Drip.
Drip.
That was the sound of warm liquid striking the cold bluestone floor.
In the tomb-like silence of the Tombs of the Star Corridor, this faint sound was amplified infinitely, as if every drop pounded heavily against the depths of Riko Amanai's soul.
Yoru lowered his head slightly, his gaze lingering for half a second on the wound that slashed across his entire left forearm.
Bright red blood gushed frantically from the torn flesh, instantly soaking through his plain-colored sleeve.
But this was more than just a physical wound.
The Soul Splitter Katana's bizarre property of specifically targeting the soul released an intense pain the moment it cut his skin, as if ten thousand steel needles were piercing his bone marrow simultaneously.
It was an indescribable chill, as if his soul were being torn into pieces.
"To think... I actually managed to wound you."
Toji Fushiguro stood in the nearby shadows, holding the Soul Splitter Katana in a reverse grip, a splash of eye-catching crimson still clinging to the blade.
He stuck out his tongue and lightly licked the blood off the tip of the blade with a nearly pathological pleasure.
"It seems that you, the so-called wild card, aren't truly invincible after all."
Toji grinned savagely, his beast-like eyes now filled with the wild joy of a successful hunt.
"As long as you can bleed and get hurt... you're just a slightly stronger prey before this blade."
Yoru did not respond to his mockery.
He just stood there quietly, his long black hair obscuring his eyes, making it impossible to see his expression.
But in that instant, the surrounding air completely solidified, becoming so heavy that it seemed even light could not penetrate it.
"It's not over yet. A wound like this won't satisfy the anticipation I've had for the past few days!"
Toji let out a loud laugh, and his figure abruptly vanished from his spot once again.
His speed at this moment had surpassed the limits of the human eye, utilizing the explosive power of his Heavenly Restriction that transcended physical common sense to flicker and leap frantically among the dense stone pillars of the Tombs of the Star Corridor.
Every time his sole hit the ground, it left a spiderweb-like crack in the hardened floor.
He intended to take advantage of this moment while Yoru was injured and shaken to completely end this battle that had made him uneasy.
"Water Breathing, Eleventh Form: Dead Calm!"
Yoru finally spoke, his voice cold and calm, yet carrying an unquestionable and absolute authority.
Following this low shout, an extremely gentle yet suffocatingly heavy aura erupted from Yoru at the center.
The airflow within the entire Tombs of the Star Corridor seemed to have been hit by an absolute pause button.
The flying dust froze.
The broken rubble was suspended.
Even the violent, chaotic residual cursed energy in the air seemed to enter a bottomless, absolutely silent deep sea.
The kinetic energy of all matter entering a ten-meter radius around Yoru was forcibly neutralized in an instant.
This was absolute stillness.
This was the ultimate defense of Water Breathing, claimed to be able to reduce any attack to nothingness.
"Oh? Attempting to seal my speed and force me into your rhythm?"
Toji Fushiguro's figure halted unnervingly in mid-air. He could clearly feel a powerful resistance, like a viscous swamp, frantically wearing down his momentum.
However, on his scar-covered face, a wild, disdainful sneer appeared.
"In the face of such absolute violence, any so-called technique is nothing but a child's game!"
"Furthermore... the property of the Inverted Spear of Heaven is to forcibly nullify all cursed techniques!"
Toji's right hand flipped suddenly. The Soul Splitter Katana was withdrawn instantly, replaced by the cross-shaped dagger that radiated an ominous aura—the Inverted Spear of Heaven.
He let out a cruel laugh and thrust the dagger fiercely into the void!
Crack—!
A crisp sound, like a mirror shattering, echoed through the void.
The domain of the absolutely still deep sea, under the touch of the Inverted Spear of Heaven's tip, actually tore apart like a shredded canvas, collapsing instantly!
Although Yoru had no residual cursed energy on him, this aura that interfered with physical rules was equally unable to escape the absolute property of the Inverted Spear of Heaven!
Swoosh!
A black flash streaked past again.
The Soul Splitter Katana whistled as it tore through space, sweeping toward Yoru's throat with an incredibly overbearing stance.
However, just at the moment when Toji thought this strike would surely behead the opponent who had given him such a headache.
THUMP!!!
An incredibly heavy and powerful heartbeat, sounding like a clap of thunder, exploded without warning in the deepest part of the Tombs of the Star Corridor!
The sound was so grand that it made the distant Riko feel a sense of vertigo, and her eardrums throbbed with pain.
Immediately following that.
[DING! HOST EMOTIONAL THRESHOLD REACHED!]
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: SYNCHRONIZATION RATE HAS SURPASSED THE 40% CRITICAL MILESTONE!]
[CURRENT SYNCHRONIZATION RATE: 40.8%!]
[UNLOCKED: SUN BREATHING, TWELFTH FORM - FLAME DANCE (TWO-HIT VERSION OF DANCE)!]
[THE LAST RESIDUAL EFFECTS OF TIME-TRAVEL HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY PURGED!]
[YORIICHI TSUGIKUNI TEMPLATE CORE COMBAT BUFF — SLAYER MARK, FULLY UNLOCKED!]
Accompanied by the cold, mechanical electronic voice in his mind.
The speed of the blood circulation within Yoru's body surged tenfold in a mere thousandth of a second!
His body temperature rose frantically, surpassing the thirty-nine-degree Celsius mark in the blink of an eye, and it continued to climb at an astonishing rate!
His heart rate even directly surpassed two hundred and forty beats per minute!
'This feeling... of finally being able to go all out...'
Yoru snapped his head up. In his deep eyes, two flashes of red light as brilliant and piercing as the core of the sun exploded.
On his left cheek, a dark-red pattern, burning like fire and twisting like lightning, rapidly spread from his temple.
It was a mark that was cursed yet favored by the gods.
The Slayer Mark!
At that moment, the sense of oppression radiating from Yoru underwent a qualitative transformation.
A tangible wave of dark-red aura swept out from Yoru, instantly vibrating the surrounding hard rubble into fine dust.
The once-arrogant Toji Fushiguro was actually forced to a halt by this wave of pure pressure.
"What?!"
Toji's pupils constricted to the size of pinpricks.
His beast-like instinct, which he prided himself on and which had saved his life in countless life-or-death crises, actually let out an unprecedented, frantic scream of near-collapse at this moment!
'Run! Run now!'
'Get as far away from this monster as possible!'
'I'll die! I'll really die! I'll definitely die here!'
That kind of absolute fear—the kind he had only felt when facing Satoru Gojo in his prime, or when facing certain indescribable Special Grade Cursed Spirits.
It now completely submerged his supposedly ironclad reason like a cold tide.
The person standing before him was no longer a simple swordsman.
He was a Sun God, wearing human skin and radiating extreme heat and wrath!
"Toji Fushiguro."
Yoru slowly raised the Shiranui in his hand.
Due to the extreme body temperature brought by the Slayer Mark, the blade had already begun to glow with a strange dark-red hue.
His voice remained calm, devoid of any emotional fluctuation or anger.
But the killing intent contained within it caused a thin layer of strange frost to condense on the floor of the Tombs of the Star Corridor.
"This is your last chance."
"Every second that follows will be an eternal hell for you."
Yoru raised his eyelids, the Slayer Mark flickering with an eerie light on his handsome face.
At that moment, the cruel smile on Toji's face had completely frozen and crumbled.
He gripped the Soul Splitter Katana tightly, the webbing of his thumb trembling slightly from extreme tension.
'This man's aura...'
'How could it increase to this extent in an instant?!'
'This is simply... not a power that a human could possess!'
The shadow of death now conversely loomed over Toji Fushiguro.
The true battle had only just begun!
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