Just after Kaito returned to Gaia, as if it sensed his arrival, or something within him did, the death energy surrounding Kaguya stirred violently.
Condensed to an almost moldable density, the black mist began to corrode the sacred magic around it at high speed.
Even though Mashiro did everything she could to resist, without being able to recover mana for quite a while, the mana she had was almost zero. It was like fighting with a fragile branch that broke the more she used it, until finally, Mashiro's mana reached zero and she could no longer maintain the sacred barrier.
From that point on, the death energy simply corrupted all the sacred energy without obstacles until it escaped.
But unlike the first time, instead of dispersing in all directions, it moved in a straight line toward Kaito, who lay motionless on the ground.
As soon as it reached him, the energy surrounded him and entered through every pore of his body.
Once that happened, the death energy changed, what had once been merely black energy became something completely dark and colorless.
It was no longer simply black, it was the very absence of color, no, not just color, there was nothing there, it was not mist but the death of everything in its path. After becoming this state, the energy returned along its path and went back into Kaguya, who, without the sacred energy and the barrier, had fallen to the ground.
Once all the energy entered Kaguya, she began to change slowly without anyone else noticing and twisted in pain on the ground.
After a few seconds, her eyes opened, revealing an ethereal red that seemed capable of seeing your soul and jet black hair that was the very absence of color, just like the death energy that had interacted with her.
If someone saw this, they would immediately think her features were extremely similar to Kaito when he first awakened as the original demon of speed.
...
"What just happened?"
Kaito opened his eyes, unable to understand what had just happened or how he had survived a curse of absolute death.
Faced with the influx of notifications, he decided to check them, hoping they would help him understand the situation.
[Warning! You are being affected by the Curse of Absolute Death.
A maximum level lethal energy is slowly corroding you... impossible to resist... imminent death]
[Warning! Another lethal energy is entering your body.
The death energy of the curse has been absorbed, you have miraculously survived]
"So another death energy saved me by absorbing that energy?" Kaito murmured, confused.
For a second he wondered where another death energy had come from, but he quickly remembered Kaguya and had an idea. Indeed, the following notifications confirmed it.
[Your sub lord Black has met the evolution conditions]
[Sub lord Black has evolved from 'Shinigami' to 'Original Demon: Death']
[Warning! Sub lord Black is stronger than the host, the difference is too great and the sub lord may break the bond by force]
[Sub lord Black has chosen to submit voluntarily]
Before Kaito had time to be surprised by her race or why Kaguya chose to remain under him despite being stronger, his thoughts stopped.
The reason was that, at some point, without him noticing, Kaguya had arrived in front of him and slowly approached.
Her body floated a few centimeters above the ground, and as she moved toward him her entire body radiated a terribly deadly aura.
As soon as this energy touched Kaito, he felt like before when he was dying, only many times more painful.
"Arghhhh!" Despite having multiple resistances, Kaito let out a groan of pain when he felt it.
His first thought was to run and get away from her.
"Trust me"
Hearing Kaguya's voice, Kaito stopped. Kneeling on the ground from the pain, he raised his head and saw Kaguya crouching in front of him.
When she took his face, Kaito felt as if his face was melting and he had returned to being just a normal person with normal senses.
But it only lasted a second, as Kaguya brought her face closer to his and pressed her lips against his.
Just like Kaito, upon evolving Kaguya became much more beautiful, although it was not as noticeable as in Kaito since she was already beautiful, however, her entire body and features radiated an ethereal presence, as if she were some kind of goddess.
But Kaito had no time to enjoy being kissed by someone like that, because the pain he felt was infinitely greater even than what he felt when he evolved, despite being many times stronger now than before.
His hands pressed against the ground, digging his fingers into it and cracking it as blood began to flow from his eyes.
[Warning! Death is entering your body]
[Warning! Death is touching your soul]
[Warning! Death has nullified the last barrier... your body begins the evolution process]
[Warning!...]
Unable to pay any more attention to the notifications, Kaito fell unconscious to the ground.
Kaguya looked at Kaito for a second and extended her hand, caressing his sleeping face like a loving bride before lifting him and gently placing him on his bed.
Following the same path, she flew up to the ceiling, passing through all the walls as if they were paper.
Rising above the entire battlefield, Kaguya looked at the territory, then at her fellow sub lords on the rooftop and finally at all her enemies.
Despite being unconscious, Kaguya could hear everything that was happening, so as soon as she saw in the distance her so called family, she felt strong emotions, from an unnatural killing intent, anger, sadness for Ai and even disappointment toward the family she once tried to please.
However, despite this, her face remained expressionless, not because she didn't care, but because of her confidence in her new abilities.
"Death Domain"
After speaking those words, nothing around her changed.
Everything felt normal, at most, those present might have only felt a slight warmth pass through them for a second.
Kaguya looked at her family again and hesitated for a moment, unsure whether to act, but then she shook her head to herself, thinking they were not worthy of being called her family.
"Die"
Kaguya spoke those words, they were simple and quiet, but within several kilometers, every being heard them as if she had whispered directly into their ear.
As if it were a command to reality itself that dictated their fate.
...
Jake had several abilities, but most were related to logistical support, as that had always been his role in battle.
Among them, he had the ability to link everyone he considered part of his team to his mind, allowing him to share all their senses.
This did not only work with normal senses like sight or hearing, it included the stranger or lesser known ones.
And one of them, which all battle hardened warriors possess, is killing intent.
Anyone who has survived death multiple times develops a certain intuition to know when they are facing a situation that, no matter how safe it may seem, is actually not. And on this battlefield, everyone was a professional soldier who had spent years in the Union, so they all had this sixth sense.
This caused Jake, from all his points of view, from more than two hundred thousand at once, to feel death coming.
Not a dangerous or lethal situation, but death itself, as if it were inevitable and unchangeable.
For no apparent reason, all the men began to fall, he started losing points of view at a terrifying rate of at least fifty thousand men per second.
"Disconnect!" He was so agitated that he not only sent the message to everyone, he also shouted it.
"What?!" Beside him, Viktor asked without understanding anything, but Jake did not respond, because he had already disconnected.
He didn't care how his companions were, he only cared about escaping quickly and surviving.
He appeared instantly in a special Union building, and as soon as he arrived the first thing he did was curse.
"Damn it! That's a lot of lives"
With only three lives per soldier, knowing that at least one hundred thousand had lost a life in Gaia before he could warn them to disconnect, Jake was extremely angry.
However, at that moment, several sounds began to come from everywhere, messages on his phone, calls, the wall phone, or notifications on the computer.
Jake did not understand what had happened for everyone to call at once, trying to communicate so urgently.
"Damn it, what..."
Thump!
Before he could finish speaking, Jake's eyes turned white and his lifeless body collapsed to the ground.
Just five seconds after hearing the ominous whisper in his mind, 250000 people died completely.
Among them was the Shinomiya family, who never even realized they were being killed by the very half blood daughter they had despised.
Only Oko, in his final moments, thought he saw a shadow resembling Kaguya and felt that she was dangerous.
Perhaps it was luck, but as he tried to laugh at his own thought and smile mockingly, at least it could be said that he died with a smile on his face.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)