The Crumbling Tokugawa and the Sealing of the Land of Fire's Underground Palace

"Boom—"

The stone door behind him slammed shut, and the deafening crash echoed repeatedly through the deep tunnel before finally being swallowed by the endless darkness.

The sound was like a giant hammer, smashing into the last shred of Hojo Tokugawa's sanity and pulverizing it completely.

Everything connecting him to the outside world—the sunlight, power, and even his laughable dignity—had been completely cut off by this door.

"Ha... ha... ha..."

Tokugawa leaned against the cold, rough stone wall, panting violently like a stray dog with a broken bellows for lungs. Sweat, tears, and snot smeared his entire face, making his once pampered features look twisted and loathsome.

In the darkness, only the torches held high by several trusted guards crackled, casting unsteady shadows that made every face look grim and shifting.

"My lord... are... are you all right?" a young guard asked in a trembling voice. His hand gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, as though it could provide him with even the slightest sense of security.

But Tokugawa did not hear him at all.

His eyes were wide open, the bloodshot eyeballs spinning frantically as he stared fixedly into the surrounding darkness.

Useless!

Completely useless!

Even this underground palace buried beneath the Daimyo Residence, built from the hardest rock and Sealing Formulas, could not block those gazes!

Those omnipresent, cold, pure-white eyes were still there!

They were in the darkness, in the cracks between the stone walls, and in the swaying shadows of the guards, silently watching him.

As though admiring a trapped beast on the verge of taking its own life.

"They're still watching! Still watching! You useless fools, can't you see them?!" Tokugawa suddenly thrust out a finger, pointing wildly at a patch of empty darkness as he let out a hysterical shriek.

The guards exchanged