It was a passage through space and time. The girl looked close to Kuta, but if his position marked the beginning of Uta World, hers marked its end.
She seemed only a few steps away, yet an entire world lay between them.
For Kuta, that was no obstacle.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
Kuta flashed three times, leaving three afterimages behind. As though crossing three worlds, he appeared directly before Uta when he finished his third step.
Seeing the young man reach the very heart of this world in just a few steps, the Demon King clearly grew anxious.
A tide of roiling black mist surged toward the heart of the world, compressing again and again.
At last, clusters of even darker faces appeared around Kuta.
Each black face bore a pair of blood-red eyes.
They all stared at Kuta. The red light in their eyes took on substance, giving off an eerie red mist.
This was no longer simple black mist, no longer pure force. Nor was it like the earlier roar, which had held the power to shatter space.
The moment the red mist appeared, this space came to an uncanny halt, as though time and space had frozen.
Within that stillness, the red mist silently closed around the young man. It gave off no detectable aura, yet radiated the most intense desires of the mortal world.
Had time and space stopped?
No. That was merely an illusion of the senses. Time and space remained as they were; the strange red mist had only deceived those who perceived them.
Even so, the young man standing before the girl
couldn't help looking up at the red mist surging toward him.
"Interesting."
A flicker of interest crossed Kuta's eyes.
The power of emotion could affect things to this extent.