"Shut up and answer my question, you pig. What happened to the hero?"

Pyra asked that same question with a growl in her voice and Darius realized that she was angry. What the hell did she want with the hero so badly? Shouldn't she be happy that the hero is looking weak? Why does she look so angry? Darius brought his sword forward again with a small grin on his face. He didn't know why she was angry, but Darius was just glad that he was able to piss her off. This might actually be a good thing! Her anger is something I can use against her!

"If you want ta find out what happened to the hero, then come at me! I ain't letting ya pass here so you better be ready!"

Darius charged forward and the two of them clashed! Pyra's mace was far heavier than Darius' sword and Darius hoped that the difference in weight would allow him to be faster than her by at least a small amount, but that wasn't the case at all. Pyra was fast! Extremely fast! She managed to match all of Darius' swings with inhuman precision, and even though she was wearing a long gown, it did nothing to stop her from moving with impossible speed! What the hell is this woman!? Did a demon like this ever exist before? Darius was growing worried as their clash continued and before long he was already getting pushed back!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Boom!

Pyra slammed her mace into the ground and the force rose a large cloud of dust that almost blinded Darius! Pyra swung her mace forward to hit Darius in the chest but he placed the flat side of his sword in the path of her mace and he used the momentum from her swing to push himself away from her to get some breathing room!

Darius spat blood to the side and he looked at Pyra as the dust cleared. She looked impeccably clean. There wasn't even a single drop of blood on her and only little specks of dust could be found on her dress. It was like she didn't just trade more than a hundred blows with him! Darius felt his ego take a hit as he thought about how much of a difference there was between them. Tch! He scoffed as he realized that she was playing with him!

I guess this is what the difference between an SS-class and an SSS-class is. I knew she was stronger than me, but this is absurd!

"Should we help?"

"Maybe we should. It looks like the demon is winning,"

At the side were some other soldiers who were just watching the fight with a look of disbelief on their faces. most of them were wondering if they should join in and try to help the commander. But even if they joined in, can they help in a fight like this? Won't they just be killed?

Although they knew they would be killed if they joined in, some of the men started to take steps forward to see if they could help the commander at all, but Darius put his hand to the side and told them to stop without ever taking his eyes off Pyra. He told them to retreat and go help the hero instead. If they join this battle then they would just be a nuisance instead of any help.

Hearing something like that should have been a hit to their pride as soldiers but these men didn't care! They didn't want to join the battle from the beginning so this was an easy way out for them and they all gladly took it as they ran to join the people escaping with the hero!

Pyra started to take steps forward again and Darius decided that it was time for him to stop playing around as well! Pyra stopped in her tracks as she felt the mana in the atmosphere fluctuate. She looked toward Darius and she realized exactly what he did as he stood proudly.

"You have Magic Resonance?"

Pyra tilted her head curiously as she asked this question and Darius just grinned wider! Do you think I lived this long without ever achieving anything in Magic Resonance? I am the most accomplished Grand Commander in Magic Resonance!

"Magic Resonance: Mana Nullifier"

Darius had a magic resonance that was different than normal resonances. Usually, magic resonance is a skill that allows people to use Mana to the extreme and brings out their latent talent. But Darius had a Magic Resonance that didn't work together with Mana. Instead, it worked against Mana. Darius can use his Magic Resonance to cut through the source of mana in any object or person for two seconds with only a touch. That means that for two seconds, there will be no mana flowing through that object or person. Usually, this wouldn't do much because after two seconds the mana in the object would flow like normal again and there wouldn't be any significant difference.

But in a fight to the death, two seconds was a very long time! Two seconds can mean the difference between life and death!

Darius tested the weight of his sword again and he smiled when he felt the lightness in his sword. Magic Resonance was a skill that amplified your latent potential to the max and it bridged the gap between two different power classes easily. Darius knew that now that he has activated his Magic Resonance, he should easily handle anything that Pyra would throw at him!

Boom!

Darius charged forward with mad fervor and Pyra brought up her mace and slammed it forward to hit him, but at the exact moment when the mace hit his sword, Pyra felt as if her mace suddenly lost all its momentum! It felt like she was holding air!

Darius used that opportunity to duck under her mace and he finally managed to land his first hit as he slashed upwards to scratch her shoulder with his sword! Pyra dodged the slash at the last moment to avoid serious injury, but the slash still tore a small part of her uniform and made her take a step back! Pyra's brows were knit in confusion as she wondered what the hell happened with her mace. Why did it suddenly feel like she couldn't put any force into her swings? Is this his magic resonance? Pyra's mind started to run at a mile a minute as she tried to decipher his resonance!

"Ya think I'm gonna let you stay like that and think!?"

Boom! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Darius didn't waste a moment once he saw the confusion on Pyra's face and he pressed his advantage while trying his best to kill her! Darius knew that Pyra was confused about what was happening with her weapon and he wanted to get rid of her before she figures out his magic resonance!

Pyra constantly blocked Darius' swings and she just continued taking steps back! She still had that look of confusion on her face, but it slowly started to change to a more relaxed look that made her look bored! Pyra threw out another hit with her mace and Darius blocked it with his sword and pushed it out the side easily before he turned around to slash down on her side with his sword! But he didn't expect Pyra to suddenly lash out a foot and slam it into his stomach!

Grk!

The man coughed out some spit as he flew back a little from the impact. He narrowed his eyes at Pyra as he realized that she might have figured out his resonance already! That was far too quick!

"The ability to remove all Mana from any object your sword touches for about three seconds. An annoying ability, but not omnipotent. Now that I've discovered how it works, you have no chance of ever winning,"

Pyra spoke in a stoic tone that sounded as condescending as ever. She gave the commander a stare that showed him how easy it was for her to discover his resonance.

Pyra has been allowing the commander to attack her for the past few minutes so that she could find out how his resonance works. Pyra knew that his sword was the medium for his resonance but she didn't know exactly what it did until a few moments ago when she hit him. Every time Pyra's mace would hit the sword, the mace would suddenly become lighter and it would feel like Pyra wasn't even holding it. The reason for this was that all the mana in the mace was gone. Pyras mace was infused with a large amount of Mana that made it weigh as much as Pyra wanted. The more mana Pyra puts inside the mace, the heavier it becomes. But once you cut all the mana channels, it weighs absolutely nothing and it becomes useless as a weapon.

So every time that Pyra hit the sword, it would cut off all the mana channels and render her weapon useless. But this was a good thing because it was only the sword that could do this. Darius couldn't use his body to cut Mana from Pyra, if he could do that, then Pyra would have felt a lack of mana in her leg when she kicked him. No, Pyra was sure that it was only his sword that could cut mana from objects or people. And now she just had to do something that he wouldn't be able to block. None of her skills would work since the sword would easily cut them to pieces. But her resonance would work.

Darius took a step back when he felt a sudden pressure in the air that started to spread. There wasn't any indication that Pyra was going to do something but Darius was immediately on guard!

Pyra wasn't the sort of person to talk much. If this was Dragonnel or even Rizi, Pyra knew that they would have given an entire monologue about their magic resonance to the enemy to taunt the enemy, but Pyra didn't have the social energy for such a thing. And she really didn't like talking to anyone but the demon lord. So, she just activated her Resonance!

[Magic Resonance: Gravity Falls]

It was like a mountain fell on Darius!

Dooon!!

Darius grunted as he fell down to his knee and slammed both hands into the ground! He could feel as his hands and feet dug deeper and deeper into the soil and the pressure from the force was so much that he couldn't even lift his head! Is this her resonance? Gravity Manipulation? Or maybe mass manipulation? This is... Too unfair! This is far too unfair! What am I supposed to do against her power when I can't even lift my head!?

Pyra's resonance allows her to control the effects of gravity around her for a hundred meters. Everything that exists in that hundred-meter radius can have its gravity influenced by her. She can reduce it, increase it, change it, reverse it or even erase it.

In this case, Pyra increased the effects of gravity on Darius by a hundred times!

There were ways to get out of Pyra's resonance if you had enough power or skill, but Pyra was sure that Darius had no way to escape. Even his resonance would be useless against this. How can he cut the mana around him when he cannot even lift his sword?

Step! Step! Step!

The sounds of footsteps walking forward reached Darius and he tried to force himself to stand up but he couldn't even move a muscle! He was completely defenseless! His sword was lying at the side and it was also digging itself deeper into the ground because of the intense force being exerted on it.

Once he saw Pyra's boots in front of him, he grunted in anger! He hated that this looked like he was bowing to her! Darius tried to force himself up a third time and he almost got himself to his kneel up, but blood suddenly burst out from his nose due to the force and he fell back immediately! Shit!

Pyra brought up her mace as she spoke.

"It doesn't matter how long you've trained your resonance. Perhaps if you were a demon... No. Even then, you would have still lost. My name is Pyra and I am a servant of the demon lord. You fought well, for a human."

Pyra has been alive for more than seven hundred years and she has trained her resonance for centuries. This general has only lived for a hundred years at most so there was never any hope that he could match her resonance with his own. The moment she activated it, he already lost this fight!

The general grunted something that sounded like 'Fuck you'. Pyra brought her mace down and took off the general's head with a sickening crunch!!