Some time later, in the morning...
At the site of the battle where Desu died, two people arrive — Shiso and Yuko.
Both are wearing a single glove of the Kagura Clan.
The place looks like a comet crashed into it, everything around is leveled to the ground.
Shiso is a tall and slender man, with a perfect physique, measuring 190 cm in height.
He is 27 years old.
His eyes say that he comes from the Ketsuga Clan. The vertical pupils give him an almost predatory appearance.
Despite his slim build, his body looks hardened and incredibly strong.
His face is elongated and sharp, almost perfectly symmetrical, but at the same time cold and emotionless.
His skin is pale like alabaster, almost unnaturally light, which enhances the contrast with his intensely red eyes that seem to pierce the darkness.
Long, snow-white hair reaches down past his back.
On his back rests a massive sword – long, wide, and looking extremely heavy.
The blade is almost transparent, as if made from bloody glass, inside of which red, pulsating veins of energy can be seen.
The blade is covered in spikes and thorns.
His enormous sword rests on his back as if drawn to his body by an invisible force. It lies diagonally.
On his left hand, there is a black, spiked glove connected to the rest of the armor. It looks as if his body itself is a weapon.
He wears armor that resembles a living creature. Made of black, organic material that looks like a fusion of metal and some dark magic. The armor is covered in sharp, asymmetrical spikes and thorns.
On the shoulders, the armor is bulkier, adorned with elongated spikes resembling the blades of rounded daggers.
A tattered cape flutters behind him, moving as if it were part of a shadow, not fabric.
Yuko looks like a little girl, with typical childlike features: a round face, full cheeks, and shiny eyes.
She is petite and small.
She looks around 12 years old.
Her eyes are intensely blue, almost transparent like diamonds.
She holds a worn-out black plush bear missing one eye.
Her hair is straight, shoulder-length, and black, with an uneven fringe.
She is dressed neatly in a black noble-style dress down to her knees, with white accents and trimmings.
They stand and look at Desu's corpse, which has a katana stabbed into his torso.
*Yuko: Oh no! We're too late! – she says in a sadistic voice.
*Looks like someone beat us to it... – she says sadly.
Shiso: The katana pierced his torso… He probably defeated him by sacrificing himself one for one.
*Yuko: And what do we do now? – she says sadly.
Shiso walks away.
Yuko turns toward Shiso and runs after him after a moment.
*Yuko: Wait, we're together!
Suddenly, Jigoku runs toward them, barely swaying. He spots them and then blacks out and faints.
A moment later…
Shiso and Yuko are walking through the forest along a wide, earthy path. The sun begins to shine.
Yuko is dragging the unconscious Jigoku by the hair, pulling him across the ground like a rag.
Shiso walks next to her as if nothing happened, as always with the gaze of a ruthless killer.
*Yuko: I have a new toy!
*New toy! – she sings joyfully, nodding her head left and right.
Suddenly, about 10 meters behind them, a figure in armor appears – Munoyoroi.
The knight's armor appears ancient, made from black, muted metal, scratched and cracked, as if bearing the marks of countless battles.
Despite this, the armor retains a dignified, royal appearance, a testament to its owner's former greatness.
The knight's helmet has elongated, crown-like spikes growing from its top and reaching toward the sky.
His figure is tall and massive, yet overwhelmingly majestic.
His enormous sword looks as if it's soaked in agony. The blade is jagged, as if forged not from metal, but from hatred and rage itself.
The blade is decorated with strange markings. Near the hilt, one can see symbols resembling souls trapped in its metal, symbols of agony.
The knight wears a long white cape.
Around his neck, on a slightly thicker chain, hangs the symbol of Hanran – a violet star.
*Munoyoroi: Stop! – he shouts in a loud, masculine, slightly metallic voice.
Yuko keeps walking, not even paying attention to Munoyoroi.
Shiso turns around and stops in place.
*Munoyoroi: Let the boy go! – he shouts.
Yuko stops and turns around, then makes a threatening face at the knight.
Her eyes are terrifying, horrifying, like the worst kind of psychopath from the worst nightmares.
*Yuko: You mean this piece of shit not even worth carrying? – she says in an irritated voice with a disgusted expression and her head twisted to the side.
Yuko steps on Jigoku and kicks him in the torso once.
Munoyoroi charges at Yuko with immense speed.
Shiso stands in her defense, appearing in the blink of an eye with his sword, holding it in one hand.
He crosses his massive two-handed sword with Munoyoroi's blade, blocking the attack with one hand.
The red veins in Shiso's sword begin to pulse during the clash of swords with the attacker, as if the sword were alive, awakened from sleep.
Shiso looks him straight in the eyes – the knight, instead of eyes, has bright green smoke.
*Shiso: I know we're forbidden from killing certain people, but he probably won't leave us alone, if you can even call that a person. – he says, irritated.
*Yuko: Huh? Alright, just come back, or I'll get in trouble if you die. – she says in a cheerful voice.
Yuko makes a funny face at him, sticks out her tongue, and walks away dragging Jigoku by the hair across the ground.
Shiso and Munoyoroi leap away from each other.
Munoyoroi and Shiso get into a battle stance.
Munoyoroi holds his greatsword with both hands in front of him in a ready-to-fight position, staring at Shiso.
Shiso holds his sword confidently in his right hand, resting it on his shoulder.
Shiso: Another minnow… – he thinks confidently.
*Munoyoroi: I never thought I'd meet you someday.
*Is it true what they say?
*You killed your entire family? Your whole clan?
*Shiso: All I hear is barking. Voices trying to sound like judgment, like morality, like truth… but they carry nothing. Just noise. And nothing more.
*I regret nothing. Even if you ask me for reasons, you wouldn't understand them anyway. Because to understand what I did... you'd need the courage to reach further than you'll ever dare to look.
*My goal was simple. As unquestionable as a death sentence. And I did what had to be done to make it real.
*You look at the consequences. I looked at the future. You ask questions. I already knew the answer. *And that's exactly why... you'll never get there.
*Munoyoroi: Why do you need that boy?
*Shiso: Not your concern.
*Munoyoroi: Why are you with them?
*Shiso: This is where the questions end. Only one thought remains for you – and I'll be your last, right before your death.
*Munoyoroi: A shame, a great shame… You would've made a fine general.
*Since you hold such beliefs, I see no reason to let you exist.
Munoyoroi charges first.
Without a word, without warning, he crashes into Shiso at full force, like a black lightning bolt.
From his armor, during the charge, bursts bright green energy.
The force of his attack is immense.
But in that single second, everything flips.
Shiso moves first.
Before Munoyoroi's blade touches his body, Shiso draws his sword upward – from right to left, from the bottom across.
With one hand.
Their swords collide, and the impact doesn't sound like metal on metal, but like an explosion from another dimension.
The shockwave tears the air apart.
Munoyoroi is ripped from his own attack – thrown backward like an arrow, as if struck by his own blade.
Before his heavy figure can hit the ground, time itself seems to freeze.
Shiso is already there.
Behind him. In silence. In stillness.
He holds his massive, two-handed sword with one hand, as if it were merely an extension of his thought.
He doesn't deliver a combo. He doesn't strike multiple times.
He simply ends it.
The first cut – a leg.
The second – the other.
The third and fourth – both arms.
All of it happens at the same moment.
With each cut, his sword births an explosion, as if it were a source of destruction itself.
The moves are so fast, the explosions can't keep up.
Instead of four detonations – one. One sphere of destruction.
Black, with a faint red gleam.
As if a fragment of nothingness burst out from the very point of impact.
It expands, and then suddenly collapses into itself.
A vanishing sphere of vacuum that takes with it sound, air, and meaning.
Munoyoroi's armor tears apart under the pressure.
Fragments of metal, spiritual cloak, and runes shoot out like projectiles, every piece.
When the blackness from the explosion disappears, only what's left is visible.
The helmet and remains of the armor fused into one shell.
And through it… a sword.
Straight through.
Munoyoroi doesn't touch the ground.
He hangs suspended on the blade, limp.
Shiso holds his sword with one hand, upright, as if lifting nothing.
He holds Munoyoroi on the sword so that his head is at the same level as his.
*Munoyoroi: I am a patriot!
*I fought for something greater than myself…
*Shiso: And that's exactly why you lost.
*Faith, honor, homeland. Things that don't lead to victory.
*Munoyoroi: What would you know about that, you killed your family.
*You're not a warrior, just a murderer!
*Munoyoroi: You don't love anyone and you have no place you belong to.
*Shiso: I love only one thing.
*The result.
With force, he pulls the sword out of Munoyoroi's body so fast that the armor hasn't even started to fall yet, and the body still floats in the air as if frozen in time.
And then...
Two moves.
So fast they can't be separated.
As if space bent around his sword.
The first slash, horizontal, from left to right – slices Munoyoroi's neck like silk.
The second, vertical, from top to bottom – tears his body from the helmet down through the split armor on the torso.
Both slashes leave in the air a cross-shaped mark, not holy, but like a grave mark carved into the air.
The shockwave spreads wide like a ring of torn reality, raising dust, energy, and silence.
Munoyoroi doesn't fall – he falls apart.
The split helmet flies off in two directions like two projectiles. The torso the same, only it crashes into the ground at an angle with a mighty bang.
And Shiso stands in the middle of it all, in stillness, as if nothing happened.
As if he just took his first breath.
In the sky, yellow lights suddenly appear in the form of lightning, thundering powerfully above the clouds. Loud thunder is heard, as if the whole sky was shaking.
Shiso looks at the clouds with a murderous gaze, as if he saw something or someone.
Next to him, a portal about two meters tall appears in the shape of an elongated circle, like an oval, but perfectly symmetrical, without any distortions. The edges of the portal are smooth.
Shiso doesn't hesitate and walks into the portal. As soon as Shiso passes through the portal, the portal disappears.