A terrifying silence settled over the battlefield. Though hundreds of people had gathered there, the Doctor's demand to Serafall and the others brought everything to a standstill.
"Will you leave and help me spread the news, or… do you want to die here?"
As the Doctor spoke, the three giant Dragons behind her stepped forward at the same time, their overwhelming presence sweeping across the entire battlefield.
"Well, leaving like this is pretty embarrassing, but since we can't win, who would choose death when they can live?"
Serafall exchanged a glance with the others, then, as if persuading everyone to leave, opened a hole in the ice dome she had created and waved casually for the people inside to withdraw.
"Lord Leviathan, you're right. This is no longer something the two of us can handle."
Dulio nodded as though agreeing with Serafall, then ordered the Church warriors to leave the battlefield while keeping a wary eye on Aži Dahāka and the others.
"A wise choice. Take your fallen comrades and the Fallen Angels on the ground with you."
Watching the people retreat in an orderly manner, the Doctor praised them briefly. At the same time, her gaze seemed to sweep unintentionally over those who had fallen during the previous battle. As if finding them an eyesore, she told Serafall and the others to take them along when they left.
"Tch…"
Serafall and the others said nothing, silently signaling their subordinates to do as the Doctor said. Behind the Doctor, however, Aži Dahāka, Vritra, and the others began to lose interest. For Evil Dragons like them, an outcome with no killing, no fighting, and no fun at all held absolutely no meaning.
"And here I thought we'd get a proper fight."
"Who knew they'd all be a bunch of weak-kneed cowards…"
"To get mocked this badly and still not even…!!!"
Aži Dahāka's taunting voice came to an abrupt stop. At some point, the ice dome Serafall had supposedly botched and used to trap them had vanished. In its place was a fine, concealed ice mist, and it had used the vapor from the previous dome to surround his entire dragon body.
Not good!
Realizing something was wrong, Aži Dahāka erupted with powerful Magical Power from within and tried to escape, but he noticed too late…
The frost turned into chains, sealing Aži Dahāka inside a massive block of ice. Even the Magical Power around him was frozen solid for a brief moment.
"Awooo!"
A wolf's howl rang through the sky. The gigantic Fenrir, carrying Le Fay on his back, opened his bloody maw and bared his two God-Slaying Fangs, sinking them viciously into Vritra, the Evil Dragon.
The black flames radiating from Vritra's body kept trying to scorch the inside of Fenrir's mouth, only to be torn apart the moment they touched those two God-Slaying Fangs.
Le Fay flung out a large number of Magic Circles, preventing Vritra from using spatial movement to escape.
As for the Red Dragon Emperor… he was just a fool. Without the Doctor's orders, he could not react at all. Vali's Divide had drawn his aggression, and the destined rivalry between the Red Dragon Emperor and the White Dragon Emperor made him instinctively gather Magical Power to attack Vali.
With that, all three giant Dragons were successfully restrained. Even if it could only last for a second or two at most, a second or two was already enough.
"We choose the third option. We'll take you down right here!"
Along with Rias's voice, a ray of Power of Destruction, black lightning mixed with crimson, broke through the protective barrier set up by Aži Dahāka. The next instant, countless magical attacks and Spears of Light surged toward the Doctor.
Serafall and Dulio watched the scene, a flicker of anticipation appearing on their faces. They could hardly wait to see how the Doctor would end up.
Earlier, they had looked as if they were obeying the Doctor, but in truth, it had been nothing more than an act. After hearing the Doctor's plan to destroy the world, how could they possibly leave quietly and help her complete it?
They did not know why the Doctor wanted them to spread that information, but since it was something the enemy wanted them to do, rejecting it without overthinking was enough.
Rather, their only chance was to deal with the Doctor here. Right now, they could still see the Doctor, the mastermind behind everything. Once the Doctor left, where were they supposed to go to stop her?
With a brief exchange of glances, Serafall and Dulio reached an agreement. Even Vali, who did not want the world destroyed and had his own connection to the Red Dragon Emperor, joined in of his own accord.
Their goal was the same, but how to act was another matter. The Doctor was being closely protected by Vritra, the strangest of the Evil Dragons, while the two Heavenly Dragons blocked the way in front of her. How were they supposed to land a decisive blow?
Even powerhouses of their level were no match for the two Heavenly Dragons before them, and Aži Dahāka had them watched tightly. Even if they managed to seize an opening, they would have to deal with Aži Dahāka and Vritra first. Otherwise, the moment that Evil Dragon capable of using over a thousand spells reacted, any number of attacks would be blocked instantly.
They were being watched, but Rias and those around her, strong enough to surpass most people while still weaker than them, had not been singled out. In that case, they would leave the Doctor to Rias and the others.
As long as they could break through the barrier Dahaka had set up, dealing with the Doctor would be simple. They had all seen it. The mysterious figure calling herself the "Doctor" was just an ordinary person. She might have some combat ability, but certainly not much.
"Cough, cough, cough…"
A breeze swept through the smoke and dust. Through the slightly clearer haze, a figure in gray armor stood with one hand covering her mouth, coughing repeatedly and drawing everyone's attention.
"Crack, snap!"
Seeing that the Doctor was unharmed, the group that had just launched the attack raised their hands without hesitation, ready to finish her off. But almost the very instant they lifted their hands and gathered Magical Power, Aži Dahāka broke through Serafall's ice and Dulio's Holy Power restraints. His broad dragon wings spread wide, all three heads opened their mouths, and a furious roar at having been tricked echoed through the sky.
"Woo… Roar!"
Seeing Aži Dahāka break free, Vritra followed immediately after him. Enduring the agony, he let Fenrir's God-Slaying Fangs leave two wounds on his body, then slid along the lower jaw where the fangs were absent, escaping successfully at the smallest possible cost.
As for the Red Dragon Emperor, there was even less to say. Under the Doctor's control, he stopped on his own, unmoved no matter how Vali provoked him.
"You dare use tricks against an Evil Dragon? Then you don't need to live. Those two things are already hanging in the sky, so we don't need you to spread the message at all!"
With that roar, thousands of Magic Circles appeared out of thin air above them, their attack range covering the entire battlefield. At that moment, because the restraints they had used at full power had been broken by Aži Dahāka, Serafall and the others had lost a significant portion of their strength and were completely unable to stop him.
Purple flames shaped like skulls, cursed storms, lightning stained with darkness, a cursed Virgin Mary weeping tears of blood, a Cyclops whose gaze alone could kill… Forbidden-class effects, summons, curses, magic that embodied every calamity in the world.
All manner of magic emerged from the centers of the Magic Circles. This time, Dahaka was truly going all out, fully intending to kill Vali and the others on the spot.
Last time, when he had obeyed orders to capture someone from the Agency and play the trolley game, one had escaped. Then, when he faced a time-manipulating woman he was supposed to torture to death, another space-manipulating woman saved her because he ran out of time. This time, if the Doctor had not had a backup measure on her, he would have suffered another disgrace.
"Die!"
"No! Stop it right now, Dahaka!"
For some reason, even though she was the one who had been attacked, the Doctor shouted furiously for Aži Dahāka to stop.
But Aži Dahāka, already carried away by rage, had no intention of listening to the Doctor. Mages already had tremendous offensive power to begin with, and now more than a thousand powerful spells at the level of forbidden magic were densely compressed into the tiny space before him. The resulting force was unprecedented.
The air currents generated by their collisions alone instantly swept the entire block clean, and the ground in the direction of Aži Dahāka's attack was directly sunk into the sea.
The power of this attack was more than enough to destroy Itogami Island with ease. If this area had not been near the coast, allowing the sea to swallow most of the force, how could only part of the island's surface have collapsed?
Holding one hand in front of her as she struggled against the air currents caused by the thousand magical attacks, while gripping Vritra's body with the other to keep herself from being blown away, the Doctor stared straight at the enormous explosion flashing before her masked face.
After a long while, the continuous explosions finally stopped. The Doctor immediately tried to step forward and check the situation, only for Aži Dahāka to stop her with a strange look on his face.
"Get out of my way, Dahaka! Why didn't you obey my order and stop attacking just now?!"
Ignoring the overwhelming difference in strength between them, the Doctor berated Aži Dahāka in a fury. Aži Dahāka's expression immediately turned dangerous, yet he still kept his guard up as he watched the thick smoke ahead.
"I don't know what's going on with you, Doctor, but the people inside probably aren't dead."
"That presence feels familiar, but I don't think I knew it before I was revived."
"Did you forget? Not long ago, we met another powerhouse…"
A breeze passed through, scattering the thick smoke and revealing the group in front of them, safe and sound.
At the place where Aži Dahāka's attack had struck, from the edge of the ground that had been sunk so deep it seemed bottomless, a platform had appeared, extending several dozen meters forward like a reef by the sea.
On the platform, Serafall, Vali, and the others knelt on one knee with pale faces. Aži Dahāka's gaze passed mercilessly through them and fixed on the long green-haired figure who had appeared behind them, standing in front of Cid.
"The Third Primogenitor, Kukulcan."
"Oh my, should I say the two of us are rather fated? The battle Shadow stopped last time can actually continue now.
Hello, Lord Serafall Leviathan of the Underworld."
Giada spoke leisurely with a relaxed expression, greeting Serafall before lowering her head to look at Cid, who was lying on the ground pretending to be dead. Her eyes met Cid's wide-open ones.
"Long time no see, Cid. Do you need me to deal with this three-headed dragon for you?"
"…Ah, thanks. He was giving me some trouble. If it isn't too much trouble for you, Giada, then please help us."
Feeling all the gazes Giada had drawn toward him and realizing he could no longer keep pretending to be dead, Cid could only stand up with a smile and answer as naturally as possible.
"It's fine. No trouble at all. My thing… or rather, the thing I'm supposed to give you, is still in this three-headed dragon's hands anyway. I was already going to fight him, so this is purely convenient."
Then why did you ask me and draw attention to me?!
With shocked and confused stares coming from every direction, what else could Cid do? Smile, of course.
In any case, thanks to Delta's idiotic actions, he had already gotten acquainted with a bunch of people. One more time hardly made a difference. He would think of a way to patch things up afterward. He had to trust the wisdom of his future self.
This guy… does he know a few too many people?
To be honest, Serafall was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with her own understanding. In her impression, Cid was just an ordinary person who had gotten ridiculously lucky. He knew a Therianthrope capable of fighting her evenly, had a very friendly relationship with the White Dragon Emperor, and even knew a few people on the Church's side. She had thought that was already the limit, but judging from the current situation, Cid also seemed to know the Third Primogenitor…
Cid… when did he get to know so many people? Why didn't I know about this?!
Rias, on the other hand, was not shocked by Cid's social skills. She was only confused as to why none of this had been written in the information she had investigated before.
Giada waved a hand, and the faint silhouettes of twenty-seven creatures appeared behind her. A wild smile spread across her face, clashing head-on with the pressure radiating from Aži Dahāka.
"Tch. This is getting a little troublesome…"
Feeling the stares fixed on her from all around, and watching the familiar interaction between Giada and Cid, the Doctor's aura inexplicably turned cold.
"Hey, Doctor, you're not thinking of running, are you?"
"Evil Dragons crave battle. Running now would be far too shameful."
"If people found out that I, a mighty Evil Dragon, ran from the Third Primogenitor, it would be humiliating beyond words!"
Aži Dahāka cut off everything the Doctor was about to say, one line after another, while the Doctor merely watched him coldly.
She could not understand how Aži Dahāka dared. They were already facing a group of SS-class powerhouses and a Fenrir, and now the Third Primogenitor had been added to the mix. With two Heavenly Dragons and one Dragon King on their side, they might not necessarily lose, but the other side clearly had the advantage and a better chance of winning. Not to mention, she could not possibly bring herself to kill a certain person among them.
"If you want to stay here alone, then stay by yourself. I'm going to activate the device."
"Do whatever you want. An Evil Dragon is meant to die in battle."
"Then, as the price for disobeying my order just now, let me set you a little goal…"
As if something had occurred to her, the Doctor raised one finger and pointed at Giada, her voice filled with coldness.
"Kill her for me!"
"Hahaha, killing an immortal Primogenitor? Nothing could be better."
"As long as you're happy."
Speaking indifferently, the Doctor mounted Vritra and prepared to leave.
"Don't even think about leaving!"
A Magic Circle blocked Serafall's attack, and Aži Dahāka grinned ferociously.
"Your opponent is me!"
Shouting that, Dahaka charged toward Giada with his massive body.
...
Using his extras technique once again to slip out of sight, Cid waved to Delta.
"Delta, take me away from here?"
"Woof?"
"…Quietly."