As the battle grew increasingly intense with the other girls joining in, Grayfia stopped speaking altogether. Her expression settled into a frightening calm. She resisted the pulling force of Telekinesis, even though it slowed her slightly. Incoming attacks streaked toward her from every direction. The ones she could avoid, she dodged with minimal movements. The ones she could not, she crushed head-on with her own power.
She had survived countless deadly battles throughout her life. The harsher the situation became, the calmer and more focused she turned.
Rias, Sona, Akeno, and the others continued to rain down spells without pause, but Grayfia paid them no real attention. She pressed forward relentlessly toward Venelana, forcing her way through every obstacle in her path. The only attack that truly threatened her was Venelana's Orb of Annihilation.
Intense waves of magic crashed across the battlefield without end. The once bright sky dimmed as dark clouds swallowed the sunlight, and thunder rolled across the heavens. Lightning tore through the air, flashing over the chaos below.
Large gaping holes spread across the land like a vision of the apocalypse.
Venelana refused to face her head on.
Each time Grayfia forced her into close range, she withdrew again, her body flashing backward across the sky while keeping absolute control over the Orb above her. The sphere continued to shrink as its density increased. Black crimson lightning coiled tighter around its surface, dragged inward as the energy compressed further.
Grayfia slapped aside the fireball Ravel had thrown at her with the back of her hand and rushed toward Venelana once more. Numerous magic circles spread out around her, unleashing all kinds of elemental attacks in rapid succession.
She was exceptionally skilled in elemental magic. In fact, she had been the one who taught Akeno how to use her Elemental Demonic Power when she was young.
As soon as her magic circles appeared, the other girls made their moves, shattering several of them before they could fully activate. Even so, a considerable number remained intact and unleashed their power toward Venelana. One massive blue magic circle flared brightly, erupting with a torrent of freezing energy that condensed into countless large, sharp shards of ice.
"..." Venelana frowned and twisted her body aside. The freezing wave tore past her, crystallizing the clouds behind into solid frost. Left with no room to evade again, she finally made her move. With her free hand, she condensed a sphere of destruction at close range and retaliated instantly.
Boom!
The collision ripped apart the air between them. Venelana seized the moment and used the violent shockwave to widen the distance once more.
Grayfia's figure blurred the instant Aika's Fire Dragon Breath scorched the spot where she had stood. However, the moment she reappeared, Sona's Telekinesis struck again. An invisible force clamped around her waist and shoulders, locking her in place and dragging her backward through the sky.
Bang!
Rias launched another crimson sphere toward her flank. Akeno's Holy Lightning descended without pause, spears of Holy Power crashing down from above.
Grayfia did not even spare them a glance. She had long moved past anger or fury. Once Venelana was dealt with, she would handle the remaining annoying pests.
Only a few minutes had passed since the beginning of the battle. It had been less than half a minute since Venelana started charging her attack. Even so, the intensity of the clash was terrifying, destructive, and rapid beyond reason. With each passing second, the situation grew more disadvantageous for Grayfia.
She not only needed to stop Venelana's attack, but she also had to end the battle before Sirzechs and his forces arrived, or Serafall as well. If any of them came, her situation would turn disastrous. She would not only lose the fight, but she would also lose her baby boy.
Akeno's Lightning crashed against layers of frost and shattered into scattered sparks. Rias's crimson sphere detonated against a wall of ice that formed behind Grayfia, sending shards spinning through the air. The telekinetic force tightened around her body, slowing her advance by a fraction.
Venelana took that moment to retreat once more. She needed only ten more seconds to complete her attack. Once it was finished, Grayfia's defeat would be certain.
The dense crimson orb continued to shrink as fissures of black crimson lightning multiplied across its surface, crackling violently as they wrapped tighter around it.
The sky darkened even further, and the low hum emanating from the sphere deepened into a heavy vibration. The space around it began to distort, bending unnaturally.
Grayfia finally frowned when she saw the situation growing increasingly unfavorable. She involuntarily glanced at Yusuke, who still stood obediently inside the barrier, watching her without moving. In that instant, her eyes turned colder, her resolve hardening.
She blurred once more. This time, she passed straight through the remaining magic circles and incoming attacks without pause, forcing her way forward with unyielding momentum.
But the strange thing was that even while rushing straight through them, she made only the slightest movements. Those small gestures, for some strange reason, were all it took to either dissolve the magic circles or dispel the incoming magical attacks as if they had never existed.
"Damn it! She is doing that again!" Rias's eyes were growing bloodshot, and blood seeped from her lower lip as she bit down hard, cursing viciously.
Grayfia's Demonic Power was called the Secrets of the Natural World. It was the Lucifuge clan's innate ability. It allowed them to see through the structure of magic and perceive the truth behind it. As long as she activated it, she could pinpoint the weak points within an enemy's spell and either destroy or interrupt it, provided it was not overwhelmingly stronger than her own power.
Unfortunately, the Orb of Annihilation was formed purely from the Power of Destruction. It possessed no clear structural flaw to analyze.
Her brother, Euclid Lucifuge, relied on this ability for his research. It had served him extremely well, granting him insight that few others could ever hope to reach.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
She ignored the remaining attacks that hit her, some from Ravel and others from Yubelluna. They were far too inconsequential for her to care about at this juncture. She closed the distance with Venelana in an instant. Her vision held nothing but Venelana.
She raised both hands, and from them a sea of fire burst forth, surging outward before twisting into the shape of a massive dragon. The blazing creature roared silently as it lunged forward, jaws opening wide to swallow Venelana whole.
If Venelana took that attack, she would not only be severely injured, but her charging spell would be interrupted as well. In that scenario, the wise choice would be to abandon the charge and destroy the fire dragon head-on.
But that would only apply if she were fighting alone.
Venelana did not stop. She kept on retraiting, her eyes fixed on the incoming dragon as though she did not care in the slightest.
"I won't let you!"
At that moment, Tsubaki's voice rang out as she summoned Mirror Alice once again. The cooldown had ended. The mirror emerged in front of Venelana just as the fire dragon descended.
The blazing dragon crashed into its surface, shattering it apart. In the very next instant, the reflected flames surged back toward Grayfia, rebounding with twice the original power.
"Damn it!" Grayfia cursed under her breath. Among all the sluts here, the one causing her the most trouble was Tsubaki with her Sacred Gear.
She had no choice but to hastily move aside to avoid the enlarged fire dragon. Even so, the scorching heat grazed her arm and shoulder, leaving her skin seared by the rebounding flames.
At the same time, down on the ground, Yusuke grew impatient. The moment he saw Tsubaki reverse Grayfia's attack, he immediately spoke to B2. 'Quickly distribute the rewards!'
[Hai desu!] B2 answered in a cute voice that sounded excessively excited. [Distributing the reward for the Quest: Ruin of the Ruin Princess!]
[Reward: Two levels, 2 stat points, a random skill, a random item.]
In an instant, Yusuke's level rose by two. As a result, all his stats increased by two points. Just as he had guessed, this caused the collar sealing his power to overload and stop functioning.
The previously invisible collar suddenly appeared around his neck. It was pitch black with thin purple patterns etched across its surface. Now, it emitted a faint purple glow, flickering as if struggling to contain what it once restrained.
'Yes! My power is back!'
The surge of strength flooded through his body. No, it was far greater than before. It felt four times stronger than what he once possessed. Yusuke almost wanted to cry from the overwhelming joy.
However, this was not the time to get emotional. Right now was the moment to act.
When Yusuke ordered B2 to distribute the rewards, Venelana had also finished charging her attack. She did not waste time on pointless words. The instant she felt the spell reach completion, she hurled it at Grayfia without hesitation.
The orb had turned an oppressively dark shade, so deep it appeared almost black, wrapped in a faint crimson glow. Cracks of violent lightning coiled around it as it shot forward, disintegrating everything in its path while tearing straight toward Grayfia.
Swoosh!
"Damn it!"
Grayfia's calm expression finally twisted as she cursed aloud and retreated at full speed. No matter where she moved, the orb pursued her relentlessly, adjusting its trajectory as if it possessed its own will.
At the same time, the Telekinesis cast by Akeno and Sona continued to weigh her down. The restraining force was not strong, but in a moment like this, even the slightest delay was fatal.
That slight drag infuriated her to the core and made her want to kill both of those sluts!
The orb moved at terrifying speed, steadily closing the distance between itself and Grayfia. At the same time, a powerful suction force began to emanate from it, dragging her toward it. Combined with the constant pull of Telekinesis weighing her down, Grayfia found herself in an extremely dire situation.
She hastily summoned layer after layer of magic barriers in an attempt to block it. One after another, they formed in front of her, only to be crushed instantly. The orb tore through them like flimsy paper, its momentum never slowing in the slightest.
If the Orb were to hit her, even if she managed to survive, she would be left in a truly miserable state.
"This can't happen to me! I still haven't spent enough time with my baby boy! My Yusuke! I want to stay with him longer! For eternity! I can't lose!" Grayfia's face twisted with fury and frustration. "Yusuke! My Yusuke! I can't lose him!"
Just then, a thunderous crack tore through the air, a sound Grayfia instantly recognized as a sonic boom. In the next instant, her vision was filled with the figure of a man standing in front of her, suspended in the sky.
Grayfia's eyes widened uncontrollably. "Yusuke!"
If it were any other time, with Yusuke this close to her, she would have been overwhelmed with joy. She would have pulled him into a deep, sloppy kiss, perhaps even dragged him away to have sex with him on the spot. But this was not the moment for that. The position Yusuke had placed himself in was fatal!
Her face drained of color as she rushed toward him, desperate to shove him aside. "Move! What are you doing?!"
"Grayfia... I am sorry," Yusuke replied with a small smile.
He stretched out one arm. A violent gust of wind exploded outward, enveloping the panicked Grayfia and forcing her far away from him.
Then, right before her horrified eyes, and the eyes of every yandere present, the Orb of Annihilation slammed into Yusuke's back. It erupted into a catastrophic explosion, swallowing everything within dozens of meters in a blinding surge of destructive power.
"Yusuke!" Venelana, Grayfia, Rias, and all the other girls screamed his name at the same time. They rushed frantically toward the heart of the explosion.
**
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