Meeting Roy's mocking eyes, Takako Uro's pupils dilated in rage.
Like a wounded tiger, her entire body radiated hostility, the scent of bloodlust thick in the air as if she longed to sink her teeth into her prey's throat.
Clenching her remaining left fist, she unleashed the maximum output of cursed energy from within.
"Ushuradan!"
With a fierce leap, she spun midair in a full rotation, driving her fist downward with the force of a falling meteor, aiming straight for Roy.
To Roy, there was nothing unusual about this punch.
But in Takako Uro's eyes, she had already captured Roy within the plane before her.
If this strike landed, she would undoubtedly send him flying.
The technique "Ushuradan" trapped her opponent in a two-dimensional plane within her grasp. At the moment of impact, she remained three-dimensional while her opponent was flattened into two dimensions.
This dimensional advantage allowed her to ignore the disparity in their strength—no matter how powerful her foe was, they would be sent flying by her punch.
An unavoidable attack!
The actual force of the blow, however, depended entirely on her own physical strength and cursed energy output.
If her opponent was someone she couldn't kill in a single strike, then even with the undefendable nature of this technique, it wouldn't be enough. That was its sole weakness.
Of course, there was another way to counter it.
Takako Uro's fist descended mercilessly toward Roy.
Roy pivoted in place, his figure vanishing once more from her sight.
Takako Uro's vision blurred.
By the time she registered the movement, Roy had reappeared before her as if teleporting, his knee driving upward in a brutal strike straight into her chest.
"Ghk—?!"
Her vision whited out, streaks of aurora-like light flashing before her eyes.
The impact was so immense it felt as though her soul had been jolted from her body, leaving her momentarily unconscious.
The greatest flaw in her technique was that she had to actively capture her opponent within her plane—meaning she had to keep them within her line of sight.
Once her opponent escaped her line of sight, she could no longer capture them, and her technique returned empty-handed.
"Hah... hah..."
Takako Uro suddenly snapped back to consciousness, gasping for breath as if all her strength had been drained. Her heart spasmed violently.
When she came to, she realized she was being held in someone's grip.
A warm hand clamped around her pale neck.
Lifting her gaze, her vision plunged into a pair of cold, emotionless eyes.
"Roy!"
At that moment, a sharp shout suddenly rang out from above.
Flames erupted as a short, one-eyed cursed spirit appeared midair, its hate-filled gaze fixed on Roy.
Close behind, an octopus-like cursed spirit flapped the wings on its back, landing beside the first, its eyes equally brimming with murderous intent.
"The Earth Cursed Spirit and... the Ocean Cursed Spirit, huh?"
Roy glanced at the two spirits in the sky.
The one with the volcano-like head was Jogo, whom he had fought before—a cursed spirit born from humanity's fear of the earth.
The octopus cursed spirit beside him was likely the last member of the quartet, born from humanity's fear of the sea.
"Step away from that woman and surrender with your hands up!"
Jogo spread his arms, his large single eye brimming with malice.
"What happens to the people around here depends on your next move! If you dare resist even a little, I'll slaughter every human here!"
"Oh? That's interesting."
Roy smiled faintly.
Then, in one swift motion, his hand shot forward—
Straight through Takako Uro's heart.
"How exactly do you plan to kill them all?"
His smile remained unchanged, utterly unfazed.
"...Ghk—!"
Takako Uro's eyes widened in disbelief.
With her heart pierced, the power within her melted away like snow sinking into the earth.
Along with the second life she had been granted.
"You bastard—?!"
Jogo's arms trembled as he stared at Roy in shock.
"Do you really not care at all about ordinary people's lives?"
All around him, within arm's reach, countless civilians still lingered. Shibuya's streets were always crowded, and tonight, on Halloween, the numbers had swelled even further.
Despite the ongoing battle, many hadn't managed to evacuate. Some even held up their phones, filming the scene, as if determined to witness the spectacle even at the cost of their lives.
A single attack from him could easily claim countless lives.
"First one down."
Roy ignored Jogo's shock for the moment, murmuring to himself as he observed the dying Takako Uro in his grasp.
Then, he finally looked up at the sky, his mocking gaze locking onto Jogo.
"This is our second meeting, isn't it, Volcano Head? Resorting to underhanded tactics to deal with me—I see you've got some brains after all. Too bad it's just some, and not enough!"
With a flick of his wrist—
Takako Uro's body was hurled like a cannonball straight at Jogo in midair.
"Tch!"
Jogo clicked his tongue in irritation.
Faced with the incoming human projectile, he had no choice but to retract his arms, palms aimed at Takako Uro.
"Boom—!"
Flames roared forth like serpents, engulfing her completely.
The dying Takako Uro's eyes widened slightly, a blaze of shock and fury flashing within them.
But in her death throes, she had no strength left to resist—not even the power to summon cursed energy. All she could do was watch helplessly as the flames engulfed her body, reducing her to a charred, fleshless ruin in mere seconds.
In less than a breath's time, Takako Uro had turned into a pile of charred remains.
"Jogo, watch out!"
Suddenly, Dagon beside him shouted a sharp warning.
Jogo's expression changed, sensing imminent danger. He quickly enveloped his entire body with cursed energy.
Roy's figure appeared like a ghost in mid-air, his face twisted in a wild grin as his cursed energy-wrapped fist came crashing down toward Jogo's head!
A fist reinforced with cursed energy could crack Jogo's skull open even through his protective barrier. If his consciousness faltered even for a moment, Roy's follow-up attacks would send him plummeting into an abyss of endless suffering.
"Jogo!"
Witnessing this, Dagon's eyes instantly turned blood-red.
Without hesitation, he waved his hand.
A ripple of water appeared before Jogo, from which emerged a massive manta ray, shielding him.
"Boom!"
The moment the manta ray materialized, an immense force struck it, piercing clean through its body. With a mournful cry, it plummeted toward the ground.
Seizing the opportunity, Jogo hastily descended. Though he could briefly hover using flame propulsion, his limited firepower made his movements sluggish—fighting mid-air put him at a severe disadvantage.
Dagon glanced at Roy, noting his momentary vulnerability between attacks, and mercilessly summoned a towering wave that surged forth like a tsunami.
Roy's eyebrows lifted slightly as he kicked off the air, his body instantly retreating backward until he landed safely on the ground.
Dagon also descended, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Jogo.
The two sides faced each other across dozens of meters, tension thick in the air.
Roy remained as composed as still water, calmly observing the two cursed spirits before him.
Jogo and Dagon, however, were on high alert, their gazes filled with wariness. They dared not let their guard down for even a second.
"Jogo, what do we do?" Dagon whispered, his eyes never leaving Roy.
"Buy time. Wait for the others to arrive!" Jogo replied without hesitation.
"Even when the three of us—me, Hanami, and Mahito—fought him together before, we couldn't win. Just the two of us stand no chance. Our only hope is to hold out until the others get here and gang up on him!"
Where the hell was that Okita Souji?
She had set out right after them—why hadn't she arrived yet?
Jogo was furious.
If that woman were here, her close-combat skills could have stalled Roy long enough for the two cursed spirits to support her. Together, they could have bought precious time. But now, at this critical moment, she was nowhere to be found—what a disaster!
The two of them had rushed here from Shibuya Tower at the center of the barrier, the closest to Takako Uro's location, which was why they arrived first. The entire trip should have taken less than a minute, yet they were still too late.
Even if the others were on their way, the next closest pair from the east and west would still take time to arrive.
Until then, they had to hold out.
Hold out until those two arrived, then gang up on Roy with all four of them!
"But how do we stall?" Dagon's voice was heavy, his outlook grim.
That Roy was terrifyingly fast. One misstep, and he'd seize the opening—getting caught meant broken bones at best, or death on the spot.
To stall him, we'd probably need a large enough army!
"Take hostages!"
Jogo sneered and declared decisively.
"We'll split up and target the surrounding civilians! That guy is still a sorcerer after all. No matter how rational he is, he'll definitely try his best to save people!"
"Got it!"
Dagon suddenly understood.
"Attack!"
Jogo roared.
The two cursed spirits instantly shot off in opposite directions.
One cursed spirit spewed flames from its palm, burning toward the civilians ahead.
The other summoned waves from thin air, crashing toward the ordinary people on the other side.
"Using this trick again."
Roy sighed, his face full of exasperation.
You couldn't expect every sorcerer to have the virtue of self-sacrifice.
In fact, any sufficiently rational sorcerer wouldn't be threatened by hostages into laying down their weapons or surrendering.
Sorcerers were the saviors of ordinary people.
Once the saviors were gone, no one could save the civilians.
Therefore, the most rational approach was to act with the premise of sacrificing some hostages.
The goal wasn't to save everyone, but to eliminate all enemies—even if it meant sacrificing some civilians!
But sorcerers were still sorcerers. Their contracts with the higher-ups explicitly stated the need to protect civilian lives. For many ordinary sorcerers, protecting civilians was their creed—no matter how rational they were, they'd still try their utmost to save people.
But Roy was different from normal people.
He wasn't normal.
Roy stomped his foot, creating a gust of wind as he appeared before Jogo in an instant.
"Idiot!"
He cursed, a malicious grin spreading across his face as he slashed at Jogo with a hand like a blade!
Jogo's expression changed as he immediately crossed his arms in front of him. Volcanic craters emerged from the ground, and eight columns of flame erupted from his palms and the earth, engulfing Roy.
Yet the next moment, Roy fearlessly charged through the flames.
Cursed energy enveloped his body as he broke through the fiery barrier instantly, arriving before Jogo.
"Jogo!"
At the critical moment, rippling water appeared before Jogo, forming a giant squid that blocked Roy's path.
"Do you not care about those humans at all?!"
Seizing the opportunity, Jogo retreated hastily with an ugly expression.
He pointed at the civilians on the other side and shouted angrily at Roy.
"And you call yourself a sorcerer whose duty is to protect civilians—what exactly are you protecting?!"
The flames he'd unleashed earlier had already swept over those people, engulfing them.
The civilians writhed on the ground, wreathed in fire, their agonized screams rising and falling as if trapped in a fiery hell.
"Ha! Who are you to lecture me?"
Roy pivoted on his foot, effortlessly bypassing the giant squid and closing in on Jogo in an instant.
"You're just a negative monster born from human dregs—how dare you preach to me, a human?"
A mere incomplete creature of only negativity!
"Gah!"
Jogo suddenly cried out in pain.
The spotted robe on his chest was sliced horizontally, the flesh beneath splitting open to reveal bone-deep wounds, with internal organs faintly visible.
"Jogo!"
On the other side, Dagon grew frantic at the sight.
The hostage tactic was completely useless!
Not to mention saving anyone, he didn't even spare a glance at the hostages, focusing solely on slaughtering Jogo the entire time!
In this way, their decision to scatter proactively made them seem like they were deliberately exposing their weaknesses. If this continued, they would inevitably be picked off one by one!
"Jogo, it seems the rest is up to you—"
Dagon sighed slightly, his expression tinged with melancholy.
Immediately after, his eyes widened, veins bulging as he formed hand seals and charged fiercely toward the two.
"—Domain Expansion: Horizon of the Captivating Skandha!!!"
A dark barrier abruptly materialized.
Centered around Dagon, the domain formed in the blink of an eye.
A black sphere stood firmly in the middle of the street, isolating the inside from the outside, rejecting all interference.
Jogo clutched his chest, collapsed on the ground.
He remained stunned for a long moment.
The black sphere had appeared right before him, engulfing Roy within it.
Inside that domain, only Dagon and Roy now stood.
"...Dagon."
Jogo lowered his head.
Images of Mahito, Hanami, and Dagon flashed through his mind one by one.
Gone like a fleeting ephemera.
Inside the domain.
It was a sunlit beach, stretching as far as the eye could see. The endless ocean in the distance sent waves lapping at the shore, dampening the sand, while the sea breeze brushed against them, refreshing the soul.
"A domain... huh?"
Roy stood on the beach, turning to face the octopus curse spirit not far away.
A bored smirk curled on his lips.
"Seems you're in a hurry to die. Fine, I'll make you the second one!"