Not long after Morpheus's team secured their victory, the Team Heroics led by Medea also triumphed, smoothly advancing to the top sixteen.
Their opponents were none other than the Team Enterprise.
That would be the team featuring Tokita Ohma, Kuroki Gensai, and the others.
To be honest, this group's strength wasn't half bad.
But compared to the Team Heroics, they fell far short.
These fighters were no match for Raikou at all—she single-handedly dismantled their entire lineup.
Up to this point in the tournament, it wasn't unheard of for one person to take down an opposing team all by themselves.
But such occurrences were rare, especially among the teams that had made it to the top thirty-two. Every one of them had their own signature techniques.
Getting one-versus-fived was hard to believe.
Yet Raikou pulled it off, and with crushing dominance, no less—she tore right through the opposing team.
The first to take the stage was Tokita Ohma, whom Raikou defeated in three strikes.
Raikou's initial slash came down, and Tokita Ohma instinctively stepped back.
The strike was too fast—fast enough that Tokita Ohma nearly failed to react.
Fortunately, in the nick of time, he managed to execute his Advance, dodging Raikou's assault.
But he had still underestimated her speed. When the first strike missed, the second followed without pause, leaving Tokita Ohma no opening to counter.
He could only keep retreating, but this time, it was too late.
Raikou's second strike landed precisely on Tokita Ohma's waist.
Luckily for him, she held back from a lethal blow, using only the flat of her blade to smack him and send him flying sideways.
Then, Raikou delivered her third slash, bringing it to rest against Tokita Ohma's neck.
She dispatched him with effortless ease.
Next up was Hatsumi Sen, defeated in three strikes.
Wakatsuki Takeshi followed, still taken down in three strikes.
Kanoh Agito stepped in, and yet again, defeated in three strikes.
This shattered the Team Enterprise's morale.
One after another, they rotated in, and not a single one could endure more than three strikes from Raikou. The disparity was simply too vast.
Finally, it was the Demon Lance, Kuroki Gensai, who took the field.
He was the strongest martial artist among them. After watching his teammates fall one by one, he knew he was outmatched by Raikou.
So the moment he entered, he unleashed a desperate assault.
What is a desperate assault? Put simply, it's a style aimed at mutual destruction—ignoring your own injuries to force a trade, one life for another.
If I don't even value my own survival, what do I have to fear from you?
As it turned out, the desperate assault had some effect, at least posing a bit of trouble for Raikou. It took her a full seven strikes to overcome this all-out offensive from Kuroki Gensai.
This left the onlookers stunned.
The Team Enterprise might not have been the absolute strongest among all the entrants, but making it to the top thirty-two meant they were no pushovers.
Yet a formidable team like that had been overwhelmed and crushed by Raikou alone.
This elevated the wariness toward her among the others by several notches.
Plenty of spectators now viewed the Team Heroics, with Raikou on it, as a prime favorite to win the whole thing.
And why not? Her power was just that overwhelming.
Of course, Morpheus's Team Extraterrestrial was another heavy favorite.
After all, in the prior match, Morpheus had casually dispatched Kushinada Mikumo.
Medusa had gone even further, using her Mystic Eyes of Petrification to turn Hongo Akira to stone on the spot.
The arena offered no cover whatsoever—one glance from her, and you'd be petrified.
How could anyone compete under those conditions?
After witnessing Medusa's performance, countless participants wracked their brains trying to figure out countermeasures against her Mystic Eyes of Petrification.
If you couldn't block that gaze, the fight was over before it began.
A single look turning you to stone? It was downright unfair.
The ability was simply too potent.
It was precisely for this reason that Morpheus's Team Extraterrestrial was seen as a top contender for the title.
Morpheus remained indifferent to the hype; he couldn't care less about the tournament's outcome.
His participation in this Dark Tournament was solely to probe its underlying secrets.
And those secrets? He'd uncovered them crystal clear right from the start.
So rather than dragging through the matches, Morpheus would have preferred to fast-forward straight to the end.
What he really wanted was to see what the mastermind pulling the strings—Abe no Seimei—had in mind.
Was it merely to forge a new body for himself and achieve resurrection?
If so, the real question was: once revived, would Abe no Seimei stir up more chaos?
Ryougi Shiki had warned him before—the future where black and white inverted, light and darkness reversed, and a hundred demons roamed in broad daylight was inextricably linked to this Dark Tournament.
Once Morpheus learned that Abe no Seimei and his cohorts were the organizers, he sensed something was deeply amiss.
In the storyline of Nurarihyon no Mago, the Abe no Seimei who had transformed into a yokai sought to eradicate humanity and build a world ruled by demons.
So what about this version, nurtured by demonic energy for a thousand years and utterly corrupted? Might he harbor the same ambitions?
Could his first act upon revival be the purging of humankind?
This upheaval—the inversion of black and white, the imbalance of light and darkness, the daylight parade of a hundred demons—could it all stem from this fallen Abe no Seimei?
Such were Morpheus's suspicions.
Thus, he truly had no stake in who claimed the championship.
His focus was on Abe no Seimei's forthcoming schemes.
Fortunately, the top sixteen teams had now emerged, and the tournament's conclusion was just a day or two away.
Morpheus could afford the wait.
Come the following day.
The next round of bouts commenced once more.
The competition was fiercer than the previous two days, as the teams that had progressed this far had all clawed their way through brutal eliminations.
Not a single one could be taken lightly.
Their clashes sparked intense fireworks, making for exceptionally thrilling spectacles.
Every team faced formidable adversaries.
Even Morpheus's Team Extraterrestrial ran into a tough rival, with Saeko and Hitomi falling in succession. It wasn't until Karna took the stage that the momentum shifted, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
They overcame their foes and advanced to the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, the Team Heroics—with Medea, Raikou, and Martha—also handily bested their opponents, securing their spot in the top eight.
After a grueling day of high-stakes combat, the final eight teams at last took shape.
Among them were Morpheus's Team Extraterrestrial and Medea's Team Heroics.
Following them were the Hachio Executioner Blade and their rivals, the Team Ryozanpaku.
Then came the Team Gojo, headed by Gojo Satoru, alongside the Team Shinso dispatched from Mahora Academy, led by the True Ancestor Evangeline.
The remaining two squads were the one featuring Yusuke Urameshi and the Team Nura.
***
Bonus Chapter:
100 Power Stones = 1 BC
300 Power Stones = 2 BC
500 Power Stones = 3 BC
700 Power Stones = 4 BC
1000 Power Stones = 5 BC
***
If you want to read up to 50 chapters ahead, don't hesitate to visit our patron: pat reon . com / XElenea (removespace)