"Akame, you..."
Alice hesitated, her words trailing off. She didn't want Shinji to face the monster—this suspected piece of the Propagation Hegemon—alone, yet she had to admit she no longer had the qualification to intervene in a battle of this level.
Hengo was more pragmatic: "Akame, be careful!" Knowing the monster was beyond their reach after the nuclear strike failed, he realized staying would only cause trouble. He pulled Alice along to evacuate.
The old warrior nodded to Shinji before silently activating his flight gear to retreat into the distance.
"I leave it to you!" Arcane bowed respectfully toward Shinji before following the others.
The Lampbearers stopped about fifteen kilometers away. This distance allowed them to use equipment to observe the battlefield while providing enough of a buffer to retreat if things went south.
"Is it right to leave Akame alone?" Alice asked.
"What else can we do?" Hengo sighed. "If even a direct nuclear hit couldn't eliminate that monster, what more can we offer?"
The old warrior suddenly spoke: "I feel like Akame hasn't used his full strength yet."
"What!?" Alice was stunned. "How is that possible? He's already being so dominant, and you're saying he's holding back?"
"What did you notice?" Arcane asked.
The old warrior shook his head. "I have no proof, but my intuition tells me he's still in the probing stage."
Arcane sucked in a cold breath. If Akame was this terrifying while holding back, he couldn't imagine what his true limits were.
...
On the battlefield.
Once the Lampbearers cleared the core zone, Shinji turned his gaze toward the monster thrashing on the ground. Its gelatinous shell looked like melted plastic, charred and deformed in places, proving the nuclear weapon hadn't been entirely useless.
"So high temperatures can cause effective damage..."
The thought sparked the activation of his dojutsu, Amaterasu.
In an instant, the rampaging monster was ignited by black flames. Soon, the fire blanketed its entire body. No matter how much it struggled, the black flames clung to its flesh, relentlessly burning away at its form.
Roar—
Roar—
Roar—
The monster let out agonizing roars that seemed to pierce through space. Whether it was the mages in the Knowledge Tower or the Lampbearers fifteen kilometers away, everyone felt an instinctive tremor in their souls—the primal fear of a prey hearing its natural predator.
Shinji, however, grinned. The louder it roared, the better the method worked.
Suddenly, the monster stopped roaring and began secreting black liquid from its skin to counteract the Amaterasu. The moment the black flames met the liquid, a frantic hissing erupted. The flames flickered, withered, and eventually dissipated bit by bit.
Shinji paused in the air, slightly surprised. He hadn't expected the "inextinguishable" Amaterasu to be quenched so simply by that black liquid.
Before he could react, the monster—now even more hideous after being scorched—targeted the conspicuous Knowledge Tower. With a whip of its tail, it swept toward the majestic structure.
Rumble...
The Storm Sorcerer Supreme's magic ring held for a mere second before shattering. Then, the entire Knowledge Tower was pulverized by the impact!
Screams, curses, and wails...
Various sounds rose from the collapsing tower, but they didn't last long. Without the protection of the magic ring, the mages in close proximity began to mutate instantly. Even the Storm Sorcerer Supreme, who had flown high into the air, was not spared; his body began to bulge with various hideous tumors.
"This..."
The Storm Sorcerer Supreme's face turned ashen. Only now did he realize the true weight of the man who had been fighting this monster toe-to-toe. As one of the six great Sorcerer Supremes, he realized that without his Mage Tower and magic ring, he didn't even have the qualification to face the monster.
In the distance, Arcane watched the tower collapse and fell into despair: "This is impossible!"
Alice was in disbelief: "Even a Sorcerer Supreme couldn't stop it?"
Hengo's face was bitter: "It's not a matter of 'stopping' it, damn it... they aren't even on the same level!"
...
In the sky, Shinji hadn't expected the tower to fall so quickly. He was too late to save them and could only watch as the mages mutated one by one.
He saw the Storm Sorcerer Supreme hovering in his ornate robes. The dying mage met Shinji's eyes, offering no words but a final, meaningful look. Then, the mutating Sorcerer Supreme transformed into a streak of rainbow light and charged at the monster.
Boom!
The self-detonation of a Sorcerer Supreme was no less powerful than the previous nuclear bomb. Yet, like before, when the storm settled and the dust cleared, the monster remained alive and vigorous.
Shinji was now certain: even if this wasn't the Propagation Hegemon in its entirety, it was at least a significant portion of it.
Anyone below Six Paths Level lacked even the right to look at it; mutation followed sight instantly. Even someone like a Sorcerer Supreme, whose strength approached that level, could only delay the process once stripped of their environmental advantages.
And this was occurring while the Sixth Ring World still had an intact spatial barrier and the protection of the other magic rings. The Propagation Hegemon had already expended massive energy to break in, and Shinji had interrupted its growth by breaking its cocoon early.
If the spatial barrier were shattered like on T33, the power lashing out would be far greater.
Therefore, Shinji must win.
If he couldn't handle a severely weakened piece of the Propagation Hegemon, how could he ever face one at full power?
Whoosh!
In an instant, Shinji deactivated his Susanoo. He summoned nine Truth-Seeking Balls into his palm, condensing them into a brilliant golden sword!
Without a shred of hesitation, he swung. The golden blade carved the monster into two sections. He didn't stop there. He continued to swing in a blur of golden light and whistling wind. The thousand-meter monster was sliced into dozens of segments, each writhing independently on the ground.
Then, Shinji held his left hand out toward the void and shouted: "Chibaku Tensei!"