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In Hanemiya, amidst the downpour of inky rain, Haruto’s fist drove forward, shattering a Genma.
Yet no matter how many he felled, there was no end in sight. The Genma swarmed across the ground, welling up as if from a bottomless pit.
"Leader, there’s no end to them!"
Katina shouted as she ran to his side. She unleashed blades of water, severing the legs of several Genma that were attempting to swarm a young boy who had been slow to escape. Inky splatter—neither blood nor miasma—sprayed into the surroundings.
"I know!"
Giving a curt reply, Haruto swung his fist at a Genma that had lost its balance after losing its legs. A mass of Ki released from his strike vibrated the air, crushing the monsters flat.
Katina helped the boy to his feet and led him toward the rallying point where the civilians were being gathered for evacuation.
If it were just a matter of slaying the Genma, Haruto could have managed somehow. But the situation changed entirely when he had to protect those who could not fight. Tourists from foreign lands, families with children who had been late to flee, and the elderly who lacked even the strength to hold a weapon—there were simply too many people to protect.
"Dammit! I never realized being robbed of [Bird's-eye Vision] would be this infuriating!"
The skill had functioned on the outskirts of Hanemiya when they first arrived, but in the heart of the city, where the mana grew increasingly volatile, it had failed him completely.
"Huey! What’s the status of the civilian evacuation!?"
In response to Haruto’s call, a voice echoed from the shadow of a nearby building.
"The evacuation itself is on track! But if the crowd grows any larger, I’m not sure we can keep them all safe!"
In truth, more than thirty people were already huddling together at the designated safe zone. Shion and Teruche were the ones guarding them. Haruto trusted those two implicitly, but if the number of Genma swelled further, they would eventually reach their breaking point.
"It looks like it will take a little more time for Oliver and Luna to return..."
Oliver and Luna were currently absent, ferrying the gathered civilians to an area beyond the reach of the inky rain. However, the round trip was an unavoidable drain on their time.
Haruto’s thoughts raced.
If this keeps up, we'll eventually be overrun.
There was a limit to the radius he could protect just by punching and killing. He glanced back toward the Sacred Mountain. Unless the eruption from the peak was stopped, this would never end.
He knew that. But since he had entrusted that task to Orun and Fuuka, his duty now was to hold the line here. He couldn't afford to show weakness in a place like this.
The moment he punched down another Genma, a spine-chilling presence surged from behind him.
"Leader, some big ones just crawled out...!"
Huey’s voice rose in alarm. Four abnormally swollen Genma had emerged, each exuding an aura far more alien than the ones before. Their fangs were elongated, their once-blurred surfaces had hardened like rock, and dense, inky mana leaked from their entire bodies.
"Modified specimens? Now of all times!?"
Haruto squared his shoulders and raised his fists.
The first Modified Genma lunged, sliding across the ground with startling speed. Haruto met it with a fist clad in Ki. Upon contact, he funneled his Ki into the monster’s core and detonated it.
The Modified Genma burst from the inside out. A massive spray of inky, liquid-like mana clouded Haruto’s vision. Normally, a simple physical obstruction wouldn't leave him with a blind spot, but with [Bird's-eye Vision] sealed by the rain, he was momentarily blinded.
The remaining three pounced, striking from the dark.
"Crap—"
By the time he realized the danger, it was too late. The sharp claws of the Modified Genma swung down, poised to tear him apart.
"—I'll take the center. Instructor, the left. Nagisa, the right, please."
A dignified voice rang across the battlefield.
"Understood." "Got it!"
In the next heartbeat, the central monster was shredded into a thousand pieces by a flurry of slashes. The one on the left was split by a single vertical stroke, and the one on the right suddenly dissolved into a puddle of sludge.
As Haruto watched with wide eyes, three figures stepped forward.
"Fuuka... and..."
"I brought some powerful help," she said.
Accompanying Fuuka were Kiryuu and Nagisa.
"You've grown quite a bit, Haruto—both in stature and in Ki," Kiryuu noted, his eyes narrowing with a hint of nostalgia.
"Haruto-san, it's been so long! You’ve gotten so tall!" Nagisa chirped, running over with a bouncy step and an innocent smile. The sheer joy radiating from her small frame seemed to soften the very atmosphere of the battlefield.
"Nagisa, I'm glad you're safe."
Haruto placed a hand on her head, but his gaze immediately shifted to Kiryuu. His eyes burned with a simmering anger.
"Hey, you shitty old man. Are you the reason Fuuka and Nagisa are hurt?"
"...Indeed. I am the cause."
Kiryuu offered no excuses, merely nodding quietly. At that admission, Haruto’s expression darkened.
"Don't screw with me... What the hell are you doing? You’re the one who’s been lecturing us since we were kids about ‘behaving in a manner befitting the Tendou House’!"
A low growl vibrated in Haruto's throat, and veins bulged on the back of his clenched fist. The air around him trembled as Ki began to leak from his knuckles.
"—If we weren't in the middle of this mess, I’d punch you into next week."
Haruto forced his hand to open and exhaled a long, heavy breath. He kept his eyes locked on Kiryuu as he made his declaration.
"When this fight is over, I’m definitely going to deck you. So be ready, old man."
"...I understand. I shall accept it."
"Surprising," Fuuka remarked. "To think Haruto would get genuinely angry for my sake."
"Huh? Obviously. I'm your head vassal, after all—wait, that’s not important right now! Why are you even here? What about the Sacred Mountain?"
"I left that to Orun," Fuuka answered.
Right on cue, the mana that had been erupting from the mountainside vanished. With the supply of mana to the inky sky cut off, the rain falling over Hanemiya began to dwindle.
"...See?"
"I'm not entirely convinced, but I guess this means the Genma won't be spawning anymore."
"Leave the rest to me!" Nagisa cried out energetically.
She stepped forward and spread her arms wide toward the heavens, calling upon her ability.
"—O Sinful Defilement, return to Heaven's Presence!"
Nagisa’s clear voice rang out, melting into the clearing sky. A soft, cherry-blossom-colored light overflowed from her, gently yet firmly enveloping Hanemiya. Like a spring thaw melting a frozen land, the inky presence swirling through the city receded.
The brilliance pushed back the corruption crawling on the ground and swept away the inky clouds. The heavy sky split apart, allowing a single ray of sunlight to pierce through and illuminate the streets.
The Genma groaned as they ground to a halt one by one. Eventually, their forms crumbled into nothingness.
"Amazing..." Katina whispered.
Haruto felt a wave of relief so strong it nearly drained the strength from his legs.
"Phew... That should do it for now—"
Just as he started to relax, a massive shockwave thrust up from deep within the earth.
"What!? An earthquake!?"
Screams erupted throughout the city. Even though the threat of the Genma had passed, the danger of collapsing buildings and falling rubble was a nightmare scenario.
"Th-The Sacred Mountain!!" someone shrieked.
Haruto and the others spun around. There, looming over the peak as if to pierce the heavens, was a monstrous, jet-black serpent. Its massive, tangled body squirmed as it looked down from the summit, its eight heads glaring in different directions.
It crushed the mountain peak and coiled its body as if to constrict the very earth; its mere presence seemed to suck the air out of the surroundings. The inky mana oozing from it was on a completely different level than the Genma.
"Is that... the Yata no Hebi from the myths!?" Nagisa gasped.
One of the heads of the Yata no Hebi reared back toward the sky. In the next instant, accompanied by a roar of pure rage, inky mana swirled deep within its gullet.
"An attack is coming!" Kiryuu bellowed.
At that moment, the mana was unleashed. An inky breath, resembling a torrent of black lightning, tore through the sky with enough force to scorch the earth. The air screamed as the pressure approached, threatening to gouge out the landscape itself.
However, a single figure stood directly in the path of the blast. Orun, holding a jet-black shield, took the brunt of the attack alone.
"!"
Seeing this, Fuuka immediately bolted in the opposite direction of the mountain—toward the rally point where the civilians were gathered.
"Fuuka!?"
Haruto shouted in surprise, but she didn't look back. She reached the safe zone, finding Shion standing guard over the refugees.
"Shion!"
"I know!"
The exchange was brief, but it was all they needed. Shion understood Fuuka’s intent instantly and reached out without hesitation.
"Teruche, I'm leaving this place to you."
"Understood. Lady Shion, please do as you must."
The moment Fuuka grasped Shion’s hand, the teleportation magic flared.
"—[Shift]!"
With a fading echo, the two women vanished like mist.