The Yami elite moved through the mist like ink bleeding into water.
These weren't the brawling teenagers of Ragnarok; they were seasoned killers, the shadow-side of the martial arts world.
Their footsteps were silent, their ki suppressed to a razor-thin edge.
Lucifer stood in the center of the gorge, his new blade, Void-Seeker, held loosely at his side. He didn't hide.
He didn't use stealth. He needed to know exactly how this blade performed when pushed to its limits.
"Stay back,"
Lucifer commanded Raven and Shigure.
"I need to see what this thing can do."
Shigure hesitated, her hand on her own hilt, but Raven placed a calming hand on her shoulder.
"Let him. He needs the data of his own strength."
As the five Yami assassins closed in, forming a pentagram of death around him,
Lucifer took a deep, centered breath. He activated Fundamental Insight, mapping the density of the air, the vibration of the waterfall, and the precise molecular alignment of the ground beneath the assassins' feet.
He didn't aim for the men. He aimed for the space they occupied.
Lucifer stepped forward, his body moving with the fluid, heavy grace of the masters back at Ryōzanpaku.
He swung the Void-Seeker in a massive, sweeping vertical arc.
He didn't just slash; he funneled Void Severance through the matte-charcoal steel.
The blade acted as a perfect conductor, magnifying the spatial tear.
SKREEEEEE—
The sound wasn't a metallic clang, but the scream of reality being unzipped.
A wave of shimmering, distorted air erupted from the blade's edge, traveling fifty feet in a straight line.
The earth didn't just crack; it opened.
The solid mountain granite was bisected as if it were soft butter. The gorge floor split, creating a narrow, bottomless trench that swallowed the mist and sent the Yami elite scrambling in a desperate, unrefined panic.
[Skill learned: Tier 2 Void-Wave]
[Void-Seeker Resonance: 25% - The blade is beginning to recognize its master.]
The assassins were master-class, however. Despite the shock, they stabilized mid-air, leaping across the new chasm to converge on Lucifer.
Their leader—a man wearing a mask of a snarling demon—lunged with a pair of hook swords.
Lucifer didn't retreat.
He used the Hakai No Ken footwork, pivoting on a dime. He didn't use the flat of the blade to parry; he used the Void to catch the hook swords.
As the blades met, Lucifer's True Cutting property activated. The high-grade steel of the Yami weapons didn't even provide resistance.
The Void-Seeker passed through them like they were made of smoke.
Tink. Tink.
The shattered remains of the hook swords fell into the snow.
The leader's eyes widened behind his mask. Before he could react, Lucifer delivered a pulled punch to his chest—not to kill, but to test the impact of a strike delivered with a weapon in hand.
The leader was launched backward, his internal armor shattered by the sheer kinetic force.
"You're fast,"
Lucifer observed, his teenage voice regaining its cold, detached edge.
"But your weapons are built for a world where space stays in one piece."
The remaining four assassins hesitated.
They were trained to kill monsters, but they weren't trained to fight someone who could delete the ground beneath them.
Shigure watched from the forge entrance, her breath hitching.
She had forged hundreds of blades, but she had never seen a weapon that interacted with the world like that.
It wasn't just a sword; it was a surgical tool for the universe.
Tochūmaru squeaked on her shoulder, his little heart racing in sync with the spatial pulses.
Raven watched Lucifer's form, her violet eyes tracking the "Chaotic Energy" that was now being channeled entirely through the blade.
"He is no longer just a 'delivery boy',"
Raven whispered.
"He is becoming the Master of the Void."
The Yami leader scrambled up, coughing blood. He looked at the bottomless trench Lucifer had carved into his ancestral mountain and realized this was no longer a mission of retrieval.
It was a mission of survival.
"Retreat!"
The leader barked.
"Report to the One Shadow! The Prodigy possesses spatial martial arts! Do not engage!"
The assassins vanished into the mist, moving with a frantic speed they hadn't possessed when they arrived.
Lucifer sheathed the Void-Seeker.
The charcoal steel hissed as it slid into the scabbard Shigure had fashioned from dark mountain wood.
He felt a deep, resonant ache in his arms—the "experience" of the fight was settling into his muscles.
[System Progress Update: $150,000 gained through 'High-Tier Combat Testing']
[Funds: $8,975,000]
[Hakai No Ken Mastery: 85%]
[Void-Blade Mastery: 60%]
Shigure walked up to him. She didn't look at the trench. She looked at his hands.
She took them in hers, her touch cooling the heat of the Healing Factor.
"You... did not kill them,"
She noted.
"I didn't need to,"
Lucifer said.
"They were a good test. But they'll be back with more. Yami doesn't stop."
"Then... we must train... harder,"
Shigure said, her voice firmer than before. She looked at Raven.
"The girl... was right. The forge of the soul... is never finished."
Raven joined them, completing the circle.
"We should return to Ryōzanpaku. The Elder will want to know that Yami is moving. And Kenichi... well, Kenichi probably needs to be reminded to breathe."
Lucifer looked at the two women—the devoted shadow and the silent master.
Craze: Read up to chapter 100 at [email protected]/phelio