The seashore away from the fighting arena was quite large, as well. While walking here, Flame-Eye seemed oddly restless, only now relaxing as she made it away from Three-Arms. Lieze and the others took positions around Flame-Eye, taking their distance.

“Are you prepared? Then..fight!” Yuriga gave the signal for the battle to start.

As the four moved to attack Flame-Eye, their view was suddenly full of flames.

“I am the honorable Flame-Eye! Every enemy I lay my eyes upon will be burned to cinders!”

They heard Flame-Eye’s voice from high above them, as pillars of flame rose from the ground. Just as her name suggested, Flame-Eye’s major way of attacking was the usage of flames. She could simply set something ablaze by looking at it, and the flames themselves held plenty of a punch, too. With explosive flames covering a lot of ground, even the scorching heat acted as an attack, all of it flying toward the four.

“Yeah..I thought it felt similar! You two really are brother and sister.”

Lieze was reminded of Ganias, who fired his magic bullets in a similar way to how Flame-Eye freely controlled her flames. However, unlike Ganias and his reserved magic bullets, Flame-Eye’s flame attacks were on an entirely different level, attacking the four without much of a breather.

“What impressive flames you got there! My hair must be terrified right about now!” Angela moved around with her rapier in hand, finding an opening in Flame-Eye’s defenses, only to be blocked off by a wall of flame.

“Tsk..My shuriken aren’t..!”

Minagi periodically threw a shuriken at Flame-Eye, but they melted before they hit.

“Undine!”

To fight the flames, Urza chose to rely on the Water Spirit Undine, which allowed her to move the most freely from everyone else.

“Everyone, don’t stop!”

Under Lieze’s orders, the four acted to close in on Flame-Eye, trying to disturb her.

“Standard practice of attacks against me, huh? It’s boring but as long as it works, right?” Flame-Eye calmly analyzed the current tide of the battle. “And you’re using your water spirit a lot more skillfully than before.” Flame-Eye summoned a flame ball the size of a human and threw it at Minagi, but Undine created a wall of water to block it.

With fire and water clashing, they canceled out each other, filling the air with steam. Lieze tried to use this as a chance to close in on Flame-Eye, but more flame balls were thrown her way, so she had to pull back.

“Your cooperation..isn’t half bad, either.”

Lieze and Urza were working together perfectly, and Minagi was slowly getting into the groove, but Angela was a bit left out. That, naturally, didn’t mean that she didn’t have much to offer in a fight, but rather stronger in this case since Flame-Eye didn’t know how they fought together. It felt like Flame-Eye was actively pushing them back, but thanks to Urza’s skilled control of Undine, they were holding their ground quite well. Even so, they were all suffering injuries here and there, whereas Flame-Eye hadn’t moved a step since the beginning of the fight. Undine showed signs of disappearing, too.

All their attention, weapons, and stamina were being worn down by the flames, but they had to continue and press on. By continuing the same principle, even using their allies as a shield—their chance would come eventually. Lieze managed to slip past the flames, reaching a distance where her fist could connect.

“Huh..not bad for a sacrificial pawn.”

Flame-Eye delivered an impressed comment. Just as Flame-Eye stated, Lieze was prepared to be blasted off. For that, she had suffered burn wounds on her shoulder and sides, but she still continued.

“Haaaaa!!”

She used up all of her body’s centrifugal force to slam her fist right toward Flame-Eye’s face. Even if she was a demon, Flame-Eye wouldn’t get out of that unscathed—If it connected, that is.

“..Huh?”

Seeing her full-power punch stopped by being grabbed at the wrist, Lieze couldn’t hide her shock.

“How close. If I relied only on my abilities like my idiotic brother, you may have had a chance at victory.”

Lieze immediately slipped her arm out of the gauntlet and jumped backward.

“Good reaction. A bit slower, and I would’ve crushed your arm and burned your body to cinders.” Flame-Eye observed the extremely expensive gauntlet and crushed it with her hand like it was a cookie.

Seeing their one good chance at an attack completely negated without even a sweat, the four had to temporarily retreat.

“Not good..So we can’t even rely on close-quarters combat?” Lieze shook her right arm to get rid of the pins and needles as she commented on the situation.

“For us and our hand-to-hand combat, that’s quite troublesome..We should come up with our next plan.” Minagi’s plan of just getting up close had been destroyed, but she wouldn’t give up this easily.

“Just one hit, at least..Is far too pathetic, and I won’t be satisfied with just that. We’ll win no matter what it takes.” Angela was brimming with motivation to fight.

“Oh? Normally, every other human’s will to fight would have been crushed by now..I see you’re also mentally strong.”

But in the end, it was clear that Flame-Eye was just looking down on them. The only reason Lieze and the others were still alive was that Flame-Eye wasn’t even serious, and her only goal was to measure their strength. She’d even let them live as long as they agreed to surrender. And yet, seeing that Lieze and the others were intent on winning, she was enjoying that.

“I’m looking forward to what you can achieve..and when your hearts will be broken, too.” Flame-Eye waited for Lieze and the others to finish discussing.

“..I have one idea,” Urza spoke up. “I’ll summon a high-ranking water spirit. I luckily have enough dregs left, and I don’t need a magic circle for the summoning.”

Basically, she was trying to summon the water spirit that had laid waste to this place before.

“But in order to do that, I need time to focus, which will leave me completely defenseless. And once the summoning is complete, I’ll be completely out of energy. Whether or not I can control it is also only a 50/50 chance.”

Trying to control a high-ranking spirit at her current level was reckless and suicidal. But, it was a risk worth taking.

“This’ll be our chance to win. However..” Urza hesitated.

Executing it successfully was a trick in itself, and the burden on her allies was immense. Urza wasn’t sure which decision to take when Lieze smiled at her.

“Then tell me, Urza..How much time do you need?”

Minagi and Angela nodded.

“..100 seconds. You have to protect me until then.” Urza took a deep breath and began focusing.

As she stated, she now looked utterly defenseless. Even a child could defeat her.

“So we’re buying time..I’m not too talented at that, but I’m glad I tagged along with you. I would’ve never experienced something like this.” Angela readied her rapier and grinned with an invincible smile.

Thinking about it rationally, the princess of the Empire Angela would never put her life on the line in a battle like this, but as it turns out, her true self was quite the warrior, as she seemed to be enjoying this thrill.

“What a violent princess we have here..It’s not my forté to fight openly this much..” Minagi sighed and readied her two daggers.

“We’ll buy you those 100 seconds!”

Together with Lieze’s roar, the three charged towards Flame-Eye. Up to this point, they barely could stand their ground as the four of them, and that’s also because they had the necessary protection from the water spirit that Urza controlled, now both of which were out of the fight. Thinking rationally, this situation should be unwinnable, and yet they were more confident than ever.

They’re trying to do something..Clearly buying time, though.

Flame-Eye had seen through the opponent’s plan. They were willing to suffer substantial damage to distract Flame-Eye, and she was curious about the words “100 seconds” that she could faintly pick up. Maybe she had been a bit careless in giving them time, but it shouldn’t matter much. It had already been fifty seconds since the three of them came to attack Flame-Eye once more. She was still at an absolute advantage, and the conclusion to this fight should arrive soon, and yet Flame-Eye felt oddly oppressed.

“I think I’m done swatting away flies..Time to end this.”

She saw no need to hold back or show restraint, so she used her trump card from the start.

“Physical alteration..Flame Body.”

Together with these words, pillars of flame erupted from her body. It created an oppressive heat that even melted the ground Flame-Eye stood on.

“This is..my trump card. My Flame Body.”

Flame-Eye’s voice came from the pillar of flame, as the entire pillar began to move. Her trump card was to transcend simple control of flames and become one giant roaring and destructive flame herself. It had plenty of weaknesses, but in this appearance, she was basically untouchable.

“T-The hell is that..” Lieze uttered in shock.

Simply approaching this hellish flame would result in massive damage inflicted on them, and all attacks would be rendered futile.

“Becoming a flame itself..That has to be against the rules.” Angela muttered.

“How crude..” Minagi stepped back, but she already reached the limit.

She basically had the focusing Urza at her back.

“All right, then..Time to burn you to cinders!”

Right as Flame-Eye prepared to move towards them—

“Wait, Flame-Eye! The battle is over!” Yuriga interrupted the fight, seeing Flame-Eye’s current appearance.

“It’s been a while since I took this appearance. Don’t you dare get in the way.” Flame-Eye roared back, firing a flame at Yuriga.

“Y-You!”

Yuriga evaded the attack, but it was far too close for comfort, still. As Flame-Eye hadn’t used this appearance in a long time, she had long forgotten about letting the others live, simply fighting for the thrill of it. However, that ultimately was a fatal flaw.

“Now, let’s continue..Huh?”

A great change occurred in the five seconds Flame-Eye had directed her gaze at Yuriga.

“Th-That’s..”

With simple words, it looked like a giant amoeba, a lump of water. With its current size, it was on the same level as Irumera’s dragon appearance, but it continued to grow. And this very “thing” was floating above Urza’s head.

“Leviathan!” Urza screamed the name of the high-ranking water spirit, as the giant amoeba shook violently.

“A-A high-ranking water spirit?!” Flame-Eye looked at the Leviathan in shock.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to pull it off this quickly,” Urza spoke with a meek voice and pale face, but her smile spoke a thousand words. “..Go!”

Together with Urza’s roar, the lump of water slowly started moving, as Flame-Eye’s face distorted in fear. Even the oldest of demons had only seen this high-ranking spirit maybe once. They surpass human wisdom and even demons wouldn’t dare pick a fight with them. It took a great number of sacrifices to defeat the high-ranking spirit that had gone berserk in this land. And now, this very spirit was making its way to attack Flame-Eye.

“Damnit!”

She frantically flung her flames at the approaching Leviathan, but they immediately turned into steam. Even if she attempted to run, the Leviathan’s body continued to grow in size, acting like a wall or even a tsunami. And this is also where one of Flame-Eye’s weaknesses during this state came into play. Her movements become much duller. At this rate, she’ll simply be overrun and swallowed up by that giant body of water.

“D-Don’t underestimate me!”

She screamed with fighting intent, as her body burned up even stronger, turning into what could be described as a mountain of fire, possibly even hellfire. She achieved this by freeing all the mana in her body in the shape of flames, firing them into all directions. It was the last trump card, and possibly even a self-destruction technique. Under normal circumstances, the entire arena would most likely turn into an ocean of flames, but the giant water body from the Leviathan immediately erased most of it. Instead, the entire place was covered with white steam. Even at a certain distance from the whole fight, Lieze and the others’ sight turned white in an instant.

“That hurt..What was that, just now?” Lieze felt pain all over her body as she somehow stood up.

“M-My ears..” Angela crouched down as she covered her ears.

As the steam started to clear up, they spotted a large crater, with Flame-Eye standing in the center. Her Flame Body had been undone, too. As she stood in the center of the large explosion, her body was riddled with wounds.

“..To think you were skilled enough of a summoner to control a high-ranking spirit like that..But, I’m not done yet!”

Her condition aside, her pride as a demon would not allow her to just give up now. Her initial goal of testing everyone’s strength had completely blown past her, as she now was itching for revenge, burning up with killing intent. However—

“That’s enough.”

Minagi appeared from the shadow behind Flame-Eye, stabbing a needle the size of a chopstick, glowing with a radiant silver, into her back.

“Y-You wench!” Flame-Eye instantly turned around and glared at Minagi, who had jumped away.

“I’ll burn you..to..shinshers..?”

Flame-Eye’s body began shaking, as she became unable to even speak properly. After she held her head in agony, she collapsed like a doll had its strings cut.

“I’m glad she got so blinded by rage..I guess even demons are weak to poison.” Minagi commented with a sigh as she looked down at Flame-Eye.

“Wh-What did you do?” Lieze jogged over to Minagi, looking at Flame-Eye who was foaming from the mouth.

“It’s fine, I haven’t killed her. It’s just poison that’ll get her paralyzed. Though I used ten times the amount I would for a normal human..And I stabbed it deep inside her body.” Minagi showed her the needle in her hand, which had a hole open at the tip, still dripping with the poison.

“Are you sure that’s not lethal poison?” Angela asked with a dubious look, but Minagi didn’t answer.

“When did you even get this close to her?”

“I knew the clash of fire and water would cause an explosion, so I used that.”

Since she had retired quickly, she suffered minimal damage and could freely move behind Flame-Eye.

“Tell me that beforehand..I was worried when you suddenly disappeared.”

“But it gave us an opening, right? I didn’t know if poison would actually work on demons..Should we use this chance to experiment on her?” Minagi looked down at Flame-Eye like a test subject.

“That’s enough. The winner has been decided, so I won’t allow you to lay another finger on her.” Yuriga seemed to have been hit by the explosion as well, as she approached them with injuries here and there.

“Phew..I had no idea summoning a high-ranking spirit like that would be this exhausting. It should’ve turned into an actual sea dragon’s shape, but my strength wasn’t enough to give it that, I guess.” Urza showed a bitter smile as she was reminded of the undefined lump Leviathan had been summoned as.

“I feel like the way it looked was even more terrifying..Also, you okay?” Lieze offered Urza a shoulder, as she could barely keep standing.

“I’m fine. It’s thanks to all of you buying time..Thank you.”

“What a fine victory this is.” Angela smiled in a satisfied manner.

Because they had emerged victorious, everyone was smiling, as a pleasant atmosphere filled the air.

“Although it was a four versus one, you managed to defeat one of the strongest demons we have to offer..Humanfolk truly can’t be underestimated.” Yuriga spoke with both admiration and disbelief at the same time.

Once things had calmed down a bit, Lieze looked towards the battle arena.

“Now then..I wonder how Kyle and Seran are doing. They’ve probably won by now.”

Nobody dared to doubt these words. However, when they headed for the arena, they were greeted by something unnatural.

“..Wazzat?”