Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  Yashuu's spiritual claw managed to forcefully reach into the air and block Natsuya's powerful anti-spell formation spell!

  He then used his giant claw to forcefully squeeze Natsuya's gigantic spiritual blade into tiny little pieces! The spiritual blade broke up into bits of light that ended up fading.

  Seiji and the others were all rendered speechless.

  This was just like cheating!

  That was a huge spell specialized against spell formations. A Spirit-branded Retainer was actually capable of dealing with it in such a fashion…? How were they supposed to fight against this?

  Akatsuki Mitarai's "true strength" was simply far too astonishing. Was he supposed to be the main character rather than the antagonist!?

  'No, wait…' Seiji felt that there was some sort of hidden issue.

  Those abnormal crystals and mysterious black pillars… had such power within them. Were there no side effects at all? Zero weaknesses?

  Seiji refused to believe that a guy like Akatsuki would have the luck and plot armor of story protagonists. There would definitely be some type of hidden weakness that was difficult to spot! The critical part was how to find such a weakness.

  Seiji looked towards Natsuya.

  Natsuya was also looking at him. Her face was filled with confusion and blankness.

  Seiji realized that she had received an impact upon seeing her expression.

  "I don't believe that Akatsuki Mitarai would be so strong. There must be some type of weakness!" Seiji spoke up.

  "I can't spy any weaknesses…" Natsuya replied rather weakly.

  "That's because he disguised them excellently! He understands you and knows how you would try to find out his weaknesses. He must have specifically aimed for a method that would conceal any weaknesses from you!"

  Natsuya felt encouraged after hearing the resolution in Seiji's words.

  Still, what were they supposed to do?

  "Use Cleansing!" There was a sharp glint in Seiji's eyes. "Those two Spirit-branded Retainers obviously have something wrong with their transformation. They might be under the influence of some strange forces. I feel that attempting to Cleanse them might be the most effective method."

  Right after he finished speaking, Yashuu stepped forth and rushed towards them. With a large booming sound, Yashuu caused large cracks to appear in the ground as he pounced!

  "Dodge!"

  All four members of Seiji's team speedily avoided the huge spiritual claw that was swiping towards them with frightening momentum.

  The next moment, Yashuu swiped with yet another gigantic claw, right at Seiji!

  [Bullet Time], activate!

  Seiji simultaneously dodged the huge claw while speedily creating a seal…


  [Evolved Cleansing]!

  A golden mystical spell formation instantly appeared on Yashuu's body and gave off a blinding light.

  *Boom!!!*

  There was a loud explosion as if a bomb had gone off. Thick dark-red mist exploded from Yashuu's body and spread in a wide radius.

  Seiji saw that Yashuu collapsed as if he took a serious blow. There was even a strange, faint sound of creaking.

  He'd definitely witnessed such phenomena before when facing off against the transformed Zankita Juumonji!

  "Hell's Aura…"

  That was the true identity of those black crystals? Or were these crystals merely something similar?

  No matter what, he had been right on the mark! The Cleansing spell was super effective!!

  Seiji's mouth arced upwards ever so slightly.

  Meanwhile, Akatsuki's expression froze over.

  'How is this possible!?'

  Just now, Seiji Haruta's spell caused tremendous damage to Yashuu, leaving Akatsuki in disbelief.

  Indeed, the power he'd bestowed upon Yashuu and Koogi had a weakness. However, this weakness was one which wouldn't be so easily discovered! Only extremely specialized Cleansing magic would be able to cause any damage. Most ordinary or common Cleansing spells would be ineffective!

  Yet Seiji Haruta had such a precise spell that managed to deal damage on the first try… Just what was going on!?

  While Akatsuki was busy being astonished, he witnessed Seiji cast another Cleansing for a second time and bring massive damage to Yashuu yet again.

  'No matter what, I have to kill this bastard first!'

  Such a thought popped into Akatsuki's mind. He immediately began preparing a large-scale ultimate spell, which caused all for black pillars to light up with a dark glow.

  Natsuya and the others were heartened upon seeing Seiji's spells being effective!

  However, they immediately discovered afterwards that their Cleansing spells were apparently ineffective. Only Seiji's spells had any effect.

  Why was it that only his spells could cause so much damage?

  Natsuya instantly recalled the powerful mysterious spirit that Seiji possessed.

  What truly countered Akatsuki wasn't the Cleansing magic, but that mysterious spirit instead—Yomi's power!

  This coincidental situation was similar to what'd occurred during the duel against Okubo Yoshiaki. Back at that time, it could still be interpreted as the influence of Shika Kagura's special power negatively influencing Okubo, but what about this time?

  Was it really pure luck…?

  Even if it was only luck, such powerful luck was already inconceivable. After all, Seiji was living together with the Reaper's Curse!

  When taking this into consideration, Seiji's excellent luck seemed like…


  If Natsuya had been a gamer, she definitely would have labeled Seiji as a "cheater".

  He learned spells incredibly quickly, his Spiritual Power improved at a rapid pace, and he became a Yin Yang Master so swiftly. All of the above could still barely be attributed to extraordinary talent, but this luck… How the hell was his luck explainable!?

  "Luck is a part of strength as well." Anyone could say such a thing, but only upon truly seeing someone cheat-like to the point of defeating his enemies with luck alone would they understand how indescribable the emotion would be.

  Natsuya suddenly impulsively wanted to know what Akatsuki was currently feeling like right now.

  That was when she noticed that Akatsuki was currently uttering an incantation for an obviously powerful spell!

  She instantly realized Akatsuki's intentions and wanted to stop him.

  However, the strengthened Koogi was now flying through the air with dark-red spell formations appearing behind her. The spiritual bullets she shot out with her dual guns had much greater power than earlier. The bullets had the force of a cannon shot, which prevented Natsuya from doing anything to interrupt Akatsuki's spellcasting.

  "Seiji…" Natsuya sent a mental message to him.

  Seiji immediately activated one of their trump cards upon hearing this.

  [Mana Exchange]—to power both of them up!

  Both their Mana activated and strengthened each other, temporarily giving them both a powered-up state.

  Killing curse - "Hell's Torrent"!

  Akatsuki cast a spell that created a gigantic spell formation in midair. Black light erupted from this spell formation and rushed towards his enemies like a torrential flood!

  This spell had a very large area of effect and was difficult to dodge.

  When Seiji saw this powerful magic attack coming for him, he didn't even attempt to dodge. Instead, he smiled.

  "Come!"

  Seiji made a pose with longsword and started casting a spell.

  Right before this terrifyingly powerful spell reached him, a large number of miniature spell formations appeared before Seiji. He then wielded his longsword to block the incoming black tide's onslaught, causing the mystical lights on the spell formations around him to glow!

  "OHHHHH!!"

  Seiji roared as he was under immense pressure. He concentrated purely on receiving the attack, then condensing and reshaping…


  Reversal spell, [Dragon Counterattack]!

  Seiji whirlwinded his longsword as the spell formations flashed. The black tide was seemingly cleansed as it transformed into a golden light which swiftly formed into an elegant divine dragon!

  "What…!?" Akatsuki widened his eyes in surprise.

  "Taste the dragon's blade!" Seiji shouted Genji's quote from Overwatch as he wielded his sword with full force!

  The imposing golden dragon seemingly roared as it burst through the air and shot back towards Akatsuki at a much faster speed than the black tide!

  This scene etched itself deeply in Ayami Himiki and all the other observers' eyes.

  "Impossible…"

  Akatsuki's handsome face distorted. He was incredibly shaken by the golden dragon which was speedily heading straight for him.

  *Boom!!*

  The tremendous dragon crashed into Akatsuki's personal defensive barrier, and devoured him along with his four black pillars, exploding into a blinding light!

  "So cool…" Ayami Himiki exclaimed in amazement.

  She instantly concluded that this was one of the coolest-looking techniques that she had ever seen since she began judging duels!