News of Onigumo's defeat after fighting Crocodile for forty hours.
It was like another bombshell, once again stirring up waves of discussion within the Army.
Especially among the officers who focused on swordsmanship.
They were very interested in the ghost energy Onigumo had displayed.
This power from the Underworld was indeed exceedingly mysterious for now.
Yet its bizarre corrosiveness, intimidation, and powerful enhancing effects.
Undoubtedly opened a brand-new door for countless people who craved power.
At this moment.
The central figure behind this heated discussion lay quietly in an intensive care ward at the Army Headquarters Affiliated Hospital.
Onigumo, whose body had fallen into a deep coma from exhaustion and injuries.
Had his consciousness pulled into an indescribably strange space without anyone noticing.
This place carried the hues of eternal twilight, while the sky was an oppressive dark purple.
There was no sun, moon, or stars.
Only a hazy light source falling from somewhere unknown.
Illuminating the snow-white sand beneath his feet and the mist curling around him.
Onigumo instinctively raised his eyes.
At the far end of his vision, he could vaguely make out an ink-black river winding silently onward.
Great swaths of bewitching, beautiful crimson flowers bloomed along its banks.
Onigumo stood blankly upon this unfamiliar land.
Then he immediately snapped to attention, his gaze turning sharp as he warily watched his surroundings.
His thoughts had already regained clarity. His hands instinctively reached for his waist, only to find it empty.
"Where is this?"
"This is the gap between life and death, the garden on the Other Shore of the Styx."
"It is also where thy soul shall temporarily rest."
A cold, ethereal female voice carrying supreme majesty rang out from above.
Onigumo abruptly looked up.
At some unknown point, an ancient-looking throne, carved entirely from an unknown