The Grand Ceremony

"How terrifying. I never thought that brat would become this monstrous."

Hidan watched Shiraishi Mori wreak havoc in the village, clicking his tongue in amazement.

He had not expected that unremarkable little guy to erupt with such terrifying energy.

Compared to Hidan's mockery, Kamizuki Simu narrowed his eyes; if Shiraishi Mori continued to be corroded by hatred, he would likely end up a monster just like Sakamoto.

At this moment, the rampaging Shiraishi Mori had completely transformed into a hideous, nightmarish insect-dragon.

His entire body was encased in dark red, armor-like exoskeletons. His lower half was a terrifying centipede dozens of meters long, his hands had morphed into two sharp Rinkaku resembling spears, and his back was covered in a dense thicket of bright red tentacles that writhed like sea anemones!

His scarlet eyes radiated a thick aura of destruction, and in just a few strikes, he had already demolished several houses.

The Yunin who had come for Sakamoto's bounty were no match for him at all; countless ninjutsu were blocked entirely by the hard exoskeleton on Shiraishi Mori's surface.

Even if they managed to break through his defenses by luck, it only resulted in minor wounds on such a monstrous body, which would quickly recover thanks to the terrifying vitality of the Kagune.

Of course, the price for doing this was...

Shiraishi Mori's life.

All power comes with a cost. Although Shiraishi Mori could fuse multiple Kagune, the source of the Kagune's power was the host.

His current body could not support this level of consumption, so the Kagune were simply draining his life force frantically to unleash even greater power.

Under this power fueled by his own life, the Yunin had no ability to resist.

Amidst their expressions of terror and dread, the horrific beast that Shiraishi Mori had become slaughtered them without mercy!

"Destroy..."

As Shiraishi Mori drove a spear deep into the ground, the last Yunin was declared dead.

But his blind rage did not stop there.

"Destroy... destroy everything!"

After losing all his loved ones, Shiraishi Mori no longer had an "anchor" in this world.

He was now like a small boat that had lost its anchor, drifting aimlessly through the sea of sin that is the human world...

He no longer cared; he cared about nothing. The only thing he wanted to do now was to destroy everything he could see!

"Roar!"

In the sea of flames, the terrifying monster let out a heaven-shaking howl, and a horrific aura of destruction poured out from its body wildly.

It was a scene of absolute, apocalyptic destruction.

With a casual sweep, half the village was instantly leveled to the ground.

Seeing this, Kamizuki Simu sighed, his face clearly showing a hint of disappointment.

"What a pity. Did he end up losing control after all?"

He adjusted his glasses and shook his head slightly.

As expected, one shouldn't hold too high of expectations when it comes to experiments; failure is a common occurrence.

However, the harvest this time was still acceptable.

After all, he had discovered two special Kagune vessels in Shiraishi Mori and Sakamoto. Once he took their corpses back, he should be able to extract quite a bit of useful data.

Hidan noticed the flash of disappointment on Kamizuki Simu's face and immediately laughed.

"I didn't expect a guy like you to have miscalculations, too."

Hearing Hidan's teasing, Kamizuki Simu's expression remained unchanged as he said indifferently, "A miscalculation? Perhaps a little. But this is an experiment, so failure is normal. After all, aren't you just a failed product of Lord Jashin?"

"Kamizuki Simu, you motherf—"

Hidan felt incredibly stifled. It was clearly Kamizuki Simu who had failed this time, so why was he the one getting worked up?

But he held it in, licked his lips, and said, "Hmph, do you need me to finish that guy off for you?"

Kamizuki Simu looked at the still-rampaging Shiraishi Mori and shook his head slightly. "No need. Given his vitality, he shouldn't last much longer."

Hearing this, Hidan clicked his tongue. "Then I'm going to go deal with the sacrifices on the ship."

At the mention of sacrifices, Hidan's expression became instantly excited.

It had been a long time since he had presided over such a grand, large-scale blood sacrifice involving hundreds of people!

Surely Lord Jashin would be very happy and satisfied!

In the sea of flames, Shiraishi Mori finally stopped after his terrifying outburst.

Because standing before him was the old house where he had lived for over a decade.

His tyrannical, scarlet gaze revealed a trace of nostalgia, but this trace of nostalgia was quickly extinguished, replaced by a roar of pure catharsis from Shiraishi Mori.

"Destroy..."

"Destroy the world!"

He shrieked, and the countless scarlet Rinkaku tentacles on his back fired out in all directions, piercing toward the house below simultaneously!

He wanted to destroy the place that held all his memories, to completely discard his past, and then...

Let this world be buried along with us!

Countless scarlet tentacles descended from the sky like meteors, only to stop abruptly.

Because a tiny figure had crawled out from the house with extreme caution.

Staring at the countless tentacles hovering right before her brow, Shiraishi Rin froze in place.

She looked up, even though the monster before her eyes looked completely unrecognizable.

Yet, inexplicably, she could still sense a familiar aura emanating from him.

"Are you... big brother?"

Shiraishi Rin's face was filled with hope. After confirming that the monster had ceased its movements, she reached out her small hand and gently grasped the tentacle in front of her.

"You are Rin's big brother, aren't you?"

Feeling the warmth of the girl's body, the monster—dozens of meters tall and capable of effortlessly slaughtering a squad of ninja—suddenly shuddered.

High in the air, a single tear quietly slid down the face shrouded in dark red exoskeleton.

"Rin..."

The monster opened its mouth, emitting a hoarse, raspy sound.

The next second, the scarlet in his eyes faded away completely, and the entire monster began to disintegrate.

It collapsed with a roar, just like a building block tower with its key components pulled out!

A white-haired youth separated from the mass, landing right in front of the girl.

"Rin..."

The white-haired youth struggled to reach out his palm.

The girl also crawled laboriously across the ground, opening her arms to gently pull her brother into her embrace.

Beside the two of them as they hugged were endless seas of fire, rising blood mist, and black Raven flying across the sky, letting out cawing, eerie cries.

"How truly unexpected."

Simu adjusted his glasses, his face filled with surprise.

"As expected, human emotions are the most worthy things to study."

He turned around; Hidan had already finished setting everything up on the cruise ship.

A massive Jashin Cult symbol was carved into the deck of the ship, and in the center of the triangle within the circle lay a mountain of various corpses.

There was also the terrifying, dozens-of-meters-tall husk of Sakamoto.

Seeing that Shiraishi Mori had returned to normal, Hidan felt a bit of regret. He knew that as an important test subject for Simu, he likely wouldn't be able to drag him over to be sacrificed.

"What a pity, but Lord Jashin will surely feel immense pleasure with these offerings!"

Hidan stood atop the mountain of corpses, spreading his arms to embrace the sky, his face filled with intoxication.

The Jashin symbol painted in blood on the deck flashed with a crimson light.

Immediately following, a terrifying beam of blood-red light shot into the sky!

"Caw, caw, caw..."

Countless Raven circled the soaring blood-red aura, letting out mournful cries that sounded like a curse.