The leader knew he couldn't allow these two boys to run rampant any longer. His voice rang out, sharp and commanding:
"Everyone, use the formation! Deal with them!"
This wasn't the cult's first time facing opponents of such caliber. They had encountered—and survived—formidable foes before. They knew the steps, the rhythm, the precision required.
Without hesitation, the group split into two units of fifteen, one locking onto Todoroki, the other on Guy. Each team began its grim ritual. Biting into their palms, they let blood drip freely onto the ground, the crimson liquid darkening the earth. With practiced movements, their feet traced intricate lines, shaping the ritual's frame.
Within moments, each team had completed a perfect circle—a blood-forged array with the fifteen cultists standing as living nodes along its edge. Their low, guttural chanting rose into the air, weaving power into the symbols beneath them.
From the heart of each circle, the ground warped, shadows writhing like serpents. Then, with a bone-deep rumble, two monstrous, demon-like projections tore into existence—each one towering at least six or seven meters tall. One set its burning gaze on Guy, the other on Todoroki.
The demons moved without hesitation, their massive claws slicing through the air in a ferocious arc toward their targets.
Todoroki raised his hand, a surge of frost bursting forth as a massive ice wall took shape between him and the lunging demon. The creature's claws slammed into it, shattering chunks of frozen barricade, but the wall held—cracked and trembling, yet enough to blunt the assault.
On the other side, Guy only smirked.
"Hmph. You think a couple of phantoms will scare me?"
A pulse of raw dominance erupted from him—his Demon Lord's Haki. The air grew heavy, vibrating with pressure, and both towering demon projections faltered, their movements sluggish under the oppressive weight of his will.
In that instant, Guy saw the truth. The phantoms were not mere constructs; they were born from the distilled negative emotions of countless victims, emotions the cultists had somehow harvested and stored within themselves. Those same emotions now fueled the demons' existence.
"So that's it," Guy thought, a faint grin tugging at his lips. "A rather creative form of attack."
The grim puzzle now made sense—the conscious sacrifices, the villagers left to wallow in terror and despair. All of it had been to feed these monstrosities.
Seizing the opening created by Guy's pressure, Todoroki swept his hand low, ice racing outward in a wide wave. The ground beneath the cultists' feet froze solid, locking them in place. The temperature plummeted until the air itself seemed to bite. Then, heat flared—flames coiling around Todoroki's fist.
"Flashfreeze Heat Wave!"
The combined eruption of searing fire and piercing cold blasted across the frozen field. The force shattered the ice in an explosive wave, vaporizing frost and flesh alike. Six or seven cultists died instantly, their bodies collapsing in smoking heaps, while the rest were hurled to the ground—burned, frostbitten, and barely conscious.
Guy wasn't about to waste the opening he'd created. Flames surged around him, swelling into a roaring Fire Wave that raced toward the cultists focused on him.
The demon phantom above their formation moved, its blood-red fist swinging down to block the incoming blaze—but Guy didn't give it the chance. In a blink, he vanished, reappearing in midair right before the phantom's massive hand. His own fist, deceptively small in comparison, slammed into the creature's strike.
For a brief, tense heartbeat, they were locked in a stalemate—raw force straining against raw force. Then, freed from its would-be barrier, the Fire Wave surged past, crashing into the formation below. The cultists stumbled, their precise arrangement breaking apart. As their alignment shattered, the phantom dissolved into wisps of red-tinged smoke.
Guy landed lightly, already summoning another Fire Wave. This time, he layered his technique—activating Effect Overlap to merge the searing temperature of the first wave with the second. The combined heat became almost unbearable, a scorching wall of destruction.
The cultists who had been screaming in agony a moment before fell silent as the amplified flames engulfed them, their bodies blackening into brittle charcoal in the blink of an eye.
On the other side of the battlefield, Todoroki turned his attention to the survivors still writhing on the icy ground from his earlier blast. Narrowing his gaze, he focused fire into his fingertips until they glowed white-hot, then fired the concentrated beams like lasers. Each strike pierced with surgical precision, ending the cultists' struggles instantly.
The cult leader and the last four or five cultists were nowhere in sight. They had fled, realizing they stood no chance against these two.
Earlier, Shanks had split his Uzumaki clan brothers and sisters into pairs, ensuring that in each team at least one member possessed Kagura's Heart Eye or a similar sensory ability. In the Todoroki–Guy duo, Guy was the one gifted with that technique.
Even as the battlefield fell silent, the fleeing cultists' chakra signatures pulsed clearly within the range of Guy's perception—bright and unmissable against the emptiness around them.
He glanced at Todoroki.
"I'll go bring those stragglers back," he said calmly, his voice edged with lethal intent. "Of course… after killing them."
Todoroki gave a short nod and turned back to the grisly task of sealing the dead cultists' bodies. They would need them as proof for the mission's completion.
In the next instant, Guy vanished, teleporting across the distance in a blink. He reappeared directly beside the cult leader, cutting off their escape.
Before the cult leader could so much as weave a hand sign, Guy's arm morphed, fingers lengthening into razor-sharp claws. In one swift motion, he drove them straight through the man's chest, piercing his heart. With a savage twist, he tore it free, crimson dripping onto the ground.
Guy met the leader's fading gaze.
"Hmph. Did you ever imagine your end would come like this? After all the innocents you slaughtered…"
The cult leader collapsed, eyes wide with unwillingness even in death.
The remaining cultists barely registered in Guy's mind. To him, they were nothing—weak prey. Killing them was no more difficult than wringing the necks of chickens. One by one, they fell, their bodies swiftly sealed into a storage scroll.
Work complete, Guy vanished once more, reappearing beside Todoroki in the village.
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