Chapter 859: You Have Obtained My Attention
"Tenkyo, reports of anomalous spiritual entities are flooding in from every major metropolis across the Eastland. Is this... His Lordship's doing?!"
Kenzo's expression was grim. He desperately wanted to lash out, but his remaining rational discipline warned him that provoking Kaito Shirogane right now would achieve nothing beyond plunging the planet into even greater jeopardy.
Yet almost overnight, an astronomical tide of spiritual abominations, Cursed Spirits, vengeful wraiths, and even Hollows had manifested across the physical world. Preliminary projections indicated that over thirty thousand civilians had already been impacted.
The casualty count was climbing with every passing second.
Even though legions of Reincarnators had begun taking up residence across the real world—granting mortal societies a foundational defense against supernatural incursions—the sheer geographic spread and astronomical volume of these entities far exceeded their defensive bandwidth.
Without top-tier Reincarnators deploying onto the field, checking the geometric expansion of these horrors was borderline impossible.
Following emergency deliberations among Kenzo and the official state-aligned Reincarnators, consensus held that someone had intentionally detonated a catastrophic Spiritual Calamity in reality.
Yet an event of this magnitude was far beyond the capability of ordinary operatives. Deploying a ritual, memetic contagion, or artifact of that caliber demanded the hand of an apex Reincarnator—or an entity standing far above that bracket.
The Sovereign Monarchs, or... the Monster King of the Eastland, Mercenary Tao himself.
Left with no alternative, Kenzo had reached out directly to Tenkyo of the Paradise.
Tenkyo's face was equally ashen. He had seeded countless nanite arrays throughout the atmosphere and consolidated administrative control over orbital satellite networks worldwide, granting him an intelligence overview unmatched by conventional operatives.
Through that sensor grid, he could see with terrifying clarity that the scale of this Spiritual Calamity was far more horrifying than what Kenzo had observed.
The outbreak was not confined to a single city, nor was it limited to the Eastland.
It encompassed the entire planet!
Overnight, spiritual entities of wildly divergent threat ratings had surfaced across the globe.
It felt as though reality had abruptly triggered a global paranormal awakening, dragging mundane humanity into an inescapable nightmare.
The Reincarnator syndicates of all four districts were forced into emergency joint operations, scrambling to purge the apparitions.
Standard spiritual entities were relatively straightforward; once tactical data was parsed, specialized ordnance and alchemically treated rounds could disperse them.
Yet certain apparitions bound by anomalous conceptual mechanics—such as earthbound specters or vengeful curses operating under urban-legend rules—were entirely beyond the purview of Parallel Step combatants.
Coordinated strike teams of Strong Step operatives had to be mobilized to neutralize them.
Simultaneously, satellite telemetry in the Eastland, the Southern subcontinent, and the Free Federation confirmed sightings of Menos Grande. Even the baseline Gillians were exceedingly lethal—calamities that devoured mortal souls on a municipal scale the moment they made planetfall.
Subjugating them demanded Fierce Step operatives wielding specialized offensive builds.
The Eastland was already among the regions managing the crisis with exceptional efficiency. Across fractured, weaker nations, vast territories had functionally devolved into playgrounds for monsters.
Countless mortals were being slaughtered by the hour.
"No. This is not His Lordship's doing!"
Tenkyo had already cross-referenced telemetry with Jin Yue'an and the core cadre: Lord Mercenary Tao had chartered no initiative resembling a Spiritual Calamity, and the Paradise's operational registry held zero records of any syndicate or independent operative declaring an undertaking of this nature.
"This is the handiwork of an unidentified entity. And the operational theater of this calamity encompasses the entire globe!"
"Avalon in the West has begun deploying members of the Round Table across the sectors, while the top-tier combatants of the Paradise are mobilizing to engage nearby incursions."
"Mr. Kenzo, please alert all Reincarnator cells across the Eastland. This is an existential crisis. Mobilize every resource to preserve humanity!"
Tenkyo routed raw intelligence dossiers and geolocational casualty maps to Kenzo. Shocked as Kenzo was by the horrifying scope of the outbreak, learning that Kaito Shirogane was not the architect brought a faint flicker of relief.
He still remembered their initial meeting in that modest school dormitory. Whenever he reflected upon the heights Kaito had scaled, Kenzo found himself wrestling with quiet self-recrimination:
If I had been sharper back then... if I had parsed his anomaly sooner... could I have arrested his path back then? By... terminating student Kaito Shirogane.
The thought vanished as swiftly as it had surfaced. Nodding firmly, Kenzo shared the tactical telemetry with Takatsugu and the state vanguards. Leaning against the wall nearby, Ryo exhaled a long, quiet breath.
He had always known his old classmate Kaito was an alien existence, but had Kaito genuinely mounted an atrocity capable of cleansing human civilization, Ryo would have tasted profound sorrow.
Ryo had perpetually regarded Kaito as an equal human being—the foundational reason he had maintained their bond since childhood.
In his eyes, Kaito was merely burdened by excessive power, walking a path of unbearable isolation.
Ryo opened his eyes, a sharp resonance humming from his blade. He knew well that even if people remained silent, the vast majority of the world would instinctively assume this global cataclysm was Mercenary Tao's design.
Across the entire planet, operatives commanding the output to orchestrate such an event could be counted on one hand. And judging by historical behavioral profiles, Mercenary Tao was the candidate most inclined toward such bloody methods.
Yoko of the West held a public reputation that was blindingly righteous by comparison.
"Equip the Azure Dragon Division with anti-spiritual armaments. Commencing sweeps from the capital, radiating outward!"
Ryo had formally assumed command of the reorganized Azure Dragon Division from Takatsugu. Rapid technological revolutions and the Space's gradual loosening of constraints on Earth had made it feasible to equip ordinary personnel with alchemical ordnance—such as spiritual-disruption rounds.
"Contact An Zhiyuan. The two Gillians manifested within Eastland sovereign borders must be neutralized by him immediately. I am concerned that gorging on mortal souls could catalyze their evolution into higher-tier Menos."
Kenzo observed Ryo's sudden, focused determination with surprise. The young man had perpetually projected a lethargic, unhurried demeanor, causing Kenzo to momentarily forget that before the board had consolidated, Ryo had been the brazen operative who dared snatch a Tarot Card right from under the noses of Blue Sky and the Throne of Virtual Reality.
As the state coalition's foremost combat asset and the operative closest to the apex tier, seeing him steel his focus was a welcome development.
"An Zhiyuan has already been dispatched," Takatsugu reported, easing Kenzo's anxiety. Though Ryo had fallen in the past, An Zhiyuan's standing as the Sovereign of the Mental Domain granted him extraordinary utility. Moreover, he retained encrypted relays to that hidden assembly.
Across the northeastern reaches of the Eastland, where vast territory met sparse population density, the terrain was perpetually barren.
Right now, however, the silence hanging over the provincial city was suffocating.
A colossal entity draped in pitch-black robes beneath an elongated, bleached bone mask loomed at the municipal core, rising hundreds of meters into the freezing air.
The creature's gaze drifted lazily across the avenues. The suffocating spiritual pressure radiating from its frame was dense enough to dissolve the souls of unshielded mortals who drew near.
Hovering near the perimeter, a Reincarnator squad stood pale-faced. One operative clutched a talisman derived from an occult film world, designed to conceal human vital signs and blind the sensory arrays of spectral entities.
"Damn it all, it's actually a Gillian! What the hell?!"
The vanguard leader trembled violently. Though their unit operated within the Strong Step and ranked respectably within the Third Step—each member commanding mid-tier Strong ratings—exorcising standard Cursed Spirits or vengeful ghosts was the limit of their operational comfort. Even Special Grade curses could be overcome with careful intelligence gathering.
Yet no briefing had warned them that a Hollow would descend here—let alone a Menos Grande!
The sheer spiritual pressure radiating from the abomination destabilized their astral bodies from hundreds of meters out, rendering direct engagement suicidal.
"Fall back! Pull back immediately! Leave this monster for the top-tier combatants in the sector!"
"Mercenary Tao truly is a raving psychopath... unleashing things like this in the real world. Do you have any idea how many people are going to die...?!"
Trailing at the rear, a female operative cursed under her breath through chattering teeth. The squad shared her assessment without debate; an entity committing atrocities of this magnitude on Eastland soil without being put down could only be Mercenary Tao himself.
Mercenary Tao had always been a bloodthirsty savage, but mishandling a Menos Grande risked the complete annihilation of an entire urban population.
There were no Soul Reaper Captains patrolling these mortal avenues to clean up the mess.
Furthermore, Soul Reaper builds were practically monopolized by the Throne of Virtual Reality, and heaven alone knew whether those operatives would deign to intervene.
Step, step, step.
Rhythmic footsteps approached from the snowdrifts behind them. The operatives whipped around, finding a woman clad in a dark purple-and-black sailor uniform swaying forward through the blizzard.
Emaciated, her hair devoid of luster, yet that iconic attire...
"Mori-Summer!"
"Mori-Summer of Blue Sky!"
Mori-Summer advanced with her chin tilted downward into the bitter gale. She did not lift her eyes, walking straight past the Strong Step operatives, offering zero acknowledgment to their presence.
She existed as though separated from their reality by an unbridgeable veil.
The spectral silhouette of a withered, ancient tree manifested behind her back, broadcasting a suffocating aura of terminal decay.
Translucent ripples expanded in concentric rings across the snow.
Her eyes were completely vacant, her spirit and consciousness sealed deep within the inner sanctuary of her soul. Her Inner Mindscape was still under construction, anchored upon the roots of that withered tree.
Yet suspended above that ancient bough, a sword slash that seemed capable of cleaving the cosmos repeated on an unbroken, eternal loop—the strike Mercenary Tao had unleashed during their clash in the Little Garden.
It was entirely unrefined, even crude in its execution, bearing zero resemblance to her current martial precision or to Kaito's evolved baseline.
Yet that strike had contained the absolute, unadulterated concept of destruction. A slash so fundamentally crude had executed Ryo, ending the life of the strongest Reincarnator in Mori-Summer's heart.
Mori-Summer had weathered agonizing torment in its wake, her Heart's Radiance fracturing beneath the trauma.
Yet anchored by the Queen of Halloween's blessing and the Miracle left behind by Ryo, thirty-three years of bitter, silent meditation had finally borne fruit.
She had learned to endure the crushing ruin of Kaito's might, learning to embrace her own mediocrity and withered decay.
Unleashing an apocalyptic spiritual disaster in the real world to slaughter humanity... would Mercenary Tao truly commit such an act?
Having dwelled alongside that sword slash day and night for decades, Mori-Summer had forged an intimate, profound comprehension of Kaito Shirogane.
Mercenary Tao was undeniably a savage sovereign, but he rarely indulged in meaningless butchery.
Therefore, this cataclysm was not his design. Yet engineering a global spiritual outbreak was equally beyond the purview of standard operatives.
What was the true objective behind this staging?
Amidst her calculations, Mori-Summer arrived before the towering Gillian. Sensing the approach of a mortal, the Menos Grande tilted its bone-masked skull downward. Mundane souls would have been vacuumed clean into its maw at this distance.
Yet the girl showed no reaction whatsoever.
The next microsecond, crimson light coalesced before the Gillian's maw as a Cero charged to critical mass.
Hum—BOOM!
The Cero lanced through the air. Mori-Summer simply raised an arm, executing a single downward stroke.
A wave of boundless decay rolled forward. In the next fraction of a second, the Gillian's bone mask cracked cleanly down the center.
Mori-Summer did not break stride, marching forward until her silhouette dissolved into the howling blizzard, tracking a vector heading straight toward the northern border of the White Bear.
Simultaneously, the conviction that Mercenary Tao had unleashed a planetary spiritual cataclysm had hardened across all four global districts.
The prevailing hypothesis held that he intended to weaponize the global death toll to fuel an esoteric grand ritual.
Only within the inner sanctum of the Paradise did Jin Yue'an and the leadership wear furious expressions. They recognized the unfolding conspiracy for what it was, yet lacked the immediate leverage to dismantle the narrative.
Their only recourse was dispatching Shigure, Hongchen, Thread of Thought, Su Qingqiu, and Tan Zhishan to suppress the hotspots by force.
My Lord... return quickly. This is not a board we can resolve alone...
[You have used Ability Scroll: Astral Prayer Art]
[Assessing prerequisites...]
[Assessment—Passed]
[You have acquired Ability: Astral Prayer Art (S-)]
[Astral Prayer Art (S-) Lv1: Directs prayers toward a designated celestial body. Based on your Luck attribute and reputation standing with the target celestial body, you may secure corresponding celestial blessings. Duration scales with ability level (Current: 1 Hour). This ability may only be activated once every 7 natural days.]
Reviewing the parameters of the Astral Prayer Art, Kaito gained deeper clarity regarding the Space's administrative mechanics.
It appeared that so long as he occupied the seat of the Space's undisputed ace, the logistical arrangements engineered for his path were meticulously tailored.
While the reward baseline for the event was merely an ability of B-Rank or higher, this Astral Prayer Art was extraordinarily specialized.
Particularly given that his reputation within this world was functionally maxed out.
Standing before the panoramic glass wall, Kaito raised his hand and activated the technique.
[You have activated Ability: Astral Prayer Art]
Kaito felt his consciousness extend outward from his fingertips, merging seamlessly into the ambient reality before him.
Time dilated to a crawl. He distinctly perceived an anomalous interference creeping into his senses.
A sovereign authority was gently obscuring his perception of temporal progression.
Streams of blinding white light emerged, stretching like information cascades until they saturated his entire visual field.
When his sight reconstituted, he was greeted once more by the silent cosmic void.
He stood upon the lunar crust once again. Yet this time, standing upon the regolith before him was a titan of bizarre, grotesque anatomy.
The entity's physical chassis resembled the surface of a fractured planet, cratered with chasms, ridges, and celestial striations.
"Outsider. You have obtained my gaze."
[You have received the gaze of an Outer God. Spirit +1. Current: 100]
Kaito stared into the presence of this so-called Outer God, the corners of his lips curling into an easy, predatory smile.
"Indeed, God. You, too, have obtained my attention."