[Chapter Header]
ARC: Back Attack Land
It begins with Akos. They all lunged at him at once.
Akos moved like a blur, his steel singing through the air as the crowd swarmed him with blades drawn.
With a powerful burst, he leaped high into the air. Beneath him, dozens of weapons slashed at nothing but empty mist.
He descended like a predator, the tip of his blade finding a lethal mark through an enemy's forehead. Instant death.
Two more attackers rushed him from both sides. Akos ducked low, slipping behind them in a fluid motion.
With a single, horizontal flash of cold metal, he severed both their lives at once, leaving only the sound of falling bodies.
Another enemy thrust forward. Akos parried and buried his weapon into the man's midsection.
He ripped the steel out, spun in a whirlwind of crimson, and drove it into the next assailant behind him.
A new attacker swung, but Akos countered with a brutal kick, creating space. He reclaimed his weapon from the fallen and charged back into the fray.
An enemy tried to strike, but Akos swayed his body to the right, evading the blow by an inch. He grabbed the man by the throat.
CRACK. The sound of snapping bone echoed through the temple as Akos unleashed the technique known as [END LIFE].
As the corpse hit the floor, another attacker brought his blade down with crushing force. Akos dodged and thrust two fingers directly into the man's sockets, plunging him into eternal darkness.
The victim's screams were the only testament to the skill: [EYES DEAD].
Akos didn't stop. He kept running, reclaiming his sword from where it had been lodged.
He ducked under two incoming blades, sliced through his enemies' legs to bring them low, and with a final, elegant spin, silenced them forever.
More than ten men charged at him, blades flashing. Akos watched them with cold, predatory eyes.
In a blur of motion, he drove his blade home. The man's comrade froze, paralyzed by the brutal efficiency of the kill.
But Akos didn't hesitate. He delivered a crushing kick, wrenched his steel free, and decapitated the frozen warrior in one clean sweep.
Two more lunged. Akos slipped behind them like a ghost. Two soft whispers of steel, and the threat was neutralized.
Five others stood rooted to the spot, trembling. Akos had become a killing machine that knew no rest.
With a roar of strength, he plunged his weapon into an enemy's eye, the force of the blow pinning the body against the wall.
Another attacker stared in shock, only to be met with a devastating punch to the gut. Akos grabbed the man's arm, snapped the bone with a sickening pop, and slammed him to the dirt.
Amidst the chaos, two attackers accidentally cut down their own ally in a desperate attempt to hit Akos. Blood sprayed everywhere.
Akos parried another strike with his bare fist, snatched a falling blade from the air, and buried it into another's head.
The last man swung wildly, but Akos tilted his head—the blade grazed his hair and pierced the chest of an ally standing behind him.
Akos retrieved his own katana from a fallen foe and drove it straight through the last man's heart.
Hitomi stood paralyzed, watching Akos's unchecked rage.
"Impossible..." he stammered. "He has awakened from the Fake World? No... how? Why, Sakoura? Why did you wake him up?!"
Suddenly, a dark, resonating voice echoed from within Akos's body. It was Sakoura.
"Let's have a taste of your power... Hahaha!"
"What are you doing?!" Hitomi screamed, his voice cracking. "Why are you letting him escape the Fake World?"
"Who are you to tell me what to do?" Sakoura's voice dripped with disdain. "You are nothing but a demonic insect, taking orders from a scientist who has crawled out of the Jōmon Period."
"Shut up, you arrogant brat!" Hitomi shrieked. "I'll kill you and him both!"
Akos looked at Hitomi, a cold shiver running down his spine as the foreign voice vibrated within his very marrow.
"What is this fool babbling about?" Akos growled, his head throbbing from the internal resonance. "Who is he talking to?"
"Hahaha! Since when can insects threaten gods?" Sakoura mocked.
Enraged, Hitomi lunged at Akos, his arms transforming into jagged, bone-like spikes.
Akos swayed back, evading the lethal points, and sliced off Hitomi's arm with a single stroke.
But to Akos's horror, the sound of knitting flesh and snapping bone filled the air. The limb forced itself back into existence, regenerating instantly.
"How...?" Akos gasped. "Every time I cut him, he just grows back."
Hitomi launched a feral assault. Akos countered, plunging his blade deep into Hitomi's abdomen, forcing him back.
Before Hitomi could recover, Akos leaped into the air and smashed a heavy fist into Hitomi's eye.
Hitomi let out a blood-curdling scream. He swung his mutated arms wildly, shattering the surroundings.
[ROUGH SPIKE]
Akos danced through the debris, his body weaving left and right with supernatural grace. The temple began to crumble under the force of Hitomi's tantrum.
Suddenly, Hitomi's eye glowed with a sinister light. One by one, the corpses Akos had just slaughtered began to twitch.
Hitomi was reanimating them, controlling the dead with his gaze.
The army of the dead surged toward Akos all at once. Jagged spikes erupted from the ground, aiming for his heart, but Akos didn't even flinch.
He simply continued walking toward Hitomi with measured, terrifying steps.
"You're going to die!" Hitomi screamed, his face contorted in a mask of fury. "Do you really think you can defeat me?"
Akos looked at him, his eyes devoid of fear. "I don't think I'll defeat you," he replied calmly. "I know you are already defeated."
Suddenly, Hitomi's leg strikes missed their mark completely. Instead of crushing Akos, his attacks veered off, smashing into his own undead soldiers.
Hitomi stood frozen as he watched himself slaughtering the very zombies he controlled.
"What the hell?! Why won't my strikes land on him?!"
He looked down at his own midsection and felt a sudden, icy chill. The katana was already buried deep in his gut.
"What...? This sword... when did it—" Hitomi gasped.
The blade hummed with a sinister frequency, projecting an invisible dome of influence. Hitomi had fallen victim to the [KATANA TOTSUGEK FIELD].
Inside this space, every blow Hitomi attempted was weakened. His attacks either dissipated into nothing, were redirected, or reached Akos with zero impact.
Fury boiled over. Hitomi grabbed the hilt, desperately trying to pull the steel out of his body.
But before he could even touch the metal, Akos was already airborne. He lunged toward Hitomi's jaw, his hand shaped into a lethal stance.
[ABSOLUTE Technique Deadly]
A sphere of black energy materialized at his fingertip, hissing through the air like a terminal bullet. It exploded deep inside Hitomi's jaw.
The shockwave shattered Hitomi's balance, sending him crashing to the floor in a heap of broken bones and dark energy.
Hitomi's body knit itself back together once more. He rose from the debris, spitting curses at Akos, his mind consumed by a primal, uncontrollable rage.
This time, he didn't just attack—he erupted.
Hitomi lashed out blindly, his spikes shattering everything in their path. The sheer pressure of his aura turned the air into a violent gale.
Akos had to drive his katana deep into the floor just to anchor himself against the howling winds and the chaotic rain of stone.
"I don't care how many times you regenerate!" Akos roared over the storm. "If you come back, I'll kill you again. And again. And again!"
"You are nothing!" Hitomi shrieked, his voice distorted by madness. "A mere human insect! You have no hope, no purpose, no future!"
Akos spat a thick glob of crimson onto the floor, his face pale but his eyes burning with defiance.
"You're right," Akos countered, his grip tightening on his hilt despite the trembling of his fingers. "I have no grand purpose. But I have the will to see you dead."
Enraged by the defiance, Hitomi launched a feral, high-speed assault. The sheer volume of the spikes overwhelmed Akos's defenses.
The [TOTSUGEK FIELD] flickered and failed under the raw pressure.
Multiple spikes tore through the air, plunging deep into Akos's abdomen. Blood sprayed across the cold floor.
Hitomi let out a dark laugh and jerked his arm back, using the embedded spikes to pull Akos toward him like a hooked fish.
Akos was dragged across the ground, his blood leaving a crimson trail. Hitomi loomed over him, raising a massive, jagged bone-spike high into the air.
Akos looked up, his vision blurring and his breath coming in ragged gasps, as the lethal spike began its final descent toward his chest.