Chapter 771: The Natural-Born Demon Lord of Evil, Kaito Shirogane
Is Mercenary Tao a fool?
Reinhardt believed that right now, even the Reincarnators most hostile to Mercenary Tao would find it hard to accept this viewpoint.
Mercenary Tao was a beast, lacking the ability to empathize with most humans, lacking compassion, and impossible to measure by common sense.
But at the same time, Mercenary Tao was an incredibly cunning beast. He sharply avoided trap after trap, as if blessed by destiny, evading various hunts before he grew up, and then grew at an even swifter pace to turn around and kill those enemies.
So, would a Mercenary Tao like this really fall into Yoko's trap so easily?!
Reinhardt's original judgment was: absolutely not!
Yoko couldn't be considered a deeply calculating, wise type. Even within Azure Sky, most of the planning in the past had been his responsibility.
Yoko's plans could only ever be considered thorough. As for techniques like hiding her true motives to set up decoys, or even using the opponent's desires to force them onto a predetermined path in an overt scheme—Yoko knew none of that.
In terms of sheer conspiracy, Yoko was not only inferior to the King of Destiny and his several Seat Officers, but probably not even a match for the 'Sage' under Eternal Destiny.
Could a trap of this level directly cause Mercenary Tao to die and be possessed?!
Reinhardt originally thought that Yoko's plan was mere child's play to both their side and Mercenary Tao's side. The two sides would tacitly fight each other while simultaneously ruining Yoko's plan.
What Yoko wanted to do was nothing more than turn the Gift Game, after the Reincarnators' intervention, into some sort of massive disaster, thereby making the phenomenon of 'Reincarnators' a representative of calamity, thus spawning a new timeline.
The so-called timeline where Reincarnators become world-destroying Demon Lords indeed had a possibility, but the probability wasn't high.
On the contrary, having Reincarnators become a symbol of calamity to attract the attention of those 3-Digit Gods and Buddhas was far more realistic.
Coupled with the fact that behind Yoko stood a top-tier entity of at least 3-Digit status, this plan was almost completely exposed.
And Azure Sky choosing to cooperate with plot protagonists like Izayoi Sakamaki to connect with Shiroyasha, and exposing Yoko's conspiracy during this disaster, would be enough to let the Gods and Buddhas of the universe see that good and evil coexisted within the Reincarnator group, causing Yoko's plan to fail.
Even if Kaito Shirogane's group were enemies with their side, as long as they didn't participate in the calamity event, it wouldn't affect the grand scheme.
Moreover, the core of Yoko's plan was also very simple: to unseal Absolute Evil: Azi Dahaka, the 3-Digit Demon Lord.
To unseal this terrifying monster who could fight millions of pantheons alone under the banner of 'Irreconcilable Enemy', the Giant Tree of Life had to be destroyed. Azure Sky had long been guarding against this move.
To think that it was actually Mercenary Tao who, through some unknown method, unsealed Azi Dahaka and was possessed by Him?
Reinhardt didn't think Mercenary Tao was stupid enough not to understand Yoko's plan. Therefore, he could only guess that Mercenary Tao, after previously activating the Manifestation of the Cosmic Heavenly Deity and the Kaio-Ken, had actually reached the end of his life.
Thus, he was forced to place his hopes of survival on resurrecting the Demon Lord, and was consequently possessed.
"Let's retreat for now. We must unite more plot characters. Azi Dahaka has revived; even if His strength isn't as exaggerated as a 3-Digit, it's not something we can resolve—"
The massive magic array above Reinhardt's head shone, and the Azure Sky members were teleported away together.
On the other side, Mori-Summer continuously dodged and maneuvered, but Hakumen pursued relentlessly, and Satoru Gojo had also returned. They wanted to make this Azure Sky general stay behind.
From the corner of her eye, Mori-Summer watched the pitch-black Sea of Life in the distance expand as if it had exploded, but everything was completely silent.
Things like 'sound' seemed to vanish at this moment. Those magical beasts were clearly roaring and screaming, but no sound came out.
She only saw a void appear in the center of the Sea of Life formed by the magical beasts, which then instantly expanded further outward.
Beads of sweat dripped from Mori-Summer's forehead. Mercenary Tao was possessed by Azi Dahaka?!
She didn't understand why these plot characters summoned by Mercenary Tao showed absolutely no signs of anxiety. Was it because the Azi Dahaka that possessed Mercenary Tao also seized the ownership of those subordinate summons?
Mori-Summer's sword momentum grew increasingly fierce, her killing intent ever more obvious. Artoria began to struggle to parry, and wounds started appearing on Hakumen's body, but both ignored them.
However, the slashes and attacks of the group began to produce no sound. The sound in this space had been stripped away.
Mori-Summer felt an increasingly intense sense of alienation. It was the fear living creatures unconsciously produced when an overly powerful entity approached.
Yes, she clearly perceived that she was afraid, to the extent that the angle and speed of her sword strikes were no longer as precise.
Let alone entering the Realm of Law through technique or the Dao through the sword, at this moment, she probably couldn't even exert her Lv7-level Swordsmanship Mastery.
But she was still suppressing Artoria and that guy whose face was covered in black incantations. There was only one reason: the opponents were also afraid, the opponents were also being affected by that pressure!
Especially that powerful spirit entity with a face full of black incantations. This being, suspected of possessing divine traits, currently had His power and presence compressed by nearly half.
This was enough to prove that the entity awakening from Mercenary Tao's body was not Mercenary Tao!
"Azi Dahaka's 'Evil' is absolute, He wouldn't—"
Opening and closing her mouth several times, Mori-Summer realized she couldn't make a sound at all. The expressions of the three powerful spirits before her also became somewhat dull and numb.
She couldn't tell if this was a reaction born of fear or the effect of some special ability that didn't even have a prompt on the space's interface.
But a bone-chilling sensation was already rising up her spine, vertebra by vertebra.
Roar!
Suddenly, a massive roar exploded out of nowhere. The demonic dragon Tiamat, in Her fury, completely ignored everything upon seeing the lowest layer of Her Sea of Life almost completely shattered.
Those life forms She created, right beside Her, chose to betray Her commands simply out of fear.
Intense light spewed from Tiamat's maw downwards. The magical beasts melted like black liquid. She directly swept the breath across the entire continental plate that had been submerged by the ocean.
There were once tall mountains and cities here, but in the battle of the three monsters, everything had vanished.
The roar of the demonic dragon Tiamat seemed to break some sort of seal. Sound completely returned. Mori-Summer felt the suffocating malice in the air and the howling of the air currents.
The metallic clashing sounds of swords striking swords also returned to her ears.
The concentric ripples of the Concussive Pulse of the Spiritual Light behind Mori-Summer also spread out again. She hadn't even realized that in that state just now, even the Concussive Pulse of the Spiritual Light had been completely suppressed.
Boom!
Tiamat's breath, seemingly condensed from near-infinite magical energy, instantly struck Azi Dahaka, who was strolling on the ocean.
This Azi Dahaka, still wearing Mercenary Tao's dark green trench coat, made no move to dodge and was hit head-on.
The explosion and shockwave directly drove the ocean into a depression.
Mori-Summer took a step forward, and afterimages appeared in the sky, each one drawing its sword and slashing simultaneously.
[Afterimage Step Slash]!
Countless sword lights exploded like a lotus flower. The indisposed Hakumen, Artoria, and Satoru Gojo all dodged awkwardly, thus allowing Mori-Summer to create distance. Mori-Summer turned her head and sped away like a streak of light in Sousuke's direction.
She knew very well that a major problem had occurred in this world. She had to cooperate with Sousuke for a single-point breakthrough, freeing up Sousuke, their top-tier combat asset.
She even had to find a way to switch matchups, allowing Izayoi Sakamaki and Sousuke to face enemies that didn't counter them as heavily.
And as a price, she might be killed by those two 'Beasts' in the process.
As she left, Mori-Summer once again used her Qi perception to check Mercenary Tao's position and state. She suddenly froze, almost stopping in her tracks.
She distinctly felt that Mercenary Tao's state—had recovered!
That previous state of being like a candle in the wind had vanished. At this moment, it had become incomparably strong, and the position—completely overlapped with that three-headed demonic dragon, Azi Dahaka.
"Are you saying Mercenary Tao wasn't possessed or devoured by Azi Dahaka, but rather, under these circumstances, he successfully gained the right to share a body with Azi Dahaka?!"
Reinhardt's voice held thick skepticism, but Professor Kento, who had just been found and rescued by him, nodded with a calm expression.
After seeing his sister, this young man seemed to have grown up rapidly. His eyes had become completely different, no longer showing the occasional confusion and panic from before.
Kento nodded. He was mentally exhausted, even much weaker than usual due to the high-intensity use of the Tarot Sequence abilities.
But within this assembly, besides the dead 'Roland' whom he had never met, they lacked one type of enhancement: a Reincarnator of the Destiny faction!
Information gathering within Azure Sky mostly relied on transactions, as well as Guild Master Sousuke's unique 'flash of inspiration'.
But although the flash of inspiration was domineering—pointing straight to the root and unaffected by interference once triggered—after careful analysis, Kento easily discovered the ability's weakness.
It had to be a matter related to Sousuke to possibly trigger his thoughts. The higher the relevance, the easier it was to be captured by Sousuke's flash of inspiration.
Conversely, matters completely unrelated to Sousuke were very difficult to trigger a flash of inspiration for.
Things with absolutely no omens were also hard for Sousuke to pay attention to, and thus actively trigger.
Kento knew that in Sousuke's plan, he was the existence meant to fill this gap. His acquisition of the card [Tarot II: The High Priestess] was highly likely arranged by Sousuke using the magic of miracles.
Right now, it was time for him to start playing his role as a member of the team.
Kento had finally made his choice. He believed Ye Zi had completely gone down the wrong path, a 'wrong road'.
"Mercenary Tao has a special destiny line. According to our previous intelligence, the Sixth Seat of Destiny, 'Shiro', determined that Mercenary Tao had a future of becoming 'Fatalism', but then after the major event outbreak in the B711 world, said this future had vanished."
"And before entering this world, Yasushi believed Mercenary Tao had the destiny of becoming the Demon Lord of Evil—which is beginning to manifest right now."
Kento opened his hand. Inside was a gemstone still emitting a ruby-like luster. As it fell, the ruby-like light drifted with the wind.
"Mercenary Tao has the destiny of manifesting as the 'Demon Lord of Evil' and ultimately being defeated and dying in this world. This is the truth."
"This is Mercenary Tao's—Destined Death!"
Kento exhaled the stale air from his chest. No matter how hard it was to believe, he had seen it countless times in those omens, all ultimately pointing to this ending.
Why did Yasushi say Mercenary Tao would meet his Destined Death in this world, while also saying Mercenary Tao had a special destiny with the possibility of becoming a Demon Lord?
He originally thought it was one of many possible timelines, but he didn't expect them to appear simultaneously.
Reinhardt connected this to the fateful corresponding relationship between Izayoi Sakamaki and Azi Dahaka, and how Mercenary Tao's journey thus far indeed had inextricable links to the concept of 'Evil'.
Mercenary Tao was an evil person; there was no doubt about that. He had even obtained something like 'All the World's Evil'.
The connection between these two had probably been hinted at from the very beginning. It was just that because the gap in power levels was too massive, they hadn't thought in this direction before.
"So, our plan now should be to unite with plot characters like Gilgamesh to contain the magical beasts' attack, while figuring out a way to swap the matchups for Izayoi Sakamaki and the Guild Master."
Reinhardt rubbed his chin. They had to find a way to make Izayoi Sakamaki face Azi Dahaka, who was reviving from within Mercenary Tao. A Beast like 'Primate Murder' grew stronger as its opponent grew stronger, but as long as they changed to an appropriate opponent, they could—
Boom!
The earth trembled, the sky shook, and terrifying magical energy spread indiscriminately in all directions.
A white Sea of Life spread over the ocean's surface and rapidly extended towards a vaster space.
White demonic dragons emerged one by one from this Sea of Life and immediately began attacking their surroundings.
Among these demonic dragons, a very small number of individuals had two heads. Just a single breath from such an individual could clear out magical beasts for thousands of meters; their power was extremely terrifying.
Kaito Shirogane—or rather, Azi Dahaka at this moment—had his eyes on the left and right heads completely transform into a brilliant spectrum of colors.
A massive amount of information and power factors were completely analyzed by these eyes. Furthermore, he could feel his body instantly adapting to these powers.
He almost naturally mimicked Tiamat's 'Sea of Life'.
"Thou art also a Fruit of Evil, it is only natural thou possess such power."
Within Kaito Shirogane's empty consciousness space, a second Throne of the Heart appeared above the Sea of Consciousness. A pale-bodied demonic dragon with three heads sat upon that Throne of the Heart, facing Kaito Shirogane.
Azi Dahaka nodded, showing considerable recognition for his colleague.
Completely contrary to what Yoko, Mori-Summer, and the others imagined, the Azi Dahaka reviving within Kaito Shirogane not only didn't erupt into a battle for control of the body...
It was, instead, exceptionally harmonious.
The two were almost like two sides of the same coin, both finding a strong sense of validation in each other.
Within this space, disguise was impossible; all thoughts were laid bare. The two's understandings of good and evil, of combat, and of the world were surprisingly similar.
Even the power itself—shared very similar characteristics.
Azi Dahaka's core Authority, [Another Cosmology: Avesta], allowed Him to reverse good and evil, rendering the powers and weapons of righteous and benevolent gods largely ineffective against Him.
On the other hand, it could also mimic almost any target's Authority at god-like speed.
Kaito Shirogane already possessed both of these capabilities as well.
Therefore, Azi Dahaka believed Kaito Shirogane was the 'Fruit of Evil' from another world.