The ground split apart the instant the deity set foot upon it. Soil burst outward in violent waves, trees snapped like twigs, and the dense forest was shoved aside as though swept by an invisible hand. Each step of the God of Death shook the earth as if heralding the world's end. Even massive boulders seemed like pebbles before him, scattering through the air like cannonballs when kicked aside.
The blade he dragged carved sparks against stone, gathering an ominous power long before he reached Sebastian. Black, poisonous energy swirled around it like a storm, its aura spreading death with every breath. Flowers shriveled, grass turned to dust, and trees rotted away into piles of foul ash.
When the deity finally swung, death itself surged forth. His strike tore across the battlefield like a tidal wave, the force splitting earth and forest alike. A canyon hundreds of meters long ripped open, hills crumbled, and a pillar of dust roared into the night sky, screaming like a dragon under the moonlight.
"What power is this?!" On the forest's edge, a yōkai cried out, coughing and choking as dust swallowed the air.
They could only stare, wide-eyed, at the devastation. Even sealed, the deity's strength was beyond belief.
The Bat yōkai beat his wings anxiously, scanning the shattered battlefield. "That blow, where is Sebastian?!"
But before dread could settle, a calm voice cut through the chaos.
"Only this level?"
Gasps rose as Sebastian reappeared, standing in midair, perched impossibly at the nape of the deity's neck. In truth, it was no trick of illusion. The Portable Chronoshift Device allowed him to bend time and space in short bursts, to the eyes of others seeming as though he had teleported. To the onlookers, it was simply too fast, too unreal.
"That's all." His words were colder than steel.
Before the deity could react, a sudden gale cut across his colossal form. A silver flash followed, swift and merciless.
The God of Death's head toppled like a falling boulder, crashing to the ground with a deafening thud.
From below, Ram lowered her hand, the residual wind of her spell still howling in the air. She bowed her head slightly toward Sebastian. "An enemy of this level hardly requires Master Sebastian to act."
The Bat yōkai froze, disbelief flooding his face. The God of Death, beheaded in the blink of an eye? He hadn't even seen the trajectory of the strike. All he knew was that the god's head was gone, and his body stood swaying. His wings trembled violently. Fear took root, cold and suffocating.
"This… this is impossible!" he stammered, summoning a mount in blind panic.
To him, Sebastian's abilities were nothing short of spectral horror, instantaneous, invisible, and merciless.
Yet horror turned to dread when the impossible unfolded.
A sickly darkness oozed from the fallen head. Slowly, grotesquely, it rose from the earth, drifting into the air like a grotesque lantern. Black mist coiled from its mouth and eyes, staining the night.
"Hurts? No. It's been far too long since anyone even touched me," the God of Death rasped, his severed face twisting into a feral grin. His enormous body staggered toward its lost head, driven by the regenerative curse of immortality.
Miyatsu and Miroku exchanged grave looks. Their hands tightened. "As expected… decapitation alone is useless," Miyatsu muttered. "His power isn't in his blade, it's in his curse. Immortality."
Neither could deny the helplessness rising in their eyes. There was no conventional way to slay such a foe.
With a wet crack, the deity's body seized its severed head and pressed it against his torn neck. Tendrils of black energy stitched the two together in seconds. He lifted his reformed face with a sneer.
"This is my power. The power of a God of Death."
Even the fleeing yōkai halted in awe, recalling too late why they had once believed this being unstoppable.
But Sebastian only stood there, smiling faintly, as if bored.
"The only reason you still breathe," he said coldly, "is because I want you to study. Remember this: the moment I decide to kill you, there will be no escape."
His words carried no arrogance, only truth. For in Sebastian's hand gleamed the Muramasa, a blade whose curse allowed no life to linger once its edge tasted blood.