"Hahahahahaha!! This is so much fun!! Finally, something that can last more than a few seconds against me!!"

Ria and Auren were trying their best to keep Mia and Marcus occupied while they waited for Xadi to be defeated. These two were the biggest threats of the demon slayer's group, but as long as they could take advantage of Mia's compet.i.tive nature and stopped her from moving anywhere else they would be ok.

The small girl with a terrifying smile was constantly banging her blades trying to destroy the barrier as if she was trying to find out how long it could last.

She finally took a small break after realizing she wasn't making any progress.

"Looks like this thing is really st.u.r.dy..."

"..."

Ria was in silence trying to focus on keeping the barrier strong so it could withstand Mia's attacks. However, she was also afraid that if she kept at this pace Mia would get bored and return to the battlefield. Ria needed to find a way to strike back and prove she could be a challenge to Mia.

"Finally gave up little sis?"

Mia released a menacing grin.

"I wonder... You look like you're starting to get a little tired..."

"..."

Mia was right. Even though the barrier was keeping up with the non-stop attacks, Ria was starting to feel her body becoming more tired by the minute.

Marcus as a blade held much more power than Ria expected. Keeping that barrier standing was taking everything she had.

"I wonder how many more swings it would take for you to turn off this barrier..."

"..."

"But just bas.h.i.+ng until you got tired would be boring... Let's try something else!!"

"!!??"

And as she said that, Mia vanished using the boosted speed provided by Marcus and his blessed energy.

Ria tried to follow her movements but she could not trace their positions no matter where she looked.

"Ria!!! Watch out!!!"

While she continued to try and find them, Auren yelled behind her and she noticed Mia on the top of her barrier, once again unleas.h.i.+ng a wave of attacks to break it down.

"What is she doing??"

Ria was confused as to why her sister decided to change her position, but then she realized.

A cracking sound was released and both Auren and Ria could see a small wound on the barrier from the place Mia was striking.

"Oh no!!!"

Mia vanished again and started to attack in another place, this time she was right behind them. Once again, she kept hitting the barrier with her blades and small cracks started to open.

"Auren!! Help me reinforce the barrier!!"

"On it!!"

Ria then realized her sister's plan. She understood that Ria needed to focus on a specific spot on the barrier to keep it from breaking. But if Mia continued to run around and attacked the barrier on several different spots, Ria wouldn't be fast enough to reinforce it, allowing the small twin-ponytail girl to open multiple wounds in it.

"She is going to break the barrier at this rate!! We need to think of something!!"

"I'll hold the barrier! You try to attack her with a s.h.i.+eld!"

"On it!!"

Ria followed Auren's command and the two switched places. This time, Auren was supporting the barrier while Ria would try and focus on offense.

She created three golden transparent s.h.i.+elds and threw them at Mia's position.

"Oh!! s.h.i.+ny!!"

Mia spotted the floating s.h.i.+elds flying towards her direction and used Marcus to parry them. She a.s.sumed the s.h.i.+elds would be sliced in half but they were simply repelled and throw to another direction.

[What are these things made off?? I never saw any material that I couldn't cut!]

"Calm down darling... We still have the advantage here!"

Ria heard that comment and glared at her sister.

"You sure about that?"

She extended her hands to manipulate the three s.h.i.+elds and created a coordinated attack pattern against Mia.

The little girl saw the golden objects chasing after her again, but this time, instead of trying to cut them, she simply jumped on top of each of them as if she was playing hopscotch and easily dodged the attack.

"Dang it!!"

"Haha!! Better try again big sis!! You'll never catch me at this rate!"

"Same to you little sis! You'll never breach through our barrier at this rate!"

"Oho!! Is that a challange?? I LOVE challanges!!!"

Ria continued to try and smack Mia with her floating s.h.i.+elds but the girl was just too fast to be caught. She would every now and then use her katanas to try creating openings on Auren's barrier and eventually, more cracks started to appear. Ria saw the dire situation she was in and started to worry.

"This is bad... We are not making any progress... She will end up destroying the barrier in no time!!"

"Should we use a scar to escape?"

"We cant!! We need to keep her busy here or she will go and help Xadi."

"But how long can we keep this up??"

Ria was so distracted talking to Auren that she almost had a heart attack when she heard the huge sound of Mia's blades colliding with the barrier right in front of her.

"Yeah, big sis!! How long can you keep this up??"

"Grrr..."

"If you want you can just run away like you always do... That's all your good for after all... But don't worry though!! No matter how far you run, I'll always find you!!"

"You really are the world's worst sister... I can't believe we are related..."

"Aaaawww... Big sis doesn't like me? Even though I have so much love to give?"

Mia raised her blades into the air and glared at Ria with bloodl.u.s.t in her eyes and a wide smile on her face.

"Here... Let me give you some love!!"

She swung down her katanas on a wide arc and finally managed to break the barrier. She used so much force during the impact that Ria and Auren were sent flying backward.

The two managed to land on the snow safely but they could see Mia approaching at a crazy speed. Auren watched the enemy approaching and began to despair.

"Ria!! We need to escape!! Now!!!"

"Not yet!! Not until Evlin wakes up!!"

"She's going to kill us!!!"

Ria glared at the incoming Mia and mastered all of her power on the tip of her hands.

"Like h.e.l.l she will!!!"

She released all of her energy to create not a barrier but another s.h.i.+eld. A much larger and powerful s.h.i.+eld. The object had such a ma.s.sive size that it could be easily mistaken for a wall.

"What the...??"

Mia was caught by surprise and instantly tried to dodge out of the way from the giant golden wall rus.h.i.+ng towards her, but the moment she did so, Ria created another giant wall of the same size.

"Ugh!!"

The girl tried to dodge it again, but once she turned her field of vision she spotted a third wall already waiting for her. She tried to move backwards but was stopped by yet another wall.

Mia realized that Ria was trying to trap her in a box. She was surrounded by four gigantic golden walls of energy on every side. With nowhere left to go, she started to climb the box by leaping between the walls and trying to escape from the top.

"Oh no, you don't!!"

Ria saw her sister trying to break free and created a fifth wall to close her box, managing to successfully trap Mia inside of it.

The ponytail kid accepting her fate landed on the snow inside of the box and looked at her sister.

"Not bad..."

"..."

Ria couldn't speak. Holding together five s.h.i.+elds this big was killing her on the inside. If she even tried to say a word the whole thing might end up collapsing.

Mia poked the walls with her finger as she was curious to find out what it was made of.

"Looks like you won this one big sis... I don't think even darling can break through this one..."

"..."

"But you do know once you run out of power there is nothing you can do to keep me from cutting you into pieces right??"

"..."

"So I will just stay here and wait until you tire yourself out... I give you about ten minutes at best..."

"..."

While Mia was busy engaging in talking with her older sister, she noticed that another s.h.i.+eld was created inside of the box.

"Huh!!?? Six s.h.i.+elds?? You really like to push yourself huh?"

"That's not hers... Its mine!"

"!!"

Mia was shocked when she realized Auren was holding his arms in the direction of the sixth s.h.i.+eld.

"See if you can dodge this one!"

A seventh and eighth s.h.i.+eld were created and they all started to fall on top of Mia inside of the box.

Anyone else would look at that situation and start panicking, but Mia simply laughed her lungs out as if someone had just given her the best birthday present of her life.

"Hahahahahahahah!!! This is just perfect!! Big sis, you and baldy really are the best!!! I love you both!!!"

The three s.h.i.+elds created by Auren dropped like meteors on top of Mia and a huge explosion was created inside of the energy box.

Ria couldn't hold it in any longer and she finally dropped the five walls after a.s.suming her sister was finished. She landed on her knees and started to breathe heavily. Auren came to her side and tried to heal her.

"Ria!! Ria, are you ok!??"

"Just... Tired... Did we get her??"

The two watched as a pile of snow started to crumble from the impact. Ria used all her power to keep Mia imprisoned and Auren used all his strength to smash her with the most powerful s.h.i.+eld he could create.

The two had no energy left to keep fighting so they desperately needed for Mia to be down.

"Hahaha..."

"!!!" x 2

But all their hopes started to crumble as a small giggling sound started to hover the air.

"Finally I get to use this!!!"

The two saw as a new being was formed in the place where Mia used to be. She was still a small girl with twin ponytails, but her katanas were completely gone and her entire body was drenched in silver color.

"Oh, no..."

Auren watched in horror. He knew what that was. The same skill that Marceus would perform only with his closest partners. A skill so powerful that he only managed to use it with Lilith and Daren.

"You two have no idea how long I've waited for the chance to use this power... No demons ever provided me with a challenge big enough to resort to this ability!!!"

Mia had fused with Marcus.

Auren instinctively formed another s.h.i.+eld but Mia simply rushed with an absurd speed and shattered into pieces.

"Gaaaahhh!!"

"Kyaaahhhh!!"

The impact was so powerful that both Ria and Auren were sent flying. They landed on the snow and observed as Mia slowly approached the two with a smile that went from ear to ear.

"You really are the best big sis!!"

Mia raised her arm and a metallic silver blade was formed out of it.

"Tell mom and dad and the rest of our sisters that I love them when you reach the afterlife!"