MIGHT AS WELL BE OP

Chapter 1022: Touch

The Angels didn’t hold back anymore; the next moment, their presence flared like a booming, world-erasing nuke. With the eruption of their multiple presences, the planet on which Irene resided and those around it literally exploded outward like an overfilled balloon, as the Angels reduced them to cosmic dust and fragments with nothing but the sheer pressure of their presence alone.

The surrounding celestial bodies shattered apart as if they were fragile glass ornaments struck by an invisible hammer, their crusts rupturing and scattering into endless streams of debris, leaving only a drifting graveyard of planetary remains suspended in the silent vacuum of the Galaxy.

Without missing a beat, their Faith Energy bloomed into the void of the Galaxy, its golden sheen covering their bodies as they now seemed even more holy, making it appear as though Irene was some evil witch they had to burn at the stake for going against the sacred order.

The brilliance of their divine aura radiated outward like newborn stars igniting across the heavens, turning the surrounding darkness into a radiant ocean of gold, their wings stretching majestically behind them as if the very concept of divinity itself had manifested in physical form. To any distant observer, the sight would have resembled a council of living suns gathering to judge a lone sinner standing defiantly before their divine tribunal.

With their preparation done, both sides blurred forward without hesitation, Irene’s body turning into a pure blue streak of motion, the Angels turning into golden ones, both sides boosting their strength and speed with their galactical energies. Space itself seemed to distort around their movements, unable to properly contain the velocity at which they traveled, leaving rippling trails of warped reality in their wake as though the fabric of existence was struggling to keep pace with the battle about to unfold.

Irene threw a fist with a world-crushing weight, the Angel before her not taking a single step back as he threw out a fist of his own, meeting Irene’s attack with utter confidence and unwavering conviction befitting a divine warrior who had stood through countless celestial wars. His expression remained calm and resolute, his golden eyes glowing with blind faith as he trusted completely in the power granted to him by HIM.

The next instant, the Galaxy seemed to halt the moment their fists met, time seemingly freezing for a fraction of a second as though reality itself had paused to witness the collision. Then, in the next instant, an enormous white light erupted outward, covering vast distances within the Galaxy. Immediately afterward, time snapped back into place, and Mana and Faith Energy tore into each other with cataclysmic force, the clash releasing shockwaves that rippled outward like the birth of a dying star collapsing into oblivion.

The constellation bodies around them couldn’t even exist for longer than a split second before they were erased in totality. Entire clusters of stars flickered out like candles extinguished by a violent storm, their light vanishing as if they had never existed in the first place, leaving only cold emptiness where radiant celestial formations had once decorated the sky.

Neither the Angel nor Irene took a step back; both of them remained locked in place, like two colossal elephants refusing to give way to the other. But though they were locked in place, the remaining nineteen Eleven-Winged Angels were not, and they each closed the distance with space-bending speed, their wings beating once as they cut across the void with terrifying precision.

Irene’s body immediately reacted, her speed, thoughts, mind, and focus peaking and racing as she moved. Her senses sharpened to an almost supernatural degree as she processed countless possibilities in a fraction of a heartbeat. She immediately shifted the Angel’s fist before her to the side, completely ignoring him as she turned to meet the new incoming attack, her instincts guiding her movements with the refined efficiency of a veteran who had survived countless life and death encounters.

Her blue fist screamed toward the incoming blade, her knuckles closing in as she parried the sword from the blunt inner edges, and with that clean parry, the blade snapped in half, the divine metal crushed beneath the sheer force of her fist. The metallic shriek of the breaking weapon echoed faintly through the vacuum like the cry of a dying star, the fragments of the once sacred blade spinning helplessly through space.

The Angel’s eyes widened in shock, but Irene wasn’t finished. She immediately caught the broken half of the blade and stabbed toward the neck of the Angel. But despite being shocked, a veteran was still a veteran; the Angel immediately snapped into action, his wings beating through the air as his speed peaked. He dodged to the side with a graceful turn, one befitting of an Angel whose movements possessed an almost ceremonial elegance.

Irene’s stabbing attack missed, slicing through nothing but empty air, the second Angel appearing beside Irene, his body midair as his foot heel tore toward her neck with apocalyptic fury. Irene’s reaction was immediate as she swiftly raised her forearm for a block, her muscles tightening as she braced herself for the incoming collision.

And with another titanic impact, the attack tore into her arm, cosmic winds exploding outward as the force slammed into her body, shooting her sideways like a dying star streaking uncontrollably through the void. The violent collision distorted the surrounding space, sending ripples through the emptiness like waves across an invisible ocean.

Despite having blocked, Irene’s hand had been broken, but she didn’t care. As an Apexus Mana Ranker, any normal physical damage was useless; once it wasn’t targeted at her essence, she could ignore all injuries entirely, her regenerative capabilities allowing her to function even while her body suffered catastrophic harm that would have killed any ordinary being countless times over.

The next moment, she took control over her body, twisting sharply as she dispelled the momentum and came to a halt. But before she could even move, she heard a faint humming sound, her senses tingling with danger as her head immediately snapped upward with sharp alertness.

And there, a third Angel was waiting, a light beam attack screaming downward, rushing toward her with the intent to swallow her whole. Irene’s reaction was instant; her mana bled outward, forming a blue-shaped barrier just above her head, and like a thunderclap tearing through a silent night sky, the beam attack collapsed upon it with annihilating force.

Irene stared at the attack, knowing she couldn’t remain there for long, her mana barrier unable to hold up for more than a second, two at most. The next moment, with a single thought, space bent to her will and she vanished from where she stood as she teleported. The moment she disappeared, her mana barrier collapsed, and the beam attack tore violently through space and void at the location where she once was.

Although Crimson Irene didn’t possess any affinity toward any element, she could teleport due to the use of skill books she had previously acquired. With her immense wealth and influence, it was only natural that she had obtained abilities that could assist her during battle, allowing her to compensate for the lack of elemental specialization through pure versatility and tactical ingenuity.

But she didn’t randomly teleport to a distant location. No, she teleported toward an Angel floating at the side, watching her block the beam attack. The Angel was startled by Irene’s sudden space manipulation ability, but it didn’t have time to think as Irene was already on the move, her movements fluid and merciless.

Irene’s hand blurred forward, her green healing energy coating her fingertips. The moment she made contact with the Angel’s face, her energy bypassed the Angel’s Faith Energy immediately like a virus slipping through a firewall, and the next moment, the Angel’s head swelled grotesquely before exploding outward like an overripe melon crushed under immense pressure.

Flesh, bone fragments, golden blood, and brain matter splattered outward into the cosmic void, drifting slowly through space as silent evidence of the brutal efficiency of Irene’s attack.

Within the span of only a few seconds, Crimson Irene had reduced their numbers from twenty to nineteen at a speed faster than any warrior who had participated in the previous invasion battle could ever hope to achieve, demonstrating a level of lethality that bordered on the terrifying even among beings of such immense power.

The Angel’s golden corpse suddenly lost all weight and began drifting slowly through the void of the Galaxy, as though it had become nothing more than a lifeless rock floating endlessly through space, its once radiant wings now motionless as the silent battlefield continued to rage around it.