Saving people was never Shinji's first priority.
He didn't mind doing it if it happened along the way.
But asking him to bleed and risk his life for a crowd of strangers? Sorry, that was something he would never do.
His mindset was always simple: save them if possible, if not, then so be it.
If anyone tried to guilt-trip him, he would simply tell them: If you think it's so easy, you go do it.
What right did people have to criticize from safety behind the lines?
Self-righteous hypocrites?
Demanding others to do things they wouldn't or couldn't do themselves?
Did they have no shame?
He turned to Hidan beside him. "We need to find a way out soon. This environment is way too favorable for the enemy — we'll never catch him here."
Hidan agreed. "But what about all these people? It's going to be a nightmare trying to take everyone out together."
"Forget about them for now. Once we kill the enemy, they'll be safe anyway. The only difference is whether they see daylight a bit sooner or later."
"Took you long enough to say that!"
Hidan was delighted to be rid of such a heavy burden.
But leaving wasn't going to be that easy.
"Dark Curse Art: Dark Invasion!"
Uxas suddenly appeared and exhaled a cloud of black mist that surged rapidly forward.
He had chosen his position cleverly — placing a large group of people between himself and them to act as a shield.
If Shinji and Hidan wanted to attack him, they would have to cut through the crowd first.
Uxas, however, had no such reservations.
Unsure of exactly how dangerous this mist was, the two had no choice but to retreat temporarily.
Then, a horrific scene unfolded.
Everyone enveloped by the black mist instantly began screaming in agony. Before their eyes, their bodies twisted and warped, turning into terrifying, disfigured monsters.
Shinji knew these creatures all too well — he had killed at least a thousand of them here already.
"So this is what those experiments were really about..."
His expression darkened.
Finally, he understood exactly what the enemy was trying to do.
It was simple: drag them here. If all three thousand people were transformed, they would be completely swamped.
Especially now, when Shinji was already running low on Cursed Energy.
"Troublesome."
Shinji frowned. You really could never underestimate a Special Grade Cursed Spirit.
"What do we do now?" Hidan was starting to get frustrated. "We can't even get close to that coward as long as that mist is there."
He wasn't afraid of dying, but he definitely didn't want to turn into some grotesque, deformed monster.
Until they found a solution, he refused to touch that mist.
But the problem was obvious: without breaking through the mist, they couldn't reach the enemy.
Worse yet, even if they did break through, Uxas could just vanish back into the darkness and escape again.
For a moment, it felt like a dead end.
Shinji noticed that the mist was completely unaffected by air currents.
That meant that although it looked like gas or smoke, it was actually something else entirely — something that couldn't be blown away by wind.
He tried using his own blood mist to neutralize it, but that failed too.
The moment his blood mist touched the black mist, it began to get eaten away and corrupted. It offered zero resistance.
It seemed as if the contact only made the black mist expand even faster.
And the terrified crowds running everywhere were acting like delicious fertilizer, feeding it.
"This can't go on. I need to think of something."
But solutions were hard to come by...
Just as his patience was wearing thin, he noticed a small detail.
One person was about to be swallowed by the mist, yet the mist paused strangely for a second and let them pass.
What was special about that person?
Shinji narrowed his eyes, focusing on the glowing fluorite crystal in their hand.
His instinct told him: the mist didn't spare the person... it spared the crystal.
So was there something special about the crystal itself... or did the mist simply hate the light?!
Only one way to find out.
"Kagetsu! Aim at that mist and release your moonlight!"
Shinji suddenly remembered the white fox beside him and gave the order.
Kagetsu didn't hesitate. She lifted her head high, and moonlight began to shimmer across her body.
The Moonlight Fox clan could absorb moonlight and store it inside their bodies as energy. They could use it to restore stamina, act as chakra, or — as now — simply emit it as a source of light.
In the blink of an eye, Kagetsu gathered the stored moonlight into the crescent moon marking on her forehead.
Then — whoosh — a bright, soft beam shot out, aiming straight at the black mist.
Hiss... sizzle...
Something amazing happened!
Under the illumination of the moonlight, the mist began churning violently, as if in agony. It was being dispersed and pushed back continuously.
Seeing this, Shinji knew exactly what the enemy's weakness was.
As an entity born from humanity's fear of darkness, what could be a greater counter than light itself?
"Hidan, listen closely. Here's what we're going to do..."
Hidan listened, then grinned viciously. "Leave it to me. This time I'm going to ruin that little brat's day!"
He turned and ran off somewhere.
Meanwhile, the sudden beam of light had enraged the enemy completely.
Uxas simply dissolved the mist and began moving rapidly through the shadows.
"Dark Curse Art: Shadow Fiend!"
The shadow beneath Uxas suddenly came alive.
It morphed into a massive creature with razor-sharp claws and rows of jagged teeth.
It glided across the ground straight toward Kagetsu.
CLANG!
The Executioner's Blade collided violently with the Shadow Fiend's claws!
Shinji had expected the enemy to target Kagetsu and was already waiting.
The moment the fiend attacked, Shinji struck back.
Even though the creature existed halfway between formlessness and solid matter, it had to become tangible when attacking.
Shinji knew this from fighting the modified humans earlier.
He didn't know exactly how Uxas did it, but the "successful" transformations had all been granted a tiny fraction of his power.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
After blocking the first wave, Shinji's superior combat experience completely overwhelmed the fiend. He hacked at it furiously, nearly cutting it to pieces.
But this was where the true advantage of such a creature showed itself.
Whether in solid or intangible form, it simply could not be killed.
At the end of the day, it was nothing more than a mass of shadow.
It was only "alive" because of Uxas's curse technique.
Unless Uxas canceled the technique... or was killed himself... the Shadow Fiend was immortal and indestructible.
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