Three minutes. One hundred eighty seconds. That was a very long time.

Long enough that Zagu could pound an ordinary Fifth-Tier powerhouse into meat paste, inch by inch, from top to bottom.

But it was also a very short time.

So short that after Ariel grit her teeth and forced her way through two minutes—and after subtracting all the bullshit she’d said earlier—there were only ten seconds left.

No. Now it was nine.

"Heh heh. So what are you gonna do now, Mr. First Demon General who acts all big and bad?"

In a situation like this, of course Ariel had to mock him to the fullest, even though she was covered in blood and absolutely looked like the more miserable one.

As long as her mouth hadn’t been torn off, she could keep putting out damage.

Because ten seconds didn’t mean it was over. For ordinary people, this might just be a brief instant, but for a powerhouse like Zagu, ten seconds might not be enough to pound someone into meat paste, yet turning someone into a watering can with holes punched through them was still easy.

So Ariel hadn’t relaxed.

Eight.

Zagu’s gaze flicked toward An. He actually didn’t know the ancient relic’s real use. Maybe he did, but those memories had long since blurred across endless time and cycles. And he knew even less why the Lord of Divine Will would personally issue an order for him to guard this place.

But he was sure of one thing: if he let this human woman touch that ancient relic and complete whatever she was doing, there would definitely be no good outcome.

Huh? Wait. Human?

Was she human?

Zagu’s eyes narrowed.

Seven.

Forget it. Whoever she is, kill her first.

Even though the Lord of Divine Will had instructed him to avoid killing her if possible, at this point, there was no other way.

He wasn’t that kind of rigid fool, and besides—

Being toyed with by a mere human had already filled him with an anger he could hardly suppress!

Zagu raised his spear with a blank face.

In an instant, the wind shrieked!

Only a few seconds—so what? Even if this human woman had played a bit of cleverness and, without him noticing, drawn him to the edge of the tower-top space, nearly a hundred meters from the center...

Did his spear need even one second to pierce that hundred-meter distance?

Six.

"Dream on!"

Ariel rose with a feral grin, not hesitating to squeeze out the very last scrap of strength in her body. One-handed, she gripped tight and slashed the Skyfire greatsword at Zagu.

The various augmentations that had already been on the verge of failing were forcibly held in place by her. In a silent BGM, the light pollution bloomed brilliantly again!

Flames and sword intent intertwined. The blazing high heat made even rubble begin to melt—this was a sword strike even Zagu couldn’t ignore!

This slash went out almost at the same time as Zagu’s move—no... perhaps because Ariel had anticipated it, the motion of her sword was even faster than Zagu’s spear. In the instant the spear thrust out, the swordlight had already arrived behind Zagu!

Five.

One second was enough time for the two of them to make many moves.

Zagu still threw his spear. The sound of wind and thunder tore through the sky, and space itself was punctured into a pitch-black fissure.

At the same time, he didn’t ignore Ariel behind him. He swung back with a single punch, smashing toward that swordlight.

Not the palm from before, but a fist.

A clenched fist.

Blue, ghostly light ran across the imposing magi-tech armor on Zagu’s body, then rapidly gathered. Massive magic power instantly poured into his fist intent.

He couldn’t control magic power, but he had to admit—human magi-tech armor was an extremely convenient thing.

Some kind of enhancement magic was automatically triggered by the armor, instantly wrapping his fist. Even though it was a hasty strike, it still carried power not inferior to a full-force burst!

Four.

This tower clearly wasn’t stacked out of ordinary stone, because even the most outstanding craftsmen could never pour a thousand-meter giant tower out of common stone and mud.

Even if the formations in the gate had been erased by time, even if the magic stones in the corridor walls were already shattered beyond repair, when Ariel entered, she could still feel that faint magic power that existed within the entire structural body of the tower.

The whole tower had been strengthened by something, so it could stand without falling. Perhaps this was the power An had mentioned earlier—the ancient relic’s power that maintained this city’s existence.

But even with that power, under the collision of sword and fist, the ground, the walls... even that lofty dome overhead cracked and shattered in layers amid tremors that words could hardly describe.

Like a giant hand stirring violently through a sandcastle that had been piled up with great effort.

Cracks spread like spiderwebs, gradually covering all the floors and walls beneath and behind Ariel. Her feet sank into the ground as if stepping into mud—the ground that had originally been hard as steel. Her whole body was pressed back into the wall full of broken stones yet again.

It was hard to imagine that her body, which looked so delicate, could actually endure such an impact.

She still fell to the disadvantage in this strike.

Her injuries also grew more severe.

She had already broken dozens of bones—now she didn’t even know how many more had snapped.

External wounds, internal wounds, shattered bones, plus the double depletion of magic power and battle qi... Ariel didn’t even know how long it had been since someone had suppressed her this hard.

Aside from the majestic grandeur on her chest still standing tall, she was miserable now, like a complete loser.

That was only natural. After all, even with a sneak attack, she still couldn’t cross that enormous gulf between their realms and strength.

But—

"You lost."

Excitement leaped in Ariel’s eyes. Even though she was practically half beaten to death by Zagu, she looked even more energized, because she seemed to already see the scene of countless beautiful # Nоvеlight # girls being moved by her sacrifices and throwing themselves into her arms.

"I won."

Three.

The countdown reached its end.

"..."

Zagu fell silent.

He turned his head slightly and saw that the spear he had thrown with full force had once again been blocked by that newly grown steel thorn-grove.

No. It could no longer be called a steel thorn-grove. It was...

A steel jungle.

Nearly half the tower-top space was packed and crisscrossed with dense metal veins, extending outward with the dignified girl who was holding her breath and focusing as the center—forming a steel forest that no storm could ever knock down.

The spear he had thrown with full force had only pierced halfway before it sank deep into this steel forest, unable to advance another inch.

This was... Divine Favor?

So leading me away wasn’t only to delay the time it would take me to turn back and attack—she was also letting this Divine Favor power fully unfold.

Ordinary steel, of course, couldn’t stop his spear. But what if it was a steel jungle?

Of course it still couldn’t.

But within three seconds, to shake off that annoying little human brat and then tear open this steel jungle...

He couldn’t do it.

"Haha, see that? In the end, you still lost because you talked too much."

Ariel kept mocking him without mercy, because the winner was supposed to do that kind of thing to the weak.

Honestly, this time really had been a little dangerous. Even with her S-tier ability to take a beating, if she hadn’t chattered those useless opening lines at Zagu, she definitely wouldn’t have been able to hold on.

The strongest under the eight Grand Dukes really did live up to the name.

But luckily, just like every reckless adventure she’d ever taken, she’d still won this high-stakes gamble where the odds of victory were over fifty percent.

"Miss An should be done over there, right?"

Ariel craned her neck in anticipation, already unable to wait to see what kind of miracle Miss An could guide out.

If it took a full three minutes of guidance, then once she finished, she would definitely be able to utterly crush this damned First Demon General, right?

It would be best if it also came with some kind of recording function, so it could capture the footage of her heroic fight against Zagu just now. Imagine—how could such a brave, handsome, smart Ariel Bugaard possibly fail to easily stir the hearts of girls... especially Miss Muse?

"Hm? Miss An?"

Ariel blinked, urging An a bit strangely.

Three minutes were clearly up, so why...

"I lost."

All of a sudden, from within that solemn, cold armor, after a moment of silence, came Zagu’s hoarse voice.

"To lose to a human female brat like you is the greatest humiliation of my life as the First Demon General Zagu. I might spend a hundred years and still be unable to wash away this shame."

Scarlet light seeped out through the faceplate’s gaps, casting it onto Ariel’s pale face.

"But you saying you won—aren’t you happy a little too early?"

"What do you mean?"

"Heh heh. Like you said, the countdown did stop. In a sense, you did achieve your goal... but what got paused wasn’t only the countdown."

"Wh—"

Ariel froze, then abruptly looked toward the center of the steel jungle.

The dignified girl who had been sitting there with eyes closed, focusing on whatever she was doing—her long lashes trembled slightly, and she finally opened her eyes.

But what she brought Ariel wasn’t the joy of success and victory, but...

"Sigh..."

A sigh.

"Sorry, Miss Ariel."

An apology.

"I might... end up dragging you down."

A regret that came from the soul.

"...Dragging me down? What does that even mean? Weren’t we already—"

Ariel searched for an answer, but for some reason, everything around them suddenly became very quiet.

Aside from faint mist drifting, everything was so quiet it was suffocating.

Even the teacher in the ring lost their voice in this instant.

Tap.

Until—

Tap.

Clear footsteps...

Tap.

Sharp heels stepping on the ground—just from those sounds alone, it was as if a figure was being outlined, elegant and noble in every step, with an irresistibly alluring bearing...

Tap.

But the sound was like it was stepping on Ariel’s heart. Her heart began to pound wildly, her blood seeming to flow backward, her limbs turning cold.

A premonition of death gnawed at her brain like a vicious ghost.

Because that sound, that presence... and that pressure no one could ever forget...

Just last night, she had experienced it—

Back then, there was a wall between them.

And now—

"How ugly, Zagu. It’s been a while, and you’ve already become this much of a piece of trash. Did Divine Will’s old bastard really not even want to treat his own dog a little better?"

The mist swept in and, with a demonic fragrant wind, turned into an ambiguous, tempting pink.

And within that pink fog that swallowed the entire tower top in an instant, the figure that made everyone present feel their souls go numb—twisting a devilish waist—came swaying over, gauzy skirt trailing across the ground.

A demonfolk Grand Duke, Enchantress.