Kuronoa was radiating malevolent energy. Every trace of her former poise and composure had vanished entirely. Under Ino's gaze, she stuck out her tongue and dragged it provocatively across the blood at the corner of her lips.
Aeos — long hair flowing, every inch the composed older-sister type — was equally taken aback. The change was too stark, too sudden.
As far as Aeos remembered, her successor had always been something of a poser, but surely she wasn't the type to have a complete personality reversal mid-fight? She watched Ino give up their side's advantage without waiting for Kale's answer, gently pushing her daughter back to the normal timeline, and realized something was wrong. She pulled back to a wide distance.
"What's happened to Kuronoa?" she murmured, watching the Supreme Kai of Time's eyes bleed slowly to crimson. She couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Ino was half-exasperated, half-amused. "Senior, how long exactly were you asleep? You can't even tell? She's been demonized!"
"Impossible!" Aeos bristled — she hated being called old. 'Senior' was fine, but why did 'old' have to be tacked on? She shot back at Ino: "Supreme Kais are beings of order. The Supreme Kai of Time sits at the very apex of all Supreme Kais. The filth of the Demon Realm has absolutely no power over us!"
Ino pointed at Kuronoa — golden hair now white, dark eyes now bloodshot crimson, her entire face steeped in malice — and said, "Then you tell me: what state is she in? You're not going to claim she's got too much Time Power inside her and she's hit some second stage of Liberation, are you?"
Before she and Aeos could argue it to a conclusion, the mastermind showed himself.
Mechikabura, the Demon Realm Supreme Kai restored to his youth, materialized like a specter behind Kuronoa. He stroked the Supreme Kai of Time's back with a gentle hand, wearing the smile of a man who was deeply, thoroughly unhinged.
"Don't you find Kuronoa beautiful like this?" he crooned. "She's had her eyes on me for years — but I've been watching her too. The Supreme Kai of Time is so very great, is she? The truth is, you are nothing but slaves to time. And now..." He paused. "You are my slaves."
He studied Kuronoa's eyes as though appraising a prized piece of his collection. The demonized Supreme Kai of Time's gaze held nothing but savagery, cruelty, and hate.
"Look at her. What a gorgeous little beauty." His voice dripped with smug satisfaction. "She believed she could keep the Dark Power under easy control. And now — hehehehehe —" Mechikabura's laugh rang with absolute delight.
"What a disgusting creep," Ino muttered. She'd considered her battle with Kuronoa a fairly civilized rivalry, all things considered. This development she hadn't seen coming. She turned to Aeos. "Who is this guy? He's carrying a really heavy concentration of Time Power."
Aeos lowered her voice. "He is the Demon Realm Supreme Kai — the oldest and most depraved Supreme Kai in existence. He is also the one who created the Demon Realm."
Understanding clicked into place for Ino. "Oh! So you're the 'master' Towa kept talking about? That explains it — I was wondering how Dabura could've possibly gotten his hands on an Angel Staff. Hmph. What a thoroughly unimaginative scheme."
She edged two steps closer to Aeos and asked, "Now there are two of them. Should we team up?"
Aeos's expression hovered somewhere between pleased and not. "Kuronoa is a fool. But... this works out well enough. The position of Supreme Kai of Time has finally returned where it belongs. Help me deal with these two, and I'll appoint you as the official future Supreme Kai of Time."
Ino scoffed. "Why aren't I the one appointing you as future Supreme Kai of Time? Has anyone agreed to that? You are stingy. If it were me — once I become Supreme Kai of Time, I'd appoint you as Deputy Supreme Kai of Time."
Aeos gave her a withering look. Calling me stingy? You're no better!
They both knew the principle well enough: power and title are not things to be lent out lightly.
Their bickering was getting on Mechikabura's nerves. You two are completely ignoring me, the mastermind behind all of this?!
"Fools who can't read the situation," he snarled. "Kill them! I want their corpses decorating my garden!" He thrust out a finger.
Kuronoa, now a puppet of the Dark Power, coiled in black smoke and shot toward the two women like a phantom. Her fingers curved into hooks, driving for Ino's eyes, while her leg swept up in a gust of bloody wind and hammered toward Aeos's throat.
Aeos reached up to block — and froze mid-motion. Behind her, the pale-blue temporal gears had gone dark and dim. Her body, which had appeared to be in her mid-twenties, rapidly began to contract. In nearly the blink of an eye, she had reverted to her nine-year-old cute girl form.
Her combat power slashed to a hundredth of what it had been. Against a demonized Supreme Kai of Time, she had no chance of dodging.
"Are you serious?" Ino had no idea what had just happened — there was absolutely no reason for Aeos to drop out of her Liberation state at this moment. Are you trying to die?! "Do I seriously have to cover you too, Senior?!"
She shifted, raised her elbow, caught Kuronoa's whip-kick, then immediately scowled.
A small, pitch-black energy vortex had latched itself onto her elbow. The thing fed on her energy and flesh, expanding at a grotesque rate.
"Tch." Ino pressed her palm flat and chopped through her own left arm like a blade.
It hurt — obviously it hurt. Her shoulder shuddered. A new arm grew back in its place.
Kuronoa pressed the assault. Every move she made carried that viciously corrosive Dark Power. Ino swiftly layered her body in a coating of spiritual power and dragged out Susanoo — something she hadn't needed in a long time — to hold back the attacks.
Driven by Ino's spiritual energy, which she could now solidify into something physical, Susanoo's face, armor, and skin had all taken on the detail and presence of a real human being.
The sword-and-shield warrior blocked and parried continuously, holding Kuronoa's offensive at bay.
Ino kept one eye wary on Mechikabura and played Susanoo in a deeply conservative style.
Mechikabura gave a cold laugh and spread his five fingers toward her.
The moment his spiritual power tendrils connected to the spiritual energy on Susanoo's surface, Ino felt a strange force — like a massive hammer — begin to pound rapidly against the walls of her inner world.
She recognized this energy. She'd encountered it before, during the battle against those Celestial Mages. But this version was far purer, and its power to corrode the heart was far stronger.
The Demon Realm Supreme Kai's voice dropped to a whisper at her ear: "There is no need to resist. You cannot resist. Do you think my magic is crude fireballs and lightning bolts? No. Young Supreme Kai — look clearly into the darkness within your own heart. You are timid. You are cowardly. You are filled with self-doubt, and you have no sense of security at all. Only I — only I can give you power. Kneel before me. Call me Master. And I will grant you everything you desire..."
Perhaps deciding that pure temptation was too slow, he changed tactics. A massive pulling force erupted from his palm. A dark-red black hole materialized from nothing, rotating slowly in the air.
"Come then. Your life, your knowledge, every trace of your existence — surrender it all to me. I will make you a part of my magnificent memory. Hahahaha — Dark Devouring!"
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