Jhin didn't quite know how he'd fallen asleep—perhaps it was because waiting for Kokkoro and Kyaru to come back had been too boring. Leaning against the sofa, listening to Megumin chatter about how beautiful today's [Explosion magic] had been, the girl's pleasant, airy voice was like a lullaby that carried him off into dreamland.
The scenery—an endless starry sky both above and beneath his feet—reminded him of the scene before he came to the continent of Astraea, when he had met the goddess Eris.
"I've been fixating on [What Heads Toward Death] these past few days, so that's why I'm having a dream like this?"
No sooner had he spoken than the goddess Eris appeared before him, her expression anxious: "Jhin!"
"So Eris is here too—yo! Long time no see."
"Kokkoro is in danger—hurry to this place and save her!" Eris waved her hand, revealing an image shrouded in black mist. From the surrounding scenery, it looked like some corner of the Royal Castle Park.
Jhin's face changed abruptly. He realized this was no ordinary dream. He committed the scenery around that image to memory and roared at Eris: "Hurry and get me out of this dream!"
"Kokkoro is counting on you." With those words, she waved her hand and sent him out of the dream.
"Damn it!"
His furious roar startled Megumin and Pecorine. They stared blankly at the awakened Jhin, unsure what kind of nightmare he'd had to wake up this angry.
With no time to explain anything to the two of them, Jhin instantly donned his [Elemental Armament]. Not even his metallic voice could mask the rage in his words: "Get ready for battle here at home!"
Leaving those words behind, he burst through the front door and dashed off. What he couldn't understand was that he had clearly disguised everything properly when he posted the commission—so why had they come under what seemed to be an attack from [What Heads Toward Death]?
I have to make it in time!!!!
Wreathed in wind element, the pitch-black war plate became a bolt of lightning weaving through the streets of the royal capital.
"Interesting—so you actually carry around something like this." Picking up the group photo Kyaru had dropped on the ground, His Majesty looked at the her inside it, the corners of her mouth slightly upturned as she pretended to be displeased, and let out a malicious sneer: "I'm not seeing things, am I—you actually smiled during this little game of house. It seems you really have immersed yourself in this false relationship. That's not good… not good at all."
Kyaru clutched her red, swollen neck and rasped out a defense: "His Majesty Hatou… It's not… I didn't…"
"Didn't? Then I'll just destroy this thing for you."
"Ah…"
Under the erosion of the black mist, the color photograph gradually withered and yellowed, then crumbled into powder that drifted on the wind before Kyaru. It was as though that powder turned into blades, gouging an enormous hollow out of her heart.
Hatou watched the light fade from her eyes as she collapsed to her knees like a lifeless doll. The black mist condensed into a blade tip that lifted her chin: "A pawn betrayed her companions' trust—tell me… do you think they'll forgive you?"
Tears slid silently from the corners of Kyaru's eyes. Every little moment spent with her companions surfaced in her mind like images on a revolving lantern, the final frame freezing on Kokkoro's delighted expression when she received the invitation, and on Jhin's doting smile.
He… surely won't forgive me. Everyone… won't forgive me either.
Her heart convulsed uncontrollably, as if countless sharp spines were piercing into it. The stabbing pain made her face even more ghastly pale.
"Looks like you've gotten your answer. So, I have a good suggestion—why don't I kill you? That way, at least you'll leave a good impression in those companions' hearts." Hatou's whole body was wrapped in black mist, like an aggregate composed of malice, using words to drag a person down into despair.
…
"You've completely stopped reacting already? How boring. I was hoping to watch your suffering a while longer."
[Stop wasting time. Hurry and take that elf back to search her memories. Our fusion level isn't high right now—it's not suitable to stay out here too long.]
[I'll finish this now.]
"Then farewell—you nauseating little toy." "BAM!"
The sound of shattering glass rang out abruptly in this secluded corner. The barrier Hatou had laid down was smashed apart by someone.
"I'm going to kill you today, you son of a bitch!" A roar full of savage fury accompanied gray ripples that stopped time. Jhin saw Kokkoro encased in gray crystal and Kyaru, who was a hair's breadth from being beheaded—his eyes went bloodshot.
Although he couldn't make out the true appearance of this mass of black shadow, he was all too familiar with the bizarre body connected to the crystal behind it. Other than that virus program [What Heads Toward Death], what else could it be?
Save Kokkoro and Kyaru first!
Without the slightest hesitation, Jhin unleashed every attack at his disposal—[Dark-Corrosive Thunder], [Prismatic Javelin], [Resplendent Blade]—severing that segment of body connected to the crystal.
His substitute clung to his body, and his fist-shadows fell like a violent storm, crackling against the surface of the crystal. Under such high-intensity assault, vast fissures spread across the crystal, until at last it shattered with a thunderous crash.
Gripping the [Blade of Resurrection], which represented the power of life, Jhin without the slightest hesitation plunged it into Kokkoro's ice-cold body.
The [Blade of Resurrection] transformed into a film of green light that enveloped her. Her originally pallid little face gradually grew rosy, and her breathing gradually calmed—every sign showed that she was now out of mortal danger.
Letting out a slight sigh of relief, Jhin then rescued Kyaru, who was about to be beheaded, and sheltered her together with Kokkoro behind him.
With nothing left to worry about, his murderous intent—nearly condensing into something physical—aimed straight at the black shadow assimilated by [What Heads Toward Death]. The glowing blade in his hand swept out a string of afterimages, and hundreds of sword-auras surrounded it in an airtight blockade.
[Dark-Corrosive Thunder] stacked endlessly in his hand, condensing into a lightning-shaped spear. Only when Jhin felt it was nearing the point of being uncontrollable did he stop stacking. The magic in his hand made him feel like he was holding an unstable miniature nuke.
He adjusted the throwing angle slightly, ensuring that even if the black shadow escaped the encirclement of sword-aura, it would be carried up into the sky by this compressed magic and detonated. Then Jhin hurled the lightning spear and withdrew with the two of them toward the guild cabin.
"Let time flow again."
Facing the sword-auras and the magic, Hatou didn't even have time to raise a defense before being buried. But the explosion Jhin had imagined did not appear. He didn't care to scrutinize why this was so—right now the most important thing was to hurry back and check Kokkoro's injuries.
"Damn it!" Hatou's mangled, broken body crashed down into the basement. All four of its limbs were severed, its body more like a tattered rag, not a single intact spot anywhere, its heart utterly gone, its brain like a smashed-open watermelon.
Even so, it still eerily lived on.
[This is exactly why I told you not to waste time. Your wounds are this severe—the fusion progress has been greatly affected. Stop concerning yourself with the matters of this world. Choose complete fusion. Only then can the full extent of my power be brought to bear.]
"To actually wound my perfect visage… I will tear him to a thousand pieces!" After saying this, Hatou turned into a wisp of black mist and burrowed into that bizarre heart.
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