The Devil Holders Branch Leader, with his remaining forces, faced Piers and his army. "Fine, come on! Let's see how your army fares against mine!" He signaled, and his army charged.
Piers commanded, "Blood Badgers** and Guardian Holders, create shield rituals!" The disciples activated their ritual powers, creating a barrier that stopped the incoming attack dead.
"Now use Black and White Arts range attack! Show them we are much stronger!" Piers ordered.
A deluge of Black and White Arts rained down, instantly killing many of the charging Devil Holders. The remaining attackers quickly realized the imbalance and began running, one said "no we need to regroup" "we can't reached them, take distance and wait" but their own leader killed the people who were shouting this. "Who said you could run? Either do or die!" the leader screamed.
This galvanized the Devil Holders, who attacked the barrier with renewed aggression.
Piers decided to escalate. "Astarte, go cull their numbers."
"It would be my pleasure," Astarte replied, swiftly leaving the barrier. Her attacks were sharp and precise, and she began cutting down the Devil Holders with ease.
Piers looked at the leader. "Either surrender, or I will kill all your students. After all, you might not be the leader of the branch, just one of the teachers, right?"
The leader was indifferent. "Who cares about their life? Kill them if you want."
Piers frowned. "Astarte, come back." When she returned, he said, "Don't kill them. Kill him." Piers pointed to the leader.
Astarte instantly cleared a path, jumped onto the roof of the building, and looked down. "My master has ordered me to kill you, so consider your life forfeited."
"A girl is saying she could kill me? That's hilarious!" the leader scoffed, drawing his sword and charging her. Astarte charged as well, and they began fighting on the rooftop. The leader was aggressive, but Astarte held her own in a defensive stance. "Now I see why the main branch students are so different from us," he admitted. With a strong slash, he forced Astarte back. "Always been the one praised, always been the one promising, considering as one of the strongest students! I am going to show just what you all really are!"
Astarte remained perfectly calm as he charged. She took an offensive stance, and as he attacked, she struck, slashing his chest in one move. The leader stumbled. "How can this be? I am more experienced! I have more potential than any of you!"
"The answer you yourself said," Astarte replied coolly. "We are strong. We always will be than you low potential bunch." The man stood, attacking again, but Astarte severed his head. "You will always be the loser you meant to be."
The Devil Holders under him scattered, one said "no they are strong enough to kill the branch elders" "we have to run this is getting brutal" "I never signed up for this" but suddenly, the rest of the branch's forces arrived. A man with a fan instantly appeared behind Astarte, his fan already moving to sever her head. Piers stopped the fan with his hand. "Now, now, you are meant to be butchered, not us."
Astarte thrust her sword, forcing the man to back off. He stood with three women. "So, you are Piers. Nice to meet you. If you become my slave, I will spare you, but these people have to die."
Piers sneered. "Looks like someone thinks highly of himself for a loser, that is. We know how the waste are thrown into these branches."
The man covered his mouth with his fan. "But we are more experienced and are high in numbers. What can you do? Look, the barrier is already dimming."
Piers didn't even look at the barrier. "Like hell I will fall for that. And even though you are higher in number, even if you have experience, you can't defeat us because we are fighting for a cause to die for."
The man lowered his fan, revealing his mouth had transformed into that of a spider's mouth. "Then looks like it's time for you to get the huge wake-up call that dreams don't work the same in reality."
Kaiser's Intervention
Watching the standoff, Ben spoke. "Piers is not expending as much energy as we want."
"Then what shall we do?" Kaiser asked.
Ben smirked. "Add a new factor. Lyla, can you cover the entire city with some carnivorous plants?"
Lyla smiled. "Sure, I can."
In Astria, Daina, Eugene, and Bart were in a shop, having earned a large sum of money from recent missions. Eugene and Bart were drinking beer.
"We made huge on this task, right, Eugene?" Bart chuckled.
"Yeah, don't even tell me. We can drink as much beer as we want," Eugene agreed.
Daina smiled, then punched both their heads. "These few days, we are only doing tasks and missions! When are we going to do actual work to kill the demons?"
"The demon invasion is still years away," Eugene countered.
"At least we can do something, like locate the demons or track their traces," Daina insisted.
"Consider we do that, then we won't get strong enough when the demon invasion comes because we would have wasted our time on that," Bart argued.
"Daina, don't worry. When the demon invasion comes, we will fight. However, we should focus on increasing our strength for now and becoming versatile," Eugene reasoned.
"And recruiting people, too," Bart added.
Daina was conflicted. Eugene seized the moment. "Oh yeah, I have heard of a girl named Ava who recently reached 10 years old and went out but is a genius in magic. Should we recruit her?"
Daina remembered the girl Ava, who was trained by Rei, and how Ava had easily defeated her. "Yes, if she is whom I think she is, then we should recruit her."
Bart and Eugene were surprised. "What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?" Daina demanded.
"Oh no, we are just surprised that you agreed with us," Bart said.
"Yeah, it's hard to believe that you really are a sensible person when you always scream and shout," Eugene joked.
Daina's fist struck his head. "What do you mean by that?"
Bart laughed. "You should have kept your mouth shut, Eugene."
Daina glared daggers at him. "And you, too! Otherwise, don't blame the consequences!"
"Fine, fine," Bart conceded.
"However, one thing is for certain: this Ava person might be helpful for us," Daina confirmed.