Along with the wave of strange pressure, 'Death God's' body also began to change. First was the strange white matter covering his entire body before it solidified, forming claws for his fingers and a long Dragon-like tail with a sharp tip. Second were the strange markings on his body that seed to radiate chaotic power, giving a nice contrast to his pure white shell-like skin. And finally, the one that caught everyone's attention the most, a singular palm-sized hole in the middle of his chest that went through to his back, easily seen because of his mostly destroyed shirt.
Kisuke himself was surprised that he regained his Hollow Hole after the Hougyoku closed it long ago. 'What changed? Could it be thanks to Yhwach's blood?' were his first thoughts, but he set it aside for now. Once he confird that there was nothing wrong with his current form, he continued.
Kuroka, on the other hand, raised her voice to wake up the three who were stunned by this aura, "Airi-chan!"
"Yes!" Airi was able to imdiately react and beca a trail of golden light. Although she was surprised, the malevolent aura didn't really affect her much.
Airi moved faster than eyes could follow and instantly arrived in front of 'Death God,' her glowing fist charged up by her own aura. She saw that Kisuke had taken a stance too, perhaps to et her head-on. "Say goodbye to your arm!" she shouted while throwing her fist.
'Death God,' anwhile, remained calm and used an open palm to et Airi's fist. "Tesshou (Iron Palm)."
The palm and fist t, creating a shockwave that made 'Evil God' and 'Pretty Princess' hurriedly retreat and incredible heat that instantly turned the sand below them into glass.
But because of the two fighters' incredible control, the destruction didn't spread much, and there were only sparks of heated plasma in the air for a brief mont.
As soon as their power was delivered against each other, 'Death God's' arm, from shoulder and below, started developing hundreds of cracks before blood spurted out from it with great vigor.
Airi's eyes, however, widened in shock. 'He was able to defend!?'
But when she decided to throw another punch, she heard Fafnir's voice, filled with disbelief and panic, [Airi-tan... Run!]
Only then did she notice that her previously pristine and shiny armor had cracked into thousands of pieces, and like a delicate glassware that had been dropped from the tallest building on Earth, it shattered into countless pieces and exploded out, leaving behind a defenseless young woman. "...Eh?"
"Airiiiii!!!!" "Airi nee-saaaaan!!!!" Only when she heard the fear-filled yells of her siblings did she realize what sort of situation she was in.
As she lost her balance with the disappearance of her armor, her mind went into overdrive, slowing the world around her to almost a complete still. She thought that this was a near-death experience that she had been hearing about. 'I...'
At that mont, however, she caught sight of 'Death God,' more specifically, his right alien-like eye. It would seem that she had also managed to nick a bit of his helt, revealing a part of his face. But contrary to its appearance and Airi's expectations, that eye looked at her with care and warmth, similar to that of a caring adult to an innocent child. '...am safe?'
She didn't know why, but she suddenly felt that she was in an incredibly safe place, and a strange thought erged that this monstrous man would actually protect her from harm. Because of this impressively bizarre experience, she was greatly confused and ended up freezing in place, not knowing what to do.
Her world, nevertheless, soon sped up as she felt an arm wrapping around her torso and pulling her away. At the sa ti, spinning rings of pure black flas descended on 'Death God,' imdiately engulfing him in the sa raging black flas. "...Ah." Airi let out a voice mixed with confusion and worry.
Kuroka didn't notice Airi's strange reaction and just retreated to safety.
A few seconds later, Kuroka and Airi landed beside Zen and Kurenai. "Airi-chan!" Kuroka called out to the still stunned Airi. "Airi-chan!!!"
With her second call, Kuroka grabbed Airi's cheeks, and only then did the latter's presence of mind return. "...Kuroka kaa-san." She muttered softly while blankly staring at her.
"Are you okay, nya?!" Kuroka asked while hurriedly evaluating her condition. But after checking multiple tis with Kurenai and Zen's help, they found that she not only had no wounds, but she was overall in great shape.
"Did forcibly breaking her [Counter Balance] negatively affect her mind?" Kuroka asked.
Kurenai could only shake his head. "I don't know. Azazel-sensei also didn't ntion anything about this scenario." As the creator of one of the few existing Artificial Longinus, this was also the first ti Kurenai had co across sothing like this.
Kuroka wanted to bring Airi back as soon as possible, but then she heard Zen's worried call, "Um... Kuroka kaa-san?"
She looked up to him and saw his gaze locked on the burning 'Death God.'
Kuroka also looked back and saw the silhouette of the strange man still standing proudly within the raging black flas, with his companions just silently watching from the distance. "...Seriously?"
Kasha (Burning Chariot) is an exclusive ability of a Nekomata that has the power of purification and is especially effective against 'Dark' beings like Vampires and Evil Dragons.
At the brief reveal of his aura, Kuroka was sure that 'Death God' was so sort of evil spirit or a 'Dark' aligned Etoulde. Hence, Kasha should have been very effective against him. Not to ntion she's a Nekoshou, a powerful variant of Nekomata, a Senjutsu master, and had trained this technique for many years to the point that even high-ranking Gods would be burned to crisps within just a few seconds.
The reason why Zen called out to Kuroka was because the very sa flas that were said to be almost impossible to extinguish were slowly dying down, revealing the 'Death God' with three blood-red 'drums' behind him, a translucent red heavenly raint (hagoromo) wrapping around his shoulders, and a set of both deep red gauntlets and boots.
'Death God' then raised his left arm and pointed his index finger at them.
The hairs on Kuroka's body stood up, and a cold breeze licked her spine. "Kurenai-chan, Zen-chan! Barrier!"
Kuroka hurriedly stood in front of the three and raised her right arm, conjuring a giant spinning wheel of black fla on top of them.
Kurenai and Zen scrambled to follow Kuroka's instruction and erected barriers of the highest order that they could.
At the sa ti, Kuroka swung down her arm, and the flaming wheel rolled forward. They also heard 'Death God's' distorted voice, "Cero."
In an instant, a dark green beam of destruction ca from his finger and enlarged big enough to swallow the four multiple tis.
The flaming wheel ca in and sliced the beam in half, creating a relatively safe space in the middle. If not for the barrier that Kurenai and Zen conjured, they would have suffered from the sheer heat that lted and vaporized everything it went through.
Soon enough, the beam faded along with the flaming wheel. However, the group who called themselves the [Crimson Apocalypse Thieving Group] had also vanished.
Kuroka tried searching for them through her Senjutsu, but for so reason, she couldn't find even a trace of them. 'What?' It was as if they were just illusions that evaporated away.
She lifted her left hand over her left ear with a serious expression, and after a small Magic Circle appeared, she imdiately said, "Code orange on my location, nya. I want a full search and hunt operation to be conducted."
Kurenai and Zen looked back at the destroyed terrain, and the latter said, "We ca here because we thought that they were mildly interesting... But it turned out, they are way too interesting and too much for us to handle."
"I'm just glad that we ca out of this fully intact," the forr added.
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