“I suggest you stop getting ahead of yourself, Leon.”


  Libra’s eyes shone and a curtain of light formed around her. Aries and Dina, who were present earlier, were excluded from the field. Only Leon, Sagittarius, and Libra remained in that location. Seeing this isolated space, Leon and Sagittarius instantly realized what was going to happen……

  It’s coming! The greatest destructive power among the Twelve Heavenly Stars had buried countless warriors in the past!

  White light converged on Libra and she shone like a star. The light expanded and pulsated.

  “Brachium, activate!”


  The star exploded. An even more vibrant light ran through and violated the field of light. It was like a storm of light. Colorful particles scattered, penetrating all defenses. Neither divine magic nor skill was meaningful. Brachium was placed at the top of all abilities and took precedence without exception. In other words, once this skill was activated, the target would surely die if it did not have more than 100,000 HP. It was a cheat among cheats. Ruphas once said, “In terms of attack power, it may be higher than me.” This was a violence of the upper allowable limits, reserved for defense of the Goddess’ Sanctuary.

  And that vortex of light—was easily overcome by Leon.

  “!”


  “Warm! Ain’t it?”


  Leon extended his steel-like arm, while Libra crossed her arms to defend. Her steel arms received the impact, which caused cracks to appear. With just one punch, Libra’s body was blown away and the field of light scattered.

  Brachium certainly worked. The damage was actually inflicted. However, it wasn’t enough as Leon probably had too much HP. As if he did not care about it at all, Leon shortened the distance between himself and Libra. On the other hand, Sagittarius was barely conscious and could be seen using an item out of the corner of one’s eye.

  “Oh—!”


  “Tsk!”


  Libra jumped to evade Leon’s second attack and stopped in mid-air. Truly, despite being a rotten traitor, he was still the strongest among the Twelve Heavenly Stars. He couldn’t be challenged with a straightforward approach. In that case, she would need to show all her cards as well. Having arrived at that conclusion, Libra called for her new armament which had been approved by her master beforehand.

  “Armament Selection! Astraea!”


  In response to Libra’s call, the golem launcher in faraway Blutgang opened and steel wings flew out. The armament named Astraea rushed to Libra’s side at supersonic speed and provided fire support by shooting lasers at Leon, who was about to jump.

  “Oh!?”


  Surprised, Leon was shot down as Astraea turned in the sky. This was followed by a second and a third shot. The lasers from the cannons checked Leon’s movement. Of course, Leon would not be defeated by such attacks. However, while he was distracted, Libra and Aries closed in on him and delivered a blade attack and a flaming kick respectively. Seeing this, Leon dodged the kick, but received a cut to his forehead. There was slight bleeding from the cut skin, but the wound itself was shallow.

  “Annoying!”


  He sent Aries flying with a counter-kick and the latter’s delicate body crashed into the city wall. However, his continuous punches at Libra were evaded by a paper-thin margin and Libra gained some distance between them. In addition, she fired rays from her eyes while retreating, hitting Leon in the back and causing him to become even more irritated.

  Taking this opening, Libra flew into the sky and Astraea moved over her. Its shape changed as if it was folding and a red line connected Astraea to Libra.

  “Link!”


  The golem that was specifically constructed for Libra combined with Libra in the air. Astraea’s cannons hung over Libra’s shoulders while two more guns pointed forward at her waist. Finally, Astraea deployed her wings, giving Libra three pairs of steel wings.

  “Combination completed……Here I come!”


  “What the hell is that?”


  “It seems she has acquired a new battle mode since we last met.”


  Libra aimed the four cannons and her right arm at Leon and Sagittarius, staring down at them sternly. Both opponents were of the Twelve Heavenly Stars. Half-powered attacks would not be sufficient. In that case, there was only one way to do it……by using maximum firepower to destroy them!

  “Maximum firepower……All cannons released……Full fire!”


  Libra unleashed a flash of destruction……from her right arm, her shoulders, her waist, and her eyes. Aiming at seven locations, seven rays of destructive light shot towards Leon and Sagittarius. Both of them barely dodged the attacks, but the firing did not occur only once.

  With only slight delays, the two of them were repeatedly bombarded. One shot after another, this was the first field test of the destructive weapon. The incessant bombardment was not ineffective, even against Leon.

  Clicking his tongue, he jumped to deliver a kick at Libra. However, Libra had gained greater mobility by combining with Astraea. She instantly evaded Leon’s attack by increasing her altitude and counterattacked with all her cannons.

  “Tsk!”


  Leon turned in the air and landed, looking up at Libra cautiously. Leon would win in terms of pure fighting power, but their compatibility was bad. Although he would not lose, if this continued, he would only be wasting his stamina. Since he did not know when Aigokeros and Scorpius would return, he could not afford to focus all his power on Libra alone. Furthermore, Scorpius’ poison was slowly shaving away his stamina, thereby increasing his anxiety.

  As for Aries, whatever was fine. He was originally a fodder monster that was no different from trash. No matter how strong a trash monster became, it would still be trash. He was a prey whose existence as one of the Twelve Heavenly Stars was unnatural to begin with. Such a person could not possibly be a threat. Therefore, whatever was fine with him.

  As for that blue-haired girl watching in the corner……Leon wasn’t sure what to make of her, but it would probably be fine to leave her like this.

  “Sagittarius!”


  “Ah.”


  At Leon’s shout, Sagittarius drew his bow. Leon grabbed the unreleased arrow by the tip and looked up at Libra. His well-trained hand did not even bleed when holding on to the arrowhead.

  “Alnasl!”


  Sagittarius activated his sure-hit skill and the arrow instantly reached Libra. The unavoidable arrow hit Libra’s flank, but this was not the actual attack. While grabbing the arrowhead, Leon had moved together with it.

  “!?”


  “Gotcha!”


  Leon’s right fist pierced Libra’s shoulder, shattering the cannon. Although Libra fell towards the ground with that attack, she managed to recover and fly again at the last moment. But Leon pursued further, blowing her away with a cannon-like kick.

  After being blown away, Libra penetrated the city wall and crashed into the city itself. Even though it was his own city, Leon crashed through the houses to deliver a finishing blow to Libra. It was impossible to evade and her defenses would be easily penetrated. Just as she was in danger of destruction, someone interrupted and took Leon’s punch with his face instead of Libra.

  “Wh—What……!?”


  “.……Tsk, tsk, tsk. Have you forgotten about the existence of me, Leon?”


  His glasses broke and the punch’s shockwave caused a depression in the ground behind him. Yet, the person who received the blow was unshaken and was simply standing there with a relaxed smile.

  “You can have it back! Acubens!”


  With an elegant form, Karkinos delivered a high kick. But this was not just a kick. It was a counterattack that was imbued with Leon’s own attack power. This time, Leon’s huge body left the ground and was blown away. While crashing through the buildings along the way, Leon willfully repositioned himself and landed on the ground. However, Karkinos rushed after him.

  “You bastard! You’re just a useless crab that can only wait for an enemy to attack!”


  “Yes! Yes! Yes! Indeed, me can only do that. But because me can only do that……me won’t lose to anyone when it comes down to that!”


  Karkinos made a series of attacks at Leon using scissor blades that he retrieved from somewhere. Of course, they were ineffectual against Leon, serving only to annoy him. But that was enough since that was the aim all along.

  Leon kicked Karkinos in the chin, causing him to leave the ground for a moment. Then, immediately after that, an even more powerful kick hit Leon’s chin, sending him flying into the sky. Karkinos followed up by jumping after Leon.

  “Bastard!”


  “Leon, stop! Don’t attack!”


  Ignoring Sagittarius’ advice, Leon struck with his steel-like arm. The beating sent Karkinos’ body spinning, but the centrifugal force added to the counter, which struck Leon in the face and sent him spinning as well.

  Defense specialization. Karkinos would never make a powerful attack himself. Indeed, he couldn’t do it in the first place. His only offensive skill depended on the enemy’s attacks, thus he was unsuitable for offensive roles. It wasn’t really a lie to say that he was useless. In fact, he was the only one among the Twelve Heavenly Stars who couldn’t do anything when they were going on the offense. He ran too slowly, couldn’t attack from afar, and did not have large area attacks. There was only one thing he could do—wait to make a counterattack. That was it. However, this allowed him to demonstrate unparalleled power when facing opponents like Leon.

  Karkinos approached Leon, who was knocked down on the ground. Leon glared at him with murderous intent, channeling all his strength into his fist. Defense? Counterattack? He didn’t care about that. If it was hard, he would simply use even greater violence to smash it.

  “Oh—!”


  Karkinos was struck by a storm-like series of attacks—punch, back fist, knee strike, elbow strike, upper kick, drop kick, roundhouse kick, and double sledgehammer. He was struck down and then hit up, pushing the very limits of violence.

  Karkinos’ neat face was smeared with blood in an instant and his body bent back to a great extent. However, his mouth was raised slightly into a smile……In the next moment, Leon paid the price for his reckless violence with his own body.

  “Hahahahaha!”


  Punch, back fist, knee strike, elbow strike, upper kick, drop kick, roundhouse kick, and double sledgehammer. He was struck down and then hit up! Leon’s previous attacks were returned exactly as he delivered them. This time, it was Leon who got bloodied.

  The damage Karkinos had received was certainly not light. Even if he had the hardest defense, it was impossible to be unaffected by Leon’s attacks. But at first glance, he seemed to have the advantage by doing even more damage to Leon. Finally, he kicked Leon into the ground and landed gracefully.

  “Hay! Come on!”


  While looking down at Leon on his knees, Karkinos taunted him further by beckoning with his finger. Furthermore, Dina, who had merely been watching so far, activated her recovery divine magic to fully heal Karkinos. With this, even a battle of attrition by shaving at each other was no longer an option for Leon. In an instant, the situation had reversed.

  Thinking that the situation was worsening, Sagittarius wanted to move to provide support, but he was stopped by a cannon which was pressed against the back of his head. He knew without looking that it was Libra.

  Furthermore, Aries finally stood up while stumbling. An illusory giant goat and a monstrous scorpion also appeared in the city. Both of them, who had recovered, were full of murderous intent, having completely forgotten that they were once comrades. After looking at them and laughing bitterly, Karkinos declared suddenly to Leon.

  “Checkmate. The victor has been determined, Leon.”


  Hearing those words, Leon could only clench his teeth.