Toshio POV
"Unchain the Repressed, Shinjūka."
I stared at the three opponents before me. I glanced over to the demon woman, playing and probably tormenting my friends. I had to finish this quickly, but I couldn't think about them. I needed to focus on this fight, defeating them. Then I can address the demon. Being distracted would serve no one but the enemy.
I looked at the threes' observe info again.
{Cimeries, The Ashborn Walker - Morlu Legionnaire
Level: 91
Threat Level: A
Descriptive Insight: Damage reflection and poison attacks. Skilled with spiked staffs.}
{Kao'Ahn, Morlu High Lord - Morlu Legionnaire
Level: 99
Threat Level: A+
Descriptive Insight: Fast. Skilled with flaming swords.}
{Oah'Tash, The Impenetrable Bulwark - Morlu Legionnaire
Level: 88
Threat Level: A-
Descriptive Insight: Molten hot, high defense. Skilled with halberds.}
It was time to begin.
I jumped back, creating distance between myself and the three Morlu Legionnaires. My mind raced through tactical calculations, analyzing threats and prioritizing targets. Kao'Ahn's speed was the immediate problem—at level 99, he'd interrupt any attack I tried to launch at the others.
I channeled my Reiryoku through Shinjūka, feeling the blade respond to my will. The Freeze skill activated, tier 3 power flooding through the sword until frost crystals formed along its edge. Three runic circles appeared in front of me. The temperature in the chamber dropped noticeably.
I cast them simultaneously, each spell aimed at a different target. The spells released waves of freezing energy that should have been devastating against flame-based enemies—five times boosted by my sword's shikai ability.
Cimeries and Kao'Ahn moved with enough speed, dodging the attacks, the fast one managing with ease. But Oah'Tash, the bulwark, wasn't fast enough. The freeze spell caught him directly, ice spreading across his molten armor with a violent hiss of steam. His lower half became encased in crystalline frost, slowing his movements to a crawl.
Good. One down, temporarily.
I switched immediately to fused Runic Shunpo, the enhanced speed technique that combined my spiritual energy with Shinjūka's power. It was the only way I'd match Kao'Ahn's own speed.
The Morlu High Lord came at me in a blur of flame and steel. His twin swords traced arcs of fire through the air, each strike precise and lethal. I brought Shinjūka up to parry, feeling the impact reverberate through my arms.
We clashed in a rapid exchange of blows, our blades meeting with sharp cracks that echoed through the chamber. My sword skills had improved significantly since I'd started training—countless hours of practice with Kiba, sparring sessions with Kuroka, and the muscle memory from my two sword skills all combining into something formidable.
I could tell immediately that Kao'Ahn's technique was below mine. Not by much—maybe ten or fifteen percent—but enough that I had the advantage in pure skill. The problem was that skill alone wouldn't determine this fight. His sword style was aggressive and relentless, designed to overwhelm through speed and pressure rather than technical perfection.
It would come down to whose style countered whose more effectively.
Movement in my peripheral vision. Cimeries closing in with his spiked polearm, the weapon spinning in complex patterns. I disengaged from Kao'Ahn with a quick backstep, narrowly avoiding the staff's reach.
They attacked together, coordinated and practiced. Kao'Ahn's flaming sword came high while Cimeries swept low with his polearm. I parried the swords and jumped over the staff, using Runic Shunpo to create space and dodge.
Not fast enough.
The end spike caught my left forearm, just a scratch, barely breaking skin. I flashed backward immediately, putting twenty feet between us.
The scratch began to fester. Dark veins spread from the wound, the flesh around it turning an ugly purple-black. Observe, providing the previous warning, I now knew the strength of the poison. Direct hits needed to be avoided.
{Poison Resistance has increased! Rank 3 → 4}
I felt my body adapting, my enhanced resistance fighting back against the toxin. The spread slowed, then stopped, though the dark veins remained.
"At least Ghom's being useful while dead," I muttered, flexing my hand to make sure it still worked properly. The first demon I'd killed had given me enough poison resistance that this felt manageable rather than debilitating.
But I needed to change tactics. My initial freeze attack had worked on Oah'Tash because he was slow, but the other two dodged too easily. I needed something faster, something they couldn't predict as easily.
I dual-cast Freeze again, the magical circles appearing on either side of me. Both Morlu immediately moved to dodge, exactly as I'd expected.
While they focused on the freeze spells, I cast Lightning Bolt. Four times at the same time, the tier 3 spell manifesting and firing at my enemies. The first pair targeted Cimeries, one aimed at his chest, one at his legs. The second pair went for Kao'Ahn with the same targeting pattern.
{Multiple Casting ranked up! Rank 4 → 5: Able to cast RANK*10 of the same spell at once. Reiryoku cost is multiplied by 10 for every additional spell past the first 2. Cannot be used in tandem with dual casting.}
The fast one lived up to his designation. He twisted mid-dodge, his supernatural reflexes allowing him to avoid both bolts. One clipped his arm, scorching armor and flesh(?), but it was a minor wound.
Cimeries wasn't as lucky. Both lightning bolts struck true, slamming into him with explosive force that sent him flying backward into the chamber wall.
Then the damage reflection hit me.
Pain exploded across my chest and legs as the reflected energy tore through my body. My clothes were charred, and my skin was blistering and peeling from the electrical burns. The smell of my own burning flesh filled my nostrils.
I gritted my teeth against the pain, forcing myself to stay focused. The damage reflection was worse than I thought. Maybe 40% of the initial damage. I'd have to be extremely careful about how much power I used against Cimeries. A super-powerful attack would kill me as surely as it killed him.
But the reflected damage had given me an opening. Kao'Ahn had hesitated for a split second, probably surprised I'd taken such a devastating hit and remained standing.
I used fused Runic Shunpo to close the distance, my blade coming down in an overhead strike. Kao'Ahn dodged exactly as I'd anticipated, his body flowing to the side with practiced ease.
I twisted my blade mid-swing, following through with the momentum, spinning around, using my free hand to charge and fire a Cero point-blank at where he'd dodged to.
The crimson energy beam should have obliterated him.
Instead, it slammed into Oah'Tash, who'd recovered from the freeze enough to interpose himself. The bulwark's high defense absorbed most of the blast, but it still sent him staggering backward.
Annoying. They were covering for each other's weaknesses—Oah'Tash's low speed compensated by defensive positioning, Kao'Ahn's offense supported by the bulwark's protection, and Cimeries's reflection making him a minefield I couldn't simply nuke.
I jumped back, reassessing. Cimeries was just standing up from where my lightning had thrown him, his movements slightly unsteady. I fired another Cero, deliberately keeping the power lower this time to minimize the reflection damage.
He didn't dodge. Maybe he was still recovering from the lightning, or maybe he was confident in his reflection ability. Either way, the Cero hit him square in the chest.
The reflection blasted me backward. I felt skin peel and blister across my torso, the pain intense but manageable. I'd calculated correctly—a weaker attack meant weaker reflection. I could work with this ratio.
I recovered quickly, ignoring the burning agony across my chest, and immediately went back on the offensive against Kao'Ahn. He was the priority target. Take him out, and I could handle the other two more easily.
I flashed above them using fused Runic Shunpo, appearing directly over Oah'Tash. Four freeze spells were cast, all aimed point-blank at the bulwark, who couldn't dodge from this position.
Ice exploded across his armor, spreading rapidly and encasing him completely this time. He'd be immobilized for at least thirty seconds. Hopefully.
I pushed off with another burst of fused Runic Shunpo, using Oah'Tash's frozen form as a springboard to launch myself at Kao'Ahn. The other two were temporarily out of the fight—now it was just me and the fast one.
Our blades met in a shower of sparks. I parried his overhead strike, feeling the power behind it, and immediately countered with a slash aimed at his midsection. He blocked, but I was already flowing into my next attack.
Slash, parry, thrust. Our weapons became blurs of motion, each of us reading the other's movements and responding in microseconds. His style was aggressive, always pressing forward, but my sword style happened to counter aggressive fighters quite well.
I gave ground deliberately, letting him think he was driving me back, then suddenly shifted my weight and came in low. My blade caught him across the chest, cutting through armor and the flame-like flesh beneath.
I spun into a crouch, aiming to stab upward into his core—the kill shot.
His flaming sword came down faster than I'd anticipated. The blade cut deep into my left shoulder, the fire cauterizing even as it carved through muscle and bone. The pain was excruciating, but my pain nullification skill was helping tremendously.
My left arm went completely useless, hanging limp at my side. The shoulder joint was destroyed, and muscle and tendon were severed by the superheated blade. I cringed, trying my best to refocus.
I jumped back, creating distance with a burst of Runic Shunpo despite the pain. My right hand gripped Shinjūka tighter, compensating for the loss of my other arm.
Kao'Ahn pressed forward, sensing weakness, his flaming swords raised for another strike.
I channeled everything I had left into a single Cero. Not holding back this time, not calculating for efficiency. Just raw, destructive power concentrated into a small cone of crimson energy.
The Cero erupted from my palm. He was too close to dodge, the hollow skill slamming into Kao'Ahn with enough force to vaporize his torso. His body disintegrated, armor and flesh turning to ash that scattered across the chamber floor.
{Kao'Ahn defeated. 145,000 EXP gained.}
One down.
Movement behind me. I spun, my Energy Sense picking up Cimeries trying to stand from where my earlier lightning had thrown him. He was unsteady, his movements sluggish from the electrical damage and cero from earlier.
I didn't give him time to recover.
Fused Runic Shunpo carried me across the chamber in a blur. My blade found his core before he could raise his spiked staff in defense. I drove Shinjūka deep into the center of his chest, feeling the weapon pierce through whatever passed for vital organs in these demons.
Then I sliced outward, carving through his side.
The damage reflection hit me immediately. Pain exploded across my abdomen, and I felt my own blood pouring from a wound that mirrored the one I'd just inflicted. The sensation was surreal, feeling my own blade cutting through my own flesh through the feedback of the reflection ability.
But Cimeries collapsed, his body crumbling to ash as the life left him.
{Cimeries defeated. 132,000 EXP gained.}
I pressed my hand against my bleeding abdomen, feeling the warm wetness spread between my fingers. The pain was intense but manageable. I'd survived worse. I'd survive this.
Two down. One to go.
I looked toward Aeshama for the first time since I had released my Zanpakutō.
She stood in the center of the chamber, her eyes closed, one hand raised with fingers spread wide. A dark aura, a sickly purple-black energy that reeked of corruption, extended from her fingertips to the heads of each of my friends, covering them in a cloud of miasma.
Rias, Akeno, Kiba. The three Youkai warriors. All of them stood motionless, their faces streaked with tears. Their eyes were open, staring at nothing.
Those eyes. They looked broken. Shattered from the inside, like something fundamental had been ripped out and destroyed.
I couldn't delay. Not another second.
I pushed fused Runic Shunpo to its absolute limit, moving as fast as I could possibly go. The world became a blur of motion, my body screaming in protest from the wounds covering it, but I didn't care.
I flashed in front of Aeshama in a crouch, my back to her, Shinjūka already in motion.
Her eyes opened. Those golden orbs fixed on me with surprise that quickly morphed into contempt.
"Too late," she scoffed, her voice dripping with cruel satisfaction. "I've already broken my new toys. Such delicious—"
Her voice faded as her head separated from her shoulders.
I'd aimed for the neck, and Shinjūka's edge had found its mark perfectly. Her head tumbled to the stone floor, that scornful expression frozen on her beautiful features even as her body collapsed.
{Aeshama defeated. 892,000 EXP gained.}
The dark aura connecting her to my friends dissipated instantly. Released from her power, all of them crumpled to the ground, eyes finally closing.
But I couldn't go to them yet. One enemy remained.
I turned toward Oah'Tash, who was still recovering from being frozen. The ice had cracked across his armor, and he was beginning to move again, his massive frame shaking off the frost.
I cast Freeze four more times, the spells layering over each other to reinforce the ice encasing him. He stopped moving again, trapped in crystalline bonds.
Then I raised Shinjūka and channeled an intense amount of Reiryoku into the blade. More than I'd ever attempted in a live battle before. I felt the spiritual energy flowing through the weapon, building, compressing, and becoming something dense and terrible.
I held the charge for thirty seconds, feeling the power grow beyond anything I'd wielded previously, thanks to my shikai. The blade vibrated in my hand, barely containing the gravitational forces I was compressing into its edge.
"Yūgō: Wave Motion Beam."
An electric blue beam of pure gravitational destruction burst forth from Shinjūka's tip. The concentrated energy carved through space itself, reality warping around its path as it struck Oah'Tash.
His head simply ceased to exist. The beam left a perfect circular hole where it had been, continuing through his body, through the stone floor behind him, boring deep into the earth below. The edges of the hole were smooth, almost glassy, as if the gravitational forces had compressed and fused the material.
{Oah'Tash defeated. 124,000 EXP gained.}
{Wave Motion Beam ranked up! Rank 1 → 2: By concentrating created wave motion, compressing the superstring singularities, and allowing for only one point of exit, expels a dense beam of destructive energy 1 foot in diameter. Charge time: 30 → 25 seconds.}
I sheathed Shinjūka immediately, the weapon sliding home despite the trembling in my hand. Then I ran toward my friends, ignoring the pain from my destroyed shoulder and bleeding abdomen.
Akeno was closest. I dropped to my knees beside her, my right hand reaching out to check her pulse. Her skin was cold and clammy with sweat. But her heartbeat was there, rapid and irregular, but present.
"Akeno," I said, gently shaking her shoulder. "Akeno, wake up."
She didn't respond. Her eyes remained closed, her breathing shallow.
I moved to Rias next. Same thing, alive but unresponsive, her face pale and tear-streaked. Kiba was the same. The three Youkai warriors were all breathing but completely unconscious.
What had that demon done to them? What nightmare had she trapped them in that left them looking so broken?
I used energy sense to check if there was any residual corruption, but nothing. Whatever Aeshama had done to them, it wasn't a physical curse or poison. It was purely psychological.
Which meant I couldn't heal it. Not with any ability I possessed.
"Damn it," I muttered, looking between their unconscious forms. My own wounds were bleeding freely now, the adrenaline from combat fading enough that I could feel every injury acutely.
But I couldn't focus on myself. Not until I knew they were safe.
I pulled out my phone with my good hand, dialing Serafall. She answered on the first ring.
"Toshio-kun! Did you find—"
"We're in the underground chamber beneath the secondary shrine," I interrupted, my voice strained. "A demon named Aeshama's dead. The three Morlu legionnaires protecting her are dead. But my team is unconscious, some kind of mental attack. They're alive but unresponsive."
There was a brief pause. "I'm coming. Hold tight."
The line went dead. I pocketed the phone and looked around the chamber more carefully. The corrupted leyline hub pulsed with that sickly red energy, and the massive gothic bed still dominated the center of the room like some obscene monument to Aeshama's twisted nature.
No sign of Yasaka. No sign or clue of where they'd taken her or who had actually captured her.
I turned my attention back to Akeno. I held her as I kneeled on the floor. Negative emotions I couldn't describe manifested as I beheld the state of her.
"Akeno," I said gently, rocking her. Her eyes began to flutter open. As they focused on me, panic formed on her face. She screamed and scrambled away from me. I didn't stop her. I put my hands up in a placating motion.
"Hey, hey, it's okay I'm here." Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say.
"NO! GET AWAY!" As she scrambled back on the floor, she sent powerful, pale yellow lightning at me. No longer in my shikai and not expecting an attack, I couldn't dodge. With my hands still up, I looked down to see a hole at the bottom of my chest.
"I guess…" I coughed up blood as I mumbled. "The magic piercing training is going well." I dropped my hands to cover my wound. Akeno was still looking at me, terrified.
I glanced at my health bar.
{Health: 10/100%}
{Status: Bleeding. Lose 1% health per minute.}
I ignored it, focusing on Akeno.
"Akeno, it's me, it's your Toshio," I whimpered. I coughed up blood again. What did that bitch do to her?
Akeno looked around, clarity slowly coming to her eyes, then her eyes focused back on me.
"Toshio?" she whispered. The pain and hurt in her voice made my heart ache. I didn't know how to respond.
"Yeah…" I whispered lamely. I saw her look down at my wound, then her hand. Her eyes went wide.
"TOSHIO!" She scrambled toward me this time, softly embracing me.
"What have I done?!" I pushed her back by her shoulders.
"Hey, I'll be alright. Are you okay? What did she do to you?" Akeno, still panicked at my state, ignored my question.
"Toshio, I hurt you, I'm so sorry…" She sobbed, her hands trembling as she reached out toward my chest.
I gripped her wrists gently with my good hand, trying to keep my voice steady despite the blood pooling in my lungs.
"Akeno, listen to me. This isn't your fault. That demon, she got in your head and made you see things that weren't real."
"But I hurt you," she choked out, tears streaming down her face. "I attacked you, I almost—"
"You didn't know it was me," I interrupted, coughing again. More blood. My vision was starting to blur at the edges. "Whatever she showed you... it made you think I was someone else. Something else."
Akeno's violet eyes were wild with panic and guilt. Her hands hovered over my chest wound, trembling, like she wanted to help but was terrified of making things worse.
I glanced at my health bar again.
{Health: 8/100%}
Not good. The bleeding from my abdomen combined with this new chest wound needed to be addressed soon.
"Akeno," I said, forcing myself to focus through the growing haze. "I need you to calm down. Can you do that for me?"
She nodded frantically, though her breathing was still erratic.
"Good. Now, I need you to help wake the others. Serafall's on her way, but until she gets here—"
A groan cut me off. I turned my head to see Kiba stirring, his hand moving to his face. His eyes opened, unfocused at first, then sharpening with sudden terror.
"No!" He scrambled backward, his body slamming against the stone wall. "Stay away! Don't—"
"Kiba!" I called out, my voice weaker than I intended. "It's over. The demon's dead. You're safe."
He didn't seem to hear me. His eyes were fixed on something I couldn't see, something that existed only in whatever nightmare Aeshama had trapped him in. His breathing came in short, panicked gasps.
"Yuuto!" Akeno's voice, still shaky but stronger now, cut through his panic. "Look at me. It's Akeno. You're in the underground chamber. The illusion is over."
Kiba's eyes finally focused on her. Recognition flickered across his features, followed immediately by confusion, then horror as he looked around and saw the rest of us.
"What... what happened?" His voice cracked. "The children, they were—" He stopped, his face going pale. "Oh satans, what did I do?"
"You didn't do anything," I said firmly, though even talking was becoming difficult. "None of you did. The demon attacked your minds. Made you see things. But it's over now."
Movement to my right. Rias was waking up, her eyes opening slowly. Unlike Kiba and Akeno, she didn't panic immediately. She just stared at the ceiling, tears flowing down her face freely.
I watched as Rias continued to stare upward, her tears falling silently. She didn't move, didn't acknowledge us, and just lay there with an expression of such profound emptiness that it made my chest tighten.
"Rias," I tried to call out, but my voice came out as barely a whisper. Blood was pooling in my throat, making it harder to speak with each passing second.
Akeno moved to her King's side, gently touching Rias's shoulder. "Rias? Can you hear me?"
No response. Rias's blue-green eyes remained fixed on the ceiling, vacant and distant.
The three Youkai warriors were starting to stir as well. Hiroshi groaned, his hand going to his head. Miyako's wings twitched as consciousness returned. The Tengu remained motionless, though I could see his chest rising and falling.
{Health: 6/100%}
My vision blurred again. I pressed my hand harder against the hole in my chest, feeling the warm blood pulse between my fingers with each heartbeat. The pain was becoming distant, which wasn't a good sign. My body was starting to shut down from blood loss.
I needed to heal or stem the blood loss. Luckily I knew a trick.
Hiroshi sat up suddenly, his eyes wild. "The demons! They're—" He looked around frantically, his hand reaching for his katana before he seemed to register where he was. His gaze fell on me, taking in my wounds, then moved to Aeshama's headless corpse nearby.
"What..." His voice was hoarse. "What happened?"
"Illusion attack," I managed to force out, each word taking more effort than the last. "She... got in your heads. Made you see things. All of you."
"The children," Hiroshi whispered, his face going pale. "They were so real. I could see them, hear them..." He trailed off, his hands beginning to shake.
Miyako was awake now too, her crane features twisted with distress. She looked at her hands like they were covered in something only she could see, her breathing rapid and shallow.
"It wasn't real," Akeno said, her voice steadier now as she tried to help the others. "Whatever you saw, whatever you experienced—it was an illusion. The demon is dead."
But even as she said it, I could see the trauma lingering in everyone's eyes. Whatever nightmares Aeshama had trapped them in, they'd felt completely real. The psychological damage would take more than reassurance to heal.
{Health: 5/100%}
"Akeno, I need you to cauterize my wounds. I need to stop the bleeding." Wait, how do you cauterize a hole? Akeno was quickly by my side, her hand heating up with the same spell Rias used on my so long ago.
"My side first," I motioned as I raised my tattered shirt up. She hesitated.
"I'm sorry, my love." I barely heard the last two words. Had I not had enhanced hearing, I would have missed it. I cringed and grunted as steam from burned flesh rose up. My blistered skin could wait thankfully. Now about that hole.
"Toshio I don't know how to close this," Akeno said mildly panicked. The hole was about 4 inches in diameter.
{Health: 4/100%}
I was beginning to worry too. Then I heard a voice echo in the back of my head.
"Toshio. Put on the mask." What mask? Wait…
'Shinjūka, do you mean… but I've never been able to…'
"Do it Toshio." I couldn't argue with that tone. I pushed Akeno back.
"I'm going to try something, so don't get startled." I reached my hand up to my face and began to tear the fabric of air, white fragments materializing around my face.
"As soon as it's formed, flood that wound with as much reiryoku as you can." The mask actually formed! I didn't bother looking at Akeno's surprised but slightly fearful face. I did as I was told. The pain began to subside. I heard the system notification prompt and peeked over at it.
{New Skill Unlocked! Incomplete High-Speed Regeneration (Rank X): A drastically inferior version of true high-speed regeneration, but still able to channel reiryoku into a wound to heal slowly. Missing limbs, severely damaged organs, heart damage, or head trauma cannot be healed. Requires immense reiryoku. Rank cannot be increased. Can only use while hollow mask is equipped. Will evolve to the skill "High-Speed Regeneration" once "?" is achieved.}
I was about to light up in excitement, then I read it. Well, at least I had a way to heal minor wounds outside of sleeping now. I spent the remainder of my reiryoku, then the mask crumbled. There were several other notifications, but they weren't important right now. I'd look at them later. I checked my health.
{Health: 10/100%}
{Status: None}
That's one crisis solved.
"Toshio, what was that?" Akeno tentatively asked, hand on my thigh.
"Another power I've been working on. It doesn't do much yet, though. But I can heal, or at least stop bleeding wounds, so it's still somewhat useful." I wiped the blood from my mouth.
"I know I'm a devil, and we've been facing demons, but that power… it felt so… dark and full of malignance." She looked worried.
"It's still me. Just another avenue for power, as underdeveloped as it is." I cupped her face with my right hand.
"Now with me out of the way, are you okay?" She looked away, discomfort and pain written on her face.
"For now." Just then a magic circle materialized nearby, and Serafall stepped through with Kunou right behind her. The young princess's eyes immediately found her mother's absence, and I watched her face crumple.
"Where is she?" Then she looked over to us.
"Toshio!" She and Serafall were both next to me and Akeno soon after Kunou called my name. Serafall began checking on Rias, who was still staring up at the ceiling.
"What happened?" she asked, her voice serious, her usual playfulness and lightheartedness completely absent.
"Let's get out of here first, then I can recap."
"Princess!" The 2 male youkai ran up to her. "Miyako is unresponsive, but we need to see about the shrine." Kunou looked between me and Miyako, conflicted. I nodded to her.
"Perform your duty, Princess Kunou," I said with a smile. She nodded her head once in determination. She walked over to the leyline hub with the other youkai.
"Let's get you all back. We can discuss then." Serafall said, maintaining her serious tone, standing up. Rias was still unresponsive, so Serafall picked her up. Akeno helped me stand despite her own fatigue from the situation.
"When you're ready, let's talk about it, okay?" I spoke softly enough so only Akeno could hear me. Her eyes teared up briefly, but she blinked them away and just gently nodded her head. I side-hugged her with my one good arm, trying to provide reassurance.
We gathered close together, then Serafall teleported us all away, leaving the dark leyline chamber behind for Kunou and the youkai to deal with.