"Dude just ripped a boss apart with his teeth," Michael muttered, staring at the holographic screen floating above his phone.
The live feed showed Tatsuya's grotesque form closing in on Aiko.
FUCK…
He's gotta do something… another summon? Maybe some more spells? After all, he still got $100,000 in the bank.
The game's pop-up notifications blinked.
"YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" Michael groaned.
…
Blood dripped from Tatsuya's shattered mask as he staggered toward Aiko.
His body trembled—a puppet with half its strings cut. The forbidden technique had given him minutes of power, but now decay gnawed at his organs.
Tatsuya's bone-clawed foot hovered over Aiko's trembling form.
The barrier around her flickered weakly—two more hits would shatter it. His cracked mask hid the savage grin spreading across his face.
I've won.
This mission had pushed him to his limits.
He'd sacrificed arms, endured rot, and unleashed forbidden techniques.
But here he stood—the monstrous Sovereign reduced to sludge, the divine protector outsmarted.
Soon, Aiko's head would join Yuriko's in his mission report. Tatsuya's name would be etched into the Kagekiri Hall of Honor.
His name will become a legend.
His lost arms would become his medals of honor.
People will make ballads of him killing a rot-filled demi-god that no one had seen before and no one had defeated.
The pain he suffered was only temporary.
The glory he shall enjoy will become Eternal.
This ends now.
Tatsuya's spike-foot slammed down—
Clang!
Aiko's barrier flared gold, cracking under the impact. She screamed, scrambling backward as the shield dimmed to near-transparency.
One hit left.
"No miracles?" Tatsuya croaked. "Your god abandoned y—"
…
The game's pop-up notifications blinked on Michael's phone:
[Special Offer! Revive & Upgrade Scarlet Sovereign – 50% Off!]
[Only $49,999! Includes:]
- Full Health Restoration
- Golden Thorn Armor Upgrade
- Divine Rot EX (Insta-Kill Passive)
- [LIMITED TIME] Free "Last Laugh" Taunt Animation!
Michael snorted.
The numbers on his donation counter glared up at him: [$102,341].
So he just spent 40k on the weaker version of the Scarlet Sovereign? And only after it was defeated, the game finally showed its ultimate form?
After all this time, this game's gotta gimmicks still feel shameless to him now.
The game could've given him the 50k option in the beginning, saving him the first payment, yet it was offered only now when he had no better options left.
Shameless! Predatory! Greedy!
He smashed the [REVIVE] button nonetheless.
He'd spent days building her up—saving her from countless troubles. And now this edgelord ninja was about to undo everything?
Nah.
[Processing Payment…]
[Payment Successful!]
[VIP Level: 6/10]
…
Aiko glared up at him, dagger raised. "Kami-sama… won't let you—"
Tatsuya snorted. "Your god is dead. Just like you."
He stomped down.
CLANG!
The barrier shattered in a burst of golden sparks.
Aiko screamed, scrambling backward as the last of her protection dissolved.
Tatsuya loomed over her, bone spikes glistening with toxic sap.
This time, no tricks. No miracles.
Just a quick stab through the heart, and—
CRACK.
The sound froze him.
Behind Tatsuya, the pool of Sovereign sludge bubbled.
No.
He whirled, ignoring the agony in his ribs.
The rotting puddle of thorns and sap began to writhe, rising like a malignant tide.
Aiko's breath hitched. "K-Kami-sama…?"
Tatsuya's mind raced. Impossible. I tore her apart!
The sludge coalesced into a towering pillar, swirling with crimson and gold.
Lightning crackled across the night sky, illuminating the figure forming inside—a silhouette larger, sharper, angrier than before.
Thoom.
A gauntlet burst from the pillar—gleaming gold, thorned edges sharper than any blade.
The Scarlet Sovereign emerged, reborn.
Her armor now glowed like molten metal, thorns replaced by serrated blades that hummed with energy. The crown of wilted lilies had transformed into a halo of spinning, jagged petals.
Her remaining arm crackled with crimson lightning, and the prosthetic—now fused with obsidian and gold—clenched into a fist.
[SSS-TIER SUMMON UPGRADED: SCARLET SOVEREIGN - GOLDEN THORN INCARNATE]
Michael's holographic screen flashed in the steel room.
The donation counter plummeted to [$52,342] as he pumped fists. "Yeah! Now we're talking!"
Tatsuya staggered back.
The Sovereign's aura crushed him like a boot heel. His stolen power—the rotting energy he'd absorbed—sizzled uselessly in his veins. Her armor… it's purging my technique.
"N-no…" His voice cracked.
The Sovereign's galactic eyes locked onto him. She raised her obsidian fist.
RUN.
Tatsuya triggered Shadow Step—
SLAM!
He rematerialized mid-air, the Sovereign's golden gauntlet already there to meet him. The punch cratered his chest, hurling him into a rotting pine.
Bones snapped. Blood sprayed.
Impossible speed!
He collapsed into the mud, ribs jutting through his skin.
The Sovereign loomed, her halo of blades spinning faster.
Tatsuya's mind scrambled for options:
Kyōfu Seals? All spent.
Kekkai Stones? Shattered.
Weapons? Lost to rot.
Only one path remained: Retreat.
He spat blood, triggering Shadow Step again—this time aiming for the treeline.
THWOOM!
The Sovereign's obsidian fist slammed the ground.
A shockwave ripped through the earth, liquifying the forest floor. Tatsuya's teleport fizzled, dropping him into waist-deep sludge.
He thrashed, but the muck hardened like cement.
Trapped.
The Sovereign approached, each step making the ground quake. Tatsuya's heartbeat thundered in his ears. Think! He still had…
His teeth.
Biting his tongue, he spat blood onto the sludge.
"Kai!"
The blood ignited, burning a hole in the muck. He wrenched free, lunging for Aiko—
WHAM!
The Sovereign's golden tail smacked him sideways. He skidded into a boulder, collarbone shattering.
Aiko stared, torn between terror and awe.
Tatsuya's remaining eye (the other was swollen shut) tracked the Sovereign. She wasn't even trying. Just toying with him.
Like I did to Aiko.
Rage boiled in his gut.
He'd trained decades to reach S-Class. Mastered forbidden arts. Sacrificed everything. And this… this thing treated him like a bug?
"Fight me!" he roared, lunging with bone spikes aimed at her halo.
The Sovereign didn't flinch.
Her obsidian arm shot out, catching his spikes.
CRUNCH.
They shattered like glass. Tatsuya screamed as the shockwave ripped through his sockets.
Too slow. Too weak.
Her golden gauntlet seized his throat, lifting him off the ground.
No. NO!
He kicked wildly, but her armor didn't dent. The galactic eyes bored into his soul.
"JUDGMENT."
Her halo blades whirred—
FWIP-FWIP-FWIP!
—and fired.
Tatsuya's world became pain.
Blades sawed through his legs, his torso, his face. Blood misted the air. When the hail stopped, only his head and upper chest remained, held aloft by her grip.
I'm… dying?
His life's memory flashed in front of his eyes.
He'd grasped power since he was nine, when he'd first killed a man twice his size, and not for a single day had he loosened his grip.
He'd slain the elderly in their twilight beds, children in schoolyards, warriors at their peak. His existence had been a blade without a sheath—detached, relentless. Orders from Himari, the council, any client with sufficient coin or clout—he obeyed without hesitation.
Nobody could resist trembling when they even hear his name.
Glory was the only currency that mattered to him, yet he'd never so close while simultaneously so away from it.
Glory...
A word so idiotic, so captivating, that he'd spent his life on.
And this… is how I die?
The Sovereign leaned close, decay wafting from her maw.
Here Tatsuya dangled—the famed shadowcutter, the S-Class Kagekiri, the wielder of the Twin Kodachi—now but a broken puppet, whose legend dissolving like ash in the rain.
He'd have laughed if his lungs weren't collapsing.
CRUNCH.
She bit his head off.