Barn's lips moved, forming words devoid of emotion, yet the sky seemed to understand him. In an instant, it turned pitch-black. As its color deepened, the atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive, and the face of the Five Elder turned ever more ashen as his sight was steadily stripped away.
"Now enjoy this endless darkness."
Barn smiled as he spoke, his figure gradually vanishing into the darkness before the man's eyes.
The silence within the vast curtain of darkness was maddening. In that absolute stillness, the Five Elder could even hear the blood flowing through his veins. It only made him feel more stifled and agitated. He swung Shodai Kitetsu wildly, without any technique. Enormous slashes appeared without a sound, then vanished just as silently. The entire space remained pitch-black, utterly unchanged.
"Barn! You coward! Now that I've found your weakness, all you can do is run away?"
He was trying to provoke Barn into coming out. Even as one of the Five Elders, he had exhausted his usual composure here. Unfortunately, he had no hair; otherwise, it would surely have become a wild, disheveled punk hairstyle.
"Can't take it anymore?"
Barn's voice rang out, but it did not reach the man through his ears. Instead, it sounded directly inside his mind. The reason was simple: Barn had already stripped away his hearing.
"I told you, finding this rather obscure opening of mine won't do you any good. Do you really think you can hit me? With Hyper Regeneration and this ability combined, I'm unassailable!"
Barn's mocking words once again echoed inside the man's mind.
Whoosh!
The instant his words ended, a brilliantly glowing wing appeared in the darkness and slammed into the man's body. Deprived of both sight and hearing, he had no way to evade it and took the blow