A Villain's Way of Taming Heroines

"Evora!!!"

The distorting gravity, accompanied by Ephesande's ferocious roar, forcibly tore apart the world's barriers. Compared to Flamelle's graceful door-opening and Evora's delicate spatial manipulation, Ephesande's methods appeared crude, yet they equally demonstrated her … terrifying power.

This empress, who yearned to ascend to the seventh stage through Ansel, was clearly restraining her strength. Her power could potentially uproot the imperial capital in an instant or flatten it to the ground, but she refrained from doing so—she hadn't even ignited the Flamefeast fire.

Evidently, in Ephesande's eyes, if dealing with these two powerless beings required her to exert enough force to destroy the capital, then the term "divine species" would be laughable.

From the deep pit created by Evora's spatial distortion, Ephesande, returning through the torn space, unleashed a violent shockwave. She stepped out of the forcibly ripped space and roared at Evora, who was staring at her with a strange gaze:

"I will—"

Boom!!!

This was the second earth-shattering explosion that echoed through the imperial capital tonight.

A dazzling, scorching white light descended from above, crashing towards the just-returned Ephesande with a thunderous roar. The pure destruction contained within that light made Evora's eye twitch twice.

"Ansel, you really are..."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

She looked up and murmured, "Good at hiding things."

There, floating above, was a... demon god.

Only this term could describe the creature exuding a dark iron glow, yet clearly not forged from steel. Continue reading at empire

Evora witnessed firsthand as the dull, gray-black bracelet on Ansel's wrist, indistinguishable from an ornament, erupted with an overwhelming torrent of iron-gray particles following his inexplicable call!

Behind Ansel, Ravenna's phantom merged with the endless particles, swiftly enveloping him and rapidly expanding, transforming into a solid entity radiating a sinister iron glow.

The torrent of gray-black particles began constructing heavy, angular greaves from the bottom up. The only gray-white color amidst the black extended upwards along the sleek, sharp lines of the leg armor. At the chest, a massive serpent's head roared menacingly, its dark maw seemingly capable of devouring everything.

The sharp shoulder armor, resembling short wings forged from blades, extended upwards. The arm armor coiled like a serpent's body, with the left arm's serpent head forming a cannon muzzle at the forearm, and the right arm's serpent tail transforming into a slender, black arm blade, reflecting the cold moonlight.

Behind this iron demon god, a ring formed by an ouroboros slowly floated, with countless iron-gray particles emerging from it, continuously perfecting its body.

"Annihilation system online."

"Obliteration system online."

"Moonfall system online."

"Autonomous floating annihilation cannons forming..."

"All defensive fields ready."

"Current elemental composition: twenty-six types."

Inside the steel demon god, Ansel sat within a cockpit, his eyes fixed on the holographic screen displaying a chaotic stream of data, while also projecting the external scenery.

A wisp of iron-gray particles brushed past Ansel's cheek, and as he turned, the particles coalesced into the form of a petite woman he hadn't seen in a long time.

She perched on the edge of the spacious cockpit, legs crossed, hands tucked into the pockets of her perpetually white lab coat. She neither smiled playfully nor leapt towards Ansel, appearing not as a fortunate escapee from the abyss, but rather, she calmly said:

"Long time no see, Ansel."

"Long time no see, Venna."

"What's this?" Miss Ravenna, despite her petite frame, exuded an immensely strong presence as she tilted her head slightly. "Are you willing to call me that now?"

The young Hydral raised his hands in surrender: "Apologies can wait until after tonight, alright?"

Ravenna nodded slightly: "Just this once."

With that, she unabashedly jumped into Ansel's lap, sitting serenely on his thigh.

"For a Phantasm Armament... a cockpit is purely ornamental, isn't it?"

Ansel looked at the array of seemingly impressive but ultimately useless "decorations" before him, then glanced at the control levers on either side, and remarked with some amusement.

"I've never built one of these before, so I had to go with the fantastical ideas you told me."

"Though I can operate it alone, but..."

Ravenna turned to look at Ansel: "I had to give you some sense of participation, right?"

Ansel raised an eyebrow slightly: "Without me, this thing couldn't even take form."

He shook his wrist, where the once ordinary gray bracelet had now transformed into the shape of an ouroboros.

"Yes, yes... my dear pilot, are you sure you want to chat at a time like this?"

Ravenna said calmly: "Detecting intense spatial fluctuations, Ephesande, who was banished to the Zero Realm Enigma by Evora, is about to return."

Ansel gripped the control lever. He hadn't expected Ravenna to remember the mecha stories he had casually mentioned three years ago, let alone recreate a cockpit—something utterly meaningless for such a fantastical creation.

This absurd and surreal feeling greatly alleviated Ansel's stress, though he hadn't felt much pressure to begin with.

Yet, as the weight of the entire machine seemed to transmit through the control lever, the heft and power gave Ansel a sense of... security.

The petite woman sitting in Ansel's lap said calmly: "Spatial fluctuations are intensifying rapidly. Ephesande is expected to arrive in four seconds."

The moment Ansel touched the machine, he already understood how to operate it, how to wield its power. He exhaled slowly and said softly:

"Then... let's make it quick."

Thus, under Evora's astonished gaze, the steel demon god floating in the air, its chest armor's roaring serpent head, began to gather a white light capable of incinerating the eyes of any who dared to look upon it!

"Destruction, decay, termination, light... eight essences?!"

This seemingly unremarkable pure light cannon actually contained eight extremely lethal essences. Normally, combining such essences like clay would have resulted in self-destruction!

Evora, unable to comprehend what was happening, felt a genuine threat of death from the light gathering at the steel demon god's chest cannon.

If she took this blast head-on, she would undoubtedly die, even with her etheric armor.

She was certain of this.

This attack, devoid of any embellishment, was a pure, violent blast, yet it melded eight extreme essences into one, demonstrating a top-tier technique of immense power.

Thus, the moment Ephesande appeared, ultimate destruction descended instantly.

A bottomless pit formed where the mad empress stood, and Ephesande vanished. However, the armor known as God from the Machine did not remain idle in mid-air. From the ouroboros ring behind it, dozens of massive floating cannons emerged and began firing wildly into the sky without warning!

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