Chapter 817: Dragon Fist
[Faction Score -3. Current: -9]
The Authority-level mechanical lifeform Kansas hovered in mid-air, attempting to mobilize an aerospace battleship for an artillery bombardment. This pseudo-summoned lifeform, Madara Uchiha, displayed characteristics far exceeding ordinary spiritual entities, having most likely completed his resurrection through an ability akin to the Reanimation Jutsu.
This made it nearly impossible to thoroughly eradicate him through mere spirit-slaying rounds and conventional thermal ordinance.
The sudden notification appearing before its eyes pushed Kansas's computational core into momentary overload.
It immediately attempted to contact the Sovereign commanding the entire theater, Emperor Ultron, but received no response whatsoever.
The very next moment, the massive legions of mechanical forces across the skies belonging to Emperor Ultron began losing control, freezing in mid-air as though their systems had entirely crashed.
Madara Uchiha, who had previously been suppressed by saturated firepower to the point where even his Perfect Susanoo struggled to mount an immediate counterattack, unleashed a slash without a second's hesitation, turning the sky into a sea of fire.
Madara was inherently arrogant and held little regard for the Machina Court's reliance on military formations, yet this volume of firepower exceeded anything known in his original world.
A pure carpet bombing of this density was more than enough to wipe out the vast majority of nations back home.
Though he did not fully grasp what had transpired, Madara never hesitated in combat, instantly pressing the counteroffensive.
In another city, Artoria, wielding her sword alone, swiftly butchered the immobilized robots.
Only in the airspace above the city where Satoru Gojo stood did foul, sinister cursed energy continue to swirl relentlessly. Yet, suspended in the sky, only half the torso of the King of Curses remained, utterly devoid of life.
The chains linking across the metropolis were severed entirely, and the numerous Six Eyes embedded along them were sealed shut.
Son Goku frowned as he sensed the evil Ki lingering in the air, casually waving his arm.
Rumble!
The atmosphere convulsed violently, and the entire sky was wiped clear. The white mist and cloud cover veiling the world vanished, while the cursed energy suffocating the city and the cursed spirits birthed from it dispersed in an instant.
Son Goku took a moment to perceive his surroundings. Sensing that the turmoil elsewhere had subsided, he pressed his fingers to his forehead and vanished into thin air.
Returning to the coordinates where Immortal Island Penglai once stood, Son Goku scratched the back of his head as he stared at the barren, empty ocean. The island that had been shrouded in dense clouds and mist had vanished without a trace.
Only the mangled remains of two flesh-and-blood giants sinking into the waves remained, serving as a reminder that the hunt here was seemingly over.
"Huh? Nothing's left at all?"
"Then what about my food?"
Son Goku had yet to realize that being lured away was tied directly to Mercenary Tao using the opportunity to thoroughly eradicate Penglai. He was merely troubled by the fact that he could no longer obtain delicious ingredients.
Toriko and Luffy's descriptions of gourmet food had completely piqued his appetite.
As Son Goku drifted down toward the ocean, the sinking corpses of the twin giants suddenly began emitting a deep, cyan Taoist Qi.
"Eh?"
Sensing no malice, Son Goku reached out to touch it. The next instant, the twin streams of black and white Taoist Qi lunged toward him.
The two energies converged across Son Goku's skin. As his hands met them, he felt no harm from the energy; instead, it swiftly condensed within his palms.
The two opposing forces of Yin and Yang, which could never truly harmonize within the bodies of the two monstrosities, flowed together seamlessly within Son Goku's hands without the slightest friction.
Son Goku watched in awe. Soon, as the black and white hues merged, a palm-sized, flesh-colored mysterious pill emerged, accompanied by a sharp, exotic aroma.
[You have opened Drop Card: Emperor Ultron]
[You have obtained A-Rank Singularity Point * 1, Dimensional Points * 13,000]
[You have obtained Module: Limit-Break Connection (Special)]
[You have obtained Material: Ultron Core (World's Rarity)]
[Your summoned entity, King of Curses Satoru Gojo, has died]
[Based on the covenant between King of Curses Satoru Gojo and the Emperor of Death, Gojo cannot enter the cycle of reincarnation and is now reviving within the Underworld]
A cascade of prompts refreshed before Kaito Shirogane like a waterfall.
Kaito Shirogane's expression remained indifferent. From the moment Satoru Gojo ignored his warning to challenge Kakarot directly, his demise had become irreversible.
However, Kaito Shirogane had not anticipated that his own physique possessed a trait preventing even the reincarnation of Yin Spirits.
In other words, once absorbed into his body and made part of the Myriad Tribulations Yin Spirit Underworld Physique, neither dying nor being resurrected could break the covenant.
He had already seen that Yin Spirits revived through diverse means like All the World's Evil or the Reanimation Jutsu remained bound to this physique's control.
Satoru Gojo's death proved that even demise merely returned the soul to the Underworld within its host.
Kaito Shirogane shifted his consciousness back into the vacant Sea of Consciousness. Earlier, to keep Son Goku occupied long enough, he had unleashed every Yin Spirit within him.
Now, a considerable number of them had remanifested here.
At the heart of the Underworld, the silver-haired Satoru Gojo lay floating face-up in the spectral waters.
"How was it?"
Kaito Shirogane asked mockingly. Satoru Gojo rolled over, bursting into hearty laughter with clear, unclouded eyes. Stripped of the taint of All the World's Evil, his strength had dipped, yet his mind had grown far more lucid.
"A total defeat! That guy is ridiculously strong, like a genuine monster... Actually, I probably didn't even get a taste of his true strength. A single casual strike shattered my domain entirely, and that was after I'd finally grasped an open domain, too..."
Satoru Gojo did not mince words. The power Son Goku displayed was absolute.
If he had marveled at his host's strength previously, what Son Goku demonstrated transcended the boundaries of his comprehension altogether.
It was not a boundary separating sorcerers and cursed spirits, but one that surpassed all prior limitations.
Had he not experienced it firsthand, he would have found it difficult to believe an individual could wield such immense power, and that its wielder could be so... naive.
Satoru Gojo was equally perceptive regarding the human heart. He suspected that had he begged for mercy back then, the other party would have spared him without hesitation.
Satoru Gojo could not fathom Son Goku's disposition. In his eyes, it was an absolute leniency born purely from absolute strength.
Because I can kill you countless times at any moment, I can forgive any of your transgressions. As long as I exist, I can erase you whenever I wish, to the point where you cannot even foster the desire to do evil.
"Truly... arrogant."
Watching Satoru Gojo interpret Son Goku as arrogant from his own perspective, Kaito Shirogane smiled faintly. He did not bother correcting him; that logic wasn't entirely wrong.
Saiyans carried an innate arrogance in their bones. A so-called warrior race often made extreme choices fueled by power that outstripped their reason.
Still... that sheer might was truly enviable!
Within his Sea of Consciousness, Kaito Shirogane's mind continuously replayed Son Goku's strike.
Merely raising a hand into the most rudimentary uppercut, without any explosive burst of Ki, condensing every ounce of force entirely inward.
The dragon-shaped vacuum wave obliterated the warped space of the Limitless technique the instant the fist swung out, wiping out the open domain expanding behind it alongside the King of Curses Satoru Gojo within.
In truth, being able to leave behind half a mangled corpse under an attack like that was proof that Gojo's body as the King of Curses surpassed most Reincarnators.
Kaito Shirogane repeatedly clenched his fists within his mental landscape, attempting to simulate that blow.
Yet Son Goku's punch differed from Saitama's normal punch; it was steeped in martial finesse and absolute force.
If Saitama's fist collapsed all power into a pure concept, Son Goku maintained the original form of force, delivering destructive power through physical and energy-based strikes that transcended conventional concepts.
It was a quantitative change pushed to its absolute limit, a manifestation of pure, unadulterated "metrics."
Kaito Shirogane lusted for that kind of strength.
[World's Number One Gourmet Tournament Stage 1 Mission Updated]
[Point Rankings Updated: Currently 1st Place (Tied)]
Kaito Shirogane snapped back to reality, his brow furrowing as he looked at the notification.
He checked the two drop cards resting in his inventory. The two Monstrous Beings of the Tao were dead by his hand, and the Immortal Island of Penglai had been leveled by his own strikes. There should have been no huntable quarry left whatsoever.
Before setting off to hunt down Ultron, Kaito Shirogane had tested the corpses of the two monsters multiple times; neither the Space nor his martial intuition detected anything unusual.
That Taoist Qi was entirely beyond his manipulation.
Yet this mission update meant that Son Goku had still secured hunting points, matching the score Kaito Shirogane earned from slaying the two Taoist monsters and the island's spawned Tensens.
At this moment, Kaito Shirogane sensed that this mission line was subject to some destiny-side influence, ensuring that Son Goku would pass the first stage no matter what.
Holding the opposing Stairway of Destiny and Miracles, he was exceptionally sensitive to destiny-side forces.
A rare hesitation flickered within him.
Was this stage destined to let Son Goku advance from the start?
Having obtained that item, did the Infinite Dimensional Space feel satisfied enough to want me to withdraw right here?
Kaito Shirogane extended his hand, a revolving luminous stone gleaming with brilliance as streams of light trailed from it, scattering into the void before vanishing.
With his heightened perception, he knew those light streams weren't merely disappearing; they were slipping into the cracks of space.
To humanity, spacetime was formless and boundless, but to these radiant trails, it was riddled with infinite crevices like a sieve, easily fallen into.
[Doorway (Tier 4)]
[Type: Special Privilege, Special Creation, Multiversal]
[Description: A crystalline entity born within the Sea of Chaos, possessing extraordinarily rare properties]
[Effect: Can unlock hidden Space privileges]
This object had surfaced from the sea after he completely obliterated the Taoist monsters. It was precisely because this item appeared that Kaito Shirogane assumed the two abominations had yielded everything they had.
That had given him the confidence to leave that dimensional space.
Yet to think...
Kaito Shirogane currently had no way to stop Son Goku. Even if he dispatched Artoria and Madara Uchiha to incite incidents and draw him away again, he could no longer re-enter that isolated space.
Expecting Artoria and Madara Uchiha to stall Son Goku for nearly six hours was an impossibility.
Even Satoru Gojo, the most suited for such a task, was obliterated after merely two hours.
As Kaito Shirogane lowered his gaze, turning over counter-strategies in his mind, an incoming transmission pinged inside the aerospace battleship.
"Mercenary Tao, this is Yoko. I am officially proposing an alliance."
Yoko's voice came through crisply. Kaito Shirogane would never ask foolish questions like how she knew he was piloting this battleship.
His kill notifications for slaying Ultron were impossible to conceal, and with Yoko's strength, seizing control of another aerospace battleship was trivial.
Rather, he was curious why a woman of her pride and capability would actively initiate an alliance with him.
It proved only one thing: the difficulty of this world was about to surge once more.
High enough that, by Yoko's estimation, joining forces with him had become necessary.
"Let's hear it."
"According to intelligence, the special creation known as the [Doorway] has likely surfaced in this world. Its value is immense. Both the Machina Court and Void Paradise will commence a new wave of deployments. In accordance with the rules, the units dispatched next will naturally belong to... the Third Sequence."
"Furthermore, since the Machina Court's Fourth Sequence has been wiped from this world, they will deploy no fewer than three Third Sequence units."
"The Void Paradise's True God, Ouranos, will soon fall by my blade, meaning their Third Sequence deployments will increase proportionately."
Yoko spoke of slaying that True God as casually as slaughtering livestock by the roadside, clearly confident in her impending victory.
Kaito Shirogane heard no mention of Lady Crimson, despite her having entered the same trial location as Yoko. It was easy to deduce that internal friction within the Void Paradise had granted Yoko an effortless opportunity to hunt down a True God.
Hum~
A golden radiance flared from the communicator. Kaito Shirogane remained still, allowing the light to envelop him.
A fiery will transmitted information through the link, bypassing the mechanical device to kindle directly within Kaito Shirogane's mind.
Yoko's presence manifested inside Kaito Shirogane's Sea of Consciousness. Satoru Gojo, who was idling in the Underworld springs, looked up in surprise. Kaito Shirogane sat upon the Throne of the Heart, gazing down at Yoko.
Yoko swept her gaze across his inner world before pulling her eyes back, stating plainly:
"Within the next twenty-four hours, I will bring about the descent of the [Black King]."
"I need you to remain dormant until then. Once the battle involving the [Black King] begins, ensure the other Reincarnators disengage immediately, by whatever means necessary."
Her words piqued Kaito Shirogane's interest.
Yoko can actually summon the descent of the Black King?!
He recalled rumors that Azure Sky was closely tied to the Black King Association. Yet during his duel against Ryo, and throughout his subsequent clash with Mori-Summer, the Black King Association had never shown itself.
Had Ryo entrusted his connections to the Black King Association to this woman beforehand?
Yoko was indeed the person Ryo had chosen.
Kaito Shirogane saw through the entire picture, yet he did not give Yoko an immediate answer. His mind simply continued savoring the memory of Son Goku's fist.
More than six Third Sequence combatants deploying...
None of that mattered. Right now, his only desire was to witness that [Dragon Fist] once more.