Ryoma looked at Catherine below, who was like a madwoman, with a hint of disappointment in his eyes.
He had originally thought that this curse magic, which could absorb the life force and magic power of others, would have a more astonishing performance.
But in the end...
Apart from fusing those cursed bullets together to create a scary-looking face, there seemed to be no other means.
It had vast magic power reserves, yet its attack methods were so singular and crude. It was simply a waste of natural resources.
"How... uninteresting." Ryoma shook his head.
He was no longer interested in wasting time with this woman.
It was a rare sample of curse magic, and he had already roughly figured out its upper limit of ability. Except for the peculiar characteristic of absorbing life force, the others were just so-so.
"The game... it's time to end." He murmured softly.
The next moment, he activated another teleportation, but this time, he neither retreated nor dodged.
Crack!
The sound of ice crystal shattering rang out.
Ryoma's figure appeared on Catherine's side and behind her, only a few meters away. This distance was almost equivalent to being in close combat for a Mage.
"What?!"
Catherine, who was immersed in extreme anger and the release of power, couldn't react in the first instant.
All her attention was focused on controlling the huge gray face, preparing to completely devour and crush Ryoma.
However, the destruction she awaited did not arrive. What arrived was absolute zero, cold enough to freeze the soul.
The moment Ryoma appeared behind her, the magic he had prepared for a long time was instantly released. He gently raised his palm and aimed it at the madwoman.
"Eternal Ice Coffin."
The moment the words fell, a visible surge of extreme cold burst forth with Catherine at its center.
Crack! Crack...
The moisture in the air instantly condensed, the gray curse spreading on the ground was frozen inch by inch, and the violently surging magic power currents, upon contact with the cold air, seemed to have been paused.
Catherine's face, distorted by anger, was forever fixed at this moment. In her pupils, the scene of ice spreading was reflected, full of shock and disbelief. She didn't even have time to react. The cold air had already enveloped her entire body.
Along with the hideous face that had just formed above her head and hadn't had time to unleash its power, and all the surrounding frantic magic power, she was sealed together in a huge, crystal-clear ice coffin.
Buzz—
As the ice coffin completely formed, the surrounding violent magic power fluctuations instantly subsided.
The uncomfortable evil aura was completely isolated within the ice coffin.
Catherine's magical connection with the outside world was completely severed. Her ready-to-be-launched magic also died in its infancy.
The entire alley, which had been ravaged and dilapidated, fell into a deathly silence at this moment.
Ryoma walked slowly to the ice coffin and looked at the frozen woman inside.
"Obsessed with a false appearance, and developing the ability to absorb others' life force for it, is somewhat interesting." His voice was very calm, as if he was evaluating an item.
"It's a pity that other than that, there are no other highlights."
"To have such a vast magic power reserve, yet such impoverished combat methods, it's truly a shame for those Mages whose magic power you absorbed."
He didn't kill her. According to the original plot, she would be defeated by Yuno and then knocked unconscious when trying to seize Charmy's life essence, and finally captured.
Now, it was just that the executor had changed to himself, and the outcome wouldn't change much.
Ryoma planned to take this ice coffin back and hand it to the Magic Knight Squad for handling.
However, just then...
Boom!!!
A deafening roar came from the distant sky.
A scorching firelight shot up into the sky, as if to burn the entire night sky red.
Ryoma's movements paused, and he looked up in that direction. He roughly sensed a few familiar auras coming from that direction.
"It seems I need to hurry."
He no longer hesitated and quickly handed the ice coffin, which sealed Catherine, to several Mages who had noticed the commotion and rushed over.
Then, he closed his eyes and carefully sensed the ice crystal coordinates he had previously placed throughout the capital.
Soon, he found a coordinate point closest to the main battlefield.
Swish!
His figure once again transformed into an ice-blue stream of light and disappeared into this silent alley.
When Ryoma's figure reappeared, he was greeted by a wave of heat and chaos.
In the center of the battlefield, a gray-haired young man holding a pitch-black greatsword was in an unprecedented bitter struggle.
At this moment, Asta was desperately swinging the demon-slayer sword in his hand, constantly slashing at the gray bullets flying towards him.
"Hraaahhh!"
He let out a beast-like roar, using all his strength with every sword swing.
Behind him, a young girl was trembling and cowering, her face covered in tears, her eyes full of fear.
In front of Asta, a man with a frantic expression was directing the undead to attack, he was the mastermind behind all this— Rades.
"It's useless!" Radis laughed hysterically.
"Hurry up and abandon her and run! It's too much trouble to get hurt yourself to protect others! What good is it for you to protect that girl? You hypocritical bastard!"
Asta still had several places where he hadn't completely blocked and was bleeding, but he didn't retreat a single step.
"Even if there's no benefit, I still have to protect her."
Just as Asta couldn't fully defend, a sky-blue water curtain rose, forming a solid barrier that firmly protected the little girl within it.
Asta looked back and saw Noelle standing not far away.
Noelle's face no longer held the confusion and self-doubt from before. Instead, it was filled with unprecedented confidence and determination.
"Noelle!" Asta shouted in surprise.
"Don't get distracted, you idiot Asta!" Noelle shouted back, "Focus on your enemy!"
"Oh! Leave it to me!"
Without any worries, Asta's momentum surged dramatically.
"Bastard! How dare you interfere with me!"
Rades became furious when he saw his prey being protected.
"Don't get carried away."
He spread his hands, and a denser gray magic power surged from his body.
A large number of corpses were summoned by him and surrounded Asta. It looked as if the group of foul-smelling corpses was about to engulf Asta.
Just at this critical moment—
Two completely different magic powers erupted simultaneously from two directions.
"Let me lend you a hand! Let that evil cultist take a hit, and let him witness your power." An enthusiastic and vibrant voice rang out.
Leopold had appeared on one side of the battlefield at some point, shooting blazing flames from both hands.
"Flame Magic: Spiral Flame!"
Whoosh!
Two huge fire tornadoes swept towards the horde of corpses.
On the other side, Ryoma's figure appeared on a higher ground. He just gently raised one hand.
Eternal Ice Thorns!
Crack!
A chilling cold swept out even faster than the flames.
The ground was instantly covered in frost, and countless sharp ice crystal burst from the ground, forming a sharp ice crystal thicket that instantly impaled and froze the corpses.
One ice, one fire.
One extremely cold, one extremely hot.
Two powerful magics simultaneously covered the entire horde of corpses with overwhelming force.
The corpses engulfed by the fire tornado instantly turned to char, while those pierced by the ice crystal forest were frozen into crystal-clear ice sculptures, and then with a "Bang," shattered into countless ice shards, instantly clearing all the corpses nearby.
"So... so powerful!" Asta couldn't help but exclaim.
Rades' frantic smile froze. He watched in disbelief as his army of the dead was instantly wiped out.
His gaze finally fell on Leopold and the young man who had just appeared.
Not far away, Fuegoleon, the captain of the Crimson Lions, noticed the commotion here.
His gaze passed over his younger brother, Leopold, and rested on Ryoma.
A hint of surprise and admiration flashed in Fuegoleon's eyes.
He wasn't surprised by this powerful Ice Magic, but more importantly, he keenly noticed the way Ryoma had appeared.
It was a kind of... ability similar to spatial transfer.
Just now, he clearly saw a tiny ice crystal shatter the moment Ryoma appeared.
Is he using ice crystal as a medium for teleportation?
Fuegoleon's heart instantly stirred. Powerful Ice Magic talent coupled with the ability to develop a rare and practical spatial ability...
A strong desire to recruit talent surged within him, and a thought spontaneously arose in his mind.
After this battle, he must find a way to poach this young man to the Crimson Lions.