CHAPTER 258: MIGHT OF THE SUN

A thunderous beam of solar radiance erupted from her fingertip. A column of pure, molten sunlight crashed into the corridor as if it were the fist of Ra himself. The Handmaidens’ bodies contorted as their resistances flared... And shattered.

Sparks flew. Screams echoed.

Their porcelain masks shattered.

Their crimson gowns caught fire.

Each cursed woman flailed with excruciating pain as they began melting away in place. This display made them seem as if they were wax figures beneath a god’s magnifying glass. The magic didn’t merely burn: it ate away at the specific type of regeneration undead monstrosities used, devouring their essence before they could siphon from the mirrors.

Diaz narrowed his eyes while scanning the glow. "Anti-undead-healing. That’s a rare property for a spell to have... Not many classes specialize in countering them..." he muttered. "Her magic’s eating their life faster than they can recover."

As if to confirm it, Bastet tossed her silky smooth black hair back and let out a delighted laugh.

"Naturally! I’m the bane of all undead! My sun has no mercy! Ahahaha!"

Leon stared with disbelief at what their eyes were showing them. Sasha outright gawked.

Even Jack paused mid-mocking comment with his mouth hanging open.

Gone was the submissive kitten panting for Kaiden to ravage her senseless back in their home. Before them stood a goddess of wrath, bathing the corridor in blistering radiance while her eyes shone with unfiltered joy.

Back in bed, she was Master’s little tanned kitten.

But here?

She was Bastet, the Solar Empress, destroyer of the dead.

The Handmaidens who had their bodies scorched began to tremble.

The mirrors behind them flickered, casting pale reflections.

Then one by one, they fled, slipping backward into the glass with panicked shrieks, vanishing entirely.

Silence returned.

Only the ominous sound of Bastet’s fading solar aura remained.

"So... care to tell me why you didn’t use this spell back during the vampire ambush?" Aria inquired with a small hint of anger in her tone. If the answer was something she didn’t like, the felinid would get a good earful.

"Simple," Bastet responded. "That wasn’t a corridor. It was a big room. A wide, open space with enemies surrounding us from every direction. This spell is linear. My other attacks were more fitting for that occasion. Not only that, but it costs far too much mana to be used haphazardly when my enemies might dodge. I decided to use more effective spells instead."

"Ah." Aria’s tone softened immediately. "That makes sense."

But Bastet’s ears drooped back.

"So you really thought I was that incompetent?" she asked.

"What? No, I-"

"I expect it from them," Bastet cut in, flicking her eyes toward Sasha, Jack, Vaelira, and Leon. "The irrelevants. But from you? I honestly didn’t." Her voice dropped just like her ears. "I thought you’d have a higher opinion of me."

Aria inhaled sharply.

That stung.

She had let emotion slip into her words. The near-loss back in the vampire combat, the helplessness, the chaos, Nyx’s unconscious form, Luna’s endless tears, Kaiden’s helpless expression... it was all still vivid in her mind. Far too vivid.

Her heart had gotten ahead of her reason. She hadn’t even realized the way she spoke sounded as if she was blaming Bastet until the words were already out. In reality, Aria harbored no such thoughts at all.

She knew very well that Bastet not only gave everything she had back then, but that the felinid was blaming herself for the poor outcome because she felt she didn’t do as much as she could have.

The reason for that stemmed from the fact that the Valkyries have experienced life-or-death combat before. Bastet had as well, just not after being subjugated. The feline woman underwent both a physical and mental transformation back then; even her skills changed. Thus, the vampire encounter was the first time her proficiency with her new powers were stress-tested for the first time.

With all this in mind, immense guilt crashed into Aria’s chest.

There was no other way around it. She could only correct her cruel mistake by doing one specific thing.

With a deep breath, Aria bowed low.

Very low.

The stream caught it all.

A woman of grace, elegance, and pride, bowing deeply.

"I apologize, Bastet. That was way out of line for me to say. I’m truly sorry."

The stream chat exploded.

-MoonBlight69: Wait what

- VelvetLynx: Majesty Incarnated is bowing right now?!

- AriaCore: Omg I thought she couldn’t get any better. I was wrong. #AriaSupremacy 🔥🔥🔥 #AriaSupremacy 🔥🔥🔥 #AriaSupremacy 🔥🔥🔥

Bastet blinked at the silver-haired woman’s bowed form.

Then she smiled, a radiant one that could melt the polar caps. She planted her right hand, the one that had just fired the spell, on Aria’s head and stroked her lush silver hair for but a second.

"Apology accepted."

- KittenOverlord: THE EMPRESS FORGIVES. WE REJOICE. #BastetSupremacy ☀️☀️☀️

- Fanof4: THIS TEAM GOT TOO MUCH PERSONALITY... I DON’T KNOW WHO SHOULD BE MY FAVORITE💀#Valhalla’sSinnersSupremacy

"Now then," Bastet spoke up, her tone turning playful again, "why don’t you go poke at those mirrors?"

Aria straightened her spine with her usual poise and swatted away the tanned woman’s hands from her hair before she could do serious damage.

Then she smirked. "I was about to do just that."

She stepped forward, lifting her staff. The tip began illuminating a silver-white color.

"[Lunar Arc]."

The spell flew silently and elegantly, curved like a crescent blade.

It didn’t impact like fire or lightning. It didn’t crack the glass, nor bounce off its surface.

Instead, the mirror rippled, as though the spell had passed through liquid rather than enchanted glass. Waves of silver pulsed outward. The reflected image shimmered, then faltered. Vein-like strands of pale light began to trace through the mirror’s surface.

"... It didn’t reflect?" Sasha blinked.

Leon narrowed his eyes. "And it didn’t break."

Diaz let out a soft whistle. "It merged with the mirror. Moon magic must have a unique property to it that creates this strange interaction."

Kaiden studied the mirror with thoughtful eyes. "I think you’re right, Diaz. Mirrors are designed to reflect raw, aggressive energies such as sunlight, flame, and even lightning. Things that hit directly, with force. That’s why Bastet’s previous attack left them unscathed. She’s the personification of solar energies, making her attacks forceful, direct, and overwhelming. That’s why she dealt such devastation to her enemies despite her relatively low-level and Magic stat, but interacted poorly with the mirrors."

He glanced at Aria, then back at the mirror.

"But moonlight isn’t like that. It’s already reflected light. Softened, filtered, changed. It’s not trying to overpower the mirror. It’s slipping past the defenses... and staying behind."

The group fell silent.

The mirror pulsed again. Something had changed. A weak but visible darkness bloomed at its core, as if the mirror itself had been poisoned from within.

"So instead of bouncing off," Luna murmured, trying to wrap her head around the logic, "your magic gets inside. And stays there."

Kaiden nodded. "Corrupts it as if it were radiation."

- MoonBlight69: Bruh the lore on this team goes too hard

- ArcSage21: They just out here casually finding new interactions in a do-or-die dungeon...

-MoonFanatic: #AriaSupremacy

-KittenOverlord: Her Lunar Arc is a sleeper agent lmaooooooo

Aria lowered her staff slowly.

Bastet, watching from behind, clapped softly. "My, my~ Using their own tricks against them. How clever~"

Aria offered a half-smile. "I’ll smoke the rats out. You guys just wait a moment."

Kaiden smirked.

The Handmaidens were already murmuring in retreat, unsure how to defend against something that had slipped past their rules entirely.

"Come out, maidens..." Aria whispered, with a rare sadistic glint finding its way to her eyes. "We just want to talk~"