This pact had now evolved to a different level. Every time Enrico evolved his level, the name and the pact were improved to the next stage. His eyes stopped being red and returned to gold.
'Having no magic in my body is a strange feeling.'
The magic inside Enrico's body concentrated in his heart, with a chain forming around it. His magic had grown, so to obtain this body it was necessary to seal his own magic and then make it disappear. The golden light inside Enrico's heart began to fade, being completely transferred to the unknown void within him.
"You thought you would escape from me, human."
A large shadow appeared above Enrico at great speed. Raizen, Aina, and Takeshi, seeing that the Nartheis' level was higher than the seventh circle, prepared to interfere immediately.
"Cursed claws."
Serteria's claws moved toward Enrico's face as the three began to run toward him. Before she could touch him, Enrico vanished and appeared behind her, his hand raised back, grabbing Serteria's face with his hand without even looking back.
'Sorry about earlier, I just wanted to rest a bit.'
Holding her face tightly, Enrico threw her out of the castle through the hole Aina had made. Behind them, everyone who was at the seventh circle looked at him with confusion and surprise. Especially Aina and Raizen, who had the same thought.
'Isn't he sixth circle?'
Quickly, he followed Serteria to where he had thrown her, leaving everyone without understanding how he was displaying that level. Wanting to see what would happen in the fight, Takeshi created a wind falcon that flew outside. Pointing forward, he created a reproduction of what was happening through the falcon's eyes, and everyone gathered to watch.
Outside, Serteria stepped on the air, where there were signs that it had been corrupted by her disease magic. Enrico, instead of flying, was doing something else to keep up with her movements in the air. His feet also stepped on the air and he didn't even seem to be moving, but what he was doing was delivering small kicks into the air, causing constant pressure that made him seem to fly. He wasn't using magic to do this, since at the moment he had zero mana in his body after the pact.
'This boy is strange.'
Serteria, who had an irritated look for having been tricked moments earlier, now seriously observed Enrico's movements. She could also do this at her level, but why would she if she could simply build something to stand on? She thought it was unnecessary effort.
"Weren't you weaker before?"
"Why all this surprise? I could do this at the previous level too, it would just be more difficult."
Enrico shrugged as if it were nothing. He was right—only sixth-circle fighters could do this, but besides being difficult, just as Serteria thought, it was far too unnecessary an effort, especially for a sixth circle.
"Tell me how you reached this level without even using a fusion like us."
"It's a secret I won't tell you, so how about we stop talking and fight already?"
With a snort, Serteria took a stance to advance. Her hands seemed to grasp the air while her feet pressed down with force, both movements made possible by her disease magic in physical mode at the spots she desired.
"If you insist so much."
With her eyes shining with a black glow, she charged directly at Enrico, closing the distance in less than a second. With a kick in the air, Enrico moved to the left, dodging the attack. With another kick, this time with his left leg, he jumped in the air, avoiding Serteria's magic-infused punch.
While in the air, he spun downward with his foot raised. Even without magic, his eyes glowed gold, showing that his body was at maximum performance. With a confident smile, he brought his foot down toward Serteria's head.
"Let's see if you can keep up with me."
Moving backward, she managed to almost completely dodge. Her arm was struck and instantly split in half, while his foot continued descending toward the castle roof, which was where they had moved while fighting in the air.
With the impact of his foot, a shockwave spread through the castle and the clouds, pushing them away for at least ten kilometers, opening the clouds in the middle. Someone who had just finished her fight looked up with an amused smile beneath her mask.
"Ara, ara, this is quite a big surprise."
Sayaka looked upward with amusement, a contained surprise in her eyes. Without a doubt, to her this boy was a prodigy on another level.
"My daughter really chose someone perfect for our family… should I prepare some food for them when we return?"
She was sitting on the roof on the other side of the castle, her kimono slipped down her entire arm, revealing that underneath she wore white bandages wrapped around her chest and arm. Behind her, a Nartheis was disintegrating, its core in Sayaka's palm. This was the third strongest Nartheis in the dungeon, and she would certainly use that core later for the effect it provided, but what mattered now was watching the fight of the young man who held the full interest of her daughter—and herself.
"Surprise me more, young one."
After tearing off Serteria's arm, Enrico went for her extra arm, trying to do the same. Realizing his action, she spread cursed blessing magic throughout her body and caught his punch with her palm. Clenching both right arms, she delivered a double punch to Enrico, sending him flying several kilometers back.
'Damn, I have to stop.'
Enrico's body cut through the air in a straight line, passing through layers of clouds before stabilizing his movement with a precise sequence of kicks into the void. Each impact on the air created a short, controlled pressure, enough to reduce his speed. His body responded immediately to every movement, as if his bones and senses were operating in a state beyond their natural limit.
"Corrupted healing."
Serteria, in the sky, didn't waste time. Enrico's brief absence was used to reconstruct the lost arm. The corrupted flesh reorganized aggressively, disease and cursed blessing intertwining in an unstable yet rapid regeneration.
'It'll take a while to return to normal… that attack was very powerful.'
The new limb looked thicker, with dark veins pulsing irregularly—a clear sign that the cost of that regeneration had been high.
"Well, now it's time to pursu—"
Enrico reappeared in front of her in an instant, with no visible transition, which surprised her because the displacement was neither magical nor illusory. Just a burst and absolute mastery over his own body.
'He's not going to use magic?'
Enrico threw a direct punch, without elaborate technique, just pure force concentrated at the exact point of his fist. Serteria crossed her arms to block, but the impact pierced through the defense and sent her downward, tearing through the air until she struck the side of the already partially destroyed castle.
'Don't tell me this bastard is holding back?'
Veins surfaced across Serteria's body and face. In her mind, she could only think that she was being underestimated by her opponent.