"ROAR!" "ROAR—ROAR!" "ROAR—ROAR—ROAR!"
When the sky turned pitch-black and lightning rippled through the forest canopy, the Hydra seemed to sense a fatal threat approaching. It roared restlessly, agitation rolling off its massive body.
It didn't know what Leo was about to unleash. It didn't know what was coming next. But it did know one thing—waiting around meant death.
So it spewed a torrent of venom toward the sky, deadly poison pouring upward like a flood.
Before the venom could reach him, violent winds burst to life around Leo. A wall of swirling air shielded him completely, knocking the poison away.
Seeing that fail, the Hydra hurled fireballs upward—but those too were batted aside by tornado-like currents, not even able to graze him.
"ROAR!" "ROAR—ROAR!" "ROAR—ROAR—ROAR!"
Its attacks did nothing. Its unease grew worse. The Hydra panicked and tried to dive into the lake, to hide beneath the water and escape the impending danger.
But the moment it attempted to submerge, the lake itself changed.
"Crack… crack… crack—!"
A chilling sound echoed. Terrifying cold spread through the water without warning, freezing the lake at incredible speed.
The once-turbulent waves stilled and hardened. Even the lakebed began to freeze. The temperature, which had been rising moments ago, plummeted below zero. Frosty air rolled across the surface.
The entire lake transformed into an icy wasteland. And the Hydra—caught in the center—was frozen along with it. Ice crawled up its serpentine body layer by layer.
"ROAR!" "ROAR—ROAR!" "ROAR—ROAR—ROAR!"
The Hydra howled, blasting fireballs downward, shattering the ice under it, melting the frost around its scales.
But the cold was far stronger than it expected. Each time it broke free, fresh ice formed, restricting it all over again. It thrashed violently, shrieking in rage.
"Disappear."
The one responsible for the frozen lake—Leo—had been gathering energy even while maintaining the environmental freeze.
He stretched a hand toward the sky.
Instantly, bolts of lightning danced through the thunderclouds, writhing like serpentine dragons as they converged toward a single point.
Directly above the Hydra.
The monster's violent eyes flickered with fear for the first time. It roared upward, part rage and part dread, firing fireball after fireball in a desperate attempt to scatter the clouds and disrupt the lightning.
If it had the strength of an Ultimate-Class Devil, that might have worked.
But while the Hydra was poisonous enough to trouble even Maou-Class beings, its raw power was nowhere near Leo's. It could not break the sky Leo now commanded.
Thunder rumbled. The converging lightning grew blindingly bright. The forest lit up as if struck by a divine spotlight.
"BOOOOM!!!"
A pillar of lightning stretching from sky to earth crashed downward, a world-shaking beam that swallowed the Hydra whole.
It was massive—wide enough to engulf the monster's entire bulk. For an instant, it looked like the wrath of a thunder god, or the hammer of a vengeful deity.
The impact shattered all the ice in the lake. Shockwaves became storms, tearing across the land.
Fragments of stone, dirt, ice, and shattered trees blasted outward like shrapnel. Everything in the vicinity lost its shape and control, swept up as though a meteor had impacted the earth.
A tsunami of dust rolled over the land, swallowing the barrier protecting Yukino, Asuna, and Utaha. The ground beneath them crumbled, erasing all sign of the landscape.
Only one person remained untouched—Leo.
Violent winds wrapped around him like a roaring vortex, yet didn't harm him. Even his six black devil wings didn't flutter. Their deep black surface reflected his calm face as his eyes glowed like demonic jewels in the night.
The colossal lightning pillar raged before him—so close he could almost reach out and touch it—making him appear even more overwhelming, impossibly strong, a figure standing against heaven's wrath.
No one knew how long that scene lasted.
Eventually, the lightning weakened… dimmed… and faded.
The blinding light retreated, revealing the forest once more.
Where the lake had been, an enormous crater appeared—deep, charred, smoking—its interior stripped bare. Not a drop of water remained. It looked like a meteor strike.
And the Hydra?
Gone.
Not escaped—eradicated.
The lightning pillar had consumed its entire body, vaporizing flesh, bone, and everything else. Not even a scrap remained.
With all nine heads annihilated simultaneously, resurrection was impossible. The monster was dead beyond dead.
"…Is it over?"
The three girls finally found each other's gazes, stunned, their voices trembling.
The barrier around them was cracked all over. When the dust storm faded, it collapsed completely, exposing them to the smoky air.
They stared at the crater where the lake once was, speechless.
"Whoosh!"
Leo descended at last, landing before them. The six devil wings folded back into his body.
"Well? Pretty amazing, right? Your master's not half bad."
He grinned at the three servants who still hadn't recovered.
"I guarantee you—just now, forget a Hydra—even a ten-wing Ultimate-Class Devil would get sent straight into early retirement if they took that full-on."
Unless they were someone like Miyamoto Musashi—who broke every rule of reality, slicing through space and time with two blades and conjuring Nio guardians with sword pressure—no one sane would try tanking that lightning pillar.
Unless, of course, they were a Maou.
A Maou might only lose a layer of skin.
"You went completely overboard!" Utaha snapped. "We were right here! We almost got caught in that!"
"President's battles always look like natural disasters. My heart can't handle it…" Asuna clutched her shaking chest, still pale. "Please tone it down… just a little…"
"You—were you planning to take us out along with it?!" Yukino scolded sharply. "Pay attention to your surroundings, idiot!"
The girls had clearly been terrified. They all forgot their place and scolded him in unison.
"I did pay attention. I'm not reckless." Leo countered confidently. "If my attack wasn't strong enough and one or two heads survived, the whole thing would've been pointless."
"And besides—I only went all-out because senpai put up a barrier. With her Sacred Gear, she can block anything an Upper-Class Devil throws at her."
True enough. Utaha's barrier Sacred Gear, combined with her enhancement as a Rook piece, made it extremely sturdy. Maybe it couldn't withstand Leo's full-force strike—but the shockwaves? Easily.
The Hydra was troublesome. Leo had no intention of letting it regenerate again. Hence the overkill.
"If that monster's so strong, why didn't you contract it as a familiar?"
After scolding him, Utaha took a breath and asked calmly.
"You think anything can just be made into a familiar?" Leo snorted. "A Familiar Contract isn't as binding as the Evil Pieces. Even reincarnated devils can betray their masters—so a mere familiar is even more unreliable."
A creature forced into servitude through battle—especially a vicious one—could stab its master in the back the moment they blinked.
The Hydra was infamous for killing its own masters. No one in their right mind tried contracting one.
"Contracting a Hydra is pointless. You might as well contract Tiamat instead. At least she can talk—and if negotiations go well, she won't betray you."
Leo said it casually.
But the moment the words left his mouth—
"That would indeed be an honor."
A voice—unfamiliar and elegant—responded.
Out of nowhere.
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100 p.s for extra chapter
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You can read up to chapter 124 on patreon.com/NiaXD.