Devil Bringer

Blinding flames shot into the sky as Yuri brought the Red Queen crashing down at Cain's head.

Cain's pupils contracted slightly. He gathered the copious blood pooled in his wounds and formed a massive blood crystal around himself.

With a deafening boom, the plummeting blood crystal struck the ground like a meteor, blasting a huge crater into it.

A web of cracks covered the crystal's surface, with a deep gash where it had taken the slash head-on.

The crystal shattered the moment it hit the ground. The violent impact shook Cain's insides, making him cough up a mouthful of blood.

His injuries were healing rapidly, but even that couldn't keep up with Yuri's relentless, thuggish pursuit. It was completely unreasonable!

Cain realized that if he kept using the same fighting style he had three hundred years ago, there was no way he could beat that crazy kid.

That guy was no mage. He was more like a berserker.

In truth, although Cain was a demon, his own ability, Blood Source, was better suited to a "mage." So even though his vitality as a demon was considerable, he wasn't very good at close combat, which had allowed Yuri to suppress him so badly earlier that he could barely fight back.

But he had anticipated this possibility and had prepared a trump card for himself.

A trump card that completely abandoned his original fighting style to focus on strengthening his close-combat abilities.

If his previous magic was the kind released outward, then this magic was devoted entirely to strengthening him from within.

But his demonic body hadn't been tough enough to withstand the strain of the move, so he had kept the spell sealed.

After obtaining Qliphoth's power, however, that problem had also been solved.

Not only had his demonic body become tougher, but his demonic power was now inexhaustible.

Now he could definitely handle this spell—Bloodborne Berserk.

Cain's already towering body swelled like a balloon, growing to nearly seven meters tall in an instant.

At the same time, fine black scales began growing across his skin, clearly a characteristic of Qliphoth's power.

Then he dropped to the ground, going from standing on two feet to moving on all fours. He looked just like a berserk beast.

His body began to heat up, and as it neared its limit, the scales opened to release scalding steam.

This was the effect of using magic to accelerate his blood flow.

Although doing so put tremendous strain on his body and rendered his other blood magic unusable... it also gave him unparalleled speed and explosive power for a short time!

"Roar!"

The deafening roar blew away the surrounding smoke.

Cain's scarlet eyes stared fixedly at Yuri, like a hunting beast quietly waiting for its prey to reveal an opening.

Then, at a certain moment, he suddenly shot forward.

Thanks to the tremendous boost from Bloodborne Berserk and his four-legged gait, Cain was now far faster than before.

Every step his enormous body took tore up the ground and kicked up clouds of dust. The fierce wind he raised even blew the loose hair over Yuri's forehead.

In an instant, Cain reached Yuri. His terrifying claws glinted coldly as he swung them down without hesitation.

If that blow landed cleanly, even Yuri's physique wouldn't let him shrug it off.

But just then, a fist shimmering with azure light struck Cain in the face first, moving even faster.

"What?!"

Cain flew backward even faster than he had come!

He lay on the ground, blood flowing from his mouth and nose. Before he could even process what had happened, a hand suddenly seized his left leg.

The next moment, the world spun before his eyes. Then he heard the rush of wind by his ears, and the scenery began receding rapidly again. He had been hurled away once more.

A figure quickly caught up to him, and Yuri's slightly fierce grin appeared before his eyes again. Unlike before, one of Yuri's arms no longer looked human.

Azure radiance coiled around his right hand, dyeing his fingers and palm blue. Dark red scales covered his forearm and the back of his hand, with blue markings showing through the gaps.

"What's that?!"

Surging magic power gathered within it, making Cain's eyes widen. A word sprang unbidden into his mind—Devil Trigger.

But how was that possible? Yuri was only a half-Devil. How could he activate Devil Trigger of his own accord?!

There was no time for Cain to think it over. Yuri slammed his face into the ground, then sped through the dense forest, dragging him by the horn on his forehead.

Tree after tree snapped, and a winding trench was plowed through the ground.

Only when Cain could barely feel his own facial features did light finally return to his vision.

But by the time he came to his senses, he had somehow already risen high into the air.

The scenery below had become tiny, and only a few large letters that someone had written on the ground were clearly visible.

"FUCKYOU"

Cain read them aloud instinctively, then saw the letters rapidly growing larger in his eyes.

"!!!"

Boom!

The ground shook violently in the area where Erza stood.

She looked curiously at Yuri's transformed arm and asked Griffon beside her, "What's that?"

"The Devil Bringer." Usually a chatterbox, Griffon was unusually concise, as though he didn't much want to talk to her.

"The Devil Bringer?" Erza asked, puzzled.

At first, he had thought Yuri was a mage who fought with magic weapons, just like him.

After learning that Griffon had made a contract with Yuri, she had thought Yuri was a summoning mage like a Celestial Spirit Mage.

But now... no, there didn't seem to be any rule saying a person couldn't learn several kinds of magic. Most mages simply chose one as their primary magic.

Still, Yuri was about her age, yet he possessed such strength and mastery of magic. He really was impressive.

Erza marveled inwardly.

She had been too far away to hear Cain and Yuri's earlier conversation, so she didn't know that Yuri was a demon. She simply assumed this was some kind of rare special magic.

After all, there were so many kinds of magic in this world: ordinary magic, Lost Magic, Ancient Magic...

The thick-skinned Erza didn't see anything strange about it.

In truth, although Yuri usually fought with magic weapons, that was merely a way of fighting and couldn't be considered his magic.

And although Griffon was nominally his contracted demon, he was more like a companion who spent every day with him than a combat unit summoned only to help in battle.

Yuri's true magic was actually the Sparda bloodline within him... If it had to be given a name, perhaps it could be called "Devil."

There were differences between half-Devils and pureblood demons, after all.

For a pureblood demon, Devil Trigger was simply a return to their original form and the recovery of their own power.

For a half-Devil, however, Devil Trigger was invariably an irreversible erosion, a disaster.

The effect of this magic was to help him, as a half-Devil, gradually gain control over Devil Trigger, obtaining demonic power while retaining his human will.

Yuri called the form a half-Devil assumed after successfully mastering Devil Trigger "Devil Trigger."

But the Devil Trigger he had mastered so far was incomplete, which was why only one arm had changed. Even so, it was enough to astonish Cain, a true demon.

A single arm had given him such a terrifying boost in power. It was easy to imagine how powerful Yuri would be if, one day, he could achieve a true full-body Devil Trigger.