"Blood Magic: Red Beast!"
Within the grey-white world of Curse Symbols, Vanica suddenly lunged forward. Blood-colored veins spread across the left side of her body that hadn't been demonized. Her flowing blood ignited like fire, forming a wild giant beast. Boosted by her Blood Magic, her speed was incredibly fast!
In an instant, she arrived before the Masked Man.
The crimson beast opened its bloody hands and swiped toward the Masked Man in the center, seemingly intent on crushing him into meat paste. The air hummed with the force of the strike, and a wicked smile curved on Vanica's lips.
In the World of Decay created by Megicula's Curse Symbol Magic, any Mage within it would find their mana and magic significantly weakened. Some weaker Mages could not even release their magic at all.
However, as Megicula's host, Vanica was unaffected by this World of Decay. On the contrary, with the enhancement of Devil Power, the power of her Blood Magic would be maximized.
In short, if fighting here, Vanica was confident she could win even if her brother, Dante Zogratis, were to show up.
The tyrannical giant hand churned with blood. Vanica could almost hear the sound of bones being crushed and flesh splattering in her ears.
Against her current speed, there was simply no possibility for Spatial Magic to be cast!
"Die!"
Swoosh! A bright, cold light, like autumn water, flashed across Vanica's eyes.
With a questioning "Eh?", Vanica felt an emptiness. Looking closely, she saw her own hands, along with the bloody hands of the crimson beast, had fallen to the ground. Her arms showed smooth, elliptical cuts, as if severed by a sharp weapon.
The figure between her hands had vanished.
The Masked Man appeared behind his original position, holding a weapon that had appeared in his hand at some unknown moment. She had never seen such a weapon, neither in the Spade Kingdom nor the Heart Kingdom.
The straight, cold, and stern blade seemed like the most ferocious of weapons.
Blood, a massive amount of blood, sprayed from the wounds cut by that weapon. Like a faucet being turned on, the blood splashed like a tide!
The severed hands, the bright red blood... it all entered Vanica's vision.
Watching this scene with her own eyes, was it fear? Or perhaps dread?
Any ordinary Mage would likely have been struck with terror long ago.
But she... was Vanica!
"Pfft... Hahaha!" A crimson light flashed in her eyes, and Vanica suddenly burst into laughter. She used Blood Magic to forcibly control the splashing blood, and her body leaned forward slightly.
"How interesting! Yes, this is exactly how it should be!"
"Let's... let's continue!"
As she spoke, blood condensed on her severed arms. Vanica used Blood Magic to directly create a pair of dark red blood hands. She clenched her fists and lunged forward as several messy, sharp blood spikes shot toward the Masked Man like spider spears.
Bai En held Zhan Yan and swirled it in front of him, shattering the incoming blood spikes one after another.
Vanica's smile was exceptionally crazed, and her movements didn't pause for a single second, even as invisible slashes carved deep wounds into her body one after another.
The blood spikes that Bai En had shattered and scattered became lethal weapons under the control of Vanica's Blood Magic.
They became thinner and thinner, like needles.
This meant that Vanica's attack range was becoming wider and her attack density was increasing. Bai En had to constantly speed up his sword swings to intercept her attacks.
Behind his mask, Bai En frowned slightly. He used Limitless Magic to teleport and pull away from Vanica.
However, those thorn-like blood spikes followed him like persistent flies, attacking again. This time, Bai En didn't swing his sword. He made a hand seal with his left hand, and the incoming blood spikes instantly froze in the air, like a wave of red glass shards that had been paused.
Crack.
The second after the messy blood spikes were frozen, a terrifying force field crushed them all until not even debris remained.
Vanica didn't care about Bai En's methods. A moment later, she attacked again, the crimson beast looming above her figure still terrifying.
Bai En raised Zhan Yan to meet the incoming beast and figure.
The move was very ordinary.
A simple 'Thrust'.
But... beneath the mask, he softly uttered two words: "Dismantle."
In an instant, countless invisible slashes landed on Vanica and the crimson beast above her. The sound of the slashes was hollow, accompanied by the noise of long streaks of blood spraying from the wounds.
Vanica was sent flying backward.
The black figure skidded for quite a distance before stopping. The blood lines carved by the slashes drifted around her like insect threads under the influence of her Blood Magic.
Taking this hit was actually quite unpleasant. Regardless of the amount of blood lost, she still felt pain!
"Enough! Vanica," Megicula spoke coldly through the half of Vanica's body. Vanica, who was about to attack again, stopped in her tracks.
Due to the influence of her previous incident of defying Megicula, she instinctively listened to the entity now.
"You don't think I can't win, do you?"
"Don't worry, you and I won't lose. Just give me a little more time, and I will definitely win."
The blood at the wounds carved by the slashes solidified. Under Vanica's control, the blood that had spilled earlier gathered around her right hand, faintly resembling a crimson torrent. Once she attacked, this would become her sharpest weapon.
"Haven't you noticed? That guy's abnormality?"
"What?"
The half of the body controlled by Megicula stared directly at the Masked Man holding the sword. It had a strange sensation for the first time in a long while. Although it didn't know what the feeling meant, in short... he was like a heretic.
After a few seconds of silence.
Megicula spoke slowly, with a tone as cold and emotionless as ever. "He hasn't been affected by the Curse Symbol Magic... the World of Decay hasn't worked on him from start to finish."
"Ha? For real?"
"Megicula, your magic is actually useless against someone?" Vanica asked in surprise, as if she had discovered an unknown continent.
"It's as if something is obstructing it. There seems to be an infinite distance between the Curse Symbols and him."
"Wait..." Hearing Megicula's words, Vanica also seemed to remember something. She murmured, "I think I know who he is."
"This guy is likely the one who heavily injured Zenon in the Diamond Kingdom before."
"Brother Dante even went out personally to find his whereabouts. I didn't expect him to have come to the Heart Kingdom." Vanica tightened her fist slightly. "If it wasn't because Zenon accessed Devil Power too late, it's hard to say who would have won that day."
"But since I've run into him, then..."
"Leave," Megicula interrupted Vanica.
Vanica's expression darkened. "What do you mean?"
"During the battle just now, I already used the Curse Symbols to obtain what we need from the Heart Queen. There's no need to continue fighting."
"Devils are born with a clear understanding of strength and weakness."
"Although my true body hasn't descended to this world, this feeling can't be wrong. We can't win against this guy with only 70% of Devil Power!"
"What kind of joke are you telling, Megicula!"