*BOOM* BOOM* *RUMBLE*

Eleanor watched the fight with a bright expression. It didn’t seem to bother her to see how completely one-sided it was. The only reason the mages didn’t lose was that they stayed behind and launched their spells, while the guy didn’t try to avoid and simply concentrated on destroying the barrier.

“Shishishi. What an interesting little birdie. So strong, but so wasteful in the way he uses his energy. Or, perhaps he is in a hurry? Humm…”

She turned to face Seijuurou as she questioned with a light tone,

“Oi, Seijirou. Do you have news about the ones who were sent to research the basement of that stupid devil woman?”

Seijuurou stayed silent, seemingly trying to contact them, before he shook his head from left to right

“No...Try as I might, I am unable to join them.”

Eleanor nodded at this answer as if it was expected, before letting out a sneer,

“Hehe~! He must have intercepted them then. So interesting!! So funny!! If he interrogated them well, he should know that teacher would soon reach this town. Despite that, he still foolishly rushed here. I am sure he must have thought that he has enough time. Shishishi!. Should I call him stupid, courageous or suicidal? Well, I must admit that he does have the capital of acting so recklessly.”

*Crunch* She crushed the lollipop in her mouth and continued with a sadistic smile as she watched him slowly but surely exhaust all the mages, it was really an incredible display of power. It seemed like he planned to simply outlast them in terms of energy.

Eventually, she simply shrugged and said with a carefree appearance,

“Well, it doesn’t matter, does it? After all. I have you guys in my hand right?”

She grinned as she turned to face the four bound and gagged people. Those four were Shidou, Diethelm, Xenovia, and a sleeping Irina. Prior to having been captured, she had fainted after seeing the barrier explode. It seemed like this had been too much for her. Still, shidou was somewhat relieved. He didn’t want her to see things that would scare her young and more importantly unprepared mind.

Currently, Shidou was rather heavily wounded, but the wound was cauterized by the fire breath of what looked like a red salamander and as such didn’t bleed. Still; it was extremely painful.

Diethelm, on the other, was lowering his head while thinking of a way he could use to get out of this situation. Still, the blood loss made it hard for him to think.

In an ordinary situation, those wounds would have been nothing. But, right now, he was the couldn’t even think properly, let alone use his sacred gear, [HOLY RESUSCITATION], a powerful healing type sacred gear that could heal all those related to heaven. In short, it only worked on believers, but this wasn’t a problem. The problem was his jumbled state of mind.

The last one was Xenovia. She was wounded, her arm was even dislocated, but despite this pain, the conviction in her eyes never died out. Even though she was scared deep down, she never doubted even one second, how all of this end once Azrael reached them.

Seijiro who stood behind her, simply gulped as he looked at the legions of monstrous beasts that were surrounding those four and walking around in the ruin of the house, before looking with pity at those four who were defending that house not long ago.

‘They simply stood no chance in the first place.’

He now understood why she was so feared in the magicians’ circle despite not really being a high class.

Sacred gear, [WALPURGIS NIGHT].

Some sacred gear could be a weaker or more precisely, a degraded version of a powerful Longinus. [TWICE CRITICAL] was the degraded version of the Longinus [BOOSTED GEAR].

The same went for [WALPURGIS NIGHT], it was the weaker version of the top tier Longinus [ANNIHILATION MAKER].

Thanks to that gear, as long as she didn’t die, she would without a doubt reach the ultimate class one day.

“My gear is awesome right, Seijiro?”

He hurriedly nodded,

“Truly, I have never seen a sacred gear with such might.”

“Shishishi. Of course, you wouldn't. See, my gear is a sub-specie. My original one was pretty shitty. Because of that, that old bitch didn’t choose me as heiress, I was pretty angry. Like, the fuck? How could that little bitch still wet behind the ears be better than me? Hey seijiro I am right. Aren’t I?”

“Of course, miss Walburga is nothing in front of you.”

Seijiro nodded and continued flattering her, he knew that she was once again in one of her weird moods, so it was better to avoid making her angry. He also knew who she was talking about.

The Witch of the East was an inheritable title. The current one was the second generation, Agusta, also known as Augusta of the purple flame. Augusta had two disciples.

Eleanor, and a much younger girl called Walburga. Sadly for Eleanor, the next heir to the title of Witch of the East was Walburga. An incredibly gifted magician.

“See. I am right. *Sigh* That bitch think she is so much better than me. But but but, I am far better than her. I did the impossible and managed to make my shitty gear evolve and now, it should be close to the [ANNIHILATION MAKER] itself.”

Seijuro inwardly scoffed at those boastful words. [ANNIHILATION MAKER] was top tier even as far as Longinus went. From what he knew, in the right hand, it was possible to destroy the world with it.

If [WALPURGIS NIGHT] had reached such a level, let’s not talk about the four witches. The great king of Emerald City himself would have taken her as a disciple.

[ANNIHILATION MAKER] was a Longinus that gave the owner the power to create basically an unlimited number of creatures. The sole limit being the strength of his mind and his own imagination. [WALPURGIS NIGHT] however was way more limited in strength, diversity, range and number. At the end of the day, even after becoming a sub-specie, a downgraded version would always be a downgraded version.

After bragging a little she walked toward the four and looked at them with a smile. Then her eyes settled on Xenovia.

"Little girl, blue hair. Hehe!! You must Xenovia Quarta. So beautiful. So cute."

Her smile immediately morphed in one full of madness as she began to tug on the long hair of Xenovia,

"... So talented, so very talented. I hate talented little girl like you the most."

As she said so, she gripped the long hair of Xenovia even tighter and began to pull at it, ripping off a part of them.

Still, no matter what she did, the girl never had the begging look she wanted to see. Rather it was a deep glare, filled with rage and conviction, she couldn’t help but be curious,

“What give you so much courage?”

Since she wanted to hear the answer, she removed the gag and waited,

“*Cough* *Cough* You’re still so smug, but latter Az will kick your butt.”

“Oh?!... Are you sure? Hehe, I wonder what kind of face you’ll make when you see him groveling later. ”

It was when that, *CRACK* *CRACK* *BANG* as if reenacting the previous scene, the barrier the wizards had created was destroyed.