In the quiet moonlit night, a thunderous sound, like a falling thunderbolt, suddenly broke the silence, surprising several people who had already fallen asleep or were still awake.
Outside the Shining Golden Pavilion, a lightning bolt appeared with a thunderous roar, rushing out from a room and chasing after a fleeing Eight-Edge Assassin.
"Thunderclap and Flash!"
In the next second, the lightning bolt turned into a blade of light and sliced through the Eight-Edge Assassin's head with terrifying speed.
*Splurt!*
Just like that, the Eight-Edge Assassin didn't even have time to react before its head was severed in a flash, sending a spray of blood everywhere.
*Screeech—!*
Letting out a piercing scream, the decapitated Eight-Edge Assassin fell apart gruesomely, its body and head separating as it dropped from midair, crashed to the ground, and died soon after.
Riezel's figure then emerged from the lightning bolt, landing on the ground beside the decapitated Eight-Edge Assassin.
Seeing this scene, the remaining three Eight-Edge Assassins were stunned.
"How... that fast?!"
"Impossible!"
"How is he so quick?!"
While exclaiming in disbelief, the three Eight-Edge Assassins increased their speed, ready to flee with all their might.
However, just as they were about to escape, a message suddenly entered their minds, causing them to freeze in place.
In the next moment, they exchanged glances before turning around and charging toward Riezel.
"Hmm?"
Riezel, who had been preparing to chase the remaining Eight-Edge Assassins, was momentarily stunned by this unexpected turn of events. Before he could even process the surprise, however, the Eight-Edge Assassins had already reached him.
*Swish!* *Swish!* *Swish!*
Several sharp blades sliced through the air, their sounds echoing.
Amid the wind-breaking sounds, one of the Eight-Edge Assassins launched the first attack, swinging its eight sharp blade-like legs, slashing through the air, aiming at Riezel.
Riezel could see that this attack was far stronger than Gazef's Fourfold Slash of Light or even Sixfold Slash of Light.
In his eyes, it could easily be called Eightfold Slash of Light.
Regardless, it was just two more slashes—whether it was one or eight didn't make much of a difference for him.
*DING!*
Just like when Riezel fought Gazef back then, he didn't even unsheathe his sword. He merely swung its scabbard, with his sword still attached, as a blunt weapon, knocking all eight of the incoming slashes away in one powerful swing.
"Lightning."
Riezel immediately cast a 3rd-Tier Magic, Lightning, transforming the lightning that had formed on his fingertip into a spear that shot toward the Eight-Edge Assassin.
*Pu-chi!*
With its piercing property, the spear of lightning struck the Eight-Edge Assassin, immediately tearing through its spider-like body as it passed through its chest and emerged from its back.
""DIE!""
Suddenly, the remaining two Eight-Edge Assassins appeared on Riezel's left and right—one above him swung down its eight sharp, blade-like legs, while the other attacked from below, forming a pincer movement.
If it were anyone else, facing such a fierce attack from two sides, even if they had entered the Realm of Heroes, they would likely meet their end under this vicious pincer.
A Level 49 Eight-Edge Assassin could easily slaughter any hero in this world. Even if Gazef were fully armed, wearing the four treasures of the Re-Estize Kingdom to face such an attack, he wouldn't last long.
Unfortunately, Riezel was not just anyone.
"Dimensional Move."
As soon as these words were spoken, Riezel vanished from the spot.
*Pu-chi!*
In an instant, the two Eight-Edge Assassins missed their attacks, but because they ended up in symmetrical, opposing positions, their attacks hit each other instead, slicing through their own comrade's body.
*Screeech—!*
Both Eight-Edge Assassins let out pained cries and quickly pulled their sharp, blade-like legs from their comrade's body before hurriedly searching for Riezel and scanning the surroundings, but unfortunately, they couldn't find a trace of him.
Nevertheless, it didn't take long for them to notice a flickering light above.
"Above!"
"Damn!"
One of the Eight-Edge Assassins screamed, making the other Eight-Edge Assassin quickly look up, glaring at the sky.
Over there, Riezel, surrounded by glowing magical energy from the 3rd-Tier Magic, Fly, floated in mid-air while extending his finger toward the two Eight-Edge Assassins below.
At the tip of his finger, flames flickered and burned.
"Fireball."
Riezel chanted a magic spell that had appeared not only in this world but in many worlds where magic existed.
Like Lightning, Fireball was a 3rd-Tier Magic.
However, unlike Lightning, which was a fixed and consistent offensive magic with a piercing attribute, Fireball was more like an adjustable AoE offensive magic.
Fireball could change its attack range and power based on the magical energy injected by the caster, and upon hitting its target, it would release the flames accumulated within, setting everything in the vicinity ablaze.
Because of its simple and brutal effect, magic casters who knew how to use it often favored this magic.
Nonetheless, when Riezel used this magic, it was completely different from how other magic casters used it.
When other magic casters cast Fireball, they usually conjured a fireball about the size of a human head, but when Riezel used it, the flames gathering at his fingertip instantly formed a massive fireball, slightly larger than his own body—a perfect, towering sphere of flames.
"Is that... Fireball?"
"No way!"
Speaking with surprised voices, the two Eight-Edge Assassins stared blankly, completely stunned by the sight.
Not just them—even Riezel himself was momentarily stunned before quickly remembering one of his skills and realizing what had just happened.
...
Pioneer of the Sun
- Becomes a spiritual being.
- Doubles the effect of light and heat magic.
- Provides resistance to light, heat, frost, and darkness powers.
- Deals special damage to evil entities.
...
—Doubles the effect of light and heat magic.
In other words, as long as it was magic within the light and heat category, its effect would double, far surpassing its normal power when cast by Riezel.
At this moment, the magic he used was undoubtedly fire attribute magic, which belonged to the light and heat category.
As a result, when he cast Fireball, its power wasn't just at the 3rd Tier but had power that even 5th-Tier Magic couldn't match.
'I almost forgot about this skill...' Riezel thought, chuckling to himself. 'Looks like I need to learn more magic in the light and heat category from now on.'
With that, he casually launched a massive fireball that illuminated the entire Shining Golden Pavilion and was large enough to completely engulf a human, sending it toward the two Eight-Edge Assassins.
"!!!"
Seeing this, the two Eight-Edge Assassins tried to escape but realized it was too late to get away.
Knowing that even an ordinary Fireball would explode upon hitting its target, turning into an AoE attack that burned everything around it, Riezel's Fireball clearly surpassed the ordinary one.
If it landed on the ground, even if they avoided the direct hit, they would still be burned by the explosion.
At least, the two Eight-Edge Assassins could only imagine such an outcome, such an end.
Ultimately, they gave up on escaping and chose to face the giant fireball falling from the sky head-on.
""LONG LIVE AINZ OOAL GOWN—!!!""
Shouting fervently, the two Eight-Edge Assassins swung the sharp blades on their long legs toward the giant fireball falling from above.
As the huge fireball hit the ground, it was akin to an extremely small sun falling to the earth, and in the next second, the fireball exploded.
*BOOOOM—!*
In an instant, the explosion roared into the sky, sending a raging wave of fire in all directions and sweeping everything with it.
"FIRE! FIRE!"
"HELP!"
"RUN!"
At this moment, whether it was the pedestrians on the nearby streets or the guests in the Shining Golden Pavilion who had been startled by the explosion, everyone saw the flames surging toward them.
Panicked, they screamed and scrambled in the opposite direction, running for their lives.
"Shit!"
As Riezel saw the entire Shining Golden Pavilion about to be consumed by flames, with nearby buildings and streets on the verge of becoming a sea of fire, he immediately realized the seriousness of the situation.
'Is this really 3rd-Tier Magic Fireball? After being powered up by Pioneer of the Sun, it turned into this?'
Riezel knew it was definitely his fault.
In his excitement, he had used too much magical energy, which made Fireball even more powerful than it should have been. At this point, if he didn't do something quickly, it would likely turn into a full-blown disaster.
Ultimately, Riezel decided to act, abandoning any concern for hiding his abilities and quickly casting a magic spell that would be considered a divine miracle in this world.
"Tempest."
While Tempest seemed like a simple magic spell, it was actually classified as 9th-Tier Magic out of the eleven tiers of Tier Magic. {T/N: It's not Tempest from Danmachi.}
*WHOOSH—!!!*
A fierce wind suddenly howled.
A torrential downpour suddenly fell from the sky.
Within seconds, a terrifying storm descended upon the area, putting out the spreading flames.
However, the surrounding environment didn't escape unscathed as the strong winds tore away all the flowers, grass, and trees, while the downpour washed away countless objects, causing the buildings to shake as if they might collapse at any moment.
Amid this, scattered people screamed in agony.
Some were likely blown away by the wind, and others were drenched by the heavy rain, looking like drowned rats.
"Are you kidding..."
Riezel quickly retracted his magic, staring at the disaster-stricken area, feeling speechless.
After this incident, he fully understood one thing.
'Now I understand why Tactical-Class and Strategic-Class Magic are restricted in the Akasha Continent...'
From now on, Riezel decided to be more cautious when using magic in cities.