'So even the weak can defeat the strong... I never thought I'd say this but... Magna... I acknowledge you.'
A spell that connects the souls and mana of two individuals and forces them to fight on even terms... What an outrageous move.
'But, something like that could never beat me.'
Right now, there were three factors as to why Magna was capable of beating the ever living shit out of Dante like that.
1. Dante had never really fought against someone stronger or as strong as him before.
2. Dante used his body magic's regeneration and large mana pool as a crutch to outlast tricky opponents and take the win. Now that his mana pool had been halved and was drying up fast, this factor had been taken off the table.
3. He's had the devil's power for so long that he forgot how to fight like a normal person.
'Vanica... This power truly did cripple your family's potential.'
Watching the battle take place from the sky, Grim couldn't help but smile a bit. Unlike Dante whose abilities lay solely on his mana capacity, Grim had fought against an entire magic squad using nothing but his own skills an instincts. Not to mention that he was constantly fighting opponents that surpassed him in one aspect or another. In his eyes, even if he and Magna had shared the same amount of mana, their instincts, battle iq, combat talent and experience were just too far apart.
But even so...
'Looks like the winner's already been decided... Good on you Magna.'
No longer paying attention to that fight, he decided to check on how the rest of the Dark Triad were holding up.
***
"Geez, what a waste of time."
Yawning loudly and stretching her waist, a look of boredem flashed across Vanica's face.
Having trained herself to the limit over the last week and now possessing 100% of her devil's power, dealing with both Charlotte and Rill was an easy feat. If anything, it was only their persistance that annoyed her.
'Dammit!' Charlotte cursed as she spat out a mouthful of blood and clutched her chest tightly.
'Even if I limit her [Curse Warding Magic] with my blue roses, I can't deal with her blood magic.'
"Fufufu." Laughter seeped out of Vanica's lips as she recalled a conversation she had previously had with Grim.
"He was right. Instead of relying on Megicula's power, improving myself is much more FUN!"
*BOOM!!*
Turning into a red blur and moving fast enough to blitz past both captains, blood magic coated her hands and transformed them into razor sharp claws.
*FWOOSH!*
Catching them off guard by grabbing them by the front of their faces, she used the momentum to lift them off the ground and speed towards the far end of the hall.
*BANG!!*
"AGYAAAHH!!"
Tightening up her grip and slamming them head first into the wall, the entire area shook from the impact.
"Ahh~ Done alrea-
[Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Roar]
!!!
[Blood Magic: Red Beast]
*RAAAWWWWRRRR!!*
Unleashing a horrific sounding roar and bursting out from her body, the Red Beast enhanced by 100% devil power grabbed hold of the upper and lower parts of Noelle's water dragon and ripped it apart!
"Ahh~ Sneak attack failed."
Holding the two captains up in a death grip and turning her head to the side, she caught sight of Noelle, Mimosa and Secre rushing into the room from the corner of her eye.
"What is this? A slumber party or something?"
Running into the room with all three of their grimoire pulsing with magic power, the eyes of the trio were immediately drawn to the 100% Devil Powered form Vanica was presenting.
Ignoring the terrifying amount of mana she was emitting, the three got into combat ready stances as the only thing on their minds was the location of their friend.
"Where's Grim?!!"
"Grim?" Dropping the two captains and shifting her focus onto the three, her attention was quickly drawn to Mimosa.
"Ginger hair..."
Recalling the description Grim had used to describe the three women he considered worthy of his attention. Mimosa's vermillion hair colour quickly caught her attention.
*BOOOM!!*
"WAAAHH!!"
"Urghhh!!"
'What the hell! She's so much stronger than before!'
Losing her cool for a second, dark and murky mana as well as the heavy scent of blood permeated the air.
*FWOOSH!!*
Not even bothering to say anything, in less than a second she appeared in front of Mimosa.
*FWOOM!!*
Gathering magic power into her hand and forming it into a fist, the air whistle as she struck forth.
"MIMOSA!!" The two girls screamed. But it was too late.
"STOOOP!!"
Using what little strength she had left, Charlotte created a vine whip and pulled Vanica's arm back before her fist could connect with Mimosa's body.
"What are you doing?! GET OUT OF HERE!!"
Seeing the three still in a daze, Charlotte's frustrations bubbled up to the surface as she screamed at them.
But would Vanica let that happen?
"Why won't you just DIE ALREADY!!"
*SNAP!*
'Shit!'
Watching her break free of the vine whip, Noelle and the rest jumped back as magic circles formed in front of them and they fired off whatever offensive spell they could.
*BOOM!!*
*BOOM!!*
*BOOM!!*
Bombarded by their magic, Vanica's irritated voice continued to echo out.
"Useless, Useless, USELESS!!"
Swiping her hand forward and unleashing her blood magic, she swatted away their attacks and went on a counter offensive.
[Blood Magic: Herd of Red Beasts]
Expelling a large amount of blood magic and shaping it into the form of smaller versions of the red beast spell, she created a small army of blood monsters.
"GO!"
*FWOOSH!!*
*FWOOSH!!*
*FWOOSH!!*
*FWOOSH!!*
Faced with the stampede of minature red beasts rushing towards them, the three girls nodded to each other before breaking off into different directions.
"MIMOSA!!"
"On it!" Hearing Noelle's call and using the Heart Kingdom's Mana Method technique, plants burst out from the ground and tied up the blood beasts.
"Nice one!"
Seeing her cousin immobilize them, Noelle fired off a [Sea Dragon's Roar] powered by nature's mana.
"See that Vanica! We're not going down without a fight!"
"YOU!" Gritting her teeth, she decided to take care of them with her bare hands.
While Noelle and Mimosa kept Vanica busy, Secre reached the weakened Rill and Charlotte and used her sealing magic to seal away the damage Vanica had inflicted on them.
Before long, it turned into a 5v1. Unfortunately, this made little difference.
***
*Cough* *Cough*
'How-How is this possible!'
'Even with the five of us... we still couldn't beat her.'
Laying on the ground covered in wounds, a black eyed Mimosa stared at a limping Vanica.
Even if she was stronger than all of them combined, having her [Curse-Warding Magic] being constantly weakened by Charlotte while also fighting against 4 other above stage 0 mages (one in which specialized in sealing away her movements) made it so that she didn't leave unscathed.
"Nggh!"
Inhaling sharply and ripping Mimosa's [Plant Magic] vines off her feet, she shattered the huge magic circle that Secre used to seal her movements and limped towards the downed clover knights with a huge grin on her face.
"You actually managed to make that fun! Granted it took 5 of you and I wasn't able to make full use of my abilities due to my magic being weakened and sealed. But I gotta admit it was good~ You even managed to injure me. If it weren't for my ability to heal, I would've been in trouble."
'Heal?'
Remembering how quickly the wounds Grim had inflicted on her in the Heart Kingdom healed, the faces of Mimosa and the others turned pale.
"Such a shame. But I gotta kill you. Grim's waitin-
*BADUMP!!*
'...Huh?'
She felt blood flowing down the corner of her mouth.
'My injuries... They aren't healing.'
*BADUMP!!*
Feeling a strange throbbing sensation from the devil mark around her eye, dark and twisted mana suddenly began seeping out of it and covering the entire area.
'This feeling... Megicula?!'
With the current state of her body, she couldn't resist the changes happening to her as the iconic black substance representing the devils began taking over the entirety of the right side of her face started spreading to the rest of her body.
'W-What is happening! MEGICULA!!'
Finally done taking over the right side of her body, the black substance suddenly did something strange. It began breaking away from her and taking on a shape of its own.
"SOrry VaNNIca." Megicula's distored voice begun echoing out of the blob.
"yoU proBaBly cAN't SensE iT, BuT NAhAMAH and LIlITH jusT PErished."
'Nahamah? Lilith? What the hell are you talking about!'
As she continued speaking, both the shape and voice within the oddly shaped black blob started to become more distinct.
"ThERe'S nO DouBT In mY MiND ThAt iT Was GRiM's DoINg."
'My curse absorbing roses... They're withering...'
"AnD I CAn'T TaKE It ANyMoRE! I WAnt tO seE This DemON SLayer wIth mY oWN eyes! AnD WIth thE PreSENce of tHRee VasTLY PoWErfULl sOuLS oF ThE SaME sEx HeRe, The PRepoRaTIONS FOr my ARRival aRe fiNNAly CompLETE!"
'Three souls of the same sex? Does she mean us?'
Hearing the words of the female shaped black substance, a look of panic and confusion flashed through the eyes of Noelle, Secre and Mimosa.
"Your... Arrival?" Vanica repeated feeling completely confused. "What about the gates of the underworld?! Weren't you gonna wait until they opened up at your level!"
With the black substance taking up the majority of her body, Vanica's voice was slowly growing weaker and weaker.
"oH yOU sILLY GiRl. Megicula laughed lightly. "YoU StILL Don'T GeT iT Do YoU? GrIM was Never Going To OpEn UP All The GAtes."
"W-What..."
"MmM... JuST LiKE Me, He HaD A PlaN Of HiS Own. NoW ThaT thE FiRsT GatE Of THe UnDeRwOrLd HAs oPENed uP, He No LoNgEr NeeDs ThE ReSt."
Realizing that she was losing control of her body and feeling the weight of the black substance on her shoulder, Vanica couldn't help but ask in a panicked voice-
"What's happening to me!"
"Curse-Warding Magic: Malevolent Femcantation." Slowly manifesting her physical body, the distortion in Megicula's voice began to dissipate.
"In order manifest myself in this world, I need to sacrifice the souls of three powerful female mages. That silver haired one from the Clover Kingdom 17 years ago was the first, you a gifted devil host who made a contract with me a SUPREME DEVIL are the second, and one of those girls over their will serve as the third a final soul for my manifestion to be complete."
"Y-You mean I'm going to die! N-NO! I DON'T ACCEPT IT! I PROMISED GRIM THAT WE'D FIGHT AGAIN! I CAN'T DIE HERE!!"
"I'm sorry Vanica." She shook her head as her fleshy body manifested on Vanica's shoulder and her appearance was clear for all to see.
"Your role here is over."
"Is that so."
Hearing the echo of a familiar voice, everyone's heads turned in the direction of training room's doorway.
"GRIM!!" They all gasped at once.
Walking onto the scene and flashing everyone a playful smile, Grim cocked his head to the side and said-
"Miss me?"