Chapter 436 399 – Kyoichi Shiba's Death

"Spatial transfer?"

"No... He moved us somewhere else. Spatial magic on this level is just too..."

Takashi Hayase and Kyoichi Shiba both stared in shock.

Shiba, who had kept his eyes narrowed and acted unfathomably composed until now, could no longer sit still. The problem was that Takumi's move had been far too fast, with absolutely no warning before it activated.

That was absurd. Shiba hadn't been given even the slightest chance to dodge or resist.

Sensing a deadly threat, he immediately tried to draw the three Godly Weapons—the Suzaku, Seiryu, and Genbu, the other three members of the Four Gods besides Byakko.

These Godly Weapons had not been created by the God of the Bible. Instead, the Hero Clan had deified the Four Gods of feng shui and fashioned them into Godly Weapons. Although their use came with numerous restrictions, they possessed power worthy of their name, but the instant Shiba made his move, an incomparable pressure crashed down on them.

Bang! Bang!!

Takashi and Shiba slammed into the ground at the same time.

Takashi lasted half a second before being flattened face-down, unable to move a muscle. Shiba, on the other hand, burned through his magical power and forcibly held himself up.

"Oh?"

Seeing him struggle so desperately, Takumi silently raised a finger and pressed downward again.

Boom!!!

The ground fractured layer after layer. With Shiba at the center, spiderweb-like cracks spread outward for at least a thousand meters.

"AAAAARGH!!!"

Shiba immediately pushed all the magical power in his body to its limit, letting out an agonized roar.

After enduring for another half second, blood began seeping from all over his body, and he finally collapsed face-down, looking no different from Takashi beside him.

Takashi struggled to move his eyes. When he saw that Shiba was in even worse shape than he was, he suddenly felt a little grateful that he was weaker.

Watching the two of them fail to last even two seconds, Kurumi Nonaka found the whole thing unreal.

Am I dreaming?

How has every single turn of events gone completely beyond anything I imagined?

She blinked her watery golden eyes, looking adorably dumbfounded.

Meanwhile, after using gravity to pin the two men down, Takumi activated Past Sight to peer into their histories.

There wasn't much worth seeing in Takashi's past. Takumi already knew him and had interacted with him when they were children. Takashi had simply obeyed the Village's orders and come here to carry out the mission of subjugating him.

Shiba's origins, however, were much more interesting.

Simply put, the corpse of the original Hero, the progenitor of the Hero Clan, had once had some of its cells stolen by Vatican operatives.

The Vatican then used forbidden magic to cultivate those cells in an attempt to mass-produce clones, following the same sort of approach they had used with that white-haired priest, Freed, but the people at the Vatican had been even more reckless than that. They hadn't merely created clones. They had also fused them with spiritual particles or cells taken from captured or subjugated sacred beasts, magical beasts, spirits, and other powerful lifeforms in an attempt to create an entirely new and ultimate Hero.

Of all their failed specimens, Kyoichi Shiba was the only success.

Unfortunately for the Vatican, they soon realized that they had gone too far.

Shiba's strength had exceeded their wildest expectations. If news of his existence ever leaked, it would likely draw the vigilance of Heaven's angels and bring destruction down upon them.

Eventually, they negotiated with the Village and handed Shiba over to its custody.

The Village used that as an excuse to aggressively seek political subsidies while also assuming responsibility for imprisoning him.

Even so, the Village had no intention of simply leaving him locked away. After implanting a remotely triggered death curse inside Shiba as a restraint mechanism, they began using him as a tool.

"The Hero Clan was originally created to protect the world, and this is what those vermin turned it into!"

Takumi spat out the complaint in disgust before turning toward Takashi.

With a flick of his finger, he removed the gravitational pressure bearing down on him.

"Haaah~~~!"

Takashi, who had barely been able to breathe, sucked in a long breath before rolling onto his back.

The moment he looked at Takumi in front of him, he silently shook his head over and over, making his unwillingness to fight perfectly clear.

Fight?

Fight my ass!

We're not even creatures from the same dimension!!!

Takashi suspected that even if he took the Byakko spear and stabbed Takumi with it, he probably wouldn't even be qualified to injure him.

Those idiots among the Village's higher-ups must have had water in their brains to claim that their group would be more than enough to deal with Takumi.

Right now, Takashi wanted nothing more than to go back and slap every last one of them across the face.

"You won't get the chance to slap them anymore. They're already in hell."

Takumi looked coldly down at Takashi.

"Takashi Hayase, we know each other, at least. I'll spare your life this time. Go back and make sure everyone still left in the Village understands this clearly: don't come looking for trouble with me."

"Otherwise, next time I make a move, I won't hold back."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! I'll make sure they hear every single word!"

Takashi nodded repeatedly, wanting nothing more than to leave as quickly as possible.

He then looked toward Shiba beside him and was just about to ask how he was doing when Takumi pressed his palm downward.

Splat!

Kyoichi Shiba, who possessed strength at the Super Demon Lord-class, was instantly reduced to a puddle of flesh.

His life had begun as a tragedy, so Takumi figured he might as well help bring it to an end.

After killing him, Takumi released his cell spores and devoured Shiba's flesh and blood.

[Ding! Traits acquired: Experimental Body Constitution (Purple), Spatial Affinity (Purple)...]

[Experimental Body Constitution (Purple): A body based primarily on the Hero bloodline but mixed with numerous other bloodlines. Its genes are extremely chaotic, making it extraordinarily difficult to live beyond the age of fifty, but it possesses exceptional power.]

"What a garbage trait."

Takumi frowned deeply as he looked over the scattered, fragmented genetic chains.

Even if he optimized and absorbed them, they would be completely useless. The level of his own bloodline had long since surpassed these trash-tier bloodline genes.

Shaking his head, Takumi looked at the new information that appeared on the system panel.

[Ding! Random Trait Plunder: Banishing Shift (Gold)]

[Banishing Shift (Gold): A special ability capable of completely erasing all matter and magic. It can even shatter and erase space itself.]

Takumi's eyes lit up when he saw the trait.

Now that's pretty strong!

Luckily, he hadn't given Shiba even the slightest opportunity to make a move just now. Otherwise, things might actually have become a little troublesome.

While Takumi was quietly pleased with his new acquisition, everyone else present had very different reactions.

Kyoichi Shiba was actually killed just like that!?

None of them had ever seen Shiba go all out, but they all knew he was one of the Village's ultimate weapons.

And yet his death had been so abrupt and careless, as though Takumi had simply kicked a stray dog on the roadside to death.

Only now did Yuki Nonaka realize that her childhood friend had already reached a height she could never hope to attain.

As for Kurumi, she could hardly imagine that Takumi—the person she had once admired—had now become someone she could only look up to, his heights so distant that she couldn't even see the end.

Takumi, however, quietly shifted his gaze toward the Four Gods Godly Weapons left behind by Shiba and Takashi.

"Oh, right. I'll take these four Godly Weapons as compensation for pissing me off."

With that, Takumi raised a hand and casually stored all four Godly Weapons away.

The Four Gods were fairly decent. If he melted them down and fused them into a single weapon, their overall strength should just barely meet his standards.

...