Yumigawa Senki faced five of the branch’s strongest: a mid-tier Divine Realm dark mage, two high-tier Sacred Realm dark mages, and two Holy Peak demon summoners. They stood like five obsidian pillars under stormlight.
This lineup dwarfed the one that struck Egisia Academy, mountains against hills. If five branches merged into one, their weight on the scales might rival the Eastern Moon Empire.
The Dark Demon’s roots ran under every continent, a shadowy network veining the world. Add them up, and they ranked just after the Four Great Races.
Among all powers, the Dark Demon had the largest headcount, a tide of bodies. While the Four Great Races and others stalled like stagnant ponds, the Dark Demon grew like wildfire, brimming with potential.
Left unchecked, a few centuries more, and they might surpass the Four Great Races, a new second power beneath heaven.
After a few minutes of trading blows, Senki reached those conclusions, cool wind in her chest and steel in her gaze. Their gear and spellwork were refined compared to Egisia Academy’s. They moved in formation like meshing gears; each knew their role. As one, they hit hard enough to challenge her while she used only wind magic.
But Senki was one of the few who fused blade and spell, silk and steel braided as one. Even while testing Wind Chant with only wind magic, her swordplay kept her from falling behind.
She felt ease flood her limbs, like sea breeze washing hot stone. Holding back on purpose, she still savored the freedom of an unchained fight.
With the Sacred Life Sword in hand, there was no fear of attrition; its healing eclipsed even a Supreme Divine Spirit Medicine, spring rain over withered fields. She threw out divine-rank wind magic at will, gales like silver knives. If not for this sinister grand array underfoot, those five would’ve fallen already.
Even so, ten minutes in, the Dark Demon quintet looked ghastly. Their black robes hung in tatters like torn night; blood soaked them through. Wounds deepened with every breath. Faced with her relentless divine wind arts, they had no answers. Lasting this long was a lantern surviving a gale.
As Senki finished erasing the demon summons, change struck like a cracked bell— The earth trembled. The array at her feet flared violet-black, a glare like poison. The disruptive effect surged severalfold, a tide turning blacker.
The five Dark Demon mages shook uncontrollably, faces white as bone. Their robes darkened, unknowingly soaked in their own offering of blood. Black fog coiled around them, tight as a constrictor, hungry as night.
“Damn it, at a time like this…”
“No choice. The seal’s at a critical point, and the Mizumi Clan suddenly called for our purge. All our elites left to meet them, leaving only ordinary members to maintain the seal. Losing control and getting devoured is expected, but I didn’t think it’d be this fast. Looks like all our past efforts just turned to ash.”
“Worse, if what’s sealed gets exposed, we won’t need the Mizumi Clan’s call. The Dark Demon will become the world’s public enemy overnight.”
“What do we do? It’s about to swallow my mind! Think of something, Branch Leader!”
“At this point, we’re out of moves…” The mid-tier Divine Realm branch leader, a dark mage, bared a cruel grin. “If we’re driven to a cliff, we drag the Mizumi Clan down with us even in death. Stop resisting. Let it devour us, and demand revenge on those three from the Mizumi Clan as the price.”
“…You’re right. If we can take the Mizumi Clan with us, our deaths are worth it!”
The black fog swallowed the five in a gulp and knit itself into a humanoid shadow. Crimson eyes burned within, twin coals that made Senki’s heart lurch. The threat it radiated was immense, an aura squarely at Overdeity Level.
Worse, its baleful fury woke the array fully. Glass-dark walls spread from the lines underfoot and sealed the area without a seam. Inside, the interference grew harsher, and a mana-devouring pull was born. If left to ripen, it would soon drain stamina, mind, and life. Senki let Wind Chant fall silent and smoothed the thrill from her face; steel-cold focus took its place.
She drew the Sacred Life Sword, ready to shatter the array. Soundless, the black shadow flickered to her back like frost on the nape.
A spike of danger stabbed her chest and faded. She drove the Sacred Life Sword into the ground. “Earth Sword: Dispel.”
A brutal shockwave blasted the shadow back a few steps. She spun and slashed into it, only to cut nothing. Of course. It was a phantom; steel meant nothing to smoke.
The violence rolling off it was almost solid, a storm pressing the lungs flat. Senki knew this would be a bitter fight.
“Looks like I have to go all out.” Her mood sharpened like a whetstone. “Don’t disappoint me.”
She murmured it to herself. Since her sword and magic had broken into the Divine Realm, all her sword-spell arts had evolved. She’d wanted a full-power fight, to feel where her limit lived.
This black shadow was perfect prey. A small smile tugged at her lips.
“If steel won’t touch you… Light Sword: Gift of Light.” She dipped under the shadow’s strike and brought up the Sacred Life Sword, blazing white. A harsh sizzle answered, like ice meeting salt. The phantom reeled back, howling hoarse and furious.
“…Unforgivable… mere offerings… dare…”
Without warning, black fog burst from it in a thick, choking plume. The sky clotted with cloud; thunder braided the dark, a weight on the ribs.
The fog hardened into heavy black armor that wrapped the shadow from head to heel. Crimson glow leaked from the visor, ripe with bloodlust. A spear formed in its grip, sharp as winter. It looked every inch a black knight.
The shadow finished its metamorphosis into a Black Knight. Its Overdeity Level strength unfolded at last, a night tide in full.
