It radiated a bizarre, corrupting aura, no less potent than the one suffocating the ruined town outside.
Yet, the building itself remained untouched by the corruption. It looked exactly as it had in the beginning.
Luxurious. Magnificent. Sacred.
On the highest floor of the Tower of Holy Glory, a twisted, maddening silhouette watched Kawashima Toya silently through the floor-to-ceiling window.
This one-sided slaughter had lasted a day and a night. Toya felt no fatigue; he simply swung his sword with mechanical precision, cutting down every anomaly in his path.
Countless piles of ash littered the ground—proof that innumerable Evil God Minions had been reduced to nothingness.
As a Teigu, the Demon Sword Murasame responded to Toya's will perfectly, flashing with brilliant light with every strike.
The battle was nearing its end, yet Murasame seemed even sharper than when he started.
Splurt!
The Point of Death of the last anomaly shattered, scattering into ash.
Toya stood quietly on the desolate earth, his expression indifferent. Murasame's tip rested on the ground, ready for the next attack.
The tide of monsters within a few kilometers had long since been wiped out.
Black ash carpeted the ground, dyeing the earth pitch-black.
"Is that it?" Toya murmured indifferently.
Even though his body and mind should have been exhausted, an endless stream of power surged through him.
His body was unblemished. The wounds that should have covered him had vanished, leaving behind a perfect physique.
It was as if he had never been injured at all.
If anyone looked closely, they would see that Toya's body was emitting a faint, invisible glow.
This was the Light of the Era, the final gift Abe no Seimei had left to him.
Toya scanned his surroundings, confirming that the "awakened" city had been completely annihilated.
"Next, it's time to crash the banquet."
With a whisper so calm it was chilling, Toya walked toward the Tower of Holy Glory.
Ten minutes later, he stood before the entrance. "Don't move."
"Or I'll cut you down."
With that warning, Toya walked straight inside.
As he entered, the Tower surged with bizarre black energy, as if trembling with rage.
But its anger didn't last long; it calmed down immediately under his gaze.
"Nice decor." Toya looked at the magnificent interior and nodded. "It would be even better without the Evil God Minions cluttering the place."
"Hehehe, let's eat him!"
"The last savior of humanity must taste delicious!"
"Gahaha, get him!"
From the shadows, bizarre figures emerged one by one.
Every anomaly defied human description— twisted, grotesque forms designed to drain one's sanity just by looking at them.
Toya looked at the leader with a surprised expression. "You look familiar."
The leader, whose head resembled a rotting lizard's, laughed hideously. "Of course I'm familiar!"
"After all, you killed me once!"
"Hahaha, before I eat you, let me show you my former, ugly face!"
A burst of black mist dispersed, revealing the anomaly's original human form.
It was Aki Tomoya.
Aki Tomoya's face wore a hateful, cruel smile. "I returned to the embrace of the Evil God and was reborn!"
"I've even become a True Believer!"
"Today is the day I devour you, piece by piece!"
"And after I kill you, I'll go kill Kasumigaoka Utaha!"
"Aki Tomoya?" Toya raised an eyebrow. "You're not Aki Tomoya."
The semi-finished product that failed to become a Minion was undoubtedly dead.
The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception were a power sublimated from the Root itself; anything he killed stayed dead.
Even an Evil God couldn't achieve true resurrection against that power.
The Aki Tomoya standing in front of him was likely just a clone holding the same memories.
"Forget it. Arguing is meaningless." Toya shook his head gently.
After a day and night of fighting, his mindset had shifted.
There was no point in talking to monsters; the time spent talking was better spent drawing his sword.
Toya slowly gripped Murasame, his eyes calm as he watched the swarming Minions. "Begone."
Zing!
A sword light flashed like lightning through the horde.
Toya appeared behind the group of Minions as if teleporting, sheathing Murasame with a click.
The lobby fell into a heavy silence. All the Minions stood frozen in place, packed densely together.
Crack!
The sound of a Point of Death shattering rang out, triggering a chain reaction.
One by one, the Minions disintegrated into ash and vanished.
Toya's eyes showed no emotion as he walked toward the stairs.
As for why he didn't take the elevator? He was worried about encountering traps.
If a monster cut the elevator cable, he would end up having to take the stairs anyway.
"Hmm?" Stepping onto the stairs, Toya suddenly felt something was wrong.
The space seemed to stretch infinitely. The exit, which was just a moment ago within reach, became incredibly distant—like a horizon he could never touch.
"Is this part of the trial too?" Toya observed his surroundings, looking for a way to break the illusion.
But everything in his vision was real; there were no illusions.
In other words, this stretched space was reality.
To break this technique, there was only one simple, brute-force method.
Walk through this endless space on foot and reach the destination by sheer force of will.
"What a dirty trick..." Toya sighed.
It was just a banquet. First, a flood of anomalies, then Minions led by a fake Aki Tomoya.
Now, they were warping space on a staircase.
Toya regretted his choice slightly. If he had known, he would have just taken the elevator.
If he met a monster halfway, he could have just killed it.
Now he was stuck walking for who knew how long.
Toya looked back at the lobby, which seemed reachable if he just took a single step back.
"I should have trusted modern technology."
"Let's go."
Stepping into this space meant there was no turning back.
The only way out was through.
Toya didn't speed up; he just walked at a steady pace.
He had a feeling that this passage was far longer than he imagined.
"Once you start, you can't stop."
Rather than wasting stamina sprinting, it was better to walk; he would reach the end sooner or later.
This walk lasted a full nine days.
Expressionless, Toya looked at the door he could finally reach and chuckled lightly. "If I get the chance, I'm definitely going to slaughter the guy who designed this trial."
He had never seen such a disgusting test.
For a full nine days, he was alone, with no sound.
Only the echo of his own footsteps accompanied him.
This kind of isolation was enough to drive an ordinary person mad.
Fortunately, he had undergone all kinds of training under Shishou Scáthach—and mental endurance was the most frequent lesson of all.