[Tortoise Shield]

[Diamond Great Wall]

[Sun Goddess Protection]

[Aegis Fortress]

[Clamshell Barrier]

[Purple Orchid]

[Space Blockade]

[…]

Kalya and the girls in the cottage gave everything they had to block the giant finger that suddenly appeared from the sky. The sense of danger the girls felt from that single finger was terrifying. They knew that they would die if they didn’t do their best to withstand the attack.

Boooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmm!

A tremendous shockwave was created as the giant finger clashed with their defense. The trees in the area flew and turned the place into a wasteland instantly. Smoke and dust covered the entire area and made it difficult for the girls to check the current situation.

“Are we safe?” Princess Freya asked.

“I didn’t expect us to be able to withstand such an attack!” Princess Aishia said in disbelief.

“No! We shouldn’t be able to block attacks like that! I’ve fought the Archaic Knight, and his attacks are much weaker than this, but I’m completely powerless against him!” Azalia quickly refuted their words.

“In other words…” Clara said in a trembling voice, and the girls had a bad feeling about what had happened. They turned their eyes to the sky above the cottage and saw a small shadow hovering there. Not long after, the smoke and dust disappeared and revealed the accurate figure of the shadow.

“Ziel!”

“Ken!”

Kalya and the girls screamed hysterically, and tears spilled from their eyes when they saw the man they loved hovering above them in tattered clothes and bodies covered in wounds.

The girls intended to approach Ziel and check on him. They panicked, sad and worried when they saw his condition like that. But before they could do so, Ziel opened his mouth and stopped them. The girls didn’t listen to him because they wanted to help him. Upon seeing that, Ziel was forced to release his power to suppress them.

“Stop! Don’t come near me, and stay where you are!” Ziel shouted from deep within his lungs. He stopped the girls not without reason, as he felt the next attack was coming. Ziel also quickly teleported Princess Cordelia and Princess Irene to the location of Kalya and the others so he could easily protect them.

The girls trembled when they heard Ziel’s voice and their feet suddenly landed firmly on the ground without being able to move an inch. They wanted to ask Ziel why he kept them on the ground, but the girls immediately found out when they looked up at the sky.

Two giant fingers appeared from the sky and headed toward Ziel and the girls. The sense of danger the girls felt from that was many times more terrifying than the previous attack.

The girls wanted to warn Ziel, but a gray barrier suddenly appeared and covered the area around them. Kalya and the others quickly realized that Ziel had shared his power to protect them.

“Please stop it, Ziel! You don’t have to think about us! You have to focus on your opponent!” Kalya screams hysterically.

“Break it for me!” Azalia used all her strength and tried to escape Ziel’s pressure, but her efforts ended in vain. He was suppressed not only by Ziel’s power but also by the two giant fingers in the sky.

“You can’t do that, Ken! It would be dangerous if you only used half your strength against that attack! You don’t need to protect us!!” Clara bursts into tears and asks Ziel to ignore them. But Ziel couldn’t do that, and he decided to face the attack alone, even with only half his strength.

Ziel’s face became grave when he saw the giant finger. He had tasted that attack before, and he was sure it was far more terrifying than any continent guardian’s attack he had ever fought.

After creating a barrier for the girls, Ziel released all his remaining power and took out his black sword. He compressed his strength and the three guardians of the continent into his weapon.

[Blade of Annihilation]

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmm!

Ziel’s attacks and the two giant fingers clashed and created a terrifying explosion in the sky. The space around the place collapsed, and the shockwave blew away everything in the forest area. The impact extended to the academy buildings and the city center. If not for the barrier covering the site, the entire city and academy would have disappeared from the territory of the Neigal Kingdom.

Ziel was also affected by the clash of the two attacks, and he slammed into the ground so hard that it made a massive crater with him at the center.

“Cough!” Ziel vomited blood, and many bones in his body were broken. He couldn’t help but smile bitterly after recalling the Archaic Knight’s last message before disappearing. He said that the final continent guardian was much stronger than him. Even if the three guardians of the continent attacked together, they still wouldn’t be able to defeat that creature.

Now Ziel knew that the Archaic Knight’s words had not been exaggerated back then. Instead, he still underestimated it because the power of the last continent guardian was far more terrifying than the Archaic Knights had said.

“Ziel!!” Kalya was crying and struggling to break free from the oppression created by Ziel. The other girls tried to do the same.

“Combine our strength to escape this pressure!” Azalia said to Kalya and the others. Her feelings were messed up after seeing Ziel’s condition. She must immediately break free and save the man she loves.

“We got it!” The girls answered in unison. They unleashed their full power simultaneously and fused them. After that, the girls used it to counter the oppressive aura that Ziel gave them.

Because Azalia and the others were overexerting themselves, every pore on their bodies was bleeding. Even so, the girls didn’t care, and their efforts paid off.

They managed to escape the suppression of Ziel’s power and break out of the barrier. They ran with their weak and injured bodies. But none of the girls complained. Even Princess Cordelia and Princess Irene were among them, and their determination was not inferior to the others.

“Ziel!”

“Ken!”

Kalya and Azalia arrived earlier than the other girls and immediately checked Ziel’s condition. But when they saw his state, the faces of the two darkened. Just a single strike from that giant finger could hurt Ziel that badly. Azalia and Kalya could imagine how strong the creature was, and it scared them.

“How is Ken’s condition? Is the wound that bad?” Clara asked worriedly, and the tears didn’t stop flowing from her eyes.

“Quickly give him a healing potion!” Lilith said frantically and took a potion from her space storage. But before Kalya and Azalia could reply to the girls’ words, Ziel got up and spoke.

“What are you doing here? Didn’t I ask you to stay where you were?” Ziel said anxiously. If they broke out of the barrier he created, it would automatically disappear, and they were currently wholly defenseless. If another giant finger fell from the sky, Ziel would have difficulty blocking it with his current state.

“We can’t just sit back and watch you keep protecting us like that! Don’t you know how we feel when we see you hurt!?” Kalya replied while sobbing.

“How could we stand there while you had a life-and-death battle with that creature!? We can’t do that! We’d rather die with you than be a useless woman who can only be a burden to you!” Azalia shouted sadly. She didn’t want to lose the love she had just got.

Clara and the girls nodded in agreement with Azalia. Her words represent their feelings. Ziel fell silent when he heard that, and his heart ached when he saw the girls covered in blood from their pores. Then he sighed, and his expression softened.

“I’m fine. You don’t have to worry. Did you forget that my body can auto-regenerate? Besides, you are not a burden to me but the important family I must protect.” Ziel said and smiled at the girls. But then his face turned serious.

“Therefore, the most important thing right now is for you to leave here immediately. It looks like he’s not only targeting me, Lilith, or Azalia but all of you as well. It would be best if you didn’t have to face such a horrible creature. I was sure I wasn’t his opponent from the previous clashes. He is the final guardian of the continent, and the power I can feel from him is immeasurable.” Ziel said in a deep voice.

“No! Whoever your opponent is, we will never leave you here alone and put yourself in danger for us!” Kalya stubbornly refuted Ziel’s words, and the girls supported her words.

“Whatever happens, We will stay with you, in joy or sorrow and life or death.” Azalia said seriously.

“You…” Ziel was speechless when faced with the stubbornness of the girls. But then he sighed and slowly stood up with the help of Kalya and Azalia.

“I’m lucky to have known you. In that case, we will face that creature together. Live or die, we will always be together and inseparable.” Ziel smiled, then turned his eyes to Princess Cordelia and Princess Irene.

“You’d better get out of here. That creature will not come after you because you have nothing to do with this. I don’t want to involve you in this matter because it’s dangerous.” Ziel warned the two Princesses.

“No!” Princess Cordelia and Princess Irene replied.

“We have been involved in this matter since we came with you to this place!” Princess Cordelia said firmly.

“She’s right! We will never leave you! We are not cowards!” Princess Irene added.

“But you have no reason to stay in this place and get involved in this matter. You better get out of here as soon as possible before the next attack comes.” Ziel didn’t want to get the two princesses involved with the continent’s guardian. He can understand if it is Kalya and others as they are his family. But the two girls were just his acquaintances, and Ziel couldn’t harm them.

“I have it!” Princess Cordelia and Princess Irene said in unison.

“I don’t know if you noticed it or not. But I want to stand beside you, along with Clara and the others, to face this dangerous situation!” Princess Irene said to Ziel and showed her determination.

“I also feel the same way about her. I don’t want to run away from this place and become a coward. I don’t want to be just an acquaintance to you! I want to be like those girls and be a part of your family!” Princess Cordelia boldly confessed her feelings.

The words of the two girls left Ziel speechless. Then he looked at Clara and the others, who smiled when they heard the two princesses’ words.

“Did you know about this before?” Ziel asked them.

The girls, except Azalia, nodded. After secretly interrogating the two girls, they already knew how Princess Cordelia and Princess Irena felt for Ziel. Kalya and the others were not angry when they found out about this and instead wanted to help Princess Irene and Princess Cordelia build their relationship with him.

Ziel couldn’t help but smile slightly when he got their answer. Then he looked at the two princesses and wanted to say something to them. But before he could do so, Ziel frowned and looked up at the sky. Kalya and the girls also turned their eyes in the same direction as Ziel.

“I hope you don’t regret your decision because today will probably be your last day in this world.” Ziel said when he saw the giant magic circle in the sky.

“We won’t regret it even if we have to die now.” Princess Cordelia and Princess Irene answered with determination and firmness.

“Good. I will use all my strength to ensure your safety. But we die together here if I can’t block that attack.” Ziel looked at the girls, and they responded with a smile.

“It’s coming.” Ziel said seriously, and the magic circle in the sky emitted a dazzling light and shot a giant pillar of light at Ziel and the girls.

When Ziel and the others were ready to block the attack, they suddenly could not move and were swallowed into the pillar of light. The dazzling light blinded their eyes, and when they could see again, the scene in front of them had changed.

“Where are we now?” Queen Helena muttered.

“Shouldn’t we be in the academy and get hit by that pillar of light?” Lilith looked around in confusion. The girls tried to find out what had happened, but then they realized that Ziel and Azalia had been silent since they arrived at the place.

“This is…” Ziel and Azalia said at the same time.

“Azael’s floating castle.”

“My brother’s floating castle.”