Even though the Shadow Fiend was beaten into submission, Uxas didn't care in the slightest.
He simply commanded it to dissolve back into the shadows once more, and instantly, Shinji lost his target completely.
In a pure shadow state, physical attacks — even Red Blood Manipulation or Decagram Cursed Arts — had absolutely no effect.
Perhaps only the power of Cursed Speech could work here.
But Shinji wasn't in a rush to use it. For one thing, he wasn't entirely certain it would succeed.
For another, while powerful, Cursed Speech consumed massive amounts of Cursed Energy.
Unless absolutely necessary, he refused to waste it on mere Shadow Fiends.
After all, he didn't believe they posed any real threat to him.
"You don't honestly think I'm scared of something that's only good for frightening children, do you?" Shinji mocked casually, testing his opponent.
Uxas suddenly grinned coldly. "Is that so? But I think... if you have enough of them, even things meant only to scare children can become terrifying!"
"Come forth! My army of Shadow Fiends!"
The moment the words left his mouth, countless black lines spread outward from beneath his feet, connecting to every shadow in the area.
In the blink of an eye, those shadows transformed into identical Shadow Fiends.
One Shadow Fiend wasn't worth mentioning. But ten? Twenty?
In an instant, Shinji was surrounded by a full thirty of them.
Damn it all!
Shinji cursed internally. He had mocked and provoked him precisely because he feared this exact scenario.
Yet when the enemy actually summoned reinforcements, his heart still sank.
As the battle dragged on, this opponent was proving more and more troublesome by the minute.
And it was obvious — these fiends were far from his final trick.
If this guy had also mastered a Domain Expansion... the outcome of this fight would become truly uncertain.
Kagetsu seemed to sense the danger too. She lowered her body slightly, readying herself for an attack.
"Kill them all!"
Uxas commanded, and the thirty fiends closed in for the kill.
Under these circumstances, Shinji could no longer afford to hold back his energy.
Vast quantities of blood flowed out from the Glutton's Stomach, swirling rapidly around him.
"Red Blood Manipulation: Star Ring!"
Countless ring-shaped bands of blood, as thick as fingers, began circulating at extreme speed, forming a protective sphere enclosing Shinji and Kagetsu.
The moment the thirty fiends rushed in, the rings expanded outward!
In just a second, all thirty creatures were completely torn to shreds.
But they were immortal. The shattered remains dissolved into shadows and swiftly began gathering together, ready to reform.
That was when Kagetsu struck back.
A beam of light struck dead-center into one of the merging masses of shadow — and BOOM! — it exploded!
It was as if two opposing forces, as incompatible as fire and water, had collided violently.
And after the explosion... that Shadow Fiend failed to revive!
For the first time, their numbers had been reduced.
Shinji, witnessing this, felt a surge of hope. "Well done, Kagetsu! Keep going!"
Encouraged, Kagetsu gathered the moonlight still stored within her body once more.
Like a giant flashlight, she swept her beam across the masses of shadow rapidly reconstructing themselves.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rang out one after another.
Every shadow cluster touched by that intense beam of light detonated and was destroyed permanently.
But even though Kagetsu pushed herself to her limit, she only managed to eliminate eleven fiends.
The remaining ones, after reforming, immediately dove into the shadows and fled out of range.
And there was a bigger problem...
The moonlight energy stored inside Kagetsu was completely exhausted.
As the light faded, Kagetsu whimpered weakly, looking exhausted. Shinji smiled and reassured her: "That's enough. You did great. Rest now — I'll take it from here."
Kagetsu nodded, eyes shining bright. Her body swiftly shrank down to a smaller size, reducing her presence as much as possible.
In this form, it was also easier for her to recover stamina and chakra — though the spent moonlight could not be replenished this way.
"Now let's see what you have left to stop my Shadow Fiends!"
Uxas had clearly seen Kagetsu's state. He launched another attack while speaking with cold malice.
In his eyes, the remaining nineteen fiends were more than enough to wear his opponent down to death.
It wasn't that he lacked stronger abilities — he was just being cautious.
But being too cautious was just stupidity!
Suddenly, a deafening explosion echoed!
Immediately after, brilliant sunlight poured straight down into the chamber.
Hidan's loud, mocking laughter rang out. "Let's see you survive this time!"
While Shinji had been distracting the enemy, Hidan had found the perfect angle, scaled the walls, and stuck every single Exploding Tag he had secretly hoarded onto the rock surface.
Originally, these were meant to be his final trump card for a suicide attack against the enemy. But to kill Uxas, he had decided to use them now.
Although the Veil covering the outside dimmed and weakened the sunlight, it was still intense enough to make the remaining nineteen fiends screech in terror and retreat, refusing to step forward.
After all, the main purpose of the Veil was to hide the area from view — not to block out the sun.
Otherwise, Uxas wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of hollowing out the entire Black Mountain to make it his base.
Sunlight flooded in through the massive hole blasted into the ceiling and walls. It wasn't blindingly bright, but Uxas narrowed his eyes against it.
"No matter how many times I experience this... it never gets any less hateful."
Exposed directly to the sunlight, Uxas showed no physical reaction or damage, but his expression twisted with clear disgust.
Light and darkness were naturally opposing forces, each the other's bane.
Several of his curse techniques were indeed weakened or disrupted by strong light.
But that didn't mean a little sunlight was enough to defeat him — he wasn't that fragile!
Uxas suddenly crouched down, placing his right hand flat against the ground.
Pitch-black energy rippled outward in waves...
"Dark Curse Art: Dark Abyss!"
Instantly, a dark vortex ten meters in diameter expanded outward from Uxas as its center.
A powerful suction force erupted, pulling everything nearby toward it.
Countless stones were sucked into the dark whirlpool and vanished without a trace.
Then came the humans closest to it.
"AAAAAH! SAVE ME!"
"Don't let go! Please, don't let go!"
"There's no escape... we're all going to die... hahaha... all dead..."
...
One person after another was pulled away, drawn into the swirling darkness, and silenced forever.
No one knew where that vortex led, but everyone understood it led only to death.
At this moment, the sunlight shining down upon Uxas's head seemed nothing more than a cruel joke.
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