It was as if countless red-hot steel needles had pierced his brain. The indescribable, soul-deep agony drove the Hand Demon out of what little sanity remained. Its many arms clutched its head as it wailed, even ignoring Kurozawa, the great enemy beside it.
A demon's tolerance for pain was completely useless at this moment.
The Hand Demon had never felt such misery before.
The sensation of its soul being burned and dragged into an endless abyss filled its mind.
Kurozawa did not act rashly. He watched the Hand Demon struggle and convulse madly on the ground, like a fish about to die of thirst after being stranded ashore.
The aura of its body steadily declined. Within a few breaths, it fell to freezing point before completely vanishing.
"What happened?"
"Why did it die so suddenly?"
After he had smashed the Hand Demon's head with a punch, the Hand Demon had suddenly undergone this change.
Yet Kurozawa had smashed the Hand Demon's head several times before, and it had recovered in the blink of an eye every time. It felt satisfying to hit, but it had actually been useless.
"Stop playing dead. You won't fool me."
Kurozawa remained vigilant and flicked up a pebble with his toe, sending it into the Hand Demon's leg.
Boom! Amid the ashes filling the sky, the pebble passed through the Hand Demon's body, and its enormous form dissipated into the air.
The simultaneous changes from Potential Points +70 and Power of Despair +10, along with Gray-White, confirmed for Kurozawa that the Hand Demon was truly dead, not pretending in order to ambush him.
Kurozawa was a little dazed. He rubbed his smooth head.
A warm, comfortable sensation came from his head.
Hm? Kurozawa lowered his hand, and his eyes abruptly widened.
His attention had been drawn to the Hand Demon's strange transformation, and the darkness of the night had obscured it, so he had never noticed the changes in his hands.
Only now did Kurozawa see the layer of Pitch-Black Aura covering both hands.
"What is this?"
It was clearly a deep, pitch-black color, yet it strangely possessed a transparent texture. He could see his palms through the Pitch-Black Aura. It was black and profound, yet transparent, creating an extraordinarily contradictory and disorienting feeling.
And just one glance made immense despair rise uncontrollably in his heart.
Kurozawa examined it closely. His naked eyes could see nothing; it was still merely burning Pitch-Black Aura.
However, when he formed the thought of understanding the Pitch-Black Aura, Kurozawa's eyes lost focus.
At the same time, the Pitch-Black Aura expanded infinitely within his vision.
After expanding by an unknown number of times, Kurozawa finally "saw" its fundamental composition.
They were symbols, perhaps even tinier than atoms, interwoven with one another to form layer upon layer of the Pitch-Black Aura's shape.
Kurozawa recognized those symbols.
"Power of Despair from living beings."
The Power of Despair belonging to the undying Man-Eating Demon had formed the Pitch-Black Aura before Kurozawa's eyes.
"My understanding of Gray-White, and of myself, is only a drop in the ocean."
"Am I still human? Master said that my scent stopped being human a year ago. And now, with all these changes... what exactly am I?"
"Human? Demon? Devil? Someone who wields the Power of Despair could never be an angel."
Kurozawa laughed at himself. With a thought, the Pitch-Black Aura dispersed.
The mysterious symbols within Gray-White began to seem unfamiliar and enigmatic in Kurozawa's eyes.
"Right now, I'm not even qualified to understand myself."
The many changes to his body had filled Kurozawa with countless questions. Before, he had kept them buried in his heart and pretended to ignore them. Now, with the appearance of the Pitch-Black Aura formed from the Power of Despair, all those suppressed doubts flooded into his mind.
Yet Kurozawa sadly discovered that he could not find any answers.
"Only those who stand at the summit can see more of the scenery."
"As I gradually grow stronger, these secrets should unravel themselves."
At that moment, Kurozawa's desire to become stronger had never been greater.
Burying his many doubts once more, Kurozawa picked up the broken Nichirin Blade from the ashes on the ground.
"I hope it can be repaired. Otherwise, Master might really want to take a blade to me."
After putting away the blade broken into two pieces, Kurozawa turned and left the summit of Mount Fujikasane.
Four powerfully built demons of different forms attacked together.
Standing opposite them was Kocho Shinobu, her expression solemn.
"Four of them came at once."
Kocho Shinobu's palms were drenched in sweat.
She had fought one demon for too long, and the constant relocation of the battlefield had instead drawn other demons over.
Now that four demons were surrounding her at once, the situation had become rather unfavorable.
She immediately activated her Breathing Technique.
Insect Breathing: Total Concentration! Insect Breathing: Dance of the Butterfly! The four ferocious demons pounced simultaneously, while Kocho Shinobu, true to her name, fluttered nimbly among them like a purple butterfly, her figure swiftly circling through the demons.
A Mutated Demon whose elongated neck resembled a snake's head was the first to have its neck struck by Kocho Shinobu's blade.
Yet the snake demon was completely unharmed. Instead, the hardness of its body left Kocho Shinobu's wrist numb from the impact.
Gritting her silver teeth, Kocho Shinobu spun, and her Nichirin Blade swept past the necks of the other three demons.
She was incredibly fast. Even while besieged by four demons, she moved with ease, and none of them could so much as touch the hem of her clothes.
However, the strength in Kocho Shinobu's arms was pitifully weak, even inferior to that of some sturdy ordinary people.
That was also why she had been entangled with the first demon for so long. Even with the sharpness of her Nichirin Blade, Kocho Shinobu could not cut off a demon's head and could only leave wounds on its neck.
"Do I have no choice but to keep evading demons until I complete the trial?"
Kocho Shinobu was unwilling to accept it, but she had no good solution.
Her Breathing Technique was the self-created Insect Breathing, tailored to her physique. It was a derivative of Flower Breathing, itself a second-generation derivative of Water Breathing.
Insect Breathing greatly enhanced Kocho Shinobu's nimble movements and the strength of her agile legs, but the strength of her arms was comparatively far too weak.
Furthermore, Kocho Shinobu had not yet created any formal sword forms for Insect Breathing. With her frail strength, she could not cut through a demon's neck.
Even the weakest demon possessed flesh as tough as leather.
"Damn it. I have to find a way to kill demons."
Feeling her stamina draining away, Kocho Shinobu helplessly abandoned the urge to sever their heads and turned to flee.
With her nimble figure, even ten demons surrounding her would be unable to do anything to her.
"Heh, little girl, looks like you've run into trouble?"
Just as Kocho Shinobu was about to leave, a teasing voice sounded.
The voice was familiar, and it carried a profound quality that inspired trust.
Looking toward its source, she saw a towering figure over two meters tall emerge from the shadows.
His upper body was bare, his bulging muscles and protruding veins twisted across it. His bald head gleamed coldly beneath the moonlight, bringing a suffocating sense of oppression.
"Damn! I've encountered a powerful demon!"
That was Kocho Shinobu's first thought.
Seeing her shocked expression, Kurozawa vaguely guessed what she was thinking, and his face could not help darkening.
"Your memory is far too poor. We only met yesterday."
"Forget it. Since I promised your sister, I won't hold it against you."
As his words fell, Kurozawa moved in an instant like a tyrannosaur. The ground shook violently.
In that instant, the sounds of flesh tearing and bones shattering rang in Kocho Shinobu's ears.
The four demons beside her collapsed limply at the same time, their bodies crushed beyond recognition as if they had been run over by massive boulders.
"Let me borrow your Nichirin Blade."
Before you continue