Chapter 60: Icy cage

Satan’s lips curled into a grin that stretched to its ears.  

The moment it lunged forward, brimming with obsessive madness, Sercia and Valery charged from both sides.  

Their blades sliced through the air, but Satan casually deflected their attacks with a wave of its hand.  

Spinning, it whipped its long tail in a wide arc.  

Sercia raised her sword to block, but the force sent her body airborne.  

She flipped mid-air, landing gracefully before charging again.  

Her relentless assault piqued Satan’s interest.  

It deliberately exposed itself to Sercia’s downward strike, countering with a hand swipe that neutralized her attack.  

Undeterred, Sercia gripped her sword tighter, slashing at Satan’s body repeatedly.  

“Getting rough, are we?”  

Satan taunted, intentionally taking hits while regenerating in front of her.  

Meanwhile, Valery unleashed a sword aura aimed at its tail.  

Satan parried the wedge-like strike, sending it skyward, and narrowed its eyes.  

“So obsessed with my tail? Everyone’s desperate to grab it,” it complained, feigning annoyance despite knowing their intent.  

“Reverting to my true form would be easier, but where’s the fun in that?”  

Satan’s choice to stay human-shaped was simple: the thrill of physical combat.  

Though less adept in human fighting styles, it relished the sensation of impact on its mana-hardened body.  

“You should be grateful I’m not going back to my true form!”  

Its smug declaration drew incredulous looks from Sercia and Valery.  

But it wasn’t entirely wrong.  

“How generous of you,” Sercia retorted dryly.  

“Grateful? Then show it!”  

Satan’s grin widened at her sarcasm.  

Its right hand shot forward, partially transforming into a lizard’s claw with sharp, thorn-like nails aimed at Sercia’s stomach.  

“Princess!”  

Unfazed, Sercia infused her blade with mana, severing the claws.  

She quickly stepped back, yanking out the embedded fragments and tossing them aside.  

At that moment, Mikael’s holy power enveloped her, its pure white light healing her wound completely.  

“Hmm…”  

Satan’s eyes narrowed, fixating on Mikael.  

It noticed the red-haired mage—Seth—whose arm it had torn apart earlier was also healed.  

The holy power was both alien and intriguing.  

“Regeneration? Regeneration!”  

Satan’s face lit up with glee.  

“Fascinating! Show me more!”  

Laughing maniacally, it spread its ten fingers and turned.  

Valery, seizing the moment to close in, widened his eyes as Satan’s claws slashed toward him.  

He barely dodged, his face twitching.  

‘It’s getting carried away with the wrong things,’ Rita thought, clicking her tongue.  

Satan’s excitement made it trickier for Sercia and Valery, but it was a good sign.  

The more it reveled in violence, the more it craved it in human form.  

As long as that thrill held, it wouldn’t revert to its true form.  

‘We have to take it down today,’ Rita resolved, raising her staff.  

“Silent Waterway!”  

Droplets formed around Satan’s head as it pressed Valery.  

The bubbling water converged, trapping its head in a liquid prison.  

Satan raised a hand to tear it off, but Rita’s magic was faster.  

The water prison spread, engulfing its entire body, crushing it with immense pressure.  

Satan thrashed violently, its basic physical prowess allowing it to endure without breathing.  

Rita, watching the water erode bit by bit, calculated the time.  

‘Fifteen seconds. No, twenty. Twenty seconds is the limit.’  

As predicted, the water prison lost strength and collapsed after twenty seconds.  

Satan, shaking its wet hair, glared at Rita irritably.  

At that moment, a glint flashed beside her.  

“Ready,” Eileen said, her massive bow glowing with a radiant golden mana arrow.  

The ultimate arrow, infused with all her power, was aimed at Satan.  

“Wait until its tail is vulnerable,” Rita instructed, exchanging a glance with Eileen before raising her staff again.  

“Twisting Tendrils!”  

Satan, distracted by Sercia and Valery, scoffed at the water jets flying from its blind spot.  

Raising its reinforced tail like a shield, it easily dispelled the attack.  

It dismissed the magic as trivial, but as Rita’s spells grew stronger with each cast, scratches began to mark its prized tail.  

Satan’s eyes darted nervously.  

The black-haired mage was becoming a problem, but the two swordsmen gave it no room to focus.  

The alien archer aiming from afar added pressure.  

It could guess their plan from their waiting stance.  

“Tricky pests…”  

Irked, Satan reached out, intending to grab one as a hostage.  

But Sercia and Valery were prepared, dodging its grasp as Rita had warned them to avoid capture at all costs.  

“You little…”  

Furious, Satan lunged forward, closing the distance to Rita’s ice zone.  

“Blue Thorn of Darkness!”  

The mage trio—Blena, Seth, and Alois—shouted in unison from within the ice zone, where they’d been lying low.  

The ground rumbled, and Satan paused, turning.  

Massive ice pillars erupted from the earth, rising densely toward the sky.  

Like a cage, they enclosed a vast space.  

Satan smirked crookedly.  

“Trying to trap me? Or block my hatchlings?”  

Horizontal ice bars began connecting the pillars, forming a perfect prison.  

Laughing at the attempt, Satan leaped, clinging to the ceiling like a bat and slashing at the pillars.  

But for magic cast by three “weak” humans, it was surprisingly sturdy.  

Even its strongest punches only chipped away powder, with no sign of collapse.  

“Could it be…”  

Satan’s gaze shifted to Rita.  

Looking closer, faint mana threads extended from her to the pillars.  

“Rita! You okay?” Blena asked, elated by their success but concerned.  

Rita nodded in response.  

The giant cage was originally her spell, but maintaining it while attacking was inefficient.  

Seth’s suggestion had the mage trio cast it, with Rita supplying her mana to sustain it.  

As long as her mana flowed, the cage wouldn’t break.  

It also prevented outside intrusion.  

However, with her mana split between the cage and combat, they needed to defeat Satan quickly.  

Satan, realizing their tactic, glared.  

It saw two solutions: kill the casters or the mana supplier.  

It chose the former.  

Leaping from the ceiling, it aimed for the mages in the ice zone.  

But a crescent-shaped sword aura blocked its path.  

“What now?”  

“An impure thing dares touch a human…”  

Satan glared at the white aura that repelled it, cast by Mikael, the Saint who’d healed Sercia.  

Unfamiliar with his identity, Satan gave him a random name, sneering in displeasure.  

His aura was weaker than the others’, so Satan, licking its lips, charged again.  

Or tried to.  

“Where do you think you’re going?”  

Valery, quiet until now, surged forward with gleaming eyes.  

As Satan hastily blocked his precise tail strike, Sercia attacked next, followed by Rita’s magic.  

“Annoying tricks!”  

Irritated by the relentless barrage, Satan unfurled its black wings.  

As Sercia and Valery recoiled from the wings’ force, Satan seized the chance to reach out.  

It nearly grabbed Valery’s arm, but Sercia swiftly struck its hand with her sword’s hilt, knocking it away.  

“I said it’s annoying!”  

Enraged, Satan grabbed Sercia’s collar with its other hand.  

As Valery gasped at the Princess’s capture, Satan smirked and punched her face.  

“Feel that? Hurts, doesn’t it?”  

A stone-like thud echoed, and Satan cackled.  

But Sercia, raising her head, was unscathed.  

Her defiant grin made Satan grimace.  

“Ugh… too sturdy for my taste.”  

Sercia smirked again, then slammed her forehead into Satan’s face.  

A louder impact rang out, and both staggered back.  

Satan, rubbing its stinging forehead, stared at her in disbelief.  

At that moment, three arrows grazed its cheek.  

Turning, it saw the alien—Eileen—who’d torn its mouth before.  

“You again?”  

Overwhelmed by the relentless attacks, Satan couldn’t counter effectively.  

Growing frustrated, it began abandoning defense.  

Even as sword auras and magic tore its skin, it charged forward, unbothered by wounds that regenerated quickly.  

The energy cost was significant, but killing the humans first would solve that.  

It targeted Rita.  

“You’re the one I need to tear apart first.”  

To Satan, Rita seemed to be orchestrating the battle.  

Eliminate her, and everything would fall into place.  

Convinced, it rushed toward her, ignoring Sercia and Valery’s attempts to stop it.  

Reaching her, Satan leaped, extending its vicious claws.  

“Surging Stream. Rising Frost!”  

Rita remained calm despite the imminent threat.  

Multiple water jets and reverse icicles briefly disrupted Satan’s movements.  

As it swung its tail to shatter the magic, Rita transformed her staff into a spear.  

“Frozen Valor!”  

She met the descending Satan head-on.  

It grabbed her spear, applying brute force, but instead of breaking, the spear grew harder, freezing its hand.  

Using mana to thaw its hand, Satan pressed her with its legs and tail.  

Rita countered like a warrior, defending and using mana to shield herself in critical moments.  

Her blue cloak intermittently activated defensive effects.  

‘It can’t block continuous hits? Or is there a limit to the impact it can absorb?’  

As Rita pondered her cloak’s newfound effects, Satan grew frustrated that even she wouldn’t fall easily.  

Then it noticed the silence behind.  

Turning, it saw Sercia and Valery had fallen back.  

Satan scoffed, doubting they’d left for a one-on-one duel, when a low voice reached its ears.  

“Glacier’s Breath.”  

White frost spread from Rita’s feet.  

Satan, recognizing the spell, smirked.  

“That won’t work on me.”  

It stomped, shattering the ice.  

As fragments scattered, Rita struck the ground with her spear.  

The flying shards wrapped around Satan, clinging to its body.  

Caught off guard, Satan became a snowman.  

“Silent Waterway!”  

A water prison formed around its head, rapidly freezing.  

Satan, trapped in the icy cage, panicked.