Chapter 278 New Technique

[Issei POV]

[The King has joined the allies.] A victory worthy of hearing a fanfare inside my head.

The moment Diehauser-san raised his magic bullet toward us, I already saw it. The subtle shift in his wrist. The tension in his muscles before the twist. So I just watched it unfold calmly. It was a shame I couldn’t follow up because of the barrier, but that couldn’t be helped.

Rizevim immediately leapt back, putting distance between us. “Cheh! A brat who doesn’t even have the resolve to fall into darkness!! If you were going to fall anyway, I could’ve even made you my right-hand man!!”

Yeah yeah, we get it, you’re upset your subordinate recruitment plan failed. Honestly, ever since Euclid Lucifuge disappeared, he’s probably been bad at giving orders. Still, stop acting like some ultimate evil overlord. Your vibe is more like a mid-tier final boss from a trendy shounen manga. Actually, yeah, you’re kind of like that. Wait, no. I don’t want to jinx it. Let’s not compare him too deeply.

“Welp, I’m getting a bit tired of playing with you youngsters alone. So I’ll call some backup!” He dropped the “cool villain” act immediately.

This guy’s personality is all over the place.

Around him, dozens of magic circles, Dragon Gates, opened. “Hyahihihihi! These guys were stored in Agreas’ core! So your earlier sacred chant didn’t reach them at all!!”

Yeah, makes sense. We didn’t hack the broadcast system. The sound probably never reached this deep underground.

And then, from the Dragon Gates, familiar shapes emerged. “What?! Grendel and Ladon?! And there’s so many of them!!” Issei’s voice echoed what everyone was thinking. Mass-produced Grendel and Ladon clones filled the area. Their aura was weaker than the originals, and their instincts looked off, but the presence alone was overwhelming.

“Calm down, Issei,” Kiba said. “Their souls are sealed. Look closely, they’ve got dead, hollow eyes. The Holy Grail probably reconstructed only their bodies.” So they were basically shells. Perfect as disposable shields.

“Heh. They may be weaker than the originals,” Rizevim chuckled, “but I still have one more trump card.”

He just said ‘trump card’ out loud, that’s never a good sign.

He activated a magic circle shaped like Ouroboros and crushed it in his hand. BOOM. Rizevim’s aura exploded upward. It surpassed even Fenrir at its peak.

“Hihihihihi! Lilith may be limited, but ‘limited’ still means I can spawn snakes to power myself up! The Holy Grail fills in the missing energy! Of course, after using it once, Lilith’s snakes become classified as Sacred Gear energy and I can’t use them again, but who cares!! This power surge is AMAZING!!”

So it’s a one-time boost, no, wait. Even if it wasn’t, that sounds unstable as hell.

“Impossible, he’s surpassed even the Transcendent!” someone shouted.

“Yeah,” Ddraig’s voice echoed inside me. “That aura rivals my former self and even the White one. Be careful, partner!”

“Good. Then I’ll just have to go all in too!”

“Exactly! Show him the pride of the Red Dragon Emperor!!” Ddraig was fired up now. Everyone’s expressions sharpened.

Rias issued commands. “Issei, Kiba, Kuroka, Diehauser, and Vali, you handle Rizevim. Everyone else, focus on the mass-produced Grendels and Ladons!”

“Roger!”

“Cooperation, huh, fine. I don’t mind taking Rizevim if it means I can deal with him properly.” Vali smirked.

“Vali, you’re not planning to just punch him recklessly again, right?” I muttered. He ignored me. “That’s for you to see.”

That pause was suspicious as hell.

Diehauser also nodded without objection. And so, each of us moved into position.

=====

[Third Person POV]

As the top-tier fighters engaged Rizevim, the others moved simultaneously. Gasper Vladi was the first. Surrounded by darkness, he transformed into the avatar of the demon god Bael. “I want to rush in too, but I can’t let Issei-senpai’s group get interrupted. I’ll handle all stray attacks!”

Darkness spread outward, forming countless shadow beasts. Gasper’s Sacred Gear, “Forbidden Balor View,” synergized perfectly with his vampire ability to generate clones. Once he fully mastered the inherited power of Bael he would become one of the most technical fighters among the peerage.

“Nice one, Gasper! Now I can swing my swords freely!” Xenovia raised Durandal and Excalibur, delighted.

“You’re too quick to give up on responsibility the moment you can relax,” Irina sighed.

“Haha, but there are still a lot of enemies. We should finish this quickly,” Kiba added. And so the sword users moved.

BOOM. White lightning struck the mass-produced Grendels. The fake Grendel trembled, scorched from head to toe. “As expected, weaker than the original. Their movement is also dull. I could defeat them alone if I took my time, but we don’t have that luxury.” She raised her hand. “Holy Lightning.”

BOOM. Seven lightning dragons formed above her. Each one carried divine dragon pressure. They wrapped around the enemy and detonated in violent arcs of electricity.

“Now then, next target, oh?” A barrier appeared. Ladon clones stood behind Grendels, forming layered defensive formations. Frontline and backline coordination. Smart positioning, even copies think tactically.

“Oh my, you’re clustering together like that? How cute. I might enjoy this a little too much~♪”

That tone is dangerous.

Still smiling, she gathered her lightning dragons. “They’re clustered perfectly, so I’ll pierce them all at once.” The seven dragons condensed into a single spear of lightning. A dragon-shaped lance. She entered a throwing stance. “Bishop strengthens the spear. Rook strengthens the arm. Knight enhances acceleration.”

BOOM. “I combine them all, this is my Queen-class ultimate technique.” She launched it. The lightning spear tore through Ladon’s barriers as if they didn’t exist. It impaled the Grendel clones behind them. And then, the electricity spread outward, annihilating everything inside the formation.

“Having a finisher really changes everything.” And she flew toward her next target.