Artoria pretended to get more and more tired, even without showing much in the way of external signs as she did not want to make it too obvious and possibly tip her intelligent opponent that she was weaving a trap for him.

Eventually though, after she fired one noticeably weaker blast of golden light, the next attack did not come.

Sirzechs who had been accumulating as much power as he could without compromising his safety, immediately saw this opening and struck with all of his might . . .

Unaware that he was plying right into his opponent's hand.

Sending out such a massive blast with his Power of Destruction meant Sirzechs had to stop in place, even if just for a moment and Artoria was too good to miss such a chance, especially when it came due to her impromptu battle plan.

And so, without a moment's hesitation, the King of Knights unleashed her noble phantasm for the first time in the battle.

"Ex-CALIBUR!" WIth the valiant shout of her holy sword's true name, a focused beam of holy light, far more powerful and dense that before shot out.

Sirzechs' attack was immediately erased while the beam continued unimpeded and without any loss in power, striking him head one.

The crimson haired Satan did his best to defend but thing were very different when compared to before.

Artoria had put in serious restraint not to kill Sirzechs but with a true name release, Excalibur's "holy" nature came out much stronger and it was extinguishing Sirzechs' demonic power at a far quicker rate.

Pinned by the beam of holy golden light, unable to move and not having enough power to fight back, Sirzechs could only hold on in the faint hopes that this was a gamble by his opponent and she would still run out of energy before him but he knew how unlikely that was.

'I got pressured by a superior opponent, so much so that I did not question when the situation started tilting in my favor . . . No, I guess she figured out what my intentions were and played along with them to lull me into a false sense of security.' Sirzechs thought to himself with a bit of self mockery.

Unfortunately for the crimson haired Satan, that was exactly the case and the result of the duel was already set in stone, being completely impossible to overturn now.

'She won't kill me though . . . And I will learn from this defeat. It's time to sit back on the politics and put more focus into my personal strength once again.' Sirzechs affirmed in his mind as he blacked out from severe exhaustion of his demonic power.

*sigh*

Artoria sighed as she let up the attack, watching carefully an unconscious Sirzechs crumpled to the burnt floor of the duel field, already back in his normal form.

'Keeping the output so tightly controlled is mentally exhausting . . . I wonder how Jun manages to always control his output so precisely while making it look easy. Yet another thing to learn from and admire in him.' The King of Knights thought to herself as the duel field crumbled into nothing, releasing the two combatants at their original positions.

Going back a few moments, Morgan and Jeanne were completely relaxed despite being fully alert and ready to respond to any changes in the situation but the more time passed, the Devil began getting more and more nervous and tense.

Family, friends, allies, subordinates, rivals and even enemies, all knew Sirzechs Lucifer was the strongest devil to ever live, a man capable of shaking an entire realm just by releasing his power, strong enough to defeat some of the mightiest gods in fair combat.

The enemy having removed him from the equation along with their own invoked the feeling of a one on one duel but while they were supremely confident in the beginning, their fear started getting the better of them.

And, though they did not show it, the pressure was mounting on Grayfia and Ajuka as well as they were forced to consider the dreadful possibility that their best combatant could not defeat one of Jun's subordinates in a duel and would become a prisoner for the enemy to use against them.

Unfortunately for them, their fears were about to be realized, at least part of them, as space twisted in the sky between the two groups revealing the figure of a relatively short Artoria wearing her full armor and lion helm . . . With an unconscious Sirzechs slinged over her shoulder.

All the devils froze but Morgan was not planning on stopping just yet, not when a chance to mentally assault them once more was free for the taking.

"How was it?" The Fairy Queen asked her sister out loud.

Artoria raised an eyebrow though it went unnoticed due to her helmet but she immediately realized her wicked older sister was going for another blow to their opponents' psyche.

"Killing him would have been easy but defeating him without doing so proved to be more tiresome than expected. It would not have taken this much time otherwise." The King of Knights responded in a cold tone.

'When she acts like that, Artoria-san sounds just like Morgan-san . . .'Jeanne thought from the side and, as if guided by their supernatural intuition, the two sisters immediately glared at her.

"W-What is it?" The holy maiden asked, feeling quite flustered by the sudden glares.

"Nothing . . . I just got the feeling your were thinking so rude things in your mind." Morgan replied while narrowing her eyes.

Jeanne froze but fortunately for her, Morgan did not have the luxury of interrogating her at the moment for there were more important matters to deal with . . .

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba  without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.