A faint rose fragrance wafted through the air.
The back of the Left Protector was soaked in cold sweat.
"Why didn't you stay in your nest?"
Ryosuke's voice came from behind the Left Protector.
He stood frozen in place, feeling as if behind him was the abyss of hell, a monster with its fangs bared. An evil, terrifying, searing heat crept silently from behind.
The Left Protector didn't even have the courage to turn around. In his mind, only one thought remained, 'This is Ryosuke!'
'This is invincibility!'
'But… how did he find us?'
Ever since Ryosuke gained the ability to sense the "breath" of the world, ordinary disguises no longer worked on him, even though Ryosuke had never seen the Left or Right Protector before.
But the life force emitted by an adult and that of a child are different.
The moment the Left and Right Protectors approached, Ryosuke had already sensed something unusual.
The reason he didn't immediately let the White Snake extract their memories was because he feared that there might be other cult eyes watching from the shadows. If he acted rashly, he might alert the enemy, letting the cult leader escape.
So he allowed them to take his blood and simply followed them from a distance.
"…You're even more cautious than I imagined," Ryosuke said.
The Left Protector bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, using pain to forcibly break free from fear, and drew a short knife from his waist.
On the other side, the Right Protector, also snapping back to his senses, pulled out a long needle about the length of a forearm.
Both of them raised their weapons high and stabbed into the center of their own chests.
Three stabs in quick succession, six holes punctured through front and back.
They smeared their blood onto their faces. Wisps of blood mist spread out, as if linking their consciousness to some other existence. A vast power descended upon them out of thin air.
Their bodies, disguised as short children, swelled up like balloons, in an instant becoming two meters tall.
Their muscles bulged, gleaming with a metallic luster.
The Left and Right Protectors blocked Ryosuke's retreat, each throwing a punch toward him.
The Right Protector roared, "Ryosuke! Others fear you, but we do not! In the end, you're just..."
Bang!
The Right Protector's chest caved in, leaving a horrifying hole.
He looked down at it, then at the Star Platinum floating before him, looking down coldly from above, and suddenly, he grinned with fanatic glee.
Pain and the approach of death brought him even greater power.
The Right Protector flung his arms wide, grabbing the Star Platinum in an embrace, and shouted to his companion, "Now! I've got the evil spirit! Go kill Ryosuke's true body!"
The Left Protector's eyes turned blood-red. They had been brothers since childhood. The thought that he was about to be forever separated from his brother was, to a cultist of the Evil God…
…like his brother driving a luxury SUV into the city to live in a mansion.
The Left Protector's fist, the size of a clay pot, was wreathed in strange black light, this was the power cultivated by followers of the Evil God.
Tears dripped from his eyes as he roared, "No matter how happy death is, never forget your brother!"
A merciless punch came smashing down toward Ryosuke.
Ryosuke looked at the incoming fist, a hint of hesitation in his expression.
A cult lunatic who took pleasure in killing should be killed swiftly, but… if he killed them, he worried they might actually enjoy it.
The Left Protector's punch was fierce and fast, but Ryosuke's response was simple.
He didn't use time-stop, nor did he summon back the Star Platinum.
Ryosuke simply clenched his own fist, stepped forward half a step, and without even gathering strength, threw a punch.
BOOM!
Their fists collided mid-air with an ear-splitting blast.
The Right Protector, still held aloft by the Star Platinum as if by the scruff of the neck, showed a look of delight.
A pause of just a fraction of a second...
Rip!
The Left Protector's clothes suddenly burst apart, along with every bit of flesh across his entire body.
His right arm, the one that had clashed with Ryosuke's, shriveled unnaturally.
Blood and powdery flesh and bone dust pattered down from the cracks in his skin.
He was going to die.
But the Left and Right Protectors both laughed wildly.
The Left Protector coughed up a mouthful of blood, "You took my punch and killed me, you've been marked by the Evil God's power! Ryosuke, congratulations, come die with us!"
A few black dots appeared on Ryosuke's knuckles, rapidly spreading across his skin. As they spread, his life force was being stripped away by an invisible power.
"So this is the Evil God…"
Ryosuke tightened his fist.
"I think I understand."
Clack!
His right fist dropped off like a drink from a vending machine, detaching from his body and falling to the ground.
In moments, it was completely covered in the Evil God's black marks, its life force drained dry, crumbling into black ash.
The Left Protector looked down at the black ash, then up at Ryosuke's swiftly regenerating hand. His gaze grew vacant, and finally,
He stopped thinking altogether.
Creak!
The warehouse doors opened, and Kakashi and Tsunade rushed inside.
After killing the Saintess, they had learned that the cultists' medium for casting spells was blood. Fearing Ryosuke might fall victim to it, they came to find him.
Later, they found the hidden sign Ryosuke had left in the city and tracked him here.
As soon as they entered, they heard a sharp slap slap.
"Hey! Hey! Big guy, wake up! Don't you die on me!"
The White Snake appeared, slapping the Left Protector's face until, just before he died, it managed to extract two memory discs.
It picked one up, and after just a glance, its face turned extremely grim.
"What is it?" Ryosuke asked.
The White Snake closed its eyes, holding the disc between two fingers as if handing over a piece of used toilet paper, and passed the Left Protector's disc to Ryosuke.
"I've seen many villains… but these people, their evil has already gone beyond the limits of what a human can commit."
Ryosuke took the memory disc.
Kakashi and Tsunade leaned in to watch as well.
The so-called Evil God Cult had only one core teaching, 'The flesh is empty, death is returning home.'
They revered death as a gift from their god. As long as one died, they could escape the real world and receive the Evil God's embrace.
By logic, such doctrine was best spread in war-torn regions, among those who could no longer go on living, soon gathering a crowd of fanatics.
But the white-haired cult leader chose the Land of Soup.
Because here, people lived in the most "painful" way possible.
Peaceful, harmonious, enjoying life… The people of the Land of Soup needed salvation. The white-haired cult leader would rescue them from the hell of living.
For that, if he would not enter hell, who would?
"…Once someone is beguiled, once their thinking is twisted to believe death is the greatest bliss in the world…"
Ryosuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"…The believers will carry a 'for your own good' mindset, killing family, friends, and neighbors who refuse to worship the Evil God."
A mother drowning her infant.
A husband killing his wife.
Too many revolting tragedies.
But what was "revolting" wasn't the blood,
It was the killers' expressions, watching their loved ones die, showing self-sacrifice and contented joy.
"Sorry to let you see this."
Ryosuke blocked Tsunade's view. "I remember Shizune said you have hemophobia?"
"Yes. Hemophobia."
Tsunade's face was cold. "A condition where I fear I can't beat these cultists until they cough blood."
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