A Huge Haul, 120,000 Soul Ash! Sacrifice! An Ancient Demon God Awakens! Where Are the People of the Hozuki Clan?

It seemed to have lasted only a moment, yet also seemed to have lasted an eternity.

The pure white, colorless sun above the Hozuki Clan finally vanished.

"Brother Yuu, are you all right?"

Uesugi Tetsu half-crouched beside Hozuki Yuu and patted his shoulder in concern. Yuu was slumped on the only undamaged stone slab, his trousers soaked through from fright.

He had been able to pull off such a smooth, explosive attack thanks to Brother Yuu kindly bringing him to the front of the Hozuki Clan's main hall.

Otherwise, killing the weak, then the strong, then the stronger... If things had turned into a nesting-doll sequence like that, how troublesome would it have been?

Hozuki Yuu shuddered and did not dare answer.

His pupils, which had been trembling violently from terror, gradually steadied. He unconsciously glanced around twice.

Air. Air. A crystal-clear wasteland. Piles of charred remains.

There was nothing else.

The once-imposing Hozuki Clan main hall was gone. The clan grounds, which had held hundreds or thousands of buildings, were gone. The over one hundred geniuses, elders, and clan head inside—each far stronger than him—were gone as well... And those terrifying Shikigami that had once been able to scare him into freezing with just one glance...

Within Hozuki Yuu's field of vision, only half of a circular, arc-shaped barren mountain remained.

And... Uesugi Tetsu, who was currently looking at him with concern.

Everything belonging to the Hozuki Clan, its centuries-old inheritance, its elite soldiers and powerful commanders, its Great Demons with terrifying abilities—all of it had been destroyed in an instant by the man before him.

Unexpectedly, Hozuki Yuu did not feel any hatred toward him. Instead, threads of gratitude began to emerge from the depths of his heart.

He was grateful that the man had wiped out this