Completing the Dungeon, Dropping a Treasure Chest?

"General, look down there—it seems like something's still down there," Esdeath suddenly said.

"Is it alive?"

Hearing this, Selene looked down in confusion. She hadn't sensed any life force coming from below.

As she peered down into the massive crater, Selene spotted a dark object resting at the bottom, with faint glimmers of light leaking from its cracks.

"What is this...?" Taking Esdeath along, Selene descended slowly toward the crater's depths.

"Simulate—gravity."

The dense blocks of earth and rock shifted as Selene's gravitational manipulation pulled out a massive rectangular vault, about 10 meters long, 5 meters wide, and 4 meters tall.

"This... is a vault?"

The vault had been burned black by extreme heat, covered in cracks from metal carbonization. Molten metal had dripped all over it, leaving its surface uneven and damaged, making it hard to even discern where the door or lock might have been.

This was the deepest part of the crater, nearly 100 meters down. The fact that the Revolutionary Army had buried this vault so deeply in their headquarters basement suggested it was guarding something important.

"This feels like a treasure chest dropped by the Revolutionary Army headquarters..."

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG...

Selene clenched her hand, and the sharp sound of twisting metal echoed through the crater. With a single pull, she ripped apart the vault's outer wall.

"Hmm, so it was this well-guarded?" Selene's eyes narrowed slightly as she activated her enhanced vision. Fine, nearly invisible metal threads crisscrossed the entire vault.

Even after such a massive explosion, these delicate threads hadn't failed, proving just how well-protected the vault had been. If Selene hadn't blown everything apart, the traps protecting this vault might have been even more formidable.

But they had the misfortune of encountering Selene, the unparalleled infiltrator, who dealt with all these tricks in one simple way—blow them up!

Without hesitation, Selene yanked out all the metal threads. No alarms went off, of course, because the entire castle had been reduced to dust. What was left to trigger?

Inside the vault, the interior resembled a bar counter, with a wide variety of weapons neatly arranged. Judging by their appearance, Selene couldn't immediately tell which were Teigu (Imperial Arms) and which were lesser-quality Shingu.

The closest weapon to Selene was... a long-handled staff? It also resembled a heavy war hammer, except that the hammerhead was shaped like a human skull.

You had to wonder about the craftsman who made this thing. If it's a staff, why not make the handle thinner? If it's a war hammer, why not replace the skull with an actual hammerhead?

Selene played with the weapon for a moment before losing interest. It was indeed a hammer-type Teigu, but it was far too ugly for her liking. She tossed it aside.

"Here, try it out. A hammer-type Teigu." With an expression of disdain, Selene tossed it to Esdeath.

There were also longsword-type Shingu, hand cannon-type Shingu...

...a mask-type Teigu.

And one that looked like a flashlight—though Selene wasn't sure if it was a telescope or something else. A Teigu?

Opening a spatial portal, Selene, disinterested, threw them all into her storage space, one after another.

If she couldn't use them, she'd just distribute them to her army back at the 8th Legion.

After tossing the mask-type Teigu into her storage space, Selene's attention turned to the last item in the vault: a large cylindrical container encased in metal, taking up the most space in the vault.

The metallic casing stood about three meters tall, and Selene had a good guess as to what it might be. She approached and forcibly tore open the casing.

"Just as I thought."

Inside the metal casing was a biological-type Teigu—a humanoid figure. Encased in a transparent cylindrical tank, a man about two meters tall, dressed in white traditional Japanese clothing, with horns protruding from the sides of his head, lay in suspended animation.

The Speed of Lightning: Susanoo.

This was the Teigu originally assigned to Najenda by the Revolutionary Army headquarters in the original story.

For hundreds of years, no one had been able to claim this Teigu, but when Najenda appeared, it suddenly awoke, and the Revolutionary Army allocated it to her.

At this point in time, however, Najenda was still somewhere within the Empire's military, possibly still lost among its ranks. Naturally, Susanoo had remained untouched in the Revolutionary Army's headquarters.

Now, it was Selene's to take, saving it from its original fate of being destroyed in a battle against Esdeath.

Seeing that it was [Susanoo], Selene couldn't hide her delighted smile. Finally, something she was interested in.

Unlike Najenda, Selene didn't plan to use Susanoo for combat—that was far too basic.

While it was indeed designed as a guard Teigu with exceptional hand-to-hand combat skills, meant to always protect its wielder, Selene hardly needed a bodyguard.

What really attracted Selene was Susanoo's impeccable domestic skills—especially its cooking! With over 1,000 signature dishes in its repertoire, this was the perfect household companion.

"Activate." Selene shattered the glass tank and placed her hand on the orb embedded in Susanoo's chest, activating it.

Boom!

With the activation of The Speed of Lightning, the glass container shattered under Susanoo's immense strength.

Stepping out of the tank, Susanoo stood before Selene, opening his piercing blue eyes to meet the gaze of his new master.

After a brief moment of adjustment, Susanoo knelt down with a thud, bowing before her.

"Master."

...

Meanwhile, northwest of the former Revolutionary Army headquarters, a squad of Revolutionary Army soldiers stood frozen in shock. The squad leader, eyes wide, stared at the fiery sky over the headquarters' location.

"T-That... that's the direction of headquarters!" he stammered.

Unable to believe what he was seeing, he rubbed his eyes, shouting in disbelief, "How could this be?! What the hell happened?!"

"I have a pretty good idea who's responsible..." The intelligence officer they were escorting finally spoke.

"It's Selene... It has to be Selene!" As a top member of the Revolutionary Army's intelligence division, he had far more information than these ordinary soldiers.

The violet-red sky, the deafening explosions—they perfectly matched the descriptions of Selene's Heavenly Wrath from the reports. No one else could unleash this level of destruction.

"Everyone, we need to get out of here... and complete our escort mission!" The officer gritted his teeth as he spoke, barely able to force the words out.

Holding the trembling little Mine in his arms, tears welled up in his eyes. He desperately wanted to turn back, but his instincts screamed that staying would mean certain death. If Selene was still around, returning to headquarters was suicide.

"Uncle... what happened to Uncle Tim?"

"..." The intelligence officer remained silent, holding Mine tightly as he turned away and left without looking back.