Chapter 303: The Electro Archon
The once historic and magnificent Takahashi Residence teetered on the brink of total collapse, devastated by a cataclysmic force. When the lightning descended from the heavens, it unleashed an devastating roar that deafened everyone within miles. Sturdy walls and elegant tiled roofs were torn to shreds, the debris rocketing in all directions like shrapnel. In a single, blinding instant, the entire estate was cleaved cleanly in two. A massive, jagged rift yawned through the center of the courtyard. The originally formidable architecture suddenly seemed as fragile as paper, utterly incapable of withstanding such divine punishment.
Faced with this sudden disaster, the surviving staff and guards were consumed by primal terror. They scrambled frantically across the shifting rubble, desperate to find any safe haven. Some collapsed to the ground, their legs giving out as they sobbed into the dust, while others sprinted blindly through the choking smoke. The estate descended into absolute chaos, suffocated by the heavy stench of ozone and despair.
The Head of the Takahashi Family bore the absolute brunt of the strike. His body locked up, frozen in place as if held captive by an invisible, crushing pressure. His muscles went entirely stiff. His eyes widened to the point of tearing, staring in raw, unfiltered terror at the descending lightning that mirrored an apocalyptic natural disaster. Everywhere he looked, the world was swallowed by a dazzling, merciless purple thunderlight.
His mind went completely blank. That violent violet brilliance became the absolute only thing reflected in his retinas, painting his final moments in terrifying, electric hues. A split second later, a sharp, agonizing heat pierced his very core. His brain lost consciousness before his nerve endings could even fully register the pain. Then, an eternal, heavy darkness enveloped him, returning his existence to dead silence.
Amidst the screaming and the scrambling, only the loyal butler kneeling beside the epicenter noticed that the Head of the Takahashi Family had been instantly eradicated. The catastrophe had struck too suddenly, too bizarrely. No one else realized that after Raiden Ei brought down her Musou no Hitotachi, the raging storm abruptly ceased. No further lightning fell from the sky. The survivors merely trampled over each other, desperate to flee the scorched crater where the thunder had struck.
Because the guards had abandoned their posts, Heiji Hattori and Conan Edogawa encountered zero resistance when they finally breached the front gates of the Takahashi Residence.
Their shoes crunched over shattered tiles and scorched wood. Looking at the deeply cracked earth and the bisected, smoldering structures before them, the two detectives struggled to process the reality of the destruction. Residual static electricity still crackled through the air, making the hairs on their arms stand on end. They had just watched Raiden Ei swing her blade down from a distance, yet standing at ground zero made the entire experience feel like a waking hallucination. Could a single strike truly cause this level of devastation?
A sudden, hoarse shout broke through the ringing in their ears. "Head of the Family! Someone, please, come quickly!"
Knowing the target of their investigation was likely in critical danger, Hattori and Conan pushed down their shock and sprinted toward the source of the voice. handling the treacherous rubble, they arrived at the edge of the central rift. A man dressed in a torn butler uniform knelt in the ash, weeping uncontrollably beside a completely charred, unrecognizable human figure.
Hattori dashed forward. Though his expression was grim and he held little hope, he crouched down and pressed two fingers against the side of the blackened neck, searching for any faint pulse.
After a heavy moment of silence, the Osakan detective withdrew his hand. He let out a slow, defeated breath. "He is already dead."
Hearing the final confirmation, the butler descended into a frantic panic, his hands tearing at his own hair. Without the head of the family, the entire Takahashi legacy was doomed to crumble.
Hattori stepped back a few paces, giving the grieving man some space, and leaned down to whisper to the boy beside him. "Hey, Kudo. Do you think this counts as him being struck dead by lightning from Miss Raiden's sword?"
"How is that even possible?!" Conan hissed back, his brow furrowing deeply. His face twisted into a knot of conflicting emotions, staring at the crater as if trying to solve an impossible mathematical equation. "How could a normal human being summon actual lightning from the sky!"
Even though his own eyes had tracked the descent of Raiden Ei's Musou no Hitotachi, his deeply ingrained logic violently rejected the idea that a single person could orchestrate this apocalyptic scene.
"Miss Raiden might indeed be the culprit, but..." Conan paused, his tone laced with heavy hesitation. He did not even sound convinced by his own theory. "That scene just now... I am inclined to think it was an optical illusion created with some highly advanced technology."
He would rather cling to the possibility of technological manipulation than concede the existence of supernatural forces. After all, Lady Ningguang's Jade Chamber had recently acquired the advanced research data from the Sindora Group. With those resources, projecting a massive, destructive hologram while simultaneously planting explosives was theoretically possible... right?
If not, the alternative was that Raiden Ei had physically cleaved the Takahashi Residence in half with a sword. Only a literal god could accomplish such a feat.
'Gods...' Conan's mind raced. The mysterious glass beads carried by the members of the Teyvat Organization were called Visions. Klee and the others had openly spoken about their belief in the Anemo Archon, Barbatos.
Following that logic, one of the elemental styles of those Vision beads was a deep, electric purple, representing the power of lightning. Did the organization also worship an Electro Archon?
The corner of Conan's mouth twitched. Could Raiden Ei be connected to this so-called Electro Archon?
'No way...'he thought, his chest tightening.'No, that is absolutely impossible.'
He forced himself to take a deep breath, desperately comforting his own racing heart. There were no gods in this world. He told himself not to panic over ghost stories. Every single trick, no matter how grandiose, had to have a scientific, rational explanation behind it.
Conan shook his head vigorously, attempting to physically dislodge the terrifying, unrealistic conjectures taking root in his brain.
Just then, the wail of sirens pierced the chaotic night. The police units Heiji Hattori had called earlier finally arrived at the perimeter.
Because they were a step behind the two detectives, by the time the officers secured the area, the main event was entirely over. Forget witnessing the heavenly lightning blocking the road; they had not even caught a glimpse of the devastating strike Raiden Ei delivered. The police merely stared in blank shock at a scene of utter ruin that looked exactly like the aftermath of a massive earthquake.
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