Chapter 19: Diverging Fates[II]
On the night of the ritual, as her captors prepared to offer her to their Enigma God, something within Selina snapped. Years of accumulated trauma: the loss of her parents in Drakas’s mines, her servitude to the cruel Dark Thaumaturgist, and now this final betrayal, crystallized into a single moment of pure despair.
And from that despair came power that had lain dormant until now.
Her chest erupted with silvery light as her Thaumaturge Sigil awakened. The glow intensified, spreading outward in waves that transformed everything they touched. Her captors, the ritual chamber, even the very stones of the mansion, all liquefied, becoming a mercury-like substance that flowed and shifted at her unconscious command.
The vision showed Selina standing amidst the destruction, her eyes vacant. Her newly awakened power, an extreme dual affinity for Metal and Water, manifesting as Mercury manipulation, responded to her broken psyche rather than conscious control. She escaped into the night as a changed person.
The vision accelerated, showing glimpses of her future.
At some point, she became an assassin, targeting noble families and eventually earning the title "Silver Queen" as her powers grew. Subsequently, she became a guardian of a Dark Ruin and grew her army of puppets. To establish herself as an enemy of humanity, she allied herself with the very Enigma Race her former captors had worshipped.
And then, years later, came a confrontation with Elias himself.
The future Elias, clearly more powerful than his present self, faced Selina with sorrow rather than anger. When he heard about her atrocities, he wanted to confirm whether she was who he had once known.
Back then, he had tirelessly searched for her when she never returned from her job hunt, but he couldn’t find her until later when his Quantum Sight improved with the help of countless Mystic Crystals. When he discovered the activities her despair had driven her to, he decided to end her suffering by convincing her to stop, but she wouldn’t listen to reason. She saw him as no different from all the other nobles and wanted to fight him to the death, her expression crazed with hatred.
Realizing that she was already a broken soul beyond healing, future Elias decided to put her out of her misery. Their battle was devastating, with Selina commanding an army of puppets made from humans she had transformed using her Mercury manipulation to invade their bodies and control them from within.
In the end, future Elias prevailed, but there was no triumph in his victory. As he stood over Selina’s defeated form, he spoke words heavy with regret: "I’m sorry I failed you. I thought I was protecting you by sending you away to seek your path, but I only delivered you to a worse fate."