"Die, Shinigami!"
Three roars of different tones erupted simultaneously from the giant's mouths, and six spirit bows were drawn at once, condensing into six massive arrows powerful enough to pierce the city wall.
Faced with this overwhelming force, Arata was surprisingly calm. He gently ran his hand across Meigetsu's blade and whispered, "Looks like we need to get a little serious."
Before he even finished speaking, Arata slowly dragged his left hand across his face.
In an instant, a heart‑stopping surge of spiritual pressure erupted, purple‑black spiritual pressure wrapped around his entire body like a solid form, and faint crackling noises could even be heard in the air.
"What is that?!" Takamiya Yūji's pupils shrank sharply. He saw a white, bone‑like liquid suddenly appear on Arata's face, instantly hardening into a transparent, eerie hollow mask.
The moment the mask formed, Arata's already immense spiritual pressure surged once again, and cracks like spiderwebs began spreading from the ground beneath him.
The original purple‑black spiritual pressure became streaked with crimson, spreading like blood vessels across his spiritual pressure mantle.
"You are the ones who will die…"
With that low growl, Arata's figure vanished from sight.
Shoof, shoof, shoof——!
BOOM——!
All the spirit arrows fired by the giant missed and blasted six massive craters into the wall behind him.
"Where did he go?!"
All three heads of the Holy Giant turned at once, six eyes frantically searching for a trace of the enemy, but found nothing.
"Above!"
When the head controlled by Rakid finally sensed something was wrong and looked up, what it saw was a purple‑black meteor falling from the sky.
Arata descended headfirst in an inverted stance, the Meigetsu trailing a blazing tail of spiritual pressure flames over ten meters long.
"Too slow."
A cold voice slipped through the mask, carrying a ghastly echo.
"Maintain Static Blut at full power!"
"I know that without you!"
In panic, the giant raised two massive arms to defend itself, but upon contact, both arms were sliced into four pieces, and the blue, vein‑like lines flowing across their skin halted abruptly!
Blue‑white spirit blood gushed like a fountain as the giant screamed in agony.
"Uuuuuuu—"
"Impossible! Our defense is so strong that even His Majesty praises it!"
Arata didn't give them even a breath to think. The moment he landed, he leapt again.
This time he was even faster, his body nearly becoming a blurred afterimage as he circled the giant at high speed.
"Dark flames dance wildly!"
Countless purple‑black slashes rained down from all directions simultaneously, each one striking precisely at the weakest spiritual pressure nodes.
The huge fused body had now become a burden, it had no time to respond to these ultra‑fast, continuous attacks.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Among the giant's howling agony, large chunks of its spirit body were cut away.
The female head controlled by Maine was the first to collapse, her face twisting in unbearable pain.
"Hold on! He can't keep this level of strength for long!" Nidalee screamed, trying to stabilize the fusion, but Arata's next strike had already arrived.
"Sorry to disappoint you. I can use this move all day without stopping."
The mocking voice from beneath the mask carried chilling arrogance.
"Hell Burial!"
Arata landed and drove Meigetsu into the ground. His spiritual pressure erupted even more violently, and his control over spiritual pressure grew even more intricate.
But this time, what burst from the ground were not purple pillars of flame but countless sharp spikes forged from highly compressed, refined spirit particles.
These purple‑black spikes chased the giant's stumbling steps like living creatures, like iron chains from hell dragging down a sinner trying to escape and in the end, pinned the giant high in the air.
"It's over."
In the next instant, Arata appeared before the suspended giant, the eyes beneath the hollow mask cold and merciless.
Holding the sword with both hands, he took a thrusting stance. At the tip of Meigetsu, a sphere of spiritual pressure formed, compressing continuously until it shrank to the size of a marble.
"Underworld Seal Bead."
The scarlet‑mixed purple‑black sphere shot forward at immense speed, piercing the giant's chest instantly. Under the disbelieving gazes of the three consciousnesses, the star‑cross emblem and spiritual pressure core were destroyed together.
"No—!"
With a final desperate scream, cracks spread across the giant like fractured porcelain, and an explosive blast shattered its body into fragments of spirit particles scattered in all directions.
Three figures tumbled out of the center of the explosion in panic. Rakid lay on the ground riddled with bloody holes, Maine had lost both her arms, and Nidalee was in the worst shape, half of her body blown apart by the Underworld Seal Bead's aftershock.
"M‑monster… He must be a monster!"
Rakid trembled as he pushed himself up on his elbows, eyes filled with pure terror as he stared at Arata.
He had never seen anyone defeat the Holy Giant so easily. Even when fighting the genius Sternritter Haschwalth, he had never felt such hopelessness.
Arata walked toward the three, the light on the hollow mask pulsing quietly with his breath. Ever since merging with the Heart of the Spirit King, the burden of Hollow mode was nearly nonexistent.
Other than Bankai, which he still hadn't mastered, his combat power in this state had reached an unprecedented peak.
Handling these three Sternritter pawns should have been easy—of course they would be finished in just a few moves.
"Wait! We can negotiate!" Maine cried, enduring the agony of her missing arms, terror twisting her expression as she crawled backward. "Shinigami, you know who we are, right? We were personally sent by His Majesty—"
"A small pawn should be treated like a small pawn." Arata cut off her babbling, Meigetsu flashing with icy light. "I gave you a chance to surrender earlier. On the battlefield, there is no such thing as regret."
Nidalee suddenly leapt up, condensing a short bow in the half‑remaining left arm.
"Die!"
But before she could fire, her movements froze. Arata had already appeared behind her unnoticed, Meigetsu sliding lightly across her throat.
"The first one."
The moment he pronounced the death sentence, Nidalee's brown ponytail flew upward together with her head, the expression on her face full of vengeful hatred.
Hot blood splattered onto Rakid's face. The red‑haired man who'd been so arrogant earlier now collapsed from fear, a puddle forming beneath him as warm liquid spread across the ground.
"No, don't kill me! I surrender! I can give you information about Lichtreich!"
"I know the head of the Intelligence Department well, I'll satisfy you, sir, just don't kill me!"
Rakid knelt trembling, tears streaming down his face as he begged for mercy, with none of his earlier pride remaining.
Arata tilted his head, his voice beneath the mask carrying ridicule. "Oh? Didn't you just say you'd show me the true power of the Sternritter?"
"What's wrong? So your true power… is betrayal?"
Though Rakid didn't fully understand the word "betrayal" in this context, he clearly heard the mockery in Arata's tone. Regret swelled inside him so violently it felt like it would overflow.
Damn Maine!
He never should have followed the vanguard to seek death; he would have been better off staying with the main force!
Swoosh——!
The blade flashed, and Rakid's expression froze forever in the moment of deepest regret.
The sudden deaths of two companions completely broke Maine's spirit. She screamed and turned to flee, but a purple‑black crescent pierced her back.
She looked down at the tip of the blade sticking out of her chest, blood flowing from her lips, her eyes full of confusion.
"Why…"
"His Majesty clearly said… we would win…"
Arata pulled the sword free and turned away as Maine's body collapsed behind him.
"He won, but a thousand years later."