"Tsk!"

Originally thinking that the attack which seemed unsolvable was unexpectedly resolved, Hazel, while in doubt, did not dare to be negligent. Dozens of bright flashes shot towards Aya and Tiran in a swift manner, while also beginning to gather more firepower to try and end the battle quickly.

To some extent, his rule was indeed not as suitable for solo battles as he had imagined, after all, if he were to use a large-scale weapon of mass destruction, the entire city would suffer.

The greatest strength of civilization lies in creativity. With time, Hazel has endless possibilities—although with his current level of mastery of rule abilities, the potential of this ability only remains at the level of mere potential. Even though the creativity of civilization is infinite, it has been less than five years since he obtained this ability, and achieving the level of creating freely at will is really too ambitious.

However, if one cannot defeat the enemy in one strike, winning by sheer numbers is not a bad choice either.

"Deploy!"

Hundreds of particle floating cannons appeared behind Hazel, their fluctuating energy even visible to the naked eye.

Aya and Tiran exchanged glances, then took two steps back, distancing themselves, and swiftly moved in opposite directions.

A burst of crimson high-energy rays erupted, easily melting the ground where the two had been standing, leaving behind a deep bottomless pit, the bottom and walls of which were flowing with dark red lava.

This power level... directly outclassed the single-target attacks of high-level Magic, barely comparable to forbidden curses, but the problem is that forbidden curses cannot be used for sweeping attacks like machine guns!

Relying on the ice crystal wings to ascend, Tiran maneuvered in three-dimensional space, with a cold sweat running down his face at the sight of the power of the floating cannons.

One could not afford to be hit by this, as even with a share of Aya's physical strength through the Dragon Knight contract, one might still perish.

But this density...

A high-energy particle stream grazed Tiran's wings, and even though there was no direct contact, the tiny heat emitted caused his ice crystal wings, maintained by Frost Chi, to show signs of melting.

Half of the floating cannons dispersed and concentrated their fire towards Tiran, possessing the capability to move themselves, allowing them to change positions at will. High-energy particle streams weaved a dense network in the air, with the Princess dodging within it in an astounding manner, even looking somewhat... aesthetically pleasing?

...Just like an acrobat, no, it would be more apt to say that it felt like being one of those Neon pilots in the Pacific War, shouting and dashing through the enemy's anti-aircraft fire... Kamikaze simulator?

Ugh! What an inauspicious déjà vu feeling!

Tiran shook his head vigorously and cunningly dodged two beams that narrowly grazed past him.

This density, though troublesome, seemed manageable, but it was becoming increasingly unlikely to take down the opponent with long-range attacks in such a situation. It seemed more satisfying to directly confront and output damage to the face.

Wait—

In the midst of strategizing, Tiran's flight trajectory momentarily straightened—a brief moment but captured.

Four high-energy particle streams locked her flight path from four different directions, unambiguously.

"Oh no, it's too late to evade at this speed."

Tiran's heart skipped a beat and instinctively activated the rule of time to gain time for evasion.

"Now's the time, there's no way you can avoid this!"

Controlling over a hundred floating cannons to chase the two, Hazel couldn't help but shout, causing time that had slowed down to be forcibly canceled out, with the high-energy particle stream still locking onto Tiran's body.

However, with his attention overly focused on Tiran, Hazel subconsciously overlooked the other person.

【Reflective Mirror】

Named as a Reflective Mirror but actually a type of spatial Magic, the white mirrors simultaneously appeared on both sides of Tiran's body, smoothly intercepting the high-energy particle streams from four different directions. The counterattack beams ended up destroying four floating cannons, but the excessively high energy density exceeded the limit for this defensive reflective Magic, causing it to shatter after one reflection.

"Aya, I love you forever, you'll get a reward when we get back!"

Seizing this gap, Tiran immediately retracted her wings and accelerated downwards to dodge more subsequent particle beams.

"Let's take care of this guy first!"

Before finishing a sentence in the contract, Aya herself was hit on the left arm by a beam due to a distraction while enhancing Tiran with Magic. Thankfully, the Dragon Scale shattered, absorbing the blow, combined with the resistance of the Golden Dragon's body, the injury wasn't too severe, and was quickly healed by healing arts.

Adjusting to the floating cannons' attacks, Tiran and Aya began to counterattack. Although the cannons' attacks were fierce, their own defenses were fragile enough that even the Moonlight Sword Qi casually slashed by Tiran's Frost Chi could destroy them.

As time passed, Aya and Tiran continued to weave through the floating cannons' firepower, destroying more and more of them, becoming increasingly adept at it. However, they faced Hazel, who could create an unlimited number of floating cannons with the rule, even though they destroyed many, there were still a considerable number of floating cannons joining the battlefield.

And perhaps out of illusion, Aya felt that the cannons' attacks were becoming increasingly difficult to dodge, with the angles becoming more cunning.

Once again, a particle beam grazed Aya's hair.

"It's not an illusion, these attacks are indeed becoming harder to dodge!"

This was the third time within a minute that she narrowly avoided being hit, with the possibility of being struck next time, and the floating cannons rebuilt themselves endlessly, seeming bottomless.

Then, let's take him down, with full force.

"Aya, lend me a hand!"

With a heroic landing appearance, Tiran stamped her foot, covering a large area around her with Frost Chi to create a mirror-smooth ice shield to withstand the first round of gunfire.

"Raise the shield."

Aya arrived by Tiran's side, her ice-based Magic reinforcing the ice shield, doubling its thickness and strength.

"Holding up like this won't work, we won't be able to withstand a sustained attack." Aya glanced outside with slight apprehension.

"It's fine to hold for a while; I want to try something."

Tiran revealed an eager expression, lightly pressing her right hand against the ice shield in front of her.

Under the impact of the high-energy particle streams, even this shield, which for an ordinary warrior was as solid as a rock, was visibly melting at an alarming rate, and even through the thick layer of ice, one could see the fiery flow of the impact.

"It's useless; this thing will only melt, don't you understand?"

Hazel watched them behind the ice shield with a cat-catching-mouse attitude, seeing the duo struggle.

—Of course, for Tiran, she still had the option to escape directly through spatial movement, but Hazel was indifferent. His presence here was solely due to King Maston's request, without any intent to kill.

But soon, Hazel realized that something was amiss.

The high-energy particle streams seemed unable to continue melting the ice shield. Regardless of how the crimson rays impacted, they could only slide off or reflect on the smooth surface of the shield, while the ice remained as pristine as at the beginning.

Harnessing the residual magic to control all floating cannons to concentrate fire at one point had no effect; the particle streams shot from all directions were being reflected back intact, destroying nearly half of the floating cannons with a single blow...

Spatial rule? No, he hadn't noticed any spatial distortions.

Could it be the effect of Chi? Impossible, as strong as Chi may be, it was only capable of freezing and forming ice, and it was inconceivable that it could nullify high-energy particle streams.

Then it could only be... a rule?

"What is this? How is this possible?"

Not only Hazel, but even Aya looked bewildered. Just a moment ago, an attack of near-forbidden curse energy level that could be fatal with a single touch, why did it suddenly lose its edge?

Although she could sense through the contract that this effect was achieved through a rule, she couldn't fathom how using 【Vibration】 could achieve near-absolute defense.

Upon confirming the effect of this move, the Princess couldn't help but laugh triumphantly.

It seemed that the simpler the rule sounded, the more powerful it was. She confirmed that as long as the rule's range of influence was broad enough, it could expand and evolve into various directions.

Like the current "Absolute Defense."

Controlled by the Holy Rank law 【Vibration】 derived from the Dragon Knight contract, Tiran and Aya held sway over all vibrations in this world; naturally, it was not limited to mere "shockwaves."

This was sparked by the inspiration Hazel provided with the sound bomb earlier. It seemed that it was indeed possible to create sound bombs using the rule of vibration, which was even simpler.

Furthermore, to generalize, vibration's scope of influence went beyond that.

This was when certain scientific knowledge from past lives came into play.

For instance... atomic theory.

All substances in the world are composed of atoms, and microscopic particles including atoms and molecules are in constant random movement.

Because of this thermal motion, the concept of "temperature" exists.

The rule of vibration could control the vibrations of all existing matter in this world, naturally being able to stop their movement.

And once the minute particles were frozen, with thermal motion completely halted, all that remained was utter stillness—the profound silence that existed before the world came into being, just within the scope of the rule's action.

Absolute zero at minus 273 degrees Celsius.

Even the lowest temperature that Tiran's Frost Chi could achieve wasn't below a hundred degrees below zero, naturally unable to withstand the impact of high-energy particle streams. However, by halting the vibrations of microscopic particles to produce absolute zero, they sealed off all motion, an impregnable barrier of despair that could not be breached by mere external force.

In a battle of Holy Rank, a change in offense meant a momentary victory.

"You have already lost."

Tiran declared with unprecedented confidence.

"If you want to know why, it's because—"

"You don't understand physics, kiddo."