Wisteria thought she understood the strength of the human named Sora.

She had a clear memory of crossing blades and fangs with him, even though she was possessed by an evil spirit.

Wisteria had struggled to exorcise the powerful evil spirit – the demon god Pazuzu – but failed. She had a deep respect for Sora’s martial prowess, who had subdued him without difficulty.

But now, Wisteria felt the need to revise her perception. She had thought she understood Sora’s power, but that was only a “pretense”.

――The desert was trembling.

In her sight, Sora, who had pulled out his soul equipment, was increasing his magic power. He had been increasing it ever since he got off the back of the winged beast Wyvern.

The magic power surging from the youth’s body, she stares silently at its towering presence like a majestic castle wall. Even the hordes of monsters rushing toward him seem distant to the current Wisteria.

The desert, which had little nature compared to her hometown Andra Forest, also had spirits. The eyes of the elf saw the spirits fleeing in panic.

The wind spirit Sylph, the earth spirit Gnome, the fire spirit Salamander, they were all screaming in the face of the primal power that transcended the boundaries of the world’s magic power Mana and individual magic power Od.

Wisteria involuntarily shrank her body at the high-pitched screams of the spirits that pressed her ears. Or perhaps, that was Wisteria’s own scream.

A surge of power that was incomparable to when he fought Pazuzu. She was forced to understand that the power she admired was a product of restraint.

How could he keep his human form with such power? She even wondered that.

Without noticing Wisteria’s agitation – or perhaps not caring about it, Sora unleashed his power.

“Phantom Blade Style: River of Flames”

What overflowed from his soul equipment in response was a scorching river. The muddy stream of flames ran straight across the desert, emitting a staggering amount of heat.

The night air that covered the area boiled in an instant, and the freezing cold turned into a scorching heat. The fire stream that melted even the desert sand as it rushed forward collided with the front group of demons.

It was an easy victory.

The demons were burned to ashes in an instant. The sand lizards that protected themselves with thick skins, the Catalan ants that covered their entire bodies with iron-hard shells, the golden scorpions that lured humans with their golden-like carapaces, and other demons as well. They were burned to nothingness in an instant, leaving no bones behind.

It was a baptism of fire that could be described as evaporation.

A hot wind blew to Wisteria. The burning wind scorched her skin and at the same time, an indescribable stench pierced her nostrils. Wisteria knew. It was the smell of burning creatures.

The lives that melted in the air were not ten or twenty. A hundred, two hundred. Or a thousand, two thousand. The thick smell of life made Wisteria nauseous. She was so embarrassed that she, who had been the top swordsman of Andra, showed such a disgraceful sight on the battlefield. The smell was so intense.

――But even after being hit by such a blow, the momentum of the demons did not stop.

The technique that Sora unleashed became a river of flames as its name suggested, and burned through the horde of demons as if licking them. But it was not enough to wipe out all the enemies that filled the horizon.

The demons that escaped the range of the technique came straight at them without flinching.

Seeing this, Wisteria tried to start calling out to the spirits to support Sora.

As if to stop Wisteria’s movement, Sora raised his soul equipment high.

He was going to use the same technique again – that’s what Wisteria thought when she saw Sora’s stance, but she soon realized that her guess was wrong.

The wind was swirling.

The wind blade that tore through Pazuzu’s four wings in the battle in Berka. It was a wind that was multiplied by several times, or even tens of times, as strong as that.

The wind that was created grew bigger and bigger in no time, taking in the updraft caused by the heat of the river of flames. The way it rose to pierce the sky was like a tornado.

Wisteria raised her left hand to shield her eyes from the sandstorm that blew. The gale that could blow Wisteria away as well was nothing but the aftermath of the technique.

She raised her eyes to follow the wind and saw that the wind that Sora had created was disturbing the air above. The eyes of the spirit user saw the wind fairies Sylph fleeing in panic. He wouldn’t have to do such a thing if he was just going to hit the enemy with a tornado.

“What on earth are you…”

She muttered unconsciously.

And there was a reply to that voice, which she thought would be drowned out by the wind.

“I learned this when I started riding Clau Soras, but it’s cold up there in the sky, even in summer.”

Sora’s voice, which picked up Wisteria’s whispering voice keenly. His voice sounded strangely clear in the midst of the roaring wind.

“The higher you go, the more so. It wasn’t just cold, I could barely breathe. It was like there was invisible water on it.”

The end of the sky was a world of dead ice, where not even birds or indigo-winged beasts Wyverns could fly.

When he learned that, Sora thought.

――What would happen if I slammed this down to the ground?

The moment she heard that, Wisteria made a strange noise in her throat.

She opened her mouth reflexively, but didn’t know what to say, and just opened and closed her mouth meaninglessly. While Wisteria was flustered, Sora’s technique was rapidly approaching completion.

He stirred up the tranquility of the sky with the swirling wind, and from a height beyond human reach, he slammed down the cold that rejected life.

“Phantom Blade Style: Ice Hammer”

The next moment, the world exploded in Wisteria’s sight.

The mass of cold that was slammed down from high above became a huge hammer and attacked the demons that were flocking on the ground.

The range was vast, the power was immense. The attack that allowed no evasion or resistance was equivalent to dropping the sky itself.

The countless demons that were rushing through the Catalan Desert were crushed, flattened, and shattered without a trace in an instant.

Immediately after, a tremendous impact that lifted her body up hit Wisteria from below. It was the effect of Sora’s technique hitting not only the demons but also the Catalan Desert.

The aftermath of the technique did not stop there.

The shock wave caused by the fierce battle between the sky and the ground scattered in all directions with a tremendous wind pressure, lifting a large amount of sand high into the sky. The scattered sand spread its power further on the raging wind, creating a localized sandstorm.

What was different from a normal sandstorm was that this storm was accompanied by a cold that could freeze a living human in an instant. A frozen storm of death formed by sand and ice.

Even if there were any demons that survived the first attack, their lives would be gone if they were caught in this storm. The horde of demons that seemed to be countless was literally annihilated.

“What is this…”

A stunned mutter fell from Wisteria’s mouth. Her eyes naturally turned to Sora, as if drawn by something.

In her sight, the black-haired young man was smiling with a slight lift of his lips.