"Corvina" fought against Nathan, who had summoned a blood hand capable of chasing her from all sides. Even though they were both at the Second Circle, he seemed to possess a higher evolution percentage than her, making his attacks increasingly difficult to keep up with.
"Triple Deprivation Hand."
Two more hands emerged from his back and stretched toward her. Corvina used her katana to deflect the attacks, managing to resist for some time, until one of the hands struck her from behind and another pushed her toward Nathan.
"Crimson Blessing."
Upon seeing a reddish glow surround her opponent's body, Corvina realized that he had become even stronger. A blood fist emerged from one of the hands and advanced toward her.
Trying to remain calm, Corvina summoned several crows, causing their feathers to spread throughout the room. Taking advantage of her vision being blocked by the feathers, she moved silently until she was close to the wardrobe.
'Hitodama, heal me.'
While her wound was being healed, she began preparing her Akaname summon, sending it to help her while she remained hidden. Obeying the order, it hid underneath the bed.
"Sacred Crow's Wings."
Creating crow wings on her back, Corvina moved quickly behind Nathan. He noticed the movement of the feathers the instant she appeared and summoned his three hands, causing them to merge into a single shield. The attack struck the defense, but Nathan managed to block it.
As soon as the shield disappeared, three blood punches were fired at her, hitting her directly and launching her body backward amid the various feathers scattered throughout the room. Nathan pursued her, but when he reached the location, he found no one. The feathers continued increasing, covering more and more of the environment.
'Where is she? Let's improve my senses.'
Nathan closed his eyes and used his Blessing to sharpen his senses. After a few seconds, he managed to hear light footsteps coming from the right. Without hesitation, he summoned one of the hands, making it take on a piercing form before launching it toward the sound.
"Damn it!"
The feathers opened when the attack passed through the space, revealing Corvina. The piercing hand struck her stomach and opened a large hole. Even so, she did not give up. She covered her own body with the feathers and disappeared again.
"Wait... is that human blood? Then you're not a vampire?"
He received no answer. Nathan tried to smell the blood and managed to locate Corvina quickly. However, as soon as he moved toward her, he felt his leg beginning to melt from a tongue that wrapped around it.
"Tsk."
Nathan was lifted and thrown against the window. The glass did not even break, thanks to the resistance of that house belonging to Angela. When he fell to the ground, he raised his eyes and saw a tongue approaching. Being pulled by the blood hands, he managed to get out of the way in time, causing the attack to strike the ground.
He tried to smell the blood again, but realized that it had disappeared. This could only mean that she possessed some magic capable of healing or hiding her own blood. Nathan summoned another hand and protected himself with four of them around his body while trying to sense any movement.
'She's not making any noise... is she standing still?'
Sensing danger appear behind him, Nathan turned his body and destroyed whatever had tried to attack him from behind. However, upon realizing that they were several controlled crows, he sensed the danger too late. When he turned around, he received a cut on his arm caused by Corvina's katana.
"Yatagarasu Blade."
The sword had become black like a crow, while its blade had acquired an intense red coloration. Nathan felt a burning sensation in his arm and realized that the limb had become useless. Corvina attacked exactly at that spot, pressing against the wound before he could react.
For the first time in that battle, a drop of sweat ran down Nathan's face. He fused his blood hands, creating two even larger structures.
"Trembling Blood Strike."
Closing his palms, he fused the two hands into a single gigantic structure and struck Corvina directly. The force of the impact was brutal, breaking eleven bones in her body and throwing her against the ground.
"That was harder than I thought."
Nathan looked at his own arm and used his unique ability to accelerate his natural regeneration. The limb began recovering slowly. Meanwhile, Corvina remained lying on the ground, trembling in pain, while her mask fell beside her. However, she concentrated her magic into a single point of the katana, waiting for the right moment.
'I won't lose. Not when master left this for me.'
Her eyes shone with determination. Even with her entire body hurting, she tried to stand and thought about using that battle to improve, just as her master did. Her legs were tired and could barely support her, but then she sensed something and smiled.
"Time to end this."
After completely recovering his arm, Nathan walked toward her. Upon realizing that Corvina was without her mask, he raised an eyebrow, but decided to ignore it and prepared the same attack as before. The enormous blood hand rose and struck exactly where she was.
Without even checking the result, Nathan turned his back and decided to go help Morvus's other subordinates, wanting to end that rebellion as quickly as possible.
"He improved again..."
Upon hearing the voice of the girl he believed he had defeated, Nathan turned around. Corvina was standing, surrounded by a bright light that seemed to be responsible for healing her body.
Hitodama had used all of its magic to withstand the last attack and heal her. Because of that, it temporarily disappeared and could only return after a few minutes.
"Tenome, I'm sorry, but you will become magic."
Beside her, a blind man with an eye on each of his hands bowed before transforming into mana and entering Corvina's body.
Sensing the danger, Nathan summoned one of his hands again and launched another attack.
"Eye Shields."
A spiritual shield appeared before Corvina and reflected the attack. Her smile remained calm, full of confidence. If she could look back and compare who she was before with who she had become now, even she would not believe the difference.
'I really like my current self. Thank you, master.'
Suddenly, her percentage in the Second Circle shot up to ninety-five percent.
This could only mean one thing.
Her master had done something.
Corvina's eyes became a bright green. At that moment, she could see the entire truth inside Nathan's body, realizing that, at most, he could perform only one more attack of that level.
"Yatagarasu Blade."
Her blade once again took on the same form as before. Corvina adopted her sister Rina's fighting stance and concentrated a huge amount of mana into the sword.
Nathan did the same, but this time decided to divide that large hand into two and put all his magic into that attack.
'I'll use one as a distraction while the other hits her.'
He took a step forward, planning to use himself as bait so that his plan would work. However, to his misfortune, he had forgotten about that tongue. Nathan believed that she would not have enough mana after all those wounds and her tired breathing, but he was wrong.
The tongue grabbed him again, this time with even greater strength, and threw him toward Corvina.
"Yatagarasu: Final Slash!"
Combining her two magics into a single technique, the crow wings became stronger and the sword was surrounded by a gigantic amount of mana. Her speed became so great that Nathan's body was pierced almost instantly, leaving a line of slash suspended in the air.
"Thank you. Thanks to you, my master seems to have improved."
Corvina looked coldly at Nathan's body as he fell to the ground, dead. After finally winning her battle, she felt like screaming with joy, but restrained herself. At that moment, she could only think of one thing as she began searching for her master.
'What made my master improve?'
A few minutes earlier, Enrico's clothes were torn, and the part of the mask covering his eye had been destroyed, revealing his eyes glowing red. There was clear hostility in his gaze as he faced his opponent.
"So it's really you, Pedro."
Vladimir stared at him in the same way. Despite his appearance being better than Enrico's, his clothes had also been burned by the surprise fire attack.
"Saul."