Vitto did not think of himself as invincible with no equal in the world.
In fact, he knew very well how weak he was compared to the true monsters out there.
For example, Alfia the Silent and Zald the Glutton.
And precisely because of that, he had always been very clear about how to define himself: one of the best among Level 4s.
That's all.
But this boy—he was clearly Level 3, yet he had caught Vitto's sword with a single finger!
It was far too absurd.
Seeing the stunned look on his face, Rayleigh lightly hooked his finger, pulling Vitto's blade toward himself.
Then his hand closed around the sharp blade like an iron clamp. No matter how hard Vitto tugged on the hilt, Rayleigh did not budge in the slightest.
"Is your skin made of iron?!" Vitto clicked his tongue.
He raised a leg and kicked viciously at Rayleigh.
But in the instant before it landed, Rayleigh's figure vanished and appeared behind him.
Slash!
A line of blood appeared across Vitto's face.
His brow furrowed, and he immediately spun around and swung his sword. Yet just before the blade could hit, Rayleigh's figure abruptly vanished again.
This time he did not move outside Vitto's line of sight. Instead, he appeared a short distance in front of him.
"Vitto… you pitiful thing, born incomplete." Rayleigh looked at him with pity. "There was once a child who had been born unable to see color. The world in his eyes had always been one of black, white, and gray. He liked reading storybooks. Hero tales, especially."
"Y-you… how do you know that?!"
The expression on Vitto's face, which had been maintaining that false smile the whole time, changed drastically the moment he heard Rayleigh's words.
For the first time, he showed real emotion.
Or, more accurately—his composure broke completely.
"Why do you know about that?!" Vitto roared emotionally.
But Rayleigh had no intention of answering.
Watching someone who had spent all his time acting composed finally lose control was entertaining in its own way.
And besides, this was a member of the dark faction—a villain guilty of countless crimes, someone whose death would be no loss.
Thinking that, a slight curve rose at the corner of the boy's mouth.
The moment Vitto saw him smile—already at his most sensitive point—he completely lost control of his emotions and flew into a rage.
"Don't you dare grin at me like that!!"
After that howl, Vitto charged recklessly forward without taking any stance at all.
He dragged his sword behind him, only raising his hand once he entered striking range.
But Rayleigh had already seen through the movement.
He ducked low, avoiding the slash, then drove off with both legs and sprang upward violently.
Instead of using his sword, he slammed a fist into Vitto's side.
That one punch launched Vitto into the air.
Rayleigh's clenched fist suddenly opened, his palm aiming straight at Vitto's lung.
"Hadō #63."
'Crap'—The moment Vitto heard the incantation from the boy's mouth, he snapped back to his senses.
What had he just done? There was no way to dodge now!
"Raikōhō," Rayleigh calmly spoke the spell's name.
A thick blast of golden lightning instantly swallowed Vitto whole and shot into the distance.
When a Level 3 like Olivas had been hit by this, he had been reduced to ashes on the spot.
Vitto was Level 4, and the difference in Endurance was huge—but not enough for him to survive a blast like this at point-blank range.
Thud.
Vitto was blasted over twenty meters by the golden lightning before crashing to the ground.
His whole body was charred black, as if it had come apart at the seams, unable to move.
He coughed once.
Black smoke came out of his mouth.
His lungs had already been carbonized! "Ugh… what an ugly sight. To think I'd be this careless. How pathetic."
At death's door, Vitto looked up at the Dungeon's ceiling and suddenly felt strangely light.
'So this was death.'
It was...so simple.
So ordinary, no grand commotion at all.
Like a roadside insect dying soundlessly, without drawing the attention of anyone.
'Hm?'
Suddenly, a face entered his vision. Erebus.
"Ah… so you've come."
Erebus looked at Vitto, whose body was largely charred black, with more than thirty percent of his body tissue gone.
In a sorrowful tone, he said, "Vitto, my boy, my subject, my… child. What a pity."
Erebus closed his eyes.
Vitto simply looked at the god's beautiful face and said nothing.
Not long after, Vitto stopped breathing.
He was dead.
Only then did Erebus raise his face with a frown, looking toward the expressionless Rayleigh, and speak in the tone of someone telling a story.
"Vitto was a twisted child. But he was also a pitiful child. I had hoped that a true hero would appear—one who could save him, change him. Though the gods' sense of good and evil is hardly worth more than filth, I believed there was goodness in Vitto's heart."
"With the proper chance, he could have changed. I truly believed that. But now, he has no such chance anymore. He died before he could change… Perhaps that was his fate." Erebus let out a sigh.
"As for you, human boy, you truly are not the hero that we gods seek."
From the sound of it, Erebus seemed to be blaming him? Rayleigh was not entirely sure.
But he definitely felt annoyed.
"Save him? You mean I was supposed to help some trash who murdered countless people repent and turn over a new leaf? I don't think I have the right to forgive him on behalf of his victims. If the hero you're talking about is some pathetic saint who embraces everyone, then when that day comes, I'll be sure to send him to meet Vitto too! But right now, please return to heaven first and accept your defeat."
Rayleigh stepped forward calmly toward Erebus while holding his Zanpakutou.
"Lord Erebus! Please leave, quickly! Leave this place to us!"
Members of evilus rushed forward. Most of them were around Level 1, with only a few Level 2s mixed in.
"Hehe, I'll leave it to you then. As for me… yes, I'll go enjoy this battle that will decide the fate of the world from the best seat in the house."
Rayleigh stared at the people throwing themselves forward without hesitation.
"The Apate Familia and the Alecto Familia, huh. Perfect timing. There isn't a single innocent one among you anyway, so you can all go to hell together."
There were two groups that had come to rescue Erebus. Judging from their crests, Rayleigh could more or less identify their origins.
"Hadō #4: Byakurai."
A white bolt of lightning instantly pierced through several of them.
Then came Hadō Number Twelve: Fushibi.
Crimson thread-like spiritual power spread out like an interwoven net, and the moment it touched the enemies' clothes, it ignited them.
In an instant, the clothes of more than a dozen members of the dark faction burst into flames.
Screaming, they hurriedly tore off their burning clothing.
While they were flailing about in chaos, Rayleigh stepped into their midst and pressed one hand to the ground.
"Hadō #57: Daichi Ten'yō!"
Boom!
Under Rayleigh's Kidō, the earth shattered with a roar.
Countless chunks of rock shot upward under his control and rained down upon the members of the dark faction like a bombardment.
"AAAAAHHH!"
"H-he's too strong!"
"This guy's a monster! We can't stop him—"
Crash!
A falling boulder crushed the last member of the dark faction still able to cry out.
A group of roughly twenty-five people had lasted less than two minutes against Rayleigh.
They were almost completely wiped out.
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