Editor: SilentS

At a loss for words, Ardis could only make a crying howl.

Despite glaring at Jelia with bloodshot eyes and wanting to lunge forward, his advances were completely blocked by Marty.

Unlike Ardis who couldn’t get past the enemy ahead, Sark who managed to remove the obstruction that is the nameless young boy started attacking Jelia with arts.

「This fiend! 」

With emotions not calmer than Ardis’, flames emerged from Sark’s hands.

However, what was left from where the swirling flames hit was only a burnt chair and floor.

「Fu―n, the power is only average at best. 」

Naturally, the opponent isn’t so simple where an attack of that degree would work.

Just as Sark reacted to the voice coming above head, it was almost the same time when a chunk of rock was crashing onto him.

Sark immediately created a barrier and left that spot.

「Unlike a scrap that can only cry, looks like your brain isn’t too bad, I wouldn’t mind picking you up as my soldier normally but――」

「Not for me! 」

「I have a favor to return for injuring my face previously. 」

Overlapping his opponent’s words, Sark shot another flame, but Jelia simply wiped it away with her hand and narrowed her eyes dangerously.

「Unpleasant……aah, how unpleasant. Just remembering it is unpleasant…… very unpleasant! I will crush you miserably, so die already! 」

The chunk of rock that was dropped just now appeared again, but this time with numbers enough to cover the entire ceiling.

「Oi oi, spare me from that. 」

Marty who saw that while crossing swords with Ardis sweated at his temple.

The next moment, as if arrows being fired, every chunk accelerated at once.

No regards to friend or foe, and with no safe gaps to escape to, the highly concentrated volley of rocks showered upon them.

「Kuh! 」

Sensing the danger instinctively, Ardis put up a barrier.

The rocks that fell crashed into it.

The giant rocks that tried to crush Ardis and the others clashed with the barriers that glowed purplish.

The loud crash that could be heard even outside the fortress.

The tremble as if an earthquake was happening.

However, that as well doesn’t continue for long.

When the entire floor turned into a miserable wasteland covered with shattered rocks, Jelia finally stopped.

It was only a moment’s silence.

「Something like that! 」

Sark who was under a chunk of rock pushed it away and jumped towards the ceiling.

The arrows of light that emerged from his hands continuously assaulted Jelia like a heavy rain in reverse.

「That wouldn’t――」

At that timing, purplish lightning appeared below Jelia as she tried to deflect Sark’s attack with a barrier.

It was Elion.

Needing to defend against two attacks coming from different directions, even Jelia found it difficult to block with a barrier, and took evasive measures.

Dodging the arrows of light and purplish lightning, she landed on the floor that became ruined, and moved into counterattack after snorting with ridicule without any signs of panic.

There were people that tried to distance themselves seeing the scene.

「Not getting involved in that for sure……」

Disregarding the battle between the two twins and Jelia that unfolded with them moving three dimensionally, Marty slowly distanced himself.

Then, one similarly victimized person called out.

「Marty, sorry but help me out here. 」

「What, you got hit? Stupid. 」

He was probably hit by the attack that Jelia used just now.

The man stood up while holding his swollen red arm with his other arm.

「That much isn’t anything――」

As Marty grumbled displeasingly, Ardis jumped out with a sword from the mountain of debris while scattering them everywhere.

「Martyyyyy! 」

「Tch! 」

Clicking his tongue as he saw Ardis slashing at him, Marty pulled his partner up forcefully as his shield.

「Wh――」

Not understanding what has happened, the man had his stomach split open by Ardis.

「――yy!? 」

It took his all to even mutter one question.

A large amount of blood and intestines poured out from his split apart body.

Then, by chance, stray arts launched by the twins and Jelia fell nearby. The arts created a cloud of dust from the smashed rocks, which obscured Ardis’ vision.

「Shit! 」

Even as he immediately used arts to blow away the dust, by the time Ardis could see again, Marty had already disappeared.

Using his partner that was a friend of his, he escaped.

While grinding his teeth, Ardis heard a weak voice.

「Uuh……, hurts……. It hurts―……」

It was the voice of the man that was abandoned.

Blood wasn’t just spilling from the wound that Ardis opened in his stomach.

Probably having hit by stray arts, one of his arms and legs were bleeding too.

Ardis immediately protected himself with a barrier, but the man had already received fatal damage and isn’t in a state to do that.

「That is still not……」

The words he wanted to speak continued to swell up.

This much can’t compare to the pain that Luciel experienced.

This much can’t possibly be the only karma that this man should receive.

However, Ardis currently doesn’t have much time to be dealing with him now.

Ardis was about to swing his sword as he raised it up, but immediately reconsidered as it would be an action of showing mercy to him.

After a cold and hateful gaze, Ardis left him there and headed for the perpetrator of everything.

Even with the combos from the genius twins, they couldn’t corner Jelia.

It was only at a level where both sides can just about fight on equal grounds.

To break that balance, Ardis joined the battle.

Ardis unleashed wind blades towards Jelia who was attacking Sark and Elion.

「Don’t be a bother. 」

Easily dodging the wind blades that were supposed to be surprise attacks, Jelia countered him, rapidly firing several flame bullets.

While blocking a direct hit from the flame bullets, Ardis jumped in a straight line.

「Only you――you are the only one that! 」

「How noisy of a person you are. 」

Flame bullets appeared in front of Jelia.

Despite how small they were individually, the number itself was not to be scoffed at, as all of them fired towards Ardis.

Despite the high-density barrage that would crush Ardis’s barrier, he redirected them away from himself and escaped the trajectory before heading in for another attempt.

「Doing that to Ruu! Reina! And Kyo! 」

「Who? Aah, those toys just now? 」

Jelia made a confused expression at first but then made a ridiculing laugh.

Weaved from her mana, silver spheres manifested from her hand.

「You bastard――! How dare……how dare you――! 」

「Wait, Ardis! 」

Ardis ignored Sark’s voice that tried to restrain him, and borrowing momentum from shattering his foothold, Ardis slashed with a speed that was heading for a crash course.

「It’s at my own discretion whether I dispose of my toys, right? A scrap like you has no say in it. 」

Silver spheres continued to spawn near Jelia.

「Even though I saved it specially for the last moment, having you cry like that kills my mood a little. 」

「Don’t fuck with meee! 」

Not even drawing her sword, Jelia blocked Ardis’s sword by deploying a barrier that was at most fist sized.

Using his own sword from the front, Ardis dished out continuous attacks without gaps by manipulating flying swords using his arts.

「Only this much? How boring. 」

The silver spheres that were three centimeters in diameter floated around Jelia and formed a shield by aligning into a lattice.

Responding to Ardis’ attack and travelling around in space with no restrictions on direction, new spheres will quickly seal the opening opened if they are blasted apart by a powerful hit.

It’s not as if there are enough spheres to cover the entire surroundings.

Despite the many gaps there were to enter from, no matter how many times Ardis slashed, or how many times his flying swords slashed, all of them were blocked.

Jelia manifested a dynamic and agile defense using the spheres that overpowered Ardis’s number of flying swords.

「Not enough……! 」

Although it was a technique solely designed for defense, but exactly because of that, it was very tough to break.

With the number of flying swords that Ardis could control now, breaking through the gap would be difficult.

For Ardis, ever since he had regained his ego, he was someone that had dedicated his life to fighting.

By having that much experience, he could understand the difference in power between himself and his opponent.

Although he doesn’t want to admit it, Ardis knew instinctively that his flying swords wouldn’t be able to break through Jelia’s defensive spheres.

「Then from the front! 」

He didn’t have enough hands, and the opponent was more skillful.

The only choice for him was to force an attack that was enough to break through the enemy’s defenses even for a moment.

Slashing at the same time using his flying swords and charging in himself when the opponent gets distracted.

However, his attack stopped after breaking through two layers of Jelia’s physical barrier.

The hateful nemesis did not even budge at all from Ardis’s attack.

「I’m yawning already. The toys just now were still better. 」

「――You areeee! 」

He smashed his sword against Jelia’s barrier by relying on his anger, but new barriers would immediately replace the broken ones.

「You are, the only one, that must be――! 」

What did he want to convey?

To kill Jelia.

Ardis who has lived so far for that reason alone had no reason to stop now.

Swing.

Left to right, using the sword.

Stab.

Through the opening that formed momentarily.

Slam.

Towards those shoulders that looked delicate at first glance.

Solely and only for his purpose to rip apart the woman in front of his eyes with his blade.

The killing intent that carried his mind, dyed with rage, changed his sword.

However――.

「Whh, yyyyy――! 」

Ardis’s sword couldn’t reach her.

As if screaming, Ardis’s sword was blocked by Jelia’s barrier countless times.

Ardis’s swordplay or flying swords from his arts couldn’t even make a single scratch on Jelia who looked carefree while defending with silver spheres.

As Jelia waved her hands as if chasing away some annoying fly without even drawing her sword, countless crimson light blades appeared in a close distance and assaulted Ardis.

「Kuh! 」

Ardis stopped his attack and deployed a thickly layered and tough barrier.

The barrier eroded by the crimson blades, and as if it was wax being melted, it was losing thickness rapidly.

「Ardis! 」

Elion’s voice reached from behind.

As Ardis retreated backwards to another foothold while maintaining his barrier, a huge streak of light passed from behind him.

The light green colored streak of condensed mana wrapped Jelia.

The pillars that had barely retained its shape and the floor that had countless shattered fragments were caught in it, and everything that laid within the trajectory of the streak was vaporized.

「Sark! 」

「Make double sure! 」

Receiving Elion’s signal, Sark as well added on his own arts.

The space itself was compressed to its utmost limit and crushed into a ball. While distorting the surrounding spaces, ten of them shot towards Jelia’s location.

However, just before they landed, the silver spheres blocked their path.

As each of the incoming balls absorbed the spheres, they lost their power, and eventually volatilized and disappeared.

In place of the dozens of silver spheres that disappeared from contacting Sark’s compressed space, Jelia with her fluttering crimson hair appeared.

「You two again? 」

Without even hiding her fed-out expression, she said.

「How about stopping already? You’re making me hate twins more and more. 」

「That’s my line! 」

「We don’t even the slightest intention to be liked by you anyways! 」

「This much is enough for rude barbarians that can’t even follow the order of dancing. 」

With Jelia’s mana, the surrounding rubbles turned humanoid.

「I will torment you plenty later, so play with them for now. 」

The two humanoids that appeared suddenly attacked the twins.

「Sark, Elion! They’re not just any humanoids. Be careful! 」

「Who are you telling that to!? 」

「Of course, Ardis! 」

As Ardis smiled a bit from the response he got from them, he resumed his attacks without shifting his gaze.

Originating from the tip of his blade, a burning white flame appeared.

「Turn to ash! 」

Along with the motion of swinging his sword, the white flames that Ardis shot, rushed across space eager to wrap around Jelia.

「A mere scrap! Don’t get too cocky! 」

However, the opponent was a woman that had enough power to become an axis for a country.

As Jelia spoke, bluish flames appeared and unleashed from her hands.

Ardis and Jelia, the two flames clashed in front of them, causing an intense heat wave to assault the surroundings. Eventually, the blue flames swallowed the white flames and tried to swallow Ardis next.

「Shit! 」

Knowing his disadvantage, Ardis reallocated his mana for offense into defense.

Judging that he couldn’t take all of it from the front, he deployed his barrier in a manner that would shift the trajectory of the blue flames.

His idea worked as he managed to avoid a direct hit successfully, but that didn’t mean he was safe from it completely. It still had enough power to blow Ardis away.

As Ardis’s back slammed into a wall from not being able to kill its velocity, Jelia followed up by drawing her sword and jumping at him.

「Desperate from just that degree, your limits are visible. 」

With her leaping momentum, Jelia’s sword stabbed forward towards Ardis who had yet to recover his stance.

「Kuh! 」

Barely managing to react in time, Ardis’s sword was deflected away by a heavy strike.

He gripped onto the handle as hard as he could to not lose his weapon, but because of that, his entire arm was brought to a swing from the strike.

In order to block the following strike, he thought to deploy small barriers that prioritized hardness as a shield substitute, and kick against the wall to get away from her and restabilize his stance.

However, the shields that Ardis constructed with all his might stood no chance against Jelia’s fierce strike.

「Gahah! 」

Despite able to avoid a direct hit from the blade, the impact transmitted through the last layer, and the paper-thin barrier caused an intense pressure to apply on his flank.

Ardis coughed out air and was blown to the side.

While barely managing to keep his consciousness in place that was about to fly from the intense shockwave in his innards, Ardis attempted a counterattack reflexively.

But even that was seen through by Jelia.

The silver spheres gathered around Ardis’s arm and blocked his movement.

「How pathetic. 」

It was at that time.

「Ardis, duck! 」

Sark’s voice came from behind.

Earlier than his thoughts, Ardis entire body sank to the ground.

In his place, six icicles launched by Elion swooped by and assaulted Jelia.