"Die, all of you!"
With a furious roar, Daikaku—or rather, the will driving his body— unleashed a punch that erupted like the bursting of the cosmos. The very air quaked as overwhelming force swept outward, crushing everything in its path.
Munakata Reisi, and Iwafune Tenkei were struck head-on, their Domains shattering as their bodies were hurled back, blood spraying from their lips. Only Weismann's immutable power kept him unharmed, though he too was flung across the battlefield before stabilizing himself mid-air with gravity. As for Suoh Mikoto, he barely managed to withstand the blow, flames burning at their limits just to stop that destructive force.
The second King had repelled five rulers at once, and with madness gleaming in his eyes, he turned toward the clansmen of HOMRA and Scepter4 in the distance. His lips curved into a cruel sneer. "Then I'll slaughter your clans first!"
Before anyone could react, he raised his hand and swept it through the air again and again. Massive skyscrapers, hundreds of meters tall, tore themselves free from the ground as if some giant hand had wrenched them upward. One after another they came crashing down toward Seri Awashima and the others. The speed, the scale, the sheer weight — there was no way to evade.
Seri's eyes contracted sharply. "All units, draw your blades!"
Kusanagi Izumo shouted as well: "Everyone, att—" But the words froze on his lips as more and more towers followed, collapsing like a chain of falling stars.
"W-we're dead… we're definitely dead…" Someone whispered in sheer terror. Even Kusanagi himself felt despair take root. This was the might of the strongest King. Still, he forced himself to roar HOMRA's creed. "No Blood! No Bone! No Ash!"
The rest of HOMRA met his gaze and shouted as one: "No Blood! No Bone! No Ash!"
Not a drop of blood! Not a shard of bone! Not a speck of ash! If they had to die, they would die as HOMRA.
"Damn it!" Mikoto and Munakata both tried to rush forward, only for the golden King to block their path with a contemptuous glare. "Our battle isn't over yet!"
Seri Awashima let out a faint breath. Facing death head-on, she suddenly felt strangely calm.
Daikaku laughed wildly, his voice echoing over the shattered city. "See? Do you see? I am the one with the greatest power! I am invincible! None can defeat me! I will kill every King, every human, until only I remain!"
"Invincible? Unbeaten? Hah."
A derisive voice slid into his ear, cold and mocking. "What, do you think you're the Desolate Heavenly Emperor?"
"What?!" Daikaku's — or rather, the intruder's — eyes bulged. He looked down and froze. A steel pipe had pierced straight through his chest. His head jerked, but he couldn't even move it, his vision blurring, his body weakening, his consciousness scattering into nothingness.
"I… I have to run!" The soul of the Colorless King screamed. He tried to abandon the body, but it was too late. His spirit shattered like glass.
In the final instant, only one thought lingered: Who… am I?
With a dull thud, the golden King's body collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
"Colonel!" Weismann rushed forward, catching the corpse and desperately checking for breath.
"Don't bother," Tatsuki said, casually tossing aside the blood-stained steel pipe. "He's already dead."
Mikoto and Munakata's first instinct was to check on their clans. To their shock, everyone was safe. The towering buildings that had threatened to crush them had disintegrated into nothing but dust.
"What… what the hell just happened?" Kusanagi muttered, unable to believe their luck.
Anna's crimson eyes sparkled as she whispered, "Rainbow… beautiful rainbow…"
Seri Awashima, however, kept her gaze fixed on the man who had saved them all with just a snap of his fingers. She knew what she'd seen — a stranger standing before them, raising his hand, and in the next instant the skyscrapers crumbled like bubbles. Then, just as suddenly, he had vanished, as though he had never been there.
Aside from Mikoto, the others regarded him with deep caution. Adjusting his glasses, Munakata wiped the blood from his mouth and asked solemnly, "Are you an outsider to the Kings?"
"I am not," Tatsuki replied curtly. "He wasn't Daikaku. That was the Colorless King, who had stolen his body."
"The Colorless King?!" Weismann's grief-filled eyes sharpened into fury. "Where is he now?"
"Dead. I killed him." Tatsuki's voice was calm, almost dismissive.
The chat buzzed immediately:
Silver Wolf: "That was fast. Boring fight. I'm off to play games."
Saeko Busujima: "The enemy was one-shot."
Nami: "Kiana, didn't that feel familiar?"
Kiana: "H-huh? As if! No way I'd be that dumb!"
Mikasa: "When… when did he even move behind that man?"
Ainz: "I didn't see either."
Xiaomei: "Tatsuki just whooshed out of sight, then whooshed back behind the old guy, and bam."
Aqua: "Pfft, just simple teleportation. Don't let it fool you, girl."
Xiaomei: "Eh? But Tatsuki didn't even do anything weird?"
Aqua: "Heh, that's exactly how you get tricked! Saying that means you're already under his spell!"
Tatsuki twitched his lips. That goddess never missed a chance to smear his name. "Give me the chance to visit your world, Aqua, and I'll see for myself if the so-called water goddess really has that much water."
Still, what he'd done was indeed simple. He had instant-stepped behind the golden King and severed his death line with the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. That was all it took.
The system chimed in:
[Ding! The mutated Colorless King has been slain. Apocalypse Journey complete!]
[Rewards: Tatsuki gains 100,000 Apocalypse Points. Suoh Mikoto gains 30,000. Kiana gains 10,000. Xiaomei gains 10,000.]
The escort was over, but the Apocalypse itself was not. The "Light of Ruin" still existed. And from the broken memories of the slain King, Tatsuki had already found its location.
"Suoh, Xiaomei, Kiana — come with me."
As his words fell, the four of them — plus a certain cat — vanished without a trace.
"They… disappeared!" Even Tenkei's perpetually dead-fish eyes widened in shock.
Hisui frowned deeply. The golden King had fallen, which was what he wanted… yet in his place stood an even more dangerous man tied to the Red King. For now, patience was necessary.
Munakata's sharp gaze lingered on the spot where they had vanished, then shifted toward Hisui. Both would need watching.
And Weismann… Weismann's expression was only sorrow. Cradling Daikaku Kokujoji's body, he rose into the sky with grief weighing heavily on his immortal soul.
…
"Here we are."
Suoh Mikoto tensed immediately, feeling the immense power concentrated in this place. In the dim chamber lay a massive slab of stone, six tatami mats in size, covered in intricate, labyrinth-like carvings.
"The Dresden Slate," Tatsuki explained quietly. "The source of the Kings' power. And the Light of Ruin rests upon it."
His Mystic Eyes flared open, twin irises glowing in icy rainbow light. The little white cat trembled in his arms, frozen with fear.
"Don't be afraid. I'm not here to hurt you." With a soothing tone, Tatsuki drew the Zanpakuto, eyes fixed on the slate. Two death lines shimmered across its surface — and one of them was pure white. He raised his blade to cut it.
But then the impossible happened. The line moved.
No — it wasn't the line itself, but a mass of white light gathering from the slate, detaching, and trying to flee. The glowing entity shot toward Xiaomei.
"So bright!" Xiaomei cried, shielding her eyes. The Light of Ruin lunged like a parasite seeking a host, trying to merge into her body. But just before it touched her skin, it froze, unable to advance a single inch.
"Well now," Tatsuki murmured, brows lifting. "Didn't expect you to run."
Even if he didn't know its purpose, he could see enough from the fate of the Colorless King. Whatever this light was planning, it couldn't be good.
But this time, he wasn't powerless. With the Space Origin at lv 8, he had wrapped the Light of Ruin in layered, interwoven dimensions. To Xiaomei, it seemed as if the light hovered a hair's breadth away. In truth, it was separated from her by multiple stacked spaces, trapped inside a prison of overlapping realities.
"Doesn't matter what you are. Now… die."
Fear of death meant the entity feared the Mystic Eyes. He brought his blade down.
Crack.
Space itself fractured. The death line severed.
The Light of Ruin flared once in desperate brilliance — then disintegrated into nothing.
[Ding! Tatsuki has destroyed the Light of Ruin. Apocalypse Terminated!]
[Bonus: Tatsuki earns 300,000 Apocalypse Points. The others earn 10,000 each.]
...
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