"We'll tell you about the Blade Demon," Smoker said in a low voice after a brief hesitation. "But we hope you release him first."
The meaning was clear: the condition for revealing information about the Blade Demon was the release of his teammate.
However...
"I'm not in the middle of a negotiation with you right now." The smile on Lexon's face gradually faded, his eyes reflecting a cold indifference.
"..." Smoker fell silent.
He realized his current position.
To the man before them... they were currently like hogs for slaughter...
At the mercy of the butcher to be kneaded and carved as he pleased...
There was no other choice but to hope for a sliver of mercy.
Thus, Smoker extinguished the tobacco he was smoking and casually tossed it aside.
"The Blade Demon... is a terrifying Reincarnator." The casual expression on Smoker's face vanished, replaced by an intense seriousness. "He's a third-stage Reincarnator, but he clearly possesses top-tier strength that exceeds those in the fourth stage. To this day, his opponents have all been slain in a single strike. He's extremely famous among the Reincarnator circles of these two stages."
Strength exceeding a fourth-stage Reincarnator?
Is he stronger than those hostile Reincarnators I met in the Naruto world?
Hearing the man's words, Lexon thought to himself.
Meanwhile, because the Electric Kid inside the Truth-Seeking Orb was screaming a bit too loudly, Lexon added a soundproof barrier to the orb as an afterthought.
"Because the Blade Demon has an incredibly fervent need for blades and related items, many Reincarnators hire him to do their dirty work," Smoker continued. "Just like in this script world, the Spirit Stone Union—the organization we belong to, which opposes the Blood Rain Alliance—dispatched us and hired the Blade Demon to hunt down their members and destroy their objectives."
Uh... the Blood Rain Alliance...
Lexon couldn't help but be taken aback upon hearing the name.
It seemed like he had already wiped out the high-ranking members of that wretched Blood Rain Alliance...
All that remained were some insignificant small fry...
This... had he unintentionally done a great service? Shouldn't he ask the other side to give him a share of whatever they were paying the Blade Demon?
After all, he had put in quite a lot of effort himself.
Lexon's thoughts drifted, becoming somewhat irreverent.
"So, what was the Blade Demon's purpose in heavily injuring my teammate and having you guard her?" Lexon asked curiously.
For the sake of convenience, he simply labeled Crane Lady as his teammate.
Smoker shook his head in response to Lexon's question. "We don't know. He just dropped her off, gave the order, and left."
As he finished speaking, Power Woman, who had barely acted and lacked presence, added, "We couldn't refuse. While the Blade Demon has gained immense power in few script worlds, his personality has become extremely unstable. We have no idea when he might draw his blade and kill someone, whether they're an ally or an enemy."
"But a situation where he doesn't kill someone and has them guarded instead..." Smoker suddenly mused. "That almost never happens..."
"Ah... I think I understand that part," Lexon said.
He could roughly guess why the Blade Demon left Crane Lady alive and ordered her to be guarded.
It was likely because the clone Lexon had placed in Crane Lady's mind made the Blade Demon curious about who was backing her...
"Regarding the Blade Demon... that's all we know," Smoker said, waving a hand toward Lexon.
"Alright then." Lexon nodded.
"So, what about us?..."
He was uncertain about the butcher's plans for his livestock.
"Don't resist. I'll send you to a place; just don't come out until the script world ends," Lexon told the two.
Since they had cooperated, Lexon naturally wouldn't choose to slaughter them all.
He would just send them into Kamui's dimension and wait until he had some free time to sign in and collect their abilities.
He would release them once the sign-in was complete.
As for whether the script world would be nearly over by the time he finished signing in, leaving them no time to complete their main missions and resulting in their erasure by the Main God—that wasn't his concern.
While maintaining an air of friendliness, Lexon was actually quite mischievous.
Kamui.
Without giving them time to react, the Mangekyo dōjutsu belonging to Obito was suddenly unleashed.
The distorted space instantly swallowed both Smoker and Power Woman.
Then, he pulled out the heavily injured and dying Crane Lady.
After all, if he didn't treat her now, she really would die.
Yang Power condensed in Lexon's palm as he touched the unconscious Crane Lady's forehead.
The surging Yang Power immediately surged into Crane Lady's mangled body.
A violent aura of life radiated outward from Crane Lady's body.
In an instant, Crane Lady's shattered limbs began to reconstruct...
But in the next moment, Lexon seemed to notice something, and his brow suddenly furrowed.
At the very instant Lexon sensed it, Crane Lady's body—which was still in the middle of reconstructing its limbs—suddenly tore apart from the center, and a dense black slash violently lunged at Lexon.
"Oh?"
Lexon uttered in surprise.
A moment before the black slash could strike, he flicked two fingers, creating a narrow spatial rift.
However, to Lexon's surprise... that black slash, which should have vanished into the void, actually tore through the narrow spatial rift!
And it continued to hurtle toward him at high speed!
'Is it like the Truth-Seeking Orb? Does it have annihilation properties?'
Lexon made no further move to resist, allowing the black slash to land directly on his body.
The slash made a piercing, violent grinding sound upon contact, as if it weren't touching flesh and blood at all.
As time passed... the power of the black slash hitting Lexon's body began to gradually weaken...
Until it completely dissipated...
"That's fairly strong." Lexon looked down at his clothes, which had been cut open, and the white marks on the skin where the slash had struck... he couldn't help but sigh in admiration.
An attack capable of leaving marks on his current physical body...
It truly could be considered strong.
Then, his gaze fell upon Crane Lady's corpse on the ground, which had been split in two and was clearly beyond saving. He said leisurely, "So... what should I do now?..."
...
"It was blocked. Not a kill." Somewhere in the dense forest, the Blade Demon murmured as he walked, "As I thought... it'll take more than one strike..."
For the first time, his cold expression underwent a subtle change.
It was... a faint look of joy...
The Blade Demon's hand unconsciously rested on the hilt of the black blade at his waist.
"If one strike isn't enough... then... how many can you withstand?..."
"I am the Sky King! You despicable, lowly human! Stepping into our territory means certain death!"
As the Blade Demon murmured, a high-pitched, shrill voice suddenly came from mid-air.
It came from several monsters with hybrid features of crows and humans, resembling Tengu.
But the Blade Demon didn't even bother to look up, continuing forward as if he hadn't heard a thing.
"Stop! You damned human!!!" Being ignored by a lowly human caused fury to surge in the hearts of the Sky King and his subordinates. They screamed harshly as they prepared to dive and attack the Blade Demon.
But just as the Sky King and his subordinates were about to move, the furious expressions on their faces froze.
"How is this poss—" Before the shocked words could be finished, the heads of the Sky King and the other monsters were suddenly severed, falling from their necks to the ground.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]