"Bzz..."
A blazing white light converged into a single line, piercing through several hundred meters before slowly fading away. In this perilous, sinister Death Forest, the area within several hundred meters gradually returned to darkness as the all-illuminating white light dissipated.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Then, just as the forest returned to darkness, the thunderous crashes of giant trees toppling over rang out one after another.
Along the path the white light had taken, massive trees that had seemed impossible to shake slowly fell. In an instant, they had carved out a path several hundred meters long.
As the trees collapsed, huge clouds of dust slowly rose up, gathering along the path into a wall-like curtain of smoke that billowed upward before gradually dispersing in the air.
"Goodbye."
At the point where the white light had begun, in the now-darkened surroundings and near where the first tree had fallen, a youth with mottled gray-white hair and only his left eye exposed stood quite a distance in front of that tree. As the dust cleared, he slowly lowered the hand that had seemed to be pressed against empty air and spoke softly, his face wearing a complicated expression.
His tone was slightly heavy, yet carried an inexplicable gentleness.
As his hand lowered, a circle was exposed in the air before him, seeping a pale red liquid. It looked as though the air itself had been blasted open, leaving behind a bloody hole.
"Urgh... urgh..."
Then, as his words fell, the air in front of the youth—Hada Ichiba—twisted slightly, and a bandaged man with wide-open eyes slowly emerged.
As his body appeared, the bandaged man's widened eyes gradually moved downward. With utter disbelief, his gaze fell upon his own chest.
At that moment, the left side of his ribs and chest