Gudako agilely dodged the debris splashed by the clash between the King of the Land and Fubayashi Anash. At the same time, she pulled out the shorthand codex given by Rin from her pocket and decisively tore off a few pages.
The torn shorthand codex instantly formed several different elemental spells, which Gudako directed towards the nearby Ghouls and Dead Apostles.
After observing that a certain spell had a far greater effect than others, Gudako's eyes lit up. She quickly unbuttoned her coat and opened it, revealing a dozen shorthand codexes, each representing a different element, fixed to the inside of her coat.
Gudako decisively pulled out a yellow-green shorthand codex, not bothering to re-button her coat, and continuously unleashed strong acid magic using this codex.
On the other side, Fujimaru Ritsuka, enduring a Ghoul's claw thanks to the Chaldea-made Mystic Code, decisively coated his fist with a glob of mercury and delivered a heavy punch that made the Ghoul stumble.
Then Mash, who had been fighting around Fujimaru Ritsuka, let out a roar and swung her round table-like shield, sending the Ghoul flying.
"Senpai, are you alright!"
Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded to Mash, who was concerned about him.
"I'm fine, Mash. You be careful yourself!"
"Yes, Senpai!"
Having experienced Fujimaru Ritsuka's peril once before, Mash, worried about him encountering danger again, began to disregard her stamina consumption and transformed into a Valkyrie, swinging her disproportionately large shield to strike down any Dead Apostles and Ghouls attempting to approach Fujimaru Ritsuka.
At this moment, a hearty laugh echoed across the entire battlefield.
An armored middle-aged man suddenly appeared beside Altrouge and placed his large hand on Altrouge's head, gently ruffling her hair.
"Hahaha, quite lively here! Little girl over there, would you be willing to come with me?"
Gudako, in the midst of fierce fighting, suddenly found the Ghouls and Dead Apostles around her receding like a tide, and she also heard the man's words.
Gudako dazedly pointed a finger at herself and shouted.
"Uncle, are you talking about me?"
"Of course! How about it, little girl? If you're willing to come with me, I'll let everyone else go. What do you think?"
Just as Gudako was hesitating and about to speak.
A small fist landed heavily on Gudako's head from behind her, making Gudako instantly cry out in pain and squat down, not daring to make a sound, because the feeling of that punch was too familiar.
"Hey, hey, hey! Where did this shameless old man come from, trying to snatch my apprentice!"
A faint blue light gate had appeared out of nowhere behind Gudako. Rin, Zelretch, and Cobalt were standing in front of the light gate.
Rin unhappily watched the tall man in armor, her fists clenching audibly, seemingly unable to resist the urge to beat up the man who was trying to abduct Gudako.
Zelretch stroked the beard on his chin and said cheerfully to the man.
"It's been hundreds of years since we last met, hasn't it, Dark Six Authorities!"
"You are? Zelretch! How did you get so old?"
Zelretch scratched the back of his head.
"That bastard True Moon bit me! Didn't you know?"
The Black-Winged Duke, currently fighting Touko, upon hearing Zelretch's remark, furiously abandoned Touko, flapped his wings, and charged recklessly towards Zelretch.
"Zelretch! How dare you insult my Lord!"
Rin, standing beside Zelretch, saw the charging Black-Winged Duke, and the scene of being forced into a perilous situation by the Black-Winged Duke in the Kobayakawa apartment years ago flashed before her eyes.
New and old grudges instantly flooded Rin's mind, making her, before Zelretch could act, unleash her fist at the Black-Winged Duke in a perfectly standard Eight Extremities Fist stance.
The Black-Winged Duke, who had never seen Rin in this Singularity world, wouldn't care about someone who looked like a 'weak woman'. He carelessly swung his arm, intending to tear Rin apart.
But Rin's A+++ punch wasn't so easy to block. The bizarre scene of Rin punching Nero Chaos reappeared, that feeling of time stopping once again in the senses of everyone who witnessed it.
This sudden bizarre sensation made it impossible for the Black-Winged Duke to even dodge. He was struck squarely by Rin's punch, which bypassed his arm and hit his face.
"Bang!"
With a loud bang, the Black-Winged Duke, as if hit by a high-speed train, instantly turned into a human cannonball, smashing into the army of Ghouls and Dead Apostles, knocking down a large number of them.
Altrouge, recovering from the strange sensation, first looked at Rin, who was wiping the grime from her hands, then turned to look at the Black-Winged Duke. She saw that the Black-Winged Duke's head above his jaw was completely gone, and his body lay limply among a pile of Ghouls crushed into meat paste, seemingly with all his bones shattered.
However, the Black-Winged Duke, possessing extremely high immortality, couldn't be killed by just one punch from Rin. With the Ancestors' extremely high regenerative ability, he might recover in a few days, though one could only hope that with most of his head gone, he wouldn't become brain-damaged upon recovery.
Rin, who had been unremarkable among the other Ancestors except for her appearance, finally earned their respect with this punch. They all stopped fighting in unison and came to the Dark Six Authorities, vigilantly watching Rin.
However, as the most mysterious Ancestor, the Six Authorities, rumored to be the leader of all Ancestors upon awakening, was not intimidated by Rin's performance, but merely observed Rin with interest.
"You must be the Chaldea Director Lev mentioned! Indeed, just as Lev said, you're a formidable opponent!"
"Lev! Hmph! It was him after all. Too bad I didn't bring Olga Marie to see it with her own eyes... Alright, enough small talk. Shall we fight?"
After speaking, Rin activated her dragon factor, and the abyss-like, unfathomable magical energy within her surged forth, forming a massive pillar of mana that shot straight into the sky.
The Six Authorities looked at the abyss-like mana on Rin's body, shook their heads, and took out a small, exquisite crown from their robes.
"It is not yet time. We'll count this as our loss. Next time, I will be fully prepared before going to war with you!"
As they finished speaking, the crown in the Six Authorities' hands emitted a strange light. The Dead Apostles and Ancestors present turned into countless retreating phantoms, vanishing as if time were flowing backward.
Seeing this, Rin frowned and glanced at Gudako, who was crouching to the side clutching her head. She had already reached a conclusion regarding the crown's origin and the Six Authorities' intent to kidnap Gudako.
Zelretch frowned and turned to ask Rin.
"Rin, what is that crown? That fellow from the Six Authorities used it to manipulate time just now. His methods were so exquisite that even I couldn't stop it with the Second Magic!"
Rin casually tossed out several gems that transformed into Innocentiuss. After assigning them to clean up the remaining Ghoul army, she turned to the solemn Zelretch and spoke.
"Master, do you know about things called Beasts..."
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