Elsewhere, after spending some time using his system's memory-reading function to view the memories of the six limbless ghouls, Raize's expression darkened as he went to another location.
Besides the six who had carried out the deed, there were naturally those who had ordered them to do it. Tonight, they would all die together.
Later that night, Raize emerged from a villa in a certain district of Tokyo, the bloody aura around him once again growing heavier.
Standing atop a tall building, Raize let the cool night wind brush through his hair. He removed his mask, his expression cold and eyes silent. Behind him, the ghouls he was controlling with energy widened their eyes after seeing his real face.
Clearly, these six ghouls—unable to move or speak—had recognized Raize and had completely abandoned any hope of survival.
Raize didn't want to hear their voices. Just hearing them made his emotions grow more irritable.
If not for the fact that there were no important family members in their memories, he would have already taken his blade and slaughtered every ghoul connected to them.
You destroyed my family—wiping out your entire household wouldn't be excessive, would it?
Of course, that was just a thought. Some ghouls had very weak concepts of family, and unfortunately, these six were exactly that type.
Besides these six who had personally killed, there were still others responsible for his family's deaths.
As mentioned before, some people used ghouls as tools to eliminate enemies.
These six weren't the type raised by humans, but they often took on dirty jobs like this.
His family had been targeted because of his father's business rivals resorting to underhanded methods. Based on the memories he obtained, Raize had already moved earlier to wipe out the entire household of one such mastermind.
Young and old alike—none were spared. People like that deserved no mercy. Anyone connected to them had to die.
They dared to target his father and drag his family into it, so don't blame Raize for being ruthless and erasing your entire lineage.
Raize had long since stopped seeing this world as some peaceful daily-life setting. His way of dealing with enemies naturally knew no restraint.
"Shinomiya…"
Raize lowered his head, gazing blankly at the neon-lit scene below, and softly uttered two words. His tone was icy, clearly devoid of goodwill toward what those words represented.
Why had ghouls become knives in certain people's hands?
From the fragmented but useful memories he had obtained through slaughter, he now knew many things ordinary people would never know.
Those connected to ghouls weren't limited to the Hashure family. There were many others, and the most obvious was the Shinomiya family.
Could a family grow that large without doing dirty things that couldn't be brought into the light?
Although his primary enemies had been dealt with, still—
"Anyone heavily connected to this matter must die!"
The brief pleasure of revenge vanished like a fleeting flower. What followed was a surge of longing that plunged Raize's heart into silence.
Whether it was the Raize of the past or the Raize of now, if he had been given another chance, he wouldn't have become like this.
Being isekai'd into a two-dimensional world? Living life again? If not for that very first incident, he might have been happy.
"Did you feel any pleasure from your revenge, Aize?"
A crisp, sudden voice sounded beside him. Raize's entire body tensed, ready to explode into action, but when he saw the familiar face of Sei, he gradually relaxed.
However, her next action made his expression twist slightly, turning ugly. Without even glancing at the six ghouls behind Raize, the sacred light in her golden, gem-like eyes flickered.
Whoosh!
A holy golden flash appeared, instantly engulfing the ghouls. In the next second, the light faded, and there was no trace of them left.
At the same time, Raize sensed something being drawn into his body, and he heard the ghastly screams of the ghouls that made his irritation spike. Clearly, the six ghouls had been casually erased by Sei.
"You…"
Raize's face and eyes turned icy as he clenched his teeth slightly, staring at her without avoiding her gaze.
He was extremely displeased with what she had just done. How could those six ghouls be allowed to die so easily?
"Even if you tortured them, aside from giving you a fleeting, poison-drinking kind of revenge satisfaction, what else would you gain?" Sei's petite body floated into the air, her gaze leveling with Raize's grim face. She drifted closer, cupping his cheeks with both hands and looking directly into his eyes.
"Besides revenge, don't you have more important things? For example, the reason you want to become stronger."
Her intimate gesture wasn't just meant to comfort him. By touching him, she was also thoroughly inspecting and maintaining the holy radiance within his body.
Raize wasn't a fallen angel, but within him resided the most primordial power of the Biblical God of this world's. His power might not yet rival top-tier seraphs like Gabriel or Michael, but its quality and potential were far beyond theirs.
At present, he was still a human with complex emotions. If he were led astray by extreme emotions, the power left within him by that holy, childlike god could reverse.
Angels falling—when extremes are reached, reversal occurs. Everyone understood that principle.
If Raize were to fall into darkness, he would become something even more terrifying than a certain Lucifer. With power on par with the God of Bible, he absolutely had that potential.
Sei did not oppose Raize taking revenge, but she absolutely could not stand by and watch someone she cared about walk down a crooked path she did not want to see.
The God of Bible was benevolent and possessed a spirit of self-sacrifice for the world she loved, but that did not mean she would tolerate everything.
Back when she was still active in the world, creatures like ghouls simply did not exist at all.
The history of ghouls was, at most, only a little over a hundred years. She had no idea what those brats Michael and Gabriel had been doing to let a race that clearly needed to be purified and exterminated continue to exist.
If it had been in her era, if ghouls had dared to show themselves, they would have been completely wiped out by the angels under her command.
"...There are more important things in this world, but hatred is just as important. Don't even think about asking me to repay hatred with kindness!"
With his face being held in Sei's warm little hands, Raize's expression gradually fell silent, yet his gaze remained cold and distant.
"Who wants you to repay hatred with kindness!?"
Sei shot Raize a glare, clearly annoyed. She did not object to the actions he took out of hatred—she just did not want to see him go down the wrong road.
After taking revenge and killing those six ghouls, that should be the end of it. There was no need to waste time tormenting those ghouls any further. Seeking some twisted pleasure by torturing ghouls was something Sei absolutely would not allow Raize to do.
Although Sei had not been with Raize for very long, she knew very well that once he made up his mind, there was no persuading him otherwise—especially not after asking him to give up tormenting those six ghouls.
That was precisely why she decided to strike first and act before announcing it afterward.
Raize's enemies were her enemies. Whatever dirty work Raize wanted to do, this Biblical loli God would not interfere too much. If possible, she would even help him—if he killed someone, she would hand him the knife. But when it came to the fundamentals, she absolutely would not allow Raize to go astray.
"Heave-ho~"
As Raize gradually fell silent, Sei took advantage of the situation and moved even closer. Under Raize's twitching expression, she childishly plopped herself down on his neck.
Feeling the gentle, soft sensation of slender legs pressing against his cheeks and ears, along with the white stockings—snowy like ice cream—lightly rubbing against his handsome, fair face as the petite girl adjusted herself into a comfortable position, Raize's cold, silent heart could not help but stir restlessly.
From an angle Sei could not see, Raize's cheeks began to redden slightly. Feeling quite embarrassed, he directly grabbed her legs to stop her from moving around and said fiercely, "Stop moving around! Are you a kid or what, you Biblical loli God!?"
"Then hurry up and take me home! Quickly offer food to this noble god as tribute—after that, I'll continue teaching you!"
"Missing one or two meals won't kill you. You can just eat bread."
"If my angels heard your blasphemous words, they'd hang you on a cross and burn you with holy fire."
"You're retired and slacking off right now—you don't have the right!"
Like siblings—or perhaps a father and daughter—arguing, Raize carried Sei, who was sitting on his neck and tugging at his hair, back home.
Raize felt complicated emotions toward the super-cute loli sitting on his neck.
But from Sei's own perspective, she felt more like an elder guiding Raize.
---
[ Ding. New game "Dream Westward Journey: Seven Demon Kings" loaded. Please proceed to clear the game. ]
After returning home and finishing dinner, Raize went back to his room to start clearing the new game due to its appearance.
As for Sei, she stayed in the living room watching a high school variety show. Thanks to her persuasion and the subtle infusion of holy energy into his body, Raize was now focusing most of his attention on becoming stronger.
Aside from revenge, if he wanted peace of mind and to find his family again, he had to become stronger.
The main revenge had already been carried out. As for the remaining people connected to his family's incident, he would slowly settle accounts with them.
This new game was one Raize was very familiar with: Dream Westward Journey.
It told the story of the four-member pilgrimage team defeating one evil boss after another, growing stronger through eighty-one trials!
Because this game had exploded in popularity when Raize was a child, it later developed into a full series. The peak of the series was Dream Westward Journey: Havoc in Heaven.
The entire series was based on Journey to the West, connecting the post–true-scripture adventures of the pilgrimage disciples through different game installments. Back then, there weren't many online pay-to-win games. Raize played this game himself and often played it together with friends.
And thus, the story began.
"Hmm… Tang Sanzang or Wukong…"
Raize stared at the familiar game interface on the computer screen. His gaze was complicated, as if savoring something unforgettable from his homeland while standing in a foreign land. He now had to choose between the two playable characters in Dream Westward Journey: Sun Wukong or Tang Sanzang.
The former represented a warrior, the latter a mage. Raize found it difficult to decide which character to choose.
[ Raize, with your current abilities, playing two-player mode alone won't be a problem. As for whether you can draw a character inheritance, that'll depend on luck. ]
Suddenly, the system-chan's yawning voice appeared, offering Raize an idea while he was still hesitating.
After all, this game had a two-player mode. With Raize's ultra-high hand speed and reaction time, let alone controlling two characters—he could handle dozens without any problem.
"Let's do it your way, then."
Hearing this, Raize felt it was a viable solution. Playing two characters by himself was nothing to him. As for what he would get after clearing the game—that would depend on luck.
The best outcome would be a character inheritance. Failing that, valuable in-game items or equipment would also be good.
Listening to the familiar game music and watching the opening scene, Raize began clearing this game with two characters at once. His hands entered a state of ultra-high-speed movement as he powered through the game.
---
The next day, following Raize's intervention in the CCG's operation against the ghoul organization, the CCG successfully broke through the enemy stronghold and rescued a large number of human captives, drawing widespread media attention.
It could be said that the CCG had truly taken down a big fish this time. The whereabouts of children who had frequently gone missing in the past were discovered, and even those who had disappeared recently were all found.
With media coverage, the CCG's deterrence and public prestige were greatly enhanced.
However, the main personnel who participated in the operation felt only a small amount of joy at the results—more than anything, they felt a heavy sense of gravity.
That was because when they entered the underground air-raid shelter beneath the area, they had already prepared themselves for sacrifice and a desperate battle. But when they arrived, it turned out they barely had anything to do.
The surviving hostages had already been rescued. The core ghoul forces left underground had been completely annihilated. Aside from human corpses gnawed on by ghouls, the scene also contained numerous corpses of high-ranking ghouls.
There were dozens of S-rank ghouls, and many well-known SS-rank ghouls as well—but by the time the CCG arrived, they had all been reduced to mutilated remains.