Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume3 Phase05 (section)

===Part 6===

The fist-sized hail stopped just before hitting Ayato and Henrietta. It really did stop in midair.

Something had intervened.

Escalrain could control all the world’s atmosphere and cause any meteorological disaster he lied. But the hail he had sent pouring down was still made of ice.

The wind element had indirect control, but the water element had direct control.

That made a difference.

Human magic could not reach the level of the Four Lords, but a clash between two of the Four Lords was a different matter.

If the Water Lord were here, she could indeed take control of the ice away from the Wind Lord. And she wouldn’t need a sorcery gun, so the audible range of the gunshot wouldn’t matter.

“What…just happened?”

Henrietta looked up, dumbfounded.

But Ayato viewed the crux of the issue before questioning this phenomenon.

“Miss Henrietta, right here.”

“What?”

“Strike his back. Hurry!!”

Henrietta forcefully swung down her axe-like bayonet. Splitting the thick skin was miraculous enough, so there was no way this would damage the muscle and bone within. Continuing with the same attacks wasn’t going to do significant damage.

But.

Ayato had a mean smile on his face.

“I understand your defenses now, Escalrain. The next one will end this.”

He had already raised his Linkage Plug sword.

At this last moment, a mocking air rose from all across Escalrain’s body. That seemed to prove that this was indeed a living creature. It seemed to announce that he was one of the Four Lords and thus any elemental magic the Sorcery 
Hacker hacked and used against him would be deflected.

You must not unjustly look down on demons.

But it was also wrong to place them on a pedestal.

They laughed, cried, rejoiced, raged, thought, considered, worried, and trusted. They had a mind capable of all the same things as a human mind, so there were of course demons who did good deeds and demons who did bad deeds. Even the same demon might feel sorry for a crying child at one point and find the crying shrill and irritating at another point. Anyone who said demons always did one thing or another was wrong. Just like humans did not have a single way of thinking and did not react the same way at all times.

So.

Ayato Criminaltrophy showed no mercy. He understood Escalrain’s reasons for wanting revenge, but was it really right to sit idly by and let it happen when that revenge would harm Teleria, Mamilis, and Henrietta?

No, it was not.

If he placed Escalrain’s anger and the girls’ smiles on the scales, Ayato wouldn’t hesitate to reach for one side. He would protect that side and make sure it happened. No matter what crimes he had to commit and even if it meant receiving criticism from every part of the world!!

“Take them if you can.”

He heard a low neigh.

Escalrain was pure fury to the end. In the sense that he was a tyrant whose emotions led him to abuse his power, he truly was a type of lord.

“Do you really think you can take my wings from me, Sorcery Hacker!? That arrogance will be your undoing. Just you try it. I grant you this reckless single combat with a Lord. Prove you can hack me!! You were doomed from the moment you reached the arrogant conclusion that a mere human could steal away my freedom!!!”

“Miss Henrietta.”

“?”

Ayato’s focus changed directions.

Who found it more puzzling: the straitlaced Striker or Lord Escalrain?

“''I’m counting on you.''”

He had not stabbed his Linkage Plug sword into Escalrain’s thick skin.

He had stabbed it into Henrietta’s armor and hacked that device of monster leather and tendons capable of buffing her physical abilities.

Yes, Ayato had done this before. In order to drain Henrietta’s stamina as she pursued him, he had secretly altered her armor’s parameters so she would waste her strength.

So what happened if he did the opposite – removing the excess and optimizing her movements?

And what if he switched off all of the sorcery safety devices built into the armor?

Wouldn’t that allow her to make an attack several times greater than the standard specs?

The effect was extraordinary.

The boom was louder than thunder.

The pressure pushed past the thick, thick skin and bore down on the thick nerves protected by the large, tunnel-like spine, causing the Four Lord’s great body to stagger to the side.

All of the power had passed through him.

“Vulnerabilities are always found in the enemy,” spat Ayato.

This truly was his limit.

“But trump cards are always found in your allies. Remember that, you lonely Lord.”

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