—Whoosh!
Watching the flaming chains hurtle toward him, Divine moved with a thought. The two-piece claws fitted to his arm guards flipped down, wreathed in a strand of deep crimson flame.
Then Divine swung his right hand. The flame-wreathed claws collided with the flaming chains, tearing them apart like paper. At the same time, several more flaming chains continued to rush at Divine without slowing, so Divine swung both hands. Just like before, he shredded the other flaming chains one after another, and the fragments of the torn chains drifted around him like scraps of paper.
Just then, a flaming chain suddenly shot straight at Divine from the front. Divine hurriedly twisted sideways, dodging it, and the flaming chain brushed right past him.
At the same time, Divine's eyes inadvertently flicked toward Nightmare, and he found that Nightmare had made no other move. It was merely holding one hand raised flat.
"Damn it!"
Then Divine suddenly realized that Nightmare's target just now had not been him, but the nine girls hiding behind him—Honoka Kosaka and the others!
[Too late, Chosen One! Since you're so determined to protect them, I'll destroy them! Hahaha!]
Nightmare suddenly burst into laughter, but it saw that Divine's reaction was somewhat strange. He was not as frantic as it had imagined. Instead, he looked almost unconcerned.
"So that's your move? Heh! That's pretty damn low," Divine said, mocking Nightmare.
But Nightmare did not get angry at Divine's taunt. Instead, it looked at him in confusion.
Is he not worried about those girls' safety?
But its question was answered very quickly.
"Guard!"
Divine spoke a single word. At the same time, the talismans that had been lying quietly on the ground on both sides of Honoka Kosaka and the others suddenly gave off a brilliant azure light.