Supreme Monarch

•Paralysis Beam•

The moment Liz had turned around to leave, all three mountain golems whose upper bodies were still above the ice turned their heads to face her.

The orbs In their eyes glowed brighter and a purplish-white beam of energy shot out from them. Liz was easily able to sense the attack even though it must've been moving more than 186,000 miles per second. 

Her skill •Thought Acceleration• Generally allowed her to think at about a thousand times her normal speed which made the attack seem slower to her. However, that didn't seem to matter as the attack could not be stopped.

Against a single paralysis beam, she probably would've been able to resist it but against all three, she would most likely be affected by the attack. Not sure how long the effects of the paralysis would last, one thing was certain. If she let those attacks touch her, there would be no chance of saving Rain as they would both end up dead.

With her mana currently hovering at the brink of exhaustion, Liz had no idea how she would be able to get out of their current predicament. She pushed her Accelerated Thoughts to the limit even though the skill still used mana but was still unable to find a perfect solution.

Just as she was about to sacrifice herself so Kazko could take Rain back and try to survive on her own. Kazko spoke first.

"Please leave the rest to me and go on ahead, I'll handle this."

Liz hadn't even gotten a word out when he immediately used a skill and a red spiraling aura gathered around his feet as he immediately launched at the beams like some kind of rocket.

•Roaring Boost•

Without wasting any more time, he activated his berserk skill as his skin was gradually dyed in a blood-red color and the same colored steam like aura oozed off his pores. Facing the beams head-on, Kazko met the attack with one last skill.

•Twin Roaring Fist•

Spiraling energy gathered around both his fist as Kazko met all three paralysis beams with them. However, his strength could not push back all three of them and thus he was paralyzed midway and fell to the glacier below.

Liz hesitated, she wanted to go back for him but hearing the heavy breathing of Rain and remembering what Kazko said combined with the realization that her mana was almost gone made her keep flying. Not knowing what to do she took another risk and used a communication spell to contact Azar and his men, informing them of what happened.

They were equipped with a lot of stealth scrolls so perhaps they would be able to retrieve Kazko before the mountain golems would be able to escape her spell. With that out of the way, she increased her flight speed and headed back to the castle. Since they had been heading quite far for this mission, they had gotten some low-grade potions from Albert even though those things were very expensive.

However, she had already tried the healing potions on Rain and only had a few mana potions left so she needed to find a way to conserve her mana as she flew. Perhaps even running for a few miles on her way back would be necessary.

However—

She had only just gotten a few meters away from the Darkin Mountain Range, and just when she thought she was home free. Several flaming pillars erupted all around her, trappings her in even though she was flying pretty high off in the sky.

Taking a look around her, she saw the figure of three people standing in the air in front of her. It would seem they had been awaiting her for some time. Liz frowned as she saw Izabel and her two lackeys standing in her way. The giant flame pillars that surround her make her realize something.

The young girl that had introduced herself as Izabel was indeed a demon Noble from the Brimstone family. It would seem she no longer had any intentions of holding back and was currently prepared to use her innate ability which would be devastating for Liz who could not utilize hers as she wished.

Just when she was thinking of a way out of this without having to waste any more time-fighting. An already bad situation got even worse as she suddenly felt a creepy and unnerving presence behind her, followed by a slight stinging pain on her neck.

The cold feeling of a sharp metallic object that drew her blood from the slight cut that was done by the curved demonic blades that were being pressed lightly against her neck told her someone had somehow broken through her defenses and appeared behind her.

Their lips moved closer to her ears as a feminine voice rang out at her in a flighty tone.

"Hiya... sorry I'm late, almost forgot about this hehe my bad~" 

••••••••••

••••••••••

—At the same time.

—Demon King's Castle.

*Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The sounds of metal striking metal reverberated across the outer ward as both the Lesser Frost Giants and the 51 goons engaged in battle simultaneously as Albert and the demon general of greed Nessi.

Although Nessi's blade was large, she fought efficiently without any wild motions that leaves her open to Albert's counter as they engaged in a high-speed battle. Their fight was intense and if they weren't far away from the rest of the group, the massive shockwave from each of their clash alone would lead to certain casualties.

Nessi who was a little surprised to see this old demon being able to completely keep up with her decision to take this fight more seriously as she immediately began using her skills. While she had originally expected him to be somewhat able to match her speed based on his gear that seemed to be catered towards agility. 

Her magic weapon gave her a substantial boost in strength and thus she had expected to fully have the advantage. She was also at the peak of Tier 5 and could sense that this demon was only at the advanced stage which should've given her a full level's worth advantage.

Her master was currently watching this fight and she had proclaimed she would win easily and present the castle to him so that's what she intended to do. As one of the generals of Greed, it would be a disgrace if she allowed this aged inferior demon to put up a decent fight. 

As the youngest and most recent addition to the five generals, she needed to constantly prove her worth to the others and her master so she would earn the same status and respect the others received. With her goal clearly in mind, she avoided Abert's swing and countered with a skill.

•Wirlwind Devastating Barrage•

She had only swung her blade sideways at him but a barrage of purplish-black wind blades flew at him with immense strength that could easily cut through steel. There was literally no way for Albert to avoid the attacks while not leaving himself open, so he needed to face it head-on and it seems Nessi had also considered that as well as she was already preparing a follow-up attack for both scenarios.

However, Albert didn't have any intentions of wasting time with a single general so he didn't hesitate to step into the large wind blades as he activated a skill. Something he rarely did in a close-range fight.

•Skill Breaker•

A wave of invisible energy burst forth from his swing and shattered all the purplish-black wind blades that shot at him while swallowing their effects and completely bullying any feedback. While his skill could only nullify skills that were several levels weaker than him. It was incredibly useful for surprising opponents that we're underestimating him and catching them off guard.

Dashing towards the surprised Nessi before she had the time to recover from her stupor, Albert used several techniques as he continued his counterattacks.

"Secret Techniques - Shadow step, 24 Twin Slashes."

As he moved rapidly towards her, a shadowy figure suddenly appeared beside him, perfectly mirroring his movements. It was almost as though it was his shadow. They suddenly spit up and appeared on the opposite side of Nessi as they swung their blades and 24 black and white sword slashes of light cut through the air at the unsuspecting demoness.

However, Nessi didn't seem to be startled by their sudden and furious attacks as she just took the attack head-on without bothering to dodge or block. Just as the 24 sword strikes were about to make contact with her skin, an invisible barrier suddenly appeared around her and bounced off all 24 strikes before it suddenly shattered into specks of lightning.

However, the knockback effect from the barrier had to knock Abert off balance and his shadow body had disappeared. Nessi suddenly smirked at the unbalanced old man and he immediately used a skill intending to end this fight.

•Dark Devourer•

The area underneath Albert's feet suddenly turned pure black as it even started bubbling like fresh hot liquid tar that suddenly gripped Albert's legs and pulled him in. He tried to struggle and use his blade but tentacles of tar immediately shot up from the puddle and bound him rightly as he slowly sunk into the ground, about to be devoured.

Nessi smirked and walked over slowly still dragging her weapon on the ground behind her as she boldly spoke while looking down on the aged demon that was now trapped in one of her strongest skills. It would be impossible for those stronger than her to escape the skill in only a few seconds while those weaker than her had no means o 

f escape.

Such a skill would normally be hard to use in the course of an actual high-speed battle against an intelligent opponent as it took a few seconds to fully get a firm grip on her opponent and no one would normally just stand there and get caught but thanks to this demon's baseless confidence in his strength and him believe he was a match for her.

She was able to fully utilize the skill. If he had been wise enough to consider her a superior opponent, he would've been more vigilant even when attacking. However, now that he was bound, escape was impossible. This is the end for him.

"That was more trouble than you're worth, just die in peace."

She raised the ridiculously large blade to the side with one hand and casually swung it sideways as she cleanly cleaved the head of the old man that was already knee-deep inside her skill. Her eyes carried no emotions as she took his life without even a second thought.

" Consider yourself lucky, your death would've been a slow and agonizing one if you had faced any other general. As I said, I'll end it quickly."

"My thoughts exactly."

Nessi's heart suddenly skipped a beat as she suddenly heard the voice of the man she had just killed behind her and soon after, sharp stinging pain in her chest. She wanted to speak but her blood suddenly ran up her throat and her head went white.

She struggled to maintain her consciousness as she lowered her head only to see a thin long blade sticking out of her chest where her heart should be.

"H-how?"

She couldn't believe it. She had multiple physical attack resistances and even an adequate sensory ability and thus, even if she was somehow sneaked upon. There shouldn't be any way for her to get one shorted but not only was she unable to sense him survive her attack, but none of her defenses and resistances had also been able to stop his attack.

Her mind slowly went blank and her tight grip on her Consciousness faded away as she died and her body fell limply to the group after Albert pulled his sword in front of her heart.

Secret Technique- Mirage steps

Secret Technique - Nine Abyssal Plunge.