Several rays of coalesced radiance erupted, aiming at the enemy from all directions. Lydia wielded her twin swords, expanding her white wings and emanating the matchless, dazzling brilliance of the sun that enveloped her like a circular, protective screen. The archangel held the swords high, releasing two golden blade rays that flitted across the air alongside blustering winds, and headed straight into the dark clouds. Upon hitting the dense layer of cloud, it shrunk as though it were pricked by needles, before rolling away and letting out roaring thunder in its retreat. Meanwhile, it erupted purple lightning bolts that struck Lydia’s defensive shield. However, the purple lightnings were deflected quickly and at the same time, Erin extended and swung her arm to the side with a sword in hand.
Along with this movement, the horizon had as though been split into half. The formidable strength of the moon coalesced into an indestructible blade ray that swept across the entire sky into the thick layer of cloud. This attack was so powerful that the massive cloud almost split open in two. The crack in its middle was forcibly pulled apart by the external forces. Whistling blade airflows penetrated the opening and ripped apart the tumbling cloud. At a glance, there was now an obvious crack on its surface.
“———!”
A deafening roar like a raging billow echoed in the clouds. Just the soundwaves alone were enough to shake the land. The clouds shrunk once again, merging into an enormous tornado from the human-shaped giant. Tremendous cold winds rose from the ground and formed a strong, sturdy barrier.
“Continue to give your all! It hasn’t woken up from the seal yet. Use this chance to defeat it!”
Rhode commanded while extending his arm forward. In this motion, an enormous summoning ritual took shape underneath his feet. Shortly after, a humongous magic cannon emerged from the horizon in a loud rumble, spurting steam from its cannon opening. Then, in an ear-deafening explosion, the scarlet blast released from the magic cannon aimed straight at the opening of the clouds slashed open by Erin. In an instant, the tightly-contracted clouds rolled and swelled up like a balloon. At a glance, one could see coatings of scarlet inside the dark cloud as though it were bleeding. At the same time, the group heard an indignant wail.
“You… fools!”
After being attacked continuously, Agios was immensely enraged. After all, it was sealed and asleep for 65 million years. It finally had the chance to be awake and yet was slammed in the face before it woke up entirely. Even Chaos would feel cranky!
At Agios’s furious snarl, the huge dense cloud changed its shape once again. It pounced on the ground and in just a few seconds, it enfolded the extensive plain completely. Then, it shrunk all of a sudden and as though being filtered through, the cloud disappeared and was replaced by a dozen fully-armored, mysterious beings which seemed like mages and knights. Not only that, but Rhode was also astonished to realize that these creatures were of different races.
Humans, lichs, elves, and even angels?!
Rhode exclaimed inwardly. Even though they clearly looked different, there was something similar about them. Be it which race they were, their bodies were shrouded in black mist.
Swish———!
But this wasn’t the time to be distracted. As soon as the mystifying creatures were summoned, they leaped and pounced on the group swiftly in trails of afterimages.
“Be careful, this is a tough bunch!”
Without the need to guess, Rhode knew that these guys were definitely the very first Creator Dragons’ elites who defended the Door of Akasha. Chaos had manipulated their powers in order to maintain its presence and right now, Agios had returned the powers to their rightful owners. Even though its strength decreased greatly, it gained an advantage in numbers as a result. Judging from this decision, it went to show that Agios wasn’t naive at all. More importantly, these enemies weren’t easy to deal with either. They had far more experience than ordinary people, where even Rhode had to act cautiously against them.
Shing!
Right after Rhode yelled, three figures appeared before him—a human soldier clad in armor, an elf knight donned in heavy armor, and a battle angel wielding a menacing-looking sword—all three of them surrounded him and attacked without saying a word.
“Tsk, this cunning…!”
The instant Rhode witnessed the shimmering blade rays flashing at him, he knew the situation was far from good. He leaped back and along in this retreat, three shadow clones split out of his body and flourished their daggers at the three enemies in front.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
However, after several rasps of blades, Rhode’s shadow clones instantly vanished into thin air after being struck in their chests. Meanwhile, Rhode seized this opening and barely broke away from the encirclement of the enemies. Looking at this scene, his heart sank slightly. These shadow clones were the essence of his [Fantasy Daybreak]. They weren’t any weaker than ordinary humans and he didn’t expect them to perish in a single attack!
“Come to think of it, I have a question for you, younger sister… Back then when you dispatched these guys… around what level were they…?”
Rhode asked, clutching Gracier and Madaras, staring at the three enemies who had released their formation as soon as their assaults missed. Upon hearing his question, the younger sister pondered for a few moments and responded.
“… I’m sorry, Big Brother. These guys… Converting their strength into level, they should be around level 90. Even though they are weaker than Lydia and Erin, the difference isn’t too huge.”
Alright then. In this case, I’m dealing with three enemies who are slightly weaker than the ‘By the God’ beings?
Upon hearing his younger sister’s answer, Rhode couldn’t help but twitch his brows. He realized why these guys were so hard to deal with now. The truth was that their strength was just so powerful. Fortunately, as they were contaminated by Chaos, Rhode didn’t need to worry about being dragged into their legendary realms. Furthermore, the strength and level of one as an inhabitant of Order would plummet after being contaminated by Chaos. But on the other hand, Rhode also couldn’t force them into his legendary realm because they were already in [Casali under the night sky] right now!
“You want to take me down with numbers?!”
As the three enemies pounced on him again, Rhode let out a snort. He extended his arms swiftly. The two shimmering daggers in his hands transformed into two shiny blade rays that flew ahead and penetrated two of them. At the same time, Rhode swung his right arm to the side. A black card appeared and flickered in his hand before transforming into a signature black chain sword overflowing with bad omens. Rhode wielded the hilt and slashed it forward.
Kacha.
In this crisp sound, the razor-sharp chain sword disintegrated and took shape into a pitch-black viper that snapped its jaw open. The coordination in this move was seamless from the moment Rhode hurled the twin daggers forward to after he summoned and flourished the Succubus. As though measured perfectly, the three blades of unique sizes struck at the three enemies respectively. Facing this retaliation from Rhode, the three enemies didn’t fluster at all. They gripped and brandished their swords at the blades.
However, as they almost parried Rhode’s attack, a dazzling white radiance flickered before them. The blades that they were about to resist had disappeared and were now replaced by the emergence of three young ladies.
The manoeuvres of Gracier and Madaras were like reflections in the mirror. They chuckled and their wide, long white robes fluttered in the air despite the shimmering blades seemingly puncturing their bodies. What was strange was that even though there wasn’t anything wrong with the attacks from the human and elf, and their weapons had clearly hacked into the two young ladies, there wasn’t any spraying blood or painful sensation at all. The weapons had swung into the phantoms of the two young ladies and couldn’t hit anything at all. But it was apparent that the human and elf were experienced fighters too. Upon realizing something was off, they turned over and raised the weapon before them immediately.
But it was all too late.
The shadowy figure of the Grim Reaper flitted across them in a flash. Gracier and Madaras extended their right arms forward. The hidden razor-sharp blade inside their sleeve ejected and penetrated the enemies’ throat. Then, they jumped and spun in midair like a dancer, before giggling and vanishing into thin air.
On the other hand, the battle angel didn’t have it any easier. Facing Rhode’s attack, the battle angel slashed the sword from above. However, Rhode flipped his wrist around swiftly. The chain sword extended to revolve and wrap around the battle angel’s blade. The battle angel tried to retract the sword and retreat when suddenly, pitch-black flames erupted from the chain sword. At the next moment, Celestina emerged from the flames with a sinister laugh. She stretched out her right hand and gripped the battle angel’s skull. Before the latter reacted, three blades of black metallic sheens flew out of her sleeve and bundled the battle angel’s neck. Celestina tugged her right arm back, plucking the battle angel’s skull out of its body. The headless body swayed before collapsing to the ground completely.
“You want to take me down with numbers? Hmph!”
After sweeping a cold glance at the three corpses, Rhode snorted and quickly gestured with his hand to withdraw the three holy sword cards. He had become really familiar with this strategy to hurl the weapons and make them transform into physical beings before attacking the enemies. It was especially so after his halo had leveled up. This was much more efficient than fighting at close quarters and made it easier to slaughter the enemies.
“Hmm?”
At that moment, Rhode suddenly noticed the three corpses breaking down into black mist and spiraling in midair for their escape. Looking at this scene, Rhode recalled the scene he witnessed in Marybelle’s history.
Trying to escape?!
Gazing at the hovering black mist, Rhode swung his right arm again. Along with this movement, a silver-whitish holy sword replaced the pitch-black chain sword. He flourished the sword and silver-whitish flames emanated from the blade instantly lit the black mist. The flames were as though a monster widening its mouth to devour the fleeing black mist entirely. Shortly after, the black mist swelled up rapidly and at the same time, a mournful and blood-curdling scream erupted. Rhode witnessed the silver-whitish flames explode in a loud bang. The black mist within it was nowhere to be seen anymore.
Seems like it worked rather well.
Looking at the result of his attempt, Rhode narrowed his eyes. After all, in Marybelle’s history, the black mist seemed to react strongly against the battle angel’s holy light. This was why upon seeing the black mist escaping, Rhode decided to release holy flames to imprison and annihilate the mist entirely. But he was surprised that it was more effective than he had imagined.
It seems like time is indeed a butcher’s knife. After 65 million years, even creatures of Chaos became much weaker.
At this thought, Rhode’s eyes glinted peculiarly. Then, he disappeared in a flash.
Meanwhile, the others were engaged in fierce battles.
Lydia soared in midair elegantly, flapping her wings like a nimble bird shuttling through the openings of the net of blades. One by one, the shimmering blades slashing from above and below almost cut off her escape route. However, the archangel didn’t feel challenged at all. On the contrary, she brought on a gentle smile and flung up her swords, where a golden radiance ripped through the dense net of blades and penetrated the chests of two enemy battle angels.
“My apologies. This is the end for you two.”
Gazing at the two battle angels, this was the first time Lydia displayed a troubled expression. However, this didn’t stop her from attacking. On the contrary, as she spoke, two golden flame spheres erupted and enveloped the two battle angels entirely, turning them into ashes. Lydia lowered her gaze without glancing at them when suddenly, she waved her swords to the back—clang! She deflected a battle ax that was swung at her. Lydia turned around and brandished her left sword at the ambusher. However, the battle angel who ambushed her from the back wasn’t a fool either. Upon realizing her failed assault, she raised the battle ax before her defensively. Clang! Lydia’s left sword struck the hilt of the battle ax. The battle angel let out a furious snarl and forcibly retaliated, which was considered somewhat of a smart move. After all, Lydia was caught in her momentum and mishandling the situation could lead to her death. Just as the battle angel waved the battle ax at Lydia, the former felt a chilly sensation in her chest, followed by erupting golden flames that enveloped her world entirely.
“That didn’t feel too good…”
Gazing at the battle angel’s hideous expression as she melted in the flames, Lydia’s smiley expression turned solemn. She stared at her fellow compatriot with grief as she turned into ashes and let out a sigh.
“I hope your souls will find peace with Order.”
Lydia prayed, turned around, and gazed ahead where several battle angels contaminated by Chaos flew toward her. She held her swords high again.
At the next moment, she turned into a streak of golden brilliance that pounced on them.
***
Boom!
A silver-whitish holy light descended from heaven, slamming heavily into the human knights in front of Mini Bubble Gum. Humans contaminated by Chaos were spotted all around her. Even though they kept their human appearances, their twisted and hideous expressions were completely unlike that of ordinary, rational humans. They had turned into lackeys of Chaos entirely and were carrying out orders like wild animals.
“Why are these guys wearing such thick armor for nothing?!”
Mini Bubble Gum evaded the attack of a human knight swiftly. She grunted and tossed a punch forward, where a white, holy radiance exploded from her fist all of a sudden. Pow! The human knight flew into the air like a baseball on a home run. Meanwhile, Mini Bubble Gum swung her left fist downward. A light column fell from above like a steel hammer, crashing and ploughing the knight into the ground. Boom! The unfortunate knight quickly turned into ashes in this collision of this holy light.
“Phew…”
At that moment, Mini Bubble Gum came to a halt and flicked her hands about. After taking a closer look, one would discover that there was an enormous magical ritual with a diameter of about twenty meters underneath Mini Bubble Gum’s feet, emanating a matchless holy radiance. As soon as the enemies lurking in the distance stepped into the ritual, their movement speed would turn sluggish immediately. Thereafter, dealing with them would be much easier for Mini Bubble Gum.
“… I thought these guys would be a tough bunch. Seems like this is all they have.”
Mini Bubble Gum said, pouting and gazing at the new enemies who were being coalesced from the black mist. She lifted her hands before her and stuck out two middle fingers.
“Come if you’re not afraid of death!”
