A Villain's Way of Taming Heroines

"..." Ravenna, regaining her composure, glanced at the mindless flesh attempting to assimilate even the God from the Machine. She immediately recalled where she had encountered such a thing before.

In Evora's hunting grounds, Suellen had unleashed a lower-tier Tidecaller... This mass of flesh and the enormous, deformed flesh worm… bore a striking resemblance to that scene!

Miss scholar exhaled slowly, her voice grave. "Ansel, you mentioned before that within the skull of this skeleton lurked a deceased Tidecaller, correct?"

"Indeed," Ansel nodded slightly. "Given the manifestation of this power, it must be the Tidecaller's parasite."@@novelbin@@

Devouring, assimilating, proliferating, mutating... He had initially misunderstood; this had nothing to do with Hydral's Head of Devouring, but was entirely the power of the Tidecaller.

Ravenna then provided him with a chilling response.

"But the skeleton itself, if I'm not mistaken..." she said softly, with some difficulty, "It's... the skeleton of a Flamefeast descendant."

"Not just any descendant, but one with the qualifications of an emperor. It might even be the skeleton of a former sixth-stage divine species emperor!"

Ravenna, through the Nidhoggr she had sent to the skeleton, sensed its interior.

It was the vanished, boundless Feasting Flame, whose whereabouts had been unknown!

Not only the endless sea of fire, but also the eternal flame from Ephesande that had been tormenting Evora, and even the source of this infinite inferno - all had been completely devoured by this skeleton. Such capacity could only belong to a Flamefeast Emperor.

An Emperor's... skeleton?

"... As expected," Ansel remarked. Unlike Ravenna's almost horrified astonishment, he seemed surprised but not overly shocked.

"Ephesande wouldn't have considered plunging into the Lost Sea without reason," Ansel narrowed his eyes.

"Even at her wit's end, she would only choose the path with the highest success rate. Her certainty about this path's potential implies that the Flamefeast's records might have contained relevant information."

"Flamefeast and Tidecaller... combined?" Ravenna murmured incredulously. "They're... mad."

"Indeed, they would only make such a choice when driven to the brink of self-destruction. And judging from the result... he failed completely," Ansel said softly, perceiving the golden skeleton floating silently in the void.

"The remaining power is entirely that of the Tidecaller, with almost no connection to the Feast Flame clan. He was devoured and assimilated by the Tidecaller."

"The only question is, why is his skeleton so intact?"

Ravenna quickly realized a more crucial issue. "If he failed, and the Flamefeast power was normally inherited, it suggests he should have returned to the Source Flame. A normal emperor returning to the Source Flame would leave no remains, yet he didn't. Instead, he became a... tool in the hands of that mysterious force."

"Regarding that..."

The steel colossus raised its giant blade once more, with Hydral revealing a dangerously playful smile.

"Why don't we ask our dear Evora to confirm?"

This farce needed to end.

Evora, originally completely restrained by the skeleton, was now on the verge of breaking free. This could either mean the skeleton was gradually weakening, or... it had almost drained what it needed from Evora.

Either possibility meant Ansel could more easily sever that chain.

"Consider this... an early greeting," Hydral murmured.

His gaze penetrated the rift, through the void, as if landing on some hidden corner unknown and undetectable to anyone else.

Then... a fire of pure, unbridled violence ignited in his eyes!

"I will find you, I will catch you, I will..."

The monster's deep voice echoed across the sky. At this moment, Ansel was not merely sitting in the God from the Machine's cockpit, but had partially manifested his true form, entwining around the mecha's arm. His enormous snake head slowly bit down on the hilt of the sky-cleaving blade.

Endless black mist coiled upwards, carrying an unyielding rage and hatred that refused to back down or let go. It opened the gates of the abyss, allowing Ansel of Hydral's blood oath and roar to resound throughout the endless maze realms!

"I will imprison you in the deepest depths of the abyss..."

"For all… eternity!"

It was the finale rising from the bottom of the abyss, a divine punishment descending from the hands of a god.

In this moment, the hearts and spirits of all extraordinary beings across the empire trembled.

In the Western Lands and its surrounding regions, anyone who looked up could see the abyssal sword piercing the sky, breaking through the barriers of dimensions and planes, slashing towards an unknown space-time.

As this strike, imbued with Ansel's will, fell, the golden chains entangled with Evora's mutated flesh instantly withdrew.

The chains that had previously refused to leave Evora now retracted frantically like fleeing fugitives, but it was too late.

In an instant, before even touching the true edge of the blade, the spine-turned-chain was completely annihilated by Ansel. The abyssal sword continued its relentless slash towards the golden skeleton, without hesitation, intent on utterly destroying it!

In a fraction of a millisecond, the skeleton vanished without a trace, as if swallowed by the blackness of the abyss.

But Ansel knew it wasn't destroyed by him; it had escaped.

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Spatial control... Evora's spiritual essence.

To forcibly extract even spiritual essence... this monster, heh.

The dual enhancement of the God from the Machine and Hydral's true form had brought Ansel's killing power to an unprecedented peak. If he had had the chance to unleash this strike during his confrontation with Ephesande, perhaps he could have severely wounded her.

At any rate, if the golden skeleton hadn't fled, destruction would have been its only outcome.

Ravenna remained silent, not just in awe of the power Ansel had unleashed without reservation, but also... in response to the emotions he had vented.

"Now, only this little worm remains."

Ansel turned his sword tip towards the flesh worm that had finally been freed from its restraints. "Let's perform a simple excision surgery on Evora, Venna."

This creature possessed characteristics of both the Flamefeast and the Tidecaller, but for now... the Flamefeast traits seemed to dominate.

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