"Who are you?"
Rayleigh suddenly heard a questioning voice from behind.
He didn't panic, but instead turned around quietly to face the speaker.
It was a young man with a cold expression.
He held a short knife in each hand. They were mismatched, likely weapons he had seized from someone else. Besides that, he wore tight-fitting clothing, clearly designed for lightweight speed at a single glance.
Judging by his attire, he probably wasn't from Evilus.
He was most likely a mercenary.
Since he had managed to detect him, the man must possess some kind of enemy-detection Skill.
Just as Rayleigh was about to respond, the cold-faced young man attacked with a concelead weapons he has.
Rayleigh instantly drew his sword.
The concealed weapons were shattered mid-air, and the sword pressure sliced through everything in its path.
The young man's pupils contracted.
He used his extreme body flexibility to evade Rayleigh's attack. Afterward, he nervously shifted his footing.
'What was that just now? A rapid-attack Magic?'
If his reaction had been half a second slower, his head would have been completely severed!
The cold-faced young man twirled the short knives in his hands, shifting from a reverse grip to a forward grip.
This small movement showed that his attitude had turned very serious, or rather, grave.
Rayleigh smiled faintly. "Didn't you ask who I am? I haven't answered yet, and you already attacked me? Isn't that a bit impolite?"
The young man didn't speak again.
Instead, he threw the two knives in his hands directly at the staircase beneath their feet.
The knives spin as they soared through the stairwell.
Clang!
The staircase was actually sliced into eight segments by the attack. Both of them, along with the severed staircase structure, began to free-fall.
Although he could use Shunpo for aerial maneuvering, Rayleigh didn't do it.
Instead, he went along with the mercenary's intention, landing directly on the factory floor below.
The severed staircase crashed down, making a tremendous noise and even hitting someone in the crowd.
Screams echoed within the enclosed building!
The cold-faced young man removed his mask and shouted loudly, "There is an intruder here! An Adventurer from Orario!"
With that one sentence, the hundreds of people present simultaneously fixed their eyes on Rayleigh.
Rayleigh's expression turned serious.
"An intruder?"
"Just one person?"
"He's here to die, isn't he?"
"Could he be here to surrender?"
"No need. Lord Olivas said to kill all Adventurers!"
For the ruthless, murderous lunatics of Evilus, hesitation didn't exist.
Hundreds of them, without exception, all attacked brazenly!
Facing the assault of so many enemies, Rayleigh decisively initiated his Shikai.
"Collapse, Sakanade!"
In an instant, all perception reversed!
Everyone from Evilus had their sense of direction completely disrupted at that moment.
With their senses inverted, Rayleigh stood unharmed among the hundreds of fighters.
Because this wasn't an ordinary disruption—it was a total reversal of direction.
This meant all attacks aimed at Rayleigh would head in the exact opposite direction.
The more intentionally they targeted him, the farther they strayed from their mark.
And at this moment, every one of them was attacking in his direction with the pure intent to kill him!
Naturally, not a single attack could hit him.
"I didn't expect Finn to agree, but since he game me the permission, this blade can have its chance to shine, and it also lets Ardi avoid her original tragic fate. Rest in peace here you scums."
Rayleigh muttered to himself, and these words were completely reversed in the ears of the hundreds of Evilus members.
This wasn't just reading backward—every single syllable was entirely inverted.
It sounded akin to the incomprehensible whispers of a God.
The sudden inversion of all their senses was more than enough to make a person vomit on the spot.
And that was just the beginning.
What followed was true hell.
"Bankai-Sakashima Yokoshima Happofusagari!"
A strange, sweet fragrance instantly spread, enveloping the entire factory space.
Beneath Rayleigh's feet, a massive multi-petaled flower pedestal manifested.
The large petals closed in around him, forming a tight bud that encased and fully protected Rayleigh.
In that same instant, the hundreds of enemies all turned their attacks on one another, beginning a frenzied slaughter!
And this slaughter was vicious and brutal.
Those with weapons used them to pierce their own comrades.
Brains, hearts, and abdomens, everysingle one of it were struck.
Those without weapons used their bare hands—gouging out eyes and tearing out tongues.
Some even used their teeth, biting through throats and drawing blood!
Every possible means of harming an enemy was enacted within this enclosed space.
There were no words and no shouts—only silent killing and the sickening sound of splattering blood.
Within mere seconds, the factory fell into dead silence.
Apart from the sound of flowing rivers of blood, there was no longer any trace of human presence.
The protective petals bloomed open once more.
Rayleigh, standing on the flower pedestal, gazed upon the mountain of corpses and the sea of blood before him.
Evilus. Annihilated!
The enemy's second stronghold had been completely cleansed!
This was the terrifying power of Sakashima Yokoshima Happofusagari.
It inverted all perception between friend and foe, causing enemies to slaughter one another without hesitation.
Because it directly manipulated a person's cognition, this technique was nearly impossible to counter.
Even a First-Class Adventurer would easily fall victim to it.
This wasn't a simple abnormal status effect.
Nor was it mental interference or basic hypnosis.
It simply couldn't be resisted.
Rayleigh took a step forward, each of his footfall splashing in the river of blood.
After staring at the gruesome scene before him for a long while, he finally remembered to release his Bankai as his body swayed slightly.
The intense Reiatsu consumption had temporarily stripped him of over eighty percent of his combat strength.
The remaining Reiatsu was insufficient to even initiate his Shikai or perform any Kidō.
It was barely enough to sustain his Shunpo.
He focused his mind, sensing the spiritual threads around him.
He found nothing alive.
Only the Flame Rocks scattered across the bloody ground struck him as particularly dangerous.
These were bombs.
Pulling the trigger mechanism on them would cause a massive explosion, powerful enough at close range to obliterate even a Level 3 Adventurer, leaving absolutely no trace of their body.
During the earlier chaos, a few people had used and detonated them, perishing together with everyone around them.
But some bombs still remained intact.
Looking at the scattered Flame Rocks bombs, Rayleigh pondered for a few seconds before a faint smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
'These could be very useful.'
If Evilus enjoyed using bombs in their attacks, then he would repay them in kind.
He would return their own method right back to them.
An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.
The best way to deal with true evil wasn't fair judgment, but fighting evil with evil.
There was one point Rayleigh had to admit Ryuu had gotten wrong.
He didn't consider this a battle between good and evil.
It was simply war.
And in war, you kill.
His personal sense of justice was selective, he harbored no unnecessary kindness or justice for murderous madmen.
Imprisonment was the absolute best outcome they could ever hope for.
Death was the fitting end for their actions.
Four hundred and forty-two people.
It was fortunate he had count the exact number of Evilus members here in advance through his spiritual threads.
This way, there was no need to count the bodies anymore.