Along with a scream, a woman's head soared into the air.
Amidst the bloody light was the figure of Sen Getsusa coldly swinging her blade.
"No!"
"No!!"
"You cannot interrupt the ritual of the mist!!"
Hannya howled. Since he had rooted himself to the fungal mat to begin the ritual, he was unable to move except to manipulate the insect swarm—
And the insect swarm was also being rapidly eliminated by the Sprites.
"No?"
Sen Getsusa smoothed her hair and hummed a song as she moved behind another girl. She listened to the incoherent prayer for a moment... and swung her blade.
Another head rolled away.
"You didn't think I'd have to play along like it's a game,
honestly waiting for you, the villain, to dawdle like an eighty-year-old man until you finished this whole damn ritual, did you?"
Sen Getsusa rotated her wrist, the blood-stained blade tracing circles in the girl's palm.
Among these people, some Sen Getsusa had seen before, and some she hadn't;
Some had even smiled and greeted her before.
But now, their bodies were riddled with holes, each filled with slender insect eggs.
On the surface of the skin, they squirmed in the pores like tiny black sesame seeds.
They were no longer friends.
Ssh—
A head fell to the ground.
"I don't understand." Sen Getsusa shook her head in confusion, turning to look at Hannya: "If I kill them all, will the ritual be ruined?"
The girl spread her hands playfully; in the blink of an eye, two more heads fell into the mire-like fungal carpet, trailing blood.
Hannya didn't understand either.
Why could this strange figure nonchalantly behead young students who were still 'alive' one by one... Was she from the Chaos Faction?
Hannya commanded the swarm with irritation and anxiety. Unfortunately, a portion of the once vast swarm had died in White Torch's fire, while another was held back by the fairies.
Sen Getsusa walked half a circle. Except for those whose skulls had already split open and mercury was gushing from their brains, headless corpses lay all over the floor in a semi-arc following the girl's steps.
"Time for the other half of the circle."
Toying with the hilt of her knife, Sen Getsusa stood before a Boy.
This was... Komuro Yota.
The Boy looked up, his eyes filled with colorful maggots.
He cried and wailed, opening his mouth to plead with Sen Getsusa for help.
"Save me..."
"Please save me..."
Mercury seeped out, sticking to his scalp. A Child's helplessness and fear finally surfaced on the Boy's face.
He shouldn't have been so greedy.
"I..."
"Don't want to die!!"
Sen Getsusa smoothed the hem of her black gauze dress and knelt before Komuro Yota, her large eyes watching him.
"Haven't lost your mind yet?"
"Tell me, how were you infected?"
The Boy stammered, unable to spit out a complete sentence. He could only repeat'Save me' and 'Don't want to die' continuously. Then... his trembling hand began to reach uncontrollably for the brass ritual knife.
The girl stood up and shook her head.
"Sigh, Yota-san..."
"Save me..."
Puchi.
The young Boy's terrified expression remained frozen on his face as his head, like a deflated football, slumped off his shoulders and fell onto the fungal carpet.
"Mina..."
He spat out half a word, his pupils losing their light.
The girl stepped over Komuro Yota's body. Like a heartless beheading machine, she left a trail of corpses wherever she went.
Hannya raised his hand.
He could clearly feel the mystery bestowed by the mist gradually receding and dissipating—
No!
This can't happen!
The ritual cannot fail!
He looked toward the distant Heart—Minagawa Akane—with eyes full of rage.
At this moment, the woman was cowering behind a maggot the size of two or three people, squatting carefully to make herself as small as possible.
You can't see me, you can't see me... "Heart!!"
"Stop her!!"
Following the sound, Sen Getsusa turned her head to look.
After staring for a few seconds, the girl turned back nonchalantly and continued her beheading business.
In her profiling, that woman showed even less than Hannya.
Only—
[Energy Level: Lv0 · "Contactee"]
Even her Ritualist class and name weren't displayed... She was probably at the level of two beetles.
Minagawa Akane breathed a sigh of relief.
I survived... In those few short seconds the other party looked over, her palms were drenched... It was too terrifying.
Is this a Super-Sequence... No, power at the "Judgment" level or above?
Wasn't it said that there's only one Judgment-level in all of Japan, White Torch?
Minagawa Akane silently stroked the giant worm's body. As the young men and women sacrificed themselves one by one just now, mercury flowed along the fungal carpet, slowly crossing the battlefield—
And entered the body of this giant insect.
Now, within its transparent belly, that small figure was gradually being stained silver.
The ritual... Minagawa Akane glanced at Sen Getsusa, who was still beheading people.
At this rate, the ritual would only be half-successful... Hannya understood this as well as Minagawa Akane did.
But at this moment, neither of them could stop Sen Getsusa.
Because he had miscalculated the time—
Just two minutes short. If it had been White Torch who came, the ritual would have been completed by now.
He was probably still trapped on the second floor, right?
Sen Getsusa hummed a song. Amidst the ancient and eerie strains of a witch's nursery rhyme, two-thirds of the students already lay in pools of blood.
Indeed, if the girl had been even a minute or two later—
If she had waited for these infected to end themselves with their knives, then everything would have been too late.
Although Sen Getsusa didn't know what this ritual was used to summon, it was clear that with her current abilities, she was not yet ready to face a so-called God of the Chaos Faction.
"Are you also a Chaos Ritualist?"
Hannya whispered silently, powerless to stop any of this. He could only watch as the complete ritual was sabotaged.
"Carnage Mortals..."
"Chaos Ritualist, why do you stand against our Chaos?"
Sen Getsusa puffed out her cheeks, looking fierce: "Chaos? Carnage?"
"I'm solving a problem."
The girl retorted to the man, half-laughing and half-annoyed: "You're such a hypocrite, Mr... Hannya?"
"Can I call you Hannya?Speaking of, your mask is really ugly."
"By the way, your mask is really ugly."
Hannya didn't want to pay attention to the teasing of this peculiar Ritualist. He said hatefully: "The Masquerade Ball will not let you off."
"Strange Ritualist, on this land, you will never be able to escape the pursuit of the Masquerade Ball."
By now, except for the first few, almost all the sacrifices had been slaughtered by the girl.
"I can even dodge a sales clerk pushing the latest Hermes evening bag,"
"You think I can't dodge your pursuit?"
The girl rolled her eyes at the man. Carrying the dripping table knife, she slowly walked toward her final target—
The giant worm and the figure within its gestation period.
Seeing that blurred, fragmented shadow approach after slaughtering all the sacrifices, Minagawa Akane decisively began to retreat—
Mercury shimmered with a pure light as it flowed over the deep flesh-colored fungal carpet, yet it led toward a filthy and foul destination.
Thump-thump.
Thump-thump.
The heartbeat grew louder and louder, and some kind of noise intensified.
To Hannya's delight, the massive maggot began to struggle.
It seemed something was about to break out of the cocoon.
the mist wanted to... Puchi.
Sen Getsusa expressionlessly swung her knife and pierced the flesh cocoon.
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