The devil blinked, trying to comprehend her words.
Mana Care was a technique used by healers to understand a person's physical condition by permeating their body with mana.
In this world, people suffered from internal injuries as much as external ones. To heal someone, it was essential to know where they were injured, making Mana Care the most fundamental skill.
However, Mana Care was something done through contact with the target. Whether it was the shoulder, hand, or any other part, contact was necessary to permeate mana and understand the injuries.
Aten had just said she could perform Mana Care from a distance.
She also said she could distinguish between those she should attack and those she shouldn't.
That meant, in other words,
"Can you distinguish between devils and humans?"
The devil asked, his lips and fingertips trembling.
Aten's coldness was unbearable. That had to be the reason. There couldn't be any other explanation.
Aten tilted her head slightly, her snow-white hair cascading down.
The devil's face went cold. He trembled as if he were having a seizure.
If his prediction was correct.
Aten was the only human who could differentiate between devils and humans.
Aten had probably encountered devils for the first time today. So, it was also the first time she had distinguished them.
Did she realize how dangerous her ability was?
'This, this bitch... I have to kill her...!'
Satan's order was to capture her alive. Killing Aten would be pointless in manipulating Frondier.
Of course, the devil knew he couldn't kill Aten. He was just a sacrificial lamb sent to gauge her strength.
He attacked Aten knowing this. Originally, according to their prediction, Aten's strength should have been similar to his, and he wasn't afraid of death anyway.
Devils were a collective. A group with a leader, moving as one. Therefore, individual death was irrelevant. If it benefited the collective, his death would have meaning.
However, now, he heard the sound of an alarm bell ringing for all devils. This wasn't just about one of them dying.
'I have to tell someone, anyone among us!'
The devil turned his head. The plan to capture Aten alive was already forgotten. There was something more important.
"As expected, you're going that way."
Ice rose from the floor, encasing his feet. She intended to freeze his feet again to immobilize him.
'I have to escape somehow,'
Before the devil could even finish the thought.
He fell, face-planting on the ground.
The devil couldn't understand.
His feet were frozen. So, falling should have been impossible. He hadn't been able to move in the first place.
There was only one possibility.
The devil looked at his feet.
His feet were still standing on the ground, frozen.
His body had fallen with them, precisely up to his ankles.
Aten hadn't frozen his feet to restrain him. This was on a completely different level from the coldness the devil had experienced so far.
'In that short moment, she completely froze and separated my feet?'
The devil was horrified. He still felt nothing below his ankles. There was no pain from his feet being severed, and now he couldn't even feel the cold. �
"You had no intention of killing me, did you?"
Meanwhile, Aten brushed her white hair aside and looked down at the fallen devil with her white eyes.
"Your words were harsh, and your expression looked like you were about to kill me, but your attacks were somehow clumsy. Above all, I could barely sense any killing intent."
"Since when... did you..."
"Since you introduced yourself."
From the very beginning.
"You're trying to drain my strength, right? You have more enemies than just yourself."
"Then, knowing that, you deliberately...?"
"Yes. I learned something. Enemies don't suspect their opponent's intentions when things go their way. Even though I learned it, I wondered if I could even imitate that person."
The devil spread his wings.
And, he lost his wings.
"So, I'll play along with your intentions. You don't want to kill me, and you want to drain my strength. You want to capture me alive. Please do so."
If Aster was the fastest at eliminating devils, Aten was the slowest.
Truly, terribly, excruciatingly slow.
"This, crazy, bitch...!"
"It would be absurd to do so when you have no intention of killing me."
While fighting the devil for a long time,
Aten lowered the temperature of her domain created by the cold, endlessly and limitlessly.
Unlike the magic that froze opponents instantly, lowering the temperature of this domain took quite some time.
However, the devils had already given her ample time.
Now, it was difficult for any devil to enter this domain.
"Since the devil tempts me,"
Aten started, as if offering a prayer to God,
"I suppose it's only fair if I tempt the devil in return."
She finished the sentence with a tone similar to someone else's.