Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  'He really is incredibly strong,' Seiji thought as he vigorously fought against Naruo Yashuu.

  Back at the Winter Snow Festival, their duel had only been a game. If Yashuu had gone all out against him at that time, Seiji felt that he was highly likely to have lost.

  Akasuzume Koogi was agilely tumbling through the air, quite incredible as well. Her dual gun shooting and swift gunblade attacks were all quite threatening.

  Shinobu Miaki, the human puppet, wasn't nearly as agile. However, her attacks were harder to predict due to the fact that she didn't need to slow down or hesitate at all. One slip of someone's meant that her uneven twin swords would get through.

  Akatsuki used his four summoned black pillars to fight to a draw in spellcasting against Natsuya who had the home field advantage of the high school's spell formation backing her up. It could be seen that he was a highly skilled spellcaster.

  He was a truly strong opponent as well.

  'However, we're still stronger!' Something flashed in Seiji's eyes as he held on to his shield and blocked yet another one of Yashuu's attacks.

  Koogi's twin guns shot streams of light as she jumped in midair, raining down a torrent of spiritual bullets upon Hitaka she was facing.

  Koogi then uttered an incantation that caused all the spiritual bullets to instantly explode! The explosions also released countless miniature spell formations.

  Ultimate aerial technique, "Demolishing Blades"!

  Koogi crossed her guns and continuously shot out red arcs that entered the spell formations and started bouncing around between the spell formations at an incredibly high speed. In just an instant, the red arcs of light sliced through Hitaka's body several thousand times!

  Hitaka was sliced and diced to tiny little pieces… but there was no blood!

  The real Hitaka appeared to Koogi's left. A light was gathering upon the blade in Hitaka's right hand as she suddenly sliced out in a powerful attack!

  *Clang!* Koogi blocked Hitaka's blade with her gunblade and turned around using the impact's momentum, intending to begin another round of shooting attacks. However, her vision suddenly darkened!

  Demon illusion technique, "Shadow Lantern"!

  This was a spell that Rana cast upon Koogi. This spell had zero attack power, but had the effect of preventing the target's eyes from seeing anything.

  Koogi instantly started firing her guns in random directions and activated a self-protection spell to dispel the vision-blocking spell. However, she found that nobody was in front of her anymore by the time her vision returned.

  Hitaka descended from midair at a high speed while an even more blinding glow gathered on her blade. Her sword sharply whistled through the air as it sliced forcefully down towards Yashuu!

  Yashuu detected her attack and was about to dodge.

  [Ice Prison]!

  Seiji accurately cast his telekinesis control spell and trapped Yashuu where he stood.

  Hitaka's blade was almost about to arrive.

  Sharp fang technique, "Vicious Bite"!

  *Boom!!* Yashuu was sliced into the ground. His personal protective barrier was heavily damaged.

  [Ice Calamity Blade]!

  Seiji decisively followed up Hitaka's attack with his own as the longsword in his ice hand sliced with the power of ice. Numerous spirit swords materialized in midair and sliced down at Yashuu!

  Yashuu's personal barrier was completely demolished as three spirit blades pierced into his body, causing him to scream in pain.

  At this time, Koogi's covering fire finally arrived, but it was too late.

  Hitaka easily dodged the spiritual bullets.

  Seiji blocked the spiritual bullets with his shield when he suddenly sensed danger.

  A dark blood-red figure suddenly appeared to his side. The puppet girl was wielding her uneven twin swords and coming for him!

  [Ksitigarbha technique] shield block!

  *Thud!* Seiji solidly blocked Shinobu's sneak-attack aimed at him, mitigating the impact by transferring part of the force into the ground. This caused several cracks to appear where he stood.

  Demon dance, "Feast of Blades"!

  The puppet girl seemed to continually flash as she sliced at an incredibly high speed and attacked from all directions!

  [Bullet Time], activate!

  Seiji easily managed to block and dodge all her attacks.

  From Ayami's point of view, he managed to precisely defend against the furious onslaught. It was as brilliant as if he was dancing together with a maniac demon.

  Meanwhile, Hitaka and Rana used the advantage of numbers now that it was four against three and teamed up together against Koogi.

  Sharp fang technique, "Group Bite"!

  Hitaka released a red light that transformed into five red shadows. All five red shadows possessed sharp blades and attacked Koogi!

  Demon mist, "Cat Dance"!

  Rana enveloped herself in a red mist that instantly blurred her figure into numerous cats that all rushed towards Koogi!

  Aerial defensive technique, "Full Moon"!

  Koogi seemingly transformed into white light as she shot both her guns at a high speed, turning and shooting in all directions. She seemed as brilliant as the moon itself!

  At this moment, light and mist intersected as swords clashed against bullets. This was an incredibly chaotic scene that also had a mysterious beauty that seemed abnormal.

  Finally, the full moon faded as Koogi collapsed.

  Hitaka and Rana immediately headed over to support Seiji.

  A red light flashed in Shinobu's eyes as she received an order to swiftly retreat in order to avoid being surrounded on all sides by Seiji, Hitaka, and Rana.

  "Marvelous," Akatsuki Mitarai spoke up.

  Although he'd just witnessed two of his Spirit-branded Retainers collapsing, he seemed like he didn't care at all. He was still smiling.

  "No wonder you dared to duel against me, Natsuya… so you all possessed such power. Not bad, not bad at all. Especially you, Haruta-san. Your power level forces me to admit that you are no longer a 'piece of garbage'. You've become really amazing."

  The handsome dark-blue-haired boy even clapped his hands.

  "I truly praise you all and apologize for underestimating you. Now then, as long as you can defeat me, it's your victory… Come."

  Akatsuki extended his palms in a seemingly welcoming manner.

  Seiji furrowed his eyebrows upon seeing Akatsuki behaving in such a manner. Seiji glanced over at Natsuya to see what she thought.

  Natsuya currently had a serious expression.

  Two of Akatsuki's Spirit-branded Retainers had indisputably collapsed, while all four of them were in good condition. Logically speaking, Seiji and Natsuya's team should have the victory well within their grasp. However, Natsuya's expression wasn't like they were about to win at all… just what was the problem?

  "Those four black pillars are actually an incredibly powerful spiritual artifact," Natsuya suddenly spoke in Seiji's mind. "Don't rush over yet."

  The black pillars… Seiji took another look over in Akatsuki's direction.

  "What exactly are those?" Seiji mentally inquired.

  "They should be some type of 'Spirit Stakes'. I can't tell the specifics. I only know that they're incredibly solid and possess an enormous amount of Mana within them. From the beginning of the duel to now, I've been competing against him in spellcasting, but I've inflicted zero damage…"

  "So, you're saying that the power of those four pillars is equal to the school's large spell formation?" Seiji raised his eyebrows in surprise.

  "Pretty much… at any rate, don't be rash in rushing to attack."

  "Then what should we do?"

  Something flashed in Natsuya's eyes.

  "I'm going to cast a powerful spell that's specially designed as an anti-spell formation spell. This will require a period of time when I must maintain a high degree of concentration. Protect me while I'm doing so."

  "Understood."

  Seiji, Hitaka, and Rana all stood close by to Natsuya and used their defensive formation.

  "You're not coming over? Heh heh, a wise decision." Akatsuki chuckled. "It would appear that you're not so foolish to believe that you've won already."

  Akatsuki stopped smiling and his gaze grew icy.

  "That was just a warmup. I'm going to get serious now."

  Right after he finished speaking, two of the black pillars issued a blood-red glow as complex runes and spell formations appeared on them.

  Yashuu and Koogi, who were both collapsed on the ground, were suddenly enveloped by a blood-red mist.

  "I shall allow you all to witness my true power," Akatsuki spoke such a classical villainous line as two balls of blood mist slowly rose up with terrifying screams coming from inside!

  Seiji and his companions all felt an ominous premonition.

  Soon, the two balls of blood mist exploded, revealing Yashuu and Koogi who had seemingly transformed.

  Strange black crystals grew all over their bodies, making it seem like they were wearing some strange armor. A blood-red glow could be faintly seen moving between the crystals. There was also a sound that resembled someone panting heavily, which sounded quite strange.

  Rana's cat ears were stiff and completely vertical. Hitaka had a tense expression, while Seiji furrowed his eyebrows.

  Everyone could sense that Yashuu and Koogi were now even more dangerous than earlier… it was as if they had just witnessed ordinary boss monsters suddenly evolving into elite tier bosses.

  Spell formation-piercing technique, "Inescapable Blade"!

  Natsuya finished casting her spell. A tremendously large dark-red spiritual blade materialized in midair. Numerous smaller spell formations were rotating around it in an orderly fashion, giving it an incredible aura.

  The next instant, this gigantic spiritual blade locked on to its target and shot forth!

  Akatsuki merely watched the spiritual blade approach and didn't even react.

  *Boom!!!*

  A gigantic dark-purple claw suddenly reached up in midair and blocked the huge spiritual blade!

  "What…?!" Natsuya widened her eyes in surprise.