When the Householder Treasure cracked open, glowing humanoid figures poured out from within.
A closer look revealed that every single one was identical to Cao Cao.
Clones. Without question.
The Householder Treasure's ability was duplication.
Clone after clone emerged from the black orb, each wielding a spear of light, forming an army that charged at Leo. The sheer scale was staggering.
Leo unleashed a wall of explosive flame at the charging army. The fire swelled on contact with the air, instantly becoming a sea of fire that swallowed the clones and burned most of them to ash.
Even so, a good number punched through the inferno and hurled their light spears at Leo, riddling his body with holes.
But the holes didn't bleed. They sprayed water.
Leo had already shifted into his Nature's Hope water form, completely ignoring the physical attack.
"That move of yours is really cheap."
Cao Cao's voice came from behind him again, followed by a blast of holy aura that scattered Leo into a shower of water droplets.
"Your bag of tricks isn't exactly fair either."
The droplets quickly converged and reformed into Leo's body. A sword of flame was already in his hand, and he cut down several incoming clones in a single sweep. They burst into flame the moment they were bisected.
When Leo hurled the flame sword at Cao Cao, it rocketed toward him before suddenly detonating, expanding into an enormous fireball that seemed to cover the entire sky. The heat alone from the resulting wave was terrifying.
Against something like that, even a near-miss would leave Cao Cao with serious burns. He was human, after all. No supernatural physique. The heat alone was enough to be a serious problem.
Cao Cao raised the Holy Spear and split its tip, unleashing a powerful beam of holy light.
The light swept out and dispersed the incoming heatwave like it was melting snow, then continued on toward Leo with undiminished force, evaporating the very atmosphere in its path.
Leo beat his ten wings and blurred aside like a gust of wind, letting the beam miss.
The holy light slammed into a skyscraper, obliterating it without suspense. It tore through that building and continued on, punching through several more in succession. The destructive power was staggering.
Leo clicked his tongue at the sight.
The Holy Spear's power really was something else. Even a simple release of holy energy in beam form could effortlessly level multiple buildings. If he took a direct hit, even without the devil weakness, he'd be seriously wounded.
"No wonder it's said to be able to kill gods. Truly worthy of the title of strongest Longinus."
"This is the weapon that lets humans triumph over the supernatural, even over gods themselves." Cao Cao didn't sound proud or boastful. He glanced at the spear in his hand, then back at Leo wreathed in wind, fire, lightning, and ice, and spoke with a note of regret. "If only Zenith Tempest were on our side too. The two strongest Longinus working together... maybe we really could defeat a god."
"You've actually thought about teaming up?" Leo's half-smile returned. "I figured you'd only want to beat a god one-on-one."
"Of course I want to beat one alone. But I know full well that the current me can't pull that off." Cao Cao was candid. "So until I can, I don't mind leveraging humanity's greatest advantage in battle."
"Humanity's greatest advantage?" Leo raised an eyebrow. "Strength in numbers?"
"No." Cao Cao lifted the Holy Spear and smiled. "Adaptability and intellect."
With that, the spear's tip blazed with holy light once more.
Leo was about to counter with Zenith Tempest when one of Cao Cao's orbs lit up.
Horse Treasure. The one that could relocate any target at will.
This time, Cao Cao didn't move himself. He moved Leo.
Leo's vision blurred, and the next instant he was standing directly in front of the Holy Spear's tip.
The spear point erupted with blinding radiance mere inches from his face, and Leo's expression changed completely.
The next moment, holy aura condensed into light and engulfed Leo entirely.
Leo came flying out of the explosion trailing smoke, crashing through building after building before finally slamming into a mountainside hard enough to make the entire mountain shudder.
He coughed up a mouthful of blood, embedded in the rock face.
"Damn it... got careless..."
Before the words fully left his mouth, Cao Cao's laughter reached his ears.
"Just as I predicted. Your elemental transformation has limits. You can't maintain that state indefinitely."
If Nature's Hope could be sustained forever, Leo would be effectively invincible. Impossible to defeat.
Cao Cao had been watching the whole time. And he'd found the weakness.
"Each elemental transformation lasts about one minute at most. After that, you have to return to your physical form, or the natural forces will assimilate your body's structure permanently."
"You can't repeat the same element consecutively. After reverting, you have to switch to a different element, or your body risks being memorized and assimilated by that element's natural force."
"And after each transformation ends, you need roughly a ten-second interval before you can use it again. Your body needs that time to restabilize its original structure. If the interval isn't long enough, the result is the same: assimilation."
Cao Cao rode the Elephant Treasure through the air, drifting over to where Leo was coughing blood in the mountainside. A smile spread across his face.
"Am I wrong, head of the Eligos family?"
Leo wiped the blood from his mouth, expressionless. His ten black devil wings began to beat, pulling him free from the rock.
"You think figuring out Nature's Hope means you've got me beat?"
With a thunderous eruption, Leo released a massive surge of pure white aura.
"Wheel Treasure!"
Cao Cao's expression shifted. Without hesitation, he summoned an orb, shaped it into a spear, and launched it at Leo.
A bolt of lightning split from the sky and struck the spear-shaped orb, knocking it out of the air.
"Balance Breaker."
This time, it was Leo's voice that spoke the words of power. The aura exploding from his body shot skyward, piercing the clouds.
"Finally using your Balance Breaker?"
Cao Cao murmured, bracing himself.
This was the first time Leo had used his Balance Breaker in front of anyone.
Cao Cao had no idea what it could do.
From this point on, every moment of the fight would be a complete unknown for him.
He had to stay sharp.
A sixth pair of devil wings emerged from Leo's back. The demonic energy radiating from him surged from ten-wing class to twelve-wing class, reaching genuine Maou-level.
"Speranza Di Briscola."
Leo's Balance Breaker. Because it was modeled after Dulio Gesualdo's Balance Breaker from the original story, it should have been called "Flagello di Colori del Arcobaleno, Speranza Di Briscola."
But Leo wasn't an angel. He couldn't name it after the "Holy Rainbow Messenger" like that reincarnated angel had.
His Balance Breaker didn't sprout angel wings and a halo. It grew devil wings. So he'd dropped the first half entirely.
Speranza Di Briscola. That was his Balance Breaker's name.
"Here I come, Cao Cao."
Carrying Maou-class demonic power, Leo kicked off the air, broke the sound barrier, and shot toward Cao Cao.
His speed was on a completely different level from before.
Cao Cao could see instantly that trying to match Leo's speed would be suicide. He activated Horse Treasure without hesitation, teleporting himself far away to open the distance.
He also used Horse Treasure to relocate Leo in the opposite direction, then fired a massive beam of holy light at the spot. But Leo, his speed dramatically increased, sidestepped it with effortless ease.
Lightning rained from the sky, bolt after bolt aimed at Cao Cao's head, only to be swallowed by the Pearl Treasure's vortex materializing above him.
The vortex reappeared around Leo, and the redirected lightning came streaking out, but Leo's body was now surging with such immense demonic energy that it formed a raging storm of power. The lightning was deflected on contact, unable to even touch him.
Then Leo extended one hand toward Cao Cao.
In an instant, a bubble appeared and enclosed Cao Cao within it.
"Not good!"
Cao Cao sensed the danger immediately, his face going pale. He activated Horse Treasure and teleported out.
Almost the instant he vanished, apocalyptic destruction erupted inside the bubble.
Raging fire, terrifying lightning, tidal waves, sandstorms, tornadoes, blizzards... every conceivable natural disaster materialized within that single bubble, colliding and intertwining in a cataclysm of pure destruction.
Against something like that, forget a human. Even a real god wouldn't walk away unscathed.
If those combined disasters swallowed him, Cao Cao had zero doubt he'd be reduced to ash in an instant, erased completely.
So Cao Cao had teleported out. But when he reappeared, he found himself inside another bubble.
He used Horse Treasure again. Another bubble.
That was when Cao Cao finally noticed. The entire sky was filled with bubbles.
No matter how many times he teleported, as long as he stayed in this pocket dimension, he'd just end up inside another one.
"Let's see you dodge this."
Leo smiled coldly as he scattered bubbles across the entire battlefield, across the entire sky and earth.
Every single bubble erupted with world-ending destruction. Including the one Cao Cao was in.
Fire, lightning, floods, sandstorms, tornadoes, blizzards... every natural disaster seemed to manifest at once, intertwining and raging mercilessly inside each bubble.
This level of catastrophe wouldn't just kill a human. Even a true god caught inside would take damage.
If the disasters consumed him, Cao Cao would be ash in the blink of an eye.
So Cao Cao erupted with everything he had.
"O Spear. The true Holy Spear which pierces through God."
"Suck the ambition of the King of Domination sleeping within me and pierce through the gap of blessing and destruction."
"You. Announce the will, and turn into a glow."
Cao Cao raised the Holy Spear high and roared the solemn, sacred chant. The spear's tip split wide open, further than it ever had before.
Blinding light blazed forth. A massive eruption of holy aura followed. Cao Cao looked as though divine providence itself had touched him, radiating an intensity he'd never shown before.
"Truth Idea!"
With Cao Cao's roar, sacred radiance flooded the entire world.
Then, a miracle occurred.
The bubble around Cao Cao popped.
One after another, every bubble occupying the sky shattered in rapid succession, driven apart by that holy radiance.
In a single flash, every bubble Leo had painstakingly created burst and vanished.
Naturally, all the disasters raging inside them vanished with them, and Cao Cao was free.
Leo's pupils contracted. His expression grew heavy.
Cao Cao, meanwhile, had survived the crisis and neutralized Leo's near-certain kill, but he looked like he'd spent everything he had. He was gasping violently.
The two faced each other in the sky, one grim-faced, the other struggling for breath.
"Truth Idea... huh?"
Leo gazed at Cao Cao across the distance, then spoke evenly.
"Just like the rumors said. The Holy Spear has the power of Supremacy too."
A power distinct from the Dragon of Supremacy and the Beast of Supremacy. A power of Supremacy that belonged solely to the True Longinus.