"Damn it!"
"It's not over!"
"Protect yourselves!"
Kyo, Iori, and Chizuru used the last of their strength to erect their respective defensive barriers.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The black spirit pillars rained down like concentrated artillery fire, mercilessly bombarding the ground!
The ruins of Tokyo Dome were completely leveled under this divine punishment!
The Three Sacred Treasures' defensive barriers, against this absolute power, shattered like paper!
All three were grievously wounded again, completely stripped of their combat capability, collapsing into the dust.
The entire arena fell into deathly silence.
Viewers worldwide watching the broadcast sank into deep despair.
Can't win...
There's simply... no way to win...
And yet...
Just when everyone thought it was all over.
Just as Orochi slowly withdrew his power, preparing to completely "format" this world.
A voice, casual and unhurried, echoed from not far behind him.
"Hey, Mr. Orochi."
Orochi slowly turned.
There stood Cloud, somehow having appeared about a hundred meters behind him.
His face still wore that relaxed, even slightly punchable smile.
His body showed not a single wound.
"Nice performance. Great special effects, solid budget." Cloud nodded appraisingly like a moviegoer who'd just finished watching a blockbuster. "But don't you think... you forgot something?"
Orochi's brow furrowed slightly.
He sensed that the aura emanating from this ant had undergone a subtle change.
"Did you really think—" The smile slowly faded from Cloud's face, replaced by an unprecedented icy killing intent. "—that I sent those three up there to get beaten... er, I mean, to fight, just to defeat you?"
"No, no, no."
Cloud wagged a finger.
"They were just... giving you a massage."
"And their real purpose..."
"—Was to buy me time. To create the perfect window for charging up..."
The instant those words fell!
A power more terrifying, more profound, more incomprehensible than Kyo, Iori, and Chizuru's combined might erupted from Cloud's body like a tsunami!
The Chaos Divine Bloodline at 70% activation ran at full capacity!
Wind, Thunder, Chaos, Fang, Beast, Death... six divine powers from the Hakkesshu merged perfectly within him!
Behind him, a chaotic cosmos containing countless stars seemed to manifest!
His hair moved without wind, shifting to a color between black and white—the hue of Chaos itself!
His eyes transformed—one burning with the golden light of ultimate power, the other swirling with an abyssal dark vortex!
"OROCHI!!!"
Cloud's roar shook heaven and earth!
"Take this—a technique where the longer the name, the greater the power..."
"Fusion of Six Divine Bloodlines Ultimate Art: Anti-Flashy-Bullshit-No-Honor-Charged-Backstab Three-Thousand-World-Burning Infinite Hells!!!"
He concentrated all his power into the Kusanagi Sword in his hand!
The ancient divine blade let out an excited cry!
The crimson sword aura along its blade expanded ten thousand feet, as if to cleave the pitch-black sky in two!
Then—one slash!
The entire world seemed to go on mute.
Orochi's eyes—those eyes that looked down upon all life—contracted to pinpoints!
A sense of existential crisis locked onto him completely!
He wanted to dodge.
He wanted to use his space-warping "folds" to defend.
But it was too late!
Cloud's strike had been premeditated from the start!
It wasn't merely a concentration of power—it was the perfect fusion of timing, angle, and energy-locking! A convergence of "heaven's timing, earth's advantage, and human harmony" into a single strike capable of wounding a god through a "backstab"!
That crimson sword aura—fused with six divine bloodlines and burning with chaotic fire—ignored spatial distance, ignored the divine barrier before Orochi, and struck with something approaching "causality" directly into Orochi's... lower back!
Yes, the lower back.
The most vulnerable part of the human body. The spot where power flows most awkwardly. The easiest place to get "taken out."
SHLIIIIICK!!!
A clear sound, like cloth being torn, echoed through the sky!
Divine blood sprayed for the first time!
Orochi's flawless divine body—sculpted as if from moonlight itself—was forcibly cleaved open by the Kusanagi Sword, leaving a massive wound deep enough to expose bone!
"Ngh—AAAAAAHHH!!!"
Orochi let out his first cry of pain!
His body, hovering in the air, could no longer maintain its elegance and indifference. He stumbled backward through the sky, retreating over a hundred meters!
His form—already somewhat ethereal due to the incomplete sacrifice—became even more transparent after this slash! Like a TV with bad signal, he looked ready to "disconnect" at any moment!
The arena fell into deathly silence once more.
Every viewer watching the broadcast felt their brains short-circuit.
What... just happened?
That seemingly invincible, godlike boss was... hit by a charged backstab?
And he... coughed up blood?!
This plot twist was more thrilling than a roller coaster!
"Got him!"
Cloud felt a surge of wild joy after landing his strike.
But he knew this was far from enough!
Orochi was still a god! Even a severely weakened god was still a god!
This slash had wounded him, but "killing" him was still a long way off!
He had to press the advantage!
"—Old Master!!!"
Cloud roared toward the heavens, his voice rolling like thunder across all of Tokyo!
"If not now, when?!"
"Old Master?"
Everyone froze.
Who was Cloud calling?
Was there some "Old Master" still present? Could it be...
All eyes instinctively turned toward a certain corner of the competitor viewing area.
...
Get 20+ chapters ahead on - P.a.t.r.e.o.n "RoseWhisky"