Chapter 246: Liliana Vs The Aegis Law
"You... who are you?"
The General’s voice left him without the weight of command.
What was meant to be an order slipped out instead as a question, carrying a rawness he hadn’t intended...
The kind of tone a man uses when confronted by something that refuses to align with the traditions and habits he’s clung to for ages.
Liliana stood beneath the two suns in her blood-red coat, and that hat of congealed blood, and the pressure coming off her was Cosmic Union, equal to his own.
That alone would have been enough to stop him in his tracks.
But... the rest was even stranger.
She belonged to a dark race, and under the influence of Aegis Law, someone like her shouldn’t have been able to exist on Cylas at all—let alone meet him out in the open without so much as a flinch.
Behind him, ten thousand Star Union Angels held formation and still could not keep the shock from their faces.
Spears shifted uneasily in their hands, and wings folded in a little closer.
While no one broke the silence, the same unspoken thought passed through each of them: this woman wasn’t supposed to exist.
Liliana lifted herself from the swaying white-and-gold grass, drifting upward into the sky without the slightest concern for the spectacle before her.
She didn’t respond to him right away; instead, her eyes wandered beyond the General and the orderly ranks at his back, her attention caught by a fresh idea unfolding in her thoughts, unhurried yet full of quiet promise.
It was clear that her biggest challenge left on the world of Cylas wasn’t the unclaimed territory, nor even the looming presence of the Aegis Law Pantheon.
What truly hindered her was the absence of powerful allies who could stand beside her and her father in their mission to bring her mother back.
Throughout her time here, she hadn’t given much thought to the Pantheon beyond knowing their most formidable figures were absent.
But now, faced with the sight of numerous Star Union experts—and even the presence of a Cosmic Union—she felt her plans begin to shift in subtle yet significant ways.
"If I take them instead of killing them," she murmured, the words meant for herself, "Then I won’t have to ask my husband for solutions..."
HUMMMMMM!!!!!
[Light Affinity]
She had not finished the thought before the first wave of Star Union Angels committed.
In sharp bursts of light, they vanished from their places in the formation and returned already mid-strike, spears driving in from every angle they could claim.
Each of them wielded Primordial-ranked power that boosted their strength by four tiers, and the fiery tips of their weapons shone so brightly they seemed to warp the air between them and her throat, her heart... the length of her spine.
However, despite how fast they should have been moving, to Liliana’s eyes they still seemed too slow.
Light Affinity should have placed them exactly where they needed to be before she could even react. Still, instead, each movement stretched out before her, unfolding in a long, easily readable arc.
Ten of them shifted, closing in around her, while the rest stayed motionless.
But as mentioned before... It all felt oddly slow, as if the gap in rank had stretched time itself, leaving them moving through it like swimmers in thick water.
Not only that, but the only one who could truly grasp the enormity of what Liliana was... was the general.
Even so, Angels naturally despised anything born of darkness—not as an inherent trait, but as something instilled in them by a powerful force.
So, even knowing she was far too strong, they saw her as nothing more than an abomination.
One Angel’s grip tightened on his weapon until his knuckles whitened, while another adjusted his wingbeat twice in the same breath, chasing a target that refused to stay still.
A faint smile curved on Liliana’s lips as she lifted two fingers, as if brushing lint from the air.
[Illusion Affinity]
HUMMMMM!!!!!
SHKKK!!!!!
SHKKKKK!!!!!
SHKKK!!!!!
And... what happened next was more execution than battle.
Spears came at her from every direction, closing in with deadly precision.
One thrust pierced straight through her chest, sending her heart bursting free in a wet, sparkling spray.
Another caused the blood-red coat to rip apart, the fabric giving way under the force, and her hat shattered into pieces.
For a breath it looked as though the Red Lady had been carved down to nothing, and the nearest Angels were already drawing in air to claim the kill....
HUMMMMMM!!!!!
But in the very next moment, the corpse split apart before the kill could even be completed.
From the space where her body had hung on a spear, black crows erupted, bursting into the air and multiplying, then multiplying again, until the sky over the white-and-gold plains was choked with a mass of dark, ominous wings.
The weird thing about the crows, however, was that they did not strike.
They filled the sky, hovering in place, their presence thick in the air.
The sound of their countless wings surrounded everything, a constant hum that seemed to press in from all sides, making the formation feel tighter, more confined, than it had just moments earlier.
Watching the events unfold, the General’s jaw tightened.
"This has already become... far more troubling than I anticipated."
He never could have imagined that the ruler of the place where all their troubles had begun would turn out to be a Cosmic Union expert—one whose presence felt even more formidable than his own.
Without hesitation, he drew his origin-ranked spear from the Divine ring.
HUMMMM!!!
A surge of power erupted through him, his strength skyrocketing by six tiers.
Light danced along the weapon’s shaft as he adjusted his stance, rolled one shoulder to settle his armor comfortably, and then lifted his voice to address the ranks steadfastly holding their position behind him.
"Hold the line and do not scatter," he commanded, his tone carrying the weight of a leader suddenly facing the unexpected.
"Cut the birds down if they get too close. I’ll take the woman myself. Let’s not make this more than it needs to be!"
With his orders given, he took a deep breath, ready to issue a decree.
"By my autho—"
But before the words could fully escape, the real Liliana materialized right in front of him, halting his declaration mid-breath.
HUMMMMMM!!!!
"Not so fast," she murmured with a smile, and in the next instant, she amplified the power of her illusion.
A dark, blood-tinged mist spilled from her coat, rolling outward and swallowing the view of every Angel still aloft.
In that same breath, she reached forward, seized him by the throat, and tightened her grip with an unsettling calm.
His spear never made it all the way up.
His free hand twitched halfway, then froze, caught somewhere between reflex and the sudden, sinking realization that the gap he needed for a proper... fatal blow was already gone.
And in that brief moment of hesitation, Liliana refused just to let it go.
[Decree of Eternal Contracts — Attack (Stellar)]
"By my authority as the Goddess of Eternal Grimoires," she said with a smile as her words formed, her thumb resting lazily against the side of his neck.
"I decree that all beings weaker than my full power within my illusion will be entirely devoted to me... and to my husband."
HUMMMMM!!!!!!
The instant her words faded, phantom contracts of black and red spread through the mist, weaving their way into every Angel present, the General among them.
And obviously... these contract wasn’t just for show; it sank into them, weaving through rank, will, and those silent corners where obedience made its home.
Once they had all settled, every one of the Angels became her loyal subordinates.
With everything in place, Liliana opened her hand and released him.
As the illusion faded away, ten thousand Star Union Angels and the Cosmic Union General knelt on one knee in the open skies.
They all had their heads bowed, spears planted back in their divine rings, and voices uniting in perfect harmony, as though they had always belonged to her.
"We greet the Goddess of Eternal Grimoires."