Lightning, fire, gale-force winds, blizzards... every kind of elemental force rained down like a deluge, slamming into the skyscraper one after another and shattering it in an instant.
The upper half of the building cracked apart under the barrage, slowly toppling from on high and crashing to the ground. A thick cloud of dust billowed upward.
Leo, the one responsible for all of it, pulled back sharply the moment he released the attack.
A spear radiating dense holy energy suddenly pierced through the lightning, flames, wind, and ice, its sharp whistle cutting through the smoke as it extended toward Leo. He dodged by a hair.
Leo beat his ten devil wings and blurred through the air like a phantom, spiraling around the extended spear shaft. At the same time, he fired off several bolts of lightning, thinner than thread, like flashes of light that blinked in and out of existence, lancing toward the center of the elemental chaos.
That was where Cao Cao appeared, kicking off a chunk of rubble and vaulting high, retracting the extended Holy Spear while dodging the incoming lightning threads, rocketing into the sky.
"You've got guts, I'll give you that."
Leo couldn't help but be impressed.
Unlike Leo, Cao Cao was ultimately human. He couldn't fly. Fighting an aerial battle against Leo should have put him at a massive disadvantage.
Yet Cao Cao used jumps, vaults, and every piece of the surrounding environment to maneuver through the air, stubbornly holding off Leo's relentless offensive until now.
Leo didn't fight like that. He'd never needed to.
"Right back at you." Cao Cao landed on the rooftop edge of a nearby building and looked up at Leo hovering in the sky. "I figured after our last fight, you'd never dare get that close to the Holy Spear again."
"But here you are, pushing in even when the spear is right next to you."
"Aren't you afraid of being purified by its holy power?"
Cao Cao's words were less accusation than probing. He'd probably already sensed it.
"If I said I was scared, would you back off?"
Leo answered the question with a question, his half-smile deeply unsettling.
"Of course not." Cao Cao narrowed his eyes and studied Leo. "You're growing too fast. Last time I felt like I could handle you with ease. This time you've pushed me to the brink over and over. I can't afford to let you keep growing."
"I have a feeling that if I don't beat you today, I'll never be able to."
"If I want to eliminate you as a threat, this is my only chance."
Cao Cao raised the Holy Spear, its tip splitting open.
"You're too dangerous, Leo Eligos. For the sake of our cause, please fall here."
With that, holy flames ignited within the spear's split tip. The sacred fire condensed into blades of light that launched from the opening, streaking toward Leo.
Leo's figure instantly transformed into flame, flickering like a heat mirage. Even as the light blades pierced through him, his body wavered as if it had no physical form, completely unaffected.
"That move again?"
Cao Cao clicked his tongue.
He'd seen this trick several times now.
Sometimes Leo became lightning. Sometimes wind. Sometimes a blizzard. Sometimes flame. Throughout their fight, Leo had demonstrated this ability repeatedly, transforming his body into earth, water, wind, fire, lightning, ice, and other natural phenomena. Even when Cao Cao hit him with attacks loaded with holy power, nothing could damage Leo. It was absurd.
This was Leo's newly developed technique: Nature's Hope.
Leo, now a living heat mirage, surged toward Cao Cao like actual flame. As Cao Cao leapt away, Leo detonated, obliterating the rooftop.
Then Leo's solid form burst from the explosion, instantly closing in on the airborne Cao Cao.
An ice spear materialized in his hand. He hurled it at Cao Cao with devastating force, the sonic boom rupturing Cao Cao's eardrums and his skin alike.
Pain erupted in Cao Cao's shoulder as the ice spear grazed it, carving a wound before shooting past.
Cao Cao gritted through the pain and clashed with Leo, who was already charging in with another ice spear.
The Holy Spear and the ice spear collided again and again, the sound of impact ringing without pause. Leo and Cao Cao streaked across the sky like twin meteors, one advancing, the other retreating, their battle reaching a white-hot intensity.
Leo had something to rely on.
Nature's Hope. Whenever Cao Cao's Holy Spear thrust through him, Leo would dissolve into fire or lightning, completely ignoring the spear's holy aura, then counter with an ice spear aimed at Cao Cao's vitals, going for the kill every time.
Cao Cao realized it. Leo was deliberately fighting at close range to neutralize the Holy Spear's extension ability.
The spear's tip was devastatingly sharp. Even ignoring its holy power, the sheer edge could pierce through a mountain, and its ability to extend freely made distance meaningless.
Even if Leo no longer feared the Holy Spear, a direct hit would still be catastrophic.
And at range, Cao Cao would have time to react and counter.
So Leo chose to fight in his face instead. It made the spear's extension useless, and the close distance made Leo's own attacks far more threatening, cutting Cao Cao's reaction time to nothing.
With Nature's Hope, Leo's risk of taking damage at close range had plummeted. So why not try it?
Just like that, Cao Cao was pinned down, forced into a close-quarters fight that crippled his options.
Even after being smashed through several buildings and taking ice spear wounds across his body, Cao Cao didn't break.
He swung the Holy Spear, its razor edge slicing through the air, slashing at Leo from every angle. Each time, the blade only carved sparks or flashes of lightning from Leo's body, unable to deal any damage.
Cao Cao tried detonating the Holy Spear's sacred power, letting holy flames explode outward. He was the one sent flying. Leo scattered like windblown sand, easily flowing around the blast.
"Annoyingly tricky..."
Cao Cao tried to extend the spear, but Leo was already in his face again, gale-force winds howling around him, blowing Cao Cao skyward.
The next second, countless boulders ripped from the ground and shot into the sky in a barrage aimed at Cao Cao. He raised the Holy Spear high, ignited its holy aura, and swept it in a wide arc, shattering every last one.
Then it started to rain.
Leo had never released his control over the weather. The dark, oppressive clouds had been sitting overhead the entire time.
Now a torrential downpour crashed down without warning, and Cao Cao knew he was in trouble.
Sure enough, the rain quickly became a flood that swallowed Cao Cao whole, dragging him earthward.
The ground buckled under the floodwater's impact, shaking as it transformed into an inland sea.
Surrounding buildings were either submerged or swept away, as if hit by a tsunami.
Cao Cao fought through the water, swimming toward the nearest building. He broke the surface with effort, collapsed onto the rooftop, and lay there gasping.
"Seriously, what kind of devil is this... He's basically a god of natural disasters..."
Cao Cao laughed bitterly again.
He truly hadn't expected this fight to be this grueling.
Last time's composure was completely gone. On top of that, all the intelligence he'd painstakingly gathered was outdated now, utterly useless.
Leo's figure swept in like the wind, appearing overhead, looking down at the prone Cao Cao.
"Ready to give up?"
Leo asked with a smile.
Cao Cao didn't answer. He slowly rose, shouldered the Holy Spear, and tapped it against his shoulder.
"Too early to talk about giving up." He looked up at Leo, battle spirit undiminished. "You haven't even seen this spear's real power yet."
Leo's eyes flickered.
The situation was the exact reverse of their last fight, but the circumstances were the same.
"Last time someone interrupted us. Doesn't look like that'll happen this time."
Leo smiled.
"That's right!" Cao Cao declared. "Watch closely. This is the true power of this spear!"
The Holy Spear raised high in Cao Cao's hand began to glow with blinding radiance.
"Balance Breaker."
The words carried power. The Balance Breaker that Cao Cao failed to activate last time finally triggered.
Unlike Vali's dramatic transformation, Cao Cao's Balance Breaker was quiet. Apart from the Holy Spear blazing with brilliant light, there was no other phenomenon.
No pillar of aura. No flashy magic. Instead, a halo of divine light materialized behind Cao Cao, and seven bowling ball-sized black orbs slowly appeared alongside it.
"This is my True Longinus's Balance Breaker: Polar Night Longinus Chakravartin!"
Cao Cao stepped forward, and the seven orbs orbiting him moved in unison.
"Can you withstand the power of these Seven Treasures?"
Leo's expression turned serious.
As someone who knew the original story inside and out, he knew exactly what Cao Cao's Balance Breaker was.
Polar Night Longinus Chakravartin. Unlike Leo's and Vali's Balance Breakers, it didn't explosively boost the user's power upon activation. What it had instead was the ability called the Seven Treasures.
The Seven Treasures were the seven orbs orbiting Cao Cao.
Each one possessed a unique special ability.
That's right. Cao Cao's Balance Breaker had seven distinct abilities.
"Elephant Treasure!"
Cao Cao directed one orb beneath his feet, and for the first time, he flew.
Elephant Treasure granted the ability of flight. It could make the user fly, or even grant flight to others.
"Let's have another aerial battle, head of the Eligos family."
Cao Cao rocketed skyward, far faster than before. Compared to when he'd been limited to jumping and vaulting, it was a night-and-day difference.
Leo didn't hesitate. He flung a bolt of lightning, pulled from the pitch-black sky above, straight at the ascending Cao Cao.
"Pearl Treasure!"
This time Cao Cao didn't dodge. He sent another orb above his head, where it transformed into a vortex.
The descending lightning struck the vortex and was swallowed whole.
Then, behind Leo, an identical vortex appeared.
Lightning erupted from it and slammed into Leo, blasting him backward.
"It absorbs enemy attacks and releases them from any position?"
Leo's devil wings flared as he fought to stabilize, but he couldn't avoid his body smoking all over, looking like he'd been flash-fried.
"Correct."
Cao Cao's voice came from behind him.
The Holy Spear's tip punched through Leo's chest, emerging from the front.
"Hm?"
But Cao Cao, who had somehow appeared behind Leo, frowned. He swept the spear sideways, shattering the body in front of him.
The shattered Leo broke apart into countless chunks of ice, scattering before Cao Cao's eyes.
"That move again?"
Cao Cao murmured as the ice fragments gathered before him and reformed into Leo's shape.
"That was teleportation just now, wasn't it?"
Leo reappeared without a scratch, asking calmly.
"Horse Treasure. It can transfer any target."
Cao Cao didn't bother hiding it. He'd been seen through, so he answered openly.
"Too bad Female Treasure doesn't work on you. Otherwise I could have tried sealing that technique of yours."
Female Treasure targeted females with supernatural abilities, completely sealing their powers for a limited time. It prioritized the strongest ability user on the field, could affect up to three targets simultaneously, and was unavoidable.
If it worked on Leo, it could have sealed not just Nature's Hope, but potentially Zenith Tempest itself.
The same applied to Wheel Treasure, which prioritized destroying the strongest weapon on the field. Since Leo didn't use weapons, it was useless against him. Though Wheel Treasure could also transform into a spear shape to attack, so it wasn't completely wasted.
"Next up... Householder Treasure!"
An orb behind Cao Cao flew out and split apart.