"Demonic energy signature... Triangulum-class apex! Draw your weapons! Secure the perimeter!" the veteran knight beside me roared, his irritation instantly vanishing as his S-rank battle instincts overrode his confusion.
The doors of the sixth carriage were violently thrown open from the outside, the freezing northern blizzard rushing in along with the terrifying pressure of the entity's presence. Miles ahead, at the front of the line, I could already see the white-and-scarlet flash of the lead carriage doors opening… Elicia was already stepping out into the snow, her Divine Regeneration mana flaring to stabilize the vanguard.
I adjusted the strap of my spatial purse with my remaining right hand, my Level 8 Mana Pool, Level 6 Magic Enhancement, and Level 5 Healing rings snapping into a hyper-accelerated frequency. My 500% amplified lifesteal was itching for blood. The hunt had officially found us.
The heavy iron doors of the sixth carriage slammed open against the frozen timber frame as we filed out into the howling northern blizzard. The permafrost crunched violently beneath our boots. Instantly, the thirty elite Luminous Knights of Branch 1 fell into a flawless, textbook military formation. A dense, interlocking wall of heavy white-and-scarlet shields locked together at the vanguard, their defensive runes flaring bright gold against the suffocating, pitch-black aura radiating from the fallen angel.
Standing in the backlines, enveloped in the swirling snow and the shadow of my canvas hood, I made my move. Using my spatial storage ring, I instantly materialized the Death Chant Tommy Gun directly into my pale right hand.
The weapon was a beautifully catastrophic piece of engineered slaughter. Its primary mechanical blueprint allowed it to automatically synthesize infinite high-density magic ammunition molded directly from the wielder's primary elemental affinity, draining the user's mana pool to chamber each round. The moment my fingers wrapped around the cold iron grip, the sleek silver linings along the barrel began to throb and glow with a violent, hyper-concentrated crimson light. My sixth-evolution demonic biology roared to life, activating my Blood Manipulation affinity. The drum magazine filled instantly, chambering high-velocity, compressed blood bullets that hummed with a dark, parasitic hunger.
I deliberately positioned my silhouette directly at the rear perimeter, standing like a silent sentinel right in front of the primary medical line where my eldest sister, Elicia, was stationed.
"O, Divine Light, sustain the vanguard!" Elicia's voice rang out across the frozen pass, sharp, authoritative, and entirely devoid of her old domestic softness.
She slammed her ornate staff into the ice, instantly channeling a massive, widespread aura of pale green holy energy across all thirty combatants. I braced myself as the wave of warm, standard healing magic washed over my crimson trench coat. Behind the absolute psychic barrier of my Leech's Hollow Mask, a sharp sigh of relief escaped my lips. The holy mana gently knit the minor frostbite on my skin, but it did not attempt to pierce the calcified bone of my mask to regenerate my gouged-out right eye.
Elicia was a master tactician. Because she had to sustain thirty high-tier knights simultaneously against a Triangulum-class apex threat, she was strictly conserving her immense mana reservoir. She had manually commanded her Divine Regeneration to operate on a low-frequency, widespread setting… focusing solely on superficial wound closure and stamina restoration, entirely omitting the massive, high-cost cellular reconstruction required to regrow missing limbs or organs. My secret heterochromia remained safely buried in the dark.
Elicia stepped closer to my rear flank, her sharp crimson eyes locking onto the terrifying entity hovering over the snow banks ahead, her spectacles catching the glare of the dark angel's glowing broadsword. She didn't recognize me; she only saw the mysterious, silent 7th-place Bounty Hunter holding a bizarre, crimson-glowing firearm.
"This is it, Bounty Hunter, A fallen angel... one of the most catastrophic demons originating from the Triangulum continent. Maintain the backline parameters. Battle formation… open fire!" Elicia commanded through the roaring wind, her staff pulsing with a ready defensive barrier.
I locked my single jade-green eye onto the pitch-black wings expanding across the horizon. My Level 8 Mana Pool and Level 6 Magic Enhancement rings flared with a blinding, synchronized resonance, ready to drive my 500% amplified lifesteal bullets straight into the angel's flesh. I raised the barrel of the Death Chant, my finger tightening over the cold steel trigger.
The moment the fallen angel leveled the glowing edge of her broadsword directly at our defensive line, the absolute psychic barrier of my mask vibrated with a sharp, instinctive alarm. My single jade-green eye dilated behind the dark eyehole as I immediately triggered my appraisal skill, forcing the system matrix to strip away the entity's celestial camouflage and layout the cold, mechanical parameters of her weapon.
What materialized before my eyes was a terrifying, high-tier ledger of absolute slaughter:
Demon Valkyrie Longsword
Durability: 10000 / 10000
Damage: 100
Passive Attributes: [Lifeline]: Inflicts a severe, necrotic anti-heal curse upon contact. Reduces all incoming healing, holy restoration, and health regeneration received by an afflicted unit by 70%.
Special Attributes: [Mist Blade]: Temporarily shifts the physical properties of the blade, allowing it to phase completely through solid, non-magical objects. When a target attempts to deflect or block the strike using a physical shield or weapon defense, the blade bypasses the armor entirely to guarantee a direct, clean hit on the flesh.
A freezing drop of sweat tracked down my pale cheek. That sword was a localized counter to our entire strategy. It was explicitly designed to render a high-tier healer like Elicia completely obsolete by dismantling defenses and rendering flesh wounds near-impossible to knit back together.
WOOOOOSH…
Before my analytical mind could even chart a suppressive firing trajectory, the snow pass exploded. The fallen angel didn't just move; she tore through the permafrost in a blinding, instantaneous sprint, her pitch-black wings kicking up a violent vortex of ice.
She slammed directly into the white-and-scarlet frontline. The veteran 10th-place Luminous Knight at the center braced his heavy reinforced tower shield, his runes flaring bright gold to take the impact. But the Mist Blade attribute ignited. The apocalyptic steel of the longsword turned into a spectral, violet mist, passing effortlessly straight through the solid metal shield as if it were mere air.
SLASH.
The blade solidified the millisecond it cleared the barrier, tearing a deep, jagged gash across the vanguard's chest plate and into his flesh. He let out a choked, agonized roar, stumbling backward into the snow. Instantly, the dark veins of the Lifeline curse began to spiderweb outward from his wound.
Behind him, Elicia's eyes widened behind her spectacles as her widespread holy aura washed over the fallen knight… only for the green light to sizzle and fade weakly against the wound, working at a pathetic 30% efficiency. She recognized the catastrophic trap immediately. A static shield wall was nothing more than a execution line against a phased blade.
"Scatter! Break the line! Do not attempt to block her strikes… evade and circle!" Elicia screamed across the howling blizzard, her voice a sharp, commanding whip that shattered the frontline formation.
The thirty elite knights dissolved outward into the snowdrifts, their heavy armor clanking as they scrambled to break away from her lethal reach. Standing firmly in the backline, my Level 8 Mana Pool and Level 6 Magic Enhancement rings flared into a hyper-accelerated hum. My finger slammed down on the cold steel trigger of the Death Chant Tommy Gun, the crimson silver-linings flashing violently as a barrage of high-velocity, compressed blood bullets roared out of the barrel, aiming to tear into the angel's flank before she could claim another target.
RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
The crimson-lined barrel of the Death Chant Tommy Gun erupted into a deafening, continuous roar, shredding the freezing silence of the northern twilight. High-velocity, compressed blood bullets pulsed out in a vicious, rhythmic stream, carving bright red streaks through the swirling blizzard.
The fallen angel had already spun on her heel, her Mist Blade flashing through the defense of another elite paladin. Before the knight could even register the phased steel, the blade solidified, slicing cleanly through his chest armor. He collapsed into the permafrost, his lifeforce instantly snuffed out as the dark veins of the Lifeline curse claimed him.
But my suppressive barrage hit her a millisecond later. Sensing the sheer, S-rank density of my blood manipulation magic, the fallen angel snapped her massive, void-black wings forward.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
The compressed blood bullets slammed violently against her pitch-black feathers, sparking like metal against flint. The impact forced her backward a few steps into the snow, the sheer kinetic force interrupting her slaughter. Realizing the backline possessed a lethal firearm asset, she let out a piercing, celestial shriek, kicked off the ice, and soared straight into the snowy midnight sky, firing a volley of dark, razor-sharp feather daggers back down toward our position.
"Get down!" a vanguard yelled.
While the elite mages scrambled to form localized magic barriers to deflect the falling feathers, Elicia rushed forward through the snow, her fur-lined robes dragging in the drifts as she dropped to her knees beside the heavily wounded knights. Her silver hair whipped wildly in the blizzard as she slammed her ornate staff into the ice.
"O, Divine Light... Knit the flesh! Restore!" Elicia chanted desperately, her crimson eyes wide with intense, focused determination.
A massive surge of pale green, high-tier holy energy erupted from her hands, wrapping around the jagged gashes left by the Demon Valkyrie Longsword. But the moment her Divine Regeneration touched the wounds, the necrotic, purple-black lines of the Lifeline curse violently hissed. The holy light sputtered and faded, working at a miserable, choked-down 30% efficiency.
The devastating truth of the angel's weapon manifested in real-time. Elicia's legendary, limb-growing, hyper-accelerated magic was completely neutered. The curse was so potent that it reduced her absolute medical authority to the level of a standard, entry-level healer you'd find in a regular, low-tier adventuring party. She couldn't regenerate the damaged tissue; she could only generate enough weak mana to numb their agonizing pain and stop the immediate bleeding.
"It's... it's suppressing my authority, I can only stabilize them. Keep that thing occupied!" Elicia muttered, her jaw clenching as sweat mixed with the melting snow on her face.
High above us, the fallen angel hovered under the dark, cloud-heavy sky, her black wings beating rhythmically as she prepared for another diving strike. Below, the surviving mages began desperately hurling fireballs and lightning arcs into the dark sky, illuminating the falling snow with violent flashes of orange and blue.
I stood firmly in the shifting drifts, my single jade-green eye locked onto her aerial silhouette behind the absolute psychic barrier of my mask. Every demonic instinct in my blood screamed at me to unleash the compressed, predatory wings folded tightly against my spine, to take to the air and shred her in her own domain. But I manually locked the impulse down.
Elicia was standing right behind me. Thirty elite Luminous Knights were watching. If I sprouted demon wings now, I wouldn't just be a helpful bounty hunter anymore… I would instantly become an active target on their registry. I had to rely strictly on my modern Earth arsenal and my artifact rings.
Firmly planting my boots into the ice, my Level 8 Mana Pool and Level 6 Magic Enhancement rings flaring into a blinding crimson rhythm, I raised the smoking barrel of the Death Chant Tommy Gun back toward the sky. My finger jammed down on the steel trigger, sending another relentless, hyper-amplified stream of blood bullets tracing directly toward the hovering apex demon.