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[Black Flame!]
Boom... Benimaru unleashed another [Black Flame] at the military camp in front of him. The entire camp had been turned into a mountain of corpses swimming in blood, severed limbs scattered everywhere.
The five thousand Orc warriors who had followed Benimaru here were relentlessly hunting down the soldiers who still remained.
"Someone help me!"
"Please, don't kill me, I have children at home!"
"Splat!"
An Orc warrior brought his axe down, then grunted, "Your children won't need anyone to raise them soon."
[Trample!]
[Great Strength Slash!]
At the entrance to one of the surviving underground shelters, several Orc warriors were hammering at a locked door with everything they had.
"Thud!"
The door burst open. The soldiers inside leveled their weapons at the entrance.
"Bang!" "Bang!" "Da da da da da!"
[Defense Wall!]
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"
An invisible barrier, unseen by the naked eye, stopped the Orc warriors dead in their path and deflected every bullet.
"What are these things?!"
"Blades don't work, guns don't work, what do we do?!"
"Aaah!!!"
As more and more Orc warriors poured in, the few remaining soldiers were cut down quickly.
Benimaru, who had just used [Black Flame] to level most of the camp, sat in the command room watching the last of the soldiers being taken care of on the monitors.
He was still turning something over in his mind when an Orc warrior stepped in and bowed his head respectfully.
"Benimaru-sama! The entire military camp has been secured. Not a single living soul remains."
"Good. Tell the troops to assemble. We're moving into the city to help search for the Cursed Children."
"Yes, sir!"
Tokyo Area · Seitenshi's Residence
"Hahaha! Benimaru did well!"
Kaito gave a satisfied nod as he watched the feed from the water mirror, then shifted his gaze to another one, and his mood lifted further.
"Oh! Every man for himself when disaster strikes, truly. That kick was something else!"
In the water mirror, a couple was fleeing. The husband, to save his own skin, drove his foot into his wife's stomach and left her behind without a second look.
His wife was caught by an Orc warrior and cut down with an axe. Alas, even abandoning her wasn't enough to save him in the end.
"This… this is over. The Tokyo Area is completely finished! Waaah…"
Seitenshi covered her face and broke down sobbing as she watched the slaughtered troops and the citizens still being massacred across the city.
"Hey, hey, hey. If you're going to cry, do it somewhere else. I'm not short on water here."
Kaito said it flatly, then stood up and looked around at the remaining high-ranking officials in the room.
"So, how was it? Did everyone enjoy the show?"
One official finally cracked. He shot to his feet and lunged at Kaito.
"You bastard! I'll take you down with me!"
"Bang!"
Kaito glanced at him, waved a hand casually, and sent him off to rejoin his family.
"Actually, I'm bored of this. I might as well send the rest of you off together."
With that, Kaito turned his back on everyone in the room and walked out of the conference hall.
"He… he left?!"
"Does that mean we made it?!"
"Waaah… thank god, that monster finally left!"
As Kaito walked out, the officials let the tears pour out, tears of pure relief. But would Kaito really be so generous as to let them go?
"My, the weather really is lovely. Clear skies, nice and bright."
Kaito stepped out of the residence into open space, looked up at the sun, and raised a hand to shade his eyes from the glare.
"Then, let's begin. I hope you'll all enjoy what comes next."
The [Conqueror's Banner], trailing black mist, materialized before him. As it rose higher and higher into the sky, it grew larger and larger.
Until the [Conqueror's Banner] blotted out the sun entirely, and the whole world seemed to drop into night in an instant. Anyone who looked up saw only an endless black curtain above them.
"What's happening?! Why did the sky go dark?!"
"God, what is going on with this world?!"
"Heh heh, all of it is punishment sent down from heaven! Punishment, I tell you! Hahahahahaha!"
"Bang!"
A police officer, mind finally shattered beyond repair, raised his gun to his own temple and pulled the trigger.
Benimaru looked up at the endless black sky, and something cold and nameless rose from deep within him.
"This… what exactly is this? Why does it feel like the fear is coming from my soul itself?"
Benimaru had just linked back up with Rengoku Kyojuro, and he pushed the feeling down hard before speaking.
"I feel it too. This isn't just ordinary fear. Whatever this is, it's reaching into the soul."
"What is happening?"
Everyone across the entire Tokyo Area had their eyes turned upward. Even the monsters, who moments ago had been slaughtering without pause, had gone still, staring at the sky in fear.
"Now then, time to eat your fill. Come on!"
"Buzz!!!"
The black curtain above seemed to respond. Black mist poured down and swallowed the entire city whole.
The moment the mist touched them, every person in the Tokyo Area, living or dead, trembled, as though something had taken hold of them. Their eyes went glassy. Their arms dropped to their sides. Three seconds later, every human caught within the [Conqueror's Banner] across the entire Tokyo Area collapsed to the ground in unison.
"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
The city seemed to freeze in place, going from screaming chaos to absolute silence in a single breath.
And those who were still watching saw it: souls being pulled upward from every corner of the city, rising into that black sky.
The souls that vanished into the darkness let out wails of pain as they went.
"Hehehehe! What a perfect sight."
Kaito felt the souls pouring into the [Conqueror's Banner] and let out a long, delighted villain's laugh.
Some might wonder: if Kaito could simply use the [Conqueror's Banner] to kill everyone in the city at once, why bother having Benimaru and the others slaughter so many people beforehand?
There were two reasons. The first was training. He had no idea what kind of world he might face next, and he couldn't exactly be the boss who had to step in every single time, could he? The title of "Idle Duo" wasn't handed out for nothing.
The second reason was the sheer number of Cursed Children. He couldn't handle them all alone. And on top of that, these children had suffered so much. If those scumbags didn't get to experience the real terror of death bearing down on them, Kaito feared his own resolve might waver.
"Seventeen million. Not bad. The whole world should yield around seven hundred and fifty million souls."
"The soul quality in this world isn't very high though. Refinement is going to be a chore. Sigh… what a toilsome existence."
"Gather."
As Kaito drew back the [Conqueror's Banner], sunlight broke over the earth again. The Tokyo Area was left with only a handful of adults and a great many Cursed Children.
"Whoosh!"
The moment Kaito withdrew the [Conqueror's Banner], Benimaru appeared before him in an instant, dropping to one knee.
"Kaito-sama! I'm not sure what just happened, but everyone in the city suddenly died at once. Fortunately, none of our people were lost."
"Do you know what happened?"
"This…"