My Overpowered Demon System

The temperature in the area dropped to a dangerously low level.

It was as though winter had descended without warning.

Both fighters disengaged, watching as ice spread outward from a single point.

Azrael backflipped just in time to avoid another thrust at his chest.

Achilles did not turn to face the new arrival.

He focused on ending Azrael before the new enemy could join the fight.

But it was already too late.

As Achilles thrust toward Azrael, a spike of pure ice whistled through the air toward his neck.

It connected, shattering into fragments on contact.

Achilles remained unscathed, still driving the spear forward.

Azrael pushed it aside with the back of his palm and drove his leg into Achilles’s chest, sending him flying.

At the same time, he threw himself backward, barely clearing the pillar of ice that erupted from where he had been standing.

Time seemed to slow and Azrael was finally able to make out the new figure.

It was a person caught somewhere between childhood and adulthood.

Pale skin that looked drained of blood, with blue light glowing faintly beneath the surface, making it look less like skin and more like something lit from within.

Short white blonde hair that stopped at the collarbone.

Colorless eyes that seemed to take in everything at once.

A casual blue shirt and rolled up black trousers.

In one hand, a staff that looked as worn and ancient as the person holding it.

A name surfaced in Azrael’s mind.

He was not certain, but he could not stop it from coming out.

"Jack Frost?"

Before he could say anything further, the new calamity lunged.

"By the way, that one is a tier five calamity," Jasmine said from somewhere above.

Azrael ignored her.

He lunged forward, driving a punch at Jack’s chest.

Space seemed to warp under the force of it, the air and the space itself splitting apart in the punch’s path.

Jack tapped the fist lightly and leapt backward.

The tap confused Azrael for a fraction of a second.

He did not need to wait long for the answer.

From the point of contact, ice began spreading upward, reaching his shoulder in less than an instant.

His eyes widened as he blew a hole through his own arm to stop the spread before it could go further.

Before he could refocus, an arc carved through the air from behind him, aimed to cleave through his neck in one clean motion.

His body moved on autopilot, sidestepping before his mind had finished processing the threat.

Achilles did not slow.

His sword continued its arc, this time redirecting toward Jack.

Jack did not move.

Achilles’s body was suddenly engulfed in ice, locking him in place mid motion.

"Hey."

Before Jack could locate the voice, a punch caved into his face.

Blue blood sprayed from his mouth as he was hurled backward like a ragdoll.

Azrael exhaled heavily as he looked around.

The area had become an apocalyptic landscape, jagged spikes of ice jutting up in every direction.

"Yeah, this is definitely Jack Frost," Azrael said.

He did not know the specific condition to kill it, but that concern felt distant right now.

He seemed capable of inflicting real damage on these calamities regardless of whether he was targeting their weak points.

A wave of force crashed into him in the next moment.

Achilles broke free of the ice, slashing toward Azrael’s chest in the same motion.

Azrael barely caught the sword before twisting, driving a kick into Achilles’s head.

Before Achilles could fly far, Azrael grabbed him by the leg and pulled back, about to deliver a finishing blow to his skull.

Then he felt a touch.

As cold as death itself.

Azrael barely cleared the staff strike that followed, backflipping away.

He landed and turned to find Jack attempting to consume Achilles.

A vast jaw opened up directly in front of Jack.

Its form was identical to Azrael’s cannibalism maw.

"What is it doing?" Azrael muttered.

"It wants to devour that calamity and evolve," Jasmine said.

The tree she had been sitting on was long gone. She was now casually floating in a pool of solar hot lava.

Azrael did not need anyone to tell him what to do next.

Letting Jack consume Achilles was out of the question. Achilles alone was already more than enough of a problem.

With a thought, a singularity condensed in the space between them and detonated.

Jack’s face went paler.

Achilles seized the opening, slashing toward Jack’s chest.

Azrael lunged at the same moment, singularity condensing to an extreme density around his fist as he drove it toward Jack’s head.

For a moment, time seemed to lose its footing, pausing to account for what was about to happen.

Then it snapped back.

Boom.

The ice dissolved. The earth rose.

Not metaphorically.

The ground physically lifted, carrying every body on its surface upward with it.

Stone slabs erupted outward. A deep chasm tore along the path of the punch.

Then the earth dropped, landing with a tremor that shook everything standing on it.

Azrael watched as Jack’s body began to flicker and fade, destabilized by the ripples radiating outward from the strike.

Achilles fell to the floor and lay still, life temporarily emptied from him.

Azrael stared at his own fist.

"I have become this strong?" He muttered.

He had not expected to be capable of that. The force behind that single punch was enough to have killed the tier six dimensional beast he had faced in the rift just the day before.

Everything that had happened settled on him at once.

In a single day, the gap between who he had been and who he was now felt almost impossible to measure.

Before the thought could go further, a light appeared beneath him.

Golden yellow, bright enough to threaten his vision even at a glance.

"It is starting," Jasmine said from beside him.

He turned left. She was there, as composed as ever.

"Huh?" She muttered, looking into Azrael’s eyes.

"What is starting?" He asked.

Jasmine smiled.

"Watch."