In a world drenched in blood, Jhon paused mid-stride toward his would-be hostages.
He turned, gazing at Retsu Unohana in the distance with narrowed eyes. She stood calm and composed, her long blade weeping crimson. One eyebrow arched. "Did you do that?"
"Interesting trick."
Ever since arriving in this world, Jhon had encountered countless peculiar phenomena, especially the extraordinary powers these so-called Lore Cardians wielded.
But an ability like Bankai was entirely new to him.
Feeling battle-lust surge through his veins, he instinctively dropped into a combat stance.
"Strange."
"Why?"
An unfamiliar sensation flickered through his mind, but before he could fully grasp it, the sudden swing of a blood-formed blade interrupted his thoughts.
"Swish!"
Blinding crimson light flared within the dim, bloody realm.
In the blink of an eye, the two exchanged dozens of blows.
When they finally separated, they stood facing each other from a distance.
Jhon frowned, brushing droplets of blood from his hands. His fingers found the shallow cut on his abdomen. "Tsk!"
"Trading wounds for wounds?"
He was about to mock Unohana's futile strategy when he noticed something that made his eyes widen. The wound he'd just inflicted on the dark-haired woman was gradually disappearing as blood evaporated from her skin like morning mist.
Jhon's pupils constricted as he immediately grasped her intention.
"Swish, swish, swish!"
Several crimson blades suddenly shot toward him, shattering his concentration.
"Excellent."
"Excellent!"
Jhon roared, unflinching. He let the blood blades slash across his body, momentarily forgetting the confusion clouding his mind.
Under normal circumstances, he would never be so reckless.
The expected sensation of blades cleaving through flesh never came. Instead, a fierce shower of sparks erupted across his body where the attacks struck.
However, Unohana had already deduced her opponent's general abilities from their previous exchange.
"Futile."
Her expression remained impassive as she silently pronounced judgment.
This man reminded her of members of the Shihōin clan, masters of close-quarters combat and supernatural speed.
If the Shihōin were assassins who struck from shadows, then the man before her was a warrior who reveled in direct confrontation.
'But compared to Shihōin Chihiro, he's somewhat lacking,' Unohana mused, recalling the dark-skinned man who, like her, had served as a captain in the original Gotei 13.
Furthermore, those blood blades weren't meant to inflict damage, they were merely cover for her true attack.
Swinging her blade once more, the dark-haired woman conjured additional crimson projectiles before vanishing from sight, her feet barely touching the blood-soaked ground.
"How long are you going to keep up these pathetic scratches?!"
Seeing the ineffective attacks continue, Jhon's face twisted with irritation.
But after swatting away the blood blades that flew toward him, he realized something was terribly wrong.
The woman who'd been standing at a distance had materialized directly beside him.
Meeting her cold, emotionless gaze, Jhon felt a chill race from his tailbone to the base of his skull. 'Those eyes.'
'How many has she killed?'
Before he could process the thought, Unohana's voice, like the whisper of death itself, reached his ears, "This child's play ends here."
Alongside that frigid declaration, an endless crimson tide engulfed Jhon's vision completely.
In the distant residential building, two figures, an older sister and her younger sibling, watched helplessly as both combatants suddenly vanished from where they'd stood.
They had no idea what had just occurred, only that they were probably safe for the moment.
"Sister," the younger one whispered, gently tugging at her sibling's sleeve. "Is that lady here to save us?"
The elder sister shook her head slightly. While she could roughly guess that the woman was a summoned card from a Lore Cardian, who could say whether the demons had suddenly decided to play some cruel trick?
After all, this had happened several days ago.
Some surviving residents in nearby buildings had been deceived and slaughtered in exactly this manner.
"We need to move!"
Based on the male demon's actions, their hiding spot had likely been compromised.
Just as the elder sister prepared to pull her younger sibling into another room, she noticed the two combatants reappear.
The sight froze her completely. She covered her mouth to stifle a gasp.
The dark-haired woman, draped in her distinctive white captain's haori, stood utterly unharmed before the male demon.
As for the demon...
He was no longer recognizable as anything human.
A skeletal corpse lay crumpled on the ground, its head bowed at an unnatural angle.
The woman had clearly reduced him to this state with countless precise cuts from her blade.
"Gudong."
The elder sister swallowed reflexively, immediately covering her younger sister's eyes.
Children shouldn't witness such horrifying scenes.
'That woman doesn't look like a good person at all,' the elder sister thought, tears welling in her eyes despite their salvation.
But then something even more terrifying occurred.
The dark-haired woman in the distance turned her expressionless gaze directly toward their position.
The elder sister's entire body went rigid, as if some primordial predator had locked onto her presence.
The next instant, Unohana vanished from sight.
'Are we safe?'
The thought had barely formed when relief flooded through her, the overwhelming sensation of having narrowly escaped death.
"I'll evacuate you first."
The sudden voice beside her ear made her freeze completely.
It was Unohana Retsu.
Meanwhile, at the Lore Cardian encampment near the ruins of Ande City, Azrael naturally sensed that Unohana had already eliminated an Emerald-level demon.
And she wasn't the only one, the battles involving Artoria and Ulquiorra were also progressing smoothly.
After his experiences with the Northern Defense Army, Azrael's cards had become the perfect countermeasure against these scattered Emerald-level demons.
"But they're all so weak."
"Ulquiorra only needed the first stage of Resurrección, and Sister Retsu hasn't even deployed any venue cards."
Azrael complained inwardly, monitoring the status of his summoned cards.
"But something's wrong. How could such extensive damage occur with only this level of demon strength?"
With this troubling thought, he looked toward the secret realm entrance that the Ande Lore Cardians had mentioned.
"Or is there something hidden within the secret realm itself?"
He leaned toward this theory. Otherwise, given the strength of the demons Unohana and the others had encountered, there was no conceivable way Ande would have been forced to desperately request external aid.
After all, Ande boasted several Emerald-level Lore Cardians of its own.
"Master Pierre, how's the situation on your end?" Pierre's voice came through at that moment. "My cards encountered quite a few civilians trapped inside, so we had to evacuate them first."
"Same situation here," Azrael responded.
Because they were protecting civilians, continuing to clear demons from the ruins was obviously impractical.
Attempting to fight while safeguarding non-combatants would inevitably restrict their cards' full capabilities.
"You two masters, please escort the residents you've recovered to the perimeter. We have specialized cards stationed there to receive them."
As Azrael and Pierre conversed, the young assistant who'd been standing beside President Constantine spoke up.
Azrael and his cards weren't the only ones conducting search-and-rescue operations throughout the ruins. To maximize efficiency, the Ande Cardian Master Association had assigned personnel specifically to relocate the civilians the summoned cards extracted from the devastation.
However, because the situation within the city had been so dire, these Lore Cardians' cards had been forced to join combat operations on the front lines.
Now that conditions were gradually stabilizing, they naturally returned to their designated support roles.
These were Emerald-level Lore Cardians, individuals capable of effortlessly turning the tide of battle.
As time passed, the number of demons throughout the ruins steadily dwindled.
It was then that Azrael's cards relayed strange intelligence: the number of demons they encountered was dropping precipitously.
This could only mean one of two possibilities:
Either the demons emerging from the secret realm were deliberately avoiding his cards, or they had sensed something was wrong and retreated back into the realm.
The actual situation was easy to verify, all he needed was to consult with the other Lore Cardians present.
Azrael soon confirmed from them that they were experiencing the same phenomenon.
"This isn't necessarily bad. Let's prioritize rescuing all remaining civilians trapped in the ruins first."
With this thought, he immediately ordered Ulquiorra and the others to accelerate their evacuation efforts.
Shortly thereafter, the demons disappeared entirely from the ruins.
Watching the medical personnel bustling about around him, Azrael turned to Pierre. "Master Pierre, shall we investigate the secret realm entrance?"
Pierre nodded immediately in agreement. "Let's go."
With that, the two hurried toward the entrance together.
Soon, two massive spatial rifts materialized before their eyes.
Gazing at the swirling, pulsating portals, Pierre instinctively held his breath. "Strange! This is my first time seeing anything like this."
"Aren't these two separate secret realm entrances?"
He said this because the two openings appeared virtually connected.
If the Ande Cardian Master Association hadn't explicitly confirmed they were distinct secret realms, he would have mistaken them for a single entrance at first glance, just with an unusually large spatial rift.
Just as Azrael and Pierre frowned while observing the bizarre entrance from a safe distance, President Constantine and several other Lore Cardians hurriedly approached.
"Don't rush in!" Constantine called out anxiously.
After successfully stopping the two, he quickly approached to explain the situation.
"Master Azrael, Master Pierre, I imagine you're both somewhat puzzled by what's become of Ande."
"Now that you've seen this secret realm entrance, you've probably guessed part of the truth."
"Indeed, this entrance doesn't lead to a single specific secret realm, but rather randomly distributes those who enter between two different secret realms."
"That's precisely why I stopped you from entering recklessly."
The middle-aged president offered a bitter smile.
The young assistant standing beside him seemed to want to add something, but ultimately remained silent.
Azrael and Pierre exchanged meaningful glances.
They certainly understood Constantine's implication. When the secret realm first manifested, the Ande Cardian Master Association had organized expeditions to explore it.
However, due to the entrance's unusual structure, those who entered were forcibly separated upon arrival. Caught completely off guard, they'd suffered catastrophic losses within the secret realms.
Ande's situation had deteriorated uncontrollably from that point forward.
Seeing that the two understood his meaning, Constantine continued, "Of course, that's only part of the problem. The other issue is that these two secret realms contain extremely dangerous Emerald-level demons, and some of them possess coordinated combination techniques."
Azrael felt mild surprise, though not complete shock. He could already infer from the bizarre entrance structure that the two secret realms were definitely interconnected somehow.
"So it's best if we wait until the forces inside recover somewhat before entering together to investigate."
Though he didn't know Azrael and Pierre's exact capabilities, Constantine chose to proceed cautiously. After all, could anyone, no matter how formidable, truly transcend the Emerald-level realm entirely?
He didn't want to rush in recklessly and lose valuable cards, potentially triggering another devastating demonic counterattack.
However, Azrael held a different perspective on Constantine's suggestion. "President Constantine, I believe it's best to send a few cards in for preliminary reconnaissance first."
The demons' voluntary retreat had given him an unsettling premonition. To understand the actual situation within the secret realm, he decided taking the initiative was essential.
"This..." Constantine hesitated momentarily at Azrael's proposal. "Isn't that somewhat hasty?"
As the old saying goes, don't pursue a desperate enemy. He didn't consider the young man's suggestion particularly wise.
Azrael didn't comment on the middle-aged president's hesitation.
Everyone possesses their own perspective, and everyone makes choices aligned with that perspective.
However, in the supernatural world, another factor can influence others' decisions: overwhelming strength.
And as it happened, Azrael possessed plenty of compelling means.
"Master Pierre and I will each send one card into the secret realm. President Constantine, please don't worry excessively."
"Even if something unexpected occurs, having just one card enter cooldown isn't a critical setback."
Nearby, Pierre couldn't help but nod in agreement. "President Constantine, you're simply being too cautious."
"Just do it. Why worry so much about those bastards?"
Though they'd only met twice, Constantine had already become "President Constantine" in Pierre's casual address.
Hearing the two masters' words, Constantine opened his mouth to object, but ultimately released a long sigh. "You're both absolutely right."
He continued, "I have two cards remaining in serviceable condition. I'll send them into the secret realm alongside yours."
After all, Ande didn't particularly need his two Emerald-level cards in their current weakened state. It would be far more practical to have them accompany these two masters' cards into the secret realm for reconnaissance. At minimum, they could provide mutual support if complications arose.
Azrael quickly decided which card to deploy.
It was Ulquiorra.
Among his several Emerald-level cards, Ulquiorra possessed the most comprehensive combat capabilities. Artoria was naturally also an excellent choice.
Of his three premier cards, the least suitable was Unohana Retsu. She would excel in one-on-one combat, but this mission clearly wouldn't provide such ideal conditions.
Even if she deployed Minazuki's blood dimension, she would inevitably face encirclement after completing her objective. Unless Minazuki could drag every single demon present into the blood realm simultaneously, and Minazuki definitely had limitations on how many opponents it could capture, extended deployment was impractical.
Watching his card and the other two Lore Cardians' cards enter the secret realm together, Constantine sighed silently.
To be completely honest, he wasn't optimistic about this operation's prospects. Though the strength these two had previously demonstrated was genuinely impressive, that display hadn't represented the full power of the demons inhabiting these two secret realms.
However, the middle-aged president's expression soon turned peculiar.
Then he couldn't help but glance surreptitiously at the young master standing beside him.
'No wonder he's so confident...'