Chapter 203: Celestial Magic: Seven Star Sword
"That's just Noah for you. His power keeps growing, and the number of ridiculous things he can do just keeps increasing," Erza said, watching the battle with a serious expression. She felt no jealousy, only pride. "But he's our Noah. The stronger he gets, the happier and prouder I feel. I just have to make sure I don't fall too far behind."
"He doesn't just get stronger himself, he helps us get stronger, too," Ultear said, her eyes soft as she watched him. She thought back on everything he had done for them, and her heart felt warm. "He's just... he's so good to us."
"The fight is changing!" Erza suddenly said, noticing that the pace of the brawl had slowed.
The others immediately refocused on the battle.
The rhythm of the punches had indeed slowed, not because Noah was tired, but because the Demon Sitri was. After its exhausting battle with the four girls, its wounds had healed, but its stamina had not returned. Now, after trading so many blows with Noah, it was clearly becoming fatigued.
Noah, sensing its fatigue, slowed his own tempo to match, intentionally drawing out the fistfight to drain its energy even further.
Suddenly, Sitri roared. It wreathed its right fist in a massive amount of fire and swung at Noah.
Noah met the attack head-on, his own right fist glowing with magic power.
BOOM!
An explosion several times more powerful than any before erupted from the impact, shrouding them both in smoke.
A moment later, Sitri's massive form was blasted out of the smoke cloud. It stumbled backward several steps before it could regain its footing, letting out a pained roar. Its entire right fist and forearm were mangled and bloody.
On the other side, Noah floated back, completely unharmed, and landed lightly on the ground. With a wave of his hand, he cleared the smoke between them.
Sitri's hand was already trying to heal, but the regeneration was much slower than before. It swung its still-bleeding arm, unleashing a wave of fire at Noah.
Noah didn't bother to block. He simply sidestepped, letting the flames fly past him.
Sitri roared in frustration, flinging torrent after torrent of fire at him. Noah just calmly dodged, casually walking in a circle around the demon. The fireballs missed him completely, slamming into the surrounding trees and mountainsides, incinerating everything they touched.
Noah glanced at the widespread destruction and decided this was a bad way to stall for time. One of the fireballs had just flown uncomfortably close to where the girls were resting.
Besides, his preparations were complete. He stopped moving and planted his feet.
Sitri roared, seeing its target finally stop, and unleashed a roiling sea of fire. The heat wave washed toward Noah.
Noah clapped his hands together, his magic power flaring. The ground around him instantly flash-froze. Ice dragons erupted from the ground, meeting the inferno head-on. Fire and ice collided and canceled each other out in a massive cloud of steam.
Thousands of ice crystals drifted down, and the air in the valley grew blessedly cool.
Enraged, Sitri pumped even more power into its attack, unleashing a firestorm that was far larger and more intense than before. It surged forward with overwhelming force, melting the very ground into magma as it advanced. The heat was unbearable. The ice on the ground around Noah began to evaporate.
Noah's hands remained clasped. An even more immense wave of magic power poured from his body.
In an instant, a wave of absolute-zero cold expanded from him, freezing the ground, the air, and even the magma. It spread across the entire valley, encasing the Demon Sitri in ice. The demon's massive firestorm was extinguished in a split second, as if it had never existed.
Sitri, a demon of fire, was shivering.
"ROOOOAR!"
It let out its loudest, most furious roar yet. It poured every last ounce of its strength into its flames, trying to melt the ice and burn the tiny insect before it to a crisp. A massive amount of fire erupted from its body. The ice around it began to melt, but its strength was already spent.
It managed to thaw a radius of several dozen meters around itself, but the ice further out was too thick, and its magic was too weak. That small patch of clear ground was all it could manage.
It roared in fury, wreathed itself in its own weakened flames, and charged at Noah for a final, desperate melee.
Noah watched its slow advance and shook his head. "You're out of steam," he said. "Time to quiet down."
As he spoke, one after another, massive magic circles appeared in the night sky, linking together to form the shape of the Big Dipper. An immense golden light gathered within them, shining with blinding intensity.
"Receive the judgment of the Seven Stars! Celestial Magic: Seven Star Sword!"
Seven colossal pillars of light rained down from the heavens, converging on the demon. Sitri stopped its charge, crossing its arms over its head in a last-ditch effort to defend itself.
The seven pillars merged into one, and the resulting column of light expanded outward, annihilating everything it touched. It grew to a diameter of over a hundred meters before finally fading.
In its wake, it left a 100-meter-wide crater.
At the very center, the Demon Sitri lay unmoving, smoke rising from its body. Its eyes were wide open, staring blankly at the sky.
Noah had deliberately controlled the power, just enough to defeat it without disintegrating it. That would have been a complete waste. But it was possible he hadn't killed it.
Still, looking at its state, it wasn't far off.
~~~
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