Alfie suppressed his emotions. He surveyed the damaged city, taking in the chaotic situation with a clear head. He mentally pictured a tactical map of Aerion... South Aerion was stabilizing under Walter's command. The East and North cities were locked in brutal stalemates.

But the West... there, the reports were fractured, chaotic, painting a picture of a single, overwhelming force pinning down a Rank 6 General. The Vulture in the South was a terrorist, sowing chaos to maximize civilian casualties. But the entity in the West... that was a siege engine, a direct threat capable of shattering their entire defensive line.

He reached a conclusion instantly. Alfie's eyes opened, sharp and decisive. He didn't need another moment of consideration - West City.

As the lanky monster overwhelmed Grant, its staff swings collapsing buildings and forcing Grant on the defensive, a powerful surge of pressure shot towards them like a cannonball.

Just as the monster was about to crush Grant, a wave of immense pressure hit the battlefield. The Demigod's arrival felt less like a person showing up and more like a final judgment. A familiar "Shooting Star"...

The creature was hurled back more than ten meters, its form tumbling violently across the ravaged earth before skidding to a halt. As it staggered to its feet, a deep, fist-shaped indentation was clearly visible on its metal staff... Alfie's brow furrowed slightly; this one was more formidable than the last.

"He still managed to react in time to block my attack," Alfie noted to himself with a slight frown. This monster seemed even stronger than Ipoz and Barbatos.

"General Grant! Quickly redeploy the troops to quell this terrorist event! Leave this to me!" His voice was calm but powerful, reassuring his allies and threatening his enemies.

Major General Grant, having received timely support, immediately left the battlefield, moving quickly to other locations that needed his command. The lanky monster let out a thunderous roar, filled with fury and pain. He flexed his body; the gaunt, skinny frame from moments ago was now much more sinewy and powerful. The dark muscles rippled under his grey skin, and the dangerous aura radiating from him surged abruptly.

He did not swing the metal staff immediately but raised it high into the sky. Instantly, a non-physical event began to unfold. All his aether, all his fury, seemed to be drawn in, compressed to its absolute limit at the tip of the staff. The staff's tip created a small, dense sphere. The space around it twisted and distorted unnaturally.

Alfie didn't feel a direct aether attack, but a strange "distortion." The air around the staff's tip suddenly seemed to shrink and twist. Small pebbles on the ground began to float, then were abruptly crushed into fine dust. At the same time, an invisible force pulled him towards Ronove, a pressure like an unseen mountain pressing in from all sides. The entire space within a hundred-meter radius seemed to warp; buildings began to deform, windows shattered and were pulled towards the focal point.

When the energy had been gathered to its peak, when the spatial sphere on the staff's tip seemed about to collapse in on itself, the creature swung the staff down forcefully. The swing felt as heavy as a mountain, releasing all the compressed aether at once. An eerie silence fell for an instant, the stillness right before a storm.

Then, an explosion of pure energy spread from the point of impact with great speed. It swept through everything in its path without mercy. Within a two-hundred-meter radius, trees were uprooted and shattered like crackers, buildings crumbled and turned to fine dust. The ground was brutally gouged, as if clawed by the hand of a giant god.

When the shockwave passed, it left a deep crater. The earth was pulverized, and an eerie silence fell over everything.

"Gravity Blast". This was clearly a transcendent killing move, an attack capable of gravely wounding a Rank 7 Demigod if it landed successfully. But there was nothing in the giant crater. A powerful strike releasing all its energy.

From above, a giant hand of light appeared and punched down at Ronove. He spun the metal staff in his hand, creating a defensive circle of aether. Alfie's attack only forced him to kneel slightly; the defensive layer was not yet broken.

But that was not all. Just as Ronove was focused on blocking the attack from above, the ground beneath him suddenly cracked open. In an instant, another hand of light, of similar size, delivered a staggering uppercut, a perfectly aimed strike.

The Big Masher had no time to react. He was thrown into the air, his head spinning, the world reeling. If it were an ordinary Ranker, even a Rank 6, they would have been knocked unconscious or even killed after taking such a treacherous blow to a vital weak point. But with his extraordinary physical strength and resilience, he managed to endure, though his body had sustained significant damage.

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Before he could even recover, the two hands of light appeared again, clamping down on him from both sides. Alfie then unleashed a furious barrage of demigod-level blows, raining down continuously on his body. A punch cloaked in holy light struck his side. He heard his own ribs shatter. Before the pain could even register in his brain, the next punch landed on his face.

The 'Masher,' who had terrified other Rankers, now felt like a ragged puppet. Each punch from Alfie crushed his bones and shattered his confidence. Helplessness was the only word left in his mind. The blows were so fast they distorted the air around them. This was a one-sided beatdown.

Alfie was dominating the battle, and Ronove, who had just been so aggressive and arrogant, could only curl up and take the punishment.

"Ronove, the Rank 6 Masher," Alfie murmured, his mind quickly recalling the intelligence files on this dangerous criminal. "Why would a lone criminal, a wanderer belonging to no organization or power, dare to come here and terrorize Aerion? Is it the same as that vulture Ipoz? What is their true purpose?". Alfie asked himself, even as he met similar cases.

"And does he have another accomplice hiding somewhere, ready to assist when he's in danger, someone also bound to him by some dark curse?". Countless complex thoughts and hypotheses continuously surfaced in Alfie's mind, even as he maintained his torrential assault on the Big Masher.

After one final, devastating blow, the spot where Alfie punched him had become a crater several meters deep. Ronove was smashed flat at the bottom, his body a tattered, gory mess of flesh. He lay there, motionless, his body convulsing, his breathing faint.

"Let's see if you show up." Alfie created a magic circle. Hundreds of brilliant lights, sparkling like shooting stars, plunged down from the sky, covering the wounded creature. A rain of light, divine and powerful. When his body reached its final limit, when death was near, Ronove let out one last shriek, a roar filled with desperation and madness.

Less than a second later, from deep underground, directly beneath Alfie's position, ten bolts of lightning shot straight up. The holy aura surrounding Alfie, which had helped him withstand countless previous attacks, was still strong enough to block this lightning-fast assault.

When Alfie looked towards his opponent, where Big Masher Ronove had just been lying, he had vanished. In his place, another person had appeared beside him at some unknown point. The teammate Alfie had suspected from the beginning.

He was using a precious healing potion while simultaneously transfusing a large amount of his own aether into Ronove's body, helping him recover a portion of his strength and heal his wounds. It seemed this teammate had been forced to appear to help.

It seemed he was afraid of Ronove being killed, something more important than facing a Demigod.

"Uval - Rank 6 Dark Sage," Alfie once again recognized the new enemy. "He is a high-ranking member of the Gilded Veil, one of the most dangerous and unpredictable Black Societies. So, each of our satellite cities is facing two Rank 6s at the same time." Alfie's initial speculation was correct. "This time, I can't let them escape. I must capture both of them alive for interrogation, to find the mastermind behind all of this." Alfie silently made his resolution, his eyes sharper than ever.

"Sun Chariot". A chariot of energy pulled by two warhorses of pure light descended from the heavens, charging straight at the two terrorists on the ground. In front were two majestic horses of light, and behind was a brilliant sphere of light like a small sun, radiating destructive heat and power.

"Black Vortex". Uval, the Dark Sage, was no easy opponent. A dark vortex carrying shadowy energy enveloped both him and Ronove. Inside the vortex, Ronove was not idle. He spun his metal staff at a dizzying speed. From the outside, one could no longer see his arm or the staff.

The circle created by the rapidly spinning staff now accumulated countless dark lightning bolts and dense, dark gales within it. He aimed the entire torrent of fierce aether forward, straight at the approaching Sun Chariot.

"Black Gravity Beam". A pillar of pure black energy, carrying the combined power of gravity, gales, and dark lightning, shot out from the vortex, colliding head-on with Alfie's Sun Chariot. Two high-level spells, carrying high-level power, collided in mid-air.

All the structures within a two-hundred-meter radius were flattened. The aftershock of the explosion spread even further, blowing away structures within an eight-hundred-meter radius.

"Heaven's Pillar" As the explosion ended, a pillar of light from the sky plunged to the ground, shattering the Dark Sage Uval's Black Vortex. Both terrorists, Uval and Ronove, were crushed to the ground by the unbearable pressure of the Holy Pillar, unable to move.

Alfie slowly brought his hands forward, fingertips touching to form a sacred triangle aimed at the two suppressed Rankers. "Pyramid of Holy!" he commanded. A structure of pure light materialized from nothing, enveloping the two terrorists before solidifying into a flawless, crystalline prison.

Alfie gently pressed his hands together, his voice a final, absolute judgment - "Seal." Inside the radiant pyramid, the two Rank 6s, who had sown such disaster moments before, were now frozen and motionless. Their struggle was over.

Alfie landed gently on the ground, walking towards the pyramid of light. Now, all that was left was to bring these two to Pope Vincent for interrogation, and his mission would be complete. Even for a Demigod, his aether and physical stamina were still limited. Fighting continuously at high intensity and using such potent magic had made Alfie feel tired.

He would return to Central Aerion with them. Pope Vincent could likely replace him to continue the fight in the East and North cities, while he would temporarily defend Central Aerion, the kingdom's nerve center. This way, their combat efficiency and overall command capability would be much higher. This was the advantage of having two Demigods guarding one place.

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