Chapter 95: [White Mask]'s Ability
[Team Member UD39655522 (Jugo) has died.]
Kai exhaled a ragged breath. Moments earlier, when he had seen the notification of Basha's death, he'd had a bad feeling. Jugo was powerful with his bloodline enhancement, but he was a hothead. Without Basha to control him, he was prone to going berserk. He just hadn't expected him to be killed so quickly.
Damn it. Did another powerful team enter this world?
Who the hell is that ID XX53562211?! Why does that number seem so familiar…
"Hey, boss, the situation outside is bad. Shouldn't we be thinking about retreating?" Kaso, the analyst, asked, frowning. He wasn't close with Jugo or Basha, but Jugo was a core combatant for the team, an enhanced-bloodline veteran. His death was a massive loss for any team.
The space they were in was a pitch-black void, completely cut off from the outside world. Radio signals and telepathic links were all blocked. The only exception was the Nexus system notifications. And unfortunately for [The Fifth Element], the only notifications they were receiving were of their teammates dying.
Kai's mind began to spiral. He wondered if a hidden plot character had killed his team. Perhaps that thousand-year-old sorcerer, or Ryomen Sukuna, or even one of the other unidentified Special Grade Cursed Spirits.
"Heehee. You're wavering, aren't you, Kai?"
A tremendous, echoing voice sounded from the dark space. In an instant, countless wailing spirits and Cursed Spirits appeared, swarming the area. A normal [Paper]-tier Reincarnator would have been devoured before they could even react. Even a stronger [Mortal]-tier player could only barely survive by using defensive items.
Kai radiated an intense energy wave, and any spirit that charged him was instantly disintegrated. He stood at the front of his team, his face grim, his aura terrifying.
This sight made Geto Suguru, who was watching through the eyes of his Cursed Spirits, take notice.
"What is it?" Kusakabe asked him.
Geto shook his head, continuing to move forward. He and his team were all holding white talismans, the last heritage of the Tsuchimikado clan. Geto had already distributed these items to the new generation of sorcerers. The talismans could repel the weaker spirits, reducing their exhaustion. Furthermore, Shoko Ieiri was a master of the Reverse Cursed Technique. She was a sorcerer accustomed to outputting "positive energy," which was a powerful counter to these spirits.
"It's nothing," Geto said. "Just another monkey, albeit a particularly strong one."
He clapped his hands. "Now, while that thing's attention is on those other monkeys, we need to find all the ritual nodes. Perhaps, this time, it will really be up to us to save Tokyo."
He spoke of saving the world with a mocking, playful tone, as if the very idea was absurd. Of all the sorcerers present, only Shoko knew the truth: this man, who had not long ago resolved to slaughter every non-sorcerer, was the last person who should be talking about saving anyone.
But then… Shoko looked up, as if searching the darkness for the body of her other friend. The one who would have told us all to leave it to him, the one who didn't care what anyone else thought... he's already dead.
"Found one!" a sorcerer at the front of the group called out.
It was a skeleton, sitting upright, dressed in a white haori. The clothes were new, but the flesh on the body was gone, and the bones had turned black, as if they had been there for countless years.
Geto walked forward. He bit his own thumb and, using the method he had tortured out of Tsuchimikado Ochiai, drew a special symbol. The others began to use the skeleton as a marker, carefully measuring the ground around it. Any ritual, no matter how complex, followed a pattern. Once you found one node, you could find the others.
Shoko watched them work, feeling that she shouldn't just stand there. She picked a random direction and began walking into the darkness, her expression devoid of fear.
Geto saw this, smiled, and walked off in another direction.
High in the sky, a Reincarnator in a white and gold cloak looked down on the plot characters and the powerful aura of [Kai], her expression calm. Her arms and legs were bound by blood-red chains, and a giant, shadowy figure loomed behind her.
And even higher above her… the body of a tall man was suspended in the air, his arms spread wide, as if to block something. But his [Six Eyes], which should have reflected the blue sky, were now lifeless and dead. Gojo Satoru's entire body was also bound by those same blood-red chains. It was as if something was trying to pull him into the void, but at the same time, he was pulling the chains taut, refusing to let the door open.
[White Mask] shifted her gaze, finally letting it rest on Gojo. "Tsk. So this is the 'strongest of the modern era'… Because you are the strongest, you must protect the era? What absurd, brigand's logic."
"But, soon… I will have everything. I will ascend to that realm…"
Suddenly, her expression changed. One of the chains on her right arm snapped. At the same time, a chain behind Gojo also broke. She immediately knew that those plot characters had found the ritual's secrets. So, the Tsuchimikado clan did leave a backdoor. It's a pity I needed their bloodline to start the ritual, or I would have killed them all beforehand.
With a single thought, a spark appeared in the dark air. It was the result of some invisible entity generating friction against the atmosphere.
FWOOSH!
An eerie, spectral blue flame ignited in the air. Behind the flame, a giant white fox began to materialize. Its fur was snow-white, but its pupils were ice-blue. It radiated an aura that was not holy, but deeply unsettling. The moment the fox appeared, the surrounding Cursed Spirits spontaneously combusted, screaming as they vanished.
"Fox-Fire," [White Mask] commanded. "Go. Burn those men to ash."
The giant fox, over three meters tall, moved without a sound. The air did not stir in its presence. It vanished. Only three motes of spectral blue flame now drifted through the darkness.
A moment later, Geto Suguru heard a scream. He turned and saw several of his Curse Users completely engulfed in the spectral blue flames. No matter how much they surged their Cursed Energy, the fire would not go out. By the time the flames faded, the men had collapsed, dead.
Geto suddenly felt a prickling pain on his back. With a thought, a massive Cursed Spirit erupted from the ground and swallowed him whole. The next instant, the three fox-fires landed on the Special Grade Curse, and it instantly went up in flames.
Slice!
Geto burst from the Cursed Spirit's stomach and rolled to safety. A Special Grade Curse… had been killed instantly without even a chance to fight back. This power…
His thoughts raced. He looked at the corpses of his men. Their bodies were perfectly intact. He understood. "Watch out! The enemy can attack the soul directly!"
The First-Grade Sorcerer, Mei Mei, whose hair covered one side of her face, instantly leaped back. She spread her arms, and a massive murder of crows erupted from the darkness, almost covering the sky.
A moment later, the spectral blue fox-fires ignited again. Using her [Crow Manipulation] technique, she had located the enemy's position. The other sorcerers immediately unleashed their techniques. Cursed Energy exploded.
At the same time, [Kai] also sensed the change in the environment. His thoughts raced. "[White Mask]'s Guardian Spirit is on the move. That bastard really is in a bad state."
He immediately began to run. His remaining teammates had no choice but to follow. Kai's movements were concise and powerful. With every punch he threw as he ran, the air let out a sound like a cannonball, obliterating any spirit in his path, whether it was a wailing wraith or a Cursed Spirit. Kai was tracking [White Mask]'s presence. This might be my last chance to defeat him!
[The Fifth Element] had once been a much larger team. But in a mission worlds ago, they had run into [White Mask]'s team. Kai hadn't wanted to make an enemy of an elite Reincarnator backed by a [Peerless], so he had proposed an alliance. They had agreed to complete the mission together and split the spoils from hunting the other, weaker teams. But at the very end of the mission, [White Mask] had suddenly, without any warning, betrayed them, leaving [The Fifth Element] crippled. Of the nine veteran members, only [Kai], [Jugo], [Old Ghost], and a few others had survived.
Kai had spent the subsequent missions hunting [White Mask] in return, causing her team to suffer heavy losses as well. They were now in a blood feud. But the weight of their dead comrades meant something very different to each of them, and Kai knew this fight would never end.
When he had learned that [White Mask] had completed a terrifying ritual in this world and was about to advance to the [Cataclysm]-tier, Kai knew he couldn't let her succeed. Their strengths had been relatively close before. If [White Mask] advanced, [The Fifth Element] would be completely annihilated. Kai had liquidated all of his team's assets, determined to destroy [White Mask]'s ambition in this world.
As he was thinking, Kai suddenly sensed an aura. He looked up. As the battles on both sides raged and the swarms of wraiths were cleared out, the barrier's interference on his senses had weakened. He could feel it. The unique aura of [White Mask]. That special, sickening charisma that made everyone unconsciously focus on her. It was that aura that now allowed Kai to pinpoint her exact location.
He saw her, high in the air, bound by the blood-red chains. He knew she was in a weakened state.
He planted his feet, brought his hands together, and twisted at his waist. An intense wave of power gathered in his palms.
[HADOKEN]!