chsdbacks Page 180
Page 180
He opened the box in front of him, and inside lay not the familiar golden teardrop, but a ring burning with black flames.
[Ring of Black Flame]
A powerful magical item that can greatly amplify fire magic and imbue it with properties such as corrosion and curse.
"We will crush him completely in the way he least expects!"
Leval put on the ring, and a chilling killing intent emanated from him.
"For the glory of Phoenix!"
"Yes, Lord Leval!"
The fifteen family members bowed in unison, their eyes burning with the flames of revenge.
In the broadcasting room, Cangnasi's cool voice, transmitted clearly through the magic circle, reached every corner, including the corridor where Zhou Ye and the others were.
"Distinguished guests, dear audience members."
"The next match will be a specially permitted exhibition match."
Her tone was calm and devoid of any personal emotion, as if she were reading out an ordinary announcement.
"The two teams facing off are—the Phoenix family's prodigy, Leval Phoenix!"
"And, Lady Rias Gremory's friend, the powerful man from the human realm, Mr. Zhou Ye!"
Sona paused for a moment, as if emphasizing the following supplementary explanation.
"Please proceed to the competition venue immediately and take your positions."
"Furthermore, given Mr. Zhou Ye's special status, the organizing committee and Lord Sazex have jointly decided..."
"Mr. Zhou Ye and his family are permitted to use all modern weapons during this exhibition match."
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire underworld, including both the audience seats and the VIP rooms, fell into a brief, deathly silence.
All modern weapons?
what is that?
Guns? Cannons? Or those so-called missiles of the human world?
Could that kind of thing possibly harm a top-tier demon?
Just as all the demons were confused and disdainful of this, Zhou Ye burst out laughing.
It wasn't a sneer or a mockery, but a heartfelt laugh that found the situation both absurd and hilarious.
The girls around him all looked at him.
Zhou Ye shook his head, unable to suppress the smile on his face.
He looked at Nami and the others, and said in a tone as if he had discovered some rare species:
"I take back what I said before."
"The Phoenix family isn't brainless."
"They even removed their gallbladders, so they don't know what fear is."
“Modern weapons?” Nami repeated the word, and then her eyes, which were extremely sensitive to numbers and money, suddenly lit up.
What flickered within was no longer a symbol of money, but a light that was almost one of pity.
Mercy for an enemy on the verge of bankruptcy.
"Boss!" She clapped her hands excitedly, her voice rising an octave, "What are they doing? This is official certification, they're giving us money!"
"Allowing us to use modern weapons? Is this a sure-win clause added specifically to ensure our victory, in case we can't win?"
Nami angrily pounded her head.
"If I had known about this, I should have borrowed money from loan sharks! I should have mortgaged everything I could!"
"Calm down, Nami."
Gil Valentine held her down, but a cold smile curled at the corner of the former STARS elite's lips.
She looked at Zhou Ye, her azure eyes filled with the scrutiny of a professional.
"So, the rules now allow us to use asymmetric force for a dimensional reduction attack. This proposal is quite interesting."
817 Her words were calm, but the words "asymmetry" and "dimensional reduction attack" left Rias and Akeno, who were standing next to her, completely confused, yet they instinctively felt a chill.
"Dimensional reduction attack? Jill, your choice of words is still so elegant."
Nanri Kaori clenched her fist with a "crack," and the smile on her face was full of violent beauty.
Why make it so complicated!
She looked at Rias and Akeno Himejima, who both looked bewildered, grinned, and revealed a set of white teeth.
"What I mean is that those winged demons have absolutely no idea what the words 'modern weapons' really mean!"
Nanri Kaori's voice was filled with bloodthirsty excitement.
"Did they think we'd pull out pistols? Or submachine guns from the movies? At worst, we'd have man-portable rocket launchers, anti-aircraft missiles, or even outdated mobile weapons like tanks. We wouldn't win anyway, so we might as well be more generous and avoid being accused of making excuses if we lost."
Little did they know, the boss's crew of mechanical knights were more than capable of crushing and killing these small fry.
"Don't scare them, Rika-nee."
Kasumigaoka Utaha crossed her arms and said calmly, "Using that kind of thing will make us the target of everyone's attacks."
"and,"
She looked at Zhou Ye, her eyes sparkling with intelligence.
"It's too easy for them to use that kind of weapon, boss. The instantaneous destruction of the body is far less interesting than the complete mental collapse."
"This is the first battle of my life for both Miko and me."
Yotsuya Miko nodded in agreement. If they relied on their boss's mechanical Honkai Beast to win, wouldn't their training have been for nothing?
Saeko Busujima remained silent throughout.
She simply stroked the hilt of her knife gently, her purple eyes filled with an intense, unyielding longing.
She still prefers to use the blade to feel the sensation of an enemy's bones breaking.
Looking at his group of girls who were so eager to try it out, as if they wanted to scatter the Phoenix family's ashes, Zhou Ye sighed helplessly.
"All right."
He clapped his hands, interrupting the increasingly dangerous "pre-battle mobilization."
"Don't make any promises you can't keep, or they'll be too scared to go on stage."
Zhou Ye turned around and strolled leisurely toward the competition venue.
"Let's go collect the money."
Chapter 149 Zhou Ye VS Leval Phoenix
The competition venue was still the familiar mirror space of Kuoh Academy.
As the light and shadow shifted, when Zhou Ye and his group were teleported to their destination, they found themselves standing on the rooftop of the old school building where Riesel Phoenix had previously been.
In the distance, on the roof of the academy's main teaching building, Leval Phoenix and his fifteen elite retainers stood motionless like statues.
The positions of the two players have been switched exactly with those of Rias in the previous match.
"How thoughtful of them, they even specially changed our location to a more auspicious spot." Nami stretched and gazed at the opposite position.
"Boss, look, isn't the view over there much better than ours? Let's choose that place next time."
Zhou Ye ignored her rambling; his attention was entirely focused on the opposing team.
Unlike Riesel's group, who seemed to be attending a party, Leval's group stood ramrod straight, their aura restrained, yet the palpable sense of menace they exuded could be clearly felt across the entire campus.
They didn't come here to compete; they came here to kill.
"It seems that this opponent is at least mentally sound," Gil Valentine remarked calmly, arms crossed.
“Normal? I doubt it.” Kasumigaoka Utaha scoffed, adjusting glasses that weren’t even real. “Would a person with a sound mind agree to a suicide clause that allows the use of modern weapons? They have no idea what they’re facing.”
Inside the broadcasting room, the cool yet authoritative voice of Gurefia Luciferus resounded throughout the space through the amplification magic circle.
"Both teams are in position."
"Exhibition match – Leval Phoenix vs. Zhou Ye's team!"
"Now, the game begins!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Leval on the other side moved.
There was no probing, no detours, and no pre-war declarations.
"boom--!"
A golden flame, far more powerful and refined than that of Riesel, shot into the sky from his body!
The flames were no longer a violent outburst, but were precisely controlled and compressed, eventually condensing into a giant firebird with a wingspan of over 100 meters!
Every feather of the firebird was clearly visible, and its golden pupils burned with a will to destroy everything.
It let out a long, piercing cry that seemed to split the clouds and shatter the rocks, trailing a long, fiery tail, and shot towards the old school building where Zhou Ye was located with unparalleled speed!
A scorching wind swept in, and the glass of the entire old school building instantly warped and shattered due to the high temperature.
"Tsk tsk, compared to his idiot brother, this move is indeed much more steady, and the timing is just right."
Faced with this devastating attack, Zhou Ye even had the leisure to make a comment.
Of the girls behind him, only Saeko Busujima remained full of fighting spirit; the others didn't even bother to adopt a defensive stance.
Just as the enormous fiery bird was about to crash into the old school building.
Zhou Ye simply raised his right hand and waved it lightly in front of him.
There were no magical fluctuations, no light effects, and not even any sound.
The magnificent firebird seemed to have been wiped away by an invisible hand, along with all the light and heat it emitted, vanishing without a trace in an instant.