[Chapter Header]
ARC: Back Attack Land
The skyscraper groaned, a skeletal beast dying in a sea of fire.
Akos, Ronika, Riko, and Yuzana moved through the shifting haze of the corridor. The heat was a physical weight, pressing against their skin, but the fire was no longer their only predator.
The air grew heavy with a foul, metallic stench. From the piles of corpses littering the floor—men who had been slaughtered moments ago—something impossible began to happen. The dead did not stay still. Their limbs contorted at unnatural angles, skin turning the color of bruised obsidian as they rose. The fallen had been claimed by the darkness, reborn as mindless, ravenous devils.
With guttural shrieks, the creatures lunged through the flames.
"Get back! Now!" Ronika screamed, stepping to the front.
She swung her katana in a wide, lethal arc, the steel shimmering against the orange glow of the fire. Beside her, Akos stood his ground, his breathing shallow but his eyes narrowing as he analyzed the swarm.
Riko leaned heavily against the wall, his face pale from blood loss, while Yuzana huddled behind him, clutching his arm and trembling in terror. They were dead weight in a corridor that was rapidly becoming a slaughterhouse.
"Akos, cover the left! "Ronika ordered," her blade slicing through the throat of a leaping devil. "I'll hold the center. We have to clear a path before the floor collapses!"
Akos didn't wait. He moved with the precision of a ghost, his hand finding the hilt of his weapon. Even in his weakened state, his presence was a barrier between the wounded and the encroaching nightmare.
The devils surged forward, their claws scraping against the charred concrete. The ceiling above them cracked, raining sparks and debris, as the heat reached a breaking point.
The corridor transformed into a symphony of steel and gore.
Dozens of devils lunged simultaneously, their twisted silhouettes eclipsing the firelight. Ronika moved like a blur of silver lightning. Her twin katanas danced through the air, dicing the monsters into unrecognizable pieces in a fraction of a second.
Suddenly, a massive chunk of reinforced concrete broke free from the ceiling, plummeting directly toward her head. Akos reacted instantly. His blade flashed upward, cleaving the massive stone in two before it could touch her.
Ronika glanced at him, her eyes wide with a momentary flicker of respect, but there was no time for words.
From the heart of the inferno, a new nightmare emerged. A colossal devil, resembling a mutated wolf with five jagged ears and three glowing eyes, lunged out of the smoke. It surged past Akos and Ronika with such terrifying speed that they froze for a heartbeat.
The beast was not interested in the warriors; it was targeting the weak. It sprinted toward Yuzana and the wounded Riko.
Yuzana turned his head, his face pale as he saw the rows of serrated teeth closing in. In that final moment of terror, something snapped inside him. He looked at Riko—the man who had bled for him—and made a choice.
With a desperate cry, Yuzana shoved Riko out of the way. Riko hit the floor, his eyes wide with disbelief as he realized what was happening.
"It's my fault you're all here! I'm sorry!" Yuzana screamed.
The devil's massive jaws clamped shut over Yuzana, swallowing him whole as its momentum carried it straight through the shattered window. The beast and Yuzana plummeted out of the skyscraper into the open night.
Silence fell over the floor, broken only by the roar of the fire. Riko let out a gut-wrenching howl of agony, staring at the empty air where his friend had just been.
Akos didn't hesitate. His expression hardened into a mask of cold resolve. He tightened his grip on his katana, his knuckles white. Without a word to Ronika or Riko, he sprinted toward the edge.
He threw himself out of the building, diving into the abyss after the devil. Ronika and Riko watched in pure shock as Akos vanished into the dark sky, a lone shadow chasing a monster.
Akos cut through the air like a falling star, the wind screaming past his ears as he closed the distance with the beast.
He gripped his katana with every ounce of strength remaining in his battered body, his knuckles turning white as he channeled his resolve into the blade.
With a roar of defiance, he slammed the steel deep into the devil's skull mid-air.
The impact was cataclysmic. Akos and the colossal wolf-devil slammed into the asphalt directly in front of the police blockade.
The ground shattered upon impact, sending a shockwave of dust and debris over the stunned officers. The police stood frozen, their weapons lowered, unable to process the sight of a boy falling from the heavens to slay a nightmare.
Akos stood up slowly amidst the wreckage, his breathing heavy. With a sharp, metallic ring, he ripped his katana out of the devil's head.
As the beast's massive carcass began to dissolve into black ash and smoke, a figure was left behind on the pavement
Yuzana, miraculously alive after being swallowed, tumbled out from the vanishing remains of the devil's belly.
Covered in grime and shaking violently, Yuzana didn't stay silent for long. He scrambled to his knees and immediately began to wail at the top of his lungs, high-pitched screams echoing through the silent street.
Akos looked up, his gaze distant, fixed on the pale moon hanging in the smoke-filled sky. He lowered his head, his eyes meeting Yuzana's.
"I'm going to Tokyo," Akos stated, his voice flat. "My enemies are here."
He turned his head towards the main entrance of the ruined skyscraper. Dozens of devils were pouring out, their guttural snarls growing louder with every step, their twisted forms converging on the street.
Akos tightened his grip on his katana, a cold calm settling over him.
The police, however, were not so calm. Absolute panic erupted among the officers.
"Call the military! Quickly!"One officer shrieked, his voice cracking with terror. "The zombies... they've overrun us!"
They scrambled for cover behind their vehicles, their training dissolving into primal fear.
Akos moved. He was a blur of motion, a silent dance of death. His blade flashed, severing the first devil's arm, then its leg.
He dodged a wild swipe and, with a brutal thrust, impaled a charging monster through the chest.
He ripped his katana free, the blade singing as it carved through the throats of two more devils. With an impossible leap,
Akos propelled himself onto the back of another monster. The force of his jump was so immense that the devil's head exploded under his weight.
Akos then launched himself into the air, spinning, and brought his katana down through the skull of another airborne demon. He landed lightly, pulling his blade free, and rested it on his shoulder.
Dozens more devils swarmed him, their eyes glowing with malevolent hunger.
For the first time, a faint, almost imperceptible smile touched Akos's lips—a predatory, dangerous grin in the face of overwhelming odds.
Akos lowers his katana, the blade glowing with a faint, ghostly hum. He drops into a low, predatory stance, preparing for a strike that would rend the very air.
Suddenly, the world bleeds into total darkness. The screams of the police and the snarls of the devils vanish, replaced by an oppressive, heavy silence. For the first time, Akos speaks directly to the entity residing within his own soul: Sakoura, the Devil's End.
—"Sakoura... I know you can hear me," Akos says, his voice echoing in the void. "There is no one who can kill me.
Not even you. You being inside me is nothing but a fear I've mastered. If you want to do something, do it now. In this world, everyone is about to learn who truly holds the power."
In a split second, the sky over the center of Sinish turns a violent, bruised crimson.
The skyscraper of THE HOLY BLOOD doesn't just collapse—it detonates in a pillar of infernal red flames.
The shockwave is catastrophic. Cars are tossed like toys into the air, caught in a cyclonic wind that glows with bloody energy. Buildings shatter, their glass turning into lethal rain.
Something erupts from the heart of the explosion, crashing through the neighboring skyscraper.
Inside the ruined structure, Akos has driven his katana deep into the floor to anchor himself against the hurricane-force winds. He lifts his head, a dark smile playing on his lips as he stares into the shadows.
From the smoke, two glowing yellow eyes emerge. It is Sakoura.
His long hair billows wildly in the red wind, and a jagged, terrifying grin splits his face.
"You challenge me? " Sakoura's voice booms, vibrating through Akos's very bones. "Only one of us leaves this moment alive.
The floor, the sky, the world—it all cracks before us! Everyone wants to control you, to use you... but not me. I want a warrior! I want someone strong enough to stand before me in the ultimate slaughter!"
Sakoura lets out a deafening roar that shakes the foundations of the city.
"AND THAT PERSON IS YOU!"
At that moment, a massive explosion of pure energy erupts from the center of the building. A tidal wave of red force swallows the heart of Sinish, instantly snuffing out every streetlight in the district. The red flames surge, tearing buildings from their foundations.
The strongest devil from the Jōmon era has finally awakened, and the world is no longer ready for what comes next.