I Have 10,000 SSS Rank Villains In My System Space Chapter 381: Selena: You What?

"Where are you going?"

A cold, crisp voice sliced through the howling wind battering Selena’s ears.

Before she had a chance to alter her path, Sofia materialized right in her way, outpacing the golden flash propelling Selena ahead. No prior sign, no mana disturbance, no aura flare. Simply an instant, undeniable arrival.

Then the blow landed.

Sofia’s leg whipped forward in a fierce, destructive curve, targeted straight at Selena’s features.

Selena’s face turned grim in an instant.

Not once more.

Instinctively, her arm lifted, golden glow racing over her flesh as enchanting spells bolstered her limb. Her forearm intercepted Sofia’s kick, absorbing the shock.

Yet the power driving it proved ferocious.

The impact boomed like thunder across the sky. Agony raced along Selena’s arm while the force hurled her rearward even with the defense. Her boots lost contact with the earth, her form flung back several meters until she spun in flight and steadied herself.

She hit the ground forcefully, skidding over shattered rocks, her footwear gouging faint trails in the road until she halted.

Briefly, astonishment crossed her expression.

The initial assault might pass as an ambush. But this one?

She had prepared, fortified, anticipated, and stayed alert for potential danger.

Yet still, she got repelled?

That stunned her. For she detected no mana enveloping the leg. No aura boost. No evident strengthening or similar.

Pure bodily might alone. And that disturbed her deeply. Since clearly, she possessed a holy body. Her holy body offered no mere power. It bestowed a divine frame yielding physical prowess surpassing any prodigy. Scant few could match her in sheer force, such as Areon with his dragon lineage or those with uncommon bloodlines or extraordinary physical talents.

Was this woman among them? And moreover, she appeared scarcely older than Selena herself.

That disturbed her further.

Few in her age bracket could endure even the basic output of her holy constitution, let alone dominate it so effortlessly. That pointed to one conclusion.

She was a prodigy.

A rival on her level?

Rendering the confrontation even more bizarre.

For Selena could not identify her.

Selena knew her own standing well, though she remained humble about it. But she fully recognized she stood at the pinnacle of talent among this era. No one reaching this tier beside her could stay obscure. Yet she had never encountered this woman previously.

Who was she? Why unknown to her? And why would such a figure assault her?

These thoughts raced through her mind in under a second.

Yet simultaneously, fury surged beyond the bewilderment.

Above everything, this woman had halted her once more.

Selena rose gradually, the golden radiance fading yet lingering. Her stare fixed on Sofia, open animosity blazing now.

Sofia touched down softly mere paces away. Her boots met the surface silently, as if the violent skirmish had merely paused their routine. Her stance stayed loose. Nearly scornful.

She regarded Selena with evident superiority.

"I said stop," Sofia restated calmly. "Don’t run."

Her eyes tightened a bit.

"Also... Did you just mention meeting someone? Who?"

The query sounded offhand, yet a shadow lurked underneath.

Selena breathed in deeply, suppressing her rage.

"Whoever it is," she replied, tone low and firm, "if you block me once more, the outcome won’t be agreeable."

Her tolerance waned.

"This is your final caution. Move out of the way."

She barely glanced at Sofia fully. Her attention kept straying beyond her, toward the spot where she felt his presence.

Razeal.

He drew near. So near it made her heart pound fiercely. Each moment lost here proved intolerable. A keen dread swelled, irrational yet stubborn, that prolonged delay might see him disappear anew.

And that she refused to permit.

Thus, no time for this nonsense.

She adjusted her stance faintly, readying to advance again.

But prior to her motion...

Sofia’s words interrupted before she could.

"Is it Razeal?"

"Because if it is..." Sofia went on, her voice sinking to a much icier level, "Not to mention meeting him... I won’t even allow you... one step near him."

Murderous intent saturated the area between them, dense and undeniable.

Sofia herself failed to grasp fully why her response had spiked so intensely.

It stemmed from mere speculation that might prove false, but Selena’s trajectory pointed toward Razeal’s location. She felt uncertain yet suspected as much. And that didn’t set off bells in her head nonstop.

What rendered it stranger was the haste in this woman’s actions. The reluctance to squander even an instant to arrive there. It puzzled Sofia. Perhaps toward another destination? Not Razeal?

But the instant such notion formed in Sofia’s thoughts. Just suppose she headed for Razeal? It couldn’t be that coincidental, could it? And the second it did, an inner resolve in Sofia solidified.

Guarded? Keen? Inflexible? Nearly possessive...

Initially, a woman had wrecked her husband’s existence. That sufficed. And now this one appeared intent on nearing him?

Unthinkable.

Beyond that, another idea emerged, more bewildering: if her assumption held true, why the desperate need to see him?

Sofia lacked certainty. She merely speculated.

Still, upon viewing the blonde’s countenance, she perceived

Yearning? Desire? A visage so fervent it resembled dashing toward her whole universe. As if reaching that place signified all to her. Like a maiden deeply smitten, incapable of concealing it despite efforts.

That expression somehow disquieted Sofia. Perhaps term it feminine intuition. But it blared loudly now.

It awakened an odd sensation within her.

Safeguarding? Ownership? A subtle, innate impulse to guard?

She couldn’t name it, but she surely disliked it. Yet she couldn’t dismiss it.

Regardless of cause, she would prevent this woman from departing here. Not that it had ever been intended.

But the instant the name and those phrases escaped Sofia’s lips, something within Selena halted.

Not her form.

Something profound.

Her frame, tensed with haste, stiffened midway. The fervor propelling her, blind and focused, dimmed as if doused by an invisible force.

"I won’t even let you take one step close to him...?"

The phrase reverberated in her mind.

For a moment, she remained still.

Him whom? Had she just uttered Razeal?

Then her head pivoted gradually toward Sofia.

"What... Did you just say?"

Her tone lost its rush. Lost its strain. It evened into something chillier, unlike the girl who had raced the city with tears streaming.

Her eyes met Sofia’s.

And they transformed.

The yearning evaporated entirely.

Replacing it came something acute. Claiming, hazardous, and even a touch of paranoia?

This swift response? So it truly concerned Razeal...? Sofia noted it right away, arching her brows at how rapidly this woman reacted to his name.

And stranger still was that expression on her face.

The slight clench of the jaw. The contraction of pupils not from terror but assertion. The way surroundings blurred until sole focus remained.

Sofia’s senses heightened.

As a woman well-acquainted with such looks, Sofia instantly detected something gravely amiss with this one, particularly concerning her spouse. It displayed plainly on Selena’s features. Setting off every warning in Sofia’s thoughts.

She fixed her gaze threateningly on Selena.

She indeed sought Razeal. But for what reason? And what was that expression? Did she harbor knowledge she shouldn’t?

Perilous notions brewed in Sofia’s mind as she assembled the pieces. For this surely wasn’t the face of one despising Razeal. From her alone, Selena appeared frantic to locate him, frantic enough to disregard the brawl and strikes against her, pressing onward in resolute path as if encountering him alone mattered.

As for the chance she headed elsewhere, and Sofia misunderstood?

No. Unlikely.

Selena had yearned to reach him so intensely she overlooked combat, overlooked hits. She had charged directly toward him like one pursuing air.

And crucially, Sofia had witnessed the precise instant Selena’s face altered right when she voiced Razeal’s name. And that look... it erased all uncertainty. She aimed for him.

Yet the query resurfaced: why would a woman who allegedly loathed him, who charged him with rape, who shattered his world, display that for the man she ruined? Was it loathing? Animosity? No... that clashed with what Sofia observed?

Because

Now Selena resembled one informed she couldn’t touch what belonged to her.

Sofia’s eyes tightened.

She reviewed the scene mentally.

The change occurred the second she named him.

A subtle shiver traced her back.

Why?

If this woman detested him sufficiently to accuse him, to demolish his life, why appear thus?

Why had her face, lately warped with haste and desire, now rigidify into territorial guard?

That failed to fit.

Unless

Sofia’s mind focused.

Unless she harbored no hatred? Which puzzled further but...

The doubt solidified the moment Selena voiced again.

"Who are you?"

Selena’s words came softly.

Not hesitant, not puzzled but insistent.

She faced Sofia completely now and advanced a pace.

Simultaneously, the atmosphere surrounding her altered abruptly.

Golden luminescence burst forth around her

Initially, it didn’t erupt wildly; it gathered, swirling about her frame like molten daylight. Then it burst outward.

With a deep, vibrating roar, holy power exploded from her in a restrained blast, sheathing her entirely. Her locks rose as if buoyed by an ascending flow, tresses gleaming like golden filaments beneath a scorching orb.

The presence grew denser.

What started as luminescence turned to inferno.

It wasn’t mana.

It proved far purer.

At first, it merely draped her.

But in a blink, it morphed into scorching golden blaze, Selena at its core.

Golden force ascended, twisting about her like hallowed blaze. It rose farther beyond adjacent store eaves, beyond the damaged front of the structure she’d smashed, extending skyward in a beam of radiance pulsing with crushing force.

The earth under her cracked.

The atmosphere weighted down.

Each stride toward Sofia amplified the burden, as if gravity bent inward.

"And say that again," Selena murmured gently, her words traveling the avenue effortlessly. "What did you just say?"

Her eyes blazed.

"I dare you," she pressed, stare fixed on Sofia’s. "Say it again."

The holy presence grew fiercer with each advance.

Golden blazes extended in broadening sweeps. The energy’s intensity bore on adjacent barriers, shaking panels and flinging stray rubble over the stones. Onlookers farther along stumbled rearward, breaths hitching as the force hit them.

The energy’s magnitude overwhelmed, golden glow waving and thundering high over structures.

This no longer showed a maiden’s yearning or a saintess feigning frailty in flight.

This depicted a saintess in fury.

With all eyes upon her, Sofia grew utterly convinced: this woman genuinely sought Razeal.

And that insight curved Sofia’s mouth into a perilous grin.

Her sea-blue gaze examined Selena doubtfully, a hint of bewilderment surfacing. She had plainly noted the protective turn in Selena upon hearing Razeal’s name, and that troubled her.

But rather than softening her aggression, it heightened her lethal urge.

As Sofia’s grin persisted.

"Oh, you didn’t catch it?" It merely honed sharper.

"I just said," she restated breezily, nearly chatty, "I’ll sever both your legs and tuck them into your arms if you attempt one step toward Razeal."

She cocked her head as she uttered it, her manner intentionally taunting, mockingly tolerant, like clarifying for the dim. The phrase rang clearer now.

"In case the first time escaped you," she appended, lip corner rising, "I figured I’d spell it out simpler."

No doubt in her gaze. No feint.

The avenue responded prior to Selena.

The atmosphere thickened. Oppressive.

Then

"Oh?"

Selena’s tone stayed hushed.

Perilously hushed.

She halted her step as Sofia concluded. For an instant, all hung suspended. Then a change occurred.

The golden presence about her densified not flaring out, but contracting first, squeezing her form until space warped. The holy power amplified past prior levels. It transcended mere blaze.

It became force.

Mana poured from her in volumes that shook nearby fragments. Stones rose faintly from the soil. Fractured timber quivered and split more under unseen load.

The stones below her splintered.

A faint drone permeated the air.

The golden shaft about her stretched higher, broader, holy power lashing upward like a divine fury pillar. The very air quaked in kind.

"Will you?" Selena inquired gently.

Clearly, her mind fixated on some unknown woman daring to bar her path to Razeal.

Her eyes lost yearning.

They bore verdict.

The holy gleam mirrored in them, rendering them liquid fire.

Sofia remained steadfast.

She didn’t retreat. Didn’t even waver amid this force that drove many elder experts to flee. Her own aura contracted quietly, densifying instead of spreading. Her sea eyes observed the rising tension with composed poise, like viewing a spectacle rather than a menace.

But she adjusted her footing subtly.

Ready.

The instant prior to clash elongated.

Both separated by just a meter, on verge of unleashing two mighty realms in conflict.

But right then

"STOP!"

Maria’s cry ripped through the strain.

The command resounded along the devastated road.

In the following moment, she positioned herself between them.

Water gathered at her soles as she struck the fractured stones firmly, arms extended oppositely, one hand toward Selena, the other to Sofia. Her pose broadened, resisting the overwhelming force from both flanks.

She sensed it: sacred fury from one, icy deadly chill from the other.

Should they collide? Chaos would ensue.

"I must halt this," Maria pondered swiftly.

Selena’s golden presence wavered but held firm without lessening. Sofia’s stare grew somber.

"What the hell are you doing, Maria?" Sofia barked, vexation crossing her traits. "Move before you puff up like a blobfish."

Her words conveyed beyond irritation. Impatience too.

But Maria stayed put.

And before Sofia pressed on

"Enough."

The sound originated overhead.

Keen, youthful, and boldly authoritative.

It parted the tense atmosphere like a sword through fabric.

"Cease this, whoever you are," the voice proceeded, firm and laced with clear arrogance, "you will not battle in the heart of the imperial capital."

"Do you even know where you fight? This is the core of the Imperial Capital."

The command’s weight required no loudness.

All three glanced upward.

Hovering over the wrecked avenue stood a young girl, aged no over sixteen or seventeen. A platinum aura encased her like a crown of regal glow. She levitated with ease, her royal garments fluttering mildly in the wind, eyes directed below with evident grandeur.

Her aura lacked savagery.

It shone polished, mastered, and imperiously haughty.

Maria’s gut sank.

No...

Of every possible moment.

Her sight darted to Sofia at once.

This spelled trouble.

And worse still, Sofia already stared skyward.

Recognition lit her eyes.

Sofia lifted a finger casually, gesturing above.

"Ah," she uttered, the grin resurfacing strongly. "You’re that princess."

Her eyes sparkled.

"Good. Good. Very good. Encountering you both in one spot, one moment... Spares me chasing you individually."

The murderous intent around her