Maria launched her attack at the players below who were already taking defensive positions to block her skills and spells. By now, everyone was aware of how powerful Maria was so despite it being only a lone player attacking them, the Pantheon players all took it seriously. The vanguards raised their shields as they used [Block], [Spirit Guard], and any other defensive abilities they had while the priests and mages behind them used [Protect], [Mana Shield], [Shell], and other types of spells to help their vanguards block the dreadful angel’s attack that was coming towards them.

Naturally, they were able to nullify Maria’s [Calamity Cleave] since they had so many defensive abilities stacked on each other but no one could breathe easy just yet since a barrage of spells soon followed right after.

Maria’s clones used her signature elemental spells and began raining hell on the players below while her puppets and golems landed on the ground and started their assault on the enemy. She herself soon joined her familiars and dove down to add more to the chaos that she had already stirred in the enemy players’ ranks.

In all of the chaos, Maria was able to find the concentration and focus to use all of her skills without wasting a single one of them. She and her familiars’ HP bars were constantly being depleted and restored as her clones, and herself didn’t forget to use their healing spells. With so many abilities beings used, Maria’s MP bar was constantly being drained but it was fine since she would just restore it with an item or with her [Fallen’s Cruelty] skill and the basic attacks she successfully connected that siphoned mana from her targets.

Thanks to the players constantly supplying her with mana, Maria was able to continue fighting with her minions and mow down the players that were brave enough to confront her head-on. It wasn’t the first time that Maria had experienced such a chaotic battle but although she had heightened her senses so that she wouldn’t miss anything on the battlefield, it was hard for her to dodge or parry any of the skills, spells, and attacks that were aimed at her.

Due to their numbers, Maria was constantly teetering on the edge of death but instead of cowering, she only felt more and more excited. Finally, she was fighting a battle that was giving her a proper challenge–though technically unfair due to her being overwhelmingly outnumbered. Fair or not, Maria was happy because she wanted to be in a fight where she was forced to go completely all out.

Right now, Maria was using everything she had in her arsenal of skills and spells to fight against this large group of players from the Pantheon. Of course, she didn’t use her Summon, Bahamut, but she didn’t see any players among the group attacking her right now that used a Summon. Since they didn’t use their Summons Maria didn’t deem it necessary to use hers just yet. Also, even if the enemy players did use their Summons, as long as Maria didn’t feel threatened by them, she wouldn’t even summon Bahamut.

“Hahaha, fun, fun, fun!!! This is so fun!!!”

Maria laughed as she swung her two weapons and cut down the players around her. She didn't think she would ever get to use this particular skill after fighting against Thor but Maria finally brought out her swordsmanship skill, [Odin’s Sword Style], after feeling herself being pushed to the absolute limit.

“Alright, no more playing around! Have a taste of this! [Full Burst]!”

Maria changed her stance while being protected by her puppets before jumping towards the nearest enemy player and lashing out with both of her swords, striking the player and those around numerous times. When her fifth strike landed, the [Empower] and [STR++] buffs were applied to her, making her attacks even more deadly. After her [Full Burst] ended, Maria continued to attack the players and proceeded to kick them out of the Realm of War with her powerfully buffed attacks.

“Dammit, she applied a buff to herself! Where are the priests and mages?!”

“Cast [Dispel], quick!”

The priest and mage-class players scrambled to use [Dispel] on her but Maria didn’t make their jobs easy. She danced, flew, and weaved around the battlefield, making her a very difficult target to lock onto with their spells. Eventually, however, a [Dispel] landed on her which removed a few of her buffs.

“Hehehehe~”

Maria wasn’t even worried when this happened because she could just have her clones reapply the buffs to her but she didn’t do it just yet since she wanted to bait the players to attack her.

“Everyone! Attack! She’s vulnerable now!” One of the players yelled after seeing that Maria had lost a few layers of her buffs.

This was the exact moment she was waiting for. Maria quickly had her puppets and golems disperse from the area as she welcomed the players’ attacks head-on. She got into a defensive stance and activated her skill, [Full Counter].

“How about I return these back to you guys?!”

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When the attacks were about to hit her, Maria spun in place as she began moving her swords with blinding speeds, reflecting all of the attacks back to the players that launched them. She would still receive damage despite using [Full Counter] so even if it was only 1% of the intended damage, her HP bar was gradually being depleted just from the sheer amount of attacks being launched at her.

Maria didn’t need to worry, however, because she had her clones. They cast [Cure], [Hi-Cure], and [Regen] on her in turns, keeping her HP bar full. Her [Full Counter] lasted a full 3 seconds and by the end of it, the only ones that received damage from this were the players that attacked her. Once her skill ended and she countered as many attacks as she could within the skill’s time frame, Maria dodged the remaining attacks while her clones recast the buffs that had been dispelled as she let out a laugh and ordered her familiars to start attacking again.

“You think you guys can kill me? What a joke!”

Maria backed away and stabbed her two swords next to her before she raised her hands into the air and began casting [Hellflare]. Once a large, black-red sun was floating above her, she glared at all of the players in front of her and said, “Die.”

She launched the small sun at the enemy players before quickly taking to the skies with her familiars. In the next instant, a large explosion occurred as her [Hellflare] struck the ground. Many of the players around tried to run away but it was far too late. They got caught up in the blast and received a sizeable amount of damage. Maria sheathed her Zantetsu-R and prepared to use [Unholy] with her Calamity.

[Unholy] was the only spell in her arsenal that could completely engulf the entire battlefield below and kill the players that were still somehow alive even after they had received so many of her attacks.

“Ugh, I don’t really like this spell since it needs me to chant the incantation but here goes…”

Maria began gathering her mana for a few seconds before she started chanting.

{Inscript the dark god into bereaved flesh and exude bloody air! Crash down on the unfaithful and destroy reality!}

“...[Unholy].”

The moment she uttered the spell’s name, a blinding light fell from the heavens which then deprived the whole area where the spell was being invoked of all warmth and color. The players still inside of the area of effect felt their body warmth disappear as a creeping coldness seeped in and replaced it. After that, they were kicked out of the Realm of War. The players affected by her spell whose HP was below a certain point were all kicked out from the realm but the players that remained on the field despite losing a large amount of their HP bore witness to what literally could be said, a massacre, before dying right after.

The bodies of the players caught inside of [Unholy]'s light began to disintegrate into ash. The ash particles of those players began drifting outward before exploding, creating a dome of purple-black light from the chain of explosions, and causing a large amount of pure damage to those unfortunate enough to still be within her spell's AOE.

Originally, Maria's spell wasn't like this. Anyone caught within [Unholy]'s AOE when Maria first obtained the spell from Death as a reward, would only lose a percentage of their current HP bar so it was a spell that could never kill. For instance, if a person had only 10 percent of their HP left, [Unholy] would only deal a percentage of that 10 percent, meaning, they'd still have a bit of their HP left after being struck by [Unholy] so depending on when it was used, it was either a strong or a weak spell.

However, after Maria upgraded its level and rank through consistent uses, the spell grew stronger and stronger until finally, it evolved into what it was now, a finisher-type spell.

Skill Name: Unholy Level: 10 Rank: SS Description: Destroys a 100x100-meter area with a dark divine light, instantly removing 15 percent of a target's total HP. Monsters or players killed by this divine light will turn into ash that drifts away in random directions for a few meters before exploding, causing additional pure damage in a 5x5-meter area **Additional Pure Damage is equal to the total amount of HP lost by all of the players or monsters who had been turned into ashes. Cost: 50% MP Cooldown: 30 minutes

With the skill being as it is now, Maria would use it to finish off the large hordes of monsters she rounded up whenever she went out to hunt and grind for EXP. The amount of MP it took to use the spell was quite substantial, now that it was at a high rank, and although it couldn't be compared to her full-powered [Shin-Zantetsuken], the power it held was similar thanks to the after-explosions.

The total amount of HP lost during the initial phase of the spell was the amount of damage the explosions would deal so for instance, if 15 players died from the first phase and turned into ash with each player losing 20,000 HP, then the explosions would deal 20,000 pure damage multiplied by 15–the total amount of players that had been turned to ash–equalling 300,000 pure damage in all.

On this battlefield, with so many players dying to her [Unholy]'s first phase, the amount of damage the explosion caused afterward was just unbelievable. It was such a good clean-up spell that completely deleted a large majority of the Pantheon players that were attacking her earlier. She treated these players as if they were monsters so she didn't feel any remorse in booting them out of the Realm of War.

It was a devastating show of force and although quite a lot of players died from her [Unholy] there was still a bunch that lived despite all of that but they were all shaking in their boots as they backed away from the dangerous angel that was eyeing them from the sky.

Maria didn’t expect her spell to finish off every Pantheon player but the amount she killed was already good enough to strike fear in the hearts of the remaining players. She wasn't the only player in the game that could accomplish such an incredible feat like this.

In fact, all of the Awakened players and even a few Second Advancement Mage-type players could do what she did, however, to do it so cleanly and instill so much dread in the players’ hearts after just one spell…none could match Maria. Striking fear into peoples' hearts was the kind of role her game character was meant for and even though sometimes she didn't mean to do it, Maria would involuntarily cause people to be afraid of her because of the things she did inside of the game.

“Sh-Shit…”

“G-Get on your feet. There’s no need to be afraid, this is just a game!”

“Y-Yeah…yeah…”

Indeed, this was just a game. Unitale was just a game but the players still alive after experiencing the hell Maria brought to them from the heavens felt fear from just looking at her floating in the sky with her pitch-black wings and ominous gaze that seemed to bear down on them with an unknown pressure.

They couldn’t move or get up no matter how much they tried even after a few of them convinced themselves that this was just a game. This was the [Fear] debuff that was caused by her [Nightmare] skill and also because the players were genuinely afraid. Maria's EXP bar filled in proportion with all of the kills she racked up and soon, a level-up notification rang in her ears. She was quite happy to have leveled up, so she couldn't help but cheer.

“Hmmm~ killing players really is an efficient way of leveling up~”

“!”

“Oh, shit!”

“R-Run!”