"Boom boom boom boom rumble rumble rumble rumble ——————————!"

Flashes of lightning densely appeared in the vortex formed by dark clouds, gradually converging towards the center; heavy rain poured down on the earth under the sweeping force of the gale, stirring up a hazy mist in the forest. The newly promoted Devil Lord and the Transcendents pressed tightly together, like two fused statues.

Surging magic power completely surrounded Ash, and golden streamers even appeared around her body.

This was also the target that the Divine Will was aiming for—

She regarded herself as a sharp blade.

"Is this your last struggle?" Ursrook roared, "Trying to perish with me in this way is utter foolishness!"

"I won't... let go," Ash said with difficulty. With half of her chest pierced, even breathing became difficult, and blood flowed back into her trachea, her mouth and nose filled with a salty, metallic taste.

Five minutes... She kept telling herself, just five minutes would be enough.

The opponent's strength wasn't that far ahead of hers, and as long as she didn't let go, it would be almost impossible to break free from her restraints.

"Did you think I would use strength to decide the outcome with you?" Ursrook's face looked even more hideous under the rain, "It seems that you have imprisoned me, but in fact, this is just a cage you built for yourself!"

After saying that, several black rays of light stretched out from its chest, stabbing into Ash's body like tentacles.

She couldn't help but cry out in pain.

She originally thought that there wouldn't be a more painful feeling than magic backlash, but the severe pain brought by the black light was several times higher than burning her body! It was as if countless fine needles were piercing into her brain along her blood vessels. If she hadn't repeatedly warned herself not to lose consciousness no matter what, she would probably have fallen into a coma at this moment.

However, the unbearable pain was only the beginning—black lines started from the point of entry and spread little by little to the surrounding area, causing the skin to bulge slightly, as if something was crawling inside her body.

Ash coughed up a mouthful of blood, "What... cough cough... did you do?"

"A little gift, and also proof of the difference between you and me in understanding and control of magic." Ursrook moved closer to Ash's ear, "To be honest, I should thank you. If it weren't for this battle, I wouldn't have been able to usher in my promotion so quickly. Now, you have delivered yourself to me—I am very much looking forward to seeing how much I can improve after completely defeating you!"

Ash suddenly realized that this was another form of erosion. The parts covered by the black lines completely lost sensation, as if they no longer belonged to her. She bit her lip and tried her best to circulate the magic power in her body, not seeking to erode back like the enemy, but only hoping to stop the invasion of the opponent's magic power.

"You... don't even think about controlling me!"

Under the fierce impact of the two magic powers, Ursrook's expression gradually twisted. Its newly acquired body suddenly swelled up, and its size quickly exceeded itself, turning into a bloated and ugly sarcoma—as if half of a Hell Lord's body was forcibly pieced together with it, looking particularly deformed.

But even so, the erosion only stopped for a moment. Although the speed of the black lines' expansion slowed down slightly, they were still advancing little by little, and a part of them had already crawled onto Ash's neck.

"Commendable perseverance." Ursrook smiled cruelly. At this moment, it was completely different from its previous appearance—the alienated body not only distorted the Devil Lord's face, but also made it lose its human-like outline. From any angle, it looked like a monster. "But what's the use of that?"

"I... won't..."

"Won't give up? Indomitable, hard work, belief, persistence... are just self-comforting words for the weak. On the road to compete for survival, who would give up easily? It's a pity that these things alone can't change anything. If just saying these words could allow the race to continue, it would be too easy!"

Severe pain repeatedly impacted Ash's mind. She opened her mouth, but couldn't make a sound.

The swirling vortex above her head had already taken shape, and golden light shone within it, but she felt that the power was getting farther and farther away from her.

"Whether it's the tolerance to magic or the long lifespan required to adapt to magic, we are far superior to you. The difference is like birds and insects. No matter how hard you struggle, you can't bridge this gap! The two Divine Will battles have already proven this!" Ursrook slowly raised her up, as if declaring her final fate, and said loudly, "So rest assured and die here. Blame yourself for being born into a weak human body—"

"Don't—underestimate————humans!"

Suddenly, a clear shout came from the rain. The voice was familiar, causing Ash to regain a bit of clarity in a daze.

She barely turned her head and looked, only to see an electric-like figure rushing out of the forest.

Is it... Lightning?

She saw the other person dragging a long mist trail in the rain, rushing straight towards Ursrook after passing through the scorched tree trunks.

And she seemed to be holding something in her arms.

Ash blinked.

It turned out to be... three grenades?

"Insects, you're courting death!" Ursrook instantly deployed a magic prohibition field.

At the moment when the black light was about to touch Lightning, the latter let go of her hands and changed her direction of flight.

She separated from the grenades—

Although she had no abilities, inertia still existed. After leaving Lightning's embrace, the grenades opened their tail fins and flew towards Ursrook with undiminished speed.

"You—!" The Devil Lord bared its teeth and used all its magic power to erect a blue barrier in front of it.

In the next moment, three fire flowers bloomed outside the barrier, but that was just the prelude to destruction. The hot, manic energy was gathered into an extremely dazzling jet by the cone-shaped projectile cover, directly hitting the barrier, causing it to shatter like glass. After penetrating this defense, the jet cut through Ursrook's mutated body like a hot knife through butter, turning the sarcoma dragged behind it into a pool of烂泥.

And the magic stone obtained from the high-level devil was also completely shattered by this blow.

Ursrook raised its head and screamed miserably!

The spreading black lines immediately shrank back, and Ash felt the pain in her body suddenly disappear, and consciousness returned to her mind again.

She unhesitatingly launched the Divine Will she had been accumulating for a long time.

The other party also realized that the situation was not good, and howled, trying to shake off the witch in front of her, but Ash firmly grasped Ursrook with both hands, naturally not giving it this chance.

"You're right, humans are indeed weak... but even so, we want to continue walking on this path, no matter what kind of challenges lie ahead, we will not retreat." She paused, revealing a hint of a smile, "Because someone is already standing in front, pointing the way for us."

Then, golden lightning covering the sky and the sun pierced through the sky!

In the almost incandescent brilliance, Ursrook was completely evaporated, leaving no trace of its existence.

The rumbling thunder echoed in the sky above the Fertile Plains, and it didn't dissipate for a long time.

After the Divine Will was extinguished, only Ash was left on the empty ground.

Lightning gritted her teeth and slowly climbed up from the ground—when she crashed into the devil's domain, she changed her horizontal flight to side flight, so she was thrown out at high speed like a stone. Fortunately, the enemy focused most of its energy on the defensive barrier, and she got rid of the shackles of the black light before landing, and managed to activate Magic Power Synchronization at the last second.

The result was a broken arm and half of her body was scraped bloody.

She limped to Ash's side and forced a smile, "Finally... won."

"Yeah, thanks to you. To be honest, I didn't expect you to come back."

"It's called the sixth sense of an outstanding explorer, always able to appear when needed—" Lightning suddenly paused when she said this, and she noticed that the other person's appearance seemed a little wrong, "Hey, you... what's wrong with you?"

Ash lowered her head and looked at her pale hands, "Perhaps... this is the price of burning myself?"

"Burning myself—what does that mean?" Lightning couldn't help but be stunned. The Transcendent in front of her was

materializing bit by bit, her long hair turning into white dots and scattering with the wind, as if she was no longer a physical entity, but an illusion made up of countless fireflies.

"If we crave to use magic power to achieve a certain purpose, it will guide us in that direction—and I probably demanded from it power far beyond what I could bear..." Ash said softly, "So it turns out that being completely fused with magic power is like this... If it doesn't turn into a monster, this seems not bad either."

"W-what are you talking about," Lightning wanted to grab her hand, but only raised a cloud of scattered dust. "Ash, tell me! What should I do?"

"Tell Tilly, I like her."

The dark clouds in the sky dispersed, and sunlight pierced through the clouds and shone back onto the earth. In the millions of light pillars, Ash closed her eyes and dissipated with the wind.

Lightning hugged the place where she was standing, but couldn't leave anything behind. The little girl held her arms in front of her and sobbed uncontrollably.

...

Looking at the dark night sky, Lan sighed and lowered her eyelids.

After a long silence, she closed the window and murmured softly—as if asking others, and as if talking to herself.

"What exactly are you expecting?"

"There's nothing to hesitate about, right?"

"Have to be faster, we... don't have time."

The last sound carried a trace of sigh, frozen in the stagnant time.