Before she could finish, a voice tinged with amusement suddenly rang out behind them.
"Oh? Sounds like you two sisters are discussing something interesting. Mind if... I join in?"
Vice's entire body went rigid. She whipped around.
Cloud had somehow appeared silently behind them, leaning against a shipping container, watching them with casual interest—like a scientist observing two lab mice in a cage.
"C-Cloud!" Vice's pupils contracted sharply as her body instantly shifted into maximum alert.
She could sense that this man before her was even more unfathomable than he had been at the tournament!
Meanwhile, the moment Mature saw Cloud, her face immediately transformed into an expression of devout reverence. She dropped to one knee before him.
"Welcome, Divine Son!"
That single gesture shattered Vice's worldview completely.
"Mature?! You... you're actually kneeling to a human?!" She pointed at Mature, trembling with rage. "Have you forgotten the pride of the Hakkesshu?!"
"He's not human." Mature kept her head bowed, speaking respectfully. "He is the manifestation of the source. He is our... new master."
"I don't believe it!" Vice's rationality had been completely wrecked by this new plot development.
She let out a furious roar as dense "death" energy erupted from her body. She transformed into a black bolt of lightning, her claws aimed straight at Cloud's throat!
"Nail Bomb!"
She would use her own methods to expose this "false god's" true face!
But facing this strike that could instantly kill an ordinary fighter, Cloud didn't even raise an eyebrow.
He simply raised his right hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together.
Then flicked lightly.
A surge of Divine Tribe power—identical in origin to Vice's but far purer, far more domineering—erupted from his fingertip.
Ting—
A crisp sound, like crystal being struck, rang out.
The instant Vice's claws—capable of shredding steel—contacted Cloud's fingertips, they slammed into an insurmountable wall.
A terrifying counter-force surged back. Her "death" energy was instantly shattered. She let out a pained grunt and was sent flying—even more pathetically than when Iori had struck her.
"Wh-what?!" She lay on the ground, blood seeping from her lips, face filled with disbelief. "This... this is... Beast power? How can you possibly possess the power of our Divine Tribe?!"
She felt like her worldview had been violently "reformatted" by Cloud today.
"I told you, I'm your source." Cloud walked toward Vice step by step, looking down at her with a "benevolent" smile. "What you can do, I can do. What you can't do, I can also do. Now do you believe it, little one?"
Vice looked up at this man, at those deep eyes that seemed to contain stars and universes.
She could tell he hadn't tried to kill her—otherwise that single flick would have obliterated her soul on the spot.
But it was precisely this absolute, crushing gap in power that shattered her Hakkesshu pride to pieces.
"Divine Son, please forgive Vice's rashness!" Mature hurried forward, kneeling before Cloud, pleading for her sister. "She simply couldn't accept reality so quickly. Please give her more time. I... I will definitely convince her!"
Cloud glanced at Vice, who was still questioning her existence, and smirked internally.
Of course he knew Vice's value.
This woman's pure "death" energy was one of the most direct, most violent manifestations of Orochi power among the Hakkesshu.
Killing her would be a waste. What he wanted was... complete submission.
"Fine." Cloud nodded, maintaining his full imposing presence. "I'll give you one month. In one month, I want to see a Vice who knows how to show respect. Otherwise... I won't mind personally cleaning house."
With that, he didn't spare another glance at Vice on the ground. His figure flickered and vanished.
He left behind only Mature, and Vice—still lying there, her expression complex, her beliefs undergoing a seismic upheaval.
Municipal Hospital, highest-level VIP ward.
Iori Yagami lay in bed, looking utterly wretched.
The gaping hole through his chest, though slowly regenerating thanks to the cockroach-like healing ability of the "Blood of Madness," remained horrifying to behold.
Bandages wrapped his entire body—he looked like a mummy freshly excavated from an Egyptian pyramid.
When Cloud pushed open the door, Iori had just groggily awakened.
"Yo, you're up?" Cloud walked in carrying a fruit basket, casually seating himself by the bed. "How do you feel? Got that 'I'm alive again, time to go flex' urge?"
Iori slowly turned his head. His cold eyes fixed on Cloud, their expression complicated.
Of course he knew how his "defeat" had happened—that hadn't been his own will.
But he didn't ask about it.
Because he knew asking would be pointless. The man before him was even more mysterious, even more powerful than Goenitz.
"Mind your own business." He squeezed out four words between clenched teeth, then turned his head away—the picture of tsundere pride with his "I don't want to talk to you" attitude.
"Heh, what a temper." Cloud was amused. "I save your life and you don't even say thanks, just give me attitude? Want me to make that hole in your chest bigger?"
Just then, the ward door burst open.
"Brother!"
A petite figure rushed in, tear-stricken, throwing herself at Iori's bedside. It was his sister, Yata Tsukihime.
"Brother, you're finally awake! sob sob... you scared me to death..." Seeing her brother's pitiful state, Tsukihime's tears flowed again.
When she had cried herself out and finally noticed Cloud peeling an apple beside her, she froze for a moment. Then, realizing who he was, she immediately bowed deeply to him.
...
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