"It truly is a vision of hell!"
Yoruichi stood atop a crumbling roof, staring down at the tragic, horrific scene below.
A massive metropolis with a population of millions had been transformed into a terrifying purgatory in a mere instant. Rivers of blood flowed, and corpses were piled high. The air was thick with the nauseating stench of death—a mixture of copper-scented blood and acrid gunpowder.
An army of demons, seemingly spat out from the depths of hell, descended from airships. they slaughtered everyone in sight and destroyed everything without restraint. The entire city had been plunged into the fires of war.
The city's armed forces and those citizens who had taken up arms were like fragile infants before these seemingly immortal soldiers. They were slaughtered indiscriminately without the slightest chance to resist.
The atrocities committed by these soldiers from the abyss were appalling. Some brandished infants skewered on rifle bayonets; others toyed with the heads of young women, their faces gnawed down to the bone; still others cut open the bellies of pregnant women, amusing themselves with the unborn fetuses within.
The screams of desperate, terrified people were quickly drowned out by the thunderous roar of artillery. The entire city was wailing in agony.
Humans attacked by these soldiers did not die immediately in the flesh. Instead, they were transformed into ghouls—corpses hungering for flesh—who then turned to attack their own kind. Those bitten were likewise transformed, baring their fangs to strike at those around them. Like a viral infection, the entire city succumbed almost instantly, turning into a Shura Field overrun by the walking dead.
Under the noble moonlight, two airships resembling military fortresses hovered in the sky, as if admiring the hellish masterpiece painted across the city.
When Ren carved through space to bring Yoruichi to this Western island nation's capital, this stomach-churning sight was the first thing they encountered. After the rampage of that legion, very few living souls remained in all of London.
Hearing Yoruichi's heavy, low murmur, Ren looked at the bloody map of the city. His brow furrowed deeply as he nodded slowly.
"In a scene like this, even Hell itself would sing in praise."
The so-called Song of Hell was exactly this. Ren had already confirmed exactly what kind of world he was in.
Hellsing!
The Royal State Knights!
A world where, at the turn of the millennium, a war had erupted between the remnants of the Nazis from the last century and the Vampire King of Britain. And the London beneath their feet was the stage for their slaughter.
Watching the people below whose vital organs had been devoured, yet who still wandered the streets as corpses, Yoruichi's eyes flashed with compassion. She turned to look at Ren.
Before she could speak, Ren read her intent. He sighed and shook his head gently.
"Those are ghouls. They are humans transformed after being attacked by vampires. They are merely unconscious lumps of meat that drive corpses and crave the blood of their own kind. They cannot be saved."
Hearing Ren's answer, Yoruichi bit her lower lip. Even in her many years as a Soul Reaper, she had never witnessed such a cruel scene. In a single night, a metropolis of millions had been reduced to ruins, blood flowed like rivers, and barely one in ten had survived.
She opened her mouth, glaring at the demon army rampaging through the city. Her voice was sharp and fierce. "Then let's slaughter these beasts who are worse than animals! We cannot let these goddamn monsters get away with this!"
No one could witness such evil without feeling rage. As she spoke, spiritual pressure surged around Yoruichi. Just as she was about to act, Ren grabbed her wrist.
"Yoruichi, don't go."
Yoruichi looked at her husband, her face twisted with a mix of hatred for the scene and confusion at his restraint. "Ren, what is it now? What's wrong with me killing these demons?"
Ren spoke in a heavy, somber tone. "Yoruichi, do not interfere in the affairs of the living in this world."
Yoruichi's eyes widened, her expression becoming even more bewildered. "Why? Am I supposed to just stand here and watch these bastards run wild and keep hurting people?"
"They have people who will deal with them," Ren said stiffly. "The affairs of the living are for the living to handle. Whether it is happiness or tragedy, do not interfere too much. Moreover, we are in an alternate world; we must adhere to this even more strictly."
Though they held the title of Soul Reapers, they were ultimately just souls existing in bodies made of spirit particles. The boundary between life and death must not be crossed by subjective intervention. This was the line Ren had drawn for himself from the very beginning of his journey through the worlds—a line that could never be crossed.
It was so in the Naruto world, the One Piece world, the Jujutsu world, and every world they would find thereafter.
That was why he had stood by and watched as Uchiha Itachi ruthlessly slaughtered the Uchiha clan, young and old alike; why he watched Whitebeard and Ace die tragic deaths before him; and why he watched Fushiguro Toji die in his search for self-respect. In the future, he would witness even more death.
Though that line was cruel, it was the greatest compromise he could make to maintain his own balance. It was for the laws of life and death in those worlds, and for himself. If he did not do this, Ren, having witnessed so much death, feared he would have long ago suffered a mental breakdown or become a base villain who trampled upon life and the dead without any bottom line.
Seeing the resolute expression on Ren's face and the complexity hidden beneath it, Yoruichi looked back at the cruel carnage below, her face filled with indignation. "But—"
"There are no buts!"
Ren's tone was more decisive than Yoruichi had ever heard it. Just as she was about to argue, several explosive sounds suddenly rang out in the distant sky.
Boom!
Boom, boom, boom!
Several massive fireworks erupted over London, converging into the shape of an angel that glowed brilliantly in the night sky.
"An angel?"
Seeing this, Yoruichi's face registered surprise. In the light of those flares, several helicopters became visible in the sky.
Static crackled.
As the surviving citizens in the city looked up at the "miracle" with tearful joy, a short burst of static echoed across the heavens. Then, a man's voice rose from the direction of the helicopters, broadcast to all corners of the city via speakers.
"That is right!"
"We are the earthly agents of the Angel of Death! Now is the time for the judgment of sinners!"
Ren watched the dozens of armed helicopters approaching on the horizon. From the center helicopter, a truck was suspended, its sides fitted with reinforced glass. A man stood inside, issuing a unilateral verdict upon the devastated city.
"The Defendant: Great Britain!"
"The Defendant: The Monsters!"
"The Sentence: Death! Death! Death!"
Though the man's voice was smooth and low, it was currently filled with madness and ferocity.
"Poor sinners, I feel deep regret for this, yet sin can never be forgiven! Die like withering flowers! Fly like butterflies, and die like bees!"
All flesh is as grass, the flower fades, and the grass withers. Insignificant lives, be strangled by the weight of your heavy sins!
The man's arrogant laughter echoed throughout the city through the broadcasting equipment. Hearing that voice—so similar in tone to Aizen's—Ren immediately realized which faction the arriving army belonged to.
They were the forces of the Vatican, the military strength they had accumulated over the years. Seeing such a disaster erupt in London, they could no longer wait to launch their Crusade.
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