"You!!!", yelled Hercules as he swung his fist and leg at Kisuke again, but Kisuke dodged it just as easily as before. "Iya~. Don't get too furious just because you were proven wrong.", said Kisuke while he dusted his hat off.
Hercules retreated to Jeanne as his confident demeanor from earlier already disappeared.
"...How is he doing that?", asked Rossweisse with a surprised face.
"...Who knows?", replied Issei with the same expression.
"What? You're not coming?", taunted Kisuke towards Hercules and Jeanne, who had started putting up defensive measures, "Well then, I guess it's my turn."
The moment he ended his words was the moment when Kisuke suddenly disappeared from his spot without any warnings, "What!? Where!?"
Hercules and Jeanne tried looking for him, but the next thing they saw was that he was only a few inches away from the tall Hercules. Hercules tried to swing his fist at Kisuke again, but this time, he didn't dodge, "That trick... Why do you keep repeating it?"
Instead of dodging, Kisuke lightly tapped Hercules' fist, and it suddenly exploded, "Wha...!?" Due to the explosion to speed up his fist, and the sudden explosion that countered it, Hercules' arm broke with multiple veins on it ruptured.
While still confused at what was going on, Kisuke lightly tapped a few parts on his body, and they all exploded, "Gaha!!!"
Due to those explosions and most of them countering each other, it resulted in his body being squeezed in multiple directions, breaking his bones and rupturing his flesh and veins. After the series of explosions, the yellow aura which was covering Hercules' body disappeared, along with his Balance Breaker as he fell to his knees, unconscious.
Hercules' Sacred Gear was the yellow aura that covered his body which allowed him to make it explode for his use. After watching him doing it several times, Kisuke figured how it worked and how much mastery he had over it. Thanks to his poor control, Kisuke was able to confuse the Sacred Gear, which detonated the explosions inside of himself.
With her comrade instantly downed, Jeanne panicked and attacked Kisuke with her Holy Sword, "You bastard!!!" She also commanded her Dragon to flank him.
Kisuke dodged and was about to retaliate when suddenly, multiple magic circles appeared around him and bombarded him. Kisuke predicted where the magic attacks would land and dodged them with minimal effort.
But soon after, he felt a threat from behind him and used Flash Step to get away. An elongated spear pierced the ground he was standing on a second earlier, "Hey now. I thought it was just those two?"
"You're too dangerous.", muttered Cao Cao with a serious face, "You're even more dangerous than the current Sekiryuutei. You instantly figured out how Hercules' Sacred Gear works and manipulated it to your liking. I couldn't have done the same thing."
"And is that supposed to be a compliment?", asked Kisuke with genuine confusion.
The Gremory team and Vali, however, were shocked at Cao Cao's words. After all, Cao Cao was what you'd call the Ultimate Technique type of fighter, the type that analyzes everything about their enemy and creates countermeasures against them. Even Azazel praised and was defeated by him.
For Cao Cao to say that he couldn't have done the same thing, it was a testament to how terrifying Kisuke's abilities actually were.
"That's a compliment, alright!?", shouted Xenovia.
At that point, Cao Cao didn't say anything else and just activated his Balance Breaker. After the mysterious seven orbs appeared around him, Kisuke took a stance and got ready, but not for him.
The moment they were about to clash and they were at the peak of concentration, a dark silhouette suddenly appeared behind Kisuke and Ophis and plunged a dagger to his heart.
"Kisuke!!!", screamed Issei and ran towards him, while the rest of his group also got ready to assist.
However, Issei barely took several steps when 'Kisuke and Ophis' popped like a balloon and they suddenly appeared behind the dark silhouette, "So you finally appeared. I was getting tired of waiting for you, you know?"
"!!?" The dark silhouette, a Grim Reaper turned towards Kisuke in a hurry as he summoned his scythe to attack.
Kisuke jumped back to dodge the attack, but that was what the Grim Reaper was aiming for, as he flew away as fast as possible. Based on the speed of his flight, it was obvious that he was an Ultimate Class Grim Reaper.
"Bakudo no 61: Rikujoukourou (Six Rods of Light Prison)" But before he could escape for good, six beams of light suddenly slammed into his midsection, holding him in place, "What's the hurry? Pluto was it? Won't you say anything about our reunion? Or, could it be that you were not expecting me to reappear again?"
Pluto tried to break free but failed. He figured that it would require more time to break this spell forcefully so he focused on it, "How are you still alive?"
Kisuke slowly walked towards him and answered, "Because I was able to deal with that poison~."
Pluto felt agitated at his answer, "Impossible! That concoction was the result of a thousand years of research by my master using the most violent of the materials available to him! It's impossible for a mere Human like you to survive a poison that could have easily killed a God with a mere drop!"
"Well, I'm fine with however you want to think of it, but enough about me. Would you mind telling me who else is in your little plan?"
Pluto looked at him with utter contempt, "Hah! You won't be able to get anything from me! And if you think that you'll be able to detain me with just this, then you're too arrogant." After saying that, the six beams of light broke and Pluto was free again.
However, Kisuke only sighed, "Figures..." A heavy and terrifying pressure then suddenly engulfed the area as he released his Reiatsu-Ki. It was to the point that the Satan-Class Devils and the large monster that they were fighting momentarily stopped battling to look towards his direction, "Then I don't need you."
With a swing of his blade, a dark red almost black net covered Pluto's entire body. Without letting him react, Kisuke reappeared in front of him and stabbed a part of the net, "Hiasobi, Benihime, Juzutsunagi (Fire-Playing Crimson Princess Beaded Mesh)"
Small orbs then emerged from the black net and spread rapidly towards Pluto as Kisuke pulled out his blade and took some distance. A second later, a large explosion in the form of a massive fire pillar occurred, with Pluto in the middle of it, who was shouting in pain.
The fire pillar that engulfed Pluto was as tall as the monster wreaking havoc through the entire city. A few seconds later, Pluto's scream disappeared along with the pillar, leaving only a magma-filled crater.
Kisuke walked back to where everyone else was and said, "Now that the nuisance is no more, shall we continue?"
The rest of the Hero Faction had some cold sweat crawling down their backs and Cao Cao audibly gulped when he thought, 'He's clearly a technique type, yet he's capable of suddenly pulling out an attack comparable to Satan Class? This is going to be hard.'
"Hey... Does anyone recognize that Sacred Gear? Are you sure that it isn't a Longinus?", asked Xenovia.
"And what he used just now doesn't seem to be magic... It uses a completely different type of energy and system...", added Rossweisse as she tried to analyze the technique Kisuke used.
Editors:
28th00: No Phis-chama Flexes this chapter, sadly. We did get Mr. Hat flexes though! Ah, is Serafall fighting the Jabberwocky? She definitely would've recognised Kisuke that exact instant. Oh man, Cao Cao, you just met your superior in everything basically… I don't feel sorry in the slightest, you deserve everything bad that's about to happen! How dare you harm Phis-chama?!
Alexander: So Cao Cao (I always think about a cup of chocolate when I read his name), did you finally realize that you're screwed? Don't worry, that was merely a glimpse of Kisuke's cheerful way of dealing with his enemies.
Goyya: Serafall is fighting in another region. She's fighting with a Bandersnatch
Ehem... I'd like to address a few things, most notably, the frequency of my updates.
I know that I'm posting a lot more slowly than before, in addition of my new work, there are tons of IRL stuff that I have to deal with.
I also know that the 'Recap' chapters from before frustrated tons of readers, but trust me, when I'm posting that to my Patreon, it isn't as slow as that.
Of course, I've already learned from this mistake so I'll avoid these type of things as much as possible.
Well, that's all~!
Thank you for everyone's support and have a good day~!
Instead of waiting aimlessly, everyone from the Gremory team, except for Asia who was still healing everyone from the Sitri team, went to assist the evacuation effort. Vali, on the other hand, stayed as he wanted to watch the fight, and maybe learn more about Kisuke.
The three from the Hero Faction didn't say anything else and simultaneously sent out attacks towards Kisuke. Jeanne commanded her Dragon to use its breath attack, Georg used magic bombardment, and Cao Cao used his Chatsuka Ratana in an attempt to destroy his weapon.
However, all of these were for naught, as Kisuke responded to them. Timing it to the moment when it had gathered all of the energy it would need, Kisuke used a throwing knife to hit a weak spot on Jeanne's Dragon's throat, which resulted in the gathered energy going wild, destroying the Dragon itself.
In Georg's case, Kisuke just sent bullets of Mana to certain parts of the magic circles, aborting their effects. This was possible because Georg kept using different systems of magic. It's true that he was a genius and could learn almost all forms of magic with just a single glance. However, his finesse in each magic system was unsatisfactory, making the weak points of the magic circles obvious to Kisuke.
In Kisuke's opinion, he was just flaunting the fact that he was a genius at magic by using so many different things at once, 'He should just learn how to improve his magic instead and take more time in studying them. If he were to focus on one system, it'd be a lot less predictable, but if the way he uses it was right, it'd have more utility. Now I'm very sure that he's the desk type of person and not a fighter.'
Cao Cao's Chatsuka Ratana, on the other hand, just shook Kisuke's sword and didn't do anything else.
"What a monster...", muttered Cao Cao after witnessing all of this.
"What should we do?", asked Georg.
"Let's stop holding back."
Georg and Jeanne nodded at Cao Cao.
Jeanne then suddenly pulled out a pistol-type syringe and pointed it to her neck, injecting its contents into herself.
Kisuke became curious to what it was and waited for any changes on Jeanne. And a few seconds later, her Dragon was summoned again, but this time, it was bigger and much stronger. However, Jeanne didn't stop there and took out another pistol-type syringe and injected it again.
Kisuke didn't say anything as Jeanne's Balance Breaker, Stake Victim Dragon, improved with the doping and fused with her. After the fusion, Jeanne's lower body became that of a giant snake body made out of Holy Swords.
While watching this transformation, a purple mist started covering Kisuke and Ophis, locking them spatially. Kisuke observed it and figured that even though they could get out of it, it'd take a few seconds to break out of it, and in a fast-paced battle, many things could happen within those few seconds.
Jeanne, at the same time, surrounded Kisuke and Ophis with her massive snake body and deployed a sea of Holy Swords towards them. Kisuke swung his sword around to destroy those Holy Swords, which were threatening to impale them, but they just kept growing endlessly.
However, Cao Cao thought that it still wasn't enough to keep him in place and used one of his abilities, Kahabatei Ratana, to summon soldiers similar to Yuuto's ability, Glory Drag Trooper.
He summoned around a hundred of what he called Blade Knight Mass, and had them charge at Kisuke. Cao Cao already figured out that, if he didn't want to let Kisuke do his strange illusion technique of getting hit, he had to keep him in place.
In addition to that, Cao Cao used Medusa's eye to turn his legs to stone, slowing him down.
After being covered and trapped in all directions, Cao Cao activated his strongest and most simple ability, Balinayaka Ratana. With a blinding light, Cao Cao's ability orb pierced through everything and reached Kisuke and Ophis, before exploding into a white sphere.
Unlike its usual ability to use the Light element in dealing damage, the spot Kisuke and Ophis were engulfed by a white sphere, 10 meters in diameter. It aimed to obliterate everything inside it, reducing its target into ashes.
However, before they could even see a result, the white sphere suddenly started to pulsate, which wasn't supposed to happen. A few seconds later, the white sphere shrunk, before it burst outward, destroying Jeanne's snake body and reducing the surroundings into a wasteland.
Jeanne was already unconscious, so only Cao Cao and Georg could see the crater that the white sphere had created. In the middle of it were Kisuke and Ophis, with green pulsating hexagonal shields around them.
Cao Cao gritted his teeth and cursed, "He's virtually unscathed... What the hell is he?"
"What should we do?", asked Georg. After Kisuke disabled his magic, he'd been feeling very nervous and became scared of him. After all, he was the first one to have done something like that to him, and the only other person he thought could do the same was Ajuka Beelzebub.
Cao Cao didn't hesitate and commanded, "Let's retreat. Retrieve those two."
Georg then started working with his Dimension Lost to transport all of them away. Slowly, a purple mist surrounded each member of the Hero Faction. Seemingly ignoring this, Kisuke asked Cao Cao, "Hey~. Tell me about that eye."
Since the Dimension Lost was already set, nothing else would be able to stop their escape, so Cao Cao answered truthfully, "I got this as a replacement for the eye that the Sekiryuutei destroyed. It's Medusa's eye, and I got it for a hefty price. Though it was thanks to my connection that I was able to get it in the first place."
"I see," Kisuke muttered and a wide magic circle originating from him suddenly appeared at everyone's feet.
"...What's this?", murmured Cao Cao in confusion.
But straight away, Georg suddenly shouted, "Cao Cao! This is bad! The space around us was locked and I won't be able to transport us right away!"
"Wha...!? When did he...? !!?" But before they could figure out when Kisuke had set up such a large magic circle, Kisuke suddenly pointed towards Georg and muttered, "Bakudo no 63: Sajou Sabaku (Winding Binding Chains)."
A golden chain then emerged from Kisuke fingertips and shot towards Georg. Georg attempted to dodge it but it was too fast for him. Cao Cao also intercepted it with his spear and cut it. However, from the cut, the chains branched out to many more chain links and continued to chase after Georg.
Despite their best efforts, one of the chain links caught up to Georg and wrapped around him. Kisuke then pulled him back, giving an upward momentum to the chain, which dragged Georg upwards, before slamming him back on the ground.
Georg was able to put up some defensive magic, but Kisuke just repeatedly slammed him on the ground, creating multiple craters of various sizes all-around.
Soon after, Georg's magic failed and a few of his bones were broken, rendering him unable to move.
Cao Cao tried to free Georg through all of that, but through Kisuke's clever manipulation of the chains, he wasn't able to do anything aside from chasing after him.
Releasing the chains, Kisuke then used Flash Step to instantly appear in front of Cao Cao, "Did you really think that I would let you get away that easily?"
Cao Cao immediately thrust his spear towards Kisuke and was able to successfully impale him. However, the next instant, Kisuke and Ophis suddenly popped like a balloon, 'What!? Again!?"
"You've been observing me too much, just showing you a lot of things at once confused you." Cao Cao heard Kisuke's whisper from behind him just before he felt a heavy foot smashing him from behind, launching him towards the ground.
Even so, Cao Cao thought that this was good, as he'd be able to get away for a moment, which would give him more time to think and plan. But all of his next plans were broken when he suddenly felt a hand grabbing his neck. The next thing he knew, Kisuke and Ophis were already in front of him, catching him in midair.
"By the way, I need this eye so I'll be taking it." After saying so, Kisuke mercilessly dug out Medusa's eye from his eye socket, which caused Cao Cao to scream from the immense pain, "AHHH!!!"
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Editors:
28th00: Yep, they dared to desecrate Medusa's body? You really think Kisuke would ever let you escape? It was personal before, but now it just got serious. That eye belongs to his maid. Ophis totally helped gank him, providing emotional support to Mr. Hat. This whole fight is the equivalent to a level 100 level cap that was fighting level 80's and having it all in the bag, getting instaganked from a rare encounter interrupt that is a level ???. Scary. They're so far outclassed that they don't even know how nerfed Mr. Hat is currently, without Benihime there, since she has a massive percentage of his power with her. She's sulking for a reason.
Alexander: Wonderful enemy-trashing chapter, I could eat three rice bowls with only this as a side dish.