[TL/N: New Book -
Anime Group Chat in a Doomsday World!]
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"Strange, what is going on!?"
The One-Eyed Owl, Eto Yoshimura, waved the enormous bone-spurred wings behind her, effortlessly blocking the charge of the Mother of Chaos. Despite her outward composure, her mind was swirling with doubt.
Facing Roma, another SSS-rated ghoul, did not instill fear in Eto.
Even among SSS-level ghouls, the disparity in power was significant.
If their strength were measured like Pokémon levels, Roma at this moment would be roughly level 51 or 52.
Eto, however, had reached the pinnacle of level 59!
Though constrained by the world's natural laws and the racial limits of ghouls, preventing her from surpassing level 60, she was undeniably one of the strongest among her kind.
Roma was formidable, but she posed no real threat to Eto.
What truly unsettled her was something else entirely:
The identity of the person leading this attack on the Aogiri Tree!
She couldn't fathom how Kaneki, the artificial ghoul she and Dr. Kano had painstakingly designed and created, could have grown so powerful so quickly!
Wasn't Kaneki merely a "lucky experiment," selected by chance due to Kamishiro Rize's unique situation?
Yet, in just a matter of days, he had managed to gather a group of formidable ghouls and establish his own organization.
Even as a best-selling novelist, Eto found this scenario too outrageous to write!
Her confusion deepened.
And what puzzled her even more was...
The nature of the strange creature under Kaneki's control.
Guzzlord as it was called, didn't emit the aura of a ghoul. Despite this, ghoul corpses were constantly being fed into its gaping maw.
What made it even more bizarre was that the monster seemed insatiable. It consumed anything—ghouls, rubble, even the occasional wall—with equal enthusiasm.
In fact, if Kaneki hadn't placed strict restrictions on Guzzlord to prevent it from recklessly devouring load-bearing walls and collapsing buildings, the entire structure they were fighting in might have been reduced to rubble.
Guzzlord was no ordinary entity—it was a powerful, otherworldly creature capable of converting everything it consumed into raw strength.
As the battle progressed, Guzzlord had already devoured over a hundred ghoul corpses, alongside dirt, gravel, and other non-nutritious debris. Its current strength had risen to an astonishing level 48.
The rate of its growth was nothing short of terrifying.
Similarly, Blacephalon, another mysterious entity, was experiencing rapid growth. As Guzzlord and others unleashed chaos, the emotions of the ghouls around them surged wildly. Blacephalon fed on these intense emotions, absorbing vitality from the dying ghouls.
Unfortunately for Blacephalon, most of the ghouls were too weak to provide substantial vitality. With the number of ghouls dwindling rapidly, Blacephalon's targets grew scarce.
Even so, it had managed to reach level 42.
But that wasn't the end of its evolution.
Once this battle concluded, Kaneki planned to let Blacephalon venture into the forbidden territory of the 24th Ward.
It was said that Area 24 had become entirely uninhabitable for humans.
Starving ghouls were forced to cannibalize one another, leading to a population of ghouls far stronger than those in other regions.
In Kaneki's eyes, Area 24 would be his next hunting ground.
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As the battle raged on, the Aogiri Tree suffered catastrophic losses.
Under Kaneki's overwhelming power, there was no escape for the trapped ghouls.
This was no ordinary battle—it was a massacre.
For the residents of the surrounding areas, however, it was a reason to celebrate.
Living near the Aogiri Tree's stronghold had long been a nightmare. The ghouls treated them as livestock, forcing them to live in constant fear.
Kaneki understood this all too well.
Even as some ghouls knelt before him, weeping and begging for mercy, he showed no hesitation in executing them.
To him, every ghoul bore guilt—there was no question of forgiveness.
This was not about compassion.
It was about justice.
...
...
Boom!
The clash between the One-Eyed Owl and the Mother of Chaos raged on, the battlefield engulfed in chaos and destruction.
It became increasingly apparent, even to the naked eye, that Roma was beginning to falter.
Despite being an SSS-class ghoul and a creation of the Clown Organization, she was still no match for the strongest ghoul of the current age. Yet, her face betrayed no trace of panic.
Roma's nerves had long since diverged from the realm of ordinary beings.
For her, life and death were mere burdens, irrelevant in the grand scheme of her twisted philosophy.
What truly mattered to her was the pursuit of one thing: amusement.
"Hahahaha... So this is the power of the One-Eyed Owl? No wonder they fear you so much!"
Though Eto's attacks once again tore through her body, Roma seemed utterly unbothered by the pain. Her face twisted into a horrifying grin as she praised her opponent.
"Thank you for the compliment," Eto replied, her voice calm and mature, emanating from the bloodied battlefield.
If not for the carnage surrounding them—blood splattering and flesh flying with every strike—their conversation might have sounded like a casual exchange.
After dismantling Roma's latest offensive, Eto abruptly ceased her attacks, allowing the Mother of Chaos time to heal her wounds.
Then, with a curious tone, she said, "I must admit, I'm intrigued. Why do you follow that man?"
"Different Dimension? That's your organization's name, isn't it? It sounds like something a middle school boy might come up with. Why?"
Roma, still coughing up blood, managed to pull herself together. Controlling the Mother of Chaos, she stood tall, her wicked grin widening.
"Because it's fun!" she answered.
"Fun?" Eto echoed the word, her tone dripping with disbelief. "What's so entertaining about serving a half-human?"
"Half-human?" Roma let out a mocking laugh.
Having witnessed the transactions between Kaneki and Enel firsthand, Roma no longer saw Kaneki through the narrow lens of race.
To her, Kaneki was neither human nor ghoul, neither half-human nor half-ghoul.
He was a trader.
A dimensional trader.
Despite her seemingly erratic and unhinged demeanor, Roma's true self was far more calculating.
Had she been entirely consumed by madness, she would never have created an organization as formidable as Clown. She understood all too well that Kaneki, in his role as a trader, was destined to lead the next era.
The sooner she aligned herself with his ambitions, the better her prospects.
Otherwise...
She risked becoming yet another discarded pawn, devoured like so many others by the insatiable Guzzlord.
"Hey, I've got an idea~"
Roma's laughter stopped abruptly. She raised the upper half of her body atop the Mother of Chaos and fixed Eto with a piercing gaze.
"Why not consider joining us?" she proposed, her voice dripping with eerie conviction. "Trust me, Different Dimension is a true paradise for ghouls."
"Paradise?"
Eto's skepticism was evident as she glanced at the chaos below, where screams echoed amidst the carnage. The irony of the word coming from Roma's lips was almost too much to bear.
But instead of mocking, Eto smiled.
"It's not impossible for me to join you," she said, her tone playful yet firm. "But only on one condition."
"And that is?"
"If you can defeat me!"
Clearly, Eto had never been fighting seriously. Even as her subordinates in the Aogiri Tree were being slaughtered below, she had yet to unleash her full strength.
To her, they were disposable pawns, insignificant in the larger game.
Until now, she had been the only one among the Aogiri Tree's three great leaders to take action.
But Roma's audacity had forced her hand.
Who would have guessed that Roma's instincts would lead her directly here?
Had things gone differently, Eto might have abandoned this base long ago, retreating with Tatara and Noro, the other two commanders of the Aogiri Tree.
However...
While the core members of the Aogiri Tree remained unscathed, the S-class and A-class ghouls had been completely annihilated.
Only Ayato survived, but even he had fallen into enemy hands, becoming their prisoner.
As the commotion below grew quieter, Eto realized that the battle was nearing its conclusion.
Suddenly, she unleashed her strength, hurling the Mother of Chaos across the battlefield and smashing her through several walls.
In an instant, the building collapsed, burying the Mother of Chaos beneath the rubble.
"It's time. Let's go, Tatara, Noro!"
Eto remained in her one-eyed owl form, but her pale bone wings transformed, covered now with flesh and blood to form massive, powerful wings.
At her command, Tatara and Noro emerged from the shadows, stepping onto the One-Eyed Owl's massive talons.
Whoosh!
With a powerful gust of wind, the One-Eyed Owl burst through the wall and soared into the sky.
From her vantage point atop the high-rise, Eto had already noticed the approaching CCG convoy. By now, the area was undoubtedly surrounded.
If the battle continued, the CCG would be the ultimate victor.
Without hesitation, Eto abandoned the fight, choosing to escape through the air.
However...
Just as they ascended, a sharp voice rang out behind them:
"Boss! Three ghouls are escaping through the sky!"
There stood Roma, back in her human form, one bloodied eye covered. She stood at the shattered wall the owl had just broken through, her hands cupped around her mouth like a makeshift megaphone. Her shout carried with fervent energy.
Kaneki, who had been aiding the Guzzlord in its feast, snapped his head upward, his gaze locking onto the airborne trio.
A sly smile crept onto his face.
"Trying to escape, are they?" he mused. "Blacephalon! Go after them! Don't let them get away!"
Blacephalon, though possessing fire and ghost attributes, wielded immense superpower energy.
Under Kaneki's command, Blacephalon launched into the sky with incredible speed.
The One-Eyed Owl's flight was swift, but not swift enough. It wasn't long before Blacephalon caught up.
"A peculiar creature..." Eto muttered, her gaze narrowing as she glanced back at the strange figure pursuing them.
Bone spurs erupted from her back, shooting toward Blacephalon.
However...
With a simple wave of its hand, Blacephalon suspended the bone spurs mid-air.
On its star-speckled head, an eerie grin spread wider, almost blooming with malice.
In the next moment, the suspended bone spurs reversed direction, hurtling back toward Eto.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
The spurs impaled the One-Eyed Owl's flesh-and-blood wings, drastically reducing its flight speed.
Before Eto could react, an energy beam shimmering with a kaleidoscope of colors materialized in front of Blacephalon and shot toward her.
Though desperate to escape, Eto didn't attempt to avoid the attack.
As a ghoul with superhuman regeneration, her recovery was unparalleled. Injuries meant little to her, and she even saw an opportunity—perhaps the beam's force could propel her faster, helping her outrun the CCG's encirclement.
However...
What she didn't anticipate was the beam's true effect.
The moment it struck her, a strange sensation overwhelmed her mind, as though a chaotic, psychedelic storm had been unleashed in her brain.
She felt as if she had consumed something utterly mind-altering, leaving her thoughts in complete disarray.
The attack wasn't merely physical—it was mental. Blacephalon's ghost-type move, Confused Ray, had plunged Eto into a state of confusion.
The ghoul world operated primarily on raw physical power. Even though Eto was an SSS-class ghoul, capable of controlling the One-Eyed Owl, her mental prowess was no match for Blacephalon's ghost and psychic attributes.
Her confusion rendered her incapable of controlling the One-Eyed Owl.
Slowly, the massive flesh-and-blood body began to fade, revealing a quiet girl with green, curly hair.
Her figure, wrapped in thin bandages, exuded an almost otherworldly allure.
At that moment, a magical energy, like an invisible hand, gripped the girl tightly, suspending her mid-air.
Blacephalon, noticing Eto's incapacitated state, turned its gaze toward Kaneki.
While Eto remained trapped in her confusion, Blacephalon's psychic grip tightened, then, with a decisive motion, hurled her body downward with incredible force.
All of a sudden!
Eto shot through the silent night like a falling star, hurtling straight toward where Kaneki stood.
Tatara and Noro, who had been shielded by Eto during their retreat, weren't spared either. They were flung through the air, landing back in the chaotic war zone.
Bang!
A deafening crash reverberated as smoke and dust erupted from the impact.
"Agh... 'cough' 'cough'..."
Eto coughed twice, her breath ragged from the abrupt fall.
But before she could fully regain her senses, multiple red kagune tails pierced through her limbs and chest, pinning her firmly to the ground beneath her.
"The leader of the Aogiri Tree?"
As the smoke cleared, Kaneki, in his ghoul state, stepped forward.
One of his tails, sharp and reinforced like metal, hovered menacingly above Eto's head, poised to strike.
"Haha..."
Despite being restrained, Eto seemed unbothered. She didn't show the slightest fear for her life. Instead, her silvery laugh rang out, light and bell-like.
"What a clever trick, Kaneki."
"Huh? You know me?"
Kaneki raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
Initially, he had planned to kill Eto without hesitation and discard her body. But her words made him pause, intrigue momentarily staying his hand.
What Eto said next left him even more surprised.
"How could I not know you?"
Her lips curved into a sly grin.
"After all, half the credit for making you who you are today belongs to me!"