User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 376: Wendy vs. Ezel, Review./@comment-4449950-20140321014355/@comment-7418318-20140321095549

I too think that Wendy should "only" be able wound Ezel badly, but not finish him off completely (I think you're going to like chap 18 of my fanfict once I get around to release it).

But stopping Face's countdown wouldn't take it out of the story. Unless it's completely destroyed, it'd still be there and the Demons could just re-conquer it and fire it up again. If the countdown is only stopped at something below 1 minute instead of being reset, it would be like the Damocles Sword over the Mages' heads.

That'd still be a threatening situation. Just one Demon needs to break through and it's game over.

There's also the possibility that Face was just plan A and Tartaros still have other things up their sleeves, with Face just being the fastest or most convenient option.

Imagine if plan B is waking up a load of other books - possibly Deliora type Demons - and attack Fiore in open warfare. Of course summoning so many Demons would probably take them some time, so we'd see a temporary retreat in which the Mages can form alliances and begin to prepare for the onslaught.