"What is this...?!"
Almost in an instant, every inch of Zanku's flesh, from his hands to his feet, became utterly immobile.
His limbs, head, and neck were completely bound by long, narrow shadows, and every movable joint was wrapped up as solidly as stone.
Zanku tried to use his ability on the shadows binding him, but no matter how he used it, their frenzied coils did not change in the slightest.
"Can't I cast visions on shadows? Damn it!"
Lin Feng had seen perfectly clearly how Zanku had just cast a vision on Tatsumi. He would never take human form and fall for that move.
"Illusions aren't yours alone..."
The voice came from somewhere unknown.
"How can a shadow possibly talk..."
Zanku concentrated all the strength in his body that had nowhere to go into his Teigu, Five-Sight Omnipotent: Spectator, trying to cast a vision on the pool of shadow.
[Alucard Template System: skill point used] [New skill learned: Eye of Illusion]
Having become a shadow, Lin Feng felt in that instant as though he had grasped some supernatural power. He seemed to have mastered all the mysteries of so-called illusions without spending any time learning them.
Suddenly, before Zanku's eyes, blood-red eyes sprouted one after another from the pool of shadow binding his feet.
They were not limited to his feet. The emerging eyes spread up his thighs, his waist, and his arms, until crimson eyes covered the shadows all over his body like spider eggs on a web.
Finally, a gigantic blood-red eye appeared before Zanku.
The eye had no eyelids. It simply lay open, blood gathering at its corners and blood vessels covering its white. Its pupil was like the red moon in the sky, making Zanku feel a boundless terror of death.
"This..."
Tatsumi looked at the executioner who had slaughtered countless people. There was clearly nothing in front of him, yet now he stared blankly up at the sky, standing there drooling like a mindless psychiatric patient.
"Die... die... fall into the eighteen levels of Avici Hell! Offer your filthy soul to those depraved demons and monsters!"
"You vile creature at the bottom of the heap, you deserve only to suffer every torment and then be spat upon by thousands! Your soul, too, will ultimately be trampled underfoot. That is your only worth, you insect!"
Countless voices echoed inside Zanku's head. Now, nothing but darkness remained in his mind.
Suddenly, Zanku's eyes bulged, and he retched sickeningly as though he were about to vomit blood.
Under Lin Feng's illusion, Zanku had begun hallucinating. It seemed that demons from hell had come to take his life, red fiends holding sharp tridents that plunged deep into his innards.
"This ends here..."
Lin Feng's shadows left Zanku's hands and feet, piling upward until they formed a crushing weight around his neck.
Under that crushing pressure, the shadows tightened further and further. Zanku instinctively tried to grab them with both hands, but it was too late.
Unable to breathe, Zanku grew weaker and weaker. He could barely raise his hands anymore, and his face became congested from lack of oxygen, turning as red as a monkey's backside.
With the sound of his neck snapping, Zanku's hands fell limp, and his face turned deathly pale.
Only once Zanku was completely dead did the shadows finally drift slowly off his body, taking Lin Feng's original form.
Tatsumi began trembling off to the side. Not only was the state of Zanku's corpse physically unsettling, but his fear stemmed even more from the strength of the man before him-Lin Feng.
He could strangle a Teigu wielder stronger than Tatsumi almost effortlessly, and he even possessed such a broken Form Transformation ability...
When would Tatsumi ever reach the same level as this man? Judging by the insignia on his uniform, was he really just an Imperial Guard captain?
And just as the battle ended,
A girl's silhouette appeared beneath the crimson moon.
She leaped and spun through the air with extraordinary speed and grace, as though she meant to turn the canopy of the sky into her dance floor.
Her hair fluttered nimbly behind her head at a different angle from her body, lending her entrance a distinctive beauty.
Then she landed straight on the ground, dropping into a half crouch to cushion the impact on her feet. Only then did Lin Feng get a clear look at her.
Black hair reaching her waist, a slender figure, a red tie and a little uniform that made for an excessively attractive outfit for a warrior-yet her eyes held a resolve that did not belong to a young girl.
This girl-Akame-could already be considered an acquaintance of Lin Feng's.
Looking at Zanku's corpse and the severely wounded Tatsumi beside it, then at the almost entirely unscathed Lin Feng, Akame seemed to understand everything.
"Tatsumi, sorry I'm a little late. He helped you kill Zanku, didn't he?"
"Yes... if this man hadn't saved me, it's hard to say how things would have turned out..."
Although Tatsumi was very reluctant to admit it, the observational ability of Zanku's Five-Sight Omnipotent was simply too troublesome.
Najenda must also have anticipated that Tatsumi was no match for Zanku, which was why she had sent Akame along afterward to help.
"Since everyone's dealt with the enemies they needed to deal with, let's all head back to our own homes."
Seeing that the matter was settled, Lin Feng smiled faintly, shook off the blood remaining on his body, and waved his sleeves as he prepared to leave.
"Wait!"
Akame called out to Lin Feng, who was about to leave.
"Is there something else?"
"You have no hostility toward us. Can I take it that way?"
Lin Feng looked at Akame. Her tactful tone suggested that she had already benefited from Captain Ogre's earlier death.
"That's hard to say. After all, we're members of the Imperial Guard."
"Um... thank you for saving Tatsumi..."
Akame turned her head away, whether blaming herself for arriving late or expressing her thanks for what Lin Feng had done.
"Don't thank me just yet. We might end up as opponents someday."
Akame looked into Lin Feng's deep red eyes. She knew that although this man was excessively powerful, he was no vicious villain who indiscriminately slaughtered innocents.
On the contrary, this man was calm and calculating, and he surely also hoped for a bright future for the Empire.
On this point, Akame felt a strong sense of kinship, because she herself had been one of the seven members of the Empire's former assassination unit and had once served the Empire as well.
"Why do you have abilities like these, yet willingly work for the Empire... how about joining our Night Raid?"
"On that point, I think I'll pass."
Lin Feng closed his eyes.
"Within the Empire, I have my own way of defending justice, just as you do outside it. Miss Akame-was it? I believe that besides the justice you pursue in hiding, justice carried out in broad daylight, like mine, is equally important."