After gazing at Ansel for a long while, Seraphina finally spoke:
"Ansel! I actually know that you've done many bad things, both in the past and... even now. Exploiting and sacrificing many innocent people, using vicious sches to control, coerce, and deceive poor souls, like , like Ravenna.
After Red Frost territory, you've done many such terrible things behind my back. You thought I didn't know, but I could guess."
Ansel was taken aback, then his face showed a mix of relief and lancholy as he shook his head gently: "I'm sorry for hiding so things from you, Seraphina."
He hadn't expected Seraphina to bring this up, and once ntioned, it ant... she wanted to completely unveil the conflicts between them that had never occurred but indeed existed.
It also ant she chose—
"Ah, what did you just call ?"
Seraphina was also startled, simultaneously swinging her leg to strike the ice-blue dragon's massive head, kicking the bewildered beast to the ground.
"..."
While Ansel was still dazed, Seraphina was already stamping her feet in mid-air, exasperated: "You're supposed to call Seri, have you forgotten?!"
"I—"
Ansel's words caught in his throat. Seraphina seed to realize sothing at that mont. She stared blankly at Ansel for several seconds, eting his sea-blue eyes, then burst into laughter in mid-air, so happy she could barely contain herself.
"Ansel... pfft, you, you didn't think I didn't want to stay by your side, did you?"
"Ah... I should be very angry at this lack of trust, but why do I find Ansel so adorable right now?"
Hearing this, Ravenna's eyelid twitched, but considering this was indeed Seraphina's mont, she refrained from saying anything.
As her laughter subsided, Seraphina gazed at her lover with imnse tenderness:
"Ansel, how could you think I would leave you?"
"I know, you have no choice."
In his pursuit to fight fate, Ansel could not spare other energy for other concerns. How could he willingly do such things if there are any other choices?
Surely, he must have suffered, though he never showed it. He must have believed that showing pain and misery after doing such things would be deceptive, despicable, and disgusting.
Ansel, raised with such love and care by parents like Sister Annie and Mr. Flalle, who understood how other worlds run, must desire more than anyone to improve this world.
He always understands how to change this world better than , that's why I have to obey him.
—Yet this is wrong.
For before he can run this world better, Ansel must first overco fate, otherwise, he cannot think about such matters.
I, who eternally placed my hopes in Ansel, who forever believed he would make the best choices, who always thought he would never mistake, am selfish and narrow-minded.
"Thus, awaiting your arrangents and sches is wrong."
"How can I expect you, who has so few choices, to cater to my desires?"
"Moreover..."
She turned, facing the newly risen, enraged dragon, and laughed uproariously:
"That is not , that is not... the Seraphina you chose!"
"Zah!"
The ice-blue dragon's throat once again emitted a brief, guttural sound. It intended to employ its previous tactics, to utterly control this inexplicably strengthened gnat and annihilate it most efficiently.
Yet the air currents stirred by this roar, carrying vast amounts of aether, were instantaneously obliterated by a surging, turbulent dark red aura!
"My role should not be to rely stand behind you, blindly following your orders, executing choices you were forced to make."
If I were strong enough, I wouldn't trouble my teacher so, and my voice alone would resound throughout the academy; if I were strong enough, Ansel wouldn't have caused so many deaths in Red Frost Territory, for I would no longer be at his rcy; if I were strong enough, I could have saved and helped more people along this journey; if I were strong enough to instantly slay all the controllers of Dispute Fortress, I wouldn't be manipulated, and Marli wouldn't have...
If I could be as powerful as the Empress, if I possessed enough strength to command the entire empire...
If I could give Ansel choices—
Everything would change.
"It's not right to just wait for Ansel's orders all the ti, hoping for Ansel's plans, thinking everything will be fine if Ansel takes care of it."
"Yeah, on my own, I might ss up. I could make mistakes, do things badly, or even cause trouble. But what if... I beco really strong?"
Is my fourth-stage power enough to fight a fifth-stage dragon? If it's not enough—
The shadow of Hydral manifested fully behind her!
At this mont, Seraphina, without the slightest attempt at concealnt, unleashed the aura of the abyssal beast, stunning all fifth-stage extraordinary beings attempting to observe the battlefield.
Upon sensing Hydral's presence, ninety percent of the fifth-stage observers instantly retreated, ceasing their surveillance and erasing all traces of their presence.
The ice-blue dragon facing Seraphina froze, becoming statuesque.
Seraphina turned to the wildly dancing nine-headed serpent apparition behind her, a smile blossoming on her face. "Now, we can attempt that technique I've been contemplating."
Directly infusing her body with the power of Hydral's projected form would cause her to burst; Seraphina had long since tested this.
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Absorbing the wolf's shadow lacked the potency to rival Hydral's projection.
What if, instead of absorption, a more effective thod of... layering was employed?
That pure dark red once again beca tinged with the abyssal black, lding together without hesitation or resistance, in perfect harmony.
Simultaneously, the wolf's shadow re-erged from Hydral's projection. This ti, however, it did not exist independently or howl to the heavens, but instead transford into an even more ethereal shadow, gradually... enveloping Seraphina!
Upon reaching the fourth stage, her mastery over elents and power imdiately ascended, and the once-in-a-millennium prodigy instantly discovered a new technique.
Seraphina now appeared to don crimson-black lupine magical armor. A fierce, massive wolf's head beca her helt, razor-sharp claws transford into weapons called fist-blades. Her limbs and torso were entirely covered in crimson-black energy streams—not ordinary aether flows, but the power of Hydral's projection, refined to its utmost limit by Seraphina!
None could fathom the terrifying heights Seraphina Marlowe had reached, with the Beast King's power layered upon Hydral's projection, further augnted by her advanced state as the Head of Strength!
"So, Ansel!"
Seraphina poured out her heart's pure, absolute love: "I've never felt hindered or constrained by you. Without your help... I would have been destroyed long ago!"
Sever her obedience to Ansel? Regain freedom?
Preposterous. What needed severing... was rely her dependence on Ansel!
"I simply no longer wish to be the foolish girl capable of nothing but following your words. You need not force yourself anymore, nor be compelled to do what you don't want to do, nor make any necessary sacrifices."
The lupine-transford Seraphina charged towards the dragon, its spirit already cowed by Hydral's aura. Her form suddenly grew, and grew again—no, it was the crimson-black wolf shadow enveloping her that expanded under her control! In an instant, it nearly matched the dragon's size.
The colossal magical wolf lashed out with both claws, rending the dragon's maw. Amidst its terrified wails, it forcibly pried apart its jaws, relentlessly pushing them to their limit, and then...
A sickening tear—!
The dragon's head was violently split in twain!
Amidst the torrential rain of blood, the wolf stood tall in the heavens, laughing uproariously. She gazed skyward, her eyes brimming with arrogance and disdain.
Hey, stupid Fate! Is this all you've got? You really think you can ss up my relationship with Ansel?
How dare you... look down on my feelings for Ansel!
I'm gonna change this world, beco the strongest, help Ansel, and beat you, you jerk... I'm gonna do it all!
I'll take everything, I'll have it all, because I'm gonna be the absolute one. I'll beco... a power even more absolute than you!
When she looked back at Ansel, her brow, still retaining traces of girlish charm, now bore the unmistakable air of a supre ruler.
Though her life's path had diverged dramatically, the enlightened Beast King unflinchingly embarked upon her path of dominance.
Yet the aning of this dominance had transford entirely.
"Don't let depend on you anymore. From now on, you can depend on too."
This was Seraphina's true desire when accepting this challenge—the wellspring of her desperate need to prove her strength to Ansel.
"If fate doesn't give you any choices,"
The world-changing ruler, Hydral's Beast King, extended her hand to the young man with a radiant smile:
"Then I'll give them to you, Ansel!"
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