In the icy metal corridor, Gaio and Psyko stood before the massive observation window.
Beyond the glass, the grotesque mass dubbed the [Seed of the God] floated silently, radiating an eerie, almost holy aura.
Gaio frowned, slowly closing his eyes.
His senses pierced through the Seed's tough outer shell. Inside, he saw a humanoid figure curled up, formed entirely of chaotic black threads.
Suddenly, the thread-composed head twitched upward, as if locking onto Gaio's probing perception.
A grand, ethereal voice echoed directly in his mind:
"Help me… and I shall grant you… the power of a god."
Gaio's eyes snapped open, a cold smirk curling his lips. "Playing god, huh?"
His right hand gripped the Enma Blade's hilt, ready to slice through the repulsive mass and drag out whatever "divinity" was hiding inside.
Just as the blade began to slide from its scabbard—
Buzz!
A powerful spatial ripple cut through the barriers, accompanied by Gojo Satoru's dramatic, half-mocking mental scream crashing into Gaio's senses:
"Save me—!! Little Gaio-Gaio—!!!"
Gaio's brow twitched, and he let out an exasperated "Tch."
His left hand, still on the Enma Blade, shifted direction. Instead of drawing the sword, he slashed through the air with lightning speed.
Zzt—!
A spatial rift, its edges crackling with blue lightning, tore open instantly.
"Quit yelling!" Gaio snapped, his irritated voice carrying through the rift.
At the same time, his right hand had already gripped the hilt of Ryūjin Jakka.
He thrust his hand into the blue rift, fingers releasing the blade.
Buzz!
Ryūjin Jakka, radiating searing heat, vanished through the rift's other side.
"All things in the universe, reduced to ash."
As Gaio spoke the release phrase, an inferno erupted on the other side.
Dozens of fire pillars, each over three meters wide, erupted from the ground, instantly engulfing Orochi in flames.
"Aaagh—!!"
Orochi's piercing screams echoed. Its platinum body twisted and warped in the 3000-degree blaze.
Its cells regenerated frantically only to carbonize instantly, the metallic sheen fading visibly—platinum dulled to gold, then blackened to ash.
"Split! Split now!" Orochi roared hysterically, its body writhing as it tried to spawn duplicates.
But the newly formed clones were incinerated the moment they appeared, exploding into black ash within the fire pillars.
Gojo Satoru slumped on a pile of rubble a hundred meters away, his Six Eyes barely functioning.
To escape Ryūjin Jakka's heat, he'd used what little cursed energy he'd recovered to teleport himself a hundred meters from the flames.
Even so, the heat was intense enough to make him sweat buckets, his clothes cycling between soaked and dry.
And this was with Gaio restraining Ryūjin Jakka's range. At full power, even a hundred meters away, Gojo would've been roasted to a crisp.
"Phew~ I knew it. Last time Little Gaio-Gaio fought me, he was holding back on those flames," Gojo muttered.
Orochi kept splitting, each new clone rushing into the fire pillars, forming a human wall to shield its main body.
"Split! Keep splitting!" Orochi's main body shrieked, its voice warping.
Its skin began to curl, wisps of white smoke rising.
But the flames grew fiercer. Its splitting couldn't keep up with the burning.
New clones turned to charcoal the moment they formed, bursting into ash in the heat.
"No… impossible…" Orochi's main body trembled as it staggered back. Its vaunted splitting ability was now a futile struggle.
The last layer of clones crumbled to ash before it.
The searing flames licked its body directly.
"Aaagh—!!"
A wretched scream echoed through the ruins.
Orochi thrashed wildly, its skin charring inch by inch. It reached out with blackened arms, trying to split again, but the black liquid seeping from its fingertips evaporated instantly.
"How… could I…"
Its final roar cut off.
Orochi froze in its struggling pose, completely still.
A gust of hot wind blew through, and its charred body collapsed into a pile of black ash.
The fire pillars died down, leaving only smoldering embers and faint wisps of smoke in the ruins.
Gaio, having finished the release phrase, pulled his hand back without looking. The spatial rift closed behind him, silencing Orochi's screams.
He turned his gaze back to the observation window, his pupils narrowing.
On the Seed's surface, two clear handprints had appeared.
The surrounding flesh bulged slightly, as if something inside was pushing outward.
The handprints morphed visibly, as if the creature inside was shifting its position.
"This… this can't be…" Psyko's legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor, her lips trembling, unable to form a coherent sentence.
The Seed continued to change. A vague human face took shape on its inner wall, pressing against the outer surface and creating uneven ridges.
The face had no features, just a rough outline, yet it somehow gave the impression it was watching.
[You… are like me?]
The ethereal voice echoed in Gaio's mind again, this time tinged with confusion… and anticipation?
Gaio tilted his chin up, a cold smirk on his face. "No, we're not alike." His fingers tapped the Enma Blade's hilt. "You're way too ugly."
The handprints and face on the Seed's surface receded like a tide, the mass reverting to its original grotesque form, as if the changes had never happened.
"It… left?" Psyko stammered, struggling to her feet against the wall.
Gaio snorted, his left thumb nudging the Enma Blade's guard. "Still playing god." The blade slid three inches from its scabbard, glinting faintly in the metal corridor.
"If you want to hide—"
Clang!
The moment the Enma Blade fully unsheathed, the entire space seemed to go mute.
The blade's arc was so fast it left afterimages, yet it passed through the glass without touching it.
Zzt—!
A hair-thin slash appeared on the Seed's surface.
The "wound" was forming.
"—I'll make sure you have nowhere to hide."
ROAR!!!
An indescribable scream exploded in their minds.
It was a direct assault on their consciousness.
Psyko's eyes instantly filled with blood, crimson trickling from her nose and ears as she slammed into the metal wall behind her like a ragdoll.
Gaio's grip on the blade didn't waver. Inside the Seed, countless black threads writhed frantically.
They were no longer a chaotic tangle but had formed a massive web of threads covering the inner wall, vibrating like synapses.
[You…] The ethereal voice carried a hint of emotion for the first time. [What are you doing? Why are you ruining my gestation?!]
"Gestation?" Gaio's eyes widened slightly. "I'm just here for some fun." With that, he swung the Enma Blade a few more times.
The Seed, now sliced in half, sprouted more thin cuts, completely shredded.
The black threads, detached from the Seed, gathered in midair into a ball of chaotic lines, like a child's messy scribble.
The threads began to form limbs, a torso, a head.
Finally, they coalesced into a 40-meter-tall giant made entirely of black threads.
No facial features, no hair, no texture.
Just a [Monster] scrawled from lines.
The moment the Graffiti Giant formed, the metal corridor shook violently.
It had no eyes, but Gaio could feel it staring at him.
The giant raised an arm, countless black threads splitting off like whips, lashing toward Gaio.
Gaio grinned. The Enma Blade slashed horizontally, severing the incoming threads in a flash of light.
But the severed threads didn't vanish. They twisted in midair, reconnecting and attacking again.
"Not bad," Gaio chuckled, his right hand speeding up.
The Enma Blade wove dozens of afterimages, a storm of blade light pouring out.
This time, the slashes weren't just defensive.
Each streak of light targeted the giant's joints—neck, elbows, knees.
Where the blade passed, the threads snapped like broken strings.
The giant's movements froze.
It tried to reconnect its severed threads, but the cuts glowed with eerie blue light, preventing regeneration.
"You thought—" Gaio suddenly appeared above the giant's head, striking an iaido pose, "—I'd play hide-and-seek with you?"
Draw. Sheathe. All in one fluid motion.
A thin line extended from the giant's head to its base.
Its black threads stiffened, like a pinned insect.
Zzt—!
Countless fine slashes erupted from within.
The 40-meter-tall body shattered into thousands of pieces, each cut glowing blue.
The fragments dissolved into black smoke in midair.
The corridor fell silent, save for Psyko's ragged breathing.
She stared as Gaio stepped back into the corridor.
"It's… over?" Her voice was hoarse.
Gaio turned abruptly, the Enma Blade raised across his chest.
"Not yet."
The lingering black smoke suddenly condensed into needles, raining toward him. His blade light formed a barrier, metal clanging relentlessly.
As the final needle was sliced apart, Gaio's pupils narrowed—the black smoke shifted, surging toward the Seed's remnants outside the window.
The wreckage writhed and expanded, its surface crawling with dense black thread patterns.
[You… are special,] the ethereal voice said, now tinged with excitement. [Become my vessel.]