drop flowed from the cut surface. It was a grotesque sight.

Violent recoil followed wherever Wind Shear collided with the fist. Each punch carried enough force to completely vaporize any part it even grazed.

As Serena’s Wind Shear and Christine’s fist met for the eighth time, blue flames engulfed the space where they stood.

“The antics of beasts are somewhat entertaining to watch, but I have pressing matters and must decline further observation. Consider it an honor that I have attended your little bestial performance.”

It was Charlotte.

Her attack didn’t stop at firing lightning bolts. Each flash of light in all directions transformed into an explosion spell of tremendous power, and the next moment, heaven and earth shook.

A brilliant explosion engulfed Serena and Christine. Tens of thousands of explosions merged into one, erupting again and again as if to completely erase the nearby space, reducing the surroundings to ashes.

The pupil bloomed. Charlotte’s left eye rewound time.

The explosions that had dispersed after fulfilling their purpose condensed back into a single point, and the scattered lightning gathered together again. Then, as Charlotte’s left pupil emitted light, it caused another explosion.

The sound “kwagwagwang!” echoed continuously. Explode, rewind time. Explode, rewind time. During this process, Charlotte added several more spells, unleashing attacks without restraint.

By the fifth time the time was rewound, the space where time had been reversed had already transformed into a world of nothingness. The space had collapsed, unable to withstand the repeated explosions.

And from that place, Serena and Christine emerged almost simultaneously. Both appeared completely unharmed, without even a trace of soot. Christine’s severed head had even reattached itself.

This was possible because Serena had cut through the rewinding time and all the explosions, while Christine had wrapped herself with eight wings spread behind her back, purifying all the explosions and space.

As Serena took a battōjutsu stance while rushing toward Charlotte, Christine pounced on her from behind. Eight wings made of holy power fluttered, each targeting Serena.

Charlotte didn’t miss the moment when Serena’s attention briefly shifted to Christine. Her eyes flashed. The world began to change according to Charlotte’s will.

Christine likewise didn’t miss the opportunity. An explosion of holy power erupted from her wings, and soon after, she began the purification process, designating everything except herself as heresy.

Charlotte’s power and Christine’s power clashed everywhere. The two conflicting powers made every effort to push each other away. A sound like “kigigik” was heard, as if something was twisting.

Serena swung Wind Shear to completely cut off the wings of holy power rushing toward her, but the wings that had been severed in chunks and were fluttering immediately regained their original form.

Even the act of cutting away the very concept of wings seemed useless against Christine. Normally, she should have been unable to create wings on her back again.

Or perhaps this was what they called a “miracle.”

Serena, who had unhesitatingly cut through the mana and holy power she deemed obstacles to her charge, kicked off the air and accelerated once more in midair to dive toward Charlotte.

Charlotte snapped her fingers. Magic circles representing purgatory and the abyss were simultaneously engraved in front of the charging Serena.

This attack would have been instantly fatal to the Serena of the past, but not anymore.

Serena took a deep breath and with just a slight movement of Wind Shear, cut the two spells into pieces too small to be seen. The spells, sliced into tens of thousands of fragments, scattered powerlessly.

That was exactly the situation Charlotte had been aiming for.

“As expected of a beast, your thinking is incredibly simple.”

The pupil of her left eye turned blue, and the scattered fragments of the two spells returned to their original form. She had twisted the timeline to advance the time of the two spells forward.

Purgatory and the abyss were engraved right next to Serena, then engulfed everything around without giving her time to react.

Charlotte isolated Serena from the world by trapping her in the same space with the two spells that would manifest burning hell and frozen hell, then turned her attention to Christine.

The mana barrier she had erected to block the path had long since melted into a puddle under the holy flames that shone down like sunlight.

The angel descended to the ground, fluttering her eight wings. Charlotte drew up mana to create a new magic circle, just as she had done with Serena.

“Do you think you can preserve your life with such a thing?”

“Whether I can or cannot, you shall experience it firsthand.”

Christine clenched her fist. Such trivial magic could simply be shattered by confronting it head-on. Immense holy power dwelled in her clenched fist.

As white flames covered Charlotte’s world and purified it, the foundational mana collapsed in a chain reaction. Bright holy power filled the void.

The luminosity was like the sun rising before one’s eyes to illuminate the world, but Charlotte didn’t mind at all. She had already come too far to be dazzled by a mere sun.

Charlotte rewound time. The mana that had evaporated due to the holy power returned to the form of magic circles. And once again, a finger was snapped.

The timeline split into four. Spells on the verge of activation in each timeline were pulled into reality. A wave of mana, instantly quadrupled in size, engulfed Christine.

Eight wings wrapped around Christine without any gaps, and a barrier of holy power protected her. Above it, magic spells, each powerful enough to reshape the map, poured down.

“Where are you looking?”

Charlotte turned her head at the voice from beside her. There stood Serena, who had escaped from purgatory and the abyss without a single burn, her eyes flashing with killing intent.

“Still alive? Your lifeline is certainly tenacious.”

“If you thought I would die from such a pathetic attack, you must be wearing your head as a mere decoration. Since you don’t seem to need it, I’ll cut it off for you myself.”

Serena kicked the ground. The now perfectly transparent Wind Shear slashed horizontally, aiming for Charlotte’s head. With a single stroke, hundreds of magic circles on the verge of activation were shattered.

Charlotte’s left eye flashed again, attempting to rewind time, but Serena was slightly faster. The hand holding Wind Shear moved widely from left to right.

The time that was about to be rewound abruptly stopped, then was severed at the waist and disappeared, swept away into another dimension. Seeing the broken timeline, Charlotte clicked her tongue.

Serena closed the distance. The tip of Wind Shear aimed for Charlotte’s neck, while a breath made of pure mana targeted Serena’s head.

“Divine punishment shall fall upon heretics and unbelievers.”

Before either attack could reach its target, holy power poured down like sunlight after rain, engulfing both Serena and Charlotte.

Serena, pushed back, scraped Wind Shear against the ground to withstand the recoil, while Charlotte adjusted her posture by manipulating the world.

Christine, floating in the sky, looked down at Charlotte and Serena.

“How dare a mere beast attempt to look down upon me? Truly impudent. I shall personally break those wings of yours that are beyond blasphemous.”

“Sinners in hell should look up to heaven. Sinners like you are not even qualified to gaze upon me. What is wrong with that?”

“You’re quite skilled at turning around the fact that you’re the sinner. You also seem to have no need for that head of yours, so I’ll cut it off for you.”

Neither Serena, Christine, nor Charlotte had any intention of letting the others live. And none of them thought they would lose to the others.

Like maidens in love, they were simply thinking about killing all of the others.

“You worms aren’t even worth that much.”

The fact that all three were able to block the attack that came after hearing the voice was purely due to instinct. It was possible only because their bodies moved before their minds could think.

Serena withstood the oncoming pressure with her arm pressed against the side of Wind Shear, Christine wrapped herself with wings and white flames, and Charlotte reversed the time around herself.

“So you were all gathered here?”

A storm of black mana engulfed the three.