"There's no effect!"
"Report! All of our attacks exploded in midair... It's like they were stopped by an invisible wall."
"A wall?"
"Are you stupid?! Even a city wall would have been blown apart under that much firepower! Can't you tell this is the enemy's defensive magic?!"
"Huh???"
The mage who had been scolded turned back and looked at the barrier, whose height was dozens of meters at the very least, while its width seemed to stretch beyond sight.
Because it was invisible to the naked eye, he could only estimate the size of that "wall."
What kind of joke was that?
You called that defensive magic?
That strength.
That range.
How could magic like that possibly exist?
Whoosh!
Clang.
An arrow was deflected away.
The one who had fired it was a member of King Marius's personal guard.
"Physical attacks don't work either?"
"Hmph."
"A defense like this can't last forever. Everyone, prepare to charge the instant that barrier disappears!"
Hearing the sounds of attack gradually stop, Rayleigh knew that the enemy had already figured it out.
Although Dankū was Bakudō #81, its defensive power could completely block all Hadō below #89.
In Rakia Kingdom, there were no mages powerful enough to compare.
Rather than wasting strength trying to break Dankū, it was better to conserve their energy and wait for the barrier to disappear on its own.
After all, maintaining a Kidō spell at the level of #81 for an extended period was not something even a captain-class Shinigami's Reiatsu could endure for long.
At the very least, one would need more than ten times that amount of Reiatsu to manage it.
Boom!
While Rayleigh was thinking about his next move, he suddenly sensed presences approaching at high speed.
What was this?
There were six Reiatsu signatures on it, and... Ares?
He stopped abruptly.
The instant he halted, a building ahead of him was smashed apart, and a carriage radiating golden light burst through the smoke, blocking his path.
Rayleigh looked at the carriage before him.
He found it rather surprising.
"Hahaha! See, Marius? Look at how this formidable enemy reacted!"
"I told you spending a fortune to buy this chariot from the great magical nation was the right decision!"
Ares's laughter seemed to carry some strange power, stirring up a gust of wind that blew away the dust and smoke.
Marius gripped the carriage's handrail tightly, his expression ugly.
His dignity had taken a serious blow.
Five aggressive-looking knights jumped down from the carriage.
Rayleigh's gaze narrowed slightly as he swept his eyes over each of them.
Ares planted one foot on the chariot frame, folded his arms across his chest, and asked.
"Adventurer of Orario, will you submit to me?"
"I refuse."
"I see. What a shame."
Ares had no intention of wasting words.
The moment he heard Rayleigh's answer, he directly signaled his Familia to attack.
The five knights moved at once.
Two of them were the largest, both more than two meters tall.
But despite their size, their movements were sharp and efficient.
In an instant, they appeared on either side of Rayleigh, spreading their arms to cut off his retreat.
Then came two light warriors attacking from the front.
All of them were fully armed, but their equipment had clearly been carefully designed.
Not only was it powerful, it also did not interfere with their fighting styles.
It was completely different from mass-produced knight armor.
They all wore helmets, so Rayleigh could not see their faces, but he could see the sharpness in their eyes.
The person in the rear had a much smaller build.
She held an elegant silver bow, both ends decorated with the crest of Rakia Kingdom.
Two vanguards.
Two midguards.
And one rearguard?
Rayleigh lowered his head and took a step back.
In an instant, he vanished from the four-man encirclement and placed all of them within the range of his slash.
He turned the hilt of his sword sideways, gripping it with his right hand.
It was an iaijutsu stance he had learned from Kaguya.
The moment their target disappeared, all four widened their eyes in shock.
The midguards had a wider field of view and immediately discovered Rayleigh's new position.
They shouted a warning at once.
"Behind you!"
The two small giants immediately turned around.
But their vision was already filled with sword pressure.
At the same time Rayleigh drew his blade, he released compressed sword slash, shaping it into a crescent slash that flew toward all four of them.
They could not dodge.
The moment they saw that slash, they made the judgment!
The two vanguards clamped their arms together.
Their thick arms pressed side by side, like three layers of solid wall.
Each of them planted one foot behind them as support.
Bang!
The crescent slash struck their defense and forced them back six or seven meters.
"So strong!"
The two looked down at the cuts on their arms.
This was the first time they had ever blocked an attack together and still been wounded.
Just then, a chant began to ring out.
Rayleigh's gaze passed over the four people in front of him and landed on the female archer in the rear.
At that moment, she had her hands clasped together.
That rearguard was not an archer.
She was a healer who could also use a bow.
The moment they noticed Rayleigh's gaze lock onto their healing unit, the two midguards immediately shifted their positions, guarding against the high-speed movement he had displayed earlier.
"Oh! Beautiful!" Ares praised Rayleigh's earlier strike highly.
Marius merely sighed.
There was truly nothing he could do about Ares.
This god was far too good at causing trouble!
"Again!"
The two small giants charged once more.
This time, Rayleigh did not retreat. He stood where he was, took a step forward, and swung his Zanpakutō hard.
But that massive body suddenly dropped toward the ground.
Both hands shot up.
Astonishingly, he pushed against Rayleigh's arm.
The instant they made contact, the small giant locked his ten fingers together, trying to grab Rayleigh just like that.
But Rayleigh stomped one foot onto his face, interrupting his attempt.
Rayleigh was somewhat surprised.
The man looked bulky and honest on the outside, but in reality, he was flexible and sly.
A little like Ōmaeda.
Using that huge head as a springboard, Rayleigh flipped through the air and retreated five meters.
Before the tip of his foot touched the ground, the other tank suddenly accelerated.
The terrifying burst of speed made his enormous body blur, and he arrived in front of Rayleigh in an instant.
Seeing the enemy suddenly close in, Rayleigh noticed the magic gathered in his hand.
Magic?
This guy was a magic tank?
No chant too!
No, wrong.
It was an ultra-short chant.
This felt somewhat troublesome.
The enemy had accurately caught the timing of his evasion and deliberately attacked while he had nowhere to borrow force.
This guy was also completely different from how he looked since he was .... very precise.
Unfortunately...
The corners of Rayleigh's mouth lifted slightly.
That smile fell into the two men's eyes, making them move even faster.
Regrettably, in the next second, Rayleigh disappeared.
Just like when they had launched their surprise attack earlier, it was "teleportation" whose movement process could not be captured at all.
Why?
He clearly had not touched the ground yet!
The magic tank's attack could no longer be stopped.
His hand slammed down toward the ground.
Boom!
That strike directly imprinted a circular crater into the street.
And it was not over.
The circular pit continued to collapse further.
It looked like a shockwave that ignored defense and pierced through the surface of the body, and it was a multi-hit attack at that.
Rayleigh's figure bypassed the two of them and rushed straight toward the two midguards.
For a Shinigami who could manipulate Reishi to create footholds, the entire three-dimensional space was no different from flat ground.
"Wait!"
The two vanguards quickly turned back to give chase.
But the moment they lifted their feet, they discovered that red lines of flame had bound them to the ground, forcing their legs to remain tangled with the street beneath them.
"Hadō #12: Fushibi."
It was a small trick Rayleigh had released instantly through incantation abandonment when he brushed past the two of them, binding them in place and preventing them from pursuing him.