"Is there more?" Tenka asked with an uncovered curious gleam.
"Yeah. Today I successfully developed three new techniques based on Spatial Manipulation from «Ame-no-Mitori»." Naoki's voice was full of enthusiasm. "One support type, one attack type, and one defense type. And coincidentally... there's a perfect test subject coming our way."
Tenka followed his gaze. In the distance, crossing the rocky desert expanse, a giant figure moved slowly but steadily.
It was a Giant Shuuki, its height estimated to reach 100 meters. Its mountain-like walking body was made of material similar to ordinary Shuuki, but on a terrifying scale.
Each step it took caused the ground to shake like a small earthquake, sending shock waves and dust scattering into the air.
Shuuki not only possessed physical strength far exceeding ordinary humans that required Demon Hunters to defeat, but also had the ability to merge with other Shuuki, forming new entities that were stronger and larger.
"That creature must sense our presence." Tenka said calmly. For a unit commander like her, defeating a Giant Shuuki wasn't a challenge.
Naoki released his embrace on Tenka with slight reluctance, then stepped forward to the edge of the cliff.
"Watch closely the technique I'm about to show."
He raised his hand, pointing his index and middle fingers straight toward the Giant Shuuki still several hundred meters away. Instantly, the atmosphere around him felt changed, as if the air became denser and colder.
"Reality Slash!"
*CRAK!*
An ear-piercing and unnatural cracking sound echoed, but didn't originate from any solid object. That sound seemed to come from space itself. In front of the target, right in the Giant Shuuki's path, a pitch-black crack suddenly appeared—a perfect vertical tear in the fabric of reality, swallowing all light around it, making it look like an ink stroke on the world's canvas.
*SWOOSH!*
The black line shot at a speed invisible to the eye, crossing distance as if it didn't exist. It ignored all forms of physical defense, skin durability, or body mass, as if all that was just thin illusion.
"..."
The Giant Shuuki suddenly stopped stepping. Its towering body froze. Then, without warning, a perfect diagonal line appeared across its body, from head to bottom.
No explosion.
No sparks.
No screams.
Only oppressive silence as the body part above that line began to slide, perfectly separated, before both parts collapsed to the ground with tremendous dust and rumbling. The cut wound was smooth and clean, as if sliced by an infinitely sharp blade.
The split space tried to close again, leaving a gaping wound on the existence of the severed target.
"That's quite an environmentally friendly attack." Tenka commented with a beaming smile, walking toward Naoki. "No big explosion, no widespread area destruction. Just one clean and deadly cut. Even more efficient than my wormhole which tends to annihilate everything within its radius."
Before Tenka could ask further, Naoki explained the mechanism behind Reality Slash, which was actually inspired by Tier 10 magic from one of his favorite anime, Overlord.
"What I did was shift the target's coordinates in an area as thin as 1 millimeter, while the areas above and below those coordinates remained in place. The result is that the target will be cut very neatly because parts of its body are suddenly forcibly placed at different coordinates."
*👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻!*
Tenka clapped, genuine admiration radiating from her face.
"Amazing, Naoki-kun. Your creativity in using «Ame-no-Mitori» is truly beyond my expectations. Now, show me your defense technique!"
"Try throwing something at me." Naoki challenged while slightly spreading his hands.
"Anything is fine?"
"Yes, anything."
Getting confirmation, Tenka bent down, picking up a fist-sized rock from the ground. With an accurate and fairly strong throw, she threw it directly toward Naoki's chest.
Amazingly, the rock suddenly slowed down and finally stopped a few centimeters in front of Naoki's face, as if held back by an invisible barrier.
Tenka raised an eyebrow, then picked up several more rocks. One by one, with different speeds and angles, she threw them at Naoki. The result remained the same: all rocks stopped in the air, floating around Naoki's body as if trapped in frozen time.
"Hmmm..." Tenka evaluated. "Naoki-kun created some kind of static spatial wall around you?"
Theoretically, she too could create a space shield, but she felt there was something different about this phenomenon.
"Not that simple." Naoki refuted with a meaningful thin smile. As soon as he deactivated his technique, the rocks floating around him all fell at once. "I named this technique Infinity."
Clearly, he copied the automatic defense concept belonging to Gojo Satoru from Jujutsu Kaisen, even down to the name.
"Infinity, huh..." Tenka muttered softly. From the name alone, she knew the concept behind it must be more complex than just a wall.
Naoki didn't make her guess for long. "Imagine I'm standing on a floor made of rubber. An enemy runs toward me. Right before the enemy arrives, I pull and stretch that rubber floor outward very quickly. So, although the enemy keeps moving forward, the distance they have to travel increases faster than their running speed."
"Logically, I don't physically stop that attack. I just continuously create new space between myself and that attack."
"In short, this is the application of Spatial Expansion dynamically and automatically around my body."
Unlike the Gojo clan that required a combination of Rikugan (Six Eyes) and Limitless Technique to show its true potential, Naoki with «Ame-no-Mitori» could manipulate spatially with pure intuition and will, without needing to perform complex mathematical calculations.
"As expected from the only special man in the world." Tenka said with deep admiration. "Naoki-kun is very, very, very extraordinary."
Seeing her lover as a living example, Tenka began to slightly understand the reason behind the world elites' fear of male potential if they possessed Peach Blessings.
If both genders were equal in power, women's absolute dominance would soon falter. Competition would return to balance, perhaps even reverse.
That could be seen from the historical fact that most inventors, scientists, and revolutionary thinkers who changed the world were men. They were filled with crazy ideas, notions that challenged common sense, and boundless creativity that often led to major breakthroughs.
Naoki was living proof that that potential still existed, perhaps even more dangerous when combined with Peach Blessings.