"?!"
The Winged Lion suddenly realized something from Kairo Retsu's words. "You…"
"That's right," Kairo Retsu grinned. "This is your last chance. If you don't leave today, then starting tomorrow… Felynes will begin constructing arenas like this around every Dungeon in this world."
"Go on—take a guess. How long do you think you can keep living like this? How long until you can start your feast? Will you even be able to break free of the Arena's restrictions?" Kairo Retsu continued. "This is your final opportunity."
"Well, what can I say—too bad what you inherited, Winged Lion, was the appetite for life."
Kairo Retsu spoke with a hint of resignation as he casually twirled the Insect Glaive strapped to his back. "Among the Seven Deadly Sins, Gluttony represents indulgence… Because appetite is essential to life. But to you, it's just pleasure."
"You really want to eat, don't you? You still want to eat!" Kairo Retsu pointed his Insect Glaive at the Winged Lion. "Then you have no other choice."
"Defeat us. Find a way to escape the cage we've placed you in—only then can you reach the bait you crave…" Kairo Retsu said. "Otherwise… you'll just have to live with your hunger."
"Hah…"
After listening to Kairo Retsu, the Winged Lion's expression took on a disturbingly human complexity.
Frustration. Rage. Regret.
But in the end, it let those emotions go—and laughed.
"How much do you know about me, really? I know nothing about any of you… and yet you seem to know everything about me."
"Before every hunt, gathering intelligence on the target is basic Hunter protocol," Kairo Retsu declared confidently. "Don't underestimate us—we're hardcore Hunters who grind until we can chain clear a dozen hunts in a row."
"Whether it's how you obtained your appetite—"
"Why you became obsessed with human desire—"
"How you were sealed in a Dungeon by humans, only to later destroy the world through their wish—then waited patiently for humanity to recover…"
"We know it all."
Kairo Retsu boasted to the Winged Lion:
"We really do know how to hunt you."
"So—what now, Winged Lion?"
The Winged Lion glanced down at the people below and answered:
"I won't let you trap me here…"
"I will consume the desires of every person in this space… and then I'll shatter this barrier, and take the rest of humanity into my world!"
Its form began to fade—becoming scattered motes of light.
"You will pay the price for your own selfishness and desires…"
The radiant fragments that made up the Winged Lion slowly merged into the body of the Dalamadur beneath them.
Meanwhile, the isolated island in the sea suddenly began to expand…
Not because the island's surface was increasing, but because an entire landmass submerged beneath the ocean was being pulled upward by the enraged Winged Lion.
Kairo Retsu didn't show it on his face—but inside, he was jubilant.
In the next moment, through the gathering voice channel, Kairo Retsu announced grandly:
"I hereby declare: Step One of the Winged Lion Capture Plan is complete!"
The moment Kairo Retsu made his declaration, the part of the Winged Lion's body that hadn't yet become light lunged directly at him.
"Before it begins… I'll devour your desire first!!" the furious Winged Lion shouted, slashing at Kairo Retsu's head with its claw.
It ripped the gem-like embodiment of desire from Kairo Retsu's body—shimmering with crystalline light. Kairo Retsu even had the clarity to admire how dazzling his own desire looked.
"Savor it well."
Those were Kairo Retsu's final words before his body went limp and began to fall from the Dalamadur's back.
"You're such a glutton…"
The Winged Lion devoured Kairo Retsu's desire in a huff, watching his empty, desireless shell tumble downward. But unlike before—there was no rush of satisfaction. No ecstatic thrill.
Instead… it felt even hungrier. Even more starved.
"You will pay the price… for your desire." The Winged Lion muttered—and continued to merge into the colossal Dalamadur.
At the same time, massive plates of the Dalamadur's shell began to fall away in chunks.
To escape this place, the Winged Lion had chosen to fuse with the most powerful being in this arena… the 2,200-meter-long Dalamadur.
The demon was forcing the Dalamadur to molt—triggering an extreme acceleration of its metabolism.
A blazing heat began to spread across the Dalamadur's body, glowing visibly through the gaps in its carapace.
"Hey!!!!!"
Chilchak and the others still on the Dalamadur's back were beginning to panic.
"Why is it getting hotter and hotter up here?!"
"Apologies, but it seems we can't stay here any longer. Everyone, please hold on to me!" Tanjiro now wore a serious expression as he spoke to the group.
"Laios! What about Laios?!" Marcille cried in alarm. "He's still on the serpent's head!!"
"Laios will be fine! Please—hold on to me!"
Senshi and the others quickly clung to Tanjiro. The four party members of Laios, plus Tanjiro, huddled together as Tanjiro raised his left hand and fired his grappling hook, grabbing hold of a tamed Wingdrake and pulling them all off the Dalamadur's body.
"YAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
Marcille screamed. Once they were airborne, she could finally see clearly:
The entire Dalamadur's body had turned crimson red—radiating terrifying heat.
Not only that—dark, unnatural clouds filled the sky, making the glowing red of the Dalamadur's body even more pronounced…
Mere moments after they had evacuated, the entire serpent had already completed its molt—and transformed into something else entirely.
Coiled around the summit of a towering mountain, the Dalamadur roared skyward—
Now reborn after molting, it had forcibly transformed into the being known as the Shah Dalamadur, the Eternal, Undying Emperor.
Even the mountain upon which Shah Dalamadur coiled was beginning to melt under the extreme heat radiating from its body.
Marcille noticed something else: a rainbow-hued light was flying straight toward Shah Dalamadur's head…
"Ah…"
Tanjiro recognized it at once.
"Laios… it looks like he got carted from the heat…"
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