Chapter 552: The Supermagic
The demon looked up.
The next moment, Maggie landed on it from a height that made the earth shudder.
Nightingale felt the impact through her boots. She thought—distantly, still clutching her wound—that an ordinary person crushed that way would never rise again.
“Stomp it to death!” Leaf shouted from the ground, both fists clenched.
“Bite it! Whip it with your tail!” Iffy was on her feet, voice raw with excitement.
Maggie howled in triumph and put Agatha down—then, between one breath and the next, shrank back into a small girl and sat in the dirt with the baffled expression of someone who had lost the thread of a dream.
“A Supermagic!”
Agatha’s voice cut through everything. She was already moving—a lance of ice erupted from the ground and caught the demon in the flank, sending it crashing through two trees. She followed without breaking stride, froze its feet to the earth in a casing of pale blue crystal, and turned back to shout: “Now!”
Maggie shook herself, pulled her pistol, and fired. One shot, then another, then a steady rhythm. Nightingale bit the inside of her cheek, reloaded, and let Iffy haul her upright. Together they closed the distance. The demon’s Magic Barrier flared in answer, bright against the armor—then sputtered and dimmed. The red glow in its eyes stuttered.
Then, without making contact, it roared and flung its hand in Agatha’s direction. She flew backward as though struck. The ice around the demon’s feet dissolved. It lurched upright and staggered north, seeking the tree line.
“Don’t let it go! Maggie—!”
“Let me.” Leaf had the Sigil of God’s Will in her hands—Anna’s hands had let it fall when she fainted. She had spent less power than the others; the Sigil’s stones recognized the difference. She pushed everything she had left into the frame and the woods went gold a second time.
The demon turned toward the light. It made a sound unlike any it had made before—not rage, not hunger—closer to disbelief.
The golden thunder struck.
This time it did not survive.
“Is it dead?” Nightingale’s voice came out smaller than she intended.
“Only half the armor’s left.” Maggie dragged the remnant back, tail-first. It was black and smeared and barely recognizable. “It wasn’t as tough as we thought.”
Lightning was found beneath the canopy—fallen from middling height when the demon’s black wave had robbed her of flight, slowed by branches on the way down, concussed but breathing, a lump rising above her ear. She was more upset about missing the fight than about the injury. After verifying that everyone still lived, she folded her arms and announced she would find Brian and send him back with soldiers, then was gone.
“You survived,” Agatha said. “That is remarkable.”
“Yeah.” Nightingale pressed one hand against her waist and heaved a breath. “I don’t know how I tell His Majesty that one demon put all of us on the ground.”
“No, Nightingale.” Agatha shook her head. “This wasn’t an ordinary victory. That demon was a Supermagic.”
The word fell heavy.
“A Supermagic?” Leaf asked. “What does that mean?”
“That several Senior Witches together could face a Senior Demon—but not a Supermagic. Only the Three Chiefs could meet one as equals.” Agatha paused. “The Union paid in blood to learn that.”
The witches were quiet.
“What abilities does a Supermagic have?” Iffy asked.
“It’s a title, not a specific power.” Agatha’s voice shifted to the register she used when thinking aloud. “Every Senior Demon carries multiple abilities—different from witches, who awaken into what they’re given. A demon that led assaults on Taquila for decades was once observed to develop two entirely new Magic Cyclones within a handful of years. Two new abilities in the time it takes a human child to learn to read. No one ever understood how they did it. Demons seem to take to magic the way water takes to stone—inevitably, completely. A Supermagic isn’t defined by which abilities it has but by a particular threshold: when a Senior Demon becomes powerful enough to generate effects similar to a God’s Stone.”
Nightingale heard the floor drop out from under the sentence. “It can suppress magic power?”
“Interfere with it,” Agatha corrected. “More precise. A Supermagic can push through the suppression of a God’s Stone of Retaliation. It can block or weaken magical attacks, dissolve sustained effects, interrupt power mid-use. For witches—of any kind—it is the worst possible opponent.”
“I don’t understand,” Iffy said. “How is that not a special ability?”
“Because it augments every ability the demon already has rather than adding a new one.” Agatha folded her hands. “Take Anna. If she were a Supermagic, her Blackfire would burn through the God’s Stone’s field and still hit its mark—and simultaneously, everything near the Blackfire would become an interference zone, disrupting other magic in the area. Unless her opponent were also a Supermagic.”
Nightingale was already reconstructing the fight in memory—the black hole in the demon’s palm, the total absence of light when it raised its Magic Barrier, the way she had simply stopped when it caught her through the Mist. No shimmer. No warning glow. The Sigil had struck it and it had walked out of the smoke.
She described it to Agatha and asked: “Is that why the first strike didn’t kill it?”
“Probably.” Agatha shrugged. “But I can’t be certain. I’ve never encountered a Supermagic. The Union left no record of a Sigil of God’s Will being used against one.”
“So the Three Chiefs defeated Supermagics by pure strength.”
“Exactly. Extraordinaries shine on a battlefield—to demons, they are something like what sunlight is to frost. And Transcendents are the center of that sun.” Agatha’s voice softened, just slightly. “If you had seen Alice fight, it would have stayed with you the rest of your life.”
Nightingale was quiet for a moment. “Counting the Three Chiefs, there were only three Transcendents in the entire Union. Did no witch ever evolve into something comparable to a Supermagic?”
“Not that I know of. And none will.” Agatha said it without cruelty. “Witches and demons have different natures. Any number of Mad Demons can evolve into Senior Demons over time—but no matter how long or hard we practice, most of us will never reach what Alice was. We are what we awaken into.”
Maggie had been picking through the demon’s remains with the focused attention of a bird hunting seeds. She straightened up holding a small black box. “What’s this?”
Agatha took it and tried the lid. “Locked.”
“Let me.” Nightingale looked at the box through the Mist, tracked the silhouette until it distorted, slid her fingers into the seam between states of matter, and drew out the contents.
Several stones struck the dirt, catching the light.
Chapter 552: The Supermagic
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
The demon looked up, and the next moment it was instantly stomped into the ground by Maggie. Nightingale felt that the strong impact even made the earth tremble a little.
And she thought that if it was an ordinary person, the impact would have definitely smashed its bones.
“Well done, Maggie! Stomp it to death!” Leaf said, clenching her hands into fists.
“Bite it! Whip it with your tail!” Iffy was so excited that she loudly shouted.
“Awh!”
Maggie howled cheerfully. She put Agatha down and was going to beat the demon again. Just at that moment, she uncontrollably transformed from a fierce Devilbeast back into a little girl, falling to sit on the ground, at a loss to understand what happened.
“It’s a Supermagic!”
Agatha yelled. She was the first to react. She lifted up an ice spike from under the ground, which she crashed into the demon and sent it flying out, breaking several trees.
Giving the demon no chance to catch a breath, she immediately caught up with it and froze its feet.
“Now!” she shouted back at Maggie.
Maggie came to her senses and drew a pistol, aiming and firing continuously at the frozen target. Nightingale bit her lips and reloaded her gun. She asked Iffy to help her up to her feet and then walked to join Maggie. The demon’s Magic Barrier shined on its armor, but it soon dimmed down. The red light in its eyes was flickering on and off.
Suddenly, it roared hoarsely and threw its hand toward Agatha and sent her flying backward without even touching her. At the same time, the ice crystals around its feet melted instantly. It jumped up and staggered, wanting to escape.
“Don’t let it go!” Agatha shouted, “Maggie!”
“Let me stop it!” Leaf grabbed the Sigil of God’s Will from Anna’s hand. She had not consumed very much magic power in the previous fight, though she was severely injured when she was forcibly pulled out from her Heart of Forest form. During their regular tests, she was able to light up four stones of the Sigil, and now, immediately after she injected all her magic power into the Sigil, a bright golden light lit up the woods once again. The demon turned around and let out a strange sound in disbelief.
The golden thunder struck the demon again.
This time, he did not survive it.
…
“The demon is… dead?” Nightingale asked in a weak voice.
“Only half of its armor is left behind!” Maggie answered while dragging the “enemy” back. If it was not for the delicate glyph on the edge of the armor, it would be hard to believe that this charred mass was the demon itself. Apparently, it was not as strong as they had imagined.
Lightning was found, too.
When the demon released the black waving, she was affected and lost her magic power temporarily. She had fallen from above, hit her head on a
branch and fainted. Luckily, as she had not been high up in the sky and the thick branches and leaves of the trees had acted as a cushion to her fall, she was not heavily injured, except for a bump on her head.
However, she still looked upset and disappointed because she missed the fight. After making sure that everybody was alright, she said, “I’ll inform Brian of the situation here and ask him to send someone to fetch you.”
“You survived. That’s a miracle” Agatha exclaimed.
“Yeah, I don’t know how to tell His Majesty that all of us got beat up by just one demon.” Nightingale heaved a sigh, enduring the pain.
“No, Nightingale. This isn’t an ordinary victory. The enemy is a Supermagic!” Agatha shook her head and continued, “Maybe several Senior Witches could confront a Senior Demon, but they could never defeat a Supermagic. Only the Three Chiefs of the Union could compete with it.”
“Only the Transcendents?” Leaf asked, frowning.
“Yes.” Agatha confirmed and added, “The Union paid with blood for this lesson.”
“What kind of ability does a Supermagic have?”
“Supermagic is just a title, instead of a certain kind of ability.” Agatha explained. “Every Senior Demon has many kinds of abilities, and different from witches, demons don’t have to get their abilities through awakening. Someone in the Union once witnessed a Senior Demon, who had led the enemy to attack Taquila many times, that evolved two different Magic Cyclones inside its body in merely several years. That means it gained two more abilities during that time. No one knew how it did that. The demons seem to be more naturally talented than us in manipulating the magic power.
A Supermagic doesn’t refer to a demon with certain kinds of Magic Cyclones, but refers to an extremely powerful Senior Demon, who can release power to create the effects similar to those of a God’s Stone.”
The last sentence from Agatha made Nightingale’s heart skip a beat. “You mean… it can prohibit magic power?” she asked.
“To be more accurate, it interferes with magic power.” Agatha corrected her and continued, “The Supermagic is able to break through the defense of the God’s Stone of Retaliation and can obstruct or diminish the magic power attacks. They can also dispel or stop magic power effects. They’re really tough opponents for all the witches.”
“I… don’t understand.” Iffy was confused and asked, “Why is that not a special ability?”
“It’s not,” Agatha answered. “Take Anna for example. If she was a Supermagic, her Blackfire will remain effective even under the influence of the God’s Stone of Retaliation, and at the same time, the place affected by Blackfire will become an interference region. That means, the other magic power effects near the Blackfire will be wiped out unless Anna’s opponent is another Supermagic.”
What Agatha said immediately reminded Nightingale of the demon’s lightless black hole. She recalled the whole process of the previous battle, and remembered that there was only the dim shadow around the demon when she hit on its Magic Barrier and was caught by it in the Mist. She was surprised to find that the demon attacked as if it was the Sigil of God’s Will, giving out absolutely no magic power light during the fighting.
She told Agatha what she had seen through the Mist during the fight and then asked, “That’s why the first strike of the Sigil of God’s Will didn’t kill it?”
“Probably,” Agatha shrugged and said. “But I’m not sure. This is the first time for me to encounter this kind of demon and the Union left no record about using the Sigil of God’s Will to fight against a Supermagic.”
“So the Chiefs of the Union depended completely on their own power to defeat the Supermagic?”
“Exactly,” Agatha said while nodding. “Extraordinaries are really powerful, especially when they wear the God’s Stone of Retaliation. They shine like
the sun in the battlefields. Wherever they go, demons would melt like the snow in the spring, and Transcendents are the center of the sun. If you could see Lord Alice in a fight, you would be overwhelmed by her power.”
Hearing that, Nightingale was deep in thought, “Counting all the Chiefs of the Union, there were only three Transcendents.” She then asked, “No witch of the Union had become a Supermagic before?”
“As far as I know, no,” Agatha answered, “and no one will. Witches and demons have fundamental differences. Numerous demons can evolve into Mad Demons, but not many of us can become someone like Alice, no matter how hard we practice.”
Maggie, who kept fiddling with the demon’s armor, found a little black box from the remains of the demon and said, “Look! What’s this?”
Agatha took the box and tried to open it. “It’s locked.”
“Let me try.” Nightingale observed the square metal box through the Mist and when its silhouette was distorting, she put her fingers into it and grabbed the contents out of the box.
Several glittering stones fell out of the air.