The sound of bones breaking echoed along with the lion's head's bite, but what broke wasn't Naoki's arm, but the lion's head that had grown from Nero Chaos's chest, and the black wolves biting Naoki's hands and feet.
'What happened?'
Nero Chaos tried to understand all this in the first instant, but before that, Naoki had already torn through his body again! Many fragments of stone instantly fell from the torn part of Nero Chaos's body!
'Stone fragments?'
'Why are there things like this? And why are they inside my body?'
Thinking for only a moment, Nero Chaos instantly understood everything.
*CRACK!*
Instantly releasing his bitten hands and feet, while growing wings on his back, Nero Chaos instantly flew high into the sky: "You, summoning elemental spirits into your body?"
Elemental spirits—or they could also be called elemental fairies.
This was the method Naoki used to achieve control in Summoning Magecraft. Instead of setting the summoning range to all fairies, he limited it to the three primary elements, the summoning range was limited to elemental fairies, and by changing the first element, he could change the specific fairy he wanted to summon. Although it lost most of its flexibility, it successfully realized the stability of Summoning Magecraft.
This was the result Naoki used to become a Sacrament.
In addition, considering that Summoning Magecraft required the creation of a magic circle each time it was used, Naoki had long ago done something that was usually only done by Magus in their old age—creating a Magic Crest.
Engraving the Summoning Magecraft circle within the Magic Crest, along with the entire formula of Summoning Magecraft, he could thus eliminate the complicated preparation conditions and perform Summoning Magecraft and fairy possession at any time.
The first golden light was a variant of a fire fairy, while the stone fragments just now were a variant of an earth fairy. The ability to break the lion's head completely depended on the Petrification Magecraft used with the help of the earth fairy.
The stone armor covering his entire body disappeared, replaced by light sky-blue armor. Riding the strong gust of wind, Naoki instantly reached the same altitude as Nero Chaos.
"Round two?"
Reading the killing intent-filled gaze in Naoki's eyes, Nero Chaos's coat moved on its own without wind, and a multitude of black beasts like a flash flood poured out from under the coat!
The tsunami of black beasts seemed to want to crush this hard rock named Naoki into pieces!
However—
*CRUSH-BANG!*
Like wild beasts charging into a full-speed cutting machine! The swarm of black beasts instantly turned into countless fragments as they approached Naoki's body!
Invisible wind blades surrounded Naoki like satellites. After mincing all the attacking beasts into pieces, the wind blades suddenly expanded!
*PU-CHI!*
Nero Chaos was instantly severed at the waist! The lower body that fell instantly transformed into a giant vulture, flapping its wings and instantly creating a violent storm!
*KIIIIK!*
An ear-piercing screech instantly echoed in the high sky. Two tornadoes rubbed against and collided with terrifying force; it was imaginable that if any foreign object dared to be in between them, it would instantly be crushed into pieces, torn apart until nothing remained!
Even, in the gaps between the two colliding—
*RUMBLE!*
Several flashes of lightning slightly tore through the darkness of the night!
'At this rate, there's no end! Switch!'
The wind fairy disappeared from his body. The Magic Crest engraved on his chest silently shone. A variant of the fire fairy once again possessed him. Taking advantage of the strong wind beneath his feet that hadn't disappeared, he kicked off powerfully, narrowly escaping death just before the vulture's wind tore him apart. Naoki, who was at a higher altitude, instantly slammed his fiery fist full of anger with all his might!
"Fool—"
Nero Chaos only wanted to assess Naoki like that.
*PU-CHI!*
Hundreds of thorns suddenly emerged from under Nero Chaos's coat, taking advantage of the darkness of the night! They instantly pierced Naoki's falling body like a beehive.
'No! This is...'
*BANG!*
Flames rising from below suddenly sent Nero Chaos to a higher altitude, then like exploding fireworks.
*BOOM!*
Dazzling firelight bloomed beneath the night sky of Misaki Town!
'Heat haze illusion...'
An illusion created through temperature changes. Because Merlin happened to be nearby when testing the power of the fire fairy variant, Naoki had half-forcibly learned this move.
While moving upwards, Naoki had actually become an illusion; his real body fell downwards to prepare for the final attack.
"Haah... Haah... Haah..."
Like a person who had held their breath for several minutes and finally couldn't bear it anymore and surfaced, Naoki suddenly knelt down, gasping uncontrollably!
His magic circuits twitched.
'Turns out... it's not that my body and Mana aren't strong enough, but that my magic circuits won't allow me to act recklessly like this?'
Although it was less than a minute, in that one minute, Naoki hadn't thought about the feelings of his magic circuits at all, only focusing on releasing Mana with all his might. It was no wonder his magic circuits couldn't handle it.
"But... it's not over yet, he shouldn't be completely dead."
Nero Chaos was a Dead Apostle who incorporated the Bounded Field: Primordial Sea into his body. Within it were 666 factors of beasts; if you didn't kill them all at the same time, he would revive countless times!
Just like now.
"I think I understand your situation; although the usage is different, you remind me of a friend."
Flapping his wings and descending from the air, Nero Chaos, whose entire body was covered in red scales, looked down at Naoki from above: "Summoning Magecraft—the work of Aleister Crowley. I also participated in his research back then; only he himself should know it."
"Three years ago in Paris, the one who killed him, was that you?"
Aleister.
Truly a name that made people feel disgusted.
Naoki stood up.
"So what? You want to avenge your friend?"
"No, if his abilities were lacking, death was deserved. I'm just a little surprised you could learn his Magecraft to this level." Nero Chaos said expressionlessly, while the shadow beneath his feet stirred, "Enough, I still have the task of killing Her Highness the Princess; I don't have time to play around."
Jet-black beasts reappeared, but this time what emerged wasn't a pack of wolves, but a monster composed of a lion's head, a goat's body, and a python's tail.
—A Chimera.
Not just a beast, but a Demon Beast! A combination of several beast factors!
"Goodbye, inheritor of Crowley's mantle."
"Cast (Projection)—!"
Before Nero could finish speaking, a loud shout suddenly came from the side, then several shots of blue light instantly shot over, directly pushing the Chimera back several meters!
It was Aozaki Aoko!
Coming to Naoki's side from the rooftop on the other side, Aoko immediately hugged him: "Good job, Naoki. We're preparing to retreat!"
"Eh? Retreat? To—"
He hadn't killed him yet! This bastard who took people's lives so casually hadn't been killed by him yet! How could it be here—
*SMACK!*
The pain in the back of Naoki's neck suddenly cut off his thoughts.
Glancing at Nero Chaos, Aoko instantly swung her arm, and dozens of Mana bullets instantly strafed like a machine gun! The dense barrage directly obscured Nero Chaos's vision.
And after the shots disappeared, Nero Chaos stared at the empty space ahead.
"The Fifth Magician, Aozaki Aoko, returning to her hometown at a time like this? So many unexpected events I've encountered tonight."
"Considering that continuing the fight would reveal the existence of mysteries, we are retreating. The rules of Magus do indeed always restrain."
Nero Chaos stared at the hotel across the way.
"Not sensing the princess's aura anymore; did she leave too? Oh well, tonight's hunt ends here. As long as the princess is still in this town."
"She will definitely die."