While Azrael and the two assassins remained locked in a tense standoff at the secret realm entrance, Splint's true form stood within a vast underground chamber, emitting a subtle electronic hum.
Peering from above would reveal the entire subterranean space packed with massive server towers stretching into the darkness. Dense streams of information indicators flashed continuously throughout the facility like digital constellations.
Splint, dressed in scholarly robes, stood before an enormous holographic display and muttered to himself, "Let me see where your confidence comes from."
The massive light curtain before him fragmented into countless smaller sections, each displaying different surveillance feeds. This was the martial arts equipment he used to spy on the world, though its appearance had been completely altered with demonic assistance, its essence remained unchanged.
The display showed everything transpiring at the secret realm entrance in real-time. With a subtle shift of his consciousness, the feed instantly zoomed in on Azrael and his summoned cards.
As he'd stated before, Splint might not rank among the world's top combatants in terms of raw fighting prowess, but when it came to intelligence gathering, even everyone in the martial world combined couldn't match him.
Soon, complex data streams cascaded across the screen.
Observing the information flow, Splint felt a flicker of confusion. "Why is the analysis taking this long?"
Even analyzing a peak expert like Marve had never required this much processing time.
"Tsk."
Splint clicked his tongue in irritation. A faint azure glow instantly spread from his position, washing across the entire underground space like a wave of digital energy.
The next moment, the data stream on his screen suddenly froze. What followed made his eyes widen in shock, a glaring crimson error message accompanied by alarms that filled the entire underground chamber.
"Error 404?!"
Splint stared at the words appearing on screen with genuine astonishment.
Confronted by this unexpected development, he quickly recalled that during the system's initial configuration, the Skynet network would display this error message if it encountered certain entities beyond its detection capabilities.
However, he'd never experienced such a situation before and had long since forgotten about this failsafe.
Seeing this, the scholar gritted his teeth. "I still don't believe it!"
"Is there anything in this world I cannot analyze?!"
As mentioned previously, while Splint's combat prowess fell significantly short compared to others of his tier, his intelligence-gathering capabilities were unmatched. These devices qualified as martial arts equipment precisely because they were powered by the wielder's internal energy.
In other words, he could force a breakthrough through sheer power.
As Splint's face flushed crimson from exertion, the dark azure energy enveloping the underground space suddenly began rippling like disturbed water. Immediately afterward, the incessant alarms abruptly ceased, and the error message on the light screen vanished.
Data began flowing again.
"I told you so."
Splint gazed at the display, looking thoroughly exhausted yet unable to suppress a smug smile.
But his expression quickly soured.
,
[Name: Holy Sword Blade Driver]
[Ability: ??? ]
[*&%￥]
,
This was the intelligence Splint had uncovered about Azrael. Apart from an incomplete name, he'd learned virtually nothing.
Even that name was fragmentary at best.
Most critically, the scholar had only managed to detect Azrael's Sacred Blade Armor, he knew absolutely nothing about the young man's true form beneath the transformation.
Seeing this sparse result, Splint felt genuine unease stirring. "Perhaps this is just an anomaly. Let me check the others first."
He consoled himself with this thought, then examined the information on the figure who'd clashed with Marve several days ago.
,
[Name: Espada No. 4 Ulquiorra Cifer]
[Abilities: Cero, Resurrección]
,
Perhaps because he'd previously observed Ulquiorra's battle with Marve from the shadows, Splint's identification this time contained slightly more detail. But his expression remained grim.
This was deeply wrong. The information shouldn't be this sparse. After all, the black and white figure's profile contained virtually nothing beyond a name, no genuinely useful intelligence whatsoever.
"This is still practically nothing."
His sense of unease intensified, but at this point, Splint could only continue his analysis.
,
[Name: King of Knights ?]
[Abilities: Mana Burst, ??? Release, ???]
,
[Name: Unparalleled Great Villain: Yachiru Unohana]
[Abilities: Kidō: ..., Zanpakutō Release: ...]
,
Good news, he'd discovered something.
Bad news, between the two of them, he'd only found meaningful information on one person.
Swallowing nervously, Splint skipped over the blonde girl whose profile yielded virtually nothing and began carefully examining the black-haired woman's information.
"What does this mean, dragging opponents into a world of blood for a fight to the death?"
The scholar stared blankly at the description of the Zanpakutō's released abilities appearing on screen.
Though they'd experienced one or two dimensional conquests since joining their master's faction, those worlds had honestly been weak. Splint had believed this world would prove equally vulnerable, after all, the intelligence team their master had deployed recently suffered devastating losses.
But now, it seemed otherwise.
"If that's the case, then wouldn't that mean..."
A chilling realization struck him.
But it was too late.
At the secret realm entrance, Beru glared coldly at the woman standing with blade in hand. Though she exerted immense pressure on him, there was no such thing as an easy assignment in his line of work.
"I never imagined I'd encounter an ancient swordsman like you again in this lifetime," he rasped.
For as long as he could remember, warriors who didn't rely on martial arts equipment had essentially vanished from the world.
However, Retsu Unohana showed no interest in responding. Using Shunpo, she vanished instantly from her position.
Swish!
The long blade and dagger collided, sending sparks flying through the air.
But Beru understood full well that reach advantage was critical, as an assassin, he was at a severe disadvantage in direct confrontation with a swordsman. A cold glint flashed in his eyes as he relaxed his grip, allowing the black-haired woman's blade to slide past.
The next moment, Retsu halted her advance and pivoted, rushing toward Azrael instead.
Behind her, Beru had vanished.
"An assassin's job is to kill the target. I have no interest in playing sword-fighting games with you," the straitjacketed assassin thought. Eyeing his target, already engaged with the Buddha's Light, he coldly extended his dagger.
Regarding certain assassins' claim that simply killing all witnesses qualified as assassination, Beru could only scoff, "You lack an assassin's soul!"
Azrael naturally sensed the threat approaching from behind. Though the bald monk's nano-Buddha Light proved somewhat irritating, it had minimal effect on him overall.
Perfect bait.
With that thought, Azrael suddenly pivoted and swung his flaming sword backward in a sweeping arc wreathed with searing flames.
Seeing this, Beru's pupils constricted. He'd never expected his opponent to be so unaffected by the nano-Buddha Light. He instinctively shifted his dagger from offense to defense but was still engulfed by the surging inferno.
Boom!
In an instant, a molten trench filled with lava appeared before Azrael.
But the young man felt no satisfaction, he hadn't sensed a physical impact.
"Tsk, spatial abilities are so troublesome."
"No wonder the demon army developed specialized confinement barriers."
Azrael now understood how those in Donglai felt when facing the little spider and Frieren under his Bruce identity.
Thinking of this, he addressed Retsu, who'd appeared beside him, "Sister Retsu, I'll leave the flea to you."
The cold-haired woman nodded slightly in acknowledgment.
Meanwhile, Beru stood hidden behind a distant tree, staring silently at the scorched fabric on his arms.
Swish!
Hearing the whistling sound of incoming attacks, he vanished once more. A wide swath of trees was instantly severed by roaring sword pressure.
However, when he reappeared, he found Retsu's cold, emotionless eyes staring directly at him.
Before confusion could fully register, the black-haired woman grasped her sword horizontally before her.
"Bankai: Minazuki."
As Retsu's left hand swept along the blade's edge, endless blood suddenly gushed from the weapon like a crimson fountain.
Seeing this transformation, Beru felt momentarily disoriented. When awareness returned, he realized his surroundings had completely changed.
The mission target and Nanami who should have been present were nowhere to be seen.
He frowned, immediately attempting to use his spatial abilities to escape the area.
"What?"
But then he looked at the woman nearby with genuine surprise.
His ability had failed to activate fully. While he could still teleport, there was a critical limitation, he could only move within this dim, blood-soaked dimension.
Beru had never anticipated his opponent possessing such a powerful counter-ability specifically targeting him. As an assassin, it seemed his only option now was eliminating the woman standing before him.
With this realization, he closed his eyes briefly, then ripped the straitjacket from his upper body.
"Come on. Round two."
At this moment, Retsu observed the pale blue liquid trickling beneath the opponent's exposed torso, a rare flicker of emotion crossed her face.
"Finally. This is interesting."
If a wooden ship's planks were gradually replaced until none of the original wood remained, would it still be the same vessel?
Beru's answer was that he remained human, despite having undergone extensive surgery to replace most of his biological components with more functional cybernetic enhancements.
He sidestepped slightly, avoiding an incoming blood blade. Several pale blue neural pathways appeared across his face, glowing with artificial luminescence.
Immediately, the previously silent blood dimension suddenly rang out with the sounds of fierce combat.