Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 225: Ansel’s End (2)

Chapter 225: Ansel’s End (2)

Lyra scanned the battered convoy team. "I’m going after Ansel. I can’t spare more energy here."

Just as she turned to leave, Leandro’s faint, rasping voice emerged from behind her. "I... order you... capture Ansel. Alive... or dead."

The authority in his words was unmistakable; it was an emergency command.

Lyra paused, her gaze hardening as she looked down at him. "Yes, sir."

In a swift motion, she stepped onto a gleaming energy shield that lifted her skyward.

Armor wrapped around her, wings unfolding at her back, and, like a hunting hawk, she soared into the clouds, tearing through the air in pursuit.

Meanwhile, far ahead, Ansel led his followers through a rapid spatial shift. Then, a chilling sensation ran down his spine.

In a flash, Ansel sliced open a rift in the fabric of space just as blazing green energy bolts hurtled past him, vanishing harmlessly into the void.

"Stay alert!" he shouted, but his warning came too late.

A swift whoosh of cold air slashed through the space around them, and with a single, decisive motion, one of the Shedd family seniors collapsed, headless, before his body hit the ground.

The brutal sight cast an icy terror over the remaining Shedd memebers.

In front of them, Lyra stood unfazed, dismissing her armor in a shimmer as she turned to face them.

"Lyra!" Ansel’s voice was raw with fury, his gaze blazing with hatred. "Are you so determined to wipe out the family completely?"

She flicked her blade, sending a spray of blood to the ground, while her lips curved into a faint, unshaken smile. "Ansel, you doomed the family the moment you chose this path. After what you did to me, you should’ve known this day would come."

Before the words finished leaving her lips, Lyra’s form blurred, leaving a ghostly afterimage.

She darted forward, blade poised for another strike.

One of the Shedd seniors braced, summoning his power in a desperate counterattack, but Lyra was faster than air itself.

She glided through their defenses, her movements swift and fluid, a force they couldn’t touch—much less stop.

The end had come, swift and unforgiving.

Thunder boomed across the desolate plains, an ominous percussion matching the deadly rhythm of blades meeting flesh.

Just then, a break in the clouds allowed a single beam of sunlight to pierce through, illuminating the scene in stark, golden light.

In the center of the blood-soaked battleground, Lyra stood, calm and radiant amidst the carnage.

Bathed in that glow, she looked almost angelic, a vision of life despite the brutal path she’d cut to get here.

Her twin blades glistened, her lips twisting into a low, triumphant laugh as her gaze locked onto Ansel’s pale, horrified face.

She’d done it. Every last shred of Ansel’s defenses lay in ruin.

The Shedd family’s fortress was obliterated, and there he stood, cornered, without a single ally left.

The intoxicating taste of vengeance surged through her, electrifying her every nerve.

"I waited far too long for this!" she called out, her voice echoing across the plains.

Her arms crossed briefly, then she swung them apart, sending her twin blades whistling through the air in a deadly arc as she lunged forward.

Ansel raised a blade of spatial energy in one hand and summoned lightning in the other, launching a frenzied attack. But Lyra moved like a wraith, slipping through his defenses with inhuman precision, inching ever closer.

Desperate, Ansel opened a tear in space to escape, but just as he materialized, Lyra’s blade found him, slashing across his shoulder.

He barely deflected the strike with his cane, which shattered from the impact, leaving a deep, bone-deep wound that sapped the fight from his limbs.

Lyra spun, landing a brutal kick that sent him crashing backward.

Ansel, once a towering figure, was now just dust beneath her feet. She leapt into the air, her silhouette framed against the sun, every muscle primed and poised.

Gritting his teeth, Ansel tore open another rift, but Lyra anticipated it. She vaulted even higher on a platform of radiant light, then dropped from above, her foot driving into his chest like a meteor.

The impact shattered the earth, forming a massive crater, and his body rebounded, slamming back down as blood sprayed from his mouth.

SPUH!

The thick, wet sound of blood filled the air as he choked, life slipping away. But Lyra, not finished yet, summoned just enough healing energy to keep him alive a few moments longer, savoring his helplessness.

"Pity I left the Soul Spike at the tribunal," she murmured, pressing her heel against his shattered chest. "Now, tell me—how did my parents actually die?"

Ansel’s face twisted in agony, and he gasped for air, eyes glazed with pain. "If...if your powers had served the Shedd family, we could have... ruled together," he coughed, barely conscious.

Lyra sent another small pulse of healing energy, enough to stave off death for just a bit longer, leaving him to stew in his pain.

"But...it’s too late now. The Alliance...they won’t stand for you."

Lyra’s expression hardened. "What are you talking about?"

Ansel looked up at her, his eyes clouded with regret and resentment. "Your parents...pawns, just like I was. And...in the end, you’ll be one, too," he muttered, voice fading.

His eyes drifted away, lost in some dark memory. "Years ago...I learned the truth about Tyro...and your mother..."

Suddenly, a pinpoint of black energy appeared on his forehead.

Lyra’s instincts screamed a warning, but before she could act, Ansel’s head detonated in a horrific burst, his skull reduced to pieces.

His life snuffed out, the truth buried with him.

They’d silenced him.

Rage surged within Lyra, her psychokinesis bursting outward in a storm of emerald energy, shaking the ground around her.

Then, her gaze snapped to a figure in the distance—the one who’d pulled the trigger, now trying to escape into a portal leading to a pocket dimension.

"Oh, no you don’t!" she snarled, her emerald power slamming shut the dark passage just as he tried to enter. He turned, stunned, to see Lyra charging toward him, her face split into a feral grin, eyes blazing with deadly intent.

Her expression was unmistakable: ’You’re mine.’