Just as the battle began, Silver charged forward without regard for anything else. Such impulsive and irrational behavior caught Descartes and the others by surprise.
"That guy Silver is being far too reckless!"
"Even if his magic has a restraining effect on demons, he shouldn't be this impulsive..."
"That being said, it's rare to see him like this. Did something happen to him?"
Descartes, Ur, and Bluenote looked at each other and hurriedly followed close behind Silver, ready to provide support at any moment.
On the other side, the demons made their move.
"To charge in alone like that—has he truly become blindly confident due to his hollow fame? How foolish!"
"Leave this guy to me!"
Jackal, who had yellow ears, yellow hair, and a yellow tail—looking like a seventeen-year-old adolescent boy—watched the solitary Silver charging toward them and gave a disdainful smile. He was about to act, but another beside him was faster.
"Whirr—"
Accompanied by a sharp sound, a wave of fire suddenly erupted between the humans and the demons. The wave was ten meters high, intensely hot, and seemed to possess a soul of its own as it lunged primarily toward Silver. The demon who struck was none other than Tempester of the "Calamity."
Tempester was a tall, rugged, black-skinned demon with long hair, looking much like an orangutan. His Sound Effect Curse required neither proximity to the enemy nor any props; he only needed to move his mouth and make a sound to manifest a corresponding elemental attack.
"Shuu—"
After the flames came a fierce wind—a tornado, specifically. The tornado quickly caught up with the fire wave ahead and merged perfectly with the flames, forming several high-heat firestorms. The firestorms swept across the battlefield; wherever they passed, even hard rock was reduced to ash.
However, facing such a terrifying attack, Silver neither dodged nor parried. As if he hadn't seen it, he kept his head down and continued his forward sprint, seemingly about to be burned to cinders.
"Tch, I was beaten to it..."
Jackal instinctively stopped his movements. In his view, given human magic and physical limits, it was absolutely impossible to block Tempester's attack.
However, in the next second:
Fwwwwsh—
The firestorms vanished without a trace. All that remained in their place were several pink ice sculptures in the shape of tornadoes.
"What??!"
The demons were all shocked. They could not believe that Tempester's Curse could be frozen so easily, and they were even more stunned that they hadn't detected any trace of the opponent's strike.
In their moment of astonishment, Silver had already reached the demons. By now, twelve identical ice swords had condensed in his hands and in the air before him, each one incredibly sharp and hard. Using the momentum of his charge, the Twelve Ice Blades struck out at the demons, slashing wildly in the middle of their formation.
"Ice Demon: Twelve Consecutive Blades!!"
Swish, swish, swish—
The ice swords hacked downward, slashed horizontally, or pierced straight ahead. Though there was no discernible technique, every strike was backed by full power and lacked any mercy.
Jackal, who had been at the very front, bore the brunt of the attack. Where the blades fell, the wounds froze instantly, covering the surface of his body in a thick layer of ice crystals. Simultaneously, the cold seeped into his body, severely damaging his internal organs and limbs. Jackal fell instantly; even moving a finger became an impossible struggle.
Next was Tempester, who had initiated the previous attack. The ice swords easily carved several wounds into him; the most gruesome one was over thirty centimeters long and ten centimeters deep. Had he not been a demon, he would have died on the spot. The moment the sword marks appeared, blood sprayed out, and Bane Particles began to dissipate. However, before they could erupt, they were frozen into an ice sculpture along with Tempester's body.
The ice sword attacks continued. Having frozen Jackal and Tempester, they easily cut Keyes, who stood in the third position, into fragments. However, Keyes' body was different from other demons; such physical attacks were ineffective against him.
Half of the ice swords were exhausted on the first three demons. Ezel of the "Dôjigiri" then stepped forward decisively, using his "Demon Blade Curse" to transform his four arms into blades. He blocked the final four ice swords in the air but was knocked back several meters by the force of the slash.
By now, Silver had broken into the demons' ranks. Gathering his strength, he swung the final two ice swords in his hands at his target, Deliora. Suddenly, another figure intervened.
Cr-crack.
The newcomer caught an ice sword in each hand, forcibly halting Silver's slash. Torafuzar of the "Darkness" possessed the hardest skin among the Nine Demon Gates; his close-combat ability and defense were both incredibly strong.
Sensing his assault had failed, Silver felt a surge of alarm and hastily let go to retreat. Almost at the same time, Deliora circled around Torafuzar; a fist nearly the size of a small child smashed straight toward Silver's forehead. Even though Silver retreated in time, his shirt was shredded by the wind of the fist as it grazed his chest.
So fast, so hard, such a fierce fist!!
In his shock, the copper rings behind him suddenly "cling-clanged"—it was Keyes using his staff for a flank attack!
At the critical moment, support from Descartes, Ur, and Bluenote finally arrived!
Hummm—
Gravity pressed down out of nowhere. The copper-ringed staff instantly became as heavy as a thousand pounds of iron, crashing to the ground and smashing a small pit.
"Ice-Make: White Rose Garden!!"
The ground froze instantly. A large number of roses made of ice grew rapidly in a spiral. While separating Silver from Keyes, the ice roses mangled Keyes—who had just managed to reform his shape—back into black dregs.
"Space-Make: Heaven-Shaking Earth-Move!"
Kaka-crack—
Space cracked like a mirror. Then, a powerful shockwave blasted straight forward! Torafuzar, Ezel, and Deliora, who were rushing forward to follow up, felt as if a mountain had smashed into them from the front. They were instantly left dizzy, bleeding from their facial orifices. The demons cried out as their massive bodies were blown into the sky by the impact!
Silver finally recovered. He quickly adjusted his stance and looked up at the demons in the air. He then wiped his hands through the air, creating a longbow and three sharp arrows.
"Ice Demon: Zero Grand Bow!!"
Shoo, shoo, shoo—
The three arrows were fired simultaneously, accurately piercing the hearts of the three demons and pinning them firmly to the ground.
Behind them, the necromancer Keyes saw things were going south and hurriedly turned to flee. Due to his special constitution, Bluenote's gravity couldn't pin him, and Ur's ice roses couldn't kill him. While Descartes and Silver had the means, they were too late to deal with him after teaming up against the other three.
Just as he was about to escape their encirclement, a massive wave suddenly lunged forward. Although Keyes was immune to physical attacks, he had no resistance against a towering wave. He was instantly like a rootless weed, drifting with the current.
This move caught everyone by surprise. Looking back, they saw the Aquarius Spirit, Aquarius, holding her urn with an angry expression, showing off her great power!