A Show of Force!

"Hang their heads up there. Let everyone in the territory see them clearly."

Before the entrance to the Sanctuary, beneath a towering white-stone archway.

Grayfia's expression was icy as she waved a hand at the Imperial Knights before her.

Her black-and-white maid's dress snapped sharply in the cold morning wind.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Several angelic spears blazing with white-gold light shot through the air.

They became two enormous beams of light, each several yards long.

With brutal force.

They drove through the severed heads of the conservative elders who had led last night's revolt and tried to destroy the teleportation array.

And pinned them fast.

To the thick white-stone crossbeam at the very top of the archway.

Blood.

It dripped down the stone pillar, leaving dark-red spots on the flagstones below.

Drip.

Drip.

Each crisp, jarring drop of blood.

Echoed through the still morning.

The heads hung impaled.

Their faces remained twisted in the fierce wind, their eyes wide open.

In an instant.

They.

Struck the entire Sanctuary speechless with fear.

Any thought of defiance was crushed by violence in that moment.

"No... don't kill us..."

"We... we're just a hundred innocent clones..."

Beneath the archway, Ryuzu Clones knelt in dense ranks across the ground.

They.

Their long pale-blue hair framed faces drained of all color.

Their slender bodies.

They shook uncontrollably beneath the overwhelming pressure of that blood-soaked divine might.

They stared at the heads hanging from the angelic spears.

Their wide eyes brimmed with utter terror.

"Th-this is his power...?"

"Jujutsu High's barrier and the elders' source of power... all gone in a single night..."

"We have no hope left."

The clones wept quietly, clutching at one another on the ground.

The survivors trembled in fear.

"He gave you a chance, but you failed to value it."

Satoru