Over on the other side, Kyoya continuously swung his blade, launching a frenzied assault against Emilia. Facing his relentless attacks, Emilia could only continuously evade.
"Ha, is this all you can do? Just release ice spikes and run away?" Looking at Emilia, Kyoya taunted her.
Yet inwardly, he was exceedingly frustrated, 'Clearly, she appeared to be merely a woman with vast mana, yet even with my thought acceleration activated, I could not kill her.'
'No, not merely kill… even injuring her was extraordinarily difficult.'
His specialty was spatial slashing, yet each attack was either predicted by Emilia or intercepted by a special barrier outside her.
By the time his blade broke through the barrier, Emilia had already blocked it with ice, then retreated and launched ice spikes.
Even now, he still could not understand what that barrier was. He sensed no trace of mana whatsoever, yet a special layer existed on Emilia's surface… a barrier even his blade could not cut, let alone ordinary punches and kicks.
"That's not true." On Emilia's side, hearing Kyoya's taunt, she stopped in place and spoke calmly.
Although she had appeared at a disadvantage earlier, thanks to the coordination of Ken and En, despite Kyoya's frenzied attacks, she had not suffered a single injury.
Now, all the arrangements were complete. So Emilia halted her movements, gazed at Kyoya, and began silently gathering mana.
"Hmph, bluffing!" Seeing Emilia's action, Kyoya taunted lightly and prepared to attack Emilia once more. But as he tried to move, he found himself unable to leave his spot.
Unbeknownst to him, the ground had been completely covered by ice, and Kyoya's feet were frozen in place.
"When?!" Staring at his frozen legs, Kyoya looked incredulous.
"Due to the ground freezing and the temperature dropping, your legs had grown accustomed to the low temperature. During the previous battle, you never noticed the shattered ice spikes continuously falling around your legs. Just now, the amount of ice fragments was sufficient, so I used mana to solidify them." Hearing his confusion, Emilia calmly explained.
"What?!" To think it was because of this that he had failed to notice his legs freezing.
"Goodbye." Emilia, not waiting for Kyoya's remorse, finished her explanation as her mana finished gathering. A terrifying ice spike formed before her and rapidly extended, nearly instantly piercing Kyoya through...
Feeling his entire body penetrated, Kyoya looked at Emilia with eyes full of disbelief. His mouth slightly opened, but no words could escape. He could only die with resentment...
Looking at the deceased Kyoya, Emilia lightly sighed. Under normal circumstances, with Kyoya's reaction speed, even if Emilia fully unleashed ice spikes and pillars, Kyoya would absolutely evade them. To avoid injury, this tactic was the most secure.
…
"Indeed, your strength is the greatest among everyone. However, Betty is stronger than you. Also, everyone has already defeated their opponents. Betty will no longer hold back." Noticing Ram, Emilia, and the others had all dispatched their foes, Beatrice looked at her opponent, Razen, and spoke.
'What? This isn't even her full strength? Impossible! I am the strongest mage of the Falmuth Kingdom!' Hearing Beatrice's words, Razen gritted his teeth.
Throughout the previous battle, he had been consistently suppressed by Beatrice. If not for his exceptionally high mastery of magic, he would have been shot dead long ago.
Yet now, seeing Beatrice's demeanor, it seemed she was only about to truly use her power. How could Razen's mind not collapse?
"Bluffing! Nuclear Strike Magic, Thermal Convergence Cannon!" Looking at Beatrice, Razen steeled himself, forcibly consuming vast amounts of his mana, and unleashed his strongest attack against Beatrice.
"Useless." Facing the incoming powerful flames, Beatrice did not move. The flames collided with Beatrice but stopped before her body, utterly unable to penetrate the space before her.
Beatrice had long since deployed EMM, her absolute defense magic. Until Beatrice's mana was exhausted, it was absolutely impossible to harm her in the slightest… unless his attacks could transcend time and space.
'Damn it, what is this? Why can I never breach her defense?!'
"How amusing. You still have such powerful attacks? However, all your effort is in vain." Sensing the mana consumption within her, Beatrice said calmly.
"Huff... Still useless? Then try this. Spirit Summoning, Earth Knight. Come forth, high-ranking spirit rooted in the great earth!" Looking at Beatrice, Razen completely unveiled his trump card.
With his action, a knight clad in armor slowly rose from the ground. Tall in stature, wielding sword and shield, his body emanated a yellow glow.
"Oh, this is your final measure? The gem on its abdomen is its core, isn't it? So uncreative!" Through En, part of Nen, Beatrice easily located the spirit's core and spoke calmly.
"What?!" Hearing Beatrice's words, Razen's heart involuntarily tightened.
"El Vita!" Before Razen could recover, Beatrice directly targeted him and the Earth Knight with gravity magic. Immense gravitational force crushed down upon them.
Razen instantly spat blood. Due to the targeted gravity, Razen endured nearly one ton of weight. Being a mage, his physical training naturally could not compare to a knight's.
As for the Earth Spirit, although unharmed, the immense gravity forced it to its knees, its movements drastically slowed.
"It's all over. Ul Minya!" After a brief charge, Beatrice unleashed her strongest Yin magic attack against the spirit and its summoner.
Two purple rings materialized out of nowhere, rapidly constricted and completely bound Razen and the Earth Knight. Before they could react, the purple light erupted in destructive attack, completely annihilating Razen and the Earth Spirit...
Watching Razen's demise and the Earth Spirit's destruction, Beatrice's expression was utterly indifferent.
Only when she looked toward Takeru did she once again reveal a smile.
On Takeru's side, noticing everyone had defeated their opponents, Takeru gathered them together.
"Takeru?" Seeing Takeru summon them, Ram and the others looked at him quizzically.
"Leave the rest to me. All of you, protect me well." Looking at Esdeath and the others, Takeru spoke seriously.
"Eh? What do you mean?" Hearing Takeru's words, Beatrice asked quizzically.
"We understand." Although puzzled, Ram and Rem quickly nodded.
Looking at Beatrice and the others beside him, and the few remaining soldiers on the battlefield, Takeru closed his eyes, maximized his Observation Haki, and surged his internal power. The sky grew dark, covered in dense storm clouds.
After approximately twenty seconds, Takeru opened his eyes. "Lightning!"
With Takeru's words, countless bolts of lightning simultaneously descended from the sky. Each bolt precisely struck and killed every survivor, including Reyhiem and the church members who had activated the barrier outside. Under the powerful thunder, they directly turned into corpses.
Effortlessly accomplishing this, Takeru floated high into the air, his mana swirling, sweeping up the souls of the soldiers and beginning to devour them.
As he devoured, Takeru looked at the numerous corpses below. Adhering to the principle of not wasting, he directly used his newly learned summoning magic, sacrificing all the corpses to summon Daemons.
"I have prepared sustenance for you. Emerge, Daemons, and serve me!" With the magic completed, Takeru spoke softly.
As Takeru's ability activated, the numerous corpses on the ground were consumed by an invisible force, rapidly disappearing without a trace. Within the magic array beneath Takeru, three figures quickly emerged.
Seeing the three sudden figures, Emilia and the others guarded against the three Daemons.
"No need to be tense. I summoned them." Looking at them, Takeru quickly said.
[Evolution conditions confirmed. Nutrients required for Demon Seed evolution: human souls. Specified conditions met. Demon Lord evolution commencing now.]
Having devoured enough souls, Takeru heard a special voice, similar to a system prompt yet different. Takeru clearly understood… this was the unique World Voice of this world...
With the World Voice's notification, an endless drowsiness surged into Takeru's consciousness. Nearly instantly, Takeru almost struggled to maintain flight, yet he instinctively continued devouring souls.
Takeru was uncertain whether devouring more souls would grant greater benefits during his evolution, but adhering to the principle of not wasting, he did not stop.