Chapter 868: Daring to Touch My People is Courting Death! The Apocalypse Ends
"What is the meaning of this?"
Kurumi's mismatched eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. The surrounding air grew heavy as every single Spirit present suddenly turned their hostility toward her, forming a suffocating encirclement.
Without a single breath of warning, the White Queen lunged. A vicious strike aimed right at Kurumi's blind spot. Only her honed combat instincts saved her; she brought her flintlock up just in time, the metallic clash ringing out sharply as she parried the heavy blow.
"Hey! Have you lost your mind?!" Kurumi snapped, glaring at the White Queen.
Silence answered her. The woman simply stood there, her posture rigid, offering absolutely no response. The dead quiet felt entirely wrong. Kurumi's gaze flicked to the White Queen's face, a chill creeping over her skin. Those usually expressive eyes were completely hollow, devoid of any light or soul.
Inside the Doomsday Chat Group, the sudden shift sparked immediate confusion.
Saeko Busujima: "This..."
Emilia: "How strange! Don't they recognize Ren? Why would they suddenly launch an attack?"
Emma: "Something feels completely off about this situation."
Esdeath: "Heh. Look at their eyes. Hollow, lifeless, and dull. They look exactly like broken toys."
Misaka Mikoto: "Wait a second!"
Misaka Mikoto: "I've seen this exact state before. It looks just like the victims manipulated by Shokuhou's Mental Out. They're basically unconscious puppets right now."
Shokuhou Misaki: "Oh my. I didn't even notice that detail. How did you manage to observe them so carefully, Misaka-san?"
Misaka Mikoto: "Hmph! Obviously, it's because I absolutely despised your ability! Toying with people's minds so casually is just plain evil!"
Artoria: "It was that voice from a moment ago. That was the trigger."
Standing amidst the chaos, the Spirit of Origin narrowed her eyes. A rare flicker of genuine surprise crossed her features. "Someone has hijacked my Angel... No, they have taken control of all the Angels."
It was an utterly unmatched scenario. To have her absolute authority usurped right under her nose defied all logic. Yet, despite the bizarre turn of events, her expression remained perfectly composed. No panic, no fear—just cold, calculating observation.
"To be entirely precise," Ren's calm voice cut through the tension, "she has seized control of both the Tree of Life and the Tree of Qliphoth."
He let out a dry, mocking sneer, his eyes locking onto the empty space above. "Heh. A pathetic little parasite actually has the nerve to stir up trouble in front of me?"
He didn't bother dodging. He didn't even raise a hand to defend against the incoming barrage from the manipulated Spirits. Beside him, Durandal's grip tightened around her lance, the weapon humming with golden energy as she prepared to intercept the vanguard.
The Spirit of Origin remained entirely motionless, her mind rapidly processing and analyzing the chaotic variables unfolding before her.
Dazzling light erupted from the summoned Angels, clashing violently against the dark, oppressive aura of the Demon Kings. The combined destructive force hurtled straight toward Ren.
Just as the lethal attacks were inches from making contact, the Spirit of Origin's gaze snapped toward Ren.
In the very next fraction of a second, the world went completely still.
The blinding beams of light, the crushing waves of dark energy, the overwhelming pressure—all of it vanished into thin air. Dissipated, as if it had never existed at all.
A collective gasp echoed across the battlefield. Nia, Yoshino, and the rest of the Spirits blinked rapidly, the hollow glaze melting away from their eyes as consciousness slammed back into their minds. Panic set in the moment they registered their surroundings and their own raised weapons.
The entire group of Spirit maidens stood frozen, forming a tight, hostile ring around Ren.
"I... I don't know what just happened!" Origami Tobiichi's voice cracked. Tears spilled over her pale cheeks, her hands trembling violently as she dropped her stance. "I don't know why I suddenly moved, I couldn't control my own body at all! I... I swear I didn't mean to attack you, Ren-kun!"
A chorus of frantic apologies erupted from the other girls, their faces pale with guilt and horror. They crowded closer, desperately trying to explain themselves, terrified that they had almost harmed the man they cared for, even if their minds had been entirely hijacked.
"Relax. It's alright, I believe you," Ren said, his tone gentle as he reached out to pat Origami's trembling shoulder. "This wasn't your fault, so there's no need for any apologies."
He shifted his gaze upward, his expression cooling instantly. "The real culprit is that parasite hiding inside. It latched onto the very source of your power, feeding off it to grow."
Ren raised a hand, pointing directly at the anomalous, pitch-black Sephira hovering ominously in the sky. He called it an ugly parasite, and he was entirely accurate. That repulsive mass of dark energy was the core source of the Uncertainty Doomsday. Its very existence, its method of survival, was fundamentally parasitic.
Its chosen host was none other than the Tree of Life itself. Employing an incredibly insidious method of concealment, it had masked its presence from the world's natural laws. It had burrowed deep into the absolute source of Spirit power, leeching off the energy so quietly that even the Spirit of Origin had failed to detect the intrusion.
But there was a catch. In the beginning, the parasite had been pitifully weak. It lacked the capacity to gorge on the Tree's massive reserves of power all at once. To solve this, it employed a subtle, manipulative influence over the Spirit of Origin, nudging her subconscious to divide her power. It pushed her to create new Spirits by splitting off Sephira Crystals.
By fragmenting the energy, the absolute authority held by the Spirit of Origin became decentralized. The parasite seized that golden opportunity, spreading its roots through the divided crystals, expanding its influence, and greedily siphoning Spirit power from multiple, smaller sources without triggering any alarms.
It had been the perfect, silent heist—right up until Ren arrived, saw straight through the illusion, and dragged its ugly truth into the light.
Cornered and exposed, the entity had finally played its only remaining hand. Hijacking the fundamental power of the Sephira, it forcefully summoned every Spirit in existence, overriding their wills and turning them into mindless weapons in a desperate bid to assassinate Ren.
Unfortunately for the parasite, it had made a fatal miscalculation.
Almost every single Spirit present already belonged to Ren. His authority over them superseded anything the Tree of Life could enforce. With nothing more than a casual thought, he had severed the puppet strings and restored their absolute freedom.
'How is this possible?!'
The entity cowering within the black Sephira reeled in absolute shock. Her absolute control over the Spirits had shattered in an instant. She had been so certain that she held all the cards, that the entire board was under her undisputed command.
"Stop hiding. The game is over. Get out here." Ren sighed, utterly bored of playing hide-and-seek with a gutter rat.
He raised his hand and made a casual, pulling motion through the empty air.
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
A shrill, ear-piercing shriek tore through the sky. A distorted silhouette was violently yanked out from the core of the black Sephira, plummeting downward before slamming heavily into the ground.
The dust cleared to reveal a grotesque figure. It possessed the curves and shape of a human woman, draped in a tattered black gauze dress, but its face was a blank, fleshy canvas—devoid of eyes, a nose, or brows. The only feature it possessed was a massive, jagged mouth.
"What kind of freaky monster is that?!" Yoshinon yelled, the rabbit puppet immediately throwing its arms wide to shield a trembling Yoshino behind it.
A monster? Not quite.
The Spirit of Origin stepped forward, her usual stoicism cracking as she stared at the writhing entity. "Is... is she a Spirit?"
Strictly speaking, she was a Spirit that defied the very laws of existence. While she was undeniably a Doomsday factor, she was not an invader from beyond the stars. She wasn't a familiar sent by the terrifying kings who ruled the myriad worlds.
She was a localized anomaly—a disgusting byproduct condensed from the accumulated greed, ambition, and dark desires festering within this specific world. In her infancy, she had been weaker than a standard Spirit. She was exactly the parasite Ren had described. Yet, her unique, insidious ability to siphon and mimic power gave her the terrifying potential to eventually evolve into a full-fledged Doomsday.
Honestly? After peeling back the layers and seeing her true essence, Ren felt nothing but deep disappointment. If he had to waste his time crushing ants, he would have vastly preferred stepping on a familiar tied to one of the outer kings. At least that would have offered some entertainment.
"What a letdown. Let's just wrap up this painfully ordinary Doomsday right here," Ren muttered, his gaze turning ice-cold as he looked down at the writhing creature.
Daring to manipulate his women? Forcing them to raise their weapons against him? That wasn't just foolish—it was practically begging for total annihilation.
He didn't even bother drawing a weapon. A microscopic fluctuation of raw power rippled from his fingertips.
The faceless Spirit—the physical embodiment of the world's greed and ambition—froze. Its jagged mouth opened in a silent scream of absolute horror as it felt its stolen Spirit power hemorrhaging away into nothingness.
High above, the dimmed, corrupted branches of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Qliphoth suddenly flared with brilliant, purified light. The sheer, overwhelming pressure radiating from Ren's casual flick of a finger slammed into the sky, instantly shattering the parasitic black Sephira into millions of harmless, dissipating motes of dust.
Stripped of its stolen power and its host, the unremarkable Doomsday factor began to crumble. Its physical form disintegrated rapidly, turning to ash in the wind. It wasn't even granted the luxury of a final scream, nor the chance to curse its executioner. It simply ceased to exist.
[Ding! Detected that the Uncertainty Doomsday factor in the world of Tokisaki Kurumi, a member of the Doomsday Chat Group, has been successfully eliminated by Group Leader Ren. Doomsday Companion ends. Doomsday terminated!]
[Ding! Ren gains 50,000,000 Doomsday Points! Tokisaki Kurumi gains 5,000,000 Doomsday Points! Durandal gains 1,000,000 Doomsday Points!]
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