The Slaughter of 251 Seconds

Higashino Makoto stood atop the Demon King's castle tower, his golden eyes gazing into the distance.

Those black figures are still rampaging across the land, and the slaughter continues.

Those villages, unprotected by angels, are burning; people are still running, struggling, and dying.

About an hour later, the arrival of the superior races became more sparse, and the main force should have arrived by now.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again.

His golden eyes now held only coldness and absolute arrogance.

Garden -- Unfold!!!

A purple-gold light surged from his palm and spread in all directions.

In an instant, like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, ripples spread from him to the whole world.

It moved extremely fast, like a streak of light.

Wherever the purple-gold light passed, the sky changed color.

The dark red cracks began to tremble under the impact of the purple-gold light, stopped expanding, and began to shrink.

The clouds in the sky were dispersed, and the moon and stars replaced the sun.

But those weren't real moons and stars; they were projections of a small world.

A false moon hung in the sky, gleaming with a cold, silvery-white light; false stars dotted the night sky, twinkling with icy points of light.

Then, a giant Scales of Justice appeared.

A giant golden scale floated in the air, almost covering half the sky.

On the left is a huge legal code, with a dark brown leather cover bearing the emblem of the Black Cross Guild.

A black cross burning with flames, with a pair of pure white wings extending from behind the cross to encircle its main body.

The codex opened automatically, its pages rustling in the wind. Golden characters floated out from the pages, dancing in the air like fireflies, until only two words remained.

"Cannibalism".

On the right is a huge heart, bright red and still beating, each beat accompanied by a deep sound.

The heart is about the size of the sutra, but its weight is not in the physical sense, but rather the weight of the soul, the weight of karma.

Then, a small balance scale appeared above the head of each Wisdom being.

They read, judge, and decide.

The innocent man's code sinks to one side and rises to the other side, representing the heart.

The guilty man's heart sinks to one side, while the law code rises to the other.

All human species in the world contain both innocent and guilty individuals.

Those guilty humans began to tremble because their souls resonated, drawn by the power of the scales.

But Libra did not attack them; it merely Judgment.

Anyone who commits the crime of cannibalism will be marked.

The rest of the superior races being slaughtered are all guilty; not one is innocent.

The heart side sank to the bottom, while the legal code side rose to the top.

Judgment--

"You are guilty!"

Higashino Makoto's voice wasn't loud, but it reached the ears of every living being present with clarity.

"Death sentence!"

"Start execution!"

The next moment, the scales and the codex vanished, as if it were an illusion.

Humans looked up at the sky, which had returned to calm. The false moon and stars were still there, but the scales were gone.

Everything that just happened feels like a dream.

Then the moon turned blood red.

The silvery moonlight was instantly stained blood red, like silk soaked in blood.

The stars turned blood-red, and crimson light poured down from the sky, enveloping the entire continent.

Purified white light erupted from the blood moon.

Their number was like the stars in the sky, immeasurable.

A white band of light descended from the sky, carrying immense light and heat, and even more so, a sacred power to purify everything.

Those streaks of light seemed to have a life of their own, swirling, turning, and heading straight for their target.

Each superior race is locked onto by at least one band of light, making them identifiable no matter where they hide or how deeply they conceal themselves.

The beam of light struck the body of the superior race.

Their bodies began to burn in the white light, disintegrating from the inside out.

Those forces that distorted the world, those superpowers, those unseen hands, melted away in the light like ice and snow under the sun.

The body turned to ashes, and the ashes turned to Void.

Then he was resurrected.

The superior race possesses extremely powerful healing magic; they can be fully revived as long as there is even a single grain of bone ash remaining.

They began to revive, their bodies reforming from Void, their once calm or raging faces now filled with terror.

But just as they were revived, new bands of light descended.

Then came the second death.

Higashino Makoto gazed at the blood moon in the sky, its white light still pouring down, each cascade taking away the lives of a group of superior races.

But energy is being consumed, and the stored energy is only enough for continued output.

"251 seconds."

He whispered the number.

Then he moved.

The figure disappeared from the top of the tower.

The next second, he appeared in front of a superior race.

The superior race had just been resurrected; its body reformed in the white light, and its red eyes had not yet fully regained focus.

Higashino Makoto reached out and grabbed its neck, his fingernails scratching the skin on its neck.

Blood gushed from the wound, and he smeared it on his palm. Then his body began to change.

One of his current races is the "True Vampire," the progenitor of vampires and the highest-ranking undead.

The other race is the "superior race" that was just analyzed.

He looked down at the superior race, its face reflected in its golden eyes.

The superior race tried to struggle, but its body wouldn't obey its commands. The Judgment of the Small World continued, and the divine power continued to suppress its strength, rendering it unable to move.

Blood dripped from between his fingers, the black blood in his palm, the blood of his own kind—

The only weapon to kill the superior race.

Higashino Makoto smeared the blood on his other palm, and a long spear appeared in his palm—a blood-red spear formed from the blood of his kind.

Then he thrust out, the spear tip piercing the heart of the superior race. There was no explosion, no roar, only a low, muffled sound, like a heavy hammer striking leather.

Blood gushed from the wound, pooling behind Higashino Makoto and forming a giant blood sphere.

The bodies of the superior races cracked from the heart outwards, the cracks spreading in all directions like spider webs, like fissures on ice, like porcelain shattered by a hammer.

Then it turned into countless tiny fragments that scattered on the ground and gradually dissipated in the white light.

This time, there was no resurrection.

"Really."

Higashino Makoto sheathed his spear and looked at the black bloodstain in his palm.

"Blood from the same species is indeed effective."

He closed his eyes and extended his perception into his small world.

He then transformed the "superior race" into another race, the "source water elementals".

The blood in my hand seemed to come alive, flowing, splitting, and replicating in my palm.

One drop becomes two drops, two drops become four drops, four drops become eight drops.

"Akeno."

"Exist."

Her voice came from behind him.

"Ten vampire princesses. Give them your blood. Remember, only this can completely kill those superior races."

"Yes, sir."

The Authority of the "door" unfolds.

A portal opened around him.

One, two, four, eight... dozens or even hundreds of pitch-black spatial rifts appeared around him, like eyes opening up.

The other side of the rift leads to various corners of the continent.

Behind each door was a superior race being suppressed by the white light.

Higashino Makoto chose the nearest door and went inside.

The superior race crouched in the ruins, his body constantly burning and regenerating in the white light, his red eyes staring at him, devoid of fear, only emptiness.

Higashino Makoto walked up to it, thrusting his spear forward and piercing its heart.

Shattered.

The blood sphere behind him grew larger.

He turned, stepped out of the crevice, and entered the next door.

The hunt has begun.

In the distance, a dozen or so vampire princesses were also hunting.

Their bodies weaved through the white light, each thrust of their black spears claiming the life of a superior race.

It's very efficient, but there are too many of them, and the superior races are still constantly emerging from the rifts.

But Higashino Makoto wasn't in a hurry.

He has 251 seconds, enough to kill most of the superior races.

The rest can be resolved gradually over time.

One after another.

Every shot was precise, hitting the heart.

His figure darted between the portals, moving so fast that even his afterimages were barely visible.

With each strike of the spear, a superior race member was reduced to fragments.

Ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred.

The speed is getting faster and faster, and the quantity is increasing.

Akeno's voice came through the communication crystal.

"Mr. Higashino Makoto, the vampire princesses have killed approximately five hundred. Time remaining: approximately 100 seconds."

That's enough.

He sped up.

The spear in his hand transformed into a black lightning bolt, each thrust piercing precisely into the heart of a superior race.

One hundred and fifty, two hundred.

The white light was still pouring down, the blood moon was still hanging in the sky, and the energy belonging to the "Hourai" in the small world was being rapidly depleted.

With fifty seconds remaining, Higashino Makoto had already killed approximately three hundred.

The rift in the sky began to shrink, and the dark red light quickly faded under the impact of the white light band; the "eye" was slowly closing.

In the distance, the last of the superior races was pierced through the heart by the vampire princess; its black body shattered into fragments and vanished in a white light.