The air cracked open.
A flash—then a shockwave that split the clouds.
Kazu's barrier shattered mid-air, glasslike fragments of light scattering before Halphas burst through, wings flaring wide. She moved like an animal freed from a cage—no rhythm, no restraint, just killing instinct.
He barely tilted his body before her claws grazed past his chest. Sparks burst from contact as the ethernano-laced swipe tore through the air pressure behind him.
"Yeah," Kazu muttered, steadying his footing in mid-air with a hardened barrier platform. "She's pissed."
Another sonic thump. Halphas reappeared a meter ahead, faster than before. Her movements weren't coordinated; they were efficient by accident—each twist designed purely by instinct to close the distance.
Kazu's forearm met her strike, the impact travelling through bone. His boots slid across the invisible barrier footing. He countered with a palm thrust, packed with compressed ethernano.
The recoil almost cracked his wrist, but sent her flying back through the treeline below, uprooting half the forest.
At some point, they had moved from the ocean to an island. This time, an inhabited one.
"Good news," he said under his breath, shaking his hand. "Still in one piece."
The next instant, a black streak tore out of the smoke.
She came again—no pause, no fear. Claw, wing, knee—each strike chaining together with brutal speed. Kazu blocked with minimal movement, barriers flickering and breaking as fast as he made them.
Each block bled his mana a little more. Her raw strength was above his.
"Cana, Mira—retreat to ground level!" His voice cut through the thunder of the collision.
"Already on it!" Cana's tone sounded casual enough to make him suspicious she wasn't.
Mira followed, flying lower with her hands clasped. "Be careful, Kazu!"
"Working on it."
He ducked another claw, twisting his body mid-spin, and slammed a force pulse through his heel. The impact line split open the ground far below, a crater marking where Halphas hit seconds later.
The shockwave hit Kazu, too, ripping through his balance. He flipped upright mid-air, skidding on a thin barrier plane before regaining control. His breathing steadied, eyes sharp.
Halphas rose from the crater. Her skin pulsed with demonic light—veins of red crawling over black flesh. Her mouth opened in a guttural roar that bent the treetops outward.
"Looks like she's adjusting to the fight," he said. "Fantastic."
'It's been so long since somebody matched me in close combat. She's enhancing herself with Ethernano internally, so I can't disable the spell.'
She didn't let him think further. One flap and she was airborne again. The following collision sent both of them spinning through clouds.
On the ground, Cana squinted upward, shielding her eyes from the sunlight. The sky looked like someone was setting off bombs every two seconds.
"Yup," she muttered. "Totally normal day."
Beside her, Mira stood tense, her magic aura trembling around her hands. "She's too strong… Kazu can't hold her forever."
"Then let's hope his stupid plans hold up longer than usual." Cana reached for her cards, shuffling through them by touch. "He told you the signal, right?"
Mira nodded, swallowing hard. "When he says to get ready."
"Yeah. Then it's our turn to make this demon a roommate."
'We can't wait for the reinforcements to wait any longer if she keeps getting stronger. We will deal with her right now.' Cana frowned.
She flicked a card into the air; it glowed, forming a dome-like outline that stabilised their area from debris falling around. "Guess we wait."
Above, Halphas and Kazu were locked in a fight again.
Her claws clashed with his enhanced forearm, forcing him down meter by meter. She was adapting—her strikes more focused, testing his defence for weak points.
Kazu could feel it in every block: the rhythm of pressure, the narrowing intervals between attacks. She was learning him mid-fight.
"Okay," he said through gritted teeth, "so she's really evolving. Neat."
He rotated back, then drew a tight circle with his hand. Barrier rings spun outward, glowing blue-white before folding into each other.
The explosion of kinetic force threw her back—but only for a moment. She crashed through the spell like a wild beast through water.
Her next blow caught him square in the stomach. Air fled his lungs as his barrier armour flickered and collapsed.
He fell through the cloud line, eyes burning, every sense screaming. Instincts took over before thought.
He twisted mid-drop, setting barrier footholds every few meters to decelerate, each one cracking on impact. When he hit ground level, dust exploded outward, trees bending from the force.
Cana raised a brow. "That looked painful."
He brushed off his sleeve like he'd tripped. "Just gravity being clingy."
Then, without pause: "Mira. Get ready."
She nodded. No hesitation. Her body started glowing faintly—Take Over magic forming on her arms, the demonic aura shimmering under her skin.
Kazu's gaze fixed upward. Halphas was already descending, wings folded, speed building. The ground vibrated from the pressure alone.
"Cana—cards in place. Trap Pattern F. Lock everything when I say 'now.'"
Cana's hands blurred. Dozens of cards flew into position, forming a circular field of runes around Halphas's predicted drop zone. Each card hummed with ethernano.
"It's ready!" she shouted.
"Then let's bring her down."
Kazu raised both palms. Blue rings materialised in the air, intersecting across her trajectory. When she hit the first one, the impact triggered the chain—explosions of pressure folding inward.
She crashed into the clearing, half her body buried under cracked earth.
"Now!"
Cana slammed her hand down. "Multi-Lock!"
Dozens of hidden cards glowed, followed by barriers snapped around Halphas, luminous cubes collapsing on every axis. For the first time, the demon stilled—straining but unable to move.
'My strongest barrier can't lock her anymore, so we will be using quantity instead of quality.'
Kazu exhaled, mana pouring from his body as he reinforced the bindings. "Mira!"
Mira stepped forward, every muscle trembling from both fear and adrenaline. She placed her hand on Halphas's body.
The instant contact formed, the ground erupted with shockwaves of dark energy. Mira's hair whipped back as her own aura started to merge with the demon's.
Her voice cracked, but she didn't stop.
The air grew heavy. Magic pressure thickened until even Cana staggered.
Kazu stood firm, reinforcing the barriers with each pulse. "Focus! Keep taking over!"
Halphas's body started dissolving—dark mist spreading like ink through Mira's arms.
Cana's cards flickered, one by one. "Hurry it up, this thing's breaking through!"
CRACK
As if to reinforce her point, multiple barriers that were locking her were shattered into pieces.
Mira clenched her jaw, screaming as the last of Halphas's form sank into her chest.
The explosion came right after.
Every barrier shattered in sequence—shockwaves flattening trees for half a kilometre.
Cana hit the ground hard, coughing. "You said stall for a second, not die for one." She ignored the pain.
Kazu ignored her, eyes on Mira. The demonic energy still lingered around her—unstable, pulsing, trying to burst out.
He stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Destructive Interference."
'Normally, Takeover magic would fail if the target has more Ethernano than the caster. The only way to overcome is to lower their magic power, but we clearly failed. So, the only option is to bet on Destructive Interference for suppressing her residual magic power.'
Blue sparks crawled between them. The spell pulsed, clashing with the demonic energy inside. For a moment, it worked—the aura slowed, dimmed—
Then Mira's head snapped up.
Her eyes weren't hers anymore. Jet black, with a burning red slit.
"Shit," Kazu muttered.
Her fist connected with his chest before he even saw it coming. The impact sent him flying backwards through three trees and into a cliff wall. The stone cracked, dust swallowing the sound.
Cana's breath caught. "Kazu!"
Mira—no, Halphas—turned toward her, movements sharper now, too precise to be human.
Cana raised a trembling card. "...You've gotta be kidding me."
The demon's body blurred forward, leaving a shockwave where she'd stood.
Cana barely had time to think. She reacted instantly when Mira came closer to her.
"Two Hit KO!" A card floating around her dispersed into light.
Her fists slammed forward—full of condensed ethernano detonating point-blank. The impact sent Mira flying backwards through dirt and trees, her trajectory carving a trench before stopping against a cliff wall.
Cana stumbled from recoil, eyes wide. "That hurts..." Her bones were trembling, making her groan in pain.
But the relief lasted all of half a breath.
Mira rose again—no hesitation, no pain, just the demon's cold hunger staring through her eyes. Ethernano swirled around her palms, condensing into a sphere larger than anything Cana had seen Halphas use before. The air trembled under the pressure, grass flattening in a widening circle.
"Wait, wait—why's it that big?" Cana backed a step. "Oh, perfect. Maybe she's taking out her bad love fortune on me."
The joke came out brittle. Sweat slid down her neck as she realised the sphere wasn't just bright—it was warping the air itself.
"Cana!"
The shout came just before a flash crossed her vision.
Kazu appeared behind Mira, one arm raised. The sphere met his palm—and vanished. The shockwave tore through the trees, bending trunks outward in a circular pattern, dust filling the air.
"On time—"He didn't finish the sentence.
Because Halphas hadn't stopped moving.
The instant the spell collapsed, she'd already closed the gap, claws flashing. Kazu's eyes widened.
'She knew that I would come to dispel the spell. It was a bait. Did she get intelligence from Mira?'
***
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