Chapter 349: Battling Im Once More

"System, what is going on here? Why isn't the quest marked as complete?" Drake's brow furrowed. He had just realized that the objective to eliminate Im remained unfulfilled.

This made no sense.

Im should have been reduced to ash under the combined might of his and Kenshin's assault.

So why was this quest still...

[That monster isn't dead!] The System rolled onto its feet in a frenzy. [That must be it! Otherwise, the quest would have registered as complete by now!]

"You're saying she's still alive?" Drake asked in astonishment.

[Where on earth is she hiding...] The System sank into frantic calculation before its eyes widened in sheer horror.

[Not good! That young girl, Kaya!]

"What did you say?!" Drake moved instantly, tearing through the corridor and kicking the door open to Kaya's room.

Inside, Kaya—barefoot and completely transformed—was hoisting Ain into the air with one hand clamped around her throat.

"Ain!"

Drake roared, unleashing boundless spatial power that locked down the immediate coordinates around Kaya, freezing her movements in place.

Within his sea of consciousness, he pressed frantically: System, what happened here? Why did Kaya turn into this? And her injuries...

The sight before him defied all reason. Even Senzu Beans dispensed by the System could only gradually fade severe scar tissue.

Yet the Kaya standing before him bore not a single scratch or blemish.

Her porcelain skin carried a delicate rosy flush, smooth and pristine as a newborn child's.

[I don't know the exact mechanics, but one thing is certain: the person before you is no longer that young girl Kaya—it's Im!] the System shouted.

[Stop her immediately! Strike while she's still in a weakened state!]

Kaya slowly turned her head, fixing a chilling, pitch-black gaze onto Drake.

Dark-crimson light flared within her pupils. The moment Drake met those eyes, he knew beyond all doubt: she was Im!

The corners of Im's lips curved upward into a sinister smirk. "I'll spare your lives this once. The next time we cross paths, every last one of you will die!"

The moment the words left her lips, Im's entire frame dissolved into churning black mist. Cracks tore across the surrounding spatial fabric, spreading outward without end.

"Damn it!" Drake's heart seized. Prioritizing Ain's survival, he marshaled his spatial authority to direct an ocean of crushing atmospheric pressure toward Im.

BOOM!

The localized space collapsed catastrophically, tearing everything in the room to shreds as the hillside mansion disintegrated into rubble in a fraction of a second.

"Ain, are you alright?" Drake caught Ain as she fell, planting his foot on the air to vault into the sky.

"I'm... I'm fine. But the children—the two boys are still inside!" Ain gasped, catching her breath in panic.

Two village boys had been resting inside the estate alongside Kaya, receiving medical care.

"Rest easy, Big Sister Ain—they're already out safe and sound!" Bell's cheerful voice called out from behind.

Kenshin, Locke, and Bell each carried a person in their arms: the two village boys and Kaya's butler, Merry.

"Look out! Drake, she's escaping!" Kenshin's eyes narrowed sharply. Raising his blade, boundless lightning surged along the steel.

"Locke, take the kid!" Tossing the boy to Locke, Kenshin soared straight into the clouds.

Lightning flickered across the sky at blinding speeds, blanketing the heavens above Syrup Village in a sea of arcing thunderbolts.

Below, the villagers looked up at the cataclysm in stunned disbelief. What kind of monsters were these people? Each one seemed more terrifying than the last.

First, the earth fractured and the island trembled; now, a tempest of lightning eclipsed the sun, mirroring the dark fog that had smothered the sky earlier.

"Locke, protect the villagers from the crossfire! Kenshin and I will handle this!" Lowering Ain to safety, Drake executed a spatial warp and materialized directly before Im.

In this situation, Drake had no simple solutions. Im had acquired a new physical vessel, and that vessel was Kaya.

Subduing or executing Im without inflicting lethal harm upon Kaya's body was a near-impossible task.

With a physical body anchoring her soul, Im was virtually immortal—and any regenerative recovery she performed would burn away Kaya's remaining lifespan.

Conventional combat was entirely futile.

The only viable path was Ain's Soul-Sealing Secret Art!

Yet that technique imposed an immense burden on the user's vitality, and given Ain's current exhaustion, whether she could manifest it again was a complete gamble.

More critically, the Demon Warder lacked the energy reserves required to activate the Unity of Man and Vessel and lend him amplified power.

Under these constraints, restricting Im's movements with his baseline strength was extraordinarily difficult.

Catching Ain's eye from the corner of his vision, he saw her give a resolute nod. Drake said nothing more.

At this stage, they had no choice but to stake everything on one final gambit.

RUMBLE... CRASH!

Thunder and black mist collided violently across the sky. Simultaneously, Drake concentrated his Armament Haki and spatial force into the edge of his sword, cleaving through the layers of dark fog.

"Eternal Annihilation!"

The unstoppable sword energy tore through all resistance. Drake closed the distance to Im in an instant, driving a full-power thrust straight toward her right shoulder without holding back a shred of force.

Strangely, Im made no effort to evade. She stood motionless in mid-air, as though waiting for the strike to land.

Though startled by her passivity, Drake had no time to hesitate. The arrow had left the bowstring; this strike carried everything he had!

His combat aura surged to its absolute zenith—Conqueror's Haki domain fully unleashed, advanced Armament Haki fully engaged, spatial manipulation pushed to the limit!

Even with his aura tightly reined in to concentrate every ounce of power into the blade, the ambient energy radiating from his body continued to warp and distort the surrounding atmosphere.

The Crimson Rainbow Blade pierced clean through Im's shoulder without obstruction.

Drake's eyes flashed with sharp focus. At the exact same moment, Locke swung his bo staff, launching Ain high into the air.

"Ain! Now!" Drake roared.

He knew this was their golden opening. The spatial energy coursing through the Crimson Rainbow Blade was actively tearing through Im's internal pathways, suppressing her regenerative capacity.

Under these conditions, Ain had a real chance to seal the soul!

"Soul-Sealing Secret Art!"

Reaching the apex of her trajectory, Ain pushed every drop of her remaining stamina to its limit, summoning silver needles between her fingertips.

With a flick of her wrist, three gleaming needles shot forward.

The needles pulsed with extraordinary spiritual energy. Even after releasing just three, Ain's complexion turned deathly pale.

The crew of the Dragon Flag Pirates watched with bated breath.

Hold on, Ain!

Drake monitored the trajectory with intense focus; victory and defeat hung on this single exchange.

He even diverted a fraction of his focus to construct an invisible spatial platform beneath Ain's feet to keep her aloft.

Thwack!

The three silver needles struck Im's vital meridians with pinpoint accuracy.

Without pausing for breath, Ain swept her arms forward again, sending the rest of the silver needles whistling through the sky. The sharp sonic booms seized the attention of everyone watching below.

Ain had committed her entire reserves to this volley; her stamina was on the verge of total collapse, making a swift resolution mandatory.

Watching the storm of needles close in, Drake held his breath. This will do it!

Yet just as the needles were about to pierce Im's flesh, a sudden anomaly occurred. Im's physical body dissolved entirely into black mist, scattering into the wind.

The entire volley struck empty air, piercing through the remnant fog before vanishing into the distant horizon.

The three needles previously embedded in her flesh dropped uselessly toward the ground below.

"Not good!" Drake's expression hardened. Things had taken a catastrophic turn.

"The next time we meet, I will slaughter every single one of you!" The dispersed black mist converged into a colossal, sneering face in the sky, flashing a sinister grin at the mortals below.

Under the horrified gazes of the crowd, the black mist dissolved into the atmosphere, fading away into absolute nothingness...