Chapter 174 ~ Divine Smite

"Because she won't be satisfied with this little exercise if it ends so soon."

The raging flames that formed a tall, nigh impenetrable wall of pure hellish fire disappeared, catching the attention of Momonga, Lelouch, the twins, and Albedo. 

And from behind it, they could see Aika standing with her left hand raised in front of her as the last bit of light particles from the [Dispel] magic she used to erase Ulbert's [Hell Fire Wall] dissipated from her palms. 

It was as Lelouch had said… Aika wouldn't go through the wall of flames, not because she couldn't, but because she would end the fight too early. 

Instead, she simply dispelled the spell with a simple wave of a hand. 

"Rose of Agony."

As the words left her luscious lips, black thorny vines with blooming black roses appeared around Ulbert's legs, wrapping itself around it as it climbed higher and higher, before disappearing.

"That is…"

Despite only for a very brief moment, Momonga and the other floor guardians present did not miss the appearance of the black roses and vines that suddenly wrapped around Ulbert's feet. 

And they also did not notice the visible panic that Ulbert displayed before he immediately took off from the ground using [Fly] that he had cast earlier. 

But… No matter how quickly he tried to fly away, he was still slower than lightning. 

"Maximized Magic. Dragon Lightning."

Voracious lightning crackled from her hands. And in the next moment, a massive dragon of lightning charged with a thunderous roar. 

"Kuh!"

Despite everything, the phantom of the gray goat supreme being and owner of the [World Disaster] job class which boasted the greatest fire power out of all other classes barely managed to dodge the massive thunderous lightning attack from another holder of the [World Disaster] job class. 

The flowing jet-black sleeve and part of the velvet cape that adorned Ulbert's right half had vanished, revealing his cindered clawed right hand and arms. 

Immediately after, the black thorny vines and roses appeared once more, and this time, it had already wrapped itself around his waist. 

The flying phantom of Ulbert crashed back down to the ground with a heavy thud, tumbling for a few meters, before landing face down on the cracked ground. 

Bits of lightning crackled all around his body as smoke slowly drifted upwards from his scorched arm. 

"Khh! Kuhaa!!"

Jet-black blood escaped his lips as Ulbert coughed heavily on the ground. The effects of the Rose of Agony he so feared had already reached the second stage and affected him greatly… 

Seeing the result of her spells, a satisfied smile bloomed on Aika's beautiful visage. 

The 7th Tier Spell, [Rose of Agony], was an exclusive spell she got accessed to upon maxing her Empress of Evil Job Class. 

At first, the 7th tier spell did not seem to do much. It was a single target spell that did not deal instantaneous damage, damage over time, or disabled its target. It simply cursed its target and decreased their movement speed and evasion for 20 seconds. 

However, this effect was merely the first of five stages of the spell. And upon being hit by an attack, the spell will move onto its next stage. 

With each hit, the briar rose will rise higher and higher. On the second hit, it would rise up to the waist and inflict true damage equal to 5% of the caster's magic attack for 10 seconds. 

If the target was hit once again within those 10 seconds, the briar rose would rise up once again and wrap around their chest and neck, continuing to deal true damage. In addition, 10% of the caster's magic attack would be inflicted every time they tried to cast a spell or a skill. 

The fourth hit would cause the thorny vines to wrap around their arms, slowing the target's casting speed and decreasing their accuracy. And on the final hit, it would fully wrap around the target's head, dealing massive damage and inflicting the "blindness" condition for another 10 seconds. 

Ulbert, having gained the knowledge, memories, and personality of the true Ulbert despite being a phantom, knew of the effects of the spell. 

It was one of Aika's favorite spells to use, and as her self-proclaimed rival in terms of being a mage with the highest magic damage, he had studied and learned about all the spells she had ever shown him. 

However… simply knowing didn't necessarily make him capable of dealing with it, especially with Aika's inhuman speed, reaction time, and proficiency with it. 

Thus, Ulbert's first and immediate reaction was to fly away, knowing that going on foot was simply a fool's errand given the decreased movement speed debuff he received from [Rose of Agony]. However… With Aika's proficiency with magic and his lowered evasion rate, he failed to dodge her [Dragon Lightning], raising the [Rose of Agony] spell by one stage and causing him to lose concentration on his [Fly] spell. 

Now, he had been tossed out of the frying pan and thrown straight into the fire, as the [Rose of Agony] now further decreased his movement speed and was now doing quite the considerable amount of continuous true damage onto him. And this time, he would need to cast [Fly] once more unless he wanted to become a stationary living target practice for Aika. 

Meanwhile… 

'Hm~ Should I use that spell now…? No, that would make everyone here horny… I'll just use that tonight when I'm alone with Yuuji~ Fufu~'

Aika contemplated on what spells she would like to try out as she waited for the phantom Ulbert to rise up to his feet. 

On the other side of the battlefield, sparks and clanging of steel reverberated throughout the entire Amphitheater. 

With an extremely enthusiastic Spirit Sword Sovereign, Est, in his hand, brimming with excitement, Yuuji had to hold back quite a bit so as to not accidentally slice through Phantom Touch Me's sword, armor, and body in one slash. 

That said, Yuuji was pleasantly surprised by the phantom's strength. 

While he hadn't tested his full strength in this form yet, Yuuji knew from his "memories" just how powerful he was, even if he didn't use his space manipulation magic. 

The original Touch Me had never won a duel against him… In fact, they all ended up in the white clad world champion being thoroughly overpowered through sheer strength. 

Yuuji even "recalled" when Touch Me asked him why he wouldn't enter the World Tournament and vye for the "World Champion" title, given he was the most powerful player he had ever known. 

But even then, the Phantom of his past close friend, guildmate, and World Champion, was still the strongest opponent he had ever faced. 

While Tatsuya was objectively the most powerful with his magic and martial art skills, Touch Me, despite being a Phantom, was stronger physically. 

Each and every blow of his sword was heavy, and his defenses, with the "Compliance with Law" armor and "Earth Recover" shield, were tougher than Yuuji first expected, making it quite difficult to gauge how much power he should use. 

Fortunately, with Alice's innate ability, "Clairvoyance", and his enhanced senses and reaction speed, Yuuji was able to use them to his advantage to deal with Touch Me's attacks. 

With his shield braced before him, Touch Me raised his sword up into the sky, shining brilliantly in bright, white light, and swung down with a heavy might. 

"Haaaah!!! [Divine Smite]!!!"

A powerful blast of divine energy shook the air and ground, reverberating throughout the entire arena. 

While this wasn't Touch Me's most powerful skill, the [Divine Smite] was a favored skill used by Paladins for a good reason. 

it was a reliable, high-damage skill, especially against those with negative karma values, that could be invoked instantly. An extremely powerful skill, considering the cost of casting it. 

Moreover, considering the energy Touch Me's sword was emanating, Yuuji could guess that he was using it at quite the high tier level. 

And yet before the mighty smite of the strongest divine warrior, Yuuji calmly raised his sword and decided to see the effects of one of his strongest skills that he could only use 3 times a day. 

The "World Guardian" job class was an extremely powerful defensive class. In fact, if it had existed within Yggdrasil, it would've been labeled as a brokenly overpowered class which all players would complain about and riot for until the devs deleted it from the game. 

In addition to the massive increase in physical defense, magic defense, and resistance, it had several features which Momonga would've, and had, called "broken". And one of its most powerful features was the [Aegis] skill, which had an active and passive effect. 

The passive effect granted him immunity to curse, charm, psychic damage, and mental attacks. This effect alone was enough for it to be considered as overpowered. 

However, Yuuji was already protected from the listed harmful effects thanks to his [Divine Physique] SSR. Thus, the first passive effect did not benefit him greatly. 

The second passive effect, however, was truly and utterly broken. 

It gave him resistance to the harmful effects of the ultimate weapon in both Yggdrasil and the New World; World Items. 

Although not completely, simply giving him the chance to resist the effect of an otherwise absolute item, without needing to own a World Item himself, was an immense boon. 

And finally, the active ability of the [Aegis] skill called [Invincible Light]allowed him to completely resist and ignore any attack, spell, skills, and spell effects up to three times a day, even super-tier spells. 

His half-angel and half-demon form glowed briefly as he raised Est in his hand, which was now emanating a brilliant white light that shines with all colors of the rainbow. 

Yuuji met the powerful divine smite of the holy warrior head on, and the previously shining sword brimming with divine energy suddenly lost its light as it was deflected. 

Like hitting an adamantine wall, the divine blade bounced off Yuuji's sword, causing shock to run through the jet-black phantom knight before him. 

Then, the next thing he knew, a tremendous, heavy force hit his shield like a battering ram, sending the phantom of the world champion skidding through the dirt grounds of the arena. 

Touch Me looked up, recovering from the shock of his failed skill and sudden hit, and saw Yuuji having just put his right leg back down to the ground and readied his sword. 

"Est."

'Yes, master…'

The beautiful, silver white elemental waffe form of Est shined brightly. And as Yuuji swung his sword, a crescent-shape blast of pure magical energy shot towards Touch Me. 

The [Spirit Blast] hit squarely on the shielded knight, having no chance nor the ability to dodge such a powerful and quick blast of magic, and the impact created a massive explosion of energy, flinging dust and dirt from the ground up into the air as a massive cloud. 

And as Yuuji returned to his initial stance with Est to his side, focusing on the figure of Touch Me within the cloud of smoke, Momonga, Albedo, Aura, and Mare stood in frozen awe and amazement, absolutely speechless. 

Only Lelouch, who had "seen" and "remembered" multiple instances of Touch Me being destroyed in ways worse than he was right now, stood calmly and watched with amazement for seeing true magic he had only seen in fantasy be done in reality. 

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