Although Layla had retreated to the side early on, she never once left the battlefield. Having joined the "Seven Kin of the Holy Knights" and followed Descartes and the others for half a year, executing nearly a hundred missions, she was not without growth. From the beginning, she had focused all her attention on this group battle, ready to support the others at any moment. So, when she noticed Keyes showing signs of attempting to escape, she summoned Aquarius, utilizing her strongest means of attack!
"Beautifully done, Layla!!"
Seeing the giant wave strike, Ur gave a cry of pleasant surprise. At the same time, she thought of a way to deal with Keyes and quickly clasped her hands together again.
"Ice-Make: Hundred Flower Basket!!"
Ice flowers condensed rapidly within the surging waves, instantly slicing Keyes' body into a particulate state. Under the impact of the water flow, these particles were unable to gather at all. More and more ice flowers appeared, freezing the particles along with the surrounding water, forming a flower basket filled with countless fresh blooms. Even with his special constitution, Keyes was powerless to escape such a cage; in the blink of an eye, he was frozen into countless ice flowers, his presence vanishing.
With that, all six demons were defeated!
"We... we won??"
"So strong!"
"As expected of the 'Seven Kin of the Holy Knights,' to take down so many powerful-looking demons so quickly..."
"I was wrong; turns out they don't just rely on their looks!"
"Waaa... I'm sorry! I feel deeply apologetic for my previous misunderstandings of you all!"
Seeing Descartes and the others take down the elites of the Nine Demon Gates so easily, the morale of the magic soldiers behind them soared. The blades they swung at the lesser demons became even more powerful. In contrast, the low-level minions of Tartaros, seeing those six brutal and heartless lords defeated in a single encounter, were instantly terrified out of their wits. No longer daring to resist the magic soldiers, they turned and fled into the caves, surging toward the depths of the guild.
The magic soldiers knew the objective of today's battle was the "total annihilation of the demons," so they immediately seized the victory to pursue and slaughter the retreating enemy.
On this side, although they had defeated six members of the Nine Demon Gates, Descartes and the others did not slacken. Silver used his Ice Devil Slayer Magic to create a long blade and stabbed each demon's heart and head dozens of times. Only after confirming they were deader than dead did he stop his hand, still looking like he hadn't had enough.
"This time, they should be dead for good!"
Ur walked up and couldn't help but say, "Even if they are demons and enemies of humanity, that's a bit too cruel. There's still a child behind us!"
The "child" she referred to was, of course, Layla. However, Layla currently had no mind to worry about this side; she was busy being scolded by Aquarius.
"You brat! Didn't I tell you not to use the water from a flask to summon me? What do you take me for??!"
"That... there was no other way. There are no other water sources here..."
The summoning method for the Aquarius key was different from other Celestial Spirits; it required water to be present. Since she couldn't always guarantee there would be water nearby, Layla had specifically bought a small flask to carry on her person before this operation, ensuring she could summon Aquarius anytime, anywhere. Just now, she had used that very flask to summon her.
"Regardless, even if I overlook you using flask water to summon me, why did you have to pick this specific time?!"
"I was right in the middle of a date with my boyfriend!!"
"You @@#￥￥￥%&..."
Facing Aquarius's various rebukes, Layla simply pressed her hands together and apologized with a forced smile: "Sorry, sorry! But this time I really couldn't have done it without you. How about this: next time I'll invite you and your boyfriend to Magnolia to have some fun?"
Aquarius's face instantly changed: "Huh? You're not trying to steal my boyfriend, are you?!"
"...Uh, no, I'm not."
"Let me tell you, you're a hundred years too early for that!"
After a long while, Aquarius remembered her boyfriend was still waiting for her, and she finally stopped complaining, turning into starlight and disappearing.
Descartes: "..."
Are all these Celestial Spirits this difficult to get along with? It seems the elders at home were right to keep them locked away!
Seeing Layla send Aquarius away, Descartes called her over and then turned to look at the group.
"Although these demons are dead, Tartaros has a resurrection device inside. They could be revived at any time, so we can't let our guard down!"
Oh right, there's a resurrection device!
Hearing this, everyone's hearts jumped, and they cooled down from the joy of defeating the enemy.
"The information given by the Council only said Tartaros has a resurrection device, but it didn't mention the efficiency of the revival."
"If reviving a demon is as simple as eating or drinking for them, then we still can't be careless in the coming battles. Conversely, if reviving a demon requires a certain amount of consumption and time, then we can use this interval to quickly take down Tartaros!"
Bluenote gave a faint huff: "So what if they revive? If we can kill them once, we can naturally kill them a second time!!!"
The others: "..."
Big brother, in that group battle just now, your contribution was the smallest, okay!
"In any case, what we need to do now is go destroy the enemy's resurrection device!"
"But it's so big inside; how are we supposed to know where it is? That kind of place doesn't seem like something a demon minion would know..."
"For that, we'll have to rely on Layla!"
The others: Hmm?? Rely on Layla?
Layla: Areh? Rely on me?
"Layla, before we set out, Vice-Principal Chris should have given you the Gemini key, right?"
"Yes!"
"Then it's perfect!"
Descartes smiled and nodded: "Now, use the Gemini key to transform into that demon called Keyes and obtain the location of the resurrection device!"
"Eh?? So that's it... I understand!!"
The conditions for the Gemini spirit to copy are: first, the target must be alive; second, the user's magic power must be higher than the target's. Just now, although Keyes's head and body were sliced into countless particles and frozen separately by Ur, his core remained intact, so he was still considered "alive." Furthermore, since a demon's power source is Curse Power rather than Magic Power, both conditions for the Gemini spirit to activate were met.
Following Descartes's instructions, Layla indeed obtained quite a bit of intelligence that the Council had not yet acquired. Gemi and Mini first drew a rough map of the Tartaros stronghold, then marked the resurrection device as well as their current location.
"Reviving a demon can't be done just like that. For an entity at the level of the Nine Demon Gates, reviving once takes at least 3 days."
"Now that they have five demons to revive, it will take even longer!"
"At least for this battle, we don't need to worry about these few demons interfering anymore."