He scoffed, snapped his fingers dramatically, and his body instantly recovered. The Shinigami's hands summoned that black sphere once again.
Looking down at Hiroki and the others with disdain, he said, "Humans truly are easily satisfied creatures! What absurd imagination!"
"Immortal Gods Forever!"
What defines a god? To stand alongside the world—unchanged, eternal!
As long as the world endures, he will never die!
As he spoke, he hurled the sphere outward once more.
The closer it got, the larger the sphere grew.
Before it, Hiroki and the others appeared like tiny ants.
"[Father], [Mother], please let us give it a try!" Hayato and Hamura stepped forward in perfect unison.
Kaguya nodded slightly and pulled Hiroki aside to watch.
[Shinra Tensei!]
[Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!]
Working together, Hayato and Hamura destroyed the sphere again. Immediately afterward, their attacks shot straight toward the Shinigami, slicing through his body.
Yet the Shinigami didn't care one bit whether his body was hit. In an instant, his form regenerated, and the enclosed spatial sphere he controlled reformed once again.
Their battle resembled a clash between a penalty taker and a goalkeeper.
The Shinigami played the role of the striker.
Hayato and Hamura were the goalkeeper.
One side didn't care about scoring chances; the other had to block every single shot.
Seeing this, Hiroki frowned in perplexity. "He doesn't seem weakened at all. Why does it feel like he can resurrect endlessly?"
A thoughtful expression emerged on Kaguya's face as she slowly replied, "In this place—no, within this world—it's still not quite right. Anyway… under certain rules, he may simply be unable to die."
"This is just an ordinary planet, isn't it? Even in this universe, it shouldn't be the origin or the center… It's unlikely for such rule-bound forces to truly exist here," Hiroki argued.
Kaguya hesitated slightly before replying, "It's not necessarily absolute like that. There will always be people who, by chance, stumble upon some truths. They might not be the strongest, but they can coexist with a particular realm, achieving immortality."
"Though they gain eternal life, they also become part of the ruling system itself, forever unable to leave. That's what he referred to as the 'True God' earlier—a title carrying equal parts duty and obligation."
"…So according to you, we cannot kill him using local powers alone," Hiroki concluded. He paused for a moment, then his face showed uncertainty.
Kaguya immediately understood his thoughts and raised her eyebrows. "Being part of the system means being favored by it. Your mental intrusion might achieve nothing."
Hiroki fell silent, glancing once more toward the Shinigami.
From this angle, that Another Dimension he held in his hand seemed more like some conceptual 'training ground'.
Kaguya murmured softly, "In the realm of life, indeed, he's immortal. However…"
Suddenly, the ground beneath them cracked open. Affected by the battle between the Shinigami, Hayato, and Hamura, their standing place had become unstable.
Hiroki and Kaguya instinctively flew up hundreds of meters into the air.
Likewise, Hayato and Hamura found no footing left either and rose upward.
As their eyes turned downward, they finally grasped the scale of destruction they had unleashed.
The vast expanse of forest was now flattened. Mountains lay fractured, and the earth appeared as though it had been sliced repeatedly.
Within their field of vision, animals were either strewn lifelessly across the land, barely gasping for breath, or fleeing in panicked herds.
As for humans, they saw none—perhaps there had been too few nearby to begin with, or perhaps they had already perished without a sound.
A wave of sorrow and remorse washed over both of them.
Hamura said, "Hayato, if we keep fighting like this, even more areas will be destroyed. Let's try that move."
"Mm," Hayato nodded solemnly.
Together, they rushed forward, clasped their hands, and yin and yang energies intertwined.
[Yin Yang: Planetary Devastation!]
Instantly, time seemed to slow dramatically. The first boulder lifted from the ground, followed by more rocks surging into the sky, flying toward where Shinigami stood.
"The move we used against Kaguya is being used here…" Hiroki sighed.
Hearing this, Kaguya glanced at the battlefield and scoffed, "Unless they exhaust all his power, it's nearly impossible to land a hit. Did they fight for a long time back then?"
"Yeah," Hiroki nodded.
"Those two… would rather spend so much time fighting than ask a few simple questions?" Kaguya tugged her lips slightly, her mood darkening as she gave a slight sigh.
She knew herself well enough to guess how that battle went down.
Most likely, "she" was simply too stubborn to communicate, and both sides had built up too much disappointment, no longer willing to make the first move...
Just as she was thinking,
Shinigami's sinister cackle echoed in their ears.
"Good, good! Is this your ultimate move? These are nothing but old tricks to me..."
He could shrink or expand enclosed spaces, so Hayato and Hamura's Planetary Devastation naturally seemed crude in his eyes.
Right before he was about to be engulfed, relying on his mastery of rules, his physical body became nearly intangible and effortlessly shifted elsewhere.
Planetary Devastation missed!
The forming sphere now looked utterly ridiculous!
After seeing the Shinigami not far away sneering mockingly at them, Hayato and Hamura had no choice but to stop channeling their energy.
In an instant, the Planetary Devastation sphere scattered apart.
Countless boulders rained down from the sky like a meteor shower.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The crashing sounds grew louder with each impact!
The ground trembled like the surface of a lake, craters and cracks rippling outward like disturbed water.
"Hayato, you shouldn't have stopped just now."
Hiroki's voice reached their ears. Hayato and Hamura clearly understood the consequences of their mistake. Both wore expressions of regret.
If they had kept pouring power into the technique earlier, Planetary Devastation would have completed and flown elsewhere, instead of collapsing here.
"Hahaha..."
Shinigami laughed even harder at the sight.
It wasn't the level of destruction that pleased him so much, but the humiliation visible on Hayato and the others' faces.
It sent a thrill through him, lifting his spirits like fresh air.
Let me think… should I keep you around for some more fun, or finish you off right away?
"This world is just too boring... everyone else is too weak to waste time on..."
"They don't understand... not at all..."
Hiroki could only stare in disbelief as he listened to the man's ranting, muttering under his breath, "This guy... did he live so long that he's finally losing his mind?"
After a while, the falling stopped, and everything in the world grew quiet again.
"Come, I'll keep playing with you," Shinigami beckoned toward Hayato's direction with a finger, then cast a slightly provoking glance at Ibuki and Kaguya.
"He sees all this destruction as nothing more than a game?" Hamura felt a complex mix of emotions.
Hayato stood silently beside him.
Kaguya's eyes remained icy and unfeeling.
[Yomi-Hirasaka!]
A black portal flared into existence—in front of Kaguya and behind the Shinigami at once.
Kaguya walked into it. In the next moment, she emerged beside the death god and reached out, placing her hand on his shoulder.
The Shinigami stiffened in shock—while existing between reality and illusion, he had actually been touched.
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