In the middle of the city, Victor was looking at a projection of the battle going. From his throne room, he could see the forces he amassed overwhelming the little army that his daughter had built.

“They present no problem whatsoever.” He motioned with his hand to the right, like swapping on a phone. “These however… present.”

When he motioned his hand to the right, the projection was focused on the group of girls that the sacrifice had brought. All the Onis who faced these girls were swept in the battle, and even some Vampires as well.

Victor remembered the Demons he had received as helpers, while biting his nails.

“I can’t.”

But he also remembered of what the Arch-demon said.

“Be careful, however. You don’t know if they’ll obey a child of those guys. They might get out of control. So be sure to use them, ONLY, when extremely necessary.”

(Author’s note: Yes, I know that the demons actually didn’t have ANY spotlight in the entire story, besides being death fodder on the siege of the empire.)

“I’ll release them if they get too close to the fortress. Part of the city will be destroyed, but I have no qualms in sacrificing some death fodder.” He swiped the projection again. “So… did you defeat him, or did you just die? Mr. Knight.”

The projection, was now in the cave where Kenji and the Knight fought. An enormous cloud of dust rose, and Victor was looking at it, waiting to know his answer. However, the answer, was not the one he expected. His eyes soon shook in anger.

“KHHHHHHHHHH!”

Victor ground his teeth in anger, his claws digging deep into his throne.

The projection showed Kenji, on his feet, looking down on the Knight. Or what remained of him. But then, Kenji moved his head to the left, and to the right. Through the projection, Victor saw that Kenji’s eyes were darting around, and then. Kenji looked towards where the projection was being recorded.

Kenji simply grinned, and winked towards the projection, and right after, the projection stopped.

Victor shook, and screamed in an animalistic manner, before destroying his own throne.

“Urgh! Goddammit.”

Kenji tapped at his forehead. On it, was a small bruise, which was done by the Knight as a last resort. It didn’t cause any other problems to Kenji, besides the itchy feeling, but he couldn’t get his head around of it.

“Why it hurts, when I have a skill that should nullify pain? This makes no sense.”

“Bas…tard…”

“You’re still alive?” Kenji glanced at the flames on the armor. “My god, just die already.”

Kenji was about to shoot the remaining of the armor, when the knight pulled his remaining arm towards Kenji. He would just shrug it off as nothing, but on the arm, was a scroll.

“You son of a bitch.”

Kenji’s face contorted in anger. He grabbed the scroll, and glared at the knight.

“What? Was this some kind of enlightenment that you noticed that I was saying the truth?!”

“I… could not… go against… the influence…”

“Makes me feel a little doubtful, ain’t gonna lie.”

“Just… give that… to the princess…” The arm fell on the ground. “Make… Victor… pay…”

“Fine. Rest in peace man. It was fun though.”

Turning around, Kenji stored the scroll away, and walked to the Nether-Gate, planting the Zerstörer charges on it, and walked away from the gate.

“Now, to get out of here. Sigh”

Kenji sighed. Even having the Exhaustion Immunity skill, wouldn’t stop his mind from get tired from the situation.

Taking out some potions, he drank them, and used some metal he had on hand to fix his mask and the sole of the boot that was damaged. Afterwards, he started to look through the room, searching for a place that would make his surface climbing easier.

After around 10 minutes, did he found something. A big enough crack on the wall. Sadly, it was on the wall, but as he checked the map he had made, and the places where the gates were located, the next one was following a straight line towards there.

“Sigh” Another sigh escaped his mouth. “Should I? I don’t have anything to go through it, though.”

Getting close to the wall, Kenji put his hand on the wall, and used a shockwave on it. The wall trembled, and some small rocks fell off of it.

Kenji’s objective with this, wasn’t to know if the path would be long, he already knew that. His objective, was to understand if there were anything to help him ahead, or something to make it easier. No luck, however.

“What to do? I need to get out of here!”

Following the crack towards the ceiling, Kenji analyzed it again. The gap between it and the surface was smaller, but he still had to find a way to do it. Sighing once again, he decided to get some distance.

You might be thinking:

“Just use the Zerstörer charges.” or “Use Ansturm!” or “Use the shockwaves to break off the debris.”

But Kenji’s idea was another. He took out a weapon he hasn’t used since ever. Raijin.

“Well, it was nice knowing ya.”

Kenji made some more canisters, and put inside low ranking cores, connected the 6 canisters to Raijin, and activated it.

Last time, Raijin almost exploded on Kenji’s hands, and also destroyed itself. Partially Kenji was about to use this at his favor. By overloading Raijin to the maximum, and tossing it on the place where the crack on the ceiling is.

“Bye, and I’ll rebuild you in my future battleship.”

Kissing the weapon, Kenji started to pull out mana and pour on the gun. The heat on the gun started to rise, and also to tremble heavily. So much so, that even Kenji was trembling.

“Here it goes!”

Vermivia was watching, as the advance of her troops was starting to get slower. She could see that Victor was stalling for time, and the sun was already starting to set.

The advance of the troops was faster before, mainly because Vermivia and Kenji’s companions were helping, but as one of the few warriors on Vermivia’s side said, they should rest, for a bigger fight that would most likely happen at night.

She and Kenji’s companions heard that advice, and simply retreated to the back, waiting for whatever would happen.

“Ma’am!”

She was pulled out of her thoughts, as one scout arrived to report on a situation she wanted to know since she heard the first explosion on another part of the city.

“Report.”

“Yes! The gates, to which the Man called Kenji had gone to.” Kasumi and Lucy’s ears perked up. “The first gate location, still has its gate there. However! It is slightly damaged.”

“Maintain some troops there. Do not allow anyone to get close to it. Repeat that to the other locations which still have the gates up. What about the other locations?”

“Yes, Ma’am! The second gate location has the gate taken down!” The scout trembled in happiness. “That was the first gate taken down. The third gate is under sur-! WHAT!?”

The scout words cut by a strong tremor, and then, a loud and big explosion occurred, on the third gate’s location.

KAPLOOOOOOOOOW!

Vermivia glanced towards the location of the explosion, widening her eyes. This was louder and bigger than the previous one. She then said to the Scout.

“Keep an eye on that location as well.”

“Yes… Ma’am!”

“What about the other 2 gates?”

“The fourth gate, has the Golden Gorgon on it, together with the Vampire! And the fifth gate, has the Vampire Donovan guarding it.”

“Kenji will kill him. Don’t worry bout that dumbass.”

The one to speak was Ayla.

“Keep a close eye on the gates that Kenji has already visited, and prevent anyone from getting in. As for the last two, leave them. I hope Kenji finishes this soon.”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

Finishing his report, the scout vanished. Vermivia glanced towards the battlefield again. Night is here. Please be over before anything bad happens.

With Raijin exploding, a huge hole was made in the ceiling, and Kenji simply jumped out of it, and was on the surface. Breathing a sigh of relief, he started walking, but was stopped by a group of Onis and Vampires in front of him.

“Vermivia or Victor?” He asked

“Vermivia.” All of them answered.

“I see. Watching out for any idiot?” They nodded. “Good. I don’t recommend entering the hole. But if you wanna die, go ahead.”

The reason why Kenji was rude to these guys, was because he wasn’t so sure in trusting all of them. Who knows? Maybe one of them is a traitor just like Sirius, hence why he acted like that.

“Excuse me, Mr Kenji?” A Half-Vampire stopped him. “May I know how-”

“I’m defeating Radreiale on the fourth location?” Kenji interrupted him.

“Uh, yes.” He asked unsure.

“None of your damn business.” But Kenji answered like that.

Activating his Agility Mode, Kenji used his grappling hook on the building in front of him, and disappeared. All the Onis and Vampires scoffed, grinned and laughed it off.

“That’s someone worthy of worrying about?” One of them asked.

“He’s such a dumbass.” Another continued.

“Yeah, he really thought we would be on that bitch’s side? Don’t make me laugh. She’s so weak.” The one who stopped Kenji said.

“Who cares? I just hope to have a fun time with her or any of the girls that guy brought. Hahahahahaha.” They all laughed.

“That, will not happen.”

A cold voice rung. They all glared at the source of the voice. It was the scout, that talked with Vermivia before.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“Me? I am your judge. Jury. And executioner today.”

With those words, the men started laughing again.

“Yo-”

The one who stopped Kenji, tried to point to the scout, only to have his hand severed.

“A-.”

And as he was about to scream, his life was cut short.

“Let’s not prolong this. I have a job to do.”

If Kenji had met this scout, he would be skeptical. Why? Because the scout was too strong for his tastes. Gladly, he wasn’t here as I came. He cannot know who I am.

The identity of the scout would stay hidden, at least for a little more. At least that much.

Hopping through the roofs, Kenji had his face contorted. Not because his body was tired nor injured, but because of his mind. I thought I would be able to do this without any issue. But hell. This is harder than I thought.

While planning all of this, he thought he would be able to bulldoze through the entire conflict, but looking at it again? He wanted to bash his past self on the wall.

“Not that I can- Hm?”

As he was mumbling to himself, he felt a very specific presence as he approached to the fourth gate. He glanced to the gate behind the fortress. That’s the closest one to… the Pure-Breed Vampires. Oh, my.

He started laughing, and jumped off to the next building.

“Well! Suzuki said that Naomi is a priestess, right? Meaning she’ll be able to heal as well!” He landed on the ground with a group of thugs in front of the entrance. “Sup.”

Greeting his enemies, Kenji activated his Shockwaves, blasting the closest thugs and hitting the others behind with their bodies. Some avoided their comrade's bodies, and rushed towards Kenji, just for him to avoid the crude and poor swords, and kill them with his own.

It took a few minutes to deal with all of them, but he was able to bulldoze through them. He then scanned the thugs, just in case he found anything new on them, but no luck.

“Aw, I thought I would be able to get more faulty stuff from Vortex. Tsk! Anyway.” He glanced to the door. “This presence is… Weird.”

Walking inside, Kenji saw weird vines around on the base floor. He soon found an entrance to a basement, into a long tunnel, and then reached a wide room, where a gate was, with vines the size or bigger than Vollstrecker was around. He was impressed, even whistling to it.

“Gotta say, it’s kinda nice. Except the bodies littering the place. Don’t you have like, a cleaning crew to do it? This kind of thing is dangerous, y’know?”

“You impress me, with your stupidity.”

“Hey, a little bit of stupidity is good in life, okay?”

“I do not see its usefulness.”

“Shame on you, then.” Kenji finished. “Gotta say, I did think you were weird, but not the point of being the batsy bitch, though.”

“You haven’t changed your attitude from when we first met. Despicable.”

“Despicable?” Kenji asked surprised. “Says the slut passed around more than a tray.”

“I used my resources.” She said annoyed.

“We have different concepts of ‘resources’.” Kenji said disgusted. “Well, not that I care anyway. This is the last day for you and your hubby.” Kenji looked to the side, and corrected himself. “Night. Last night.”

“Do you really think that’ll be possible? How pathetic. You, are the one dying.”

“Really? What? Are you gonna order that woman, to do so?” He pointed behind him.

“So you noticed.” Her left eye twitched in anger.

“You kidding, right?” Kenji asked with a frown. “If I couldn’t see something this big, I would be a blind man.”

“Enough.”

The woman, that being Radreiale, who had the same appearance as the old lady Kenji had spoken in the Empire’s Capital, morphed into a beautiful, alluring and in Kenji’s point of view, Disgusting Gorgon.

“He knows my good points.”

“Those probably being, traitorous, disgusting, and petty?”

KABOOM!

“See? Petty!”

Kenji landed a little ways away. Just now, the place where he was standing, was smashed by a giant hand. How to define the giant being, to his left side?

A giant, snake-like being, with its head being completely made out of thorny vines, with a white snake head poking out of it(yes, it’s like a head, poking out of a head… it doesn’t make sense, I know). Its entire body was made off of vines, in a scaly-like manner.

“I’m impressed. How did you mimic the scales?”

Kenji activated his Shield, defending himself from a fireball that was thrown at him, and brandished the shield towards the big snake.

“Don’t do that. Men don’t like that.”

Kenji said while storing his shield. Radreiale glared at him, and Kenji quickly grabbed his visor, and put it on.

“Clever boy.”

Kenji sighed. I almost became a sculpture.

“Alright bitch. Let’s do this.”

Activating his Agility Mode again, Kenji avoided the hand of the giant snake, that was swung horizontally against him. He had jumped out of the way, and jumped once again to avoid Radreiale’s magic. As the giant snake approached, he tossed 2 Zerstörer charges against its face, and used the face of the monster as a stepping stone, to avoid another magic from Radreiale.

“Not caring for her?”

“She’s just an asset!”

“Dully noted!”

He brought out the transmitter, and activated the charges, which exploded, and pushed the giant snake towards the walls. Upon landing, Kenji advanced towards Radreiale, charging his left hand with a shockwave, and punching Radreiale.

It was what he tried to do, but a magic shield appeared in front of his hand, stopping the shockwave from hitting her. Shit. I forgot that she can predict the future. Kenji stepped on the shield and took some distance, and avoided the fire and lightning balls tossed at him.

“Stay still dammit! Hissss”

Hopping around like a bunny, Kenji avoided the spells, and approached Radreiale. He punched again, to which she answered by using her staff to protect herself, surprising Kenji. So she knows how to fight with a Staff.

Smiling under his mask, Kenji started to throw punches and kicks at Radreiale, to which she answered to always parrying, or deflecting the hits thrown at her. She wasn’t able to parry a roundhouse kick that Kenji thrown, however.

“Ugh!”

Using her tail, as soon as she was thrown away, she hit Kenji on his back, making him fall.

“Ugh! SHIT!”

Just as he fell, Kenji hastily acted, using his shockwave to throw himself out of the way of the giant hand yet again. He glared at the giant snake, bringing up his shield, defending against Radreiale’s wind blades.

“She’s quite versatile, huh.”

Wondering about it, Kenji brandished his shield at her, to which she answered by getting out of the way, slithering away. Still, the kinetic energy hit the floor, causing a minor shockwave, tossing her away.

“Ok, for now she’ll be out. So you’ll be my main problem.”

Kenji scanned the monster in front of him. He knew that this woman was betrayed, used, and all that, but she was getting in his way. If you keep interfering, I’m just gonna take you down.

The snake mouth opened. From it, a green like mist was being emanated. Kenji Flash stepped out of the way, and the giant Snake head breathed the poisonous breath, creating spikes of crystallized poison on the floor.

“Wow. Hm?!” Kenji’s impressed words took a second or two, before he noticed something, and punched the floor, and pulled a slab of rock. “GIVE IT A BREAK!”

The slab of rock was destroyed by the fireball, and Kenji simply grabbed Ansturm, and aimed at Radreiale. She was grinning, but her expression took a second to change. She knew the weapon in Kenji’s hands. Furthermore, she saw it in one of her visions. NO!

Screaming in her mind, Radreiale used her staff to bring up a wall of rock in front of her.

“Too bad.”

Kenji charged Ansturm, shooting the 3 missiles. His visor changed the vision to thermal vision, seeing… nothing. But then he changed the visor again, to seeing mana. There you are.

The visor saw a golden light behind the wall of rock, in the shape of a serpent. This won’t kill ya, but it’ll hurt.

“A LOT!”

After charging it enough, Ansturm shot the tree missiles. The three missiles separated into smaller ones, and the 3 big ones also were working. The 15 small missiles that came out of the 3 bigger ones, separated into 3 different positions. 5 above, and the other 10, to the left and right.

The 3 big missiles hit the wall of rock first, and Radreiale, who thought to be safe, smiled. Until she had another vision. But before she could even act, the 15 small missiles, which made parabolas, to the left and right, and above, hit her completely.

“Kya-!”

Her shout took a moment. Kenji listened to it, and stored his weapon, glancing at the giant snake. Why it hadn’t moved? Kenji asked himself.

The giant snake, glanced at where Radreiale was, and at Kenji again. Hissing, the giant snake hands and tail, moved through the floor. The roots, moved through the floor, shifting the entire place.

“Tch! I thought it would be because of Radreiale, but no! It just can’t be reasoned with!”

Jumping, Kenji took Fujin out. Just as a reminder, Fujin, is a hoverboard that Kenji had built(back in Chapter 24). It had a dark-green top half, and the bottom was completely white. Different from the hoverboards one might be used to, Fujin had 4 helicopter like propellers, 2 small ones on the front and 2 big ones at the back. And one of the sides of the hoverboard, had a turbine.

Kenji jumped on it, and hovered above the entire floor. In a matter of seconds, the entire floor disappeared. Now, the entire room was nothing but a deep hole with apparent no end to it.

“I’m just impressed that the gate wasn’t touched.”

The gate’s pillars, were located right in the middle of the room. And even after the entirety of the room moved and disappeared, that place was normal. Like a pillar in the middle of an ocean. Even the place where Radreiale was supposed to be, also moved, getting closer to the giant serpent. So it actually knows it has to protect that bitch.

Hovering around the place Kenji kept his eyes on the giant monster, and took some distance from it. As he distanced himself from it, Kenji was confused as to why the monster hadn’t attacked him yet. Wait a sec- I KNEW IT!

Just as he was questioning himself, he looked below him, finding a giant maw, made out of the stone floor, full of thorny vines on it, trying to devour him.

“CLUTCH!”

“C.L.U.T.C.H ACTIVATED. AWAITING YOUR ORDERS.”

“Attack the target at fixed intervals. The target’s that moving platform on the side of the big snake!”

“UNDERSTOOD. ACTIVATING CLOAKING DEVICE.”

“Good to have someone that understands what my objective is!”

As Kenji ordered C.L.U.T.C.H, the 5 little drones hovered stealthily, and as Kenji said, they attacked the platform being protected.

As C.L.U.T.C.H attacked the platform, the giant snake hissed, and moved its vines to attack the 5 drones, to which all of them avoided.

Meanwhile, Kenji had Strafe in his hands, charged partially, since he did not want to receive the recoil of it, and hit the wall, shot at the giant snake.

The bullet traveled at high speeds, and even before the monster could react to it, the bullet pierced the side of the snake head, which was focused on the drones, even gone so far as going out through the other side, and hitting the wall.

SHIAAAAAAAAA!

A loud and ear-piercing hiss was emitted from the monster, making the entire cave shake.

“Tch! I have no time for this!”

Kenji focused and changed the mode of his left eye, to thermal vision. This time, the target wasn’t someone with a high body temperature, however. The target was cold. After all, the woman was used as an undead.

“Found you.”

Strangely enough, in Kenji’s left eye thermal vision, the vines had some heat to them, but not what Kenji was looking for. Which was the Woman.

Turning around with Fujin, Kenji started wall riding, and as he did so, the vines came after him. Shit! What he wanted to do, was to wall ride, aim at the target on the giant vine snake body, and take out the woman inside. But the vines were getting in his way.

Storing Strafe, Kenji maneuvered Fujin, avoiding the vines, and using slight charged shockwaves, towards the vines, taking them out of his way. But that plan was starting to fail, as the vines, instead of grabbing him, were now trying to trap Kenji. Alright. If you insist. I planned to use this against that dumbass.

With his right hand, Kenji took out of a mallet from his Digi-Storage, pressing a button on the handle of it. Before the entire vine dome could close, the sword was already out, and as Kenji grabbed the handle of the blade, and a red light was emitted from it.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU WERE BRAGGING ABOUT WHAT YOU WOULD DO! AND LOOK AT YOU NOW?! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

As Kenji was trapped in the vine sphere, Radreiale came out of the platform that was being protected by the snake monster, laughing at him. The drones that Kenji built, were with their cameras pointed at the vine sphere, and Radreiale was ecstatic about it.

“Now, all we need to do is- Huh?”

A strong and bright blue light was being emitted from the vine sphere. According to Kenji’s design, specifically on his gauntlet blades, whenever Kenji’s emotions were fluctuating, or one emotion was stronger than the others, it would impact the color of the heat on the blades.

The stronger the emotion, the stronger the color, the stronger the heat. And blue was a sign that the blades reached the highest temperature possible. In fact, the blades would achieve the same color as the user’s mana. In Kenji’s case, it was a dark blue.

“NO!”

From the inside of the sphere of vines, a single slash was done. The vines were severed horizontally, and burned from there upwards.

Kenji fixed his eyes on the platform Radreiale was at. At the moment he did so, Radreiale’s eyes shook. This… wasn’t… on the visions I had.

Kicking at Fujin(and storing it), Kenji used his Heaven Step skill, which allows him to create platforms out of his mana on thin air, and jumped through them.

“GET HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM!”

Through Radreiale’s cry, the vines weaved towards Kenji. Kenji knew that the amounts of Vines going towards him WOULD get him. And even if he tried to bulldoze through them, he wouldn’t come out unscathed.

So, he used his Title on combat for the first time.

Focused Freak. This title, would allow Kenji to focus on a task to a degree where he would forget everything else around him. He would usually use this Title whenever he was making something, like when he made Satz’ prototype, and all of his equipments, as well as for the girls.

But in combat? He had never used. After all, focusing all of your might on ONE target, on a battlefield, was stupidity. But! Right now? He had only 2 to worry about. A lot of vines, for sure, but he thought it to be possible to use that title in his favor.

So, with his title activated(it cannot really be activated, he just needs to concentrate on what he wants, and it’ll work), Kenji started slashing through the vines, and jumping on the platforms he made.

“GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIM! GET HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM!”

Radreiale’s cries could be heard, only by C.L.U.T.C.H, of course. Kenji was focused on the vines, and solely onto that.

Why C.L.U.T.C.H hadn’t attacked Radreiale? Because their mission was to target the platform, and since Kenji had been trapped, they were about to act towards the vines, when Kenji got out. So now, they were only observing Kenji.

As Kenji cut through the vines, the sword slightly cracked on the tip. But Kenji kept going, and reached the height of the previous floor, where the gate was located. At that moment…

► Skill Energy Slash Has Been Acquired ◄

The blade’s flame erupted, and Kenji brandished upwards. A blade, made out of blue flames, was emitted by the sword, cutting the giant monster, and also the one inside it.

The floor suddenly returned to normal, with a few parts lost of course. An enormous amount of dust was produced, clouding the entire room.

“Haa… Haa… Haa… I need to- KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

As Radreiale was getting up and leaning against the wall, a blade pierced her lower snake-like body, and impaling it on the wall.

“AH! AAAAAAAH!”

“Where do you think you're going?” A cold voice rung. “You have to pay for the lives of the children you killed, remember?”

The dust was settling, and Kenji’s figure appeared, Radreiale lashed her hands towards him. To which he answered by activating his gauntlet blades, and piercing her arms on the wall.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“Shut up…”

A punch. A single punch, and she was knocked out. As for what happened right after? You’ll have to wait, and see.