As a member of the royal line of the Elves, Riveria belonged to the true great royal family—the noblest bloodline among Elves, royalty even among royalty.
And the power she had possessed since birth proved exactly that.
Beyond being an all-rounder in offense, defense, and recovery, Nine Hell's strength also came from her powerful skills.
[Fairy Anthem]: Amplifies the effects of Magic. Expands the effective range. The longer the chant, the greater the boost from the skill.
[Alf Ring]: Strengthens Magic power. Strengthens the Magic of those of the same race within her own magic circle. Converts the Mind consumed by her fellow Elves within her magic circle into mental power and absorbs it for herself.
Within the Loki Familia, Riveria was not only the Vice-Captain, but also the captain of the mage unit.
The Loki Familia's Elven mage corps—also called the bombardment unit—was a "core" force made up of Elven mages with high Magic power and high firepower.
Riveria, commanding this unit, was Nine Hell in her complete form.
By herself, she could strengthen the bombardment of twenty mages.
And after a single round of bombardment, Riveria could also convert the Mind consumed by those twenty mages into mental power and absorb it to restore her own.
With that level of firepower, if she wanted to annihilate Orario, there would be no need to go through all the trouble Evilus did.
After just a few bombardments, Orario would be flattened into a wasteland.
Not even the slightest trace of the city's former self would remain.
"Is it finished…?"
Rayleigh glanced at Ais not far away. Then his pupils contracted.
'Ais's condition still had not been lifted!'
'The Greatest Evil had actually withstood that absurdly powerful spell just now?'
He immediately used 'reiraku' and then, a pitch-black, twisted Spirit Ribbon appeared before his eyes.
'That thing—it was still as lively as ever!'
Suddenly, a snake-like current flashed through that black Spirit Ribbon and slipped past toward his rear.
Rayleigh reacted instantly and slashed out with his sword.
The sword pressure struck first, colliding with the black tentacle just before it could pierce through Riveria's head.
he slash split the black tentacle apart, sending the fragments scattering.
'What—?' Riveria stood frozen in place.
She had only realized the black tentacle was there when it reached right in front of her, and by then it had already been too late to dodge.
Just a little more, and her head would have been blown apart!
Even a Level 5 adventurer would die on the spot if their head were destroyed. (duh)
There would be no surviving that.
She cast Rayleigh a deep look. If that boy had not saved her, she would have "died young."
By Elven standards, despite being the oldest members in the Familia, she was still just a young girl.
That was simply how Elven lifespans worked.
Rayleigh was so tense he almost forgot to breathe.
If he had not been checking the Spirit Ribbons, he definitely would not have noticed the Greatest Evil's sneak attack in time.
This time, it had really only been luck.
Boom!
Suddenly, Rayleigh felt the black aura emanating from the Greatest Evil swell several times over in an instant.
Sensing danger, he immediately turned and ran, at the same time, he did not forget to grab Ais as well.
He caught her by the collar like he was carrying a kitten.
By the time he retreated to Riveria's side, Riveria had already finished preparing a defensive spell.
"Via Shilheim!"
A barrier capable of completely defending against both physical and magical attacks enveloped the three of them.
In the next second—a pitch-black beam erupted.
Terrifying beams swept wildly through the Dungeon, sometimes aimed at the sky, sometimes at the far distance.
In short, they had no target at all and were just firing at random.
Rayleigh frowned slightly.
He carefully looked at the Greatest Evil. And once he did, he discovered the reason.
The Greatest Evil had suffered severe damage from that last blow—its body damage had already reached at least fifty percent.
But it was recovering.
'It had regenerative ability!'
He could see it consuming Magic power as its damaged flesh regenerated at incredible speed.
The reason it was firing wildly was because its head had not fully recovered yet. That mindless torrent of magical power pouring from it distorted even gravity, annihilating everything in its path into nothingness.
If not for the barrier protecting them, even being grazed by it would mean death.
A black monster. A god-slaying weapon born from the Dungeon's hatred of the gods.
An immortal monster granted Magic power by the Dungeon and endowed with regenerative ability.
"What a troublesome thing."
Suddenly, several more openings like mouths split open across the Greatest Evil's pitch-black, chaotic body.
From those disgusting openings, the same kind of beams shot out.
What had been a single attack became seven or eight.
At the same time, the Greatest Evil began crawling across the ground.
As it twisted its body, the earth shook without cease. It rolled and crawled around while sweeping those attacks in every direction.
It was a shameless way of fighting, but when the Greatest Evil did it, the resulting phenomenon was like a natural disaster.
"Wah! That's dangerous!" A black light sliced past not far in front of Alise, and the earth was instantly split apart!
And the destruction caused by that black light went far beyond that.
There were corrosive traces left on the ground, it seemed to be some kind of curse.
Because of the Greatest Evil's rampage, even the other battlefield was dragged into it.
Alfia opened her previously shut eyes.
Her heterochromatic pupils looked toward the Greatest Evil as it flailed and rolled about, and her brow furrowed.
"So unsightly, and yet... it is called the Greatest Evil. Such ugliness is unpleasant even to look at."
Just as she was sharply criticizing the hideous monster before her—the monster suddenly fired a beam that could kill anything straight at her.
Alfia made no movement at all, she only chanted her ultra-short spell.
"Soul's Serenity."
Silentium Eden activated.
The attack that could pierce through the rock strata between floors simply vanished into nothingness.
"It seems it needs some discipline."
Clearly displeased at having been attacked, Alfia tossed a noise bomb at the enormous monster.
In the next second, an invisible bombardment struck the Greatest Evil.
Boom!
With just that one hit, a huge amount of blood-black fluid sprayed out of the Greatest Evil's body.
Then it howled in pain and rolled all over the ground, no longer daring to fire that kind of beam again.
"Hmph."
Seeing the miserable state of the Greatest Evil, Alfia did not make another move.
And seeing her so casually beat that terrifying monster half to death with a single strike left the girls completely stunned.
If an attack like that had landed on them, would the battle not have ended instantly?
And yet even so, they had somehow survived by the skin of their teeth until now.
Their opponent.... had not even brought out her true power.
Rayleigh looked at the Greatest Evil being flattened by a single blow from Alfia and felt a bit embarrassed.
To Alfia, a monster like this did not seem much different from a rabid pet dog.
The sort of thing that could be disciplined with a casual smack.
Even more frightening was the fact that she still had not released her Zanpakutō.
[Gif Blessing] was sealed within the blade.
If she did not release it, Alfia was not even in her peak power and yet she could already toy with the Greatest Evil at ease.
This—was the strength of the adventurer who had once come closest to the throne of absolute strongest in Orario's history!
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Reiraku (霊絡, Spirit Coils; "Spirit Ribbons" in the English dub) are the visualization of Reiryoku into ribbons, which spiritually aware beings can follow.[1]