"Your friend is doing something strange again," Divine Architect commented as a barrier came out of the balcony and fended off the blood-red light. "You all don't know when to give up."
King Elbas patted his robe to remove the white dust that had accumulated on his figure. He had gone through a few casual exchanges with Divine Architect, and his inscribed items had turned out to be inferior, but he had predicted that outcome.
"Don't you think it's too early to get confident?" King Elbas asked. "We were just playing around."
"I have been confident even before you pulled us out of the sky," Divine Architect calmly responded.
"I expected that answer," King Elbas sighed before his eyes fell on the blood-red aura lingering outside the castle's range. "How do you even call that strange? It perfectly fits that idiot's behavior."
"I prefer not to relate to idiots," Divine Architect mocked.
"That actually is a good approach," King Elbas admitted. "Those idiots can make anyone go crazy, but their behavior is quite easy to predict after a while."
"Is it?" Divine Architect wondered. "We are talking about a being who defies logic. How could anyone claim to predict his next move?"
"I can because I'm better than you," King Elbas claimed.
"What is he doing then?" Divine Architect asked.
"That idiot has tried to learn how to use his new power until now," King Elbas explained. "He finally decided to change his approach."
"How is filling the entire higher plane with harmless energy of any use?" Divine Architect questioned.
"That's not intentional," King Elbas stated. "I mean, that's not a real attack. He simply abandoned the idea of using his stupid mind to fight."
"What a reckless brute," Divine Architect sighed.
"Reckless, definitely," King Elbas added. "I'd normally agree on the brute part too, but it might be the right approach this time. After all, it's pointless to obtain a superior power if you can't use it to its fullest."
"Is this using it to its fullest?" Divine Architect asked.
"This is only the beginning," King Elbas explained. "This is him going all-out."
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"Is that your idea of teaching?" Marcella laughed when she saw the new shade that had filled the higher plane. "Do you want to destroy everything? Fine by me!"
Marcella spread her arms, and countless magical plants quickly grew out of her. Vegetation expanded past her figure before stretching toward the creations left behind during the teleport.
The technique stopped being a flat mass of magical plants and transformed into something similar to a giant forest that expanded in every direction. Divine Demon, Maribel, Sepunia, and the odd dragon happened to be at the center of that vegetation, but none of them dared to move during the process.
The appearance of so many magical plants didn't remove Divine Demon's light from the aura. The green cloud expanded and shone with brighter colors, but the blood-red shades remained and continued to taint that separate environment.
<br/>"Destroy?" Divine Demon asked. "No one said anything about destroying everything."
Divine Demon also spread his arms, and the entirety of his aura began to shake. The higher plane fell into a constant earthquake even if most of it had become part of the void, and the weaker experts could only hurry toward Pellio to find safe areas.
Of course, the weaker experts from Heaven and Earth's army didn't have similar hiding spots. Some of them managed to find cover under the auras of their superiors, but many ended up trapped in the shaking that filled the entire world.
The tremors slowly intensified, but Marcella didn't care about that. Her magical plants could easily fend off that pressure, so she kept her attention on Divine Demon.
"You have yet to do anything," Marcella pointed out as the vegetation that had enveloped her opponents started to generate offensive magical plants.
"I did," Divine Demon revealed. "I've stopped controlling my power."
"What does that even mean?" Marcella mocked. "Every expert controls their power."
"You said it yourself," Divine Demon stated. "The limits of my mind are flaws you can exploit, so I'll stop using it. You are about to face the entirety of my life."
"More confusing words," Marcella sighed. "I guess there is no point in this conversation."
Marcella pointed her arms forward, and the vegetation unleashed its attacks. Sharp darts, dense poisonous clouds, ethereal whips, and entire plants shot toward Divine Demon to encircle him in an offensive that left him no escape path.
Maribel, Sepunia, and the odd dragon felt lucky. Marcella didn't even mind their presence inside her technique, and the trembling blood-red aura shielded them from the weight of her offensive.
The three experts could find a safe hiding spot among the vegetation while the attacks converged toward Divine Demon, but the scene that unfolded afterward left them speechless.
The countless attacks froze before they could land on Divine Demon. He remained at the center of a spherical area devoid of any plant or technique, and nothing seemed able to enter it.
Divine Demon scoffed as he showed his palm to materialize a cup full of wine at its center. He pretended to care about the various attacks frozen around him as he drank, but he soon disregarded that behavior to lie mid-air.
The barrage of attacks obviously didn't prevent Marcella from studying the insides of the empty area. The scene inevitably tried to get to her nerves, but she remained calm as a question left her mind. "Do you really want to disrespect me so badly?"
"I'm not disrespecting you," Divine Demon claimed. "I'm going all-out."
As if listening to Divine Demon's words, the blood-red aura around the higher plane began to condense. The shaking didn't stop, but the various waves of energy quickly gave birth to different shapes.
Packs of dragons formed in some areas, and humanoid giants equipped with different weapons materialized somewhere else. Cylindrical cannons that featured countless inscriptions appeared in other spots, and the list went on.
Divine Demon wasn't doing anything. He was merely relaxing at the center of the barrage of frozen attacks, but his aura was transforming in ways that affected the entire higher plane.
Countless techniques materialized all around the world, and Divine Demon's companions ended up recognizing some of them. He had already used those attacks, but his current display of power was creating bigger and mightier versions of them.
Moreover, Divine Demon wasn't holding anything back. He wasn't satisfied with a single, powerful technique. He was summoning everything he had ever created in his life, and the process inevitably killed many unfortunate experts.
Most of those experts belonged to Heaven and Earth's side due to the lack of hiding spots, but Divine Demon still killed some of his underlings. Of course, he didn't care about those deaths, especially when techniques materialized around him to fend off Marcella's offensive.
Marcella saw a perfect intact copy of the space dragon materializing next to Divine Demon and affecting the space-time array in the area. Her offensive teleported against her will, and many attacks reappeared among her vegetation, where they unleashed their power.
Meanwhile, the techniques in the rest of the higher plane shot toward Marcella as soon as their structures stabilized. She saw the energy that had filled the world just a few seconds ago flying toward her while wielding different natures and properties.
At that sight, Marcella stopped seeing the battle as a mere struggle against an incredible expert. The entire higher plane had just become her opponent, and she prepared herself to face it.
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