Searing, deep-red firelight and berserk golden cursed energy collided midair like two hurtling meteors, continuously unleashing devastating, apocalyptic shockwaves!
The abandoned dock, once buzzing with feverish excitement, had now been utterly reduced to a scorched wasteland resembling purgatory.
The air was thick with a pungent burning odor and a heavy concentration of residual cursed energy.
At the very heart of this scorched earth...
Kinji Hakari panted heavily. His once iron-clad physique was now covered in a crisscrossing web of gruesome blade wounds.
Along the edge of every single laceration lingered dark-red scorch marks resembling magma.
Those were the fatal brands left behind by the Bright Red Nichirin Sword in Yoru's grip!
"Damn it... Just how hot is that bastard's blade...?"
Hakari gritted his teeth, staring fixedly at the man nearby who remained as calm as still water.
He could clearly sense that his cursed energy, which should have been overflowing endlessly like a burst dam, was experiencing an extremely rare sluggishness.
The blade's extreme heat was not just shredding his physical flesh, it was fundamentally searing and severing the circulatory pathways of his cursed energy!
Lethal injuries that would normally take a fraction of a second to heal completely now took a full two to three seconds just to form scabs.
Worse yet...
Through this suffocating, breakneck exchange of blows, his prized "invincibility period" had nearly run its course.
Ding—!
Right then, the domain's plastic, mechanical prompt chime rang out once more.
"Four minutes and eleven seconds over. Probability change ended!"
As the voice faded, the rampant golden aura cloaking Hakari dimmed in an instant.
That sensation of overflowing, infinite power receded like a rushing tide, replaced by a bone-deep, overwhelming exhaustion and weakness.
"Time's up, huh...?"
Hakari sucked in a deep breath, enduring the searing agony wracking his body, and slammed his hands together before his chest once again.
"Domain Expansion—Idle Death Gamble!"
A true gambler would never leave the table so long as a breath remained in his lungs.
He would spin the wheel of fortune once more; as long as he hit the jackpot again, he would regain those invincible four minutes and eleven seconds to carry on this blood-pumping death match!
Yet Yoru was never going to give him that opening.
In the split second Hakari clapped his palms together to manifest his domain...
Within Yoru's deep-red eyes, the intricate patterns of the Transparent World blazed with a blinding brilliance.
In his perception, the cursed energy core coalescing inside Hakari's body for the domain expansion stood out as vividly as a searchlight cutting through the pitch-black night.
"It's over."
Yoru murmured softly, stepping forward.
Bang!
The ground shattered instantly as Yoru crossed dozens of meters as if teleporting, reappearing directly before Hakari.
"Total Concentration, Sun Breathing, Eighth Form."
"Solar Heat Haze."
Clang!
Shiranui's blade wavered slightly in midair, tracing an ethereal, deep-red mirage.
Hakari's pupils shrank, and he instinctively threw up a punch to parry.
To his horror, however, Yoru's edge bypassed his guard entirely at an uncanny angle that defied all physical logic!
It was the ultimate visual deception!
Pfft—!
The searing edge plunged cleanly into Hakari's chest, followed by a vicious twist.
While sparing vital organs like the heart, the strike precisely severed the central nexus where Hakari's cursed energy was congregating!
"Guh—!"
Hakari let out a pained grunt as his newly forming domain shattered in an instant.
Like a punctured balloon, his remaining cursed energy bled away rapidly, and he collapsed backward, crashing heavily into the scorched debris.
Thud!
Dust rose into the air.
The earth-shaking clash of titans had finally drawn to a close.
Yoru slowly sheathed his blade. The godlike, piercing pressure in his deep-red gaze gradually faded, settling back into profound tranquility.
He walked over to Hakari, looking down at the blood-drenched man.
"You lost."
Yoru spoke softly, yet his voice carried unquestionable, absolute authority.
Hakari lay sprawled on the ground, chest heaving for air, blood staining the ground beneath him.
Staring at the torn sky above, he suddenly burst into raspy laughter.
"Haha... Hahaha..."
"Pisses me off... To think I'd get cleaned out completely in my own damn casino."
Hakari turned his head to look at Yoru. For the first time, utter submission shone in his wild gaze.
"I lost."
"That blade of yours... and that gaze that sees right through everything... It's totally unreasonable."
"In front of you, probability is nothing more than a joke."
As a gambler who treated luck as his religion, Hakari understood better than anyone.
When absolute strength was vast enough to crush every rule, even the most ingenious gamble lost all meaning.
The man before him was a monster capable of flipping the entire table with a mortal body.
Hearing Hakari admit defeat, Kirara Hoshi and Noritoshi Kamo, who had been watching tensely from afar, finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Noritoshi Kamo gazed at Yoru's back, the reverence in his eyes deepening.
To cut clean through even that unreasonable immortality... Just what terrifying realm had this Sword Saint, despised by the higher-ups, truly reached?
Paying no mind to the two spectators, Yoru slowly offered a hand to Hakari on the ground.
"Since you lost, fulfill our wager."
Yoru looked into Hakari's eyes, his tone calm yet brimming with conviction.
"This world, ruined by a pack of rotten oranges and ghosts from a thousand years ago, is already rotten to the core."
"Join me."
"Together, we will put an end to this meaningless farce."
Seeing the outstretched hand, Hakari blinked in surprise.
Then, a wild, unrestrained grin broke across his face, and he gripped Yoru's palm firmly with his bloodied right hand.
"Heh, since I gambled my life away to you, what else can I say?"
Using Yoru's pull, Hakari struggled to his feet and grinned.
"From today on, I'm betting my life on your table."
"Boss."
With Kinji Hakari officially on board, the strongest combatant in Tokyo Colony No. 2 was thoroughly recruited.
Within this Culling Game steeped in death and despair, an invincible vanguard capable of sweeping aside all opposition was rapidly taking shape under Yoru's command.