The Black Stage operatives, under Ingel's command, slowly closed in around the High Table members.
Nabu opened the book again and recited an incantation, summoning a soulimpregnated sword.
Seeing this, Ingel shouted to the Black Stage operatives.
"Shields!"
Black energy crept up from the operatives' black arms, forming shields of a material as hard as obsidian.
They charged forward, shields raised, toward the swords summoned by Nabu.
Clang!
The swords clashed against the black shields of the Black Stage operatives.
A massive shockwave shook the stone chamber, but unlike before, the operatives were merely pushed back without taking damage.
It was clear that word magic forming soul-impregnated swords couldn't inflict significant harm on them.
Nabu gritted his teeth, searching for another incantation.
But in that moment, a wave of dizziness hit him hard.
"Urk!"
It was the limit of his mental strength from repeated use of word magic.
Ingel, seeing this, curled her lips again and addressed the High Table.
"Spirits of the old era. Cease this meaningless resistance and surrender. Our merciful god will grant you peaceful repose."
Nigel pointed her sword at them and spat.
"Spare us the nonsense about your god, you fanatic scum." Nigel's words twisted Ingel's expression.
Like a devotee whose deity had been insulted, she spat out mad words in pure rage.
"Kill them! Slay that impious spirit!"
At Ingel's command, the Black Stage operatives reverted their shield-arms to black claws and rushed toward the High Table.
Nigel leaped forward, swinging her sword at them.
Boom!
Her sword strike, infused with full power technique, clearly struck them.
But the operatives she felled began to recover and rise again after a short time.
Moreover, upon reviving, they seemed stronger than before, their auras more intense as they charged at Nigel once more.
"Damn it."
She was already exhausted from battling the other magical beasts earlier.
The other High Table members showed clear signs of fatigue as well.
Sensing the difficulty, Nigel gritted her teeth, glaring at Baron Draker standing behind Ingel.
"In the end, that's the only way."
Revealing her true power could certainly hold them off.
But doing so would prevent her from remaining in the phenomenal world.
If fortune favored her, she might ascend to Peach Blossom Paradise, but otherwise, karma's sanctions could annihilate her soul entirely.
With the other High Table members already destroyed by outsider-species magical beasts and the leader out of contact, if Nigel herself perished, the Highlander would be all but annihilated.
She glanced back at Nabu amid the encroaching operatives.
Though they often bickered over various matters, Nigel trusted Nabu the most in the Highlander.
She swung her sword while sending him a message.
—Nabu, I leave the rear to you.
Nabu, lying on the flying carpet due to dizziness, jolted upright at Nigel's message.
"What? You old hag! What are you saying?!"
As Nabu spoke, a flash of light erupted from Nigel's position.
Whoooong!
Noble silver radiance poured from Nigel's body.
Her true power was so immense that she had suppressed it in the form of a child.
But releasing it now transformed her appearance back to its original state.
Whoooong!
Her bound hair unraveled, long silver locks whipping in the air.
Her arms and legs lengthened, her body shifting to a slender yet resilient figure.
Above all, the severed horn on her forehead began to regrow slowly.
Fully transformed, Nigel matched the reflection in Nabu's mirror of truth.
An exalted goddess, as if sculpted from moonlight.
That was Nigel's true form.
Rumble!
From the seal-unleashed Nigel, an aura utterly different from before emanated.
Baron Draker, watching from behind, twitched his brow as she revealed her true self.
Then, before his order could come, Ingel screamed first.
"What are you waiting for? Kill that impious spirit now!"
At her frenzied voice, the momentarily hesitant Black Stage operatives charged at Nigel.
Whoosh!
They flew in from all sides, swiftly thrusting their black claws at her.
Nigel swung her sword at them in response.
Flash!
In an instant, the Black Stage operatives around her vanished.
Thud thud thud!
With a single stroke, they shattered into chunks of flesh, their remains scattering to the floor.
Ingel's sole eye widened at the sight.
"Th-that thing!"
Nigel's sword, now revealing her true power, was entirely different from before.
It wasn't something one could block.
Her soul-impregnated sword cleaved the very essence of existence.
Whatever the black energy enveloping the operatives might be, it didn't matter to her.
To Nigel, she simply needed to slash it away, whatever it was.
Seeing this, Ingel screamed at the remaining Black Stage operatives.
"Damn it! Kill her! Rush her all at once!"
At her command, over a dozen operatives charged simultaneously.
Though their comrades had just been reduced to gore, they didn't hesitate.
The Black Stage operatives were trained for absolute obedience in such scenarios from the start.
Now fueled by madness, their movements showed no trace of doubt.
Whoosh!
Like black shadows, they hurtled toward her.
Nigel raised her sword calmly against the encroaching shadows.
A soft moonlight aura rose from her blade.
She swung it at the shadows.
Full power technique: Moonlight Sword
Solo spell
Will of Slashing
Her will-infused sword unfolded toward the Black Stage operatives.
Slaaash—
The moonlight blade sliced through them.
Unlike a normal strike, the moonlight passed through their bodies without clashing.
But the moonlight carried the will of slashing Nigel had embedded within it.
"Guh, guhk!"
The charging operatives froze, their bodies crumbling simultaneously.
Crack crack crack!
Over a dozen operatives melted into blood, splattering across the floor.
Splat!
Nigel's surroundings were filled with blood, shattered bones, and scattered flesh.
In the crimson-stained world, the goddess stood with cold beauty, unassailable.
Ingel grimaced and trembled at the sight of her.
"You filthy mongrel bitch..."
In truth, Ingel was a more extreme racist than even Castro Pollock.
At the sight of the one-horn tribe Nigel, she scratched her arms as if breaking out in hives.
"Creatures like that insect have no place in the new era. They must die. All of them eradicated."
Ingel stepped forward with a mad expression.
As she lowered her arm, her fingertips gradually turned black.
Unlike the other Black Stage operatives, black energy gathered in her hand like flowing liquid, dripping to the floor.
Ingel intoned to Nigel.
"I am the new humanity of the era. Ingel Draker, of the new pureblood Draker lineage."
The black liquid dripping from Ingel's hand slithered across the ground, climbing onto the bodies of nearby Black Stage operatives and adhering to the napes of their necks.
Crunch—
As the black liquid attached, the operatives' eyes changed.
The whites vanished, their irises turning entirely black, devoid of any human reason.
They had devolved into puppets moved by Ingel's will.
Ingel raised her sticky black hand, manipulating the operatives like a puppeteer.
Soon, the black substance on their napes spread thin, enveloping their entire bodies.
Crunch—
Not just their arms, but the black energy covered them fully, giving the appearance of being coated in viscous material.
In that state, Ingel raised both hands upward.
The sticky substance enveloping the operatives hardened like obsidian, sharp blades protruding from their arms.
Ingel screamed at them.
"Kill her!"
Whoosh!
At her words, the Black Stage operatives rushed at Nigel.
She raised her sword with serene poise and swung at them.
Crunch!
The operatives struck by her sword shattered like black crystal.
Swish—
But astonishingly, the scattered fragments liquefied and recombined, restoring their original forms.
Growl!
Reformed as black monsters, the Black Stage operatives charged at Nigel again.
Even as her full power technique sword strikes pulverized them, they regenerated swiftly.
No matter how many times she swung, it was futile. "This..."
Nigel furrowed her brow at the unprecedented phenomenon.
Then it happened.
Crackle!
A backlash of causality erupted from the sword she held.
Karma's sanctions had begun on Nigel for unleashing her true power.
She realized she had little time left.
As she prepared to swing again, a monster suddenly emerged from her shadow.
Slaaash!
Nigel whirled, slashing at it.
The monster shattered, only to regenerate into its original form.
The regeneration speed was accelerating with time.
Nabu, watching from behind, shouted at her.
"Damn it! Nigel, stop! We abandon this place and retreat!"
To Nabu, losing Nigel was more despairing than holding the site.
But Nigel ignored him, continuing to swing her sword to block them from the door.
The problem was that even if she held them off, Baron Draker still remained behind.
"Damn..."
Nabu gritted his teeth, pondering his options.
At that moment, Ivan, treated by Manna, rose from his seat.
With his severed arm bandaged, he approached Nabu.
"It seems the leader has been annihilated."
"Wh-what? The leader annihilated? What do you—"
"I no longer sense his presence from the tower. He couldn't leave it, so he must be gone."
Nabu's face filled with despair.
The one last hope, the leader, was already lost—leaving virtually no chance.
Gritting his teeth, Nabu said to Ivan.
"Ivan, open that door." Ivan shook his head.
"The Book of the Lion must not fall into their hands." Nabu yelled at him.
"You idiot! You should have opened it earlier and given it to Nigel! What makes you think that crap works now?!"
He grabbed Ivan's collar in fury.
"Retrieve it now and escape! Stay longer, and we die while they take the Book of the Lion!"
Ivan's expression didn't change at Nabu's words. He still believed the tower would protect the Book of the Lion.
Realizing words wouldn't reach him, Nabu turned and shouted at Manna.
"Manna! Open that door now! Hurry!"
After hesitating, Manna clasped his hands and approached the door.
Ivan tried to stop him, but Nabu held him back.
"Not this time. Snap out of it..."
Boom!
Then, a resounding impact made the High Table whirl around.
There, Nigel had been repelled by an attack, slamming into the wall.
Rumble!
Several Black Stage operatives had merged into a larger monster than before.
Plasma phenomena sparked around Nigel's body in the wall from the causality backlash.
Ingel screamed at the monster.
"Kill! Kill that filthy mongrel ri—!"
Slash—
In an instant, a sharp sound cut off Ingel's head, sending it tumbling to the floor.
Thud!
The rolling head stopped against something.
Thump!
From the shadows, someone placed a foot on Ingel's head and crushed it.
Splat!
Amid the scattered remnants of Ingel's skull, glowing with a golden dragon eye, he revealed himself.
Nabu shouted upon seeing him.
"Zeke!"