Dunn West bit down hard on his lower lip. Using the jolt of pain to claw back a sliver of consciousness, he immediately opened his aura nodes and released Ren, trying to resist the encroaching drowsiness.
To be fair—he had quick instincts.
Because the "sleepiness" at its core was still nen. If you're being attacked with nen, you defend with nen.
He didn't even need to remind him.
Edmond—already reduced to a reeking flood of rot, no longer human-shaped, only countless furious eyes rolling with the current—let dark "nen-light" ripple across him and unleashed his Ren at the same time.
A C-rank and a B-rank fighter acting together—
Their combined pressure slammed toward Roy like a savage tide.
Roy caught the familiar scent on them—something that felt like a Blessing—and didn't change expression. He reached into the sunlight with his right hand.
A clear sword-chime rang out.
A light-sword was drawn slowly from the sun itself, wrapped in blazing solar fire—so bright and piercing that Dunn and Edmond both instinctively narrowed their eyes, their faces tightening with alarm.
"Dunn, you were right—he's definitely not Andrew Cooper!"
"He's a… viscount who's received a Blessing!"
Thud… thud… thud…
Throughout the hall, corridor, and garden, dozens of servants, playthings, and guards were already down. Edmond Sander stared at the flaring, sun-speckled blade in Roy's hand, and at the "face-changing" ability that let him mimic Andrew Cooper, and then burst into wild laughter.
"A viscount—good! People like you wouldn't even spare us a glance normally, but now you're lowering yourself into the slums for a piece of trash…"
The sleepiness burning off, Edmond surged forward with the current. Two rotting hands erupted from the flood, wrapped in Ken, and smashed down at Roy's head!
Inside Sumeru Mustard Seed, in that hazy inner space, a faint groan sounded…
Libery Garcia lay on a floating wooden platform, frowning as he slowly opened his eyes. Through the fluctuations of Roy's aura, he could vaguely see and hear something. He tried to push himself up—
Only to hear Roy's voice drift into his ears:
"I suggest you don't move. If you distract me, you'll interrupt my killing."
"Where am I?" Libery asked, recognizing Roy. His chest still burned with pain. He wisely stayed lying down.
After a pause, he asked carefully, "Great one… may I watch?"
"Watch if you want. Causality is right there."
Edmond's Ken-wrapped fist arrived.
Roy raised the light-sword and blocked it, and calmly spoke to Libery. Libery focused his mind; in that inner space, nen stirred and a water-like screen formed, reflecting the outside scene—Edmond's punch crashing in, Roy stopping it with one arm and one blade.
A viscount? Ridiculous. This idiot has no idea who he's really facing.
The "rotting flood fist" scraped against the light-sword with a shrieking zzzt—. Libery recalled the time-fragment he'd seen during his divination: that sun-chariot, that golden three-legged bird whose wings could blanket the sky… and the figure atop the chariot who looked down with one indifferent glance—something Libery could only describe as a god.
Even if Libery had never truly seen God, the word "God" was the highest title he could imagine.
Nen collided in a harsh roar.
Roy's feet were nailed to the floor; with one hand and one sword he held Edmond's punch in place—so composed it made Dunn, watching obediently, unconsciously reach for the thin belt at his waist: his weapon, a master-crafted nen weapon soft-sword.
He was sweating for Edmond.
"A viscount… so he really is a viscount!"
"How is he tied to that trash?"
Dunn glanced at the boy Roy had shielded—the one who'd been knocked out by the sleepiness, lying behind Roy. Dunn himself had snatched that boy from a farm family in the shantytown. His background was clean.
So how could he be connected to a noble?
Was he some noble's illegitimate child… and the "older brother" had come looking?
Thoughts churned—
Dunn's brow snapped tight.
Then a blade-flash split the air—too dazzling, too hot.
Roy—still wearing Andrew Cooper's face—tilted his blade upward in a casual sweep.
Edmond let out another pig-scream. His Ken-wrapped fist flew off, bursting midair into a spray of blood that rained down.
"Lord Edmond!" Dunn had never seen Edmond Sander injured. Instinct overrode orders—protect. He lunged forward, his soft-sword snapping free with a sharp hiss, and thrust straight at Roy's chest.
But as if swordsmen shared a silent rhythm—
Before Dunn could even close, Roy merely turned his head and glanced at him.
A scarlet sheen swallowed the light in his eyes—then three slowly rotating black tomoe surfaced.
A chilling pulse rippled outward.
Genjutsu—Infinite Void…
Nen—carried on Yin Release—was projected through that gaze and struck Dunn.
Dunn froze. His sword hadn't even reached Roy's range before his pupils lost focus. In 0.001 seconds, an entire Demon Slayer world of information was forced into his mind.
His brain filled.
Burst.
Shattered.
[Notice: "Life Energy" +50]
[Notice: "Faith Power" +10]
[Detected abnormal Faith Power—suspected Blessing from an unknown entity. These 10 points are unusable unless…]
[The host finds the faith source, kills it, and usurps its "divinity," allowing absorption.]
So it is…
The notification confirmed what Roy had already sensed.
That familiar "Blessing" smell—now he knew what it meant.
But if it wasn't the Samir Duchy's Thunder… then whose "divinity" was it?
Thud.
Dunn collapsed. His nen soft-sword clattered to the floor.
For Edmond, who'd just lost both hands again to Roy's blade, it was a warning bell.
Edmond—still a flood of rot—opened countless mouths and screamed in disbelief:
"You're not a viscount!"
Change-type "shapeshifting," light-form "phasing," sleepiness, that bizarre mental overload…
"One… two… three… four… Duke, Marquis, Count, Viscount, Baron—damn it!"
"What the hell are you?!"
Edmond snapped fully awake. Dunn's death had clamped his throat.
He whipped around, shoved nen into his body, and smashed through the window to run—pure, instant decisiveness.
The speed of that retreat was startling.
Inside Sumeru Mustard Seed, Libery coughed out a laugh, pain twisting his face.
"What… what are you doing? You're defiling the Great One!"
He watched Edmond flee in disgrace and snarled, "Blasphemers must die—must be killed!"
Outside—window right there, garden beyond—
Edmond was a heartbeat from escaping when he heard Roy's voice, quiet as a knife:
"Stop."
Edmond's whole body locked.
Inside the stinking flood-body, a fleshy bud had somehow appeared.
The moment it entered him, it went from limp fish on sand to a thing revived by water—then to something too alive, too hungry, too frantic.
It drank his nen, grew explosively—sprouting into a small tree, branches shooting through his limbs and organs.
Edmond couldn't maintain the flood form anymore. He shrank, and shrank again, until he was reduced to a dried husk—a human jerky—hanging from that branchwork, barely holding one breath.
"Enough," Roy said flatly. "Don't make me slap you."
Flesh Bud Technique—activated.
Roy watched Edmond's collapse without emotion. Then he flicked his wrist—En expanded, a Heart Worm slipped in while Edmond still clung to life, and Roy stepped onto the ridge of Edmond's heartfield—
and began reading.
Five abilities, six… the "Void" tag… the "Blessing" residue…
Too many threads.
Roy didn't untangle them here.
He ended it.
And as Edmond's heartfield broke, a final surge came:
[Notice: "Life Energy" +170]
[Notice: "Faith Power" +25]
[Detected abnormal Faith Power—suspected Blessing from an unknown entity. These 25 points are unusable unless…]
[The host finds the faith source, kills it, and usurps its "divinity," allowing absorption.]
Roy stood at the broken window in silence, the sun blazing outside.
Then, without hesitation, he gathered the bodies—Dunn, Edmond, the guards, the drugged dancers—into Sumeru Mustard Seed.
A spark of Scorching True Intent flicked from his fingers.
The villa burned from inside out.
And Roy—light-form again—vanished into the daylight.
~~~
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