"Call--!"
Just as Sanemi was about to close his eyes and doze off for a while...
Out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of a head lying on the ground not far away, a head that seemed to be filled with Sekido.
That head, which should have simply vanished into thin air, not only didn't turn to ash, but instead suddenly opened its eyes!
Those were bloodshot eyes, filled with extreme madness and resentment.
Sanemi's heart skipped a beat, and the hairs on his body stood on end.
"Holy crap? Why is this bastard still glaring at me? The way he's looking at me, like I stole his wife?!"
Even more outrageous things happened.
The headless, Sekido corpse slowly stood up.
Moreover, he didn't pick up his head like he had before.
"Tear--"
A sound of flesh tearing rang out.
Without warning, a gaping maw filled with fangs suddenly split open from the chest cavity of the headless, Sekido body!
Immediately afterwards, countless dark red fleshy buds and blood vessels, covered in thick, viscous fluid, erupted from that enormous mouth like the tentacles of a giant octopus!
"What the hell is this disgusting thing?!"
Obanai her stomach, and she almost spat out the blood she had just been suppressing.
The tentacles danced wildly in mid-air before precisely binding the heads and bodies of the other three clones on the ground.
Karaku's head was tightly gripped by a tentacle around its chubby cheek, yet it still foolishly asked:
"Hey? You 'Sekido? Why did you tie me up? Let's sit down and talk things out, no need for physical violence."
Urogi had one of its tattered wings torn off, and it screamed in agony like a pig being slaughtered.
"Ouch! Don't pull! Don't pull! All my feathers are falling out! These are my beautiful feathers that I groomed with my saliva every day!"
Aizetsu other hand, had two lines of clear tears streaming down her face, her expression one of utter despair, too weary even to resist.
"This is so tragic... We brothers have to come to this point of killing each other? Is this the curse of fate... o(╥╥)o"
"Shut up, all of you! Give me all your power!!"
The Sekido head on the ground roared hysterically.
"Crack!"
"Snap!"
Accompanied by the incredibly appetizing sound of bones and flesh shattering, the gaping maw on the headless body's chest completely transformed into a merciless meat grinder.
It dragged its three other clones, heads and bodies included, without a second thought, into its chest cavity, where it frantically chewed, crushed, and devoured them.
The scene was like a high-definition remake of a painting of hell.
Sanemi's eyes nearly popped out of his head, and he burst into a tirade of curses:
"Is this supposed to be pissing beef balls?!"
"These guys even have a combination attack ability?"
"Is this even remotely in line with basic laws?!"
Obanai gripped the hilt of the knife tightly, cold sweat instantly soaking through the tattered striped haori on her back.
That sudden burst of power had exhausted all his strength, and now he didn't even have the strength to swing his sword steadily.
If this monster really evolves into something even more outrageous, then the two of them will truly be doomed here today.
The rate of absorption was astonishing.
A pressure ten times more terrifying than the four ghosts combined crashed into the narrow dead-end alley like a materialized mountain.
The thick, dark red and black Demon Aura shot straight into the sky like a volcanic eruption.
The surrounding solid rock walls shattered into dust the moment they came into contact with this Demon Aura.
The gale, accompanied by deafening thunder, made it impossible for Sanemi and Obanai to even open their eyes.
When the smoke and dust finally cleared up...
A very burly young man was suspended in mid-air.
The boy carried several wooden taiko drums linked together on his back and held two exquisite drumsticks in his hands.
He lowered his eyes, his gaze devoid of any emotion, utterly indifferent, as if he were looking at two insignificant bugs.
Upper Rank Four: Hantengu's true form - Zohakuten, makes its dazzling debut.
Looking down at the two disheveled figures on the ground, Zohakuten spoke without any emotion.
His voice was clear and crisp, even carrying a hint of boyish naiveté, but the words he spoke had a twisted quality that sent chills down one's spine.
"Extremely inhumane."
"You actually pushed us, the weak, to this point... You wicked bullies who prey on the weak deserve to die."
As soon as those words were spoken...
Sanemi and Obanai were completely bewildered in the wind.
"Ha?"
Sanemi wondered if the thunder had deafened him; he was so angry he didn't even care about spitting blood.
"Did I hear that right? Bullying the weak?!"
"You call those four monsters who beat us to a pulp weak?"
"Did your brain get struck by lightning and short-circuit? Who's bullying whom here?!"
Obanai was both amused and exasperated by this peculiar line of thought.
There should be a limit to "the guilty party accusing the innocent first."
"Today I've truly witnessed the ultimate level of shamelessness. It's impossible to communicate with this completely illogical lunatic."
Zohakuten didn't care at all about the two's crazy rants.
In his worldview, he himself is the absolute victim and the embodiment of justice.
Without a word, he raised the drumstick in his hand and struck the taiko drum behind him with extremely elegant movements.
"Thump--!"
The sound wasn't deafening; it was even somewhat muffled.
But it possesses an extremely eerie penetrating power.
Sanemi and Obanai instantly stunned, as if struck by lightning.
"Puff!"
Sanemi suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, feeling as if his heart had been smashed with a large iron hammer, and all his internal organs had shifted out of place.
Obanai wasn't much better off. Her already injured ribs were in excruciating pain from the shock, and she lost her balance, curling up in agony like a shrimp.
There was absolutely no room to hide, and no chance to fight back.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Zohakuten then delivered three more merciless blows.
Earth shook and mountains trembled!!
The soil below the dead end groaned in pain, then exploded with a deafening roar.
Amidst the swirling mud and rubble, three enormous dragon heads, entirely constructed of hard wood, burst forth from the earth like ancient behemoths, their gaping maws covered in sharp wooden spikes!
These three wooden dragons were enormous; their thick bodies coiled and intertwined in mid-air, their scales rubbing together and making a teeth-grinding crunching sound.
They directly blocked out the waning moonlight overhead, shrouding the entire dead-end alley in a suffocating, pure shadow.
The immense wind pressure caused the two of them to roll several times on the ground.
Obanai struggled to lift her head, looking at the towering wooden dragon, her body instinctively trembling.
This is neither cowardice nor timidity.
Rather, it is the fear response ingrained in a organism's genes and not controlled by the brain when facing an absolute predator.
That's incredible.
This level of strength has completely surpassed the scope that swordsmanship, positioning, and tactics can compensate for.
In the face of absolute power, all fancy techniques become a joke.
Sanemi gritted his teeth so hard that his lips bled, and blood flowed down his chin.
He desperately tried to grip the Nichirin Blade tightly, wanting to stand up and strike again, even if it meant death, he wanted to bite off a piece of his opponent's flesh.
However, his fingers, exhausted to the limit, couldn't even twitch.
That desperate, all-out battle that pushed them to their limits did not bring them the dawn of victory.
Instead, it forced out an ultimate monster whose very escape became a luxury.
Standing before this abyss called Zohakuten, the two of them finally realized with absolute clarity the insurmountable obstacle that filled them with utter despair.
This.
It's a real Upper Rank!!