With his Ki sense, Akeru was easily able to deduce the truth.
"Your Ki sensing is imperfect too, which means that you can't replicate the experiences in my memories perfectly. Moreover, you can't replicate my instinct either with those, as that is stopping you from perfecting the Ki sense."
The intention of Akeru saying all this was to confirm whether his predictions were true or not by observing the guard.
WHOOSH
The guard's only response was to shoot multiple arrows made of lightning at him.
BOOM
BOOM
Multiple tangible water bullets met the tangible lightning arrows, neutralizing them.
Akeru's eyes moved towards his enemy's grimoire.
The grimoire sported a 5-leaf clover!
'From what I could sense, his grimoire is different from Asta's, it doesn't give the feeling of a devil hosting it, which means that he must be a four-leaf user who turned five-leaf due to despair.'
"You are right, I wasn't able to fully read your memories; however, the ones I read, I found some discrepancies which might have been resolved if I read more of them. By any chance, do you have a prophetic ability or something similar?" The guard asked calmly.
His intention was the same as Akeru's-- to read his opponent by sensing their Ki.
He might not have the same mastery as Akeru in that, but he had enough skill level to distinguish a lie from truth or confirm a truth.
However, to his disappointment, Akeru didn't show any reaction to his words internally or externally.
His Ki was the same as before.
In fact, one thing the guard noticed was that Akeru's Ki was dimmer than what a person should usually possess.
Almost as if he were not alive anymore.
PSSSSSSSSSST
Multiple beams of pressurized water approached the guard, who suddenly had large snakes made of iron neutralizing them.
A few snakes that weren't annihilated rushed at Akeru, who dealt with them with the water beams.
However, this momentary time that made Akeru busy was enough for the guard to dash towards Finral.
His intention was clear- to get the memories of the spatial mage in front of him.
The guard, despite having Akeru's memories, didn't have enough expertise in mana to perform proper spatial magic.
So, he intended to master spatial magic by taking the memories of a person whose main magic is spatial magic.
Akeru instantly gauged his intentions, and from his position, he knew that he wouldn't be able to reach the guard.
It seemed impossible to stop the guard from extracting Finral's memories.
BOOM
A water bullet flew through the atmosphere at blinding speeds.
However, to the guard's shock, the bullet was not heading towards him, but towards the defenseless Finral lying on the ground.
Akeru attacked Finral so that Finral would be dead before the guard could get his memories.
'This is not exactly how he operates. Finral is not somebody whom he could sacrifice like that, it seems whatever spell that is active now is causing him to act like that.' The guard who had Akeru's memories knew the latter's personality and his moral line.
BANG
A similar water bullet was shot from the guard, intercepting Akeru's water bullet.
Finral was barely able to avoid a fatal end.
However, this momentary distraction was enough for Akeru to reach Finral before the guard.
The latter could only retreat.
"Mana Zone: Vicious Hush." A lot of mana was moved around Akeru, all reacting to his will.
Under his zone, all 7 people were present, which couldn't be touched by anybody other than him.
The guard frowned.
'Well, I think I don't have any reason to be here anymore. It's time for me to start working towards the final ending that I envision.' He decided, and 5 clones materialized around him.
After that, the original body of the guard started moving in the opposite direction.
"Let me show you the mana zone I learned from your memories." One of the clones said, and a mana zone comprising water completely formed.
Another mana zone with lightning flickering formed around another clone.
Embers could be seen materializing in another clone's mana zone.
Earth started bending unnaturally in another mana zone.
Wind started vibrating in the last clone's zone.
All 5 individuals, despite being clones, could use the mana method and all the abilities of the original.
It was equivalent to facing 5 grand magic knights.
Akeru only blinked in response, unperturbed.
'He must have learned mana zone from my memories, however, it seems that he couldn't translate everything directly without any practice. The fact that he could copy Seraph's Shell and Vibratory Chaos must be due to him previously extracting memories of countless magic knights.
He must have a good mastery over all 5 elements before ambushing me.' Akeru analyzed very quickly.
In the next instant, an orange orb was created in front of him, which almost instantly started charging towards one of the clones, the clone that had a lightning mana zone around him.
The spatial orb of destruction penetrated his mana zone with ease, quite similar to a hot knife passing through butter.
However, just as the orb was able to hit the clone, pale blue lightning surrounded the clone, and he disappeared from the position and appeared in a different position in his mana zone, dodging the spatial orb.
Akeru, with 'Still Spectator' and '3D Witness' active currently, could easily tell that the clone didn't teleport, but rather was able to increase his speed quite quickly in a short burst of time.
'That must be one of the properties of that mana zone. The clones are using selective abilities only to coordinate better... which probably means that they can't communicate with each other, though apart from a slight chance that is incorrect, I am going with that assumption... Actually, no, he wants me to think like that, either to use this fact to catch me off-guard or not show all his cards as ultimately they are stalling for time.'
The clone wielding the fire mana zone came near Akeru before he could do anything.
Brrrhhhhhh
Fire met water, and a sizzling sound could be heard throughout the clearing.
The clone found himself slowing down completely.
Akeru found himself suddenly feeling weak.
'He is burning off my stamina reserves along with mana reserves...' Akeru instantly analyzed and kicked the clone out of his mana zone.
Water hands grabbed all 7 of the unconscious knights, and Akeru started retreating with 3 of the clones rushing at him.
If the situation got dire for him, he was ready to leave the 5 knights other than Black Bulls first and then Finral and Vanessa too.
3 spatial orbs formed in front of Akeru, which then rushed at the 3 clones.
The spatial orb, which entered the wind mana zone, got neutralized after moving a few meters in it.
The spatial orb, which entered the water mana zone, was almost able to reach the clone, however, the orb was overloaded with mana, successfully a few centimeters away from that clone.
The orb, which entered the earth mana zone, was neutralized mid-way due to a lot of rocks entering it.
Akeru had watched all of this happening in quite detail.
He easily analyzed the details of their mana zones.
In the next instant, Akeru stomped on the ground, and dozens of small orange orbs shot forward towards the trio, which were now quite close to Akeru.
However, if one looked closely, most of them were concentrated at the clones residing in water and earth mana zones.
BOOOM
After the barrage was over, both of those clones were destroyed.
However, the clone wielding wind was able to close the gap, and Akeru was now in his mana zone.
Seraph's shell formed around him, along with his mana zone slowing down the wind around him, however, it was useless as all of the things started getting cut.
Akeru calmly watched as multiple small wind blades easily passed through his defenses and were upon his neck.
It has to be noted that they were all slowed down by Akeru's mana zone.
One could only imagine their deadliness without being slowed down.
***
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