"Uh... was that your doing too?" Ratso asked blankly, staring at the massive wave surging toward them, directing his question at the floating Tarakudo.
The next second—gurgle, gurgle...—the four Dark Hand enforcers, including Finn, were swallowed by the roaring wave, mixed with piles of gold and treasure, and crashed against the ruined palace walls.
Before Jackie could even react, the immense tide engulfed the entire hall. His teeth clenched instinctively. "Ahhh—so unlucky, so unlucky, so unlucky—!!" He sprinted desperately, but it was useless—the attack was aimed straight at him. In the end, Jackie met the same fate as Ratso and the others.
Realizing the danger, Tohru quickly took cover behind a massive support pillar, shielding Jade and Uncle behind his broad frame. "Jade! Teacher! Hold on tight!" he shouted.
"Uncle! Do something!" Jade yelled, clinging tightly to Tohru's arm.
"Water magic?" Uncle murmured in disbelief, clutching his talismans and materials as the towering wave approached. His eyes widened in shock. "Impossible... This is Shendu's fire-demon palace! No human wizard could ever perform water magic here. Only an archmage, an immortal, or... a demon on Shendu's level could do this!"
"The Demon Sorceress of Water—Bai Tza—the 'Kan' symbol of the Eight Trigrams?!" Uncle shuddered as the realization struck him. Could it be that the demons had escaped from the netherworld again?!
But at that very moment, a powerful male voice echoed through the collapsing hall. A middle-aged man in an elegant black butler uniform appeared at the entrance. The ring on his finger gleamed with strange light. "Water Dragon Possession · Black Marlin! Control Water!"
At his command, the rushing tide split apart before him. Several tendrils of water coiled together, forming sleek, serpentine whips that gently lifted the violet-red mask from the ground and delivered it to his hand.
Seeing this, Jade gasped in awe. "Cool! Uncle, look! That silver-haired guy—he's gotta be one of your wizard buddies!"
But Uncle didn't respond. He stared intently at the man's dragon-shaped ring, muttering under his breath, "A magical artifact...?"
As Liver grasped the mask, he felt no weight at all. Its texture wasn't metallic, but it was unexpectedly solid. "So this is one of the nine Oni Masks the Great General mentioned—the mask of General Rairakku?"
At his words, Tarakudo's golden eyes widened sharply, his expression twisting into fury. "Who are you? Who is this 'Great General' you speak of? How do you know such things?!"
"My name is Liver," the man replied calmly. "The Great General is my master. I came here to reclaim what rightfully belongs to her." He placed a hand over his chest and bowed slightly, the perfect gesture of a loyal servant.
He didn't know if this mask truly belonged to his lady—but if Selene desired it, then it was hers. As her subordinate, it was his duty to claim it in her name.
That was Liver's conviction. Though once an Imperial general, his warrior's pride still burned within him.
"My master's mask?!" Tarakudo's face contorted further, rage flashing in his eyes. "I am the only commander of the Shadowkhan!"
Bang!
The air before his brow rippled violently, and the surrounding walls shattered. Debris exploded outward, transforming into a deadly storm of stone shards aimed directly at Liver.
"Water Dragon Bullet."
The moment his words fell, crack—!
The space beside Liver tore open, forming several five-meter-wide black rifts. From within them poured torrents of roaring water. Under his command, the streams merged, swirling into a massive spiraling waterspout that surged forward like a living dragon.
Boom!
The storm of shattered rock collided with the water tornado, producing an ear-splitting roar. Shards and jets of water scattered violently, shredding the already-ruined palace even further.
Calmly raising his hand, the ring on his finger glowing faintly, Liver declared, "It's time to end this."
"Water Dragon Tornado!"
Then, as the violet-red crystal at Liver's collar and the Black Marin ring on his finger glowed in unison, the rifted space behind him expanded, merging into one vast black void. An immense torrent of water poured out, its unstoppable force overwhelming Tarakudo's telekinetic barrier in an instant.
The next moment, Liver blinked in surprise. "Hm? It passed through?"
Before his eyes, the raging flood had torn apart much of the surrounding ruins—but it flowed right through Tarakudo's enormous orange face without leaving a mark.
"Hahaha..." Tarakudo burst into laughter. "...You let your temper get the better of you! Your attack carries no trace of magic—you're just an ordinary man!"
"The source of your power comes from that rhombus gem at your collar... and the ring on your finger. They were gifts from your master, weren't they?" Tarakudo said coldly, hovering in midair.
Liver's eyes flickered as he recalled the information Selene had implanted in his mind: Japanese mummies feared onions. Within the Honkai Cube she had granted him were not only vast quantities of seawater, but also a few mundane supplies—and among them, onions, which his mistress had deliberately included.
Before Tarakudo could finish his sneering words—"You're not even qualified! Let your so-called 'Great General' come here herse—ahhhhhh!!"—
Several peeled onions, their pale red skins glinting faintly, shot through the air and smacked directly into Tarakudo's eyes. In an instant, streams of bright green tears poured uncontrollably from his sockets.
"My eyes! My eyes!!" he screamed in agony, his voice echoing through the ruins before fading into nothing.
Liver stood still, blinking. "So... onions have that kind of power?" He felt almost embarrassed—his water dragon attacks hadn't done a thing, yet onions had finished the job.
Still, as he examined the mask's strange, nonmetallic surface in his hand, he quickly pushed aside his stray thoughts. One mask down—eight to go.
Just as he prepared to leave, a voice suddenly called out behind him. Jackie burst out from the rubble, shouting, "Wait! Excuse me, sir! Please hand over that mask! We'll make it worth your while!"
"Noise," Liver muttered dismissively. He had no interest in listening to the chatter of these foreign beings. With a flick of his wrist, several razor-thin water blades shot out from the puddles at his feet, slashing toward Jackie.
Indeed, to Liver, this was another world—and these humans were nothing more than foreign species.
"Whoa—dangerous! Sir, why are you so angry?!" Jackie shouted, leaping backward, twisting midair with several flips to evade the attacks before landing beside Uncle.
As Jackie steadied himself, Tohru and Uncle stepped out from behind the pillar, all three fixing their eyes on the silver-haired stranger.
"Who are you..." Uncle asked gravely.