Since their creation by Zeref 400 years ago, not even the Demon Slayers who fought them to the bitter end had ever caused such significant casualties among the demons.
Although the eliminated demons were mostly small fry and cannon fodder, Kyoka and the others couldn't help but feel a sense of grief for their fallen kind.
Hope's nonchalant, almost playful "apology" was a psychological blow; he had wiped out nearly every demon on Underworld Island and claimed it was an "accident"?
"Damn it!"
Storm was the first to lose his cool, his ashen face contorting with extreme rage as the dark green Curse Power circulating around him instantly turned violent.
With his roar, hundreds of ink-black wind blades, sharp enough to tear through steel, let out shrill shrieks as they swarmed toward Hope to shred him apart.
"Die, human!"
Another of the Nine Demon Gates, Jackal, launched an attack at almost the same time. He slammed his palms onto the ground, and Curse Power runes rapidly spread along the floor to Hope's feet; his 'Explosion Curse' instantly turned the ground into a detonating bomb.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom—!
A dense chain of explosions rang out, flipping the crimson earth. Rubble and dust mixed with the black wind, completely submerging the area.
The wind fanned the flames, and the fire intensified the wind. The full-force combined strike of the two great demons created a turbulent flow of violent energy that caused even Kyoka and the other nearby demons to subconsciously take half a step back.
"Did we get him?!"
The soul-fire in the necromancer Keis's eye sockets flickered rapidly. The scene of Trafusa being instantly defeated was still fresh in his mind; he didn't believe the opponent would be dealt with so easily.
The dust slowly cleared.
A blurry figure gradually became clear.
Hope was still standing in the same spot. He hadn't even taken his right hand out of his pocket, and even his hairstyle hadn't been ruffled by the violent airflow.
Whether it was the black wind blades sharp enough to cut gold and jade, or the landmine explosions capable of shattering rock layers, everything that entered a one-meter radius around him vanished without a trace, like a clay ox entering the sea.
"Is this the power of the Tartaros officers?"
Hope tilted his head, his tone laced with disappointment. "This is truly more boring than I imagined."
"You bastard—!"
Frustrated by the repeated failures, Jackal's eyes turned bloodshot. He recklessly pushed his Curse Power again, his body swelling and his skin turning an ominous dark purple as he prepared to launch an even more powerful Curse.
His Curse could turn anything he touched into a bomb, naturally including himself.
"Enough, Jackal! Calm down!"
Kyoka's cold shout rang out, putting a stop to Jackal's self-destruction.
The strangeness and strength of the human Mage before them far exceeded their estimates. Blind rage would only lead to the same fate as Trafusa.
"He is not simple."
Kyoka's Voice was very low, carrying a cold killing intent. She stared fixedly at Hope, her body slightly lowered in an optimal stance for both offense and defense.
"Everyone, release your Curse Power. We'll attack together and finish him as quickly as possible! We can't let him continue destroying Underworld Island, or we won't be able to withstand the Underworld King's blame!"
The Underworld King, Mard Geer, was an emotionless and extremely cruel fellow. Whether toward his own kind or humans, he enjoyed using cruel methods to torture them, killing them only after he had played enough.
The reason these great demons worked obediently in Tartaros wasn't loyalty, but because they had all personally experienced the Underworld King's methods.
Any failure to perform would result in punishment from the Underworld King. Since they could be reborn via hells core, it didn't matter, but so far, only Kyoka had been able to withstand the Underworld King's abuse.
Trafusa finally broke free from the electricity that had restrained him, and along with the other five members of the Nine Demon Gates, they released all their power simultaneously.
The true forms of the six demons were revealed, and their overwhelming Curse Power caused gusts of sinister wind to blow across Underworld Island.
After demonizing, Kyoka, who had used "Self-Enhancement" on herself, was the first to move.
Her figure left a faint afterimage in place, her speed so fast it was hard for the naked eye to track. Pitch-black Curse Power covered her body, especially her fingers, which extended into shadow claws as sharp as knives, aiming directly for Hope's throat and heart.
At the same time, the soul-fire in Keis's eye sockets flared brightly, and the magic wand in his skeletal palm tapped the ground sharply.
'Necromancy Curse: Army of the Dead'.
The ground split open, and dozens of incomplete, rotting skeletons crawled out—demons, humans, and unknown magical creatures alike.
They roared as they pounced toward Hope, carrying a dense aura of darkness that would corrode life and magic power upon contact.
Storm raised both hands high, pushing his Curse Power to the limit to condense a violently rotating pitch-black Storm cloud above Hope's head, from which countless fine dark wind needles and torrential rain poured down.
Esel, whose entire body was steel-hardened, unleashed wave after wave of violent slashes, his sword qi as continuous as a surging tsunami.
Trafusa, having barely recovered from the paralysis, roared and charged again, his arms covered in a metallic blue-gray luster as they smashed toward Hope with a heavy whistling sound.
And Jackal, who seemed the most reckless, chose this moment to sneakily circle to Hope's flank. A highly condensed point of dark purple light gathered at his fingertip; this would be the most concentrated and piercing explosion of his demon career.
Facing a coordinated assault from all directions—front, back, left, right, above, and below—covering physical attacks, curses, energy bursts, control, and surprise attacks, Hope finally pulled his right hand out of his pocket.
"That's more like it. A fight should at least look the part."
His expression remained unchanged. As Hope whispered to himself, his fingers spread, and he casually flicked his right hand toward the incoming Kyoka and the dozens of corpses behind her.
Hum—!
A ripple of silver-white cold air instantly diffused outward.
Kyoka, who was at the very front, felt her body grow heavy as if she had fallen into extremely viscous glue; her speed plummeted by more than seventy percent.
The corpses controlled by Keis fared even worse, being frozen solid in their sprinting poses right where they stood.
The frost, as if alive, coiled around the pitch-black winds and the arms transformed into demonic blades.
The winds and slashes capable of tearing mountains asunder silently dissolved like snow under a blazing sun the moment they touched the silver-white frost, and the bodies of the two demons were heavily damaged in the process.
"Aghhh—!"
Storm, Trafusa, and Esel screamed as they retreated. The parts of their bodies touched by the frost felt a bone-deep pain, as the invading magic power ran rampant inside them.
Behind Hope, Jackal's supposedly certain kill-shot, the Explosion Curse, failed to detonate as intended.
The cold air spread up his arm, instantly sealing most of his body within a block of translucent ice, leaving only his terrified head exposed.
"Is this... 'Ice Demon Slayer'?!"
"Impossible! Wasn't the inheritance of that magic... by Silver..."
Just then, a middle-aged man in armor appeared.
And following behind him was an old acquaintance of Hope's—Jellal, who had disappeared for some time after the Oración Seis incident.
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