A galaxy paved with diamonds. Glass rain was still pattering down, reflecting the ground into fragments of blood.
However, what flowed within this galaxy was not the Milky Way, but a crimson river.
Everything seemed to freeze. In the moment those five figures landed, the air in the entire banquet hall felt as if it had solidified.
Mysterious individuals wrapped in ominous red light. The surviving guests trembled, watching those clad in black battle suits.
“Who… are they?”
Why did their aura feel colder than those monsters? If they were a rescue team, then why…
Saori Saiyonji clutched her broken ribs, her vision blurry. Yet she still recognized the figure walking toward her.
Though wearing a half-face tactical mask, though her demeanor had turned cold as frost—that silhouette, that gait…
“Mizuki… Hoshi?”
Mizuki Hoshi’s eyes flickered with complexity, then quickly were covered by coldness.
She looked down at her former teammate, now in a wretched state.
Before Saori could react, Mizuki Hoshi and Kitano Ichi grabbed her shoulders from left and right, like iron vices.
“What do you want?” Saori gritted her teeth.
Saori struggled desperately, but with her heavily injured body, she was no match.
Mizuki Hoshi stopped in front of her without removing her mask.
“Come with us for a while, Saori.”
Saori’s voice was dry, filled with disbelief. “Let me go! Ren is still…”
“Go!” Sasaki immediately gave the order, wanting to take Saori away before anyone could react.
He activated the anti-gravity system and launched himself toward the skylight.
Just as he was about to forcibly take Saori away—
A massive beak suddenly appeared at the skylight opening, striking fiercely at Sasaki.
Sasaki twisted in midair, leaving two deep gashes on the beak with his Hunter Knife, cold sweat dripping as he stared at the skylight.
There seemed to be a giant bird-like creature.
In that instant, on the other side, there was the forgotten corner. Feng He Shi’s mismatched eyes rolled around.
He was crazy, but not stupid. These suddenly appearing black-clad operatives were formidable and had a clear target: Saori Saiyonji. They didn’t seem to pay him any attention.
“Heh… then I won’t bother with them.” Feng He Shi licked the green mucus from the corner of his mouth, turned, and cast his malicious gaze to the other side.
There, Yuki Asahi was struggling to stand, leaning on a table.
Behind him were friends and juniors who had regained consciousness but were still completely weak.
“The so-called hero… must hate seeing his comrades die before his eyes, right?”
Feng He Shi grinned viciously, the split in his abdomen writhing again.
“Kill him! Tear off those brats’ heads and hang them around his neck!”
With his command, the remaining Semi-Devourers abandoned the ordinary guests and lunged toward Yuki Asahi’s direction like mad dogs.
“Dammit…” Yuki Asahi took a deep breath.
The residue within his body stubbornly obstructed the flow of energy.
In his current state, he couldn’t even use thirty percent of his full power.
He couldn’t use Emotional Control either.
“Huff.” He exhaled a mouthful of stale air, and his previously hunched back straightened sharply.
Bang!
Instead of retreating, Yuki Asahi charged forward into the monster group.
His movements were no longer broad and sweeping as usual; they became extremely precise, ruthless, and fierce.
Sidestep to dodge claws. Elbow strike to shatter a throat.
Spinning kick to send a lunging monster flying, knocking down a whole row.
That was pure killing technique—instinct honed by countless brushes with death.
S-so strong…
Hanyu Suoluo, collapsed on the floor, watched the figure weaving through the monster horde, his eyes filled with shock.
Yuki could barely stand, and every attack made blood trickle from the corner of his mouth.
But he stood like an insurmountable wall, blocking them, not letting a single monster get past.
“Interesting.”
Feng He Shi watched, his expression darkening. Even poisoned, he could still suppress these Semi-Devourers?
Weren’t Semi-Devourers supposed to be stronger than ordinary Espers?
Feng He Shi’s gaze swept the field and landed on a corner of the wall.
There, Kazama Rin, who had been knocked away earlier, was struggling to get up and grab his fallen Kendo sword.
“You’re the one.”
Feng He Shi blurred and appeared behind Kazama Rin.
“Ugh!”
Kazama Rin felt his neck tighten as a thick hand lifted him off the ground.
“Let go of… Kazama!” Kagegaya Tsubaki cried out in despair.
“Hey! You, Yuki!”
Feng He Shi held Kazama Rin like a rag doll and strode toward the center of the battle.
“See who this is? Your adorable junior, isn’t he?”
Yuki Asahi, engaged with the Semi-Devourers, heard the voice and instinctively turned his head.
In that instant of distraction, a monster’s claws left three deep, bone-exposing gashes across his back.
Yuki grunted, backhanded the monster’s head to pieces, and gasped heavily as he glared at Feng He Shi.
Feng He Shi grinned, tightening his grip. Kazama Rin’s face turned purple-red, his legs kicking feebly.
He held Kazama Rin in front of him and stepped closer step by step.
“You can keep resisting, keep killing my minions. But with every step I take, I’ll crush one of his bones. Let’s see if you can kill faster than I can crush.”
Crack. A crisp sound of bone breaking.
Kazama Rin let out a piercing scream as his left arm went limp.
Yuki Asahi’s eyes turned bloodshot.
“Don’t… don’t worry about me… Predecessor… kill him…”
Kazama Rin ground out those words through clenched teeth, tears streaming from the corners of his eyes from the agony.
“How touching.” Feng He Shi sneered, then used Kazama Rin as a meat shield and charged at Yuki.
At the same time, the surrounding Semi-Devourers surged forward, sealing off all escape routes.
Attack? He’d hurt Kazama Rin. Retreat? The friends behind him would be doomed.
In that split second, Yuki Asahi hesitated fatally.
“Die!!”
Feng He Shi seized the opening. He flung Kazama Rin aside, and with his other hand, a bone spike like a venomous snake struck, piercing through Yuki Asahi’s abdomen.
Slash!
Yuki Asahi’s body stiffened, his golden pupils instantly losing focus.
“Predecessor!”
“Not done yet!” Feng He Shi laughed wildly, ready to lift the bone spike and disembowel him.
Just then—
Whoosh!
A blood-colored sword light fell from the sky, striking the bone spike with pinpoint precision. The immense force sent Feng He Shi staggering back several steps.
“Who?!” Feng He Shi snarled in shock and fury.
As the dust cleared, a black-clad figure wielding a blood-colored longsword stood in front of Yuki Asahi.
His back was turned to Yuki, his tall silhouette as reliable as a mountain.
Sasaki, who had been directing the evacuation from a distance, saw this and his face turned ugly.
“Hattori…?”
“Hattori Koji! What are you doing! That’s not part of the mission!” Sasaki roared.
Koji Hattori ignored his outburst. He turned his head slightly to look at Yuki Asahi, collapsed on his knees holding his bleeding stomach, and at the familiar friends behind him.
Imai Yayoi, forcing herself upright, shouted tearfully, “Hattori-san!”
Koji Hattori turned back, pointing his blood-stained sword at Feng He Shi. He spoke in a low voice, “I’m only doing what I think is right.”
“You’re disobeying orders!” Sasaki said coldly.
“Missy… wouldn’t want to see them get hurt.” Koji’s voice was deep. “Especially him.”
Yuki Asahi, clutching his bleeding abdomen, looked up sharply, about to ask something.
Feng He Shi, enraged, roared as all the stitching on his body burst open, countless tentacles shooting out.
At the same time, all the surrounding Semi-Devourers attacked together.
“You’re asking for death!”
Koji Hattori showed no fear, swinging his blade to meet them.
Just as he prepared to fight to the death, a completely emotionless voice sounded through the communication channel.
Sasaki smashed a hole through the wall and gave his final order before leaving. “Long Yin, retrieve the battle suits.”
The battle suits were precious; lose one, lose one set.
Boom!
Long Yin nodded lightly, leaping to the center of the battlefield.
A Semi-Devourer in front of him didn’t even have time to react before he tore it apart with his bare hands, black blood splashing all over him.
Such pure brutality even made Feng He Shi, who was about to attack, freeze in his tracks.
But Long Yin’s target wasn’t Feng He Shi.
He turned to face Koji Hattori, who was protecting Yuki Asahi.
“Long… you…” Koji seemed to sense what was coming.
Long Yin didn’t speak. He simply reached out.
Thump.
The hand covered in black armor pierced easily through Koji Hattori’s chest. No blood flowed—because this body was merely a shell.
“I’m sorry.” Long Yin’s voice was soft. Then his hand clenched.
Crack! The core in Koji Hattori’s chest was crushed.
Crack! His body began to dissolve, scattering into countless black specks in the air.
In the last moment before his consciousness faded, he saw Yuki Asahi kneeling on the ground, staring with vacant eyes.
His final thought was: ‘This kid, the suit I picked is still there… but now it’s all torn up…’
Then he vanished completely, leaving only an empty belt ring.
To outsiders, it was a thorough execution—a cold-blooded execution that would kill even a comrade to uphold mission iron law.
Feng He Shi was stunned for a moment.
But the next second, a heart-wrenching scream, as if a soul was being ripped apart, shattered the silence.
“Koji!!”
Kazama Rin’s face twisted as he howled, but the voice wasn’t his own. It was the voice of Hattori Yumeko.
Kazama Rin, lying on the ground with one arm broken, convulsed violently.
His eyes rolled back, and instead of tears, two streams of blood flowed from the corners.
Kazama Rin seemed to see.
He saw Miss Meko kneeling on the ground, clawing at the air, crying her heart out.
That was her husband, whom she had been waiting for years.
Just now, before her eyes, to protect his friends, he was killed by his own people.
That pain, that rage, that hatred wanting to destroy everything— through the soul connection, it flooded into Kazama Rin’s mind without reserve.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”