Kai's Bloodlust, the Protectors' might, and the Secret existence
The hiss escaping Kai's mouth replaced the wind's howls and the lingering effect of Hadoken's shout.
Blood flames soared around Kai, power gushing out from his entire body. "Hehe!" he laughed eerily like a maniac, licking his lips. "Bloodlust… I have it, too."
Something happened then that nobody had expected.
Kai's face became expressionless, his eyes looked into Hadoken's pupils, and then with a bang, his killing intent seeped out, engulfing everything in front of him. [GIF 1]
To others it seemed Kai was just using his trump card, covered in mysterious red-colored flames.
Only Hadoken faced the brunt of Kai's bloodlust. And because he was a Nen-user, he saw more than that.
To him, Kai had become the embodiment of Demon.
Kai replaced Hadoken's world. Kai replaced the meaning of existence. Kai extinguished the meaning of logic and norm.
Unknown to Kai, the end of his white hair glowed yellow.
As Hadoken's right fist stretched, punching at Kai, a primal fear originated in his heart, as if the world despised his existence. His gaze moved up, leaving Kai's face, and came to rest a few feet above the white-haired Contestant.
Within those blood flames, a yellow-colored demonic grin could be seen, eying him with the vilest gaze a man could know. [GIF 2]
Hadoken's teeth chattered, and his fist trembled as it advanced. His legs lost their sense of power, and he felt his bowels going loose.
Nobody from the 2nd Set was worthy enough to sense the crisis Hadoken was facing at this moment.
No one.
At this time, Kai raised his right hand and curled his fingers inward as if he wanted to hammer it into his opponent's face; they had come so close.
The blood flames had already taken over the vision of many, blurring Kai and Hadoken's existences.
Just when it seemed it was all over for Kai, Hadoken's wide punch almost landing on his face, the trajectory of the incoming fist shook and stirred away.
Something even weirder and heart-palpating happened, then.
In Kai's right hand, a sword appeared, pointing at the dark sky murderously. The moment the sword appeared, the blood flames around Kai became so red and dense that they blinded everyone.
Kai's eyes brimmed with murder. Today… he wanted to kill.
His bloodlust seeped into Hadoken's bones, and tears fell out from the corner of his eyes. His soul begged for mercy, and his mind became chaotic, making him incapable of having a tiny thought.
The cursed sword descended with an unmatched fury, its thoughts even more murderous than Kai's.
Time slowed in the mirror dimension.
Someone was about to be killed during the Night of Truce, for the first time in hundreds of thousands of years.
Who would take the responsibility? Who would take the blame? Who would survive the wrath of Empires?
The bowl in Blade Singer's hand shattered, and she vanished from her spot. Aloof brought his gaze from the sea to Kai, his face devoid of any aloofness. Moraine's Claymore had already come out, granting the entire world a touch of gray.
Kai simply hacked.
This attack was the prime of his capabilities. This attack embodied his bloodlust, his Breathing Art, and his Will.
This attack was death.
So what if Hadoken was a 6th-floor Contestant? Murasame was an Uncommon-graded Named Item. Unless one could bring out at least a mid or high-level Uncommon-graded Item, then it was nigh impossible to stop its advance.
And the cursed sword was One Cut Killer.
Murasame's edge flashed across Hadoken's eyes, almost kissing his face.
It was then Blade Singer appeared to Kai's left. A sword materialized in her hand, and she thrust it in between Murasame and Hadoken. [Image 1]
Moraine appeared next, and she grabbed Hadoken's shoulder, pulling him back.
Contestant Aloof's eyes became the size of a needle, and a force manifested in between Kai and Hadoken, hitting Kai's chest with never-seen force. [GIF 3]
Tink! BOOM!!!
Kai got thrown hundreds of meters in the air and struck the ground like a boulder, creating a small pit.
"Ugh!" Kai groaned and threw an HP capsule in his mouth before crawling up to his feet.
Everyone had fallen into a stunned stupor, not knowing what had just happened.
In the distance, Blade Singer was holding a green-handled short sword, eying Kai with a murderous glint, her pupils trembling and her hands shaking.
Moraine was trying to lift Hadoken up, who just refused to stand up and kept crawling back on the ground.
Aloof slowly walked toward the other Protectors, his gaze never leaving Kai.
"Haha!" Kai suddenly laughed, holding his blackened chest. "I recognize your sword, Blade Singer. Ryoku Sui, the Green Spike, isn't it? So you are the renowned 5000-Man Commander from Order's 2nd Set with powers from the Kingdom World. Magnificent! And you, Aloof, I can tell the use of Telekinesis when I see one. Care to tell me from which world?"
Aloof said nothing for a moment, and then answered, "Mob Psycho 100."
"Are you insane?!" Blade Singer asked, her killing intent rising higher and higher. "Using Murasame here, during the Night of Truce. What if…"
"What if?!" Kai's laugh echoed like a hideous cackle. "Moraine, did you not tell them it's a Named Item?"
Kai then lifted Murasame and showcased its blade. A drop of blood was running down its edge, glowing dark in the night. Kai brought the blade near his face and licked the blood. "Hmm… Not elegant!"
It seemed as if a bolt of lightning had struck Blade Singer. She lifted her sword and saw an infinitely small chunk missing on the blade's edge. Then her head spun to eye Hadoken.
Hadoken's face had nothing but fear. On his right arm, however, which he had used to punch Kai, was a nick.
Suddenly, this nick turned black.
Thousands of curse runes exploded out of it and rushed toward Hadoken's heart. Hadoken howled in pain, sensing death approaching him for good.
This?!
Not one Contestant in the crowd could make sense of what was happening. They just heard Murasame and guessed that Blood Demon must have used some underhanded trick. They hadn't sensed Kai's bloodlust. Nor had they seen how Kai survived a full-powered blow from a mid-level 6th-floor Contestant.
Only the Protectors of the 2nd Set lost their expressions.
"Save him!" Blade Singer shouted, losing her composure.
But who could save Hadoken now? Aloof couldn't, as he was already sighing, shaking his head.
It was then Moraine stood up, narrowed her eyes at Kai, and then snorted.
With a muffled boom, both Mana and Breath exploded out of Moraine's body, making Blade Singer and Aloof step back. Gigantic Butterfly Wings appeared on her back, which took her into the air. With the Claymore in her hands, Moraine looked like an otherworldly Valkyrie. [Image 2]
"Those…" the old man mumbled, the fear making his face go pale. "Those are the Wings of Grim Butterfly!"
'Grim Butterfly?!' Kai's eyes narrowed at the mention. He had never heard of this magical creature.
Once again, howls and snarls took over everything as they had when Kai fought Moraine before. The butterfly wings sparked with seven colors, and then they fluttered.
With only one flutter, a rainbow-colored burst of powder escaped the wings, making the space around Moraine tremble. And then, this powder entered Hadoken.
Kai's pupils shook as he saw the curse runes disintegrating upon contacting the rainbow-colored powder.
The huge butterfly wings vanished, then. Moraine landed on the ground, her face devoid of any color. Hadoken groaned and lost consciousness, the scratch on his right hand healing instantly.
And the crowd erupted suddenly.
"Kill him!"
"How dare he use underhanded measures! Kill him!"
"Scoundrel! Mr. Hadoken was showing you mercy, and you tricked him?!"
"Report him to the Empires!"
Moraine eyed them all. "Shut up!" she snapped before turning her head to look at Kai. "Get out! You are not welcome here."
Kai raised his eyebrows and licked his lips. For the first time, he felt Moraine was indeed a beauty. She must have realized what Kai had been hoping to achieve by coming here, and this too, that if he stayed here for long, then the Protectors wouldn't be able to guarantee others' safety.
'A true decisive person,' Kai nodded inwardly.
To others, his licking his lips and the glint in his eyes made him look like the most perverted Contestant. As they spat curses at him, not daring to do the deed by themselves, Kai laughed and turned around to go out.
Murasame disappeared with a flick of his hand, and Kai inscribed the words Grim Butterfly in his mind.
The old man came running toward him. "Wait! Let me go with you. Don't leave me behind."
Kai ignored everything. A door-shaped opening materialized, and he walked out into the real world.
"You have Murasame!" the old man exclaimed after walking for half an hour. "You aren't simple, young lad. How did you contend against Hadoken's Ren, anyway? If the Protectors weren't worried about their necks, then they wouldn't have let you go so easily. And now you have made all your enemies…"
"Why are you following me?" Kai asked, his thoughts unknown.
"Heh-Heh!" the old man laughed ruefully. "Come on now. Don't be so rude to senior citizens."
"Senior Citizen, my dick!" Kai cursed, kicking the old man. "Fuck off! Or I will kill you."
The old man showed a pained expression on his face. "Tch! Young people nowadays are truly without manners. Very well. Just be careful… You know what they say, right?"
Kai looked up at the countless stars and grinned. "A bloodbath follows every Night of Truce!"
A fork appeared on the trail they were walking, then.
Saying nothing, Kai took a path other than the old man's and disappeared into the darkness.
*
*
After another half an hour, Kai suddenly paused.
Selene's mist form seeped out from the rocky patch of earth and entered her master's body.
-And?- Kai hissed, his breath escaping his mouth as a mere whisper.
-Nothing,- Selene hissed back. -The old man entered a bar and began courting a lady.-
Kai's brows pressed together. He shook his head and forget about the old man. Dawn was just about a few hours away, and he needed to go through with his plans once again, making minute changes to compensate for the Protectors and their abilities.
Then, with a pop, he vanished.
*
*
Just as Kai vanished, the entire space around that spot broke as if countless mirror-like shards had shattered.
However, these mirror-like shards differed from that of a Mirror Dimension. There was an order to them, a specific geometrical characteristic. From these many-geometrical mirror shards, a person came out, donning a blue-colored overcoat.
On the man's head, there was a mysterious gold-colored Corinthian helmet. [Image 3]
The sheer presence of this helmet in this world brought the space close to destruction.
From behind the slits of the helmet, the person eyed the direction where Kai had vanished.
"Color of Supreme?!" A ghostly, and quite ethereal, voice escaped from the helmet as if it was deliberately masked. "A disaster is brewing…"
Then, with a flick of his hand, this person vanished, submerging back into the countless mirror-like shards.