Father and Son's First Clash X Roy's Psychological Warfare

"You have come."

"Yes, I have come."

"You look quite confident."

"And if I were not?" Roy drew his blade from its scabbard, looked deeply at Silva, and asked, "Would Father go easy on me because of that?"

"No, I would only strike harder." Silva paused in his play with the soft whip, rose to his full height, and the killing intent he unleashed roared like a vast ocean, surging toward Roy to swallow him whole.

Roy gripped Snow Walk with both hands, keeping Urokodaki Sakonji's teachings in mind. His feet took root as if fixed to the floor, not moving a single inch, while his thick, dark hair was blown into a wild, inverted dance!

He could barely keep his eyes open...

"Crackle~" Arcs of electricity danced... The security camera tucked in the corner of the room flashed with a red glow, quickly transmitting the footage elsewhere.

Early in the morning, Kikyo climbed out of bed, clutching her waist, and was having her morning tea served by Tsubone. A few meters away, outside the window, Milluki was lying prone in the garden, wearing a Lolita dress and exposing his belly, while a butler followed him around, applying ointment to his skin.

A few curious butterflies fluttered by, but upon encountering the training room, they acted as if they had hit an invisible wall, dropping to the ground one after another...

Illumi saw it clearly; it was a sign that they had been stunned by an overwhelmingly immense killing intent.

At a certain moment, the wind blowing into the room ceased... A whip shadow lashed out, shattering the "air" with a sharp "crack," and suddenly whipped toward Roy's chest.

Fast... too fast... It was so fast that Illumi had only glanced away at the butterflies for a split second, and by the time he looked back, the whip was already upon Roy!

"Snake Awakening?"

After his physical constitution improved, Roy's "Snake Awakening" had officially entered the realm of mastery.

The moment he stepped into Silva's domain of killing intent, he had already activated [Gyo], so he could vaguely perceive that this whip strike clearly carried a hint of "Snake Awakening."

Or rather... just as Urokodaki Sakonji had evaluated "swordsmanship," the blade was merely an extension of the arm... similarly, the whip was an extension of Silva's arm. The whip strike was a hand-blade; if he were hit, it would be far more than just losing a layer of skin!

It was close!

Roy could already smell the murderous aura radiating from the whip!

He remained calm, warning himself to keep his composure. He gripped Snow Walk with both hands, just as he did during his daily "Ten Thousand Swings" in the Snow Country. With a single Iai strike, he timed it for the exact moment the tip of the whip was about to strike his chest, and with a roar, he brought his blade down in a vertical slash!

"Clang—"

The tip of the blade scraped against the air, emitting a piercing, sharp ring. Snow Walk traced an arc, striking after the whip but arriving first, accurately hitting the soft whip and separating it from his chest.

"Bang—" A massive, overwhelming force struck... The momentum did not stop in the slightest because of Roy's blade; it was merely blocked for a fleeting moment before slamming into Roy's chest once again.

Roy felt as if he had been hit head-on by a hundred-ton truck. Snow Walk nearly flew from his grasp, and his entire body was sent flying, crossing the ten-meter corridor and slamming solidly into the stone wall at the corner!

"Crack... crack..." The stone wall shattered into a spiderweb pattern with him at the center!

A wave of intense pain washed over him. Roy slid down the wall, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. It was clear... with just a single blow, his internal organs had been injured!

"Why didn't you dodge?"

The subject of this test was—[Zetsu].

[Zetsu] is best at concealing one's presence and heightening the five senses—

Using [Zetsu] to evade attacks was exactly what Roy should have been doing at that moment...

"Why should I dodge?" Roy reached up to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, gripped Snow Walk tightly once more, and countered Silva's question: "Since Father wishes to test me."

"I naturally must also weigh Father's strength. This is... the most basic of courtesies..."

"Lying... you just want to strike back." Illumi wisely hid in the corner, retreating further into the shadows... He treated himself like a venomous snake, coiled in the darkness, his hollow eyes locked onto Roy. He appeared expressionless, but his thoughts were churning, far from the calm he projected.

Since childhood, the family had taught them that an assassin is not a brute; they only take jobs they can finish, and if they can't, they don't take them... To force oneself to take on a task beyond one's ability without the skill to back it up is simply seeking death!

In Illumi's eyes, Roy was seeking death!

"Do you think your life is that tough, or do you think that because you are my son, I won't use lethal force?"

Silva noticed this as well, looking at Roy coldly.

Roy remained silent... In truth, he simply hated the feeling of being beaten without being able to strike back.

Facing an enemy, even if it were his father, he had to defeat him fair and square... Roy had to admit that he had deceived Urokodaki Sakonji. He knew... at his current stage, he was far from being Silva's match, but he could never accept scurrying around like a rat.

"At the very least, I must try to touch the hem of his clothes."

Without answering Silva's question, and ignoring Illumi entirely, Roy activated [Zetsu]. By closing his aura nodes and heightening his senses, his eyes narrowed. With his "Shadow Step" at the master level, he vanished right before Illumi's eyes!

"Whoosh—" A whirlwind suddenly kicked up inside the training room... When he reappeared, dozens of Roys, each gripping Snow Walk and wearing earrings of the sun and mountains, leaped before Silva and delivered another vertical slash!

"Sun Breathing, First Form: Waltz!"

"Puff—" The tip of the blade ignited from friction with the air, and dozens of circular rings of fire cut downward...

Silva's nostrils flared; he could almost smell the heat wave against his face, and a cold, curved arc appeared at the corner of his mouth...

"Combining [Zetsu] with [Shadow Step] and [Rhythm Echo] is indeed a decent choice, but...

Only the 'Shadow Step' is barely worth looking at."

The man remained as immovable as a mountain. He didn't seem to make any move, yet with a flick of his wrist, he lashed out with his whip again. This time, it brought with it several whistling sounds, faster and fiercer than the previous strike. In an instant, countless whip shadows appeared, dazzling Illumi's eyes...

"Puff... puff... puff..." One Roy after another was whipped away until only one remained, who was sent flying backward once more, shattering the window and landing in the garden.

Milluki, who had been playing dead, was jolted awake; he flipped up into a sitting position with a start, staring blankly at Roy as he collapsed to the ground, a trail of snot trickling out of his right nostril at a most inopportune moment.

"Young Master," the butler, possessing a keen eye for the situation, scooped him up and scurried off to the side in a panic.

Inside the training hall, Silva remained with his back to the shattered window, his voice muffled as he commanded, "Continue."

Illumi, at this moment, cast his gaze outward once more... beneath that willow tree which had witnessed the rise and fall of several generations of the Zoldyck family, a figure stumbled, clutching his blade as he hauled himself back up.

His appearance was wretched; his forehead had been gashed by flying glass, a jagged wound from which blood spurted, staining half his face crimson.

"Cough, cough... That lash really was heavy enough, Father. How about we strike a bargain..."

"If you concede now, we can just let this slide..."

"Heh heh... the cunning little brat, trying to play mind games with his own father..." Inside the dim, cramped room, the old man rocked in his chair, thoroughly amused.

Standing beside him, Zeno kept his [En] fully active.