*BOOM!*
In an instant, as Riezel's curved slashes, along with the crescent moon blades, hit the chains, they caused a loud roar, but unfortunately, they failed to stop the chains from advancing.
One after another, the chains passed through the crescent moon blades and sped toward Riezel before finally wrapping around his body.
"..."
In that instant, however, the world suddenly froze.
As soon as the chains, filled with cold energy, wrapped around Riezel's body, everything seemed to be forcibly halted, as if time and space itself had come to a standstill.
At this moment, the black-robed figures continued to hold the position of throwing the chains, frozen mid-air, while the beetle monsters remained in their swarm formation, turning toward Riezel's direction.
How could this happen?
It was thanks to 'Silent Magic - Time Stop' that Riezel had cast, freezing time and the world around him without chanting.
"What's this?"
In the frozen world, Riezel swiftly moved, breaking free from the chains that hadn't fully wrapped around him yet, before looking at the chains that radiated cold energy with suspicion in his eyes.
It wasn't for any other reason—just the fact that these chains could successfully catch him and wrap around him proved how extraordinary they were.
"Looks like this is their trump card..."
Riezel furrowed his brow, watching the flashing eyes of the black-robed figures.
"Who are these guys, really?"
It was the only question Riezel couldn't figure out.
Nevertheless, after the recent skirmish and his intentional probing, Riezel had more or less figured out the strength and some of the nature of these black-robed figures.
"If we're talking about their strength, these guys are probably at Level 6 Sword Master—more specifically, around middle-upper Level 6. They're not weak, but they're not too troublesome either."
"But the real problem is their strangeness... Seriously, their weird movement technique is something even those at Level 7 might not be able to react to in time. And their skin is ridiculously tough—if I'm not using Hermit, it's almost impossible to break through."
"What's more, they don't seem to feel pain. No matter how badly they're injured, they just brush it off and keep fighting like nothing."
"If they fight with that cold energy, a regular Level 7 might actually get killed right off the bat."
Riezel couldn't shake the feeling that these black-robed figures were very similar to Yoriichi Type One.
Yoriichi Type One had a combat ability roughly equivalent to middle Level 4, but its END was around Level 5, similar to a dungeon's Floor Boss in the world of Danmachi—specialized in certain aspects.
Meanwhile, the combat ability of these black-robed figures was already close to middle-upper Level 6, and they seemed to be specialized in END, DEX, and AGI, which made them even tougher than Floor Bosses of the same level.
What was even more frightening was that these black-robed figures didn't appear alone but in groups of three or four. A single one of them could already give a Level 7 a hard time and might even kill them, so the fact that these black-robed figures appeared in groups was like a nightmare.
All of their strangeness and versatility made Riezel start to suspect something.
"What if they are some kind of dolls like Yoriichi Type One...?"
If that was the case, who had the ability to create such high-performance dolls, and why did they make so many at once?
Were the mysterious disappearances in Mavros Territory somehow linked to the creation of these black-robed figures?
And what exactly was that cold energy?
Riezel had already instinctively felt cautious because of that cold energy more than once, which told him that the source of this cold energy was probably extraordinary, making these black-robed figures and the weapons they wielded seem unusually bizarre, especially those chains.
Riezel shifted his gaze, looking at the chains that nearly wrapped around him before turning his attention back to the black-robed figures.
"Let's get things straight and figure out exactly what you all are this time."
Riezel suddenly flashed and appeared in front of one of the black-robed figures, extending his hand and placing it on the black-robed figure's body.
"Delay Maximize Magic - Energy Drain."
Energy Drain was a necromancy contact magic.
Contact magic referred to magic that required physical contact with the target to be activated. Due to the need for physical proximity, this type of magic was typically only mastered by those who had trained in both a magic-oriented job class and warrior-oriented job classes. Only those with close combat abilities could fully utilize this type of magic, making the conditions for activating it quite harsh.
However, as was widely known, the harsher the conditions for activation, the more powerful the magic tended to be.
Contact magic was one such example.
Because it was inconvenient to use, it was often more powerful than other magic of the same tier, generally possessing an ability that exceeded the usual tier by at least one tier.
Energy Drain was one such magic where, while it was categorized as 8th-Tier Magic, its effects were more powerful than those of most 9th-Tier Magic.
When this magic was successfully activated, the target's level was temporarily reduced, and the user of the magic received various benefits in proportion to the level reduction, which included recovering lost stamina and magical energy, boosting certain abilities, or even receiving unique buff effects.
It was a powerful magic that temporarily weakened the opponent and strengthened the user once activated.
Riezel now used this magic and pushed it to its limit, enhancing it with Maximize Magic while carefully calculating the timing to trigger Delay Magic.
Next, Riezel appeared in front of the remaining three black-robed figures, using Energy Drain on each of them.
By the time the timing was right, the time-stop magic was finally lifted, making the frozen world resume moving again.
""?!!!""
In that instant, as the four black-robed figures saw Riezel suddenly appear before them, all of them were shocked.
In their eyes, their trump card, the chains that were about to wrap around Riezel's body, had almost worked, but strangely, he suddenly disappeared and reappeared right in front of them, while the chains lost their target and fell to the ground.
Such a situation caused the black-robed figures to waver for a moment.
Nonetheless, their reactions were swift.
Seeing Riezel coldly staring at them, they immediately retreated, trying to put some distance between themselves and him, but unfortunately, at that same moment, they felt a shift within themselves.
Soon, they were shocked to discover that their speed had slowed and their strength had diminished, as if they had gone from superhuman to mere mortals, becoming pitifully weak. If their status was to be shown, it was as if they had dropped from Level 6 straight to Level 1.
Meanwhile, as the strength of the black-robed figures dropped, Riezel's strength began to skyrocket.
He could feel that aside from his basic abilities rising by several ranks—even more than when he used the Origin Ring he got from Gazef—his stamina and magical energy were also replenished.
However, because he already possessed the highest rank development abilities, 'Healing Power' and 'Spirit Healing', which constantly regenerated his stamina and mind, the effect of this recovery was particularly unnoticeable.
"You?!"
"What?!"
"My body?!"
"How?!"
Exclaiming in unison, the black-robed figures seemed to have noticed this phenomenon as their tone was no longer as stiff as before, now carrying a bit of the emotion one would expect from humans.
However, their tone was undoubtedly filled with trepidation, filled with shock.
"Mass Hold Species."
Not responding to their exclamations, Riezel immediately used a binding magic that could affect all races on the black-robed figures, causing them to be instantly bound as if by invisible chains, unable to move at all.
They wanted to struggle, but their efforts were pitifully weak because their strength was drastically lowered, so no matter how strange their abilities were, they couldn't break free from Riezel's restraint in this state.
*Buzz—* *Buzz—* *Buzz—*
*Buzz—* *Buzz—* *Buzz—*
At the same time, the surrounding beetle monsters completely ignored the situation at hand and had already turned around, rushing toward Riezel.
Seeing this, a sharp light flashed in Riezel's eyes.
"Widen Magic - Cry of the Banshee!"
A piercing scream instantly resounded before turning into a soundwave, expanding outward from Riezel in all directions and echoing through the entire cave, sweeping over the black-robed figures and the beetle monsters.
As the black-robed figures were struggling to escape Riezel's binding, they felt a sudden chill, as if an invisible storm of death had passed through their bodies, leaving them terrified.
Meanwhile, the beetle monsters, under the onslaught of the soundwave, suddenly froze in midair before they began to fall, dropping like heaps of garbage, scattering and piling up on the ground, their living auras gone.
In that instant, the entire cave finally returned to silence, back to calm.
*Rumble—*
For some unknown reason, the tremors in the cave slowly began to subside, and soon after, they completely stopped.
Riezel still maintained the use of Fly, not landing on the ground, nor did he pay any attention to the black-robed figures, but flew toward the several chains that had fallen to the ground.
He extended his finger and touched one of the chains, but as soon as he did, the cold, sinister energy on it immediately surged toward him like a venomous snake waiting to strike.
"How aggressive..."
Riezel muttered as he withdrew his finger.
Even though Riezel had 'Abnormal Resistance' at the highest rank, making him immune to both physical and mental interferences, he still didn't want to touch this cold energy that made his instincts wary to avoid any unforeseen accidents.
Regardless, considering these chains had impressive effects, Riezel wasn't planning to ignore them.
*Swish!*
At once, Riezel waved his hand, storing the chains in the storage space of the Dimensional Magic Cube, intending to take them back to study carefully.
Done with the beetle monsters and the chains, Riezel turned to look at the black-robed figures, and with a quick flash, he instantly appeared in front of one of them.
Before the black-robed figure in front of him could react, Riezel grabbed the black-robed figure's head and cast magic.
"Control Amnesia."