Becoming an Eminence in Shadow in the New World (DxD / StrikeTheBlood) Chapter 185: Darkness Is About to Devour the Light, and Time

As if it were nothing more than a casual flick of the wrist, the pitch-black sword swept through the air. Along its path, a streak of sword Qi several dozen ters long appeared and rushed toward the Church warriors on the ground.

The pitch-black sword Qi was light and swift. In an instant, it crossed the distance between them, kicking up a raging storm as it descended.

"Everyone, get out of the way! I'll block this attack!"

The young priest with spiky blond hair standing at the very front stepped forward, trying to stop the advancing pitch-black sword Qi with both hands.

Through the boy's efforts, the sword Qi slowed, but it was still pointless. The sword Qi had firmly locked onto everyone in the arena.

"Nero, we'll help you!"

Soone shouted, and the Church warriors standing behind the boy nad Nero all stepped forward, pressing their hands against his back. Several shields of light appeared in front of them.

"Everyone…"

The boy looked at the Church warriors behind him, who were helping him withstand the attack. Tears glimred at the corners of his eyes, and he nodded hard.

"Yeah. Let's survive this together."

As the Church warriors joined forces, the Holy Light they gathered grew brighter and brighter. The pitch-black sword Qi even began to be pushed back.

"No matter how many tis I see a scene like this, the light of humanity shining so brightly, it still moves ."

Standing high in the sky and looking down, Cid spoke with a tone of admiration. His gaze, however, was fixed on the three Church warriors capable of card enhancent, as well as Genshirou Saji, who had been dragged over by the Church warriors as a substitute enhancent material.

"Can I take that to an you were moved by their spirit, so you're going to tell them the solution and spare their lives?"

Natsuki Minamiya, who had tried to retrieve her chain but had no choice except to give up because the scythe was wrapped tightly around it, tested him in a joking tone.

"Of course not. Being moved by them doesn't an I'm going to admit defeat and make things easy for them. I've already gone easy on them more than enough, haven't I? For example…"

Answering Natsuki Minamiya in the sa joking tone, "Delta" swung the pitch-black sword in his hand and knocked away the flas spraying toward him.

Then he turned toward the angel Dulio, whose injuries had completely vanished. Endless Holy Light radiated from Dulio's body. For a brief mont, he had returned to his peak and even surpassed it, with a sixth pair of illusory wings appearing behind him. Controlling Delta's body, Cid revealed a cruel smile.

"I gave them a little ti to transfer light power to Joker-san and enhance him, didn't I?"

As he said that, Cid raised his hand, making a motion as if he were about to snap his fingers.

Realizing what Cid ant, Dulio and Natsuki Minamiya's expressions changed at the sa ti.

With a flap of his wings, Dulio appeared in front of Delta almost instantly. A massive Spear of Light materialized in his hand.

At the sa ti, several chains extended from Magic Circles in the void, glowing with Magical Power as they shot toward Delta from every direction.

"Snap!"

With a crisp sound, a flash of white light crossed the surface of the pitch-black sword Qi that had been locked in a stalemate with the Church warriors. Darkness that seed capable of devouring everything surged out from the sword Qi and swallowed the light released by the Church warriors in an instant.

"Whoosh!"

The next second, the darkness expanded dozens of tis over, then abruptly exploded like an overinflated balloon. The violent blast sent fierce winds spiraling around the massive crater, producing wave after wave of howling gusts.

"Aaaah!!!"

When the darkness faded, what entered Dulio's eyes were the Church warriors lying on the ground. Every one of them was deathly pale, their auras faint as they let out weak groans.

"Don't let your teammates' sacrifices go to waste. Anger will only make you weaker."

A lecturing voice rang out. Delta, who had evaded the earlier series of attacks, was hanging upside down above Dulio. He brought another heavy kick down, then turned and swung his arm, sending two waves of sword Qi no weaker than the last one crashing down toward the falling Dulio.

"You're provoking him on purpose."

Quietly watching as Dulio was struck down and severely wounded by the two sword Qi attacks in succession, Cid heard Natsuki Minamiya's flat, girlish voice by his ear. In response, he rely smiled.

"Isn't that part of the strategy?"

"You… plan to kill all of them here?"

"If I really wanted to kill you all, why would I go through this much trouble? I told you before, I only see this as an opening ceremony. Win or lose, it's nothing more than an appetizer before the main course."

With one slash, he split apart the freezing ray fired by Dulio. Then his claws seized Dulio's wings and tore off the pair that had just grown back.

"But I can't see even the slightest chance of them defeating you. If they had no hope of winning from the very beginning, then how is this any different from killing them?"

"Don't slander . The Delta standing in front of you isn't that battle beast with endless Magical Power to throw around, but a substitute Shadow who can only use half of Delta's Magical Power."

"In a sense, I'm only getting weaker with every passing second. After all, I promised you I'd only use the amount of Magical Power I have right now."

Natsuki Minamiya fell silent. She badly wanted to argue that this was not how the math worked. Earlier, although Delta had possessed an enormous amount of Magical Power, every move had only been powered with the bare minimum, and a vast amount of Magical Power had been wasted for nothing.

But now, with Cid controlling Delta, not a single trace of Magical Power leaked from her body. All of it was focused into a single point, allowing ten parts of strength to produce the effect of thirteen.

Yet Natsuki Minamiya could not say any of that, because what Cid said was true. If Delta's Magical Power had previously remained fixed at twenty, then the current Delta did not even have one, and it would continue to decrease with ti.

"If you think that's still too difficult, then I'll add one more restriction. I won't use Magical Power to defend Delta's body. Judging by your performance so far, I don't need to defend anyway."

"That's right. As long as you manage to injure even once, I'll lose while relying purely on Delta's body to take the hit. What do you think of that…"

His voice began to grow excited. "Delta" shifted slightly in the void, dodging the attack from the human-shaped figure in golden armor that had suddenly appeared behind her.

"You really are hard to guard against. Earlier, you pretended your chains were trapped and that you couldn't attack. Now that I've lowered the victory conditions, you imdiately launched a sneak attack to try to win. Witch of the Void, you're being truly despicable right now."

"But you're enjoying it, aren't you? Don't you also want to see them win?"

"Mm, it is quite interesting. But that's enough. If you want to keep your advantage from here on, you'll have to rely on your own ability."

The pitch-black sword, filled with dense Magical Power, slashed toward the golden figure, easily cutting through the armor on its chest and leaving a wound behind.

"Clang…"

Completely unaffected by the injury, the golden figure swung its fist. The forceful punch smashed toward Delta and collided with the pitch-black sword, producing the sound of tal striking tal.

"Natsuki Minamiya, is this the Guardian you obtained after signing a contract with a Devil as the Witch of the Void and trading away your soul?"

Contract Devils, unique to World No. 2, were existences similar to the laws of the world, and they ran through the entire history of World No. 2.

When certain won possessed unique talents, they could sense Contract Devils and sign contracts with them. By paying a certain price, they would obtain an ageless, undying body, endless Magical Power, and a Guardian that was the incarnation of a Devil. Won who signed contracts with Devils were known as Witches.

But even with so many benefits, under normal circumstances, almost no one would sign a contract with a Devil. First, they would be hunted by the Church. Second, the prices demanded were strange and unpredictable. Third, they would be despised by the world, including Vampires and all kinds of demi-humans.

"This really is a fresh experience. This is my first ti fighting a Guardian that's an incarnation of a Devil."

Cid was not lying. Back when he attacked the library to bring it under his control, he had deliberately given them so ti because he wanted to witness the legendary Guardians that symbolized the traits of Witches.

But for so reason, even after he defeated the entire library and took them in like dogs, he still had not seen a single Witch summon her Guardian…

After that, he reflected on the painful lesson and changed his approach. He planned to follow the contracts between the library Witches and the Contract Devils, tracing them back to et the Contract Devil that was the Guardian's true body. But then he discovered that all the contracts on those Witches had been undone, and they had not even taken the Guardians with them!!!

As for Guardians who had lost the support of Devils, their upper limit depended entirely on the Witches. And as for the strength of those Witches…

After exchanging another punch with the golden figure, Delta's strength forced the golden figure three steps back. But Delta was not pleased. On the contrary, the calm ease that had been on her face was gone, replaced by a slight frown.

"This is troubleso…"

Muttering those words, she grabbed the Golden Guardian's arm with her other hand and pulled it forward. Her palm pressed against the Guardian's body, and powerful Magical Power surged from Delta's hand, instantly covering the Golden Guardian's massive form.

"Boom!"

The powerful Magical Power exploded on the spot, kicking up a large cloud of smoke that hid the situation inside.

"An immortal Contract Devil, huh? That really is an incredibly powerful ability…"

The Golden Guardian charged out of the smoke, missing more than half of its body. Such horrific wounds would have been fatal to an ordinary person, but the Devil behind it paid them no mind. In the span of only a few words, it had already recovered.

After blocking the attack, Delta gathered even stronger and more compressed Magical Power onto her sword. With a casual swing, she knocked the Guardian away, and Cid launched an attack on Natsuki Minamiya, who was hiding in the rear.

Because he had agreed earlier to use only half of Delta's Magical Power in this battle, Cid had to take out Natsuki Minamiya first. Otherwise, if Natsuki Minamiya stalled long enough for his Magical Power to run low, he might actually be worn down to death.

Magic Circles in the void continued extending chains toward Delta, but the chains that had always been so effective when capturing criminals could not even touch her now. They only beca footholds for Delta in midair.

After cutting through the last chain blocking the way between him and Natsuki Minamiya, Delta looked at Natsuki Minamiya, who was still pretending to be calm, raised the sword, and threw it toward the location of the spatial fluctuation.

Sure enough, almost the very next second after the pitch-black sword was thrown, Natsuki Minamiya appeared exactly where Cid had predicted.

"Thunk."

The blade passed straight through Natsuki Minamiya's heart and pinned her to the ground.

Seeing that the plan had succeeded, Delta tapped her toes lightly against the void, and her agile body imdiately dove toward Natsuki Minamiya.

"Ahhh…"

Natsuki Minamiya tried to activate spatial magic again and escape, but the Magical Power constantly radiating from the sword disrupted the flow of her own Magical Power. All she could do was watch Delta's figure draw closer and closer.

"Boom!"

Another explosion erupted. The shockwave swept up the dust on the ground, and the entire scene was imdiately swallowed by smoke.

The pitch-black sword shot out of the smoke and returned to Delta's hand. She put the sword away and stared fixedly at the huge crater on the ground.

"Cough, cough, cough…"

When the smoke cleared, Natsuki Minamiya was kneeling on the ground in a wretched state, coughing. Beside her stood the Golden Guardian she had used to block that attack, its body slowly repairing itself.

His gaze turning serious, the pitch-black sword leapt out from the black coat. Cid wanted to go down and finish her off.

"Boom!"

Thunder roared. A flash lit up the battlefield, and a bolt of lightning blocked Cid's path.

Looking up at the sky, Dulio was now entirely surrounded by a sea of lightning. The lightning continuously rged with his light power, increasing its killing force and destructive power without end. This attack… could not be dodged.

"This is a real crisis. Looks like I'm the one in danger now."

With a faint smile on her face, Delta looked up at Dulio in the sky and spoke.

"I bet you don't dare shoot."

It was a baffling thing to say, but Dulio only remained silent.

"Drip, drip…"

The sound of water dripping onto the ground rang out. The clothes of the Church warriors lying on the ground had already been soaked through in many places.

That was why Dulio had not launched his attack. Water conducted electricity. If he accidentally caught them in the attack, then the already weakened Church warriors really would die on the spot.

"Heh, heh, heh. Darkness is about to devour the light. You're out of ti."

Laughing as he spoke, Cid took advantage of Dulio's mont of hesitation and controlled Delta's body to switch targets, directing the attack straight at Dulio.

"So this is what they call bonds…"

Half sighing and half mocking, Cid swung the pitch-black sword, sending it flying forward. It effortlessly broke through the sea of lightning surrounding Dulio and carved a wound across his chest, deep enough that white bone and organs could faintly be seen.

"Do you still want to keep fighting? Bet your family's lives on it if you want. Surrender now, and you can still take your people and leave alive."

"Please, tell … the solution to the Black Spot Curse. They're still waiting for to save them."

Lying on the ground, Dulio desperately raised his head and begged in a trembling voice.

"I'm sorry. I can't tell you."