Casey Selmore felt a desire to kill Salesin.
When you fight criminals, there are times when you inevitably have to kill them.
In that sense, Casey Selmore was not some idealistic idiot who claimed she could never take a life.
However, if someone asked her whether she had ever truly wanted to kill another person, she could answer with absolute certainty: never.
There had been times when she was forced to kill because the opponent was trying to kill her and subduing them was impossible.
But she had never once fought because she wanted to kill someone.
Until now.
“Salesin von Bretus. A war criminal who brainwashed people with that bizarre power, started a war on a whim, and caused unimaginable casualties. Your crimes can’t be answered for under the laws of the current world.”
Casey declared in an icy voice.
“I’m going to kill you here.”
“Kill me? You’re still so pure, detective girl. Do you think everything will end just because you kill me? This world was made to operate that way from the very beginning.”
“That’s not important. What matters is getting rid of the worst creature standing right in front of me.”
“To call the Holy Sovereign the ‘worst’—how insolent. More importantly, do you truly think you can kill me?”
“I can tell how strong you are just from the impact I felt from above. But that doesn’t make you invincible. If you’re still human, then it’s worth trying.”
“Hahaha. Bold words. To refer to me as merely human.”
Salesin laughed, but not out of amusement.
Rather, he was offended that Casey dared to define him as nothing more than a human.
“You speak freely to the man who will become this world’s god.”
“That kind of nonsense has nothing to do with me. What matters is that you die by my hand.”
As if to prove her words were no bluff, the air around her began to ripple as steam condensed and water surged forth.
Salesin immediately realized the water she controlled was not ordinary.
‘Casey Selmore was never this strong.’
If the reports he had received were accurate, Casey Selmore was a mage of Color, but compared to others with that title, her power had barely grazed the lower ranks.
Yet the aura she emanated now felt nothing like that.
‘Did she grow that much? If she managed to survive after I brainwashed her sister Marias... then she must have overpowered her with skill.’
She had clearly attained some form of enlightenment.
And now a mage of Color—who had awakened—was standing against him.
He did not like that.
He still did not believe he would lose.
But one by one, more obstacles appeared, grasping at his ankles.
Suruna.
Helia.
Casey.
And above all, the greatest threat still remained—Ludger.
“At this rate, I’ll need to settle things quickly.”
The power accumulated over a thousand years awakened.
Its first target was the sky-blue-haired girl radiating raw, unrefined killing intent toward him.
An invisible wave swept across Casey’s body.
A power of domination—seizing another’s mind and bending it to one’s will.
Casey staggered.
But only for that brief moment.
Chwaaa—!
A spear of water shot forward and struck Salesin’s body.
His divine aura shielded him so perfectly that not a scratch appeared, but he narrowed his eyes, puzzled that Casey remained unharmed.
“How are you still conscious?”
This was no lower-grade power delegated to subordinates.
This was Salesin’s own pure, high-density authority of mental domination.
Yet it had no effect on Casey.
“I’m not exactly ‘fine.’ I feel absolutely disgusting, actually.”
Salesin rubbed his chin with a finger as he studied her sharp, blazing eyes.
“I see. As a mage of Color, your brain structure differs fundamentally from other mages. It makes sense that mental interference wouldn’t work.”
Of course, that did not mean mages of Color were immune to brainwashing.
He had successfully brainwashed Marias, after all.
But Casey, now awakened and surpassing Marias, possessed cognition that even his authority could not corrupt.
“That’s not a pleasant discovery.”
Just knowing something existed that did not listen to him irritated Salesin.
But Casey was far more irritated.
“You think I wanted this? And besides, you weren’t the first. I already went through something similar because of someone else.”
The demon Basara’s authority.
On a fundamental level, it was very similar to Salesin’s.
It invaded another’s mind and dug mercilessly at their weakest points.
Casey had lived like a broken shell for weeks because of that.
The only reason she stood here now was because she had overcome all of it.
And to say that Ludger had no part in helping her stand again would be a lie.
“And thanks to you, memories I never wanted to recall came flooding back.”
In sync with her rising fury, the temperature around them plummeted.
Not metaphorically—literally.
The air around Salesin froze.
“This is...”
She wasn’t simply manipulating water—she was deliberately evaporating it to siphon away the surrounding heat.
Casey smirked at Salesin’s reaction.
“What. Surprised?”
“No. Just unimpressed.”
Salesin ignited his divine power, evaporating every trace of moisture around him.
A blazing heat wave—like solar wind—swept outward.
Even with her weapon—water—gone, Casey’s expression didn’t change.
The reason became clear immediately.
A massive ice spike erupted from the ground beneath him, striking upward.
The spike melted upon touching his divine aura, but did not disappear completely.
The space that had burned like the sun cooled again.
“Did you think I came alone?”
Kugugugung—
The ground beneath Salesin shuddered violently and collapsed.
He plunged downward—into an artificial pit carved deeply into the earth, its walls lined with countless jagged ice thorns.
And standing within the cold, waiting for him with frost swirling around her—
Marias Selmore.
“When you toyed with a woman’s body, you must have enjoyed yourself, right?”
Her face looked slightly gaunt from her fight with Casey, but her eyes blazed stronger than ever.
An icy force enveloped the entire chamber, swallowing Salesin.
Even within that extreme environment, Salesin remained unharmed—but the frost gnawed at his divine power bit by bit.
‘If I stay still, this could become troublesome.’
He needed to escape this space first.
He shot upward toward the ceiling—but a massive torrent of water crashed downward, slamming him back.
Casey Selmore’s doing.
Jjjjjeojeojeok!
As the waterfall engulfed him, the freezing cold locked him in solid ice.
A flash of light later—bang!—Salesin burst free, unharmed.
“Is that all? How disappointing.”
His skin, his clothes—untouched.
Yet Marias did not falter.
She had never expected to kill him anyway.
She focused only on restricting his movements.
Salesin knew this.
‘What are they trying to do?’
He intensified his divine light to scorch away the cold.
Marias bit her lip.
That overwhelming heat—far beyond ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) what even a mage of Color could handle—rushed toward them like a tidal wave.
That was the sun.
No matter how strong a human was, they could not block the sun.
Casey knew this too, and poured water endlessly—but it evaporated before it could even reach the light.
The air rippled with heat.
The cold vanished, replaced instantly by suffocating heat.
And then—
From above, a massive dragon’s maw burst through the ceiling.
A dragon unlike the usual kind—its scales were an icy, piercing blue.
Fwoooooosh—!
As it opened its jaws, a storm of absolute frost gushed out, pushing back the heat Salesin had created.
It could not defeat him—but it could cool the divine heat for a brief moment.
Through that fleeting opening, two figures charged.
Alex.
And Suruna.
Both men, who had reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship, swung their blades from Salesin’s left and right simultaneously.
Ash-gray aura and black aura intertwined like a dance.
In that storm of blades—sharp enough to shred a grain of rice into hundreds of pieces—Salesin remained standing.
Not completely untouched, however.
Sss—
A thin line appeared across his cheek.
Blood trickled down.
Of course, it reversed itself, flowing back into the wound as time rewound and the flesh healed.
But the fact remained—he had been injured.
Salesin did not like that.
Not the wound itself—but the hope blazing in their eyes upon seeing it.
He forged a sword of light in his hand and swung it wide.
Such overwhelming force needed no technique.
A shockwave swept across the entire hollow.
The dragon’s head vanished.
Alex and Suruna were hurled back.
But they did not die—they had deflected as much power as they could.
“First of all...”
He would kill the most troublesome one.
Salesin’s gaze locked onto Suruna.
Though Suruna had diverted most of the force, his body had reached its limit—he staggered, unable to regain stable footing.
Killing someone in that state would be easier than snapping a chicken’s neck.
He raised the sword of light—
And at that instant, a massive shadow appeared behind him.
A voice greeted him.
“My apologies for the late introduction, Your Holiness Salesin.”
Salesin responded by swinging the horizontal light blade behind him.
KWAANG—!
An explosion erupted—
But Salesin’s face twisted.
‘The force... scattered.’
Within the blast, the man remained unharmed.
“Lutus Wardot, was it? They call you the strongest sword of the continent. Seems it wasn’t an empty title.”
Salesin smiled pleasantly.
Lutus stood with his sword, Jet Stream, and the compressed storm surging around his entire body.
He aimed the blade at Salesin.
“You intend to kill me?”
“Yes.”
“And can you?”
“On my own? Certainly not.”
Paaak!
Jet Stream thrust forward—its compressed storm aura pierced Salesin’s solar plexus.
KWAGAGAGAGAAK—!
Dense divine power and compressed aura collided repeatedly, filling the chamber with violent flashes and thunderous noise.
The force was enough to grind a human into paste a hundred times over.
But neither Salesin nor Lutus expected someone to die from this exchange.
“That’s why I intend to do it with a friend.”
Salesin clearly heard Lutus’s calm voice.
A friend? Who?
The moment he wondered—
A massive surge of magic erupted behind him, blown into place by Lutus’s cyclone.
7th-Circle earth magic.
[White Severance]
The carved walls of the chamber began to ripple, their color shifting into something like transparent fluid.
Though originally constructed from Holy Stone and other materials, their composition was now entirely different.
They looked like liquid—but were not.
Something similar writhed forward and swallowed Salesin whole.
Then it solidified instantly—hardening like crystal.
A massive transparent prism formed around Salesin, locking him inside.
He could not move at all.
Of course—this was 7th-Circle magic.
And there was only one mage present—aside from Ludger—who could cast it.
“Heh. It’s been a while since I used magic. My back aches.”
Clinton Rothschild descended slowly from the air, leaning on his staff.
His words were light, but cold sweat streamed down his forehead.
Still—this was enough.
Salesin was sealed inside a massive crystal harder than anything in the world.
[White Severance] severed its target from the world itself, freezing them in place.
Clinton did not believe this spell could be broken easily.
But just then—
Suruna shouted.
“Both of you, move!”
Lutus and Clinton didn’t understand why.
But they did not ignore the warning.
They instantly dashed apart in opposite directions—
And a moment later, the crystal imprisoning Salesin split vertically—
A blade of light carved through the space between them.
The slash sliced through the entire fortress—continuing beyond, cleaving a portion of the Bretus island itself.
A deafening blast followed, dust clouds billowing high.
“Heh. Even if I’m old, that spell took quite some effort.”
Clinton stared in disbelief as Salesin stepped out, breaking the crystal.
“So you were Clinton the great mage. Not bad. For a human, I mean.”
Salesin brushed crystalline dust from his clothes as he spoke.