Time rewinds a moment.
In the theater, Azrael watched Ulquiorra drag three corpses toward him and couldn't help but sigh.
The mutilated demon corpses around him had piled into a small mountain, and he had harvested over ten white and green quality Emerald-grade materials.
"Really? Even in a deathmatch, can't we get some higher-quality materials?"
Azrael muttered in dissatisfaction.
He had no use for white and green quality Emerald-grade materials, and even if he traded them, they wouldn't fetch many points. A normal Lore Cardian wouldn't use such low-quality materials. Forget gold and red quality, any decent Lore Cardian would start with blue quality at minimum.
Just as Azrael was complaining, a voice suddenly rang out in the theater.
"I didn't expect someone as powerful as you to be here!"
Hearing the voice, Azrael turned and saw another Emerald-grade demon appear in the theater. However, he couldn't help but frown slightly. This demon was very powerful, far superior to those minor fodder from before.
Azrael sensed the new demon, now enhanced by the [Binding Barrier: Deathmatch Theater], possessing a far greater aura than he had previously encountered. Though it hadn't yet reached Diamond level, a normal Lore Cardian facing him would have only one outcome: death.
Azrael sighed softly, observing the bloodstains on his armor. Undoubtedly, other Lore Cardians had fallen prey to this brutal creature before him.
"Ulquiorra."
"Give it your all! Show him what true despair feels like."
"Yes, Lord Azrael."
The new demon listened to the exchange between master and card as if it were a joke. His eyes widened, and he laughed exaggeratedly, "Huh? You're trying to make me die of laughter?!"
"Just the two of you..."
"You're not even enough to fill Master Hansen's teeth!"
Before he could finish his words, he had already arrived in front of Azrael, carrying a gust of foul wind. As a qualified demon, he naturally understood the ironclad rule of fighting a Lore Cardian: first, defeat the Lore Cardian himself.
"Give me your life!"
A frantic roar of excitement echoed in Azrael's ears, but he simply stared indifferently at the demon calling himself Hansen. As the demon drew closer, Azrael could clearly see the smirk on his face.
It was a shame that the Sacred Blade Armor could withstand even Ruth's attack, let alone a mere Emerald-level demon. While it was just a casual strike from Ruth, it was a genuine Diamond-level strike. Even without Ulquiorra, Hansen would be powerless against him.
While Hansen couldn't clearly see Azrael's expression hidden behind his visor, he could clearly sense his indifference.
"Boom!"
Before he could even process what was happening, a sudden, massive storm of spiritual energy swept him away. Hansen, flung backward, stared at the scene in wide-eyed disbelief.
"What is this..."
"What?"
At that moment, the entire theater wailed. Darkness and emerald green intertwined, and a terrifying spiritual pressure engulfed the entire theater. Fear spread within him, and the world seemed to fade into darkness.
Fine cracking sounds echoed from the void. Feeling the weight of a mountain, the boundlessness of an ocean, Hansen swallowed hard, "Monster!"
"Lord Greg even told me to show mercy!"
He had only felt this kind of terrifying pressure from Diamond-rank officers in the military.
In the silent theater, Ulquiorra spoke coldly, "You're honored. If it weren't for Lord Azrael's orders, a scum like you wouldn't have the chance to see me like this."
With the last word, he appeared before Hansen. Hansen's pupils shrank at the sight, but the tangible pressure seemed to thicken the air. Before the demon could react, a pitch-black hand covered his face.
"Bang, boom, boom!"
Ulquiorra grabbed Hansen's head, dragging a long groove along the ground like a rag doll, until it finally crashed into the edge of the theater, sending up a cloud of smoke.
In the smoke, Hansen's eyes blazed with rage as the black and white figure clutched his face.
"Mmmmm!"
The entire theater began to tremble as he struggled violently. But the hand holding his face remained motionless.
"Your strength is as ridiculous as you are."
"Bang!"
Finally, Hansen's head shattered like a watermelon in Ulquiorra's hand. The demon that had appeared with such bravado was reduced to a headless corpse in just a few dozen breaths, falling helplessly to the ground.
Azrael collected the ingredients for the Emerald-level [Warlord] (Red) from its corpse and then frowned as he surveyed the theater.
"Is it my imagination?"
Hesitantly, he ducked at the edge of the theater, allowing Ulquiorra, now in his Segunda Etapa form, to fire a Lanza del Relámpago in the other direction.
Just as the lightning spear made contact with the barrier at the edge of the theater, a familiar feeling of weightlessness washed over Azrael.
"What's going on? I'm the challenger?!"
Azrael thought he was about to be transported away to fight other Emerald-level demons. However, when he came to his senses, he realized something was wrong.
His senior brother was staring at him blankly from a distance.
"Big Brother?!"
"Junior Brother?!"
"Sweetheart?!"
Hearing the word "Sweetheart" echo from mid-air behind him, Azrael's face paled as he rushed towards his big brother, but Ulquiorra blocked his way.
Then, with an incredibly strong suction force from behind him, Azrael couldn't help but fly backwards. His face was furious, and he gritted his teeth, "If you like it so much, give her a hard time, Ulquiorra."
Even if Azrael hadn't said it, Ulquiorra would have been ready to do it. In an instant, he conjured a Lanza del Relámpago in his hand and hurled it fiercely.
"Swoosh!"
Ruth, mid-air, saw this and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Sweetheart, what are you up to?"
"Come on!"
"Boom!"
The lightning spear exploded, a terrifying surge of spiritual energy engulfing Ruth's words and all the Diamond-level demons in the air. Just as Azrael was about to be caught in the blast, Jacob's card arrived, bringing him back to his side.
In the sky, a pale green beam of light expanded recklessly. Azrael watched the scene with a shudder of fear. While cards couldn't harm their holders, he had no interest in personally testing Ulquiorra's Lanza del Relámpago, let alone this super-powered version.
Jacob, however, had no time to pay attention to the distant movements. He simply stared at his junior brother in amazement, "Junior brother, what's wrong with you?"
He didn't ask why Azrael was there; after all, anyone with eyes could tell it came from Greg.
Commander Kageyami also stared at Azrael in shock.
Hearing this, Azrael replied with lingering fear, "My card activated its special ability, and it dealt a heavy blow to the theater it was in."
"And then we ended up here."
Hearing this, the two men turned their gaze to Ulquiorra, standing shoulder to shoulder with their cards in the distance, and then froze in their spots. Because, in their perception, if they hadn't confirmed it was the young man's card, they would have thought Ulquiorra was a creation of a newly promoted Diamond-level Lore Cardian.
Although the aura was faint, they could sense a hint of Diamond-level power. Moreover, the attack just now proved Ulquiorra's strength.
Jacob turned to Azrael, but he didn't know what to say. While he knew his junior brother's card possessed a similar ability to "unleash," significantly boosting his own power, no one had told him that a card could be elevated directly from Emerald to just shy of Diamond.
Furthermore, he knew Azrael had more than one card with similar abilities. That meant his junior brother could quickly possess several pseudo-Diamond-level cards if he so desired.
He also remembered that Ulquiorra looked completely different the first time he met him.
"Could it be that Junior Brother's card can be unleashed not just once? But twice or three times?"
Jacob fell into deep self-doubt.
Meanwhile, Commander Kageyami's understanding of Azrael was clearly not as deep as Jacob's. So, his evaluation of Azrael and his cards came down to two words: Divine.
He didn't know what else to say. In his mind, perhaps only a few Lore Cardians above the Master level in the entire Empire of Aetherlight could achieve this at the Emerald rank.
Commander Kageyami had heard that Master Tempest had once slain a Diamond-rank demon at the Emerald rank. But Master Tempest had only achieved this after a long period of practice.
He was also frightened by Azrael, not realizing that the young man had never actually slain a Diamond-rank demon.
Azrael seemed to sense what the two were thinking, but he simply shook his head and said, "My card..."
"The situation is a bit special."
Even Azrael himself felt it would be difficult to replicate Ulquiorra's situation a second time. Ulquiorra first advanced to the Emerald rank of [Empty World (Incomplete) Ulquiorra (Hōgyoku Fusion)], and then invested in materials to transform it into the Emerald rank of [No. 4 Ulquiorra Cifer].
This path would be difficult for other cards to replicate. Furthermore, Ulquiorra's energy consumption after the Segunda Etapa was truly terrifying, and Azrael simply couldn't sustain it for long.
To truly cross levels and slay a Diamond-level demon, he still needed to gather bonds, chain cards, and strengthen the venue cards.
As the three chatted, the initial Lanza del Relámpago fired by Ulquiorra in the distance gradually faded. The result was as Azrael expected: the Diamond-level demons, led by Greg and Ruth, though somewhat distressed, had not suffered much damage.
Greg's face was grim, clearly wary of the situation, which was slipping out of his control. More crucially, because of the Lanza del Relámpago Azrael had fired before being transported, he was forced to divert some of the theater's power to maintain the entire [Binding Barrier: Deathmatch Space].
This made it unclear whether he could still trap the two Diamond-level Lore Cardians.
Ruth, on the other hand, blushed as she looked at Azrael, "Sweetheart."
"You're really surprising me more and more."
She said, squeezing her legs together, her slender tongue swirling around her index finger, "I really want to make out with you right now."
Hearing the seductive woman's words, Azrael couldn't help but shudder.
Ignoring Ruth, who was flirting beside him, Greg first stared at Ulquiorra, then looked at Azrael and smiled suddenly, "I'm really surprised."
"The Empire of Aetherlight is willing to let a genius like you come to such a dangerous place in the north."
"Aren't they afraid that you will die here?"
However, in response, he was answered by another Lanza del Relámpago.
Azrael didn't want to answer the distant demon's question that was clearly disturbing his mind. First, he was forced here by Jin. Second, even if they didn't mention those Lore Cardians above the master level, any other Diamond-level Lore Cardian had walked out of blood and fire step by step.
What others could do, he, Azrael, could do as well.