Silence hung over the battlefield for several long seconds.
At last, Ankh turned toward Ophiuchus with a speechless expression.
"What kind of move was that?"
Ophiuchus smiled proudly.
"I used the Celestial Spirit World as a bridge and transported someone directly here. Impressive, isn't it?"
It was impressive, all right.
Not necessarily the spell itself, but the sheer dedication she had shown in developing something so bizarre out of boredom.
Ankh shook his head with a sigh.
Come to think of it, something similar had happened in the original story.
Virgo's former master had summoned her, only to accidentally drag Natsu along because he had been holding onto her at the time.
Apparently, the Celestial Spirit World still had many unexplored applications.
"Ankh!"
Lucy finally recovered from her shock and sprang up in delight.
Ophiuchus's new move might have been ridiculous, but no one could argue with the results.
The three demons looked ready to wet themselves.
Ankh surveyed the bloodred landscape of Cube and frowned.
"Everyone was trapped inside this stuff?"
Lucy's earlier excitement immediately faded.
"It's a Curse called Alegria. It fused everyone with Cube and i was the only one who escaped…"
Ankh nodded, then turned toward the three demons.
The blade in his hand radiated a chilling aura of slaughter.
Kyoka felt an icy sensation crawl across her neck.
She lowered her body warily, resembling a frightened beast preparing to pounce.
Jackal looked equally terrified.
Ankh had once torn off his arm and casually played with it, and the memory had never left him. His feet were already edging backward, ready to flee at the first opportunity.
Unlike the cautious Kyoka and traumatized Jackal, Tempester showed no such hesitation.
Laxus had already killed him once, but that defeat had done nothing to weaken his thirst for battle.
"Human, your companions can no longer be saved! Surrender quietly!"
Rather than retreating, Tempester opened with an attempt at psychological warfare.
Ankh glanced at him, then ignored him completely and spoke to Lucy.
"Use Jackal to practice your new magic."
Lucy blinked.
This hardly seemed like the right moment, but she answered honestly anyway.
"But… I haven't finished developing it yet."
"Real combat is the best place to develop it."
Ankh turned away from the furious Tempester and fixed his gaze on Jackal.
A chill ran through the demon's heart.
That familiar scent of death seemed to wrap itself around his entire body.
Acting almost entirely on instinct, Jackal sprang backward and tried to escape.
He had barely taken a single step when a familiar arm flew past his face, spraying hot blood across the air.
Jackal's pupils shrank.
A heartbeat later, the terrible pain finally reached his mind.
"AAAAH! MY ARM!!"
The arm restored by the Hell's Core had once again been severed by a single slash from Ankh.
For the second time, Jackal had become a one-armed demon.
Lucy sucked in a sharp breath.
This was the enemy who had forced Natsu into a brutal battle and driven both her and Yukino to their limits.
Yet Ankh had crippled him with one casual swing.
The difference between people truly could be absurd.
"That should make the fight fair enough," Ankh said. "Go practice. I'll watch your back."
His voice snapped Lucy out of her daze.
After a brief hesitation, she firmly nodded and led Loke toward the agonized Jackal.
She could not let Ankh handle everything by himself.
The remaining two demons stood frozen in place, cold sweat pouring down their backs.
All they had seen was Ankh swing his blade from a distance.
Then Jackal's arm had been gone.
Against an enemy like this… Kyoka was already considering retreat.
Ankh, however, had already charged.
Tempester immediately moved to intercept him.
Several strange notes escaped his mouth, summoning a raging storm and blazing flames on either side of Ankh.
The blade in Ankh's hand flashed twice.
Blue-green and crimson light blended across its surface, while faint dragon silhouettes coiled around the weapon.
With one effortless swing, it devoured both the flames and the storm.
Tempester stared in shock and hurriedly tried to create distance.
Ankh pressed one palm downward.
A sudden gravitational force crushed Tempester into the ground.
Then came a storm of rapid slashes, each delivered with the surgical precision of a master butcher dismantling his prey.
The razor-sharp blade carved through Tempester's body again and again. Even a hardened warrior like him could not suppress several screams of agony.
Tempester was known as the Immortal.
Unlike the other demons, he possessed not only the Hell's Core's resurrection system but also an extraordinarily powerful natural healing ability.
In a prolonged fight, he could contend with any member of the Nine Demon Gates. No matter how badly he was injured, his body would simply repair itself.
His weakness was equally straightforward.
If someone inflicted fatal damage faster than he could regenerate, his healing became meaningless.
That was how Laxus had defeated him—one crushing punch had nearly splattered his brains across the ground.
Ankh chose a far crueler method.
They had tormented Lucy, and he intended to repay that debt.
Slash after slash tore through Tempester's body.
Every cut was just severe enough to overwhelm his regeneration, allowing Ankh to skin and dismember him piece by piece until nothing remained alive.
When Ankh finally withdrew his blade, Tempester had become a shapeless pile of flesh and blood.
Nothing about it resembled a person anymore.
Ankh flicked the blood from his weapon.
Only then did Kyoka fully understand what she was facing.
Watching her companion die so brutally reminded her exactly why this man was known as the God of Death.
Usually, only members of the dark underworld carried titles like that.
"Are members of legal guilds always this brutal?"
Kyoka forced down her terror, but a faint tremor still slipped into her voice.
Ankh said nothing.
He merely gave her a warm, friendly smile.
Every hair on Kyoka's body stood on end.
Before she could react, Ankh's fist was already pressed against her face.
Boom—!
Caught completely off guard, Kyoka was blasted into the ruins. The impact nearly knocked the breath from her lungs.
Her nose felt as though it had shattered, but she forced herself upright.
She was still wondering why he had not used his blade when Ankh's satisfied voice answered the question.
"You look good inside and out. You'll make a nice gift for Mira."
A violent fury ignited inside Kyoka.
The humiliation was unbearable.
She was a demon who delighted in torturing humans, yet now a mere human was treating her like merchandise.
Kyoka prepared to turn her Curse upon herself and detonate her own body, denying him the chance to take her alive.
Before she could do so, however, their surroundings changed dramatically.
Cube began trembling once again.
The scenery that had been racing past them suddenly slowed.
That could only mean one thing.
They had reached Ishgar's northern border.
Their retreat had failed completely. Most of Kyoka's companions were already dead at the hands of their enemies.
But at the very least…
She could still make these damned humans pay!
Mad excitement filled Kyoka's eyes as she threw back her head and screamed,
"Plutogrim! Crash directly into Ishgar's defensive line!"
"Make these wretched legal guilds pay the price!"