"What is that?"
Suikazan Fuguki's pupils constricted as he stared fixedly at the brambles behind Nagato.
He also keenly sensed that Samehada in his hand—the body wrapped in bandages—had actually shrunk back.
It was like a predator resting in the jungle suddenly sensing a threat from its own kind.
But before Suikazan Fuguki could make sense of Samehada's abnormal reaction, the red-haired boy before him let out an inhuman roar:
"Blood Demon Art: Flying Blood Brambles!"
In an instant, the four blade-like brambles blooming from Nagato's body whipped up crimson afterimages and pierced toward Suikazan Fuguki with piercing shrieks.
Suikazan Fuguki's heart jolted at the sight. He swung the man-length Greatsword Samehada, stirring up a chaotic, turbulent current of air...
Boom!!
The brambles, like sharp spears, pierced through the white cloth wrapping the sword as it unraveled in midair. The fabric instantly shattered into scraps.
Suikazan Fuguki had vanished from where he stood. In Nagato's perception, that towering body had fled toward the top floor without hesitation.
He did not care in the slightest about the rule that "fleeing the battlefield and betrayal are equally guilty," as he had when threatening his subordinates and companions at the start.
"Coward!!"
The viciousness on Nagato's face deepened, several veins bulging visibly across it.
As his words fell, the four arm-thick brambles abruptly contracted and shot toward the ceiling above him.
Boom!!
The ceiling overhead shattered instantly. Rubble caved inward like a collapsing mountain, leaving behind only a cone-shaped oval hole.
Nagato's lean body, now slightly taller, sprang upward from the ground, cutting through the air with a sharp whistle.
After a brief moment of darkness, starlight and rushing air flooded in from the night sky.
Along with the thunderous roar raised by Greatsword Samehada through the air.
"Brat! You're courting death!"
Watching