Dead

"AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!" 

At that moment, an intense heat emitted from that hand; Bikou, whose face was grasped, screamed like a slaughtered pig as his entire head was burned by this heat. His head felt like it was about to melt, and he quickly used his everything to push this heat away, but all the resistance was meaningless. Moreover, the nails of this hand were so sharp that they dug deeply into his face that it made him scared to death! 

Kuroka and Arthur felt they were shrouded by an intense terror, and their bodies told them to run away as soon as possible, but how could they leave their friends?!

The two of them quickly attacked that hand that caught Bikou. 

Arthur reacted fast by swinging his Caliburn to cut this hand, but a ding sound sounded, and he felt his entire body tremble due to the impact of hitting a solid object. 

"Impossible!" 

Arthur couldn't remain calm when his sword was unable to cut this hand! 

How was it possible?! 

Even Gods needed to be careful in front of the Caliburn, and nothing could be cut by this sword, yet Arthur's eyes widened once again as he saw the blade of the Caliburn was about to melt, which made him hurriedly pull his sword away. 

"Close the torn space!" Kuroka screamed and hurriedly manipulated the space to close. 

Arthur also did the same after Kuroka's reminder as he tried to calm his frightening heart. 

At that moment, due to the space suddenly closing, the hand that emerged was cut by the space and burst into a flame, causing Bikou to scream in pain once again. Still, fortunately, as the descendant of Sun Wukong, he had a great resistance to flame, but even so, the flame was greater than his tolerance, so his face was burnt to a scary degree.

"ARRRGGHHH! IT HURTS! IT HURTS! MY BODY!!!" 

Nevertheless, as the flame burst, Bikou, who was unable to escape, was burnt in purgatory-like flames. 

"Bikou!" 2x

Kuroka and Arthur shouted but couldn't even approach Bikou as the flame was so intense. The moment they approached, they knew it would be their bodies that would be burnt.

Yet, how could they watch their friend in a miserable state!?

However, when they were about to do something, they could feel the change in atmosphere that gave them goosebumps. This feeling... there was no doubt. It was him! 

This existence brought their alert to the limit, and at the same time, they were panicked as they never expected it would be him who came out!

"Hmm... what an interesting sword. Lend me." 

"..." 2x

Kuroka and Arthur widened their eyes as Riser suddenly appeared before their eyes! 

Moreover—

The two saw Riser was holding a Caliburn, observing this sword curiously, but what caught their eyes was that there was something dangling on the handle of the sword. 

Arthur and Kuroka were unable to say anything as they could see it was Arthur's hand!

"ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!" 

Like Bikou, Arthur started to scream as he realized that his right hand was cut down by Riser! 

Blood poured out, and his complexion turned pale due to the excessive blood loss, but Arthur screamed, "Kuroka, run away!" There was no chance of them defeating this devil, and the best chance was for Kuroka to run away, reporting everything to Vali. He took out another sword, the Excalibur Ruler, the sword which disappeared during its creation. However, by using his family's connection and Vali's help, he found the sword. 

Yet—

"Oh, another good sword." 

Riser was surprised by his discovery and felt happy by their appearance as they gave him a surprise. 

However, they couldn't feel happy as they saw Riser had cut down another arm of Arthur! 

How? How? How?

No one could answer that question, but by using Caliburn, Riser swung it down at Arthur, ready to cut him in half! 

"ARTHUR!" 

Kuroka was scared, and she hoped what she saw today was all a nightmare, yet she knew that it was reality. 

However, before Arthur was cut, Bikou, who had been burnt by flame, suddenly forced himself to move and used Ruyi Jingu Bang, extending it to smash Riser away, but—

"Wh-What...?!" 

Bikou was dumbfounded when this legendary staff melted when it was about to touch Riser. 

"All metals are meaningless in front of me." 

The weakness of metal has always been flame. 

Even if individuals tried to shape the metal beautifully or dangerously, to make it into such a shape, a flame could melt it. So, there was no doubt a flame was a weakness of a metal. However, to melt such a legendary sword, an incredible amount of heat was needed!

Yet, Bikou knew that by facing Riser's flame, everything was possible. 

The air became dry, the earth chapped, and all the trees in the surroundings started to crumble as they had lost all of their moisture. 

Bikou was the same, and soon he fell as he was in despair, but before he didn't forget to remind Kuroka. 

"Run, Kuroka!" 

Being reminded by the two, Kuroka knew that she needed to run away as there was no possibility of staying alive when they faced this monster!

Yet, could she even run away?

At this moment, she felt regret. She felt regret for understanding Riser and why she didn't kidnap Koneko when Koneko was in a different place!

"Oh, why....?" 

All the attacks Kuroka had sent were meaningless. All the routes to run away had also been closed. She couldn't do anything, and suddenly, a powerful hand grasped her neck tightly. 

As she faced him, she could see his eyes were indifferent, and he didn't even think of her as an individual. Instead, it might not be wrong to say that she was just a bug in his eyes. Moreover, instead of staring at her, his eyes were more focused on the sword he had taken from Arthur. 

Was she going to die?

She tried to resist, but everything was meaningless. 

'Koneko...' 

Kuroka knew that she was about to die, and she felt regret as she was unable to meet her little sister. Moreover, she also felt regret for bringing catastrophe to her two friends. Tears streamed down from her eyes, and she begged forgiveness so he would forgive her two friends, yet with her neck tightly grasped by him, she could say nothing before passing out. 

"Riser-sama!" 

Suddenly, before Kuroka lost consciousness, she heard a familiar voice. She turned and saw a petite figure that had grown up the last time she saw it. 

'Shirone...' 

Even though no noise came out from her mouth, she moved her lips to call her little sister's name. 

Watching all of this, Koneko groveled on the ground and begged Riser. "Riser-sama, please forgive my older sister. I will do anything." 

"She is a criminal, Koneko." 

"Even so... she is my older sister, and... and I am sure that you can do something, Riser-sama...." 

Her petite body trembled as she said those words. She knew that there had always been two sides to Riser. He was gentle, and he was ruthless. She knew she was using his gentle side, trying to make him forgive her older sister. 

"Even if she had ruined your life?" 

"Even so." 

"Is that so?" 

Riser just threw Kuroka into Koneko. "Catch her." 

Kuroka, who had lost consciousness, was caught by Koneko. 

Even though Kuroka's body was hot due to the riser's heat, Koneko caught her older sister firmly and thanked him. "Thank you, Riser-sama. I-I will repay you with my everything..." The latter words were so low that they were almost inaudible, showing her shyness. 

"..." 

Riser was speechless, but then it didn't matter as he had gotten good rewards from defeating the three. 

As for the three? 

Except for Kuroka, Riser didn't care about the rest.