The arrival of Azrael and his two companions didn't go unnoticed by the demons below.
However, as the ones taking the initiative, they still seized the advantage.
"Hadō #88: Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō."
Blazing lightning interspersed with orange-yellow beams streaked across the sky, instantly striking a massive steel ship.
A violent explosion erupted, instantly reaching the ship's ammunition depot.
"Boom!"
The terrifying secondary detonation erupted like a giant firework on the calm sea surface. A sea of fire, spitting out fiery serpents, gradually spread across the entire vessel.
Deafening screams echoed continuously as countless low-level demons leaped into the sea like dumplings, seeking to escape the fiery inferno that was devouring their lives.
"Looking for death!"
But low-level demons weren't the only ones present. The Sword King, Garthy, roared angrily from the captain's cabin of the flagship.
It wasn't that Misaka and Aizen didn't want to attack the flagship directly, but such a simple attack would surely be blocked.
In that case, it was better to pick the weaker persimmon and reduce the enemy's numbers first. Having achieved success with their first strike, Azrael's two cards naturally tried to repeat their tactics.
However, the roaring sword light arrived in an instant.
The whistling wind blew the hair of the three Gold-level Lore Cardians in mid-air.
"Bakudō #81: Dankū."
A transparent barrier instantly rose before the three of them.
"Crack."
A fine crackling sound echoed, and in a mere breath, the sword light and the transparent barrier simultaneously dissipated into thin air.
By then, Garthy, with a gloomy expression, stood in the air not far from Azrael and the other two. At his side stood the feminine-looking Sara.
"Very good." Garthy's voice was like the millennia-old ice of Antarctica, piercing and painful. "I didn't seek you out, but you came to me instead."
"Do you really want to die?"
Azrael didn't respond, but turned to look at Aizen beside him.
The brown-haired man, his face impassive, slowly drew the long sword from his waist.
"Shatter, Kyōka Suigetsu."
A voice, devoid of emotion, whispered like a whisper from hell, echoing around the ears of Garthy and the others. Then, a sound like shattering glass suddenly rang out.
Garthy frowned slightly at this and tightened his grip on his sword.
Nothing happened.
"A petty trick," the sword-wielding young man muttered, unleashing a flash of sword light.
The dazzling blade flashed past Azrael, only to dissipate him like a bubble into the air.
Seeing this, Garthy frowned. "Illusion?"
Meanwhile, Azrael and the other two had already moved away from the battle.
Azrael calmly observed the two cards engaged in combat with Garthy and casually instructed the two middle-aged men beside him, "Go and clear out the demons below. I'll hold them off here."
Godfrey and Diesel had already witnessed the terror of Aizen's Kyōka Suigetsu, and would undoubtedly agree.
The two immediately summoned their cards and attacked the fleet of giant ships below.
Seeing the battle unfolding as he'd anticipated, Azrael couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. "Wait until they've dealt with the group of demons below, then we can work together to take out this duo. Today's goal will be achieved."
He didn't expect Misaka and Aizen to defeat Garthy alone. After all, in their previous battle with Ranid, these two cards had only been slightly superior.
Garthy before him was clearly a notch above Ranid, both in strength and combat awareness.
As his level increased, Azrael could increasingly sense the demons' combat effectiveness increasing, narrowing the gap between him and the Lore Cardians.
For example, at lower levels, he could single-handedly engage demons of the same level several times his own.
However, in group battles, the Lore Cardians still held a significant advantage, especially in suppressing attacks.
Just like now, Azrael had nearly pinned down an entire fleet of demons with just two cards; the opposing Garthy would certainly not have been able to do the same.
It wasn't that Azrael couldn't defeat Garthy; it was mainly because the two cards representing the Crimson Oath Society couldn't be revealed.
"If only Shiraori and Frieren could join the fight."
If Shiraori and the white-haired elf could make a move, defeating Garthy would be more than enough.
With a slight sigh, Azrael returned his attention to the battlefield.
"Sure enough, there are still Gold-rank demons hiding."
Looking down at Godfrey and Diesel, who were already locked in a difficult battle, Azrael frowned slightly.
Although he had previously deduced from the information identified by Shiraori that this fleet contained more than just the two demons currently engaged by his cards, the complete disclosure of this information still gave Azrael a headache.
"First Mate, Chief Engineer, Second Engineer."
If the positions on board Garthy's pirate demons were truly organized according to the strict seaman system, then the three Azrael mentioned would be at least as strong as Sara.
Azrael carefully sensed the aura of the gold-level demons below, and after a moment, he breathed a sigh of relief. "Fortunately, they're not out of control."
In his perception, the strength of several gold-level demons wasn't exaggerated. Godfrey and Diesel should be able to defeat them with some time.
That is, if they still had time.
On the shore, Kishimoto and Toriyama watched the battle unfold in the distance, their mouths gaping in surprise.
It wasn't that the battle was going badly; it was going too smoothly.
Everything that had happened since the start of the war had been essentially under the control of Vice President Azrael.
And their previous assumptions had been completely wrong.
Azrael's current strength surpassed most of the unskilled gold-level warriors, making him at least a pillar of the gold-level.
"No wonder we weren't needed to fill in, Lan," Kishimoto swallowed, sighing heartily to Toriyama beside him.
The two had been partners for many years and were old acquaintances.
Toriyama nodded in agreement, then asked with some doubt, "Do those two demons really not care about Director Godfrey and Director Diesel?"
To them, Garthy and Sara were oblivious to the battle unfolding below, as if nothing had happened.
Kishimoto hesitated before speaking uncertainly, "It must be the ability of President Azrael's card, right?"
"Illusion?"
Toriyama hesitated. While she suspected it was an illusion, she couldn't confirm its true nature from such a distance.
"It could fool even that demon." Her eyes twitched, secretly thankful that Azrael wasn't an illegal Lore Cardian. Otherwise, even though such an ability might seem insignificant, if intended, it could wreak havoc beyond the level of Emerald Tier.
Like the Soul Society invasion arc in the Bleach manga, did Aizen unleash any massively powerful Kidō? No. He used only Kyōka Suigetsu to bring chaos to the entire Soul Society.
"It looks like we're not needed here." Just as Kishimoto was about to sigh that it didn't matter whether they came or not, a powerful aura, as deep as a prison, suddenly descended upon the sea.
Their eyes suddenly widened, their voices wailing in disbelief, "What?!"
"Emerald Grade!?"
"Real?!"
However, Kishimoto, having seen enough storms to overcome them, forced himself to calm his nerves and instantly made arrangements.
He hurriedly addressed Toriyama, "Lan, return to headquarters immediately to inform President Kavach to evacuate the civilians in Donglai. I'll go meet President Azrael and the others."
Toriyama's heart sank at this. The two missions were undoubtedly the most dangerous, with a high probability of losing their lives.
But as a Lore Cardian in the association, she was accustomed to separations and deaths, and Kishimoto wasn't her first partner.
Toriyama suppressed her grief, avoiding his gaze. "Okay, be careful," she said, and she disappeared from the shore.
Seeing himself alone, Kishimoto took a deep breath and shouted, "Everyone, alert!"
But when he realized that the Lore Cardians below Silver Grade had already fainted, his heart sank.
The situation was worse than he'd imagined.
The Emerald-rank demon's aura upon its appearance was far more than just aura.
Fortunately, even if the Lore Cardian fainted, the summoned cards could still move freely until their mental energy was depleted.
The situation wasn't yet irreversible.
Just as Kishimoto was about to go and meet Azrael and the others, the Emerald-rank demon's aura suddenly vanished.
He was startled, "Gone?"
But when he arrived at the location where the aura had first descended, he discovered that of the three Gold-rank Lore Cardians present, only Godfrey and Diesel were left unconscious.
As for Azrael, he was nowhere to be found.
Time flashed back to a few minutes earlier.
Azrael was silently watching the battle between his two cards and Garthy and Sara.
The immense spiritual pressure now unleashed its presence unbridled.
If Garthy and Sara were unaffected, the lower-level demons below were suffering greatly.
Aizen, because of his spiritual pressure, had been ranked as one of the five most powerful special forces by Yhwach.
His spiritual pressure was a weapon of widespread destruction against lower-level beings.
Unfortunately, blinded by the illusion, Garthy and Sara were unaware of what was happening beneath their feet.
From her right hand, the massive black sand giant unleashed a railgun that pierced heaven and earth.
"That's all!" Garthy took his stance, a bloodthirsty grin on his face. "What's your power?!"
The terrifying slash instantly cut through everything before him.
Even the orange-yellow beam of energy was split in two.
A vast chasm was ripped through the heaving sea, like the mythical scene of Moses parting the sea, brought to life.
Of course, Garthy was no Moses, nor did he possess the power of that messenger of God.
The divided sea surface was filled with surging waters in the blink of an eye.
Misaka's attack was merely a setup for Aizen.
"Hadō #99: Goryū Tenmetsu."
Unleashed through the full chant, the highest level of Hadō unleashed its mighty power the moment it appeared.
Like a dragon king ruling the sea, a giant purple dragon of energy tore through the surface, roaring towards Garthy.
Seeing this, the pupils of the peak-level Gold-rank demon shrank. "You still have such a hidden trick?!"
He took a deep breath and roared, "A myriad of worlds, nothing is uncut!"
A terrifying slash, far surpassing the previous one, suddenly collided with the purple dragon.
A terrifying wave of energy rippled outward from the sea, sending huge waves.
Not far away, Azrael simply observed the devastating scene before him with a calm expression.
He wondered what card he could craft with the materials he dropped if he successfully killed Garthy.
"Pirate Swordsman."
Judging solely from Garthy's performance, he was a bit like Hawkeye from One Piece, the kind of character who used a basic attack as an ultimate.
But Hawkeye was far stronger than Garthy. Azrael speculated that the world's greatest swordsman during the Shichibukai era would have been at least Emerald-rank, not to mention when he joined Buggy, Crocodile, and Mihawk to form Cross Guild.
Of course, this was just his estimate based on his appearance. He didn't know if he had any hidden abilities, as Oda-sensei hadn't finished drawing them before he traveled through time.
"That's Zoro."
Azrael had already created this algae-haired youth back when he was at the Bronze level. However, because he had used him under the guise of the Crimson Oath Society, Zoro hadn't had many subsequent appearances.
This time, he planned to use the Crimson Oath Society's disguise to defeat Kavach, thus providing a safeguard for Zoro's promotion to Gold level.
As he pondered this, two attacks on the battlefield reached their limit.
A giant purple energy dragon tangled with the dazzling sword light, instantly forming a terrifying energy black hole that devoured everything around it.
Several giant ships below, along with the water, silently departed from this world.
A moment later, the energy black hole quietly vanished from its original location.
Garthy took a brief breath, but the next moment, he tightened his grip on his sword. "Come again!"
Azrael frowned slightly at this. Aizen and Misaka were clearly struggling.
Just as the brown-haired girl and the brown-haired man were about to repeat the previous process, an extremely powerful aura suddenly descended upon the scene.
Azrael's face paled.
The sudden impact left him dazed.
Fortunately, after a few breaths, his extraordinary mental strength managed to steady him.
But right now, he didn't have the energy to worry about anything else.
Azrael muttered grimly, "The worst-case scenario for the Emerald Class has occurred."
Then, a playful voice echoed throughout the area, "Garthy, you actually fell for such a trick."
As the words fell, a muscular man, shirtless, appeared beside Garthy.
Garthy had already sheathed his sword when the aura appeared, "What do you mean, Vangeance?"
Vangeance smiled at this, "You see for yourself."
The next moment, Garthy, struck by lightning, looked at the fleet below, now largely destroyed, in a daze, "When?"
Then, as if realizing something, he looked at Aizen with a furious expression, "You?!"
Garthy was about to draw his sheathed sword.
But his movements were stopped by the muscular man beside him.
Vangeance looked at Azrael in the distance with interest, "Interesting, you can actually withstand my pressure."
"How about it, are you interested in joining my ship as first mate?"
"I can spare your life."
Upon hearing this, Azrael fell silent.
However, he was not considering whether to accept the other party's proposal, but was checking the latest card generated in his mind.
, , , ,
[Indigo Special Black Cloak (Disposable)]
Rank: Gold
Quality: ???
Category: Item
Features:
[Complete Concealment]: When the holder puts on this black cloak, his or her aura will be completely concealed, and beings of Emerald rank or below will not be able to detect the holder's trace.
, , , ,
Aizen's [I am an Inventor] took effect.
Azrael glanced at Diesel and Godfrey who were already unconscious below. They both fainted the moment Vangeance appeared.
But fortunately, [Prime Minister Turtle] and [Flying Zombie] were still there, and the two were not in danger of life for the time being.
Of course, it was only temporary.
Because now the attention of the demons present was on the human youth in mid-air.
Seeing that his invitation had not been responded to for a long time, Vangeance had already revealed a look of impatience.
"So..."
"Want to escape?"
Azrael thought.