"Gah!"
Giriko Kutsuzawa let out a cry of pain as blood spurted from his wound.
He stumbled backward in a sorry state, his previous composure and elegance completely gone, replaced by a face full of horror.
By the time Asuka finished his slash, he had already retreated.
Only then did roaring green flames erupt from the spot where he had just been standing.
"I noticed it during our first exchange. All that talk about Spiritual Pressure thresholds and the God of Time is nothing but empty rhetoric."
Asuka flicked his wrist, shaking the blood off his blade. "In the end, it's just a specific application of the Spiritual Energy within your body."
"I'm guessing you convert my power that exceeds the limit into your own strength, and then turn it right back against me."
Giriko's expression grew even uglier, his hand tightly gripping the pocket watch.
"But if my speed is so fast that you can't even react, leaving you no time to convert that power..." Asuka pressed his advantage, charging at Giriko once more. "Your God of Time is an absolute joke."
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Giriko was forced into a frantic scramble, relying on his pocket watch to create small-scale time stagnations just to dodge Asuka's slashes.
However, Asuka's power was simply too overwhelming. Not only did he ignore the penalties for breaking the contract, but he also forced Giriko to repeatedly break his own rules, accelerating to evade the strikes.
While Asuka was unilaterally suppressing Giriko, at the other end of the street, Kisuke Urahara was facing a siege from three assassins wielding Bakkoto.
"My, my, the structure of these swords is truly disgusting."
Holding Benihime in one hand, Urahara dodged and weaved through the three assassins' coordinated attacks as if he were taking a leisurely stroll.
The Bakkoto in the assassins' hands varied in shape, but without exception, they all exuded a nauseating, sinister aura.
Urahara was quite curious about these legendary forbidden weapons, so he wasn't in a hurry to land a killing blow. Instead, he continuously observed them from close range.
"Kill him! Kill him!!"
The assassins' eyes were bloodshot as they let out beast-like roars.
Their life force was being frantically drained by the Bakkoto, exchanged for a berserk strength that far exceeded their own limits.
Boom!
The assassin wielding a heavy sword leaped into the air, bringing it down toward the top of Urahara's head with the crushing weight of a mountain.
"Your strength has indeed been amplified several times, perhaps even over a dozen times, but..."
Urahara didn't take the attack head-on. His body slipped to the assassin's side as nimbly as a fish in water.
"It seems the price for this power is overdrawing the user's life and sanity."
Slash!
Benihime sliced through the air, its crimson blade light cutting into the assassin's joint.
"Aaaargh!"
The assassin let out a miserable shriek as the heavy sword flew from his grasp, smashing a shallow crater into the asphalt.
Urahara didn't press the attack. Instead, he used Benihime to lift the dropped heavy sword Bakkoto, carefully observing the eyeball on the hilt that was still spinning madly.
"A weapon that relies on parasitism to forcefully extract Spiritual Energy... Can it really elevate an ordinary squad member to the level of a Seated Officer...?"
"Just what is the Kasumioji Family planning by creating these things?"
Seeing their comrade injured, the other two assassins were driven even more frantic by the sight of blood.
Wielding a long whip and gauntlets, they flanked Urahara from the left and right.
"Bind, Benihime!"
Hum—!
A massive net of light composed of crimson Reishi instantly erupted from Benihime's blade.
The moment the whip-wielding assassin touched the net of light, his long whip snapped instantly.
Immediately after, the net continued its momentum, completely enveloping his entire body.
With a thud, he fell to the ground, tied up securely.
"Alright, alright, let me take a closer look at what you guys..."
Boom!!
Before Urahara could finish his sentence, the assassin actually detonated the explosives on his body, instantly blowing himself into a shower of blood.
"This..."
Under Urahara's shocked gaze, the sole remaining assassin reacted swiftly.
Along with the assassin whose hand had been severed, he grabbed the scattered Bakkoto from the ground as quickly as possible, then immediately threw a smoke bomb that shielded Spiritual Pressure detection. Bang—!!
A cloud of smoke and dust exploded. By the time Urahara tried to find them again, the assassin had vanished without a trace along with the Bakkoto.
In the blink of an eye, the battle had come to an end.
Urahara sheathed Benihime, his gaze solemn as he looked at the mess around him.
On the other side, the battle was also drawing to a close.
Giriko was now in an utterly wretched state.
His expensive suit had long been reduced to rags, and his body was covered in crisscrossing blade wounds that continuously oozed blood.
"Monster... You unreasonable monster!!"
Giriko gasped heavily for air, his right eye filled with fear and shock.
He couldn't understand why this Soul Reaper was able to completely ignore his restrictions and utterly crush him!
"Oh? Are you finally done spouting nonsense?"
Asuka looked at him expressionlessly and swung Kakudatsu down once more.
Clang—!!
This time, Giriko used his pocket watch to gather materialized numbers of Spiritual Energy, barely blocking the attack, though he still looked miserable.
"Come to think of it, it's been almost ten minutes." Asuka continuously applied pressure, forcing Giriko straight to his knees. "Since your contract time is almost up, you can take your contract and go straight to hell."
"W-Wait!"
Facing the fatal slash descending upon his head, Giriko finally broke down.
He abandoned all his pride and screamed in terror, "You can't kill me! I'm a member of Xcution!"
"If you kill me, our boss will absolutely not let you off!"
"I have no idea what you're babbling about."
The blade in Asuka's hand slashed down mercilessly.
"You forced me to do this!!"
In the final moment between life and death, Giriko let out a hysterical roar.
He fiercely bit the tip of his tongue, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the pocket watch in his hand.
At the same time, he used the last of his strength to shout, "Contract Alteration! At the cost of my own lifespan, I exchange for an instantaneous spatial coordinate displacement!!"
Hum—!
The pocket watch erupted with a blinding green light.
Within this light, Giriko's skin withered and shriveled, and his hair instantly turned significantly whiter.
This immense power, bought through self-sacrifice, forcefully distorted the surrounding space.
Slash!
Asuka's blade fell, but it only struck a phantom.
Giriko's figure twisted violently within the green light, and finally, a thousandth of a second before the blade touched his neck, he completely vanished from the spot.
All that remained was a cleanly severed right arm, still spurting blood, which dropped onto the cold asphalt with a wet thud.
In the air, Giriko's distorted echo, warped by extreme agony, faintly lingered. "Soul King's Substitute! Xcution will remember this debt..."
"That lord will definitely avenge me!!"
Asuka sheathed his long sword and looked coldly at the severed arm on the ground, his brows furrowing slightly.
'His ability to run away is certainly top-notch.'