Chapter 97: Secret Realm Completion Settlement and Free Choice Cartridge
With Suzaku #1's head and the instrument destroyed simultaneously, the Dark Sonata performance stopped.
Halfway.
A piece of obscure knowledge about the Dark Sonata that only those directly involved would ever know: once the performance begins, it will not stop unless life itself is severed.
Normally, with the performer's head gone and the instrument destroyed, the Dark Sonata should have been forcibly terminated. But Suzaku's situation was a special case.
Just as he had demonstrated by splitting into seven: all seven of them were genuine. So the sheet music, created by the Demon King, simply began drawing Nen from the other six living Suzakus instead.
And that was not all. One of the Suzakus with both hands intact found his body moving beyond his control, raising his hands to his lips. A concentration of Nen condensed and took form into a strange flute identical to the Insect Whistle, and the subsequent bars of the piece continued without pause.
Bad.
Ross immediately swung the cannon around and aimed at the Suzaku being compelled to continue. But even as the Vibration Round devoured that Suzaku's chest, a sharp blade punched clean through the chest of another Suzaku from behind, one still bound by the Byakko's Sacred Artifact's effect and unable to attack.
Almost simultaneously: Spirit Sword, Rose Whip, Spirit Gun took out the remaining three Suzakus. In a single breath, only a one-armed Suzaku was left standing.
Hiei, Kuwabara, Kurama, Yusuke. All four had blood running from both ears.
They had punctured their own eardrums.
Yusuke and Kuwabara had no idea what the Dark Sonata was, but Kurama and Hiei knew perfectly well, and both punctured their own eardrums without meaningful hesitation. They got the two delinquents to do the same, because this was the most effective known counter to the Dark Sonata.
The Dark Sonata was unquestionably terrifying. It caused irreversible, semi-permanent erosion damage to both performers and listeners alike. But it had one fundamental prerequisite: you had to actually be able to hear it.
Playing the piece or hearing the piece were the prerequisites for the Dark Sonata to take effect. Deaf ears couldn't meet that prerequisite. Even if immunity wasn't complete, the rate of malevolent Nen erosion dropped dramatically. This was the kind of knowledge that only someone like Hiei or Kurama, who knew the properties of dangerous items inside out, would have.
Compared to losing one's life, physical deafness was a minor injury. And Ross had a healing ability, so.
The lone remaining one-armed Suzaku still had one potential reversal.
His Dark Secret Art, the Dark Demon Shadow Formation, could split out seven genuine bodies. While it divided his potential aura into one-seventh per body, it also carried a specific secondary property: as long as one of the seven bodies survived, he could retrieve the other six corpses. Doing so would restore the potential aura ceiling and provide healing.
The healing per recovered body was approximately 11.4%, which worked out to about eighty percent of one-seventh of total capacity.
And once the retrieval was complete, he could release the Dark Demon Shadow Formation again. Each individual body would have a further-reduced potential aura, but the sheer spectacle of seven identical figures would be intimidating enough to shake any opponent who didn't understand its fundamental weakness.
In short: if the one-armed Suzaku could retrieve the six corpses, he would be a new man.
The one-armed Suzaku raised his hand with visible urgency, preparing the retrieval gesture. His hand reached his lips, and then stopped.
And moved back to his lips against his will, adopting the posture of holding an instrument.
The Dark Sonata had seized this body too, cutting off his last chance.
At this same moment, the Mega Buster pressed against the back of his head.
"Watch out next time."
Ross, his shield completely shattered from overextended curse resistance, pulled the trigger.
The Nen source for the Dark Sonata sheet music was cut entirely. The sheet music drifted back to its original harmless appearance, floating gently down to the floor. The last of Suzaku's corpses, one-armed and headless, hit the ground.
A bolt of lightning cracked above the Four Saint Beasts' castle, as if paying its respects.
And in that instant, the thunder stopped. Not just the thunder. The entire City of the Four Saint Beasts seemed to fall into absolute stillness. The lightning, the rain, the ambient noise that had filled the city the entire time, all of it stopped at once.
Ross and the four who had entered with him were not included in the stillness. They looked around in confusion.
At the same time, the Navigation Arrow surfaced on its own without Ross pulling any cartridge at all.
It drifted first to Kuwabara's head, then began writing in a combination of Chinese characters and Hunter script, like a cursor drawing letters in midair.
[Kuwabara: acted with caution and landed a critical strike in the final battle. Unremarkable overall.]
[Overall Rating: C]
"Huh? C? What is this, an exam score?"
Still unable to hear, Kuwabara couldn't help protesting at the captions appearing above his own head.
The arrow flew to Hiei's head and began writing under his watchful gaze.
[Hiei: same table as Kuwabara.]
[Overall Rating: C]
A vein rose on Hiei's forehead almost immediately. Being described as sitting at the same table as Kuwabara was, in his view, more insulting than being directly called worthless.
Everyone seemed to understand now. The arrow was apparently scoring and evaluating each of them on their performance inside the City of the Four Saint Beasts.
Yusuke watched the arrow fly to his own head with some tension.
[Yusuke: landed a critical hit on Byakko. Solid presence.]
[Overall Rating: B]
"Ha ha ha ha! Did you see that! Kuwabara! Hiei! I outranked both of you!"
Yusuke arrogantly gave them both the finger.
The two who were still deaf couldn't hear what he was saying, but the expression on his face explained it clearly enough.
[Kurama: showed some carelessness, but executed a clean combination technique with a companion. Commendable.]
[Overall Rating: B]
Kurama's expression at this was subtly ambiguous. Unclear whether to be pleased.
And finally, Ross.
[Ross: supreme kill-stealer, every single Four Saint Beasts head ended up in your hands... but that's competition. First come, first served. And you cleared nearly undamaged through an active Dark Sonata performance. A brilliant victory.]
[Overall Rating: SSS]
[Rating scale, low to high: E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSS]
The arrow even added the rating scale specifically so the unfamiliar members could understand the gap between Ross's evaluation and theirs.
Ross's first instinct was to drop into Zangief's signature both-fists-to-the-sky victory pose, celebrating the top completion rating. Then he immediately became very aware of the quality of stares coming at him from every direction.
Before he could do much more, the arrow had already returned to float in front of him and began rapidly writing additional information that only Ross could see.
[Detected: you have achieved a perfect clear of City of the Four Saint Beasts with an SSS-rank completion rating.]
[You have obtained the highest Creator Authority over the current Primal Secret Realm, and may acquire 1 free-choice game cartridge based on the current Primal Secret Realm.]
[Scanning Secret Realm...]
[Available cartridge catalog: Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse / Ghouls 'n Ghosts.]
[Note: once you make your final selection, the corresponding Secret Realm stage will be generated. As the holder of Creator Authority, you will no longer need to run the cartridge or hold a controller to permanently receive the corresponding protagonist's ability buffs.
Additionally, the game-native protagonist, BOSS units, and portions of the worldview corresponding to the selected cartridge will formally integrate into the current world in some form.]