As soon as the explosion rocks the entire region with tremors, Mestopholees knows what to do.

Malia and that Master Keitou woman told her there’d be a signal worth waiting for. And this is the clearest signal she’s ever received in the history of symbolism.

Central Spire has collapsed and destroyed huge portions of the U.S. Military base. The airfield and all its landing strips have been crushed, and the shield generator is down.

Through a long-distance communication pendant, Mestopholees recives a message.

A burly orc asks, “Queen Mestopholees. What should we do?”

“The Americans are kappas on their backs. Execute Order 67.”

“It will be done, my Queen.”

The Sleeper Slayers, every single one of them she’s recruited over the past few months, kick into action. Mystix soldiers working under the Americans suddenly betraying their comrades. Groups of obedient indentured servants banding together to sabotage barracks. Guerilla and open warfare all at once.

By the time the Systemless Squad and its armies arrive, even these powerful system using soldiers will be weakened enough to fall.

Mestopholees coordinated this plan all along. Her final, ultimate betrayal that is the culmination of all her betrayals since the very beginning. It is quite amazing.

She called it Order 67 because both of those numbers, Six and Seven, start with S, which also corresponds to Sleeper Slayers. Very clever, she thinks.

But now is not the time to gloat about symbolism. For this loyal enforcer, working for months to trap and destroy pockets of resistance throughout the planet, she has become an icon of oppression. A villain beyond words.

Now, she can finally shed the lies she formed around herself and reveal her most cunning of attacks.

The monsters around her were not recruits. They are confused, and some of them are legitimately upset about this.

“How could you betray the U.S. after so long?!” a wolfman spits.

“Mestopholees, why...?” A lizardkin begins to tear up, or do the lizard approximation of it at least.

Rather than try to reason with them and attempt to change them in a pointlessly futile waste of a few minutes before the battle against them begins, she simply takes out her dragonsword and slices their heads off.

Any of her enforcer comrades who were not Sleeper Slayers decide it’s better to stick with the group through the persuasion of villainy.

“Go off, you people. Fight the humans from that wretched Earth,” she commands. “I’m going to deal with them in my own way.”

She sprouts gigantic demon wings and does some stretches.

“You’re not headed to Central Spire?” a rabbitkin asks.

“Not yet.” She points to the sky. “See those F-36 Kingsnakes headed right for us?”

“No...”

“Oh, right. You aren’t blessed with amazing vision like me. Well, don’t worry about it. You can fight on the ground. Me? I’ll cover the air until we can get a few Maw Dragons up there.”

“...Maw Dragons... Mestopholees, you can’t...”

“The Sleeper Slayers conquer.”

She flaps her demon wings and blasts into the sky.

Finally. A betrayal worth writing in the history books. All the terrible things she’s done. All the times she’s been made to hurt the people she cares about. All the times she’s thought she’s the worst person on Mystix. All erased because she’s going to go in like a damn hero.

She soars through the air so fast she hits mach 1. People on the ground probably hear an awesome sonic boom.

The F-36 Kingsnakes are coming very quickly. Three of them, the first to take off from some distant airfield as soon as Central Spire collapsed. They’re the vanguards, the elite pilots to come before the r are much faster, with extremely powerful weapons attached. They’re machines, after all.

But they don’t have the magic of a Demon Queen.

They start shooting, but she deflects the gunfire by spinning her sword at an extremely rapid rotation rate. The spray goes in all directions, including back at them. One F-36 is riddled with bullets and goes down. Its pilot ejects.

She swerves and dodges a collision with one of the other F-36s. They’re going at absolutely blistering speeds right now. Normal human reaction speed could not possibly keep up. But these pilots are clearly system users themselves. Trained and attuned to the magic of Mystix so they can make snap decisions and respond at microsecond-twitch speeds.

Mestopholees is going to have to unleash her full power, it sounds like. She hasn’t done that since before Amaranth ascended to prominence all those years ago.

She’s finally going to let loose.

Dark pink energy flows around her. Like static electricity buildup but harnessing the etherflow itself.

She cackles and unleashes it as a gigantic wave towards one of the F-36s. Even if the pilot could react to the attack, it is too big to avoid. It’s destroyed in an instant, pulverized into dust and fire.

The other F-36 circles back around and fires some homing missiles.

Mestopholees simply swats them back and the homing readjusts to target their own owner.

Kaboom.

The vanguard is destroyed, but more planes are headed this way, including parachuter transports and bombers.

They’re slow, though. Too slow.

Mestopholees zips around the sky, slicing off wings with her sword or even her own wings. She summons dark clouds to obscure F-22 Raptors of their vision, and then lets them ram into each other at top speed.

None of them even stood a chance.

She then flies far past all of these easy targets and to the distant airfield itself where all these planes are launching from.

Time to gut it at the source. Protect Central Spire at all costs.

She uses [Voice Projection] to shout at all of the people below. “You’d best clear out of here, everyone.”

No response, obviously. She’s far too high in the sky to hear anyone.

“Get ready. Because I’m firing my laser!”

Mestopholees opens her mouth as wide as she can. And then even wider.

A gigantic [Hyper Beam] attack launches from her throat and decimates the entire airfield. None of the grounded ships or hangars remain intact.

After it’s over, she wipes her mouth and coughs a few times. That attack always hurts a little.

Now, for the main event. It can’t be a betrayal without a true battle.

She flies back to Central Spire. the Sleeper Slayers are already besieging the base, and chaos abounds all over.

But in the middle of all the rubble and fighting, the center of the center, what used to be the inside has now become a highly distinctive, extremely visible circle with precisely one being inhabiting it.

She lands inside that circle and immediately knows who it is.

Dragonsword in hand, wings spread out with maximum intimidation factor, the Demon Queen Mestopholees faces down her former leader, President Joe Biden.

He sits on a throne with an elbow on one armrest and a fist on his cheek. He was bored before. Now, though, he straightens his posture. Gets off of the throne. Cracks his knuckles and his neck.

The two do not exchange words. No need.

It is clear from actions alone that she is challenging him to a duel.

And Biden accepts that challenge.

With a vicious battle raging on around them, with the Systemless Squad due to arrive any moment now, the two figures begin their fight.