Above an unknown pocket dimension.
It was only when Leon, Ravel, and Rem spread their wings and soared above this foreign space that they finally saw the environment for what it was.
This place was an artificial dimension created in the exact likeness of Kuoh Town.
Skyscrapers stood tall, and a complex network of roads spread through the urban district. Everything—the cars, streetlights, signs, and trash cans—was a perfect replica of the real Kuoh Town. The only difference was the complete absence of people, replaced instead by black monsters.
"Chirp————"
"Caw————"
"Roar————"
Swapping out the humans who should have inhabited the city, groups of black monsters staggered out from the shadows of buildings and dark alleys, haunting the streets and structures.
The moment they spotted Leon and his group flying overhead, they immediately let out blood-curdling howls. Opening their maws, they spat out beams of brilliant light, firing them directly at Leon.
"Annoying!"
Seeing that the place was devoid of people and crawling with nothing but monsters, Leon lost all interest in entangling with them. He decided to open with a wide-scale attack.
"Rumble————"
Suddenly, dense black clouds gathered and thunder began to roar within the replica dimension.
The sky turned dark, illuminated only by the constant, dense flickering of lightning.
The air became heavy and oppressive, as if a great storm was about to break.
Then, countless lightning strikes descended from the dark clouds, striking down upon the replica Kuoh Town.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!————
As the thunderclaps echoed through heaven and earth, bolts of lightning struck the monsters wandering the town, charring them to cinders on the spot.
Infinite bolts of electricity fell from the sky, dense and unending, as if turning the entire town into a lake of lightning. The scene was horrifyingly grand.
If such a phenomenon were to occur in reality, it would undoubtedly be a terrifying catastrophe.
As far as the eye could see, lightning was striking everywhere. Countless bolts connected the sky and the earth, forming a dense web of electricity that illuminated the world. The sight was more soul-shaking than any natural disaster; had any ordinary person seen it, they would have believed the end of the world had arrived.
Leon had used the power of 'Zenith Tempest' to completely alter the weather of this pocket dimension. He turned a clear sky into a thunderstorm and manipulated the infinite lightning to strike the entirety of Kuoh Town.
Under this relentless bombardment, not only were the black monsters wailing as they were struck dead, but the town itself was caught in this sudden disaster, ravaged by the infinite lightning.
In an instant, the streets were filled with charred craters. Buildings were either blackened or pulverized by the strikes. With bolts of electricity snaking through the ruins to cause further destruction, the replica Kuoh Town was reduced to rubble within seconds. Several skyscrapers collapsed, crashing into the ground and shaking both the earth and the air.
"Wh-What terrifying power!"
Watching this scene, Ravel couldn't help but swallow hard.
"————Lord Leon's power is much, much stronger than even Big Sister's."
Rem's cute face was also filled with shock.
They knew Leon was strong, but this was the first time they had seen him unleash such world-ending destruction. For a moment, they were deeply shaken.
The reason High-tier Longinus were ranked above ordinary ones was precisely because they possessed the power to influence a nation or even the world to a certain extent.
Take "Dimension Lost," for example. It could instantly release mist sufficient to cover an entire metropolis and forcibly transport everything within it to another location. If this ability were used in the Human World without restraint, it would cause unimaginable chaos and casualties.
Then there was "Annihilation Maker." As long as one created an endless supply of monsters and sent them to various locations, it absolutely had the capability to conquer a nation and heavily impact the global situation.
As the second-strongest Longinus in the world, the rank of "Zenith Tempest" was even higher than both "Annihilation Maker" and "Dimension Lost." Its impact on a nation or the world was certainly no less significant.
The ability to instantly change the climate of a city or even a nation was enough to cause its downfall.
Compared to man-made disasters, natural ones were the most terrifying. If not for the fact that the "True Longinus" was the highest-grade Holy Relic—the legendary god-slaying spear that could pierce even a God—its ranking might not necessarily be higher than "Zenith Tempest."
At the very least, purely in terms of raw power, "Zenith Tempest," which could directly manufacture natural disasters, was surely superior to the "True Longinus."
The true strength of the "True Longinus" lay not in its destructive power, but in its unique nature as a Holy and Divine object. This uniqueness granted it infinite possibilities; for demonic existences, that spear was the most terrifying thing in existence.
However, after several reinforcement feedbacks, the power of the current "Zenith Tempest" had increased by several levels. No matter how unique the "True Longinus" was, it could no longer claim to be firmly superior.
Leon was confident that his current "Zenith Tempest" was not inferior to the "True Longinus" in the slightest.
This was evident from the fact that he could easily defeat Kokabiel, a ten-winged Fallen Angel leader, without even activating his Balance Breaker, as well as his performance against Vali, who possessed power rivaling a Demon King after his own Balance Breaker.
In the past, he had to hold back, afraid to expand the attack range of his Sacred Gear to avoid causing excessive damage to the environment of the living world. But in this pocket dimension, he had no such concerns.
Therefore, Leon let loose, bringing the entirety of Kuoh Town within the strike range of "Zenith Tempest," instantly changing the weather and bringing a thunderstorm down upon this world.
Under these conditions, countless black monsters wailed as they were struck dead or even disintegrated by the lightning, leaving not even a corpse behind.
"Hm?"
Just as Leon was displaying his divine might, acting as the incarnation of a natural disaster and ravaging this dimension to the limit of his destructive capability, his magical detection—which he had never retracted—sensed familiar fluctuations of power.
Boom!
In the eastern part of Kuoh Town, a terrifying cold air suddenly erupted, turning everything within a several-kilometer radius into ice. Buildings, streets, and those black monsters were all frozen one by one, creating an instant ice plain.
Bang!
Simultaneously, in another direction, an equally terrifying storm appeared. It tore through the roads and surrounding buildings, sweeping debris from the ground and skyscrapers into the sky and mercilessly shredding countless black monsters on the spot. It was incredibly brutal.
"It's Yukinoshita-senpai!"
Ravel immediately recognized who had created that ice plain to the east.
"Big Sister!"
Rem looked at the storm that was slaughtering countless monsters, her face lighting up with joy.
Leon's expression finally softened as he gave a slight smile.
"It seems the two strongest combatants among my Eligos Peerage also find these monsters quite annoying."
Just as Leon's voice fell, two figures flew over simultaneously from the directions of the ice plain and the storm.
"I knew that if the weather here became like this, it had to be your doing."
Yukinoshita Yukino spoke the moment she arrived, with that three-meter-tall heteromorphic princess following behind her.
"Are you all alright?"
Ram's expression visibly relaxed when she saw Rem, and only then did she speak.
"Is it just the two of you?" Leon waited for them to rejoin the group before asking, "Where are the others?"
"I'm not sure." Yukinoshita Yukino shook her head. "When the mist sent me here, I was alone."
"I was sent directly into the middle of a circle of those monsters," Ram said flatly. "I didn't expect them to be able to use the power of Light. I almost fell for their trick."
"So everyone was scattered," Ravel judged immediately. "If Lord Leon hadn't grabbed Rem and me a moment before the forced teleportation occurred, we likely would have been separated too."
"The others should be fine, right?" Rem went to Ram's side, and after confirming Ram wasn't injured, she spoke with some worry, "Those monsters can use the power of Light. If caught off guard, they might suffer serious injuries."
This was a concern shared by everyone present.
Yukinoshita Yukino and Ram were powerful, possessing strength no less than an Ultimate-class Devil, so they could pass this hurdle without danger. But the same couldn't be said for the others.
"They should be fine," Leon said calmly. "With Utaha's proficiency with barriers, she should be able to quickly deploy a barrier to protect herself even if caught off guard. Asuna and Mahiru are very sensitive to holy power; one is a Holy Sword user and the other is the holder of the Holy Cross. I doubt the Light power of Angels and Fallen Angels can threaten them."
That being said, the three were still Devils. Unlike him, they hadn't overcome their racial weaknesses. If they weren't careful, they truly could be heavily injured.
"Let's find them quickly and regroup."
The girls nodded one after another at Leon's words, offering no objection.
Fortunately, Leon and Yukinoshita Yukino's magical detection was outstanding, and Ram possessed the Clairvoyance ability. Combined with the use of summoned familiars, it wasn't particularly difficult to find their companions in a town inhabited only by monsters.
Three minutes later, they were drawn by a column of purple flames rising into the sky. Amidst a group of black monsters being incinerated by purple fire, they found Mahiru Shiina.
"Senpai! And everyone!"
Mahiru Shiina was manipulating purple flames in the shape of a cross to blast away a large swarm of black monsters. Seeing the group flying from the horizon, her face immediately filled with joy.
She was uninjured. On the contrary, the black monsters that approached her screamed as they were purified by the purple flames. It was clear this "Angel" was one-sidedly crushing these creatures.
This was normal. Even if they could use the power of Light, it didn't change the fact that these monsters were magical creatures created by the host of "Annihilation Maker."
Since they were magical creatures, they were fundamentally countered by holy and purifying powers. Thus, this was a clash between two sides that countered each other, and in the end, Mahiru Shiina, with her higher countering ability, gained a massive, one-sided advantage.
Seeing this, Leon knew that Asuna Yuuki's side should also be fine.
Sure enough, after regrouping with Mahiru, Leon's party soon found Asuna Yuuki, who was carving through the black monsters on the streets like a hot knife through butter.
"Are you all okay?"
Asuna Yuuki held a Holy Sword in each hand. The blades of both swords were pitch black—they were actually Holy Swords of the Darkness attribute.
The moment the beams fired by the black monsters touched these dark Holy Swords, they were immediately swallowed by the darkness within the blades, unable to touch Asuna at all.
On the other hand, whenever Asuna's Holy Swords slashed a black monster, the creature would immediately start smoking and be purified, vanishing on the spot. The difference in strength was obvious at a glance.
Having slaughtered her way through the monsters, Asuna was not only uninjured but was also worrying about Leon and the others. Seeing everyone appear unscathed, she let out a massive sigh of relief.
As for the final person, Utaha Kasumigaoka, she wasn't found; she found them herself.
"I finally found you!"
The literary girl had no intention of fighting the monsters roaming everywhere. She simply deployed a barrier, wrapped herself inside it, and flew leisurely from the horizon. She ignored all the light beams fired by the monsters, letting them hit the barrier and be blocked one by one.
Clearly, Utaha's strategy was to ignore those "uniquely hideous" monsters, find her companions first, and regroup.
With her barrier protecting her, the monsters' attacks couldn't threaten her at all. She could completely ignore them and focus on searching the town.
It must be said, as a light novel writer, her mind was indeed sharp. She wasn't battle-hungry at all and focused solely on taking the shortcut, possessing a completely different style from those rough guys who would just try to charge through any enemy they saw.
This way, as long as she spent some time, she was bound to find Leon and the others. After all, Leon's group had been quite conspicuous along the way————
With everyone gathered and confirmed to be uninjured, they finally relaxed.
"Did any of you see the others?"
Leon asked Asuna and the others just in case.
The Eligos Peerage was now fully assembled, but there was still no sign of the Gremory Peerage, the Sitri Peerage, or the big shots from the various factions.
Asuna and the others hadn't seen them either and shook their heads.
This allowed Leon to confirm one thing.
"This pocket dimension was likely prepared specifically for us, the Eligos Peerage. The others were probably transferred to a different dimension, or they might have stayed behind in the real world." Ravel had also thought of this. "Otherwise, it's impossible that we haven't seen anyone but our own people after traveling so far."
Everyone looked at one another, and finally, they all turned their gaze toward Leon.
"————Let's go."
Leon had a rough idea of what was going on. He narrowed his eyes and spoke.
"Let's go meet the mastermind."
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