Kaizen could feel it.
This was the moment.
Just after absorbing the lingering aura of death—
Boom!
It was like breaking through a bottleneck.
His weapon, the Rotten Knife, had awakened.
Kaizen drew the Rotten Knife, gripping it tightly in his hand. The once crude and bone-like weapon now gleamed with a metallic sheen, its shape shifting before his eyes. The handle had transformed into something resembling polished wood, while the blade itself had taken on the smooth, reflective quality of metal.
At first glance, to an outsider, it looked like any ordinary knife. But Kaizen knew better.
The Rotten Knife had evolved. And with evolution came power.
Kaizen tightened his grip and channeled his aura into the weapon. Then, with a decisive swing toward his opponent—
A dark, sinister light shot from the blade, streaking toward the young man in the distance.
The attack landed.
A cluster of insect eggs erupted across the young man's body, just as they had before when Kaizen had used the Rotten Knife. But this time, something was different.
The eggs hatched almost instantly.
Plump, white pupae emerged, wriggling across the young man's skin. Their movements were slow but deliberate, their speed steadily increasing as they latched onto him. More importantly, they were absorbing his aura at an alarming rate—far faster than before.
"This rate of absorption is incredible..." Kaizen muttered, admiring the Rotten Knife's newfound strength.
Meanwhile, Natsu, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, and Killer Queen continued their relentless assault.
The young man's body was riddled with injuries, his aura flaring up in an attempt to heal. But Kaizen could see it—his regeneration was slowing down.
A thought crossed Kaizen's mind.
Could it be... his opponent's strength wasn't fixed?
Kaizen had noticed something earlier. The moment his Rotten Knife evolved, the young man's aura had flared slightly.
"Lantern Ghost!"
The spectral form of the ghost flickered into existence.
Sure enough, as soon as the Lantern Ghost appeared, the young man's aura surged again.
"Confirmed," Kaizen murmured, his eyes narrowing. "That's how it works."
"This guy's strength scales with mine."
He glanced toward the Phantom Troupe members battling nearby.
"But… it doesn't seem to affect them. Just me."
That meant there had to be a limit. A way to defeat him.
With a thought, Kaizen dismissed the Lantern Ghost.
But the young man's strength didn't drop.
Kaizen frowned.
"So simply deactivating abilities doesn't lower his power."
"But… when he's injured, he leaks traces of death aura. And the Rotten Knife absorbs it."
"His aura can be replenished—but his death aura? That's finite."
Kaizen's grip on the Rotten Knife tightened.
"Then all we have to do is push him to his limit."
"Let's go all out!"
Kaizen commanded his beasts forward.
A dark red claw lashed out, gripping the young man's body. A massive maw followed, snapping shut—
Crunch!
The young man was torn in two.
Natsu seized his upper half.
Raiken gripped the lower half.
"Dragon's Roar!" Natsu bellowed, unleashing a torrent of flames.
Kaizen, meanwhile, gathered his aura.
"Nen Bomb!"
His attack surged toward the young man's lower half.
Killer Queen charged in.
"First Bomb!"
A baseball bat slammed down, triggering a silent explosion.
Kaizen swung his Rotten Knife again, sending more death aura-infused energy coursing through the battlefield.
The young man's aura tried to heal him, but at that moment, Natsu leaped into the air, flames erupting from his back, propelling him even higher.
Raiken clapped his hands together.
"Position Swap!"
In an instant, Natsu and the young man switched places. The residual aura meant to heal the young man missed its target, leaving him fully exposed to the next wave of attacks.
Boom!
Flames and nen explosions engulfed the battlefield. The young man, unable to keep up, finally reached his limit.
With one last detonation, his body shattered completely. The remaining traces of death aura scattered like lost souls, but the Rotten Knife hummed in Kaizen's hand, greedily absorbing every last drop.
Silence followed.
The fight was over.
The young man's body had been erased. The scattered aura on the battlefield faded, sinking back into the ground.
Then—
A sudden presence.
A swirling mass of red aura appeared before Kaizen.
He tensed, instinctively stepping back.
The red aura followed.
Kaizen moved again. It continued to trail him.
He picked up speed, but no matter what, he couldn't shake it.
"It doesn't seem hostile…" he mused.
Then, Raiken stepped forward.
Without hesitation, he reached out and touched the red aura. In an instant, the energy surged into his body, causing him to glow with a crimson light.
Kaizen's mind was flooded with new information.
"A reward?"
"A trial?"
His brows furrowed.
"That young man wasn't a mere guardian blocking intruders… he was a trial?"
"A test for those with Kurta blood?"
Kaizen's frown deepened.
"But why was I chosen?"
"I'm not a member of the Kurta Clan."
None of the other intruders had been marked this way.
His gaze drifted toward the crystal ball floating nearby.
"Could it be because of this?"
Kaizen's Observer ability had absorbed traces of the Kurta Clan's unique traits before.
"Did the system mistake me for a Kurta descendant?"
"But why didn't this happen when I first entered?"
"Was the concentration not high enough then?"
Regardless of the reason…
Kaizen smirked.
"Well, this is a pleasant surprise."
He turned his attention back to the swirling red aura.
"Now let's see what kind of reward this is."
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