Finn genuinely wondered why everyone around him—especially those who went out of their way to antagonize him—somehow assumed he was a kind, gentle, deeply forgiving young man. Particularly the ones who had made the incredibly brutal, stupid mistake of trying to have him murdered.
Frankly, he had already been vastly more merciful than standard Devil protocol dictated. Instead of dispatching a team of assassins in the dead of night to butcher the Himejima Clan in their beds, he had opted for a completely open, entirely transparent economic bounty. Yet, somehow, the humans still found him unreasonable.
It was a classic psychological phenomenon. When people don't get their way, they throw a violent tantrum. It was exactly like lending someone money. The lender simply wanted their cash back as promised, but when they came to collect, the borrower suddenly acted as if the lender was an evil, greedy tyrant. Why was the act of holding someone accountable suddenly viewed as a devilish sin?
Because of this deeply flawed human logic, Finn knew that in business, you had to completely sever your heart from your mind. The absolute second you show a shred of emotional empathy, people would ruthlessly exploit it.
Offering a helping hand once or twice was fine. Turning someone into a loyal pet—feeding them, housing them, and paying them enough money to act as your personal attack dog—was also fine. Money is the ultimate motivator. People would gladly throw away all logic and morality if the paycheck is high enough.
Take the Hero Faction, for instance. They needed pocket change to fund their terrorist organization, so they happily took the Himejima Clan's bounty, assuming Finn was an easy, sheltered target.
Unfortunately, for them, they chose the wrong target, and they paid the ultimate price.
However, the Hero Faction had absolute, divine backing from Indra. Because of that political safety net, Finn had opted not to slaughter them.
But... The Himejima Clan had absolutely zero divine backing!
So why on earth should Finn hesitate to crush them?
"ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"
Tobio Ikuse roared like a feral beast, and the entire world around them violently shattered, melting into a suffocating, inky dimension of absolute shadow.
"Hmm... it seems you came here explicitly prepared for a fight," Finn noted dryly.
Despite Tobio launching a high-speed sneak attack in a crowded street, Finn wasn't flustered. He wasn't even slightly hurt. This was the fundamental, undeniable weakness of human combatants. No matter how exponentially Longinus boosted their physical parameters, their base biology was pathetically fragile. Unless they possessed a dense internal energy source—like Touki, Senjutsu, or Chakra—they were entirely powerless without their divine weapons!
Finn, however, was a biological nightmare. He possessed advanced Senjutsu, an astronomically high resistance to magic, terrifying physical parameters, and a Demonic Power reserve that brushed against the ceiling of the Ultimate Class. Did Tobio honestly believe a puny human punch could hurt him?
Instead of taking damage from the explosive impact, Finn had simply raised his hand and effortlessly caught Tobio's incoming fist.
"LET GO!"
Tobio roared, his eyes wide with panicked desperation. He violently yanked his arm, trying to rip his fist out of Finn's grip.
Finn simply smiled, his golden eyes glowing dangerously in the dark dimension. "Don't be in such a rush. You wanted a fight, right? Let's fight."
If Finn simply brushed off Tobio's attack without retaliating, other arrogant heroes would assume they could take cheap shots at him without consequences.
Still, he had to admit, despite Suzaku's pathetic groveling earlier, the woman was highly tactical. She was the one who had instantly deployed this localized barrier dimension the second Tobio attacked, ensuring her lover could fight with his full strength without obliterating Taipei and alerting the local authorities.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
The sickening sound of grinding bone echoed through the dark barrier. Tobio's fist cracked, splintered, and completely pulverized inside Finn's grip, as if it had been casually shoved into an industrial hydraulic press. There was absolutely no escape.
Will the plot miraculously heal his hand? Finn wondered casually, squeezing tighter.
While Finn contemplated the absurd, plot-armored resilience of Shōnen protagonists, Tobio was in absolute, mind-numbing agony!
If Finn had merely blocked the punch and thrown him back, Tobio could have reset his stance. But because Finn had caught him, Tobio was completely trapped. His vaunted physical strength was laughably inferior.
Balam. The Pillar defined by absolute, undeniable supernatural strength.
Tobio had critically underestimated him. He had fought powerful, city-destroying entities before. When he first met Finn, he assumed the boy was just a sheltered, arrogant young master who hid behind his wealth and bodyguards.
The terrifying reality was that Tobio couldn't do a damn thing. His strength was useless. He couldn't even leverage his incredible speed to tear himself away! Finn's grip was an immovable iron vise that was actively threatening to pinch his hand clean off his wrist!
"JINNNN!!!"
Realizing it was physically impossible to break free, Tobio roared in desperation. From the swirling black shadows beneath their feet, a small, pitch-black puppy suddenly lunged upward, violently sinking its fangs directly into Finn's wrist!
"RAWRRRR!"
The tiny hound growled fiercely, its jaws locking with enough force to tear through solid steel.
Finn blinked in genuine surprise. It actually hurts. His body, which had fully adapted to Issei's world-breaking, multiplied punches, was actually taking piercing damage from this tiny puppy's teeth.
"I see," Finn murmured, looking down at the snarling dog. "So this is the Canis Lykaon."
Also known as the Dog God of the Black Blade. It was one of the legendary Longinus. Originally crafted by the Biblical God, the Sacred Gear was forged from two distinct sources: the cursed King Lycaon of Arcadia, and the Ame-no-Ohabari—the legendary Shinto divine sword used to execute a fire god. The unholy fusion resulted in an ominous, god-killing blade taking the form of a black hound.
When Tobio was born with the Gear, it was already in a semi-active Balance Breaker state. His grandmother had performed a massive Buddhist sealing ritual just to keep the boy from being consumed by it. Tobio had simply named the lethal shadow weapon 'Jin'.
Yet, looking at the legendary God-killing weapon currently chewing on his wrist like a stubborn puppy, Finn was thoroughly unimpressed.
He had to admit, the fangs were incredibly sharp. Because they carried the conceptual sharpness of the Ame-no-Ohabari, they could theoretically slice through almost anything in existence.
But what happens when the object they are trying to cut simply adapts?
"Wan~?"
Jin let out a confused whine. The hound tried with all its might to sink its fangs deeper. It even expanded its size, transforming into a massive, terrifying wolf, making its fangs longer and infinitely sharper. Yet somehow, the God-killing teeth were being actively pushed back out of the flesh. Finn's wounds violently knitted themselves shut, his biology aggressively evolving to render the divine blade completely obsolete.
"You're getting a bit heavy," Finn noted lazily.
Without an ounce of hesitation, Finn reached over with his free hand, casually grabbed the massive shadow hound by the scruff of its neck, and violently slammed it directly onto the pavement!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!!
Jin released a soulless, agonizing shriek as its body cratered the reinforced concrete. Before the hound could recover, Finn calmly raised his tailored shoe and stomped directly down on its skull, pinning the legendary weapon to the dirt.
"JIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!"
Tobio screamed. His eyes completely rolled back in absolute, unadulterated wrath as he glared at Finn with raw murder in his heart.
"I WILL KILL YOU!"
Unlike Issei, who was an incredibly naive rookie, Tobio was a hardened veteran of the supernatural underworld. Facing such a cruel, seemingly untouchable Devil, he threw away all hesitation. He fully intended to murder Finn.
"Now you've officially said it." Finn's golden eyes turned terrifyingly cold. He didn't intend to hold back anymore. "You just threatened to kill me. Do not blame me for executing you."
No matter how frantically Tobio kicked, scratched, and clawed at Finn's iron grip, it was entirely futile.
Instead, Finn's Demonic Power suddenly erupted. The heavy, suffocating pressure of an Ultimate-Class Devil descended like a sudden, violent typhoon. The air in the barrier grew so agonizingly dense that the surrounding gravity seemed to multiply.
"You truly provoked the wrong person to save your life, Suzaku-san," Akeno whispered from the sidelines.
"I..." Suzaku dropped to her knees, completely paralyzed by the sheer terror radiating from Finn.
Akeno didn't spare her cousin a second glance. She kept her flushed, heavily lidded eyes locked entirely on Finn. She knew exactly how ruthless the man she loved could be. These humans had blatantly declared war on him, and they had just promised to kill him.
Would Finn hesitate to turn them into bloody mist?
Absolutely not. Even if Azazel and the entire Grigori army teleported into the alley right now, absolutely no one could save Tobio from what was coming!
Finn's aura flared blindingly bright, radiating like a dark sun in the shadow dimension. The very fabric of space began to crackle and warp around his massive frame. Violent, chaotic ripples of crimson and black lightning surged up his arm, gathering with terrifying density directly into his right fist.
"LET GO! LET GO! LET GO OF ME!"
Tobio was in an absolute panic. He wildly thrashed backward, but his left hand was still perfectly trapped in Finn's crushing grip. If he wanted to escape the incoming strike, he would literally have to rip his own arm off!
Finn completely ignored the boy's desperate screams. His grip didn't loosen a single millimeter.
"Goodbye."
The atmosphere became completely suffocating. It felt as though an invisible mountain had crashed down onto Tobio's shoulders, locking him perfectly in place.
Yet, Finn's combat posture was incredibly strange. He didn't pull his arm back for a standard martial arts strike. Instead, he twisted his torso deeply, winding up exactly like a professional baseball pitcher preparing to throw a 100-mph fastball!
"JINNNN!!!"
Desperate, knowing he was about to die, Tobio roared. Drawing on the absolute limit of his life force, he chanted alongside his Longinus to force his ultimate trump card.
<< — Behowlest the slaying of one thousand mortals >>
<< — Besingest the slaying of ten thousand goblins >>
<< — Mine name, which tis immersed in deepest darkness, tis the Imitation God traversing the Polar Night >>
<< — O ye, perishest by mine own black blade >>
<< — Fools ye art, deformed Creator Gods >>
"Night Celestial Slash Dogs!"
Tobio's body was instantly swallowed by absolute darkness, forcefully transforming him into a terrifying, humanoid black hound with six massive tails, while Jin fully manifested as an enormous, demonic wolf.
Yet, even the ultimate, God-killing Balance Breaker couldn't stop the horrifying momentum of the punch Finn was about to unleash!
Finn's swing was absolute. It carried the unstoppable, devastating kinetic mass of a falling meteor. Because his left hand held Tobio perfectly in place, the human couldn't dodge. Utilizing the full-body torque of a pitcher's throw, Finn snapped his hips and launched his fist forward at a speed that violently shattered the sound barrier.
"Balam Fist."
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!
---
I know that it might be sudden, but I have to say sorry that I might need to take a break for two or three days from the 14th to 16th July, so from Tuesday to Thursday, as I have to go to another city. Before, I went to another city, too, traveling from 4 in the morning to 7 at night, then forcing myself, but I have to say, it isn't a nice experience, but that's only a day trip, but this time, I have to leave for a while, and I don't think I might be able to write during that time, so while I know that I might have make you all be disatisfied, or disappointed, I have to say sorry since I have to go during that time, but I will try to make it up to you.
Also, I might start to upload my new story at the end of the month or early August. It will be an original story, so I look forward to it, since I have been thinking about this story for a while, and only had a chance to realize it now.
It will be my first original work in so many years since I wrote a fanfiction, and it will be a romance about three heroines who are wonderful on their own. Please look forward to it!
Thank you!
From your lovely author, Akikan40!