The adventurers advanced en masse, closing in tightly around the demonic Afro. In the center of the square, Captain Drazen, Kira, and Yuki remained motionless, merely observing the commotion. Shinjimaru attempted to crawl away, but the Captain planted his boot on his back and pulled him back by his hair, holding him captive as a forced spectator.
The first two men attacked with heavy swords. Afro positioned his blade vertically, blocking the double blow and pushing the attackers' swords upward with brute force. In the same movement, he delivered a cut that did not stop at the targets; the pressure of the blow created gusts of air that cut through the men behind them, mutilating all those who did not have the reflexes to dodge.
At that moment, a third adventurer attempted an attack from behind. Afro crouched in a fluid motion, applying a violent sweep. Before the man's body hit the ground, Afro completed his spin and finished with the base of his sword against his opponent's stomach. The impact was so sharp that the man exploded like a blood bubble, scattering viscera and fluids around those around him.
Without dissipating the inertia of the spin, Afro shifted his weight and jumped. In the air, he spun horizontally like a screw, firing bursts of energy in a circle in one direction while throwing his sword to the opposite side. The blade flew with precision, piercing the skull of a mercenary at the back of the square. Upon impact, the sword released bursts of red lightning and exploded, sweeping everyone nearby in a shower of blood.
The force of the explosion propelled the sword back to the center. Afro landed on his feet and reached out; the weapon fit perfectly into his palm. He raised his masked face and let out a metallic laugh: "Hahahahaha!"
At his side, the two spectral souls finished their own massacres and merged back into his body, and his tattoos glowed again.
Yuki narrowed his eyes, admiring the demon. "It's not a martial art; he's merging more than ten different martial arts into a single, unknown execution."
Kira kept his pupils in constant motion, trying to process and analyze each movement before the next blow was struck.
The adventurers retreated en masse, opening up an empty space around Afro. Panic set in; they realized that this hybrid was not a low-level demon that they could take down by sheer numbers, they needed to be smarter.
The Captain took one last deep drag on his cigarette. As he exhaled, the smoke did not dissipate into the air; it condensed, gaining weight and a metallic sheen, until it materialized into a long axe with a black, worn blade. It was his War Executioner: Pluto's Breath.
Some adventurers, in desperation, put on their Oni masks and began scattering handfuls of divine dust across the square, attempting to create a purifying barrier to weaken Afro. However, a sudden wave of heat emanated from the hybrid's red eyes. An invisible field expanded in a five-meter radius around Afro, and the divine powder instantly combusted before touching the ground. His bone mask broke in the jaw area, revealing a hungry mouth. He grabbed the arm of a nearby corpse and began to devour the raw flesh, while the energy of the survivors' pain and fear seemed to regenerate his strength.
"Hehehehe... Why did you stop?" His voice sounded distorted. "Am I the only one causing trouble? And how many of you are there... Two hundred, three hundred? Hahaha!"
Kira, analyzing the scene, warned the group:
"What he's doing isn't clones. They're parts of his soul. He managed to manage himself in three positions at the same time."
"I can hear you from here, girl," shouted Afro. "And I can do a lot more!"
The adventurers advanced again, this time wearing Oni masks. In response, Afro released four more spectral incarnations. Three of these souls leaped over the crowd, stepping on the adventurers' heads as if they were steps, going directly after Kira, Yuki, and the Captain.
The fourth soul took advantage of the distraction of the combat to slip over to where Shinjimaru was tied up. With a swipe of its claw, it cut the ropes. Afro approached Shinjimaru's ear and whispered, "Run. Take care of Himari at the inn. But never leave the village. If you run away, I'll kill you because I've already marked you. Go, my dog."
Shinjimaru didn't wait. He staggered to his feet and ran toward the dark alleys, panting. The effects of the alcohol had completely worn off, replaced by pure terror that made him cry with regret. "Damn it, what have I gotten myself into?" he sobbed as he disappeared into the night.
The fourth soul, its mission accomplished, returned to the center of the massacre, merging with Afro's original body to reinforce the carnage.
As the massacre continued, the three main fights reached a critical point.
Kira's fight against Afro's incarnation was a display of pure imbalance. Kira, despite being a technical assistant, fought for her life with two quick daggers, throwing precise cuts to keep her distance. Afro, however, ignored the pain. He advanced with a sequence of martial arts moves that she couldn't calculate. A low punch hit Kira's abdomen, followed by a sharp blow to the chin that knocked her off balance. Afro didn't stop: in 3secs he unleashed a hundred punches to her stomach and finished with a violent 540-degree spin in the air. His kicking leg hit Kira's face like a hammer, and before touching the ground, he bent his body into a "jackknife," finishing with his other leg, which threw Kira to the ground.
At the same time, Yuki faced the other incarnation. There, the game was reversed. The incarnation attacked furiously, but Yuki dodged effortlessly, his feet sliding across the blood on the tiles. The incarnation threw a straight punch, but Yuki blocked it, grabbed his arm, pulled him violently toward her, and slapped him across the chest with her palm, shouting, "I exorcise you, Burn!!" Intense flames burst from her touch, incinerating Afro's soul, who screamed as he was disintegrated.
On the other side of the square, the Captain remained terrifyingly calm. He dodged the attack of the incarnation he was fighting with calm movements, even lighting his cigarette while dodging... The frustrated incarnation materialized a long sword and advanced, aiming at the Captain's head, but the Captain simply said, "Stop."
The soul froze. The Captain's right eye revealed its true nature: it was a demon's eye, black and pulsating. The Captain, wielding his axe, Pluto's Sigh, delivered a horizontal blow that released a thick smoke, cutting through Afro's soul. Before the pieces dissipated, the Captain spun his body and mutilated the essence in half with his smoke axe.
Far away, Afro's real body felt the impact. With the death of two souls, he suddenly lost weight as he fell to his knees, gasping for breath. The loss of processing the souls cost him dearly. An adventurer took advantage of his weakness and raised his sword to pierce his head, but in a last reflex, Afro's real body "incarnated" in the soul fighting with Kira.
He appeared instantly in front of her. Kira attempted a final thrust, but Afro locked her hand with overwhelming force. They were locked in a stalemate, their faces inches apart. Afro, even wounded and on the verge of collapse, smiled sadistically under his bone mask: "If I have time, I'll eat you alive here... slowly?"
Kira's eyes widened. It wasn't because of Afro's insult, but because of what she felt: invisible waves spreading through the barrier. "More demons are coming," she thought, in shock. In that split second of distraction, Afro twisted her wrist violently, breaking the bone with a sharp crack. He prepared the final punch to crush her skull: "Tsk... I hate ignorant people, love... 2 Equivalences..."
"Resonance!" The Captain's voice interrupted.
Afro's punch hit frozen smoke in the air. In the blink of an eye, the square disappeared; everything around her became a dense, gray fog. In front of her, imposing, stood the Captain.
"Fuck... I'm in Resonance, how did he find my frequency!?" murmured Afro, weakening. His master had already warned him: Resonance activates when the energy frequency of a body is discovered, creating a domain in the image of the user to annihilate the enemy.
An adventurer appeared from the right to mutilate him. Afro tried to crawl, but hit the solid smoke. Before he could recover, Yuki quickly appeared behind him, slit his throat with a katana, and disappeared into the fog. Afro, suffocating, tried to vibrate to summon souls, but the divine dust scattered in the domain nullified his powers and burned him. As he tried to draw his sword, he felt the brutal impact: Pluto's Sigh severed his arm.
Afro spat blood. The poison of Resonance was destroying his system. The bone mask fell over his eyes, revealing part of his face. "I need pain, fear, or flesh... I'm going to die!" he thought.
"Why did you do this, is there something else involved?" asked the Captain, coldly.
"Because I like it," hissed Afro.
Yuki, emerging from the shadows again, conjured flames that burned Afro from below, leaving his body naked and dark, only his tattoos shining. The adventurers surrounded him, ready for the end. Kira approached and whispered something urgent in the Captain's ear. He nodded and moved forward for the final mutilation, but before the blade could fall, the Resonance shattered like glass.
The smoke cleared. Standing before everyone, interrupting the domination, was Lord Takamura.