Chapter 479: Echoing Howl

Around them, the Javelin forces and Myrta soldiers had stopped fighting. They watched their master, waiting for his orders.

Giorno felt an incredible sense of tension from the stares of those around him. His pride clashed with his fear. For a moment, he couldn’t say anything.

Giorno stared at the woman before him, hatred burning in his eyes. His lips curled into a sneer, blood still dripping from the split in his lip.

"What, did you think I’d surrender?" His voice was sharp, dripping with contempt. "To a woman like you?"

Selena’s eyes narrowed. Her blade didn’t move from his throat, but her gaze turned cold and sharp, she calmly listened to giorno’s ramblings.

Giorno’s sneer widened. He straightened his back, as if he still had the upper hand, as if he hadn’t just been disarmed by a woman he clearly despised.

"You only climbed to your position because of luck. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you earned it." He spat the words, each one laced with venom. "Do you really think you can lead this city better than me? Look around you."

He gestured vaguely toward the burning skyline, the smoke, the rubble, the screams still echoing in the distance.

"The city is in ruins again because of you. You’re not worthy of ruling anything."

Giorno’s voice rose, emboldened by his own words.

"A woman like you should never have been given a position of power in the first place. You don’t have the strength to—"

SLASH!

Selena’s sword moved with one clean, horizontal arc.

The blade sliced through Giorno’s throat with a sound like silk tearing. Blood sprayed in a crimson line, painting the rubble at his feet. His eyes went wide, shock freezing on his face, mouth still half-open around the word he would never finish.

For a moment, he simply stood there, staring at her with that frozen expression of disbelief. Then his body crumpled forward, knees buckling, and he collapsed face-first into the blood-soaked stone.

Selena lowered her sword slowly. She didn’t look at him again.

She turned her gaze toward the remaining soldiers of House Javelin, who stood frozen in place, the entire battlefield seemed to hold its breath.

Selena’s voice rang out across the ruined street, cold and clear.

"Your lord is dead. Lay down your weapons, or join him."

Then, one by one, the soldiers of House Javelin dropped their swords. The mages lowered their staves. Some fell to their knees. Others simply stared at the body of the noble who had led them here, as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

Selena watched them for a moment, then turned away. She walked back toward her forces, her blade still dripping crimson, her expression unchanged.

"Hunt down anyone who still resists," she ordered. "If they fight back, kill them where they stand."

Her people straightened and bowed their heads in unison.

"Yes, Lady Selena."

They moved without hesitation and spread throughout the city.

Selena lowered her sword, wiping the blood clean on a piece of cloth before sheathing it. She walked among the wounded, stopping briefly to speak to a medic, then to a soldier who was dragging a wounded comrade to safety.

It was then that one of her scouts came running.

"Lady Selena!"

The scout stopped in front of her, breathing hard, one hand pressed against a wound on his side.

"We found something. In the western district, near the old Kaelthar ruins."

Selena’s gaze sharpened.

"Show me."

The scout led her through the rubble and smoke. The fires had finally begun to die down, replaced by the smell of ash and scorched stone. The western district was the worst hit, its buildings barely more than piles of broken masonry.

At the center of a crumbling plaza, Selena stopped.

A strange artifact stood embedded in the ground. It was a tall, dark spire, its surface covered in glowing symbols. The symbols were different from anything she had ever seen before, they were very strange in shape with the symbols seeming to change when she stared at them for too long.

Below it, carved into the stone, was a circle, and around that circle were the bodies of beastkin.

Their bodies were dried and shriveled, as if all the moisture had been drained from them. Their faces were frozen in expressions of terror, mouths open, eyes wide and empty.

Selena knelt beside the nearest body.

"Their life force was drained completely... is this some kind of ritual?"

She rose slowly, her gaze fixed on the spire. The symbols pulsed again, and for a moment, she thought she heard something, a faint whisper at the edge of hearing, too soft to make out.

She turned to the scout.

"Were there any survivors?"

The scout shook his head.

"None, Lady Selena. We searched the area. No tracks lead in or out. Whoever did this was already gone before we arrived."

"Then this was set up before the battle even began."

She turned away from the bodies, her voice cold and deliberate.

"Maybe the one who can do this is God Hand or Archivist...."

She looked at the scout.

"Find the Archivist. Bring him to me."

The scout straightened.

"Understood, Lady Selena."

He turned and ran, Selena remained a moment longer, staring at the twisted spire and the drained bodies around it.

Her fingers curled into a fist at her side.

"I have to get stronger..."

Her voice was quiet, almost lost in the wind.

"...so this never happens again."

She closed her eyes. Behind her eyelids, she saw the faces of the dead. All of them looking to her for protection she couldn’t fully provide.

The weight of it pressed down on her shoulders.

AWOOOOOOOO!!!

A long, mournful howl rose from the distance, carried on the wind. It was deep and resonant, echoing through the ruined streets like a ghost’s cry. The sound sent a ripple through the soldiers still searching the rubble.

Selena turned her head slowly toward the sound. She recognized the howl clearly.

Her voice came out in a whisper.

"...Garrick?"