With that thought in mind, Durandal looked at Aaron before her and, without hesitation, thrust out with Black Abyss once more.
At the same time, in her vision, the enemy before her thrust his own dual lances toward her body with incomparable ferocity.
Although Durandal had no intention of dodging, her body moved instinctively in that moment.
She couldn't be blamed for this, though. Mainly because... in Durandal's vision, the opening in Aaron's attack was simply too large.
If she didn't dodge this, she felt it would be a bit embarrassing to get hit.
Because of this subconscious move, Durandal prioritized evading the vermilion long spear which had the larger attack range.
In the next instant, the Black Abyss in her hand had already struck the tip of the opponent's spear.
The moment she hit the enemy, Durandal used her control over her power to focus her immense strength onto the spear tip, amplifying the penetration of this strike.
Although she could have used her strength to knock the enemy flying and achieve a decent visual spectacle, Durandal knew the opponent likely had other trump cards.
Opening the distance at a time like this would actually be disadvantageous for her. Compared to those boring visual effects, she obviously needed to focus on how to injure the enemy.
Just as she had envisioned, after her spear struck the enemy's armor, the battlesuit on his body indeed began to be eroded by the black mist.
But in this very moment, Durandal suddenly saw something.
A scene she hadn't expected at all.
After [Demon Armor: Incursio] was hit by the withering black mist of Black Abyss, Aaron voluntarily released the armor of Incursio, interrupting Black Abyss's erosion of it.
Of course, as a price, the severely damaged Incursio could not be equipped again for a short time.
Even after spiritually dominating the [Tyrant Soul Fragment] that lived within Incursio, Aaron could faintly hear the remnant dragon Danger Beast letting out some miserable wails.
Forget it, now wasn't the time to worry about that.
After losing Incursio, Aaron's true form was completely exposed to Durandal and Rita's eyes.
And for this very reason, Durandal suddenly lost her focus after seeing Aaron's true form.
It wasn't that Durandal hadn't seen data on other Herrschers. According to records from the Previous Era and the Current Era, Herrschers were almost indistinguishable from humans in appearance.
After all, before becoming so-called 'Apostles of God', they were originally members of humanity.
Therefore, Durandal was indeed a bit shocked when she saw Aaron's current appearance.
Beneath Aaron's armor, a Honkai Beast carapace not only replaced his mask and covered his face, but it even extended to his hands, legs, and torso, becoming Aaron's second layer of shielding.
And on his exposed hands, Durandal could see skin and claws that were clearly different from a normal human's.
Combined with Aaron's eyes, which were shifting between cyan and crimson, the current Aaron looked almost nothing like a human in Durandal's eyes. Instead, he looked more like a humanoid Honkai Beast.
What Durandal found even more incomprehensible was that after seeing his true face, she actually felt...
That her sense of closeness to him seemed even stronger???
Why...
Why would I feel such a strong sense of intimacy toward a Herrscher who looks like a Honkai Beast?
I can't understand. What on earth is going on!
On the other side, Rita, who didn't know what Durandal was conflicted about, was focusing on something completely different.
After the opponent put away that suit of armor, the eroding black mist failed to linger on him. Because he crouched down, causing their positions to misalign, he easily avoided it.
Seeing this, Rita frowned slightly.
Although avoiding the black mist lingering on the battlefield wasn't strange, this man gave her the feeling that he was incredibly wary of that black mist, daring not to touch even a speck of it.
This attitude was as if he knew the danger of Abyss Flower in advance...
I'm such a fool for not realizing this earlier.
If he appeared here, then he likely has a significant relationship with Anti-Entropy.
The people in Anti-Entropy were originally members of the Schicksal North American Branch. The probability that they knew of Abyss Flower's abilities and informed this man was simply too high.
Lady Durandal intends to trade injury for injury, but...
Is it reasonable for him to choose to trade injury for injury given that he knows Abyss Flower's abilities in advance?
From their exchange until now, this man's actions have clearly told us he is no fool.
When a person who isn't a fool performs an action that seems foolish, it can only mean one thing—this man has a backup plan.
Using the armor to block the black mist for an instant, then bypassing the mist to attack Lady Durandal... No, that's not enough.
The red long spear's attack was dodged by Lady Durandal, and the yellow short spear couldn't reach Lady Durandal because the attack range wasn't long enough after he crouched down. This... even so, having lost his armor, he failed to gain any results in this exchange. He still came out behind.
After analyzing this, Rita finally understood what this man intended to do when she saw the next scene.
Although Rita and Durandal had been telling themselves to be careful after seeing the energy projection behind Aaron, the problem was that when Durandal focused most of her attention on the enemy in front of her, no matter how much she told herself to be careful, it was impossible to keep track of the energy projection's movements while her attention was divided.
After Aaron dodged the black mist, the energy projection, which had been inactive in the air, suddenly punched toward Durandal's body without any warning.
Although she didn't know how terrifying the power of this energy projection was, Durandal, sensing something was wrong, no longer dared to entertain any thoughts of 'trading injury for injury'.
However, because Durandal had seen Aaron's body earlier and her inner sense of intimacy toward him had wavered, she missed the optimal opportunity to dodge.
Although the opening was so small it was almost ungraspable, a mistake was a mistake.
Aaron, who had been waiting for an opportunity, would not let this chance slip by.
The energy giant punched down at Durandal from the air without holding anything back. Durandal, having dodged this punch, could no longer avoid Aaron's subsequent attack.
As [Gae Buidhe] struck Durandal's left wrist, Aaron directly put away his dual lances and stepped forward, rushing right in front of Durandal.
This guy...!
Durandal, who had intended to swing Black Abyss for a thrust, suddenly discovered that her left wrist, which was holding Black Abyss, erupted with unbearable pain.
A lance was already a relatively slow weapon in terms of attack speed. After her wrist was struck by that strange spear, Durandal suddenly felt she couldn't move her wrist as freely as before.
Because of these two factors combined, her final defensive speed was slow.
After discarding his weapons, Aaron's attack range had become zero.
However, by relying on his fists for zero-distance combat, although he sacrificed attack range, he simultaneously gained the fastest attack speed.
Meta-Morph Factor, condensing complete.
Magnetic Field Rotation: 150,000 Horsepower—Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist!
After combining the two forces, Aaron punched directly at the girl in front of him.
Although she had prepared for battle, Rita hadn't expected Durandal to be forced to this extent by the opponent in such a short time.
"Lady Durandal!"
After shouting this with immense worry, Rita manipulated the humanoid phantom "Crescent Harvest" behind her to coordinate an attack, instantly creating a massive amount of ice in the air.
"Eternal Winter's Prison!"
Countless frosts, boosted by the Godsbane Battlesuit, instantly turned into a prison of ice, perfectly imprisoning the enemy before her.
This way, it should at least buy Lady Durandal a little time.
A little time... for Lady Durandal, it should be enou—What?!
The moment the ice prison trapped Aaron, Aaron surged the power within his body and forcibly broke through the ice prison Rita had spent a massive amount of power to create.
The cold prison Rita created acted as if it had met the master of frost, completely unable to display its performance in restraining the enemy.
Of course, no matter what, Rita's assist did cause Aaron to reveal an opening. If Durandal could seize this opening, she would certainly have a chance to regroup.
But Durandal, who was knocked flying, could feel a force of frost continuously rushing through her body.
This power was stripping away her stamina, making her body feel incredibly uncomfortable, but what she found most absurd was...
This power actually made her feel a little bit of 'bloodline connection'???
No, forget the person, why would I feel this way even when being hit???
Is this guy's true ability genjutsu???
While Durandal was channeling the power in her body to try and dispel this freezing energy, the energy giant behind Aaron punched the enemy again.
This time, Durandal didn't have time to make any reaction and was smashed into the ground by the giant's fist.
Aaron, having completed his offensive, looked at Durandal who had been smashed into the ground, then suddenly turned his gaze to Rita on the other side.
The moment she was targeted by him, Rita felt as if she were being stared at by the most dangerous of beasts.
A sense of crisis... No, she was undoubtedly fearing the opponent right now.
The pressure an Emperor-class Honkai Beast gave her was not even worth mentioning in front of this man.
Is this... the true power of a Herrscher?
Looking at Rita who had just launched an attack, Aaron rushed toward her without hesitation.
There was no enmity between them, but since they met on the battlefield, he felt she should be prepared.
Prepared—to be beaten apart by him head-on.
The enemy's speed was too fast. Once Rita was targeted by Aaron, she realized this man was far more dangerous than she had imagined.
At this distance, her large scythe [Skadi Ondurgud], which could be used for both offense and defense, had become an obstacle in a sense.
A polearm like a scythe had a much larger attack range than the lances used by Aaron and Durandal, but relatively speaking, this weapon was naturally harder to wield in terms of agility than a lance.
Rita was indeed a master of the scythe, but in the face of absolute speed, Rita, unable to swing her scythe in time, couldn't even attempt to force the enemy back with her weapon.
This time, because the assault speed was too fast, Aaron didn't have time to mobilize the Meta-Morph Factor aside from using Magnetic Field Rotation to blow away the ice.
But for Rita, whose strength was far inferior to Durandal's, Aaron didn't need to use the Meta-Morph Factor.
After hitting her with a punch, Aaron unhesitatingly leaped backward, dodging an attack falling from the sky.
Starting from a moment ago, he had sensed a massive amount of energy gathering at a certain location on the Hyperion.
So he judged that Himeko Murata on the Hyperion must have actively engaged the Nexus System in an attempt to join the battle.
At this moment, Himeko Murata on the battleship watched her two juniors being smashed away and knocked over on the ground, completely unprepared for things to turn out this way.
In her expectation, Rita should have been able to stall the opponent, and adding Durandal with a Divine Key, this round should have been a guaranteed win.
The result was that she only connected to the system early because she was worried, and then...
Her two juniors disappointingly fell under the opponent's fists.
If Himeko hadn't seized the final opportunity to use the Nexus System to link with the Hyperion and attack Aaron, she suspected Rita would have been beaten directly into 'Rita paste' by a few more punches.
Is this the strength a Herrscher possesses... No, then why was Overseer Otto comfortable with us coming here to capture a Herrscher before???
Overseer, even if you don't care about the lives of us grunts, please don't joke around with Theresa's life!
[Theresa! Let Major Murata continue the attack!]
At this moment, Otto, who had been monitoring the battle, immediately issued instructions to Theresa remotely.
[Send out the recovery squad to retrieve Durandal and Rita immediately, then retreat!]
"But Grandpa! This guy is so dangerous, if we..."
[It is precisely because he is too dangerous that I am telling you to retreat!]
At Schicksal HQ, Otto looked at the two S-Rank Valkyries who had been knocked over just like that and spoke to his granddaughter with a massive headache.
[He's too strong, don't go throwing your lives away!]