Chapter 86: A Three-Way Battle I
Night smothered the scarred plains as White Star Radiance slipped across the land. Distant clashes muttered like thunder. Once they had put real ground behind them, Christy drew a compact magical vehicle from her ring. They piled in and shot forward, Shayleaf layering the hull in camouflage inscriptions until the carriage bled into the darkness.
Beasts kept shouldering out of the wastes, noses lifted to their trail.
—White Lightning Spear!—
A lunging brute folded under Elton's crackling bolt and blew apart in a spray of ash.
"Sheesh. They exist just to rush anything that moves unless they feel a higher apex," Ramiro muttered, watching the cinders fade.
Ten minutes more. They disembarked. Christy dismissed the vehicle in one smooth motion. On foot now, Shayleaf cast a hush of veiling magic over them. A patrol skimmed the ridge ahead; Christy's pupils narrowed, cataloging insignia, gait, cultivation. Not targets. Not the army. They slid around without a ripple.
Shadows gathered again. Another group, cloaked and clumsy with lesser concealment, crossed their path.
"Demons ahead," Christy whispered. "Cultivations are…" She rattled details as Elton's hand flicked. Positions shifted. Shayleaf began binding rites; Erica murmured a paralyzing sequence, her bloodline sigils warming.
When the demons came within reach, Elton gave the word. Roots surged, catching ankles and wrists a heartbeat late but still decisive.
—Discharging Current: Release!—
Erica's blast hammered the line. Shayleaf's bindings smothered their mouths mid-shout.
"Heh. Let me soften 'em up," Ramiro said, rolling his shoulders.
"I'll help," Joe-Pine chimed in, bright as a bell.
Elton nodded. A brief, ugly minute later, the demons coughed up what little they knew. Zoro finished it cleanly, bodies turning to black smoke beneath his Dark Ki.
They moved—and halted. Two separate forces faced each other across a churned killing field, both raw from a recent clash. Probes flashed toward White Star Radiance the instant they appeared; the squad batted them away on reflex.
Christy's eyes flicked. Two of their marked targets stood among the demons. She opened her mouth to name the other force, but Zoro's gaze was already a blade.
"Night's Light Devouring Church."
Elton's inner voice curled through his mind, amused. What a curious bunch. Hardly a coincidence. They're hunting… Zoro. Hahaha.
Zoro? Elton frowned. Why not me? Or Christy? Stone Forest should've—
Why would they want us? the voice snapped. Those twins were theirs, remember? You heard more than you listened.
A demon officer squinted their way. "Who's skulking over there?!"
"Wait—something about them—"
The Church turned as one, eyes pinning Zoro's mask.
"Zoro Tatsumaki. You delivered yourself."
"You on the left—move. Leave him, and we let you go. Interfere, and you die with him."
Ramiro planted his spear with a ring that rolled the dust. "Haaah? Hand this idiot over to you? If you want him, come take him!"
Lines formed. Signals flared. The demons fired first; Church adepts struck through the opening; White Star Radiance cut in to break the angle.
Erica and Shayleaf sang from the rear, their voices braiding over Elton, Zoro, Ramiro, and Joe-Pine as the spearpoint. Christy set herself in the hinge—shield and eyes both—her vision carving every feint before it bloomed. Ramiro drove like a stormfront, spear buzzing white with static as enemy skills met the haft and failed.
Boom. Schliiing. Pow.
The field turned vicious. White Star Radiance fought tighter than their auras promised, every swap and cover landing on time. Demon bodies began to fall. The Church, seeing it, sharpened their pressure and shifted onto White Star Radiance to bleed their tempo.
A black lance screamed for Zoro. Erica's staff cracked and flung a white bolt to meet it. Impact boomed. Everyone scattered from the blossom of force.
—Star Lightning Speed Transformation!—
Elton blurred. He reappeared behind their marked captain. Blue steel kissed bone; the Blue Star Heavenly Destroyer cut clean on a diagonal.
"ARRGHHH!"
The demon alliance reeled, shouting at the sight of their leader folding. The Church split, half knifing into demons, half knifing into Elton's line. Christy's gloved palms caught and twisted attacks, her Aka Boshi no Tengan mapping currents before they rose. Joe-Pine flickered through openings to peel pressure. Ramiro broke wider, hunting lieutenants.
—León Dragon Spear Arts: Marea Ígnea Dracónica!—
White-gold lightning sheeted over his frame. He tore a swath through demon ranks—and clipped two overeager zealots besides. In the noise and glare, the second target never felt the shadow arrive.
—One Sword Style: One Shadow Decapitation!—
A head thumped to moss, eyes still trying to understand. Shayleaf seized the beat she'd built.
—Demonic Tree Summons: Come forth and devour my enemies!—
Eight bark-skinned horrors erupted, roots snapping like whips as they fell on Church robes and demon armor alike.
—O unholy light of the underworld, pierce through my enemies!—
A Church adept answered. Beads of malignant radiance fanned out, humming toward everything that lived.
"Don't let it touch you!" Christy shouted. One demonic tree took two orbs and detonated, splinters screaming past faces. The Church pressed harder. The demon alliance, now headless, staggered. Fresh reinforcements slammed in behind them to keep the wall from folding. No one yielded.
A Gold Tier 3 from the Church cut past a demon phalanx, shouldered a pair aside, and landed in front of Zoro, sword already thrusting.
"Pierce through!"
Zoro met it, blades crossing. The shock hurled him back a dozen paces. Another Church blade-bearer snapped into the pocket, and the pair drove a ruthless tandem.
"Zoro!" Ramiro barked, forcing his way through layered bodies.
Shayleaf lifted both hands, eyes shining.
—Mini Forest of Nature, appear before me…!—
The ground heaved. Stalks, trunks, and towering reeds burst upward, drowning the field in living green.
"This girl…" a Church mage murmured, genuinely impressed. "Gold Tier 1 doing that?"
Demons floundered as the forest swallowed their formation. Silence gathered for half a heartbeat.
SCHLIIING.
"ARGH!"
The sound multiplied echoing through the newborn wood as shapes fell where no eyes saw the blades arrive.