The flas were unlike anything Ryuji had ever seen. They burned furiously against the colossal monster, yet left the surrounding world untouched—as if they existed solely to harm this mountain of flesh.
Under their strange heat, the creature's once-impenetrable hide began to lt away. But the monster counterattacked.
From its bulk erupted tentacles—each over a kiloter long—lashing toward Nezuko. They blotted out the sky and the sun, sealing off every possible escape route.
Its roar thundered across the battlefield, the whipping of its tentacles creating a storm of wind and sound like the passing of a typhoon. The violent gusts blew out the dragonfire Ryuji had been using to heal the Hashira. If he hadn't been standing at the front, shielding them from the brunt of the storm, they might have been blown away entirely.
This was not a foe any mortal should face.
"This thing isn't even in our league!" Ryuji growled, bracing an arm in front of his face.
Nezuko vanished again, reappearing sowhere else in a blink to unleash more of that strange fire. Watching her fight, Ryuji couldn't help muttering.
He'd known the mont he laid eyes on this creature that it was on a different scale—but only after crossing blades with it did he truly understand. This was a being that could affect the fabric of the world itself. The two monsters they'd fought before had been terrifying enough, but this… this was the real nightmare.
If not for his ability to travel between worlds, even his unnatural constitution wouldn't have saved him.
"No wonder the 7 Days to Die world was already shattered before we arrived… And the worst part? This thing might not even be the strongest."
The thought of the other beasts marked on that map made his stomach sink. If recovering every fragnt of that world ant fighting monsters like this, he might have to abandon the goal entirely. Restoring that world had never been a necessity for him.
This was a battle between the world itself and a parasite. And Ryuji… wasn't even the parasite.
Even so, part of him still wanted to help.
He gripped his sword, signaling the others to fall back while he prepared to step in. As long as one of the three won here escaped, he could use that to retreat as well.
Though Nezuko's flas now covered the entire mountain of flesh, it was clear they weren't doing enough damage.
He could feel it—the world was calling to him.
He didn't know exactly what it wanted from him, especially with the monster's eyes still locked squarely on him.
He took a deep breath and moved closer, but before he could get far, a cluster of tentacles broke away from chasing Nezuko and slamd into the ground before him, hurling up a storm of dust and debris.
The force tore trees and boulders from the earth, flinging them like bullets. Ryuji barely shifted his body in ti to avoid being pulverized, the hillside behind him exploding under the barrage. The impact left a dozen craters, each one or two ters deep.
If he'd been even a heartbeat slower, he would have been nothing but a sar on the ground.
"…So it is wary of ," he muttered, wiping a trickle of blood from a graze on his cheek.
The golden motes of power that had once cloaked him were gone, but he could still summon his dragonfire.
He drew two katana—the sa pair he'd bought last ti. His fla lacked raw explosive power; he needed a dium to carry it.
But the mont the blades cleared their sheaths… the wind began to change.
The winds of this world began to stir around him. At first, Ryuji felt nothing, but as he poured his Dragonfire into his blade, the winds grew ever more violent.
Endless gales spun around his body, twisting into the shape of a tornado. Seeing this, Ryuji instantly understood the world's intention. He continued to release his Dragonfire, letting it flow into the whirlwind.
In monts, the storm around him blazed with dazzling gold. But the mountain of flesh before him was no blind beast—it raised its massive tentacles high, ready to strike at him again. Ryuji did not panic. He could feel a trendous force gathering below.
The tentacle ca crashing down. Still, he remained calm.
"It's here!"
The earth roared. Boundless soil and rock were hurled tens of thousands of ters into the sky. The monster, along with the planet's most primal force, was hurled toward the stars.
The ground had split open. Rivers of magma surged upward, the earth's fury blasting the flesh-mountain into the sky. The tentacles were torn away from above Ryuji's head.
At so point, Nezuko appeared at his side. A hand as large as his own gripped his from behind. Her strange flas rged seamlessly with his Dragonfire, weaving a golden-crimson storm.
In that instant, Ryuji's sword transford—not the plain katana it once was, but a weapon whose blade fractured into countless prongs under the sweep of the gale.
"A seven-branched sword? You've got to be kidding …"
The words slipped out before he noticed the magatama hanging over Nezuko's plump breasts—and the gleaming mirror that rested there.
If he wasn't mistaken… the three divine treasures of legend had just gathered in one place.
"So the gods of this world haven't been idle after all. But why don't they act themselves?"
Ryuji pushed the question aside in favor of… appreciating Nezuko's figure.
He had to admit—this was indeed the heroine's figure. Perfect in every way.
Feeling his back constantly rubbing against her chest, the world's will, currently possessing Nezuko, was focusing on saving the world when she suddenly realized what he was doing.
"You…be serious."
She couldn't help but speak, she never expected that at such a sacred mont, at such a ti of saving the world, the man in front of her would be distracted to rub her breasts!
Her cool, emotionless voice made it clear this was not Nezuko speaking.
"You're… Nezuko? Or the world's will?" he asked, reluctantly stopping.
"Both. I am everyone, and everyone is . I am the consciousness of all things."
Even as her voice remained devoid of feeling, the storm of fla around them spread outward—yet hard no one in its path. Her fire fed his Dragonfire, turning it into a blazing golden cyclone.
The earth's magma was drawn into the whirlwind and hurled skyward toward the flesh-mountain. The power was so vast that Ryuji could barely describe it; the very air was ionized into plasma. The monster's roars could not pierce the howl of the wind.
This is indeed the power that only gods should have.
"Then why…"
He wanted to ask why, if the world could do this alone, why does it need him to kill these monsters. But before he finished, "Nezuko" answered:
"Because this way, many lives are spared. And I cannot always find the root of the problem imdiately. That is why you and the others are the best solution."
As Nezuko explained, countless visions flooded his mind—he saw the devastation that would follow Japan's tectonic upheaval after this eruption. Hundreds of thousands dead, centuries of extre weather: snow in sumr for a month, forty-degree heat in winter, then sudden freezes with floods and hail lowering temperature to minus five or six degree Celsius. Mount Fuji erupting every fifty years with magnitude-eight earthquakes.
The entire world's ecosystem would shift, bringing with it waves of death and famine.
The rest of the world would feel little of it, but this island nation would bear the brunt of the backlash.
"To confine the disaster to this island nation beneath our feet is already the least costly outco," the voice said. "If not for your strength, I would have accelerated the movent of this planet's tectonic plates, returning it to the form of a molten world. Only after killing every invader would I allow it to cool again and life to take root once more. And if even that failed to kill these parasites, I would force the star(Sun) of this system into a solar flare, swallowing the entire system. But your efforts spared from doing so—and from resorting to the most extre asure."
That wasn't extre enough already? Ryuji thought.
Nezuko's voice ca again.
"The extre thod is to compress what you call the Milky Way into a black hole, erasing it entirely—or more directly, to annihilate all matter in this star sector."
Her tone was still utterly calm, but her words reminded Ryuji once again of his own insignificance.
This was soone who could snuff out stars and remake galaxies, casually speaking of erasing an entire swath of the universe. And him? His "destructive power" barely amounted to killing the people on a city block—if he was lucky. Yet the one at his back dealt in extinction events.
…And he'd just rubbed her chest.
A bead of sweat slid down his temple.
"But if you handle it yourselves, there's no need for such extres. Unfortunately, I misjudged your strength. To , I have never encountered one of my kind so… weak. That is why I entrusted the task to you."
Next ti you hand out missions, don't lump a human like in with your kind, Ryuji thought wryly.
"You're saying I'm your kind?" he asked aloud.
Nezuko didn't answer—she only tightened her grip on his hand. Ryuji understood. The ti had co.
He raised the sword in his hand, now transford beyond recognition, and swung it toward the massive flesh-mountain above.
The ground beneath him shuddered once more. Molten rock erupted violently from the earth. Around them, the long-gathered firestorm finally surged forth, sweeping up toward the monstrous mass.
The raging flas pierced the creature instantly. Ryuji's Dragonfire ignited the towering mountain of flesh. He felt "Nezuko" move with him, her hand still clasping his, and in a single instant she unleashed 130 million slashes—each one capable of splitting the monster apart. How she did it, he couldn't begin to guess.
When he ca back to himself, the storm had stilled. The earth no longer roared, leaving behind only rivers of magma. The flesh-mountain above had dissolved into a rain of golden motes, drifting gently down to the world.
The person behind him released his hand.
Turning, Ryuji saw Nezuko's body glowing with golden light, a faint smile touching her lips.
"Because you have the potential to beco a world yourself, I called you my kind," the world's will said, her tone softening. She took his hand once more.
"Although in the end I had to act, you still did what you were ant to do. So I will give you a reward… the kind I believe you'll enjoy."
With that, "Nezuko" pressed his hand to her soft chest, pulled him close, and pressed her faintly golden lips to his.
The warmth and softness of the kiss drew him in—but just as he moved to deepen it, the divine aura faded. The serene expression on Nezuko's face vanished, replaced by the blush of a flustered young girl.
"Ryuji-san! What do you think you're doing?!"
She shoved him away, clutching her chest and crouching with her back to him.
Ryuji looked at Nezuko who had returned to her human form, and the corners of his mouth moved wanting to ask sothing—but the golden shard in his hand and the new entry on his system panel told him enough. He could only sigh helplessly.
"You're such a bad woman… but after teasing like that, I'll be going in and out of your black hole soday."
However, the only response he received was the teasing breeze in the air.
~~~~~~~~~~
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