Cold.
Extremely cold.
These were the words Vlov had kept repeating earlier, but now it was Naoki's turn to feel it.
The surrounding temperature had probably dropped below zero degrees Celsius. The building behind him had also instantly frozen due to the influence of the ice glacier, and the entire street had frozen into a pure white.
His right hand, severely frostbitten, hung limply.
"Kouhai-kun!"
Seeing Naoki's right hand, Aoko, who was in his arms, unconsciously cried out.
Their escape speed was already very fast, but the speed of the approaching ice glacier was even faster. Or rather, the entire ice glacier was the air that had frozen due to the extreme cold and low temperature. Its spreading speed far exceeded common sense.
If it hadn't been for Naoki shattering a part of the ice glacier with his right hand to create an evasive space, the two of them might have already frozen into ice statues.
Taking a deep breath, Naoki's body emitted a warm red light. The fire fairy summoned into his body quickly melted the ice on him. Naoki released Aoko and put her down: "We really fell into a trap! Arcueid! How's your membrane's ability to withstand curses?!"
There was no answer.
Naoki hurriedly looked around, but Arcueid's figure was nowhere to be seen.
'Where did she go?!'
*CRACK CRACK CRACK—!*
At the same time, the ice glacier charged again.
This time the distance was quite far, so they had time to react. Naoki instantly kicked Aoko away while he himself leaped far to the other side. Upon landing, he immediately turned around and ran as fast as he could towards Vlov.
Although he was a bit worried about where Arcueid had gone, the most important thing now was still to eliminate the Dead Apostle in front of him!
"Quite an agile body. Even with frostbite, the speed is still extraordinary."
Calmly observing Naoki's movements, Vlov unconsciously showed a slight surprise. In this era, there were still warriors with such excellent qualities.
And on the other side—
"The Fifth Magician, her power is as rumored, but when True Magic isn't used, it's still within my ability to handle."
Plus, both of them were now injured by the curse he had unleashed himself. Eliminating them all wasn't impossible.
'After finishing them off quickly, then I'll look for the princess. I accidentally saw her earlier. The princess rushed towards the forest beside us. Was she fleeing?'
'No, the princess wouldn't flee. Then for what other reason? Was there something there that caught her attention?'
"Think about it later."
A formidable enemy was right before his eyes. Although this body was no longer a knight, for a worthy opponent, it was still necessary to give full respect—while also hating the other party for seizing his precious warmth.
Raising his hand, he condensed ice.
A dozen large ice shards appeared out of thin air. After automatically aiming at Naoki who was running, as Vlov pulled the trigger (swung his hand), they shot towards Naoki one after another!
*THUMP!*
Upon hitting the ground, like exploding ice bombs, the extreme cold airwaves still chased after Naoki even after he dodged the direct hits.
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
Dodging three consecutive shots again, thanks to the mutant fire fairy inside his body, even while passing through the area filled with cold air, Naoki's body still didn't freeze. In the current situation, the Fairy Armament could no longer be changed. The moment the fire fairy left his body would be his death.
'This is an all-encompassing cold air area, damn it, unlike Nero, this guy is a really bad match for me!'
Nero's strength lay in his almost unbreakable immortality and the extremely large swarm of beasts. The place where he shone was large-scale group battles. In a one-on-one situation, Nero's strength was limited.
But Vlov was different. The all-encompassing extreme cold area without gaps directly maximized his presence in both attack and defense. Although Naoki could break through it, killing Vlov in such an environment was extremely difficult.
So—
'It's not me who will kill him!'
*CRASH!*
A raging vortex of fire erupted, as if wanting to match Vlov's extreme cold. Naoki also created an extremely high-temperature area around his body. Ironically, although he had previously defended against Vlov's fire, now it was his turn to become the burner.
The two areas suddenly collided. Extreme cold and high heat instantly began to suppress and erode each other. And as Naoki continued to approach, the clear boundary between the areas also continued to fade and soften, until he was once again in front of Vlov—
"Neutralization?"
'High temperature and low temperature, although it's a bit crude, this way it returns to normal temperature!'
Grinning horribly, Naoki suddenly swung his hot fist!
*BANG!*
Fist and palm collided.
Catching Naoki's punch with his bare hand, Vlov immediately grabbed his arm and pushed it upwards. After getting into Naoki's embrace, he suddenly slammed his entire strength into his stomach.
The force pierced through his body. Naoki suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood, but because the punch had brought them too close, Vlov in the next moment also received a counterattack in the form of a hard knee strike from Naoki. Then two consecutive punches with his left and right hands brutally struck his face!
"Ugh—damn it!"
Knocking him back was unrealistic. He could only distance himself. Although back when his curse relapsed, Vlov himself would also freeze due to the extreme low temperature until he couldn't move. But thanks to Naoki's extreme high-temperature area, he could still move now.
Keep distance! Finish it with that!
Seeing Vlov moving away from him, Naoki instantly understood what he was going to do.
[Naoki, Vlov's weapons are of two types—ah, not in terms of ability, but in terms of sword-like weapons—one is an ordinary falchion, besides being strong, it has no other special characteristics. And the other is a large spear hidden in his shadow. Be careful not to let him distance himself from you]
This was Arcueid's warning.
'Want to use a spear? Don't count on it!'
While staring at Vlov's footsteps, Naoki chased after him at full speed. At the same time, he swung both his hands, a large amount of fire scattered out, hot fire lances raining down like raindrops.
'Even included himself in the attack range. An admirable resolve!'
But, this distance was already five meters. It was indeed a bit forced, but it was enough.
Vlov reached into his own shadow, and from within his shadow, a strange, enormous object, a steel spear not of this world, was in his grasp in just an instant.
'It's over!'
While gripping the spear, Vlov showed his most terrifying fangs. Even if it wasn't a thrust, it didn't matter. This existence in his hand, even if swung, its weight alone was enough to kill a weak human!
The steel spear swung a white moon arc, rapidly approaching Naoki who was chasing quickly. It was too late to dodge. This speed made it impossible to change the forward trajectory, let alone the distance. Even if he retreated four steps, he was still within the attack range.
It's over!
*CLANG!*
However, the steel spear was parried, by a sword.
A sword made of fire, just the shell of a certain prototype.
"Eh?"
In the next moment after parrying, Naoki also unconsciously showed a slight surprise. At that moment, his body seemed to instinctively want to grasp something to parry, but since there was nothing to grasp, he used the sword made of fire.
No, that wasn't it—
'An opening!'
If this attack was considered a fatal blow, after it was dealt with, there would definitely be an opening, because Vlov hadn't considered what would happen after this attack.
A chance!
Stepping forward with a large stride, under Vlov's surprised gaze, the hot sword blade suddenly pierced his heart. Then it firmly pinned him to the ground!
A fatal wound!
But it wasn't enough yet, he wasn't dead! This level wasn't enough to kill him! So there had to be one more attack!
"Aoko!"
*CLANG!*
What answered Naoki's shout was a brightly shining magic formation behind him.
That's right, it wasn't Naoki who would kill Vlov. It was difficult for him to do it, so he just needed to hit him to this point, and then let his partner do it.
He himself had Magic Resistance so it didn't matter, but for the weak vampire in front of him, it was hard to say.
"Projection (Cast)—!!"
A large indigo magic cannon, along with Aoko's voice, after piercing through dozens of magic formations, violently exploded!
The figures of Naoki and Vlov were instantly swallowed up by this light of destruction!