"But even at the same level, the difference in strength can still be enormous."
"And the higher the level, the greater that gap becomes!"
That was usually how power systems worked, no matter the world.
At first, the scale was relatively small, going from defeating one person to defeating an entire group. But once the protagonist reached the higher levels, it could easily jump from destroying one city to destroying several.
The Satans of this world could easily destroy an entire country. As for Super Devils, that was even harder to imagine.
Yet Elise and Trihexa stood at an even higher level!
At this stage, the difference in strength was something ordinary people could scarcely comprehend.
Above the ocean, Elise effortlessly dodged Trihexa's flames while swinging Est and launching waves of sword energy in retaliation.
However, the situation wasn't particularly promising.
Trihexa's attacks couldn't hit her, but its defensive power and regenerative ability far surpassed those of humans. They were even more outrageous than those of devils and angels!
Every time Elise left a slash across its body, Trihexa would recover completely in less than five seconds.
That reminded Elise of the Corrupted Spirit from the DanMachi world. That thing's regenerative ability had also been astonishing.
Against an opponent like this, she needed to unleash an overwhelmingly powerful attack and annihilate it completely in one strike, leaving not even a speck behind!
Otherwise, as long as even a tiny piece remained, it would regenerate in an extremely short amount of time.
Fortunately, Elise did possess that kind of decisive power!
Divine Word: Conceal!
Under the gaze of Trihexa's seven heads and their four eyes, Elise's body gradually became translucent before vanishing completely from the world. Even her aura disappeared along with her.
Trihexa, unaware of what had happened, immediately lost its target and began firing attacks wildly in every direction without purpose.
Elise herself took advantage of the opportunity to evade those attacks and move beneath Trihexa...
Any sharp-eyed observer could probably tell exactly where she intended to strike.
Brother Chicken gave her a thumbs-up.
Whether male or female, the vital spot was usually around here, right? Even Goliath in the DanMachi world had it there.
Surely it couldn't be like the dragon beasts in some joke of a world, with the thing growing on its back?
Here it comes!
A sneak attack!
This was the technique Elise had once used against Alfia and Zald, combining all the elements together with several special powers to create what she called "Chaos."
During the period before leaving the DanMachi world, Elise had only barely been capable of using this technique, and she would be exhausted afterward.
But now, as her strength had increased even further, this move no longer required such tremendous consumption.
Of course, if Elise wanted to increase its power even further, there was nothing stopping her from investing more energy.
The timing was right.
The location was right.
The target was right.
"Then let me show you! My full power!"
A dazzling array of multicolored light once again appeared along the blade of the Sacred Demon Sword, except this time, its brilliance was far greater than it had ever been before.
Even with Divine Word concealing her aura, Elise couldn't possibly hide herself completely from a monster like Trihexa.
Very quickly, Trihexa noticed the threat coming from beneath it...
Unfortunately, by the time it noticed, it was already too late!
The rainbow-colored light had already pierced into its body. Excruciating pain immediately tore through its nerves, and as Trihexa howled, blood sprayed across the entire sea.
"ROOOOOAR!"
Even the incomparably powerful Trihexa was sliced cleanly in half by that rainbow light.
But an attack like this clearly wasn't enough to truly kill it. Elise, who had shot into the clouds after passing through it, immediately turned around and raised the Sacred Demon Sword high overhead.
"I won't give you the chance!"
Sensing Trihexa's flesh beginning to writhe and already showing signs of fusing back together, Elise immediately followed up with another attack.
A real battle wasn't a game. The enemy wouldn't wait for you to recover before attacking again.
In a real battle, you always struck while the enemy was weak and finished them off!
The worse your condition became, the fiercer your enemy's attacks would be!
Even in games, some expert players could easily perform endless combos until their opponent was beaten to death!
A Trihexa left half-dead like this was the best kind of Trihexa!
"For the sake of this world's peace, you'd better go back to sleep as soon as possible!"
An attack powerful enough to shake space itself followed immediately. Elise had poured a considerable amount of Power of Faith into this strike.
On top of that, she was using Divine Word: Annihilate. The name alone made it obvious that this was a power associated with destruction.
She was completely confident that if this attack successfully struck Trihexa, its only possible fate would be to get ground into dust!
One of the greatest disasters in the High School DxD world would disappear forever!
Unfortunately, things rarely went that smoothly.
Just as that unparalleled attack was about to strike Trihexa, pitch-black energy suddenly surged out of space itself and blocked Elise's attack.
The sudden change made Elise's expression shift. She immediately altered the direction of her attack and struck again from an undefended angle.
Unfortunately, changing the direction of an attack required time. No matter how brief that interval was, it was still enough for him to accomplish his objective.
Pitch-black mist instantly enveloped Trihexa's bisected body, preventing anyone from seeing what was happening inside.
However, judging by the repeated low growls of humans and monsters coming from within, Elise knew that whatever was happening couldn't possibly be simple!
The worst possible outcome would be exactly what she was thinking...
"I never expected you to possess enough power to actually kill Trihexa..."
A mechanical voice emerged from the black mist, accompanied by an oppressive wave of malevolent energy...
There was no mistake. This was the true body of the mastermind behind everything!
The dense black mist finally completed its purpose and dispersed completely amid a series of low growls.
The unimaginable monster hidden within finally appeared before Elise.
Trihexa's body itself hadn't changed. It was still an enormous beast with seven heads!
However, compared to the savage primordial monster it had once resembled, Trihexa's body was now covered in steel armor, making it look like a gigantic mechanical kaiju!
Elise couldn't help remembering things she'd seen in her previous life... Mechagodzilla? Or Mecha-King Ghidorah?
If they were going with that kind of naming convention, then the current Trihexa could perhaps be called...
Mechanical Trihexa 666!
How should she put it?
After seeing Trihexa like this, Elise had only one thought...
Now that's a real 666!
That's ridiculously awesome!
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Elise was so excited that she actually started applauding. She had never imagined she would genuinely see a mechanical kaiju like this in her lifetime!
Despite its enormous mechanical body and its size barely changing from before, its speed had increased by more than twice!
The upper half of a mechanical humanoid suddenly emerged from atop Trihexa's central head, and Elise nearly cried out in surprise.
Good grief, are you Paradox?
But the figure paid no attention to Elise's reaction. It merely pointed a finger at her, its voice filled with boundless coldness.
"This is the power bestowed upon me by those three great lords. I never intended to use it, but you forced my hand! Now I have completely fused with Trihexa!"
"God of the Bible! Prepare to die!"
"The DXD world will inevitably belong to those three great lords!"
Divine Word: Prohibit!
Facing Mechanical Trihexa's attack, Elise immediately used her Divine Word ability, intending to erase that astonishing breath attack.
The ability activated successfully and did affect the attack, but...
If she had to summarize it in four words, it would be: the effect was limited.
Elise's evolved Divine Word could indeed affect Mechanical Trihexa, but Trihexa was still an opponent at the same level as her.
She could affect it, but not completely. All she could do was weaken its attack.
It was just like when Elise had once faced Fan Xinglou. Although her abilities could influence her opponent, they couldn't take full effect because the other party was also extremely powerful.
After carefully estimating it, Elise figured that against this enhanced Mechanical Trihexa, her abilities would probably be weakened by around thirty percent.
However, Elise didn't take it to heart at all.
So what if the power was weakened?
She possessed an enormous amount of Power of Faith in this world. As long as she could keep attacking without stopping, then her total destructive output was effectively limitless!
"Still, this regeneration really is troublesome. If I fight it head-on, it'll probably take a lot longer, won't it?"
Against enemies with such powerful regenerative abilities, the old Elise would have had no solution whatsoever. She could only suppress them with greater force or use Power of Faith to restrict them.
Beyond that, there had been nothing she could do...
At least, that was how things should have been!
But in this world, Elise had done something extremely unusual. She had resurrected the Dark Elemental Lord!
Ren Ashdoll!
And afterward, Elise had also formed a contract with the Dark Elemental Lord, Ren.
With Est, who had already been with her all along, and the newly arrived little Ren, the three of them had directly formed a three-person team.
And now was exactly the time to use her!
"O primordial darkness—"
As Elise's small lips parted, the atmosphere around her underwent an obvious transformation.
From the sky, the ocean, and even the continent in the distance, dense darkness began drifting outward!
And the point where all that darkness converged was none other than Elise herself!
Elise, who normally shone with brilliant holy light, was now completely engulfed by an astonishing darkness.
"Dwell within my body—"
In the next instant, the darkness surrounding Elise seemed to be drawn toward something. It suddenly contracted and vanished from everyone's sight in the blink of an eye.
"Vanished" might not have been entirely accurate, because Elise had absorbed all of it into her body.
At that exact moment, an unmistakable sound appeared across the battlefield.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
It sounded like both war drums and a beating heart!
"Here and now, become my power!"
In the blink of an eye, the heartbeat vanished, and the darkness disappeared with it.
In its place, an extremely unusual weapon appeared in Elise's hands...
A scythe!
This was the weapon formed by the Dark Elemental Lord, Ren Ashdoll!
Not a sword, but a scythe?
Even Elise hadn't expected Ren's weapon form to actually be a scythe!
After all, in a certain sense, Ren's daughter was Restia, and Restia's elemental waffe took the form of a blade, so there had been a very high chance that Ren would also become a sword.
Elise had even imagined herself dominating the battlefield with a sword in each hand. Unfortunately, the elemental waffe Ren transformed into was instead a gigantic scythe longer than Elise was tall.
If she wielded a massive scythe like this, she wouldn't be able to use another weapon at the same time...
A wave of dissatisfaction reached her mind, leaving even Elise with no choice but to smile helplessly.
Those feelings came from Est. She apparently wasn't pleased that Elise had found a new favorite and forgotten her old one...
But it didn't matter. In the original story, couldn't Est and Restia fuse together into the Demon King Sword?
Maybe Est could fuse with Ren as well. Elise simply wasn't proficient enough to do it yet.
"I'll make it up to you later, Est."
"For now, let's see what you can do, Ren!"
Compared to ordinary weapons, giant scythes were exceedingly rare, and people capable of using such a weapon properly were rarer still.
'Leave it to me!'
Elise gently ran a finger along the scythe's blade. Just as she had expected, it was incredibly sharp!
And it possessed a special power as well...
And so, the white-haired girl carrying a pitch-black giant scythe flew toward Mechanical Trihexa one step at a time.
Faced with this sudden transformation, both the mastermind behind the scenes and Trihexa itself sensed an enormous threat.
Especially from that scythe. It seemed to contain something unimaginably terrifying...
At that moment, the mechanical humanoid controlling Trihexa made a decision. He couldn't allow Elise to get close. Otherwise, something terrible would definitely happen.
So he poured every last bit of energy he possessed into unleashing a destructive death ray powerful enough to annihilate the world!
Anything touched by it would inevitably meet with destruction!
Elise could naturally dodge it, but unfortunately, without realizing it, she and Trihexa had already exchanged positions.
The continent was directly behind her!
If she moved aside, Trihexa's overwhelmingly destructive attack would undoubtedly cause unimaginable casualties.
So Elise absolutely could not dodge!
Yet at that critical moment, Elise lowered her body slightly and whispered, "Ren, can you do it?"
'Of course!'
After receiving an affirmative answer, Elise's smile grew even brighter as she charged straight toward the incoming attack.
BOOM!
The violent collision once again resounded across the entire sea as two of the world's most powerful forces clashed head-on.
For a moment, they seemed perfectly evenly matched, with neither side capable of overpowering the other.
However, a closer look would reveal that the pitch-black power was gradually growing stronger!
The Dark Elemental Lord's power was, naturally, associated with darkness.
But don't assume darkness was the only power she possessed!
Ren also possessed other abilities associated with darkness.
Just as fire symbolized destruction, water symbolized healing, wind symbolized speed, and earth symbolized defense...
Darkness naturally had things associated with it as well.
Namely devouring and curses!
As the pinnacle of dark elementals, Ren possessed nearly every ability related to darkness!
The instant she made contact with the beam, she activated her "Devouring," gradually consuming the energy released by Trihexa and using it to strengthen herself while restoring her own energy.
At the same time, she cursed and suppressed Trihexa. Elise barely had to use any of her own power at all. Ren accomplished all of this almost entirely by herself, which was already an astonishing feat.
The former Dark Elemental Lord truly couldn't have done something like this!
But with help from Est and Ophis, Ren had successfully surpassed her previous limits and reached the same level as the Sacred Queen from the Elementalist world!
Combined with an overwhelmingly powerful wielder like Elise, dealing with a single Trihexa should be a piece of cake, shouldn't it?