"Nice to see you again, Mother-in-law."

William spoke with such effortless confidence that it almost sounded natural. At the same time, he casually wrapped an arm around Seraphine’s waist as though he had not just uttered the single most dangerous sentence possible inside the private study of the Elven Empress.

For a brief moment, the room became completely silent.

Then everything erupted.

A terrifying pressure burst from Selena’s body and swept across the study like a storm unleashed from its restraints. The elegant marble floor beneath her feet shattered instantly as countless cracks spread outward in every direction. Furniture splintered apart under the weight of her aura, while books flew from their shelves and documents scattered through the air like leaves caught in a hurricane.

The mana throughout the room became so dense that even breathing felt difficult.

Seraphine immediately felt something was terribly wrong.

Although she could not sense mana or cultivation in the same way others could, she was not blind to the atmosphere around her. The killing intent radiating from her mother was so overwhelming that her face turned pale almost instantly.

Her heart nearly stopped.

She had never felt her mother become this furious before.

Selena vanished. One moment, she stood behind her desk.

The next moment, she appeared directly in front of William.

The distance separating them disappeared so quickly that Seraphine’s eyes could not even follow the movement. A short silver blade materialized in Selena’s hand and descended toward William’s neck with terrifying force.

The attack possessed enough power to split apart a mountain. Everything happened so suddenly that Seraphine could not even scream.

Her thoughts simply froze. William, however, remained completely calm.

His expression did not change in the slightest. His heartbeat remained steady, and his breathing never wavered. There was no nervousness, no hesitation, and no sign of panic anywhere on his face.

With his perception, Selena’s attack had never truly been a surprise.

The moment the muscles in her body shifted, he had already sensed her intention. Through his omniscient eyes, the world appeared completely different from how ordinary people perceived it. He could clearly see the layers of illusion wrapped around her strike.

The silver blade appeared to be approaching from his left side. William calmly raised his right hand.

The instant he moved, the illusion shattered.

The blade coming from the left dissolved into countless particles of light, revealing that it had only been a deception. The real attack emerged from the opposite direction.

CLANG!

A deafening metallic impact echoed throughout the study. The collision released a violent shockwave that exploded outward in every direction.

The walls trembled violently. Every window shattered instantly. Fragments of glass scattered through the room as a powerful gust of wind swept across the study.

Only then did Seraphine finally react.

"Mom!"

She instinctively raised her arms to shield herself from the shockwave.

What she did not realize was that both William and Selena had already erected protective barriers around her. Despite fighting each other, neither of them allowed even a single fragment of debris or speck of energy to reach her.

Dust filled the room. Mana surged wildly.

Far beyond the study, the disturbance spread throughout the palace. The enormous structure built upon the massive World Tree shook visibly from the aftermath. Across distant halls and chambers, countless guards, servants, and nobles felt the tremors and looked toward the source of the disturbance in alarm.

For several long seconds, Seraphine could barely see anything. Eventually, the dust began to settle. As her vision cleared, her eyes widened in disbelief.

William had not moved from his original position. He still stood exactly where he had been moments earlier. His right hand was raised casually in front of him.

The blade meant to sever his head was trapped between his fingers. Not only had he stopped the attack, but he had also done so with his bare hand.

The edge of the silver weapon rested against his skin, yet not a single drop of blood appeared.

Selena’s eyes narrowed.

Unexpectedly, she noticed a faint tremor running through her hand. The attack she had launched moments ago was powerful enough to kill the vast majority of cultivators on the continent instantly.

Yet against William, it had achieved almost nothing.

Only a faint trail of smoke rose from his fingers.

William had activated the Stellar Reversal effect of the echo that he had gained from Rah the moment the attack connected.

Recognizing that Selena’s strike relied primarily on physical force combined with illusory misdirection, he had reflected the impact toward its source. The technique did not injure her, but it returned enough force to leave her briefly stunned and allow her to experience a taste of her own attack.

Because she had focused on deception rather than overwhelming magical destruction, she had unknowingly spared herself a far more unpleasant outcome.

Selena’s gaze became colder.

"I am not surprised," she said calmly despite the destruction surrounding them. "I have known from the beginning that you possess considerable cultivation. That does not mean I will allow you to touch my daughter without my permission."

William looked at her without the slightest concern.

"I already have Sera’s permission," he replied. "I do not need yours."

The corner of Selena’s eye twitched. The sheer audacity of this man was genuinely extraordinary.

"Regardless of what she says, this relationship cannot happen. The two of you are fundamentally incompatible. She is an elf, and you are a human. Seraphine must preserve her heritage and maintain the purity of the elven bloodline."

William casually flicked the captured blade back toward her.

"My genes are stronger than high elven bloodlines," he said. "If we have children, they will only become stronger. As for purity, I do not think that will matter much if there is no elven race left to preserve."

Selena’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

"You possess an incredibly daring tongue. Initially, I intended to show restraint out of respect for Anastasia and the Eternal Sovereign. I was even willing to give you a second chance. Instead, you have become arrogant enough to threaten the extinction of the entire elven race."

As she spoke, a wooden staff appeared in her hand. The cracked floor beneath William suddenly began to move. Countless vines burst upward and spread rapidly across the room.

William merely shook his head.

"You misunderstood what I said. I meant that I am the one capable of saving the elven race from extinction, not destroying it. Why would I ever wipe out the race of my wife?"

"Stop calling her your wife!" For the first time, Selena completely abandoned her composure.

The vines surged upward and wrapped tightly around William’s body. William responded by planting a kiss directly on Seraphine’s lips.

The room instantly became several times more chaotic.

Seraphine froze.

A bright blush spread across her face while her mind descended into complete panic. She grabbed her own hair in frustration as she realized the situation had somehow become even worse.

"You bastard!" Selena’s furious shout echoed throughout the study.

A brilliant beam of energy erupted from her staff and shot toward William with enough power to reduce him to dust. Inside his mind, a familiar voice spoke.

[Host, why do you keep ragebaiting her?]

"Sorry," William replied casually. "I seem to have picked up that habit after spending so much time talking with you."

He stepped aside. The beam missed him entirely.

Unfortunately, the attack did not stop traveling.

Far in the distance, a mountain peak several miles away vanished in a massive explosion.

Meanwhile, the vines wrapped around William tightened further. Sharp spikes erupted from their surfaces and drove inward toward his body, though no blood was shed even then.

"Ouch," William said with an amused smile. "That almost tickled."

The comment only increased Selena’s anger.

Before the vines could accomplish anything meaningful, brilliant Stellar Flames appeared around William. The blazing fire spread instantly through the entangled vines, reducing them to ash within moments.

Selena’s expression remained cold. Without warning, dozens of identical copies of her suddenly appeared throughout the room.

Each clone held the same silver blade, radiated the same aura, and possessed the same presence. To ordinary observers, distinguishing the original would have been completely impossible.

Unfortunately for Selena, she still knew very little about William’s abilities.

She did not know that illusions held almost no value against someone capable of seeing through reality itself. To Seraphine, however, the situation immediately became hopeless.

One moment, there had been a single furious mother. The next moment, there were dozens.

The room became filled with identical Selenas standing in every direction.

William sighed.

"You are really making this more difficult than it needs to be."

The nearest clone lunged toward him. A second followed after that, and so they kept coming.

Within an instant, dozens of blades descended from every direction. The study descended into complete chaos.

Silver flashes filled the air. Illusions layered upon illusions.

Reality itself seemed to distort beneath the overwhelming complexity of Selena’s techniques. The boundary between truth and deception became increasingly difficult to perceive.

Seraphine could no longer understand what she was seeing. Every direction contained another copy of her mother. Every direction contained another flashing blade that was effortlessly countered by William.

The battle unfolded at a speed that far exceeded her ability to follow.

Her anxiety steadily grew until it transformed into genuine panic.

"Stop fighting!"

Her desperate shout echoed throughout the study as she looked at the two most important people in her life, both seemingly determined to drive each other insane.