Gripping the massive jet-black blade formed from the "Evil of This World," the oni god paid no heed to the chains binding it within the Rashomon Gate. Its movements were restricted, yes—but that didn't matter.
It simply raised the blade with both hands.
In the next instant—
A slash tore through the sky.
A blade of light—vast and absolute—cut across the heavens as though dividing the world itself. It arced outward in the shape of a near-full moon, stretching nearly a thousand meters in length, as if it truly possessed the power to cleave heaven and earth apart.
The Palace of Enma hanging above had seemed enormous before, towering hundreds of meters high.
But before a slash on the scale of a kilometer—
It meant nothing.
Where the black blade passed, space itself shattered.
The entire bounded domain trembled violently, its surface cracking into a dense web of fractures, like glass on the verge of collapse.
There was no doubt about it—
This domain wouldn't withstand that attack.
And with the power behind that strike, Ren didn't believe a second blow would even be necessary.
Even Enma herself, watching the all-consuming black slash bear down upon her, felt no illusion of resistance.
She couldn't run.
She couldn't block.
Even after exhausting every means at her disposal, she still wasn't her opponent's match.
If a miserable death was inevitable—
Then she would meet it with dignity.
"…How ironic," Enma murmured softly, a faint, self-deprecating smile on her lips. "I govern the dead… yet this is my first time facing my own death."
Her gaze lifted toward the descending blade.
"I wonder… when I die, will I become one of the spirits I once judged? And if someone comes to claim my soul… will it be those familiar faces?"
As the ruler of the underworld, the sovereign of Yomi, Enma dealt with countless souls every single day. Death was something she witnessed constantly.
But experiencing it herself—
That was something new.
And yet, she felt no deep resentment.
After all, no one understood the nature of death better than she did.
All living beings would one day arrive at this moment.
And this time—
She had lost, fair and square.
Still… there was one small regret.
Even at the very end—
She didn't know the name of the one who had defeated her.
The massive black slash descended upon the Palace of Enma—
And met no resistance whatsoever.
Like a hot blade through butter, it cleaved straight through.
The magnificent, resplendent palace was split apart as easily as paper before that overwhelming strike.
The instant the palace—formed from domain power—was destroyed, Enma coughed up a mouthful of blood, her aura collapsing in an instant.
And once the Palace of Enma was cut clean in two—
She stood defenseless.
The black slash, its momentum unspent, continued forward with unstoppable force, swallowing her entirely as she faced it with calm acceptance.
BOOM—!
And yet—
At the very moment Enma accepted her death—
Ren's already fractured bounded domain was violently shattered from the outside.
Like glass breaking apart, fragments of space rained down from the sky.
Above the torn-open void, a massive hole yawned—
And from beyond it, an enormous hand reached in, descending as though from the heavens themselves, stretching toward Enma.
Faced with the thousand-meter slash unleashed by the three-headed oni—
That gigantic hand simply waved once.
And shattered it.
The overwhelming attack—both in scale and power—was reduced to fragments with a casual swipe.
The sudden turn of events nearly made Ren drop to his knees.
Right now, he was already in his strongest state—
Half-demon transformation.
"Drunken Berserker."
And empowered by the "Evil of This World."
The strike from the oni god of the Rashomon Gate, combined with the ultimate technique of his style—Bukoku—delivered through a blade formed from pure malice…
That had been his absolute strongest move.
And yet—
It had been crushed so effortlessly.
This was not an opponent he could defeat at his current level.
No—
Forget defeating them.
In front of such a being, even escaping was nothing more than a distant fantasy.
The gap between their strengths was simply too vast.
Even if Ren abandoned his sanity entirely and allowed the "Evil of This World" to consume him completely—
It wouldn't be enough to bridge that difference.
The three-headed, six-armed oni god, seeing its attack blocked, showed no fear.
Instead, its faces lit up with fierce battle intent as it stared toward the enormous hand in the sky.
With five of its remaining arms, it reached into the void again—
And tore out five more massive black odachi, each formed from the "Evil of This World."
Its aura surged violently once more, swelling to even greater heights.
A black cloak manifested around its body, and its already towering hundred-meter frame began to expand further.
But just as the oni god's battle spirit reached its peak—
Just as it prepared to challenge the unknown entity—
The chains binding its body suddenly tightened.
On the surface of the Rashomon Gate, the engraved oni faces seemed to come alive, their crimson eyes snapping open with a sinister gleam.
The massive gate transformed into something like a gaping abyss—
And began to inhale.
An overwhelming suction force erupted, dragging at the chained oni god.
Even with its immense strength and towering form, its body was pulled backward against its will.
That suction—
It affected only the oni god.
Others could see it, but remained untouched.
The abyss-like maw of the Rashomon Gate did not merely pull at its body—
It devoured its power as well.
The oni god resisted with all its might, fury etched across its faces. Its feet carved deep trenches into the ground as it struggled to hold its position.
But as its strength was steadily drained—
It could no longer resist.
In the end, the chains dragged it back into the Rashomon Gate.
The colossal gate slowly closed once more, sinking back into the earth with a thunderous rumble.
And as both the oni god and the Rashomon Gate disappeared—
Ren's aura plummeted instantly to its lowest point.
The so-called "oni god" was, in truth, a manifestation of the "Evil of This World" that had developed its own consciousness within Ren's body.
The Rashomon Gate, meanwhile—
Was the restraint Ren himself imposed upon it.
That was why the oni god could wield and control the power of the "Evil of This World" so freely.
And when the chains of the Rashomon Gate were ever fully broken—
That would mark the moment Ren himself was completely lost.
Freed from its restraints, the oni god would run rampant without limit, growing stronger by feeding on the resentment of the human world.
And because it had resided within Ren's body for so long—
Every technique Ren knew…
It knew as well.
The strike that had cleaved apart the Palace of Enma—
Had been none other than the ultimate secret technique of the Fūrinkazan Style—
Bukoku.