"You're the one blocking my way."
The moment the words left his lips, her figure vanished from the spot—dissolving into the air like a wisp of smoke scattered by the wind.
Yare yare…
That same old trick—pretending to be a deity again.
Three silver needles, shimmering with a ghostly blue light, materialized in perfect silence, hovering in a tight triangular formation less than a palm's width from the back of his head. They sliced through the air without so much as a whisper of wind resistance—the pinnacle of assassination technique.
"Star Platinum."
A low growl cut through the night.
Star Platinum's fingers snapped into place, pinching all three needles with impossible precision.
Click.
The poison-tipped darts—forged from a special alloy strong enough to pierce Kevlar—crumbled into fine metallic dust.
A soft "Eh?" echoed from the darkness.
Twenty meters away, the woman reappeared atop a streetlamp, barefoot and balanced effortlessly on the edge of the lampshade. The hem of her white kimono fluttered in the night breeze. Surprise flickered across her face.
Her prized "Breathless Technique"… seen through so easily?
"Is it your 'guardian spirit'?" she murmured, licking her scarlet lips. Her killing intent swelled, thick and suffocating. "Very interesting."
In the next instant, she opened her mouth.
Dozens of poison-coated silver needles shot forth, each trajectory meticulously calculated to eliminate every possible angle of escape.
But Star Platinum was already behind Joren.
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!—
Every needle was deflected in a blinding storm of fists, hammered into the pavement with surgical accuracy.
Seizing the barest flicker of an opening, the woman vanished once more—only to reappear at Joren's left flank.
Her right hand snapped forward. Fingers fused into a single blade, nails elongating into claws wreathed in that same ghostly blue glow—aimed straight for Joren's heart.
Fast.
Faster than human reflexes could track.
But her opponent wasn't human—and Star Platinum's fist was faster still.
BANG!
The delayed punch—the one that struck after the attack had already landed—slammed into her abdomen with crushing force.
Pffft—!
A spray of blood, flecked with shredded viscera, erupted from her mouth. Her body arced backward like a broken shrimp, shattering through two billboards before embedding itself deep into a concrete wall.
Was it over?
No.
Though her form was mangled beyond recognition and her life force flickered like a dying candle, something far more sinister began to churn within her.
"Giggle… giggle…"
Her head lifted from the crater in the wall, vertebrae grinding with a wet, bone-deep crunch. The gaping wound in her gut writhed—muscle and sinew knitting back together before their eyes. Eerie black lines slithered across her skin like living veins.
"The power of the sun…" Her voice had turned guttural, thick with something ancient and wrong. "But… you've tasted my poison too, haven't you?"
Joren's pupils contracted.
He looked down at his left arm.
There—nearly invisible—a sliver of a needle protruded from his skin. A creeping numbness slithered up his veins, cold and hungry.
Yare yare…
What a… troublesome woman.
"Soon, your guardian spirit will rot into a pool of blood—along with you."
The woman writhed, clawing her way out of the shattered wall as her broken bones snapped back into place. A low, almost pleasurable groan slipped from her lips.
"Then… I will offer you to the 'Beast.' And you… will gain eternity…"
Her words died in her throat.
The boy raised his right hand. At his fingertips, a ray of golden light danced—warm, sacred, like the heart of the sun itself.
What… is that?
That aura…
It was the very root of her fear—born of shadows, forged in death.
"Eternity?"
Joren glanced at the tiny wound on his palm. Golden ripples of energy washed over it, purging the chilling toxin without a trace.
His eyes lifted—turquoise, cold, and utterly devoid of emotion.
"Before you speak of eternity… worry whether you'll even survive long enough to turn to ash."
He vanished before the sentence finished.
"What?!"
The white-clad woman's cruel smile hadn't yet twisted into horror—
when, in a flash, that handsome, expressionless face loomed inches from hers.
A hand blazed with solar radiance pressed against her face.
"For someone like you—who isn't even human…"
Joren's voice rang like divine judgment.
"Even death is a mercy."
"The mountains are blowing—colored ripples racing fast!!"
"No—!!!"
Her scream tore through the night.
Golden flames erupted from her seven orifices.
The body that had just resurrected—the so-called "immortal" vessel—melted and crumbled under the sun's wrath.
Two seconds later…
Only an empty kimono remained on the ground.
And a small clump of black ash, scattered by the night wind.
Qiao Lun lowered his hand and brushed away nonexistent dust from his coat.
He glanced at the fallen garment, then lifted his gaze—piercing through the darkness toward a distant point in the city.
---
Top Floor – Fisk Tower
Kingpin crushed the cigar in his fist with a sharp snap.
Ash and tobacco sifted through his fingers.
On the monitor before him, the last wisp of black ash spiraled into the wind.
It failed again.
Madam Gao's strongest assassin—"Undead" Sadako—had been purified.
And she hadn't even scratched the boy.
"Is this what you call 'a more deadly poison'?"
Madam Gao remained kneeling before the low table, her elegant composure now strained.
"'Qi'… It truly is qi…"
She whispered like a zealot who'd glimpsed the divine.
"Such pure qi! He wields it freely—no medium, no incantation… nothing but will!"
"Answer me!" Kingpin growled.
But Madam Gao ignored the threat.
She rose abruptly, arms outstretched, face flushed with feverish fervor.
"Fisk! You don't understand—you can't understand!
What we just witnessed isn't an enemy…
It's the gateway to God's kingdom!"
"If we obtain him—if we decipher him—the Hand… no, the world itself… will be reborn!"
"I've had enough of your lunacy!" Kingpin roared.
"Your schemes are turning my city into hell! And your 'weapons'? They crumble like paper!"
Madam Gao's eyes burned with terrifying clarity.
"Hell? Yes… but it's not enough."
She turned toward the shadows.
"Tell Shingen… release the 'Beast.'
This city will be the final sacrifice for the gods' descent."