Inside the ruined castle, a pillar of flame erupted through the ceiling and ignited the sky.
In the inferno that the throne room had become, Stella swung her massive flame sword like Surtr himself bringing about Ragnarok. Laevateinn carved through everything in its path: ceiling, floor, walls, before detonating in a wave of fire that shattered the ground.
The destructive force had already crossed beyond Ultimate-Class into Maou-Class territory.
The throne room's reinforced construction, built to accommodate dragons, was the only reason the entire castle didn't disintegrate. Even so, the blast wave spilled through the open doors and consumed the top floor of the castle. Outside, Kanna and her bubble were blown away by the shockwave.
Leo couldn't dodge an attack of that scale.
So he used Nature's Hope, transforming into flame and merging with the surrounding inferno, letting the attack pass through him harmlessly.
When he reformed, Stella was already raising the blazing sword for another strike.
Katharterio Salamandra had no physical blade. It was pure condensed heat, extending her attack range from two meters to over a hundred without any loss in speed or agility. She could swing it endlessly as long as her dragon power held out, and now that she'd been reincarnated as a devil, her demonic power extended that stamina considerably.
The second swing came down. Another section of the throne room was carved open and reduced to a glowing crater.
This time Leo folded his twelve wings around himself as a shield. The blast still engulfed him, his entire body wreathed in fire as he shot backward and smashed through a pillar.
Stella pressed the attack. A third swing chased his trajectory, the massive flame sword trailing a wake of fire and sparks.
Leo couldn't stay on the defensive any longer.
A thick bolt of lightning erupted from his body and collided head-on with the incoming blade. The impact threw off sparks and arcs of electricity in every direction.
Leo stabilized midair and fired a second bolt.
The second strike was the tipping point. The flame sword was blown apart by overwhelming force, and the recoil wrenched Stella's arm wide open, leaving her completely exposed.
Leo's wings flared and he closed the distance in an instant, throwing a punch aimed at knocking her unconscious. Better to end this without injuring her if he could.
"Dragon Stomp."
The naked girl raised one slender leg and slammed it into the ground.
The floor shattered into a spiderweb of cracks radiating from the impact point. The rebounding shockwave launched Leo into the air like a toy, nearly slamming him into the ceiling.
Then Stella swung the flame sword and cut him clean in half.
Leo's body split at the waist, the edges glowing red-hot like severed steel.
Against anyone else, the fight would have ended there.
But Leo's bisected body dissolved into crackling lightning, welded itself back together, and reformed.
"Alright. Holding back isn't going to work."
His expression held both surprise and satisfaction. If she were an enemy, discovering he'd underestimated her would have been alarming. But she was his servant. This was good news.
She could freely control dragon flame, unleash devastating physical force, and Laevateinn amplified all of it. Even fighting a Maou head-on, Stella wouldn't be at a disadvantage.
But Stella, still running on pure bloodline instinct, couldn't appreciate any of that. She would attack until her enemy fell.
"Devour the enemy whole..."
She raised the dragon sword again, flames roaring.
"Dragon Fang."
Stella pointed the blade at Leo. The fire writhing along it surged to life, coalescing into seven crimson flame dragons that shot across the battlefield with jaws wide open, each radiating heat even more intense than the flame sword.
Leo flicked his finger seven times. Seven bolts of lightning lanced out and met the flame dragons head-on.
Seven explosions. Seven flame dragons annihilated, scattering into mist.
Without pausing, Leo flicked once more, firing a single thicker bolt straight at Stella.
The lightning crossed the distance instantly, punched through the sea of fire, and struck her dead center.
The impact sent her flying. Her feet carved deep trenches in the ground. The flames wreathing her body scattered, and smoke rose from her skin where the bolt had scorched her.
Leo didn't let up. He fired several more bolts in rapid succession, pressing down on her without mercy.
If he wasn't holding back anymore, he wasn't going to worry about roughing her up. As long as he didn't land a killing blow.
And without restraint, Leo was simply in a different league.
Stella with Laevateinn's enhancement topped out at around Maou-Class. Leo, now a twelve-winged devil, was Maou-Class in his base state. On top of that, his lightning and flame traits amplified Zenith Tempest's elemental output several times over, pushing his effective power well beyond Maou-Class into Super Maou-Class territory, even without Balance Breaker.
"Bahamut Howl!"
Stella sensed the danger. Her entire body erupted with blinding light and heat, radiating outward in every direction like a detonating star. The thermal wave swallowed Leo's lightning, crashing against it in layers. Each bolt shattered one wave only for the next to rush in, steadily sapping the lightning's power until it reached Stella with barely any force left, neutralized by the flames still clinging to her body.
"Dragon Nest!"
She reversed her grip on the dragon sword and drove it into the ground.
Blinding light erupted from every crack in the floor, and molten magma burst upward like blood from torn veins.
Leo shot skyward, blasting through the ceiling and out of the castle entirely to dodge the eruption.
Hovering in midair, he looked down. The entire castle was drowning in magma, burning from the inside out.
"What absurd destructive power."
Leo shook his head, grudgingly impressed.
Dragons were destruction incarnate, and Stella, with her pure dragon bloodline, had inherited that trait in full. In raw destructive output alone, she might already outclass dragons of the same tier.
But destructive power wasn't everything. Zenith Tempest couldn't simply commandeer her flames because they were fundamentally dragon fire, not regular elemental fire. Same reason he couldn't hijack Kanna's lightning breath. The underlying force was draconic, not elemental.
Which meant there was no trick to this.
"I'll just have to win with pure strength."
Stella erupted from the burning castle on massive dragon wings, charging straight at him. Leo's body flared with white aura.
He raised his hand. Lightning gathered in his palm, condensing, raging, until it took the shape of a blade of pure electricity clutched in his fist.
"I'll call this one Raikiri."
Another borrowed technique from a half-remembered life. Leo's wings flared and he rocketed toward Stella.
She raised the dragon sword, flames blazing, and swung.
Leo became a bolt of lightning, crossing the remaining distance in a blink, and appeared directly in front of her.
The lightning blade in his hand cut through her body. Stella froze in midair.
Leo materialized behind her, the crackling light in his hand fading.
A moment later, the flames wreathing Stella's body went out. She began to fall.
Leo turned, caught her, and flew toward the castle, disappearing into the sky.