A scorching wave of fire swept outward in an instant, spiderwebbing deep cracks through the concrete beneath their feet.
The ancient sorcerers, who had just been sneering cruelly, froze as they felt the terrifying heat capable of incinerating sky and sea. Their smirks vanished, replaced by a tremor that seized them from the depths of their souls.
"Hey, hey... are you kidding me...?"
The scarred ancient sorcerer clutching the giant axe swallowed hard, cold sweat pouring down his forehead like a waterfall.
"This pressure... He clearly doesn't have a shred of cursed energy, so why am I staring death in the face?"
As powerhouses who had carved their way out of that flesh-and-blood era four hundred years ago, their instincts for danger far surpassed normal men.
To their senses, the black-haired, crimson-eyed youth before them in the black haori was no fat lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
He was a monstrous beast stepping out of the primordial wild, baring a blood-drenched maw right at them!
"Don't let his bluffing scare you!"
Another sorcerer, gaunt and tall, tightly gripped two poisoned daggers and roared to steady his nerves.
"No cursed energy means he can't use an innate technique, and he can't defend against our attacks!"
"Go together! Chop him to pieces and claim these free points!"
At those words, the other two ancient sorcerers let out bestial roars as if to bolster their own courage.
Each channeled the massive, filthy cursed energy within their bodies, launching a lethal pincer attack at Yoru from three distinct directions!
"Blood Axe: Guillotine!"
"Poison Shadow: Twin Twisting Fangs!"
"Heavy Crag: Mountain-Crusher!"
Three devastating cursed energy attacks bearing different elemental properties—each capable of instantly flattening an entire skyscraper—snapped shut like merciless nets, cutting off every route of retreat for Yoru.
Fierce winds howled; shattered stones scattered.
To their minds, no matter how imposing the youth's aura might be, taking three attacks head-on without any cursed energy reinforcement could end in only one way—reduced to a puddle of mincemeat!
Yet facing this seemingly inescapable doom, Yoru did not even blink.
He merely stood quietly in place, intricate patterns turning slowly in his deep-crimson eyes like clockwork gears.
'Transparent World...'
Across Yoru's retinas, the movements of the three ancient sorcerers seemed to decelerate countless times over.
The contraction of their muscles, the flow of their blood, and even the microscopic flaws within their three cursed energy strikes were laid completely bare before him.
"Too slow."
"Riddled with openings."
"With cheap parlor tricks like these, how dare you call yourselves the strong?"
Yoru spoke in a low murmur, yet it rang crystal clear in the ears of the three ancient sorcerers.
In the next split second, Yoru moved.
He did not dodge, nor did he retreat. Stepping into the face of those three world-ending attacks, he calmly took a single stride forward.
"Sun Breathing, First Form..."
At Yoru's whisper, the pitch-black Shiranui resting at his waist instantly detonated with a dazzling, deep-crimson radiance!
The light was so pure and blazing hot, like a proud sun cresting the horizon to thoroughly cleanse all filth and sin from the world!
"Dance!"
Clang—!
Accompanied by the sharp, ringing cry of a dragon, Yoru gripped the hilt with both hands and swept upward, carving a flawless, resplendent ring of flame through the air!
Boom!
It was a terrifying slash beyond the reach of words!
Deep-crimson fire surged forth like a tsunami, instantly swallowing and melting away the three seemingly unstoppable barrages of cursed energy!
"What?!"
The pupils of the three ancient sorcerers contracted to pinpricks, their eyes overflowing with unbelievable terror and despair.
The techniques they took pride in, the cursed energy they held supreme—before this burning arc of the blade, it all tore like fragile paper, utterly powerless!
"No... NOOO!"
The scarred sorcerer tore out the final, wretched shriek of his life.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
No suspense. No resistance.
With unstoppable force, the deep-crimson ring of flame swept right through the bodies of the three ancient sorcerers in a flash.
Time seemed to freeze in that heartbeat.
Yoru held the follow-through of his strike. Not a single drop of blood clung to Shiranui's edge; only pure, incandescent flames burned in silence.
Behind him, the three ancient sorcerers who had just been grinning viciously locked rigid midair.
Immediately after, an extraordinarily clean line of blood, glowing with glaring red heat, traced across all three of their waists at once.
Thud!
With three dull impacts, the upper torsos of the three ancient sorcerers slid cleanly from their waists, crashing heavily onto the dust-choked concrete!
Blood erupted like geysers from the smooth cross-sections, painting the surrounding ground a shocking, horrific scarlet.
One strike.
Just a single strike!
Three incarnated sorcerers who had run rampant in the early stages of the barrier and fancied themselves ancient titans had been cleaved cleanly in two without a trace of contest, dead on the spot!
Even the lingering madness and disbelief in their dying eyes were etched onto their faces forever by that slash.
Absolute silence fell over the entire area.
Whether it was modern awakened players hiding in the shadows waiting for an opening to steal points, or low-grade cursed spirits drawn by the pungent stench of blood and lurking behind the rubble—
In this moment, all of them were so terrified that they held their breath, not daring to let out even the slightest sound.
A suffocating sensation, as if an ancient deity had wrapped its fingers around their throats, brought their hearts to the verge of stopping.
"W-What kind of monster is that...?"
"No cursed energy... no technique... relying solely on physical might and that sword... How on earth did he pull that off?!"
"Run! Get out of here! That guy isn't human—he's the Grim Reaper wearing human skin!"
After that brief, dead hush, the ancient sorcerers concealed among the surrounding ruins finally snapped out of the soul-crushing terror.
No longer caring about their pride as the strong, nor giving a damn about the rules or points of the Culling Game, they scrambled and crawled, fleeing frantically in all directions.
In their eyes, that nonchalant, black-haired youth wielding a flaming blade was ten thousand times more terrifying than Kenjaku's death game!
A few ancient sorcerers with weaker wills even had their legs give out mid-sprint, tumbling straight off ruined high-rises to shatter into pieces below.
Yoru did not bother chasing down those fleeing small fry.
He slowly sheathed Shiranui, casting a cold glance at the three bisected corpses cooling rapidly on the pavement.
The mingling stenches of charred flesh and fresh blood hung in the air, sketching the truest backdrop of this purgatory.
"These were the ancient titans of a millennium ago?"
A sneer of undisguised contempt curled at the corner of Yoru's mouth, as if he were looking at nothing more than trivial ants.
"Arrogant, ignorant, and bloated with conceit."
"That rat Kenjaku actually threw away ten million modern lives just to dig trash like you out of your graves."
Yoru looked up, his deep-crimson eyes glinting as sharply as honed steel.
His radar-like senses had already caught it clearly: with the demise of these three ancient sorcerers, several vast, ancient fluctuations of cursed energy deep within the barrier were rushing straight toward him.
Those were the true predators, lured out by the raw might of his strike.
"Come on, then."
"Whether you're the Sword Saint from four hundred years ago, or the God of Thunder from a thousand years past."
Yoru reached out, lightly dusting off a speck of dirt from his haori, his gaze shifting to one of intense fervor and anticipation.
"In this death game bound by rules, let me use this cursed-energy-less blade to show you relics..."
"What it truly means to be a god!"
The wind surged once more, scattering the bloody odor across the ruins.
And Yoru's crazed hunt targeting the entire Culling Game and every ancient powerhouse had only just raised its bloody, glorious curtain.
Deep inside the barrier shrouded in dread, those ancient monsters who believed themselves invincible were about to be reminded, under Yoru's blade, of the sheer terror of being dominated by absolute violence.
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