Unknownfate
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Chapter 184
🕑 Added 2025-07-19 07:12:00 +0000 UTCSelene Gallio has been around for a long time; she has witnessed so much that most things no longer really faze her. She had been around before pretty much anyone else who might consider themselves immortal.
Honestly, she even found the fact that the current Sorcerer Supreme was called the Ancient One cute, because she was already ancient when that woman was born.
While she could easily dismiss her age, she couldn’t dismiss her power. Frankly, despite being no doubt the oldest living human on earth, Selene hadn’t managed to become very powerful at all.
It hadn’t mattered much at first, for the many, many first years of her very long life, what little power she had was more than enough to be a powerful queen, ruling over the dirty masses.
Selene Gallio wasn’t born a normal child; from birth, she had been special. No doubt, she was the very first mutant, or at least she believed herself to be the first, and her power had been Life-Force Absorption.
This one power had made her a god in that primitive age; she had no idea how much life she had absorbed, but she was immortal, ageless, and unkillable, at least with normal means. She had once been arrogant, believing herself to be a god.
She had learned the truth as she wasted away, surrounded by slaves and gold; other beings of power rose up. She witnessed the rise of Apocalypse, another mutant of great power, and one whom she feared.
For the first time in countless years, she felt fear, another being with power shared the earth with her, and it was someone who might be able to kill her.
Thankfully, that never happened; she survived while he was defeated. She learned much from all that.
She realised that even as powerful she might be, she could still be taken down if careless. Weak as others might be, with wit and trickery, they could still take down the strong.
Clearly, it was essential to be both strong and feared enough to ensure that others wouldn’t want to take the risk of crossing her.
As for being kind to lesser beings? She didn’t even consider it; at most, she would be a bit nicer or have someone else take the hate for her. No way would she give up her privilege just because of this risk.
Over time, this had meant she no longer lived the life of a ruler, a queen, or empress; instead, she hid in the shadows, letting others rule in her stead.
She kept her lifestyle, surrounded by endless riches and servants, all kept in control by her powers and fear.
One thing that didn’t change, just because she was a bit more careful about painting a target on her own back, was that the other powers kept rising up.
Some died quickly, no matter how powerful they were, they couldn’t match the sheer supremacy of eternal life; even if they were stronger than her, she could just wait for them to die.
This was her greatest advantage, and the source of her pride, but also something that annoyed her; she wanted domination, to fully dominate those lesser than her, and often, she had to hide away in the shadows.
How could that be? How could the Black queen, the ruler of the shadows, the eternal empress, allow that? She couldn’t, she was above all, she should rule openly, remind the cattle who they belonged to.
But for that to happen, she needed power.
Real power.
Not the kind that came from influence or wealth — she had both in obscene abundance. Not even the fear that kept her servants compliant, or the whispered legends passed among cults and occult scholars. No, Selene needed absolute power. The kind that didn’t just demand obedience, but made rebellion unthinkable.
It was power she often saw others grasp before dying when their lives came to an end; she saw powerful emperors and warlords, much like Apocalypse of years back. It was this power she needed, but couldn’t grasp.
Her own mutant power was great, it allowed her to live forever, remain young forever, and she could kill with but a touch. She was no doubt powerful, but compared to Apocalypse, who could fly, who could kill thousands with a wave of his hands, she found herself lacking.
Her inborn ability wasn’t the answer, so she needed to find another way, another source of power, and that led her to magic. She had seen countless people use that power over the years, many who served her.
It was a power anyone skilled enough could wield, but she had dismissed it as beneath her. Those who possessed it were usually mere tricksters, mainly able to entertain her.
That, however, changed over time. She saw magic grow; those who used it, some of them were powerful enough so that she had to pay them attention. And magic… it could grow stronger with time. Something she had plenty of.
With her mind set on not just learning magic, but mastering it, she delved into the vibrant and secret world of magic. She was quite surprised when she first began exploring, over the years, magic had turned into an art.
Many kings had used their power for war, so there was plenty of dangerous magic, and that was what interested her the most.
Since she was after power, she naturally desired the most powerful magic, which turned out to be dark magic, something she seemed to have a talent for.
Selene never did anything halfway.
Once she committed to magic, she didn’t settle for tutors or scrolls. She hunted knowledge. Stalked it across continents. Tore it from the minds of dying sorcerers. Dug it from tombs sealed in blood and stone.
Before long, she had gained great power and become one of the most powerful dark witches in the world, and that power would only grow with time. Yet, as she travelled to learn about magic, she learned much more.
She discovered things she had never known about, Vampires, immortal creatures that feasted on human blood, in many ways, they weren’t too different from her. Except she was far better, far superior.
While they gained power and weaknesses alike, she had none of their weaknesses, but pretty much all of their powers, at least with the help of magic. Still, it was an interesting experience, meeting them, learning about them.
She had been around far longer than the first vampire, yet had completely missed them, much like she had missed the rise of magic.
While staying within her palaces and castles, she missed much and decided to explore the world for once.
So for a while, the still inexperienced Selene traveled the world once more, taking in the sights of what had changed over the past many thousands of years. And much had changed indeed.
She walked through the ruins of empires she barely remembered toppling. Wandered cities built atop older cities, stones echoing the languages of people long since forgotten. In Egypt, she saw the bones of dynasties. In China, the fading echoes of sorcerer-kings. In the Americas, ancient temples with altars still wet in blood.
Selene soaked it all in.
She struggled to accept that the worthless cattle had achieved so much, spread so far, and made so many grand civilizations.
Still, she managed to learn even more from this trip around the world, and her power continued to grow. Before long, she was satisfied; no longer did she need to fear the cattle turning against her, nor could they harm her, even with wit and treachery.
So she went back to openly declaring herself Empress, to build a grand empire, to openly rule with fear, power, and domination.
That was when it happened, when she was made to realize that while her magic made her invincible among the cattle, some powers out there still eclipsed her.
She had seen those so-called gods disappear long ago, and while she knew magic could summon some dark and evil gods, it wasn’t those either that shocked her; it was instead other witches, or rather, sorcerers.
While she had learned of many groups of magic users, this one had eluded her, until now that they came to find her.
She was introduced to the Sorcerer Supreme, a man of great power, one who once more made her feel fear. Someone who could seal her away forever more if he failed to kill her.
Under his threats, she could only clench her teeth, and bow her head, and slink back into the shadows. It was humiliating beyond belief that she, the ancient black queen, shadow ruler, had to hide from mere cattle.
But she took comfort in knowing that at the very least, she would just have to wait until this man died, and then she could have revenge.
So she returned to one of her castles, and there she waited, year after year, for decades, just waiting, continuing to drain the cattle of their life force, growing stronger with time, while that arrogant man would no doubt grow weaker.
What Selene didn’t expect was that while indeed, that man did die, another took his place, and soon enough, she was locked in a small shadow war with the Order of the Mystic Arts.
Sometimes she would be able to push them back, but mostly, she was always on the losing side, always forced to hide away, never could they kill her, not without paying a price they were unwilling to pay, but always too much trouble for her to handle.
Some of the Sorcerer Supremes that came after that first man were even more dangerous than he was, one in particular, Merlin, was someone who forced her to hide and behave while he was alive.
Things did change after that. She found someone, another dark witch, Morgana, someone who was far stronger than her, even if she was far younger, but it never felt like that. She was clearly experienced in her own way, and somehow ended up on top.
What really mattered, however, was her power, her magic; it was so similar to Selene’s natural power, using the life force of others for magic, it was countless times more efficient and powerful than Selene’s magic, and she was eager to learn those secrets.
That was how their partnership began. Selene never let Morgana know just how old she was; her secrets were her own to keep, but as she learned more from Morgana, those secrets empowered her.
She quickly became a powerhouse in magic, she learned secrets she had never imagined, she made pacts with demons and evil dark gods, with beings of nightmare, and she learned how to get out of paying the price.
In the few centuries under Morgana’s tutelage, she grew faster than ever before, powerful enough to fear few, sadly, the so-called Ancient One, the current Sorcerer Supreme, just happened to be powerful enough to still threaten her, even Morgana feared that woman.
It truly did feel like it was impossible to catch a break, that whenever she grew stronger, so did her enemies, long gone were the days when the only things she had to worry about were gods and fellow mutants.
Today, the world is filled with powers and threats, though thankfully, she is still able to stand tall in the darker side of the world. Vampires were still her pawns, her power had grown, as had the tools in her hands.
Even now, when she was finally getting ready to overthrow Morgana, and reclaim her crown as the queen of dark magic, a new threat rose, Albion, and the apparent sister of Morgana, Arthuria Pendragon.
Would she be another tool in her hand? Someone she could make use of to eliminate Morgana? Or would she be a threat?
“Just what are you…” She whispered as she stared at the picture of the mysterious King of Knights.
(End of chapter)
While I always knew that Selene was a mutant, I never knew she was that damn old, which meant this chapter had to go a lot further back, I wanted to show some of her story, but damn, I will need another chapter to finish highlighting her before finally getting back to kicking her ass.
