He would use the large circuit beneath his feet to hold him off, then hang on until the invincible Kamishiro Seian arrived to save him.
"Form up! Stop him! Fucking stop him, now!!"
Kamishiro Seiki immediately roared the order.
A squad of sword attendants carefully trained by the Kamishiro Family guarded him.
They wore standard-issue light armor and had vacant eyes. They should have obeyed his orders without question.
But now, when they saw the figure charging toward them like a demon god and felt the terrifying, almost tangible aura bearing down on them...
The overwhelming fear born of their survival instincts instantly shattered the "absolute loyalty" instilled in them by years of training and drug control.
Faced with a choice between life and death-
"Run... Run!!"
No one knew who was the first to let out a scream of panic.
The next instant, the thirteen well-trained sword attendants, who should have formed up and fought to the death, all threw down their weapons, turned, and fled for their lives in different directions!
They could only wish their parents had given them two more legs!
"Bastards! You... How fucking dare you disobey my orders! Come back! Get the fuck back here!!" Kamishiro Seiki roared in despair, his eyes nearly bursting with rage.
By then, the lightning-fast figure had finally drawn close enough for him to see his face.
No, he couldn't see it, because the bastard was wearing a fucking mask!
Still, come to think of it, this guy...
He really was a person!
How could he be human?!
Even ferocious beasts weren't this ridiculous!
He wore a pure white mask and a white shirt.
In his hand was a longsword, thick blood dripping steadily from its blade.
Wait!
That sword...
Wasn't that the fucking sword he'd lent Kamishiro Seigen?!
Kamishiro Seigen had even put his childhood sweetheart up as collateral for it.
Which meant-
His Sword of No Thought, his beloved Sword of No Thought, how could it...
Be in this guy's hands?!
And on top of that, his Sword of No Thought was humming with delight, a sound it had never made for him.
At that moment, Kamishiro Seiki understood-
This guy standing before him had killed Qingxian.
No wonder...
If Seigen had run into a monster like this, it was only natural that he'd died, wasn't it?
And he...
Probably wasn't going to fucking survive either!
Once he realized that, a twisted, reckless ruthlessness welled up in him after the overwhelming terror.
If he was going to die either way, he might as well fucking fight!!!
He jerked his head up and shouted with all his might at the sword attendants fleeing for their lives in every direction:
"Fuck! You fucking bastards don't have a loyal bone in your bodies!
"If any of you gets lucky enough to make it back alive!
"Remember! Tell my fucking bastard of a father-
"To fucking!! Avenge! His! Son!!!"
Hearing those last words, so overloaded with profanity, Qiji frowned in mild disgust.
Then a nearly inaudible chuckle came from beneath his mask:
"No need to go to so much trouble... There shouldn't be any Echoers above the third tier here, right?"
Qiji briefly checked, then nodded in satisfaction.
"In that case, please-die here, every last one of you."
Without a doubt, Qiji was a perfectionist.
Since he had decided to kill them, he naturally had to kill them all neatly, without showing favoritism to anyone.
The instant his words fell.
Qiji's figure vanished once more.
In the dim night, no one could see Qiji.
All they could see were countless flashes of sword light.
At the same instant, in different places, from different angles and at different heights-
They burst forth!
The streaks of sword light crisscrossed like a deadly net someone had drawn.
Every streak passed precisely through one person's throat.
At the same time, the people who had been fleeing for their lives a moment ago all heard Qiji's words, soft as a sigh, beside their ears-
"Corpses, why are you running around and moving about?"
The instant his words fell, thirteen figures froze in unison.
At last, they stopped running around and moving about.
Then, in the next second, their heads shifted and separated from their bodies.
"Thud."
"Thud, thud, thud..."
The thirteen headless bodies were like puppets with their strings cut.
Almost simultaneously, they all toppled over in different directions.
Their wounds were as smooth as mirrors. The blood at their severed necks took another moment to gush out like fountains.
The dark earth was dyed a glaring scarlet.
One sword strike.
Thirteen kills.
Not one escaped.
A complete reunion.
The bullet comments really put themselves in his shoes:
"Fuck! That's literally me!"
"Corpses, why are you moving about...!! Where does Prisoner Ji get all these slick lines? Does he spend every waking moment thinking them up?"
"Just kidding, he thinks them up in his sleep too, lol."
"When's the first-person remaster coming out? I can't wait!"
"After buying breakfast for my goddess and her boyfriend, coming back to watch an episode like this is so relaxing!"
"This feels so good! Kill, kill, kill! Don't stop!!!"
"..."
Kamishiro Seiki stared blankly at the scene before him, his mind empty.
It was as though the sight of a slaughter beyond his comprehension had instantly robbed him of even his fear.
His mouth hung open, but he couldn't make a sound. Only the clattering of his wildly chattering teeth could be heard.
Qiji's gaze finally returned to him.
Against the backdrop of blood, the pure white mask looked utterly eerie, with an inhuman sanctity that was terrifying to behold.
"Next..."
Sword in hand, Qiji slowly walked through the pool of blood, step by step, toward the immobile Kamishiro Seiki.
"-It's your turn."
The instant his words fell.
Sword light flashed.
Kamishiro Seiki's head, its eyes still open in death, tumbled to the ground.
He had died beneath the sword he had once loved most.
The Sword of No Thought had drunk its fill of blood. It trembled with excitement in Qiji's hand, emitting a clear, joyful hum.
It had followed two masters, Kamishiro Seiki and Kamishiro Seigen, for seventeen years in all...
Yet those years hadn't been as enjoyable as a few short minutes with big brother Qiji!
The moment Kamishiro Seiki fell, the large circuit on the ground abruptly dimmed.
The Void Beasts that had fearlessly kept charging at Qiji, one after another-
All halted at once. The mad scarlet light burning in their eyes quickly receded like the tide.
In its place came a brief bewilderment, followed by fear that returned little by little as they regained their senses!
When they saw the hellish scene around them-
The mountain of their own kind's corpses and the lingering stench of blood...
And the "grim reaper" standing amid the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, holding a dripping sword and wearing a pure white mask...
"Aooo-!"
"Whine-!"
Howls of utter terror rose and fell!
The moment Qiji's cold gaze swept over them, all the surviving Void Beasts, regardless of tier, scrambled to prostrate themselves.
It was a spectacular sight, as though they were paying homage to a king.
Chapter 36: At This Moment, a Miracle Is Needed
Qiji ignored the Void Beasts.
Instead, he immediately opened the main livestream to check on Huomu.
The one controlling the beast horde's rampage was dead, and the array had stopped.
By rights, all the Void Beasts should have stopped rampaging, and the crisis on Huomu's side should have been resolved.
However-
The situation on screen hadn't improved at all!
The two most troublesome Metal-Rending Battle Eagles still had blood-red eyes, their ferocity undiminished.
They continued their relentless, frenzied attacks on Setsuna, Huomu, and the others!
Berserk itself pushed a Void Beast's body beyond its limits!