Chapter 235

The entire world fell silent at this moment.

A deathly stillness.

A chilling, cold breeze swept through.

It was only after several full seconds that everyone, as if frozen in place, shuddered violently, their eyes widening in disbelief.

That was out of sheer terror.

Their bodies were trembling, their legs knocking together uncontrollably.

We're done for, we're done for, we're really going to die this time.

"I want to say... no... ah..."

Nura Rihan, the great yokai who had led the Hundred Demons since the Warring States period, found his tongue tied, unable to articulate what he wanted to express.

In the analysis room.

"Have... no... have They come to our world?"

The true masters of the Federation, the controllers of the conglomerates with their dizzying webs of equity, looked toward the analyst with near-supplication.

But they received no response.

Until a guard, crawling over in a tremble, checked the analyst's pulse and suddenly widened his eyes, turning his head stiffly.

"Sir... he's dead."

The analyst was dead?

A bone-chilling cold seemed to bloom throughout the conference hall.

Everyone knew what that meant.

The more one understood that kind of greatness, the deeper the fear.

The analyst, who had been the first to realize that the battlefield of those two might descend upon reality, had suffered cardiac arrest from the sheer, encroaching terror and been scared to death.

On the rooftop.

"Yano, you're joking, right?"

Hiratsuka Shizuka stood with her back to the sky, trembling as she lit a cigarette, not daring to look back.

She had become a complete ostrich with her head buried in the ground, refusing to accept reality.

Opposite her.

Yano's face had lost its usual fake smile; she stared at the sky expressionlessly, stiff as a statue.

Hiratsuka Shizuka knew.

The usually lawless Yano... was afraid.

Beyond the heavens.

Brilliant light rose from the horizon, transforming into ripples of radiance that spread layer by layer, extending from the depths of the starry sky.

Even from that distant expanse, people could clearly feel the majesty spreading toward them.

It didn't matter if one was a soldier with an indomitable will or an ancient demon king; everyone trembled under that majesty.

It was an absolute disparity in the hierarchy of life, creating a crushing pressure on the soul.

Egypt, Great Britain, France... the entire world.

The sound of chattering teeth formed a continuous line, legs shook into blurs, and everyone fell into a state of ultimate panic.

There was also an absurd feeling that an ultimate villain was about to jump out of the screen to strike them down.

Only at this moment did they suddenly realize.

That's right.

That wasn't some screen, not some projector, but a great creation of unknown origin.

What was displayed wasn't some mundane work of art, not a game, not an illusion...

But a reality truly happening in a foreign land.

A reality belonging to people who were also flesh and blood, and even bore the same faces!

This fact was now being forcibly displayed before them, naked and raw.

For the first time!

They perceived their own arrogance...

Only now did they understand how helpless and desperate the people in that foreign land felt when facing such greatness.

Those who prided themselves on an unyielding spirit and an unshakable will finally realized how laughable and pale their arrogance truly was.

So-called willpower...

In the face of such an absolute disparity in existence, in the face of such unreachable power.

It was meaningless.

Everyone could only watch passively, suffocating, like dying geese, looking toward the heavens...

The blooming aurora.

The overwhelming shockwaves.

Sweeping across the sky, layer upon layer, blooming everywhere, even colliding with the magnificent sun and splashing up solar prominences ten thousand kilometers high.

Everyone was like a lone boat in a raging tsunami, able only to wait helplessly and passively for the final outcome.

After an unknown amount of time.

"Nii-san, are you trying to accelerate my time by pushing me into the sun?"

A light laugh echoed across the deep cosmos, resounding in the hearts of every sentient being in the world.

"But it seems to have no effect..."

The gentle voice of the young man came through.

In people's minds, the image of a gentle young man shaking his head helplessly seemed to reappear.

"I told you, Nii-san."

As the vast aurora bloomed, annihilating the basic units that composed the young man and causing him to vanish like ashes, Kaguya's tall figure stepped out from the void to the Reverse Reverse Side, speaking calmly.

"The current me is like one who has reached the other shore; I have transcended the spiral of cause, effect, and time. I am a cycle unto myself, untouched by the passing years."

"Your attempts are meaningless."

In the duel that transcended vision, the light halos formed by the collision of the great beings seemed to connect into a single line.

"My past cannot be altered."

"My time is a single entity."

"My origin has become a cycle."

"Even if you kill my past and cast my present into a star, I... will remain forever!!!"

People's pupils contracted; before they could even feel shock, the young man's helpless sigh had already sounded.

"Falling eternally into the Root, Kaguya... ah~"

The light points scattered and reorganized into the majesty of the Holy King, looking at Kaguya with complexity.

"You, who have touched the Root, are equivalent to the outflow of the Root. You have gained the ultimate intellect that transcends the masses, and while you cover all possibilities of humanity..."

"You are also destined to return to the Root, to the absolute 【Nothingness】 that lacks concepts of time, space, and matter... equivalent to death."

"And this time..."

"Thirty-six thousand seconds from now!"

The intellectual female voice was very calm: "That is enough, Nii-san."

For her, death had long since become a mundane occurrence, like eating or drinking.

Death was never important.

What mattered was what one died for.

The young man had long understood this, so he never denied or questioned Kaguya's resolve.

As members of those who had crossed countless cycles, perhaps only they could understand each other.

Ideals—how enchanting they truly are.

It is the ultimate spiritual pursuit of humanity after satisfying, reaching, and transcending material desires.

To sacrifice everything for it is only natural.

But Kaguya, my sister.

Our ideals are destined to allow only one Reverse Reverse Side to succeed.

The decisive battle continued.

The decisive battle continues.】