Chapter 132: The Little Secret is Exposed
Shirazawa's sharp shout caused Lestor's pupils to instantly shrink.
"Demon, don't get too cocky!"
Lestor roared, his entire body bursting with brilliant golden light. Moving with blinding speed, he dashed forward with the wind howling around him, swinging a gleaming greatsword straight at Shirazawa.
*Clang!*
A series of crisp metal clashes rang through the air. Lestor only felt a violent numbness surge into his web of skin, his arm turning so weak and sour that he nearly dropped his prized blade right onto the ground.
On the other side, Shirazawa still maintained a completely calm, unbothered expression. He casually blew some imaginary dust off his pinky nail, lazily raising an eyebrow.
"A nail clipper... not bad."
Hearing this, Lestor's eyelids twitched violently. A massive wave of sheer terror washed over his entire body, leaving him trembling from head to toe. This was a legendary, national-treasure-tier weapon of the kingdom, and it was just called a *nail clipper*...
It wasn't just Lestor; the hidden spies watching from the shadows, as well as Ronandt's group, were all left utterly dumbfounded, looking as if they had just seen a ghost.
"No! Who on earth are you?!" Lestor screamed in sheer disbelief.
The corners of Shirazawa's mouth curved upward as he slowly raised his right hand.
"My name is Shirazawa." He spoke with freezing cold indifference. "If you get the chance, you can report my name when you return to the underworld. Perhaps it will get you an early reincarnation so you don't have to wait in line!"
The moment his words fell, the world abruptly changed.
The originally clear, sunny sky instantly turned pitch black. Wild winds roared, heavy dark clouds rolled in, and lightning flashed violently across the sky. A massive, pitch-black vortex materialized out of thin air, and from its center, a giant, blood-red eye emerged, staring down at the surroundings.
"Hmm..."
A low, raspy voice descended from the heavens, filling the entire imperial capital. It penetrated straight through the buildings, echoing across every single street. Every human in the city was frozen by the sheer pressure of the sound, dropping to their knees with pounding hearts.
"Sublime!"
"Splendidly sublime!"
Staring at the utterly exaggerated, colossal eyeball in the sky, Ronandt's heart hammered wildly as adrenaline surged through his veins. Fanatical thoughts flooded his entire body, pushing him to the brink of losing control.
"What a beautiful, magnificent fluctuation of magic! This is the grand, majestic power of a true god!"
Ronandt shook with pure excitement, a fiery light bursting from his eyes. Without a single shred of hesitation, he bolted straight toward the man in red, desperate to chase after an even higher peak of power.
"Hey, old man–wait, Master!" Seeing Ronandt rush forward like a lunatic toward the man in red, Aurel couldn't help but yell out. Charging in at a time like this, how was it any different from committing suicide?
"Master!" Julius gritted his teeth, throwing himself into a sprint right behind him without a second thought. As the Hero, he had a duty to protect those who needed protecting, even if he was completely outmatched, and even if it cost him his life. This was the destiny he carried by being chosen as the Hero!
"These two idiots... I was literally just thinking about finding a handsome guy to marry, I don't want to die this early!" Aurel wanted to cry but had no tears. While grumbling under her breath, she raised her staff and hurried to follow them, her notably large chest bouncing heavily as she ran, projecting an aura that was somehow even more pressing than the two guys ahead of her.
Watching the red-clad youth put on a thoroughly grand performance, Shiro slowly opened her closed eyes.
"Darling... you really have recovered your strength. Why didn't you tell me?" Shiro sighed softly, her tone carrying a mix of gentle grumbling and playful irritation, genuinely unable to fathom his reasons.
"Uh, haha... well, I just wanted to give you a little surprise~" The originally imposing Shirazawa suddenly let out a couple of awkward chuckles, trying to mask his internal embarrassment.
*Hmph! If I let you find out, things would get completely out of hand.* He really didn't want to end up unable to drag himself out of bed the next day. The current balance was honestly perfect–zero pain, pure pleasure, and he didn't even have to do any of the physical labor. It was an absolute win.
But things were definitely going to get rough for him down the road. If he had known better, he wouldn't have shown off like this. Of all the times he could have chosen to test his brand-new magic, he just had to pick this exact moment. Talk about a complete backfire.
"Sigh..." Shiro shook her head, putting her lingering doubts aside for the time being as she closed her eyes once more.
*Rumble...*
Thunder crashed, violent gales howled, and a thick black fog completely blanketed the horizon. The demonic eye in the sky resembled a colossal beast, staring down greedily at the living world below. A metallic scent of blood drifted over from the horizon as a faint, crimson rain began to fall.
"Ah!" Someone couldn't help but scream.
As the blood-red droplets grazed their skin, the fluid seeped directly into their bodies, exposing them to a bone-chilling cold and agonizing pain that caused their limbs to stiffen. Quite clearly, this was a curse–a crystallized form of manifestation magic.
Lestor watched in pure panic as his combat stats, which sat comfortably near the 4,000 mark, began to plummet drastically under the influence of the curse. Several of his skills were completely sealed and forcefully deactivated. Devoid of his passive defensive buffs, his overall durability hit rock bottom, looking utterly pathetic. His HP bar tanked like an elevator in a freefall under the baptism of the crimson rain, dropping into the critical zone in the blink of an eye.
"Demon! You're a literal demon!" He screamed in pure terror, frantically flailing his greatsword in random directions.
Shirazawa spared him a contemptuous glance, leaning his torso backward to effortlessly dodge the turtle-paced swing. He then smoothly snapped a kick forward, shattering Lestor's wrist to disarm him and sending him crashing to the ground as he lost his balance.
"You should honestly feel honored to die under my brand-new Evil Eye skill, Lancelot." Shirazawa stood over him, looking down coldly at the thoroughly pathetic man.
Lestor struggled to lift his head, his eyes burning with a mixture of intense hatred and absolute despair.
"My name... is freaking... Les... tor...!!" Before he could finish his sentence, his health bar hit zero. His soul was instantly reaped by the System, making a grand contribution to the ultimate salvation of the world.
"Got it, Rollis," Shirazawa muttered, rolling his eyes as he shifted his gaze to assess the remaining four individuals. "Hmm... looks like the raw output of this move is a bit lacking when used against high-tier mages."
Only Ronandt's trio and a single black-robed man from the elf tribe remained standing on the field. Without even needing to guess, Shirazawa knew that the cloaked figure was indisputably one of Potimas's cybernetic clones.
"Master, I'll draw the demon's attention! Use that window to chant your high-tier magic!" The young Hero Julius immediately formulated a tactical plan, shouting to the eccentric old man dancing ahead of him.
However, the response he received was the old man executing a clean slide... wait, no, it was a sliding kneel.
"God of Magic above, I beg of you to grant this old fool a glimpse into the ultimate peak of magecraft!"
"This old man is fully prepared to offer absolutely everything in exchange!"
Ronandt dropped heavily to his knees, sliding across the dirt until he parked himself right at Shirazawa's feet, promptly slamming his head against the ground to deliver three loud, resounding kowtows.
"..."
Julius was completely left staring in a daze.
What on earth was the context here? Weren't they supposed to be subjugating a cataclysmic demon? Why did his master straight-up defect to the enemy side within a fraction of a second?
Every single person present was thoroughly bewildered by Ronandt's unhinged behavior, their heads virtually filled with question marks. Only Shirazawa wore a highly complicated expression, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
*This old man... is seriously something else!* Then again, there was a clear reason why this eccentric codger managed to climb all the way to the position of humanity's strongest vanguard; with a shameless mindset like this, his personal perspective was safely on a whole different level.
Before Shirazawa could even open his mouth to turn him down, a sudden distortion rippled through the surrounding space. A highly familiar spatial portal materialized right in front of the pair, and Güli-güli stepped out of the rift with a freezing cold, serious expression.
He immediately locked a deeply questioning glare onto Shirazawa. "What on earth do you think you're doing?"
"Huh?"
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