"Ushi!"
This made Arataki Itto even angrier. He glared fiercely at Persephone and shouted,
"You dared to hurt Itto again! This Great Lord will fight you to the death!"
Arataki Itto swung his club, leaped into the air, and then slammed down toward Persephone with the force of Mount Tai.
Seeing this, Persephone yawned with a look of utter boredom. She then retreated several steps backward like a ghost, just in time to dodge Enjou's fireballs from above. Immediately after, she crouched down, dug her fingers deep into the ground.
The next second, Persephone's body flashed with golden light. Under everyone's horrified gaze, she actually tore this floating island into two pieces.
And Arataki Itto, amidst a series of terrified screams, passed through the massive rift that had appeared in the middle. Because he had used too much force, he couldn't stop himself at all. What Arataki Itto had to face next was a free fall of several thousand meters.
Just as Arataki Itto's figure disappeared, Persephone's hands tightened, and she put the floating island back together. The intense shaking made everyone lose their balance, and they were even more shocked by Persephone's strength.
"Bull Chucker!"
Seeing this, Paimon couldn't help but cry out in alarm. She then flew to the edge of the island and watched Arataki Itto flailing his arms and legs, trying to fly as if swimming in water, but that was obviously impossible.
"Brother Itto!"
Thoma only had time to cast a final Pyro Elemental Shield on Arataki Itto before he watched his figure vanish from sight.
Falling from such a height, he would be severely injured even if he didn't die!
"Boss!"
Kuki Shinobu looked down to search for Arataki Itto's figure while enduring the sharp pain in her body.
"I will help him."
Sangonomiya Kokomi spoke, then controlled the Hydro Elemental Power located below to continuously condense, finally capturing Arataki Itto's position and tossing him onto a floating stone nearby.
At this moment, Lumine, who had been sent flying to an unknown location earlier, blasted away all the rubble in front of her, forming a circular channel. A powerful current of air erupted from her body, drawing a white trail in the sky.
At this time, the aura on Lumine's body was even stronger than before. If one looked closely, they would find that one of the Marks on her hand was missing.
Before they arrived, all the Marks had already been concentrated on Lumine's body, and only Sangonomiya Kokomi and Gorou still retained one Mark each.
Although they didn't know how Persephone had created these Marks, they had indeed greatly narrowed the gap between them and her, which was also the source of their confidence.
As for whether there would be a trap within it, that was something they could not predict.
They only knew that by using this method, they would still have a slight chance of victory; if they didn't, they might have truly had no chance at all.
Furthermore, judging by Persephone's current behavior and style, the possibility of it being a trap was not high.
But ultimately, it was still because their strength was insufficient, otherwise they would not have relied on external forces at all.
At this moment, Lumine's body erupted with a speed far beyond what she had shown before, returning to the island almost in the blink of an eye, closing the distance to Persephone to only a few meters.
Looking at Persephone, whose face showed a slight increase in interest, Lumine forced herself to endure the surging blood and energy within her body and fully erupted with the Power of Nihility.
Facing an enemy of this level, if she did not embrace the spirit of destroying herself first, it would be simply impossible to defeat her!
In this instant, a terrifying aura radiated from Lumine's body, as if one had encountered the natural enemy of life itself.
The same feeling had actually appeared before when Lumine used the Power of Nihility, but it was far less intense than at this moment.
And what could be more concretely manifested was a grayish-white domain with a diameter of three meters, wrapping Lumine entirely in its embrace!
What surprised Lumine was that even though she had completely unbalanced the Power of Nihility within her body, she had not completely lost control.
She did not know if it was because her strength at this moment had grown significantly, or if the Power of Nihility had sensed the powerful enemy Persephone and therefore became so quiet.
However, Lumine did not have time to think any more about it; she slammed her right foot into the ground, instantly stomping a giant indentation several meters deep into the surface, and then a brilliant and splendid grayish-white sword light was slashed diagonally toward Persephone. Almost the instant the sword was drawn, that sword light had already arrived in front of Persephone.
"Boom, boom!"
Under the utterly horrified gazes of everyone, this sword strike, which was almost Lumine's peak at this moment, was blown up by Persephone's single punch!
"Your power is still not condensed enough. It seems you have not properly understood the power you have mastered."
Hearing Persephone's evaluation, Lumine was slightly stunned for a moment.
But just at this time, Persephone's body was like a teleportation, instantly crossing a distance of several meters before anyone could react. She raised her hand and grabbed Lumine's head, and then under Lumine's terrified gaze, she exerted a little force, and Lumine's entire head was pressed into the ground by Persephone, with only half of her body still exposed.
Just at this moment, the Domain of Nihility around Lumine's body instantly dissipated, and Persephone continued to speak in a relaxed and leisurely manner.
"No. 4 has mentioned you to me before. You are his greatest masterpiece, capable of perfectly fusing with this immense power without suffering backlash yourself, and you are also another safeguard he left behind for this world."
"But in my opinion, it's still far from enough."
"Your battle experience is quite sufficient; I can tell you've gone through countless fights."
"But your temperament is still too poor. You still hold a grudge against No. 3, who inflicted those sufferings upon you, don't you?"
"Just now, when I mentioned him, the expression on your face was clearly wrong."
"Actually, you should thank him."
"You still have no idea what level of power you've actually mastered."
"And you haven't realized that without him, you wouldn't even have the chance to stand before me right now."
After speaking, Persephone grabbed Lumine's head just like that and began to sprint wildly, a healthy yet cunning smile on her face.
Grabbing Lumine's head, Persephone plowed a long furrow into the ground. Although Lumine struggled desperately, Persephone's power was simply too great, far beyond what she could resist.
With a final surge of strength, Persephone pressed Lumine deep into the ground.
Lumine endured not only the irresistible force, but also a terrifying power of destruction that invaded her body and completely threw it into turmoil.
The Power of Nihility within Lumine's body, sensing the aura of this destructive force, immediately began to boil, and the two started to carve out multiple battlefields inside Lumine's body. The commotion caused by their mutual devouring and slaughter made Lumine suffer immensely, leaving her body completely unable to move.
After finishing this, Persephone slowly stood up, dusted off her hands, and then looked at the others with a smile all over her face.
Dangerous, extremely dangerous!
With just a single glance, everyone felt as if they were deeply mired in a swamp, making even the simplest movements extremely difficult.
Even though Lumine had activated the Mark, she was still no match for Persephone in a single exchange. They might have truly been too rash with this operation!
But at this point, regret was useless. Everyone took a deep breath and continued their assault on Persephone.
"Buy time for Lumine!"
Sangonomiya Kokomi spoke softly, then approached Persephone without hesitation. A massive amount of Hydro Elemental Power gathered around her body, and after reaching a certain limit, Sangonomiya Kokomi raised her hand, causing a violent Hydro Elemental shockwave to erupt from Persephone's position.
However, facing Sangonomiya Kokomi's attack, Persephone didn't even bother to move. After taking the attack head-on, she even commented on it.
"Even for a water game, this power is too weak."
Sangonomiya Kokomi was not affected by Persephone's words. She gathered a massive amount of Hydro Elemental Power again, and finally, two water dragons formed from the Hydro Elemental Power were thrown out by Sangonomiya Kokomi's two hands respectively.
After those two water dragons flew and circled in the air for a moment, they then crashed fiercely toward Persephone.
Seeing this scene, Persephone only slowly raised her two hands. Then everyone saw those two water dragons crash into the palms of Persephone's hands, as if they had hit an insurmountable high wall, and were completely blocked. The water dragons even collapsed on their own because they couldn't withstand the recoil.
Sangonomiya Kokomi did not seem surprised by this. Her arms pushed open with force, and an even more terrifying Hydro Elemental Power erupted.
In an instant, the previously collapsed Hydro Elements gathered again, forming a river with an astonishing aura that crashed fiercely toward Persephone.
And Persephone just slapped out a casual palm, instantly slapping the oncoming river apart.
However, the moment the water curtain dissipated, a mass of countless cold, blade-like frost swept over. Even before it drew near, its sharpness could be felt from afar.
Persephone yawned again, then raised her right hand, merely extending her index finger to stir forcefully within the Cryo Storm. The next second, that storm containing countless killing intents was directly crushed.
And just at this moment, in Persephone's blind spot, a pink arrow with a heart-shaped arrowhead flew toward her, silent and imperceptible.
"Boom!"
A mushroom cloud slowly rose, and a massive amount of thick smoke completely engulfed Persephone's position.
Seeing this scene, everyone felt a slight sense of relief. This time, Persephone must have taken some damage, right?
The previous attacks were all feints, just to pave the way for Gorou's arrow.
In the end, it seemed Persephone didn't react in time and didn't make any defensive movements, but as for the specific effect, although the explosion was grand in scale, everyone didn't have much confidence in their hearts.
Persephone's strength was too great!
As if responding to the thoughts in everyone's hearts, a figure broke a large hole through the thick smoke, then appeared before Gorou at a speed everyone completely failed to react to, her gorgeous red lips directly pressed against Gorou's ear.
"Your attack is a little interesting, it's made me a little excited!"
Looking at Persephone, who was right before his eyes, Gorou still held his heart-shaped bow and arrow, not yet having time to lower it, and the smile on his face had not even faded. In an instant, he felt the blood in his entire body freeze as an incomparably dense sense of mortal crisis loomed in his heart.
"Quick, switch out!"
At this moment, Daphne's anxious voice echoed in Gorou's mind. Hearing this, Gorou handed over control of his body without hesitation.
Now was not the time to worry about Little Gorou; any slower, and Big Gorou would be a goner!
The moment Daphne took control, the Mark on her hand instantly activated, and the combined power of two erupted from Gorou's body, far surpassing anything before by dozens of times!
Relying on this power, Daphne controlled the body to perform a spatial movement, immediately putting dozens of meters of distance between herself and Persephone.
"Stars, heed my command!"
Daphne shouted loudly as a brilliant pillar of light pierced through the layers of dark clouds, shining down on Persephone and bathing her body in a dazzling purple light.
"Oh?"
Seeing Daphne's aura suddenly surge, Persephone spoke with some surprise.
"This aura... seems a little familiar."
"It should be familiar, so you know who's come to settle the score with you!"
"Remember this, the one teaching you a lesson is me, Daphne!"
After throwing down these words, Daphne pressed her right hand downward.
"Falling Stars!"
The next moment, the dark clouds in the sky were once again torn open by dozens of massive gashes, and streams of meteors streaked across the heavens. But they did not simply vanish; instead, they grew larger and larger in everyone's sight, for their final destination was this very floating island.
Seeing this scene, Persephone threw her head back and laughed loudly, a boiling battle spirit surfacing on her face.
"This is getting interesting!"
"Daphne, right? I'll remember you."
After speaking, Persephone leaped into the air. The entire floating island sank over a hundred meters in altitude due to her movement before finally stabilizing again. Meanwhile, Persephone swung her fists against the falling stars, and the crowd witnessed a scene they would find unforgettable for the rest of their lives.
Meteors ten million times larger than Persephone were completely shattered by the terrifying power of her fair-skinned fists upon impact, yet Persephone did not even take a single step back.
After doing this, Persephone seemed unsatisfied. She even went out of her way to find other meteors that had slightly veered off course, continuing to smash them to pieces, fist by fist.
Before Persephone, those massive stars shattered easily in her hands like blocks of tofu. Yet no one doubted their power, for some meteors she did not intercept still fell upon the floating island. The colossal impact caused the island, which Persephone had casually pieced back together earlier, to split in two once again.
And as more stars fell, the floating island, now split in two, crumbled into countless fragments, some of which even hurtled toward the other people.
For Persephone, this might be easy to face, but for everyone else, it would be an apocalyptic disaster!
Just then, a star fell near Scaramouche and Yae Miko respectively. Their expressions changed drastically as they immediately fled the floating island to seek cover.
With a deafening roar, the spot where they had stood was completely smashed to pieces. Before long, the floating island had split into countless slightly larger chunks of rock...
PS: Regarding the issue of psychological activities, the fact is that most of the protagonist's clones are currently managed by AI, not the protagonist directly acting them out, so it's normal to have psychological activities.
Of course, the most fundamental reason is that it's easier to write this way. Otherwise, constantly thinking about the differences between the clones would make writing very difficult.