Chapter 356: I Admit You Are Strong
"This guy..."
Mard Geer Tartaros breathed out, the sound barely audible over the groaning of the shifting earth. He stared blankly at the towering mountain that had been cleaved in two. The colossal fissure right beside his feet felt like a gaping wound in the world itself, a stark, terrifying reminder of the sheer destructive force he had just barely evaded.
His classically handsome, composed face was now twisted into an expression of utter gravity. The cold sweat beading on his forehead betrayed the absolute shock rattling his demonic core.
"I underestimated you." Mard Geer locked his dark eyes onto Ren, his voice tight with a newfound, begrudging respect.
Floating casually in the air, Ren looked down at the so-called Underworld King and chuckled. It was a low, arrogant sound. Having transformed into his current state, his heart was overflowing with an absolute, undeniable supremacy. In his eyes, Mard Geer Tartaros—the terrifying guild master who had brought the magical world to its knees—was nothing more than a fragile toy.
"Did you dodge it?" Ren smirked, brushing a speck of dust from his shoulder. "Your luck is quite good, demon. I genuinely thought that strike just now would have cleanly split you in half. What a shame."
Ren's blatantly contemptuous attitude struck a nerve deep within the Etherious. Mard Geer's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, his aura flaring with malevolent, dark energy.
"Human," Mard Geer hissed, his voice dropping to a deadly, resonant octave. "You have made me feel an emotion I haven't felt in a very, very long time. An emotion called anger."
The ground around Mard Geer began to tremble, cracking under the sudden surge of dense Curse power. The air grew heavy, suffocatingly thick with dark malice.
"I admit you are strong," Mard Geer continued, spreading his arms as his magical pressure skyrocketed. "But you are still just a human. Do you truly think your pathetic mortal power will still work before the true form of Mard Geer? After four hundred long years, Master E.N.D. is finally about to be resurrected. It is time for Mard Geer to awaken!"
In an instant, Mard Geer's body began to mutate wildly, initiating his true demonic manifestation. Dark, hardened skin crept up his neck and face. Massive, leathery bat-like wings ripped through the back of his garments, spreading wide to blot out the sun. His aura became feral, wild, and utterly catastrophic.
"My name is Mard Geer Tartaros!" he roared, his voice echoing across the ruined wasteland. "I am both the Master of the Underworld and the ultimate demon!"
Ren simply floated there, raising a single eyebrow in mild amusement as the shockwaves of the transformation washed over him.
"Oh? This form is somewhat interesting," Ren mused, resting a hand on his hip. "However, using my current transformation against you feels a bit like bullying an infant. If you want to play as a demon, I'll switch to another transformation to play along."
Ren closed his eyes, his consciousness connecting with the limitless void within.
[System Prompt: Acknowledged. Initiating Transformation.]
"Full Body Take Over: Ulquiorra Cifer!"
If his opponent wanted to parade around as a winged demon of the Underworld, Ren would gladly show him what true, absolute despair looked like. He would transform into the Murciélago form to play along.
A pillar of blinding spiritual pressure erupted from Ren's body, shattering the very bedrock beneath him. When the light faded, Ren's appearance had completely changed. His skin was now a sickly, pallid white. Two striking, dark-green tear marks ran down his cheeks from his hollow, emotionless eyes. The remnants of a bone-white mask sat atop his head like a broken crown, and a gaping, dark Hollow hole pierced cleanly through the base of his throat.
"Enclose... Murciélago."
[Akarin's Note: Murciélago (Black-Winged Great Demon) is the Resurrección of the 4th Espada, Ulquiorra Cifer. Releasing this form unleashes a localized downpour of spiritual pressure so dense and heavy that it mimics black rain, plunging the surrounding area into an atmosphere of suffocating despair.]
As Ren chanted the Resurrección release, the sky above them suddenly turned a violent pitch-black.
Pitter. Patter.
Heavy, pitch-black raindrops began to fall from the heavens. The dark water hit the destroyed landscape, sizzling against the rocks. As the inky rain struck Mard Geer's face, the Underworld King flinched, feeling an unnatural, icy chill seep directly into his soul. It wasn't just cold—it was the pure, distilled essence of despair.
Soon, the violent anomaly in the sky vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving Ren floating in his first-stage Resurrección form. Two massive, elegant black bat wings extended from his back, draped behind him like a dark cloak of royalty.
Mard Geer stared at Ren's new form, his demonic eyes shifting with a mix of caution and fury. The human in front of him now looked exactly like a demon—perhaps even more authentic than the Etherious themselves.
"Come," Ren said, his voice now entirely devoid of emotion, ringing out with a cold, metallic finality. "I'll play with you."
"Hmph! Human, do not be so arrogant!!"
Infuriated by the sheer disrespect, Mard Geer crossed his arms defensively before violently sweeping them outward.
Rumble!
A vast array of thick, jagged Thorns violently surged from the earth behind him. The colossal, barbed vines whipped around like a nest of furious vipers, converging to impale Ren from all directions.
Bzzzt!
"Sonído."
Ren's body flickered with a sharp burst of static. He vanished entirely from the Thorns' path, bypassing the laws of physics to reappear instantaneously several dozen yards higher in mid-air.
Seeing his target evade, Mard Geer sneered, immediately manipulating the massive Thorns to pivot in mid-air, rushing upward toward Ren like a barrage of spears.
Ren didn't even blink. He slowly extended his right arm, pointing his index finger directly at the surging mass of demonic vines and the Underworld King below.
A tiny, dense black sphere rapidly condensed at the tip of his pale finger, outlined by a terrifying, luminous green halo. The air around the sphere warped, screaming as the sheer density of the energy distorted space itself.
"Cero Oscuras."
SWISH————!!
An apocalyptic beam of pitch-black spiritual energy erupted from his fingertip. The Cero Oscuras cascaded downward like a waterfall of absolute destruction, effortlessly enveloping the entire swarm of attacking Thorns. Under the terrifying density of the Black Hollow Flash, Mard Geer's absolute Curse power was ruthlessly decomposed in an instant, turning to ash before the vines could even reach Ren.
BOOM————!!
A cataclysmic explosion erupted the exact moment the beam struck Mard Geer's position. The sheer kinetic force of the blast sheared the surrounding ground, vaporizing rock and sending shockwaves rippling across the horizon for miles.
After a long moment, the roaring dust and smoke slowly began to clear, revealing an enormous crater in the earth. At the very center of the devastation stood Mard Geer, his breathing ragged. He was huddled defensively, using his great demonic wings to fiercely shield his body. Thanks to the impenetrable defense of his Etherious wings, he didn't seem to have taken any fatal damage, though his arms trembled slightly from the impact.
"Hmph! Human, this is my true strength!" Mard Geer roared, his pride wounded. He lowered his smoking wings, his eyes burning with absolute malice. "Tremble before my true power! Dea Yggdrasil!!"
Mard Geer thrust his palm forward. A massive black portal suddenly tore open the fabric of space beside him, looking like a rift leading directly to the deepest abyss of the Underworld.
WHOOSH————!
A gargantuan, ancient wooden tree trunk—thick enough to crush a fortress—explosively erupted from the dark portal, rocketing upward to smash Ren out of the sky.
Bzzzt!
"Sonído."
Ren activated his high-speed movement once again. He completely bypassed the gargantuan tree, his body instantly materializing in the space directly behind Mard Geer.
"Luz de la Luna."
Ren's cold voice whispered directly into the demon's ear. In a flash of brilliant cyan light, a crackling, javelin-like weapon composed entirely of hyper-dense spiritual energy instantly condensed in Ren's outstretched hand.
Mard Geer's heightened demonic instincts screamed at him, sensing the fatal danger at his back. But he was far too late to dodge.
PUCHI————!
With a sickening tear of flesh and bone, Ren swung the spear of light. The blade cleaved through Mard Geer's defenses flawlessly, completely slicing off one of his massive demonic wings at the root.
"Argh!" Mard Geer gritted his teeth, stumbling forward as black blood sprayed wildly from the severed stump.
"Alegria—Crimson Peony!"
[Akarin's Note: The raw text incorrectly attributes a targeted explosive 'red peony flower' to Mard Geer's Alegria Curse. In official lore, Alegria is a massive spell that assimilates victims into the giant beast Plutogrim. To preserve the narrative sequence, it has been adapted here as a localized, parasitic explosive bloom derived from his Thorn Curse.]
While Mard Geer was dodging clumsily, trying to put distance between himself and the terrifying pale demon behind him, he desperately activated a secondary Curse. Without warning, a glowing, crimson peony flower violently sprouted directly from the center of Ren's chest, taking root in his spiritual pressure.
BOOM————!
The demonic red peony detonated point-blank. A massive cloud of scorching, dark flames and concussive force completely engulfed Ren's upper body.
Mard Geer skidded to a halt, looking up at the sky, panting heavily. A cruel, victorious smile began to tug at the corners of his mouth.
Tap. Tap.
The sound of footsteps echoing in the air wiped the smile from Mard Geer's face instantly. Ren calmly walked out of the dense smoke of the explosion, effortlessly stepping on the empty air. His white garments were immaculate. His pale skin didn't have a single scratch. He appeared completely, utterly unscathed.
Mard Geer's pupils shrank. He finally realized that the sheer defensive strength of Ren's current transformation was something out of a nightmare.
Swish, swish!!
Drawing on his vast reserves of Curse power, Mard Geer's severed wing furiously wriggled and expanded, rapidly regenerating in a spray of dark mist until it was completely whole once more.
"Oh?" Ren's hollow eyes fixed on the regrown limb. "You can actually perform High-Speed Regeneration? I suppose your basic combat strength is quite decent for a lower lifeform."
Seeing Ren still effortlessly maintaining a contemptuous, bored attitude toward him, Mard Geer felt his rationality snap. He was the Underworld King! The absolute peak of Tartaros!
"Let's see how long you can remain so composed!" Mard Geer roared furiously, viciously swiping his palm toward the sky.
"Prison Flower!!"
The earth ruptured wildly. A colossal, grotesque, man-eating flower erupted from the crater, its gaping jaws lined with razor-sharp teeth dripping with corrosive acid. It lunged directly at Ren, intending to swallow him whole.
"This is the Prison Flower that blooms only in the darkest depths of the Underworld!" Mard Geer declared, his voice full of pride.
Ren didn't even change his expression. He merely raised the glowing cyan javelin in his hand and delivered a casual, singular slash.
SHING!
A razor-thin arc of green light cleaved cleanly through the air. The colossal flower froze mid-lunge before its enormous head smoothly slid off its thick stem, crashing into the dirt below in a spray of foul fluids.
"What flower did you say this was?" Ren asked monotonously, his voice entirely devoid of inflection.
Mard Geer's expression twisted into an ugly scowl. His pride was being systematically dismantled piece by piece.
Refusing to let the demon breathe, Ren suddenly flapped his black wings, creating a sonic boom as he rapidly dove toward Mard Geer like a dark meteor.
"Giant Vines!!"
Panic beginning to set in, Mard Geer desperately slammed both hands into the ground, creating an overwhelming, dense forest of Giant Vines, and launching a torrential barrage of attacks to intercept the falling Shinigami.
Ren's body moved with terrifying elegance. He dodged the majority of the massive vines with rapid, imperceptible shifts of his posture; the ones he couldn't dodge, he simply split open with brutal arcs of his Luz de la Luna. Wood and plant matter rained down like confetti.
In a fraction of an instant, Ren broke through the defensive blockade, appearing right in Mard Geer's face.
"White Snake!"
Reacting on pure survival instinct, Mard Geer thrust both hands forward, transforming his pure kinetic Curse power into a blinding, white-hot beam shaped like a giant, roaring snake that bit viciously at Ren's face.
Ren simply swung his Luz de la Luna vertically, slicing the blinding White Snake directly down the middle. The sheer spiritual pressure of his swing parted the energy beam like the Red Sea.
PUCHI!!
Continuing the motion, the glowing cyan javelin ruthlessly slashed directly across Mard Geer's chest. A horrific spray of crimson blood erupted from the Underworld King's torso as he screamed, stumbling backward.
"Damn it!" Mard Geer cursed, his mind racing, utterly exasperated.
Although the slash wound wasn't mortally deep, the fact that the opponent's casual weapon swing could so cleanly break through his ultimate Etherious defense was an utter disaster.
"White Light Bullets!"
As Mard Geer furiously retreated across the battlefield, desperately trying to open up the distance, he fired an overwhelming barrage of highly concentrated, white kinetic spheres, filling the sky with a deadly storm of explosive light.
"Cero Oscuras."
Ren calmly pointed his finger once more. The apocalyptic black light erupted, instantly submerging all the white spheres in an ocean of darkness.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
The white spheres were all forcefully detonated and completely overwhelmed, swallowed by the sheer mass of the Black Hollow Flash.
BANG!
A desperate, battered figure charged out from the sprawling cloud of smoke—it was Mard Geer. His clothes were ragged, his skin singed, and his breathing was heavy. He had thrown all caution to the wind just to escape the blast radius.
He had just burst out of the blinding smoke and hadn't even had time to orient himself for further movement.
Clap!
A cold, pale hand suddenly wrapped around his face from behind, viciously gripping his head.
"What?!" Mard Geer's eyes widened in absolute shock and terror. His body froze. He hadn't even sensed the movement.
"Go down," came Ren's chilling, emotionless whisper right into his ear.
Instantly, Mard Geer felt an absolutely irresistible, monstrous physical force clamp down on his skull. He was savagely whipped downward, his body plummeting toward the earth at terminal velocity like a shot-down meteor.
BOOM!
"Ugh—!"
Mard Geer couldn't help but let out a violent cry of pain as his spine shattered against the bedrock, burying him deep into the crushed earth.
Floating high above the impact zone, Ren looked down at the trapped demon with eyes colder than the abyss. He slowly pointed his index finger straight downward, aiming directly at Mard Geer's broken form.
A familiar, terrifying sphere of black and green energy began to hum at his fingertip, this one twice as dense as the last.
"Cero... Oscuras."
SWISH————!
The colossal, concentrated beam of pitch-black destruction shot straight downward like the wrath of a god.
BOOM—————!!
A dazzling, terrifying black light violently erupted upon impact. It rapidly expanded, forming a gargantuan, hemispherical domain of dark light. The world went entirely silent as the sheer density of the attack muted all sound. Everywhere the black spherical light touched, matter was simply unmade. Rock, earth, and air were all cleanly, utterly destroyed by the horrific radiance of despair.
Soon, the devastating light finally vanished, leaving behind a terrifying silence.
A colossal, smooth, glassed-over crater had appeared in the ground, hundreds of yards wide and terrifyingly deep.
As the lingering dark smoke slowly cleared, two distinct figures finally appeared at the very bottom of the abyss.
One was the battered, bleeding, and entirely exhausted form of Mard Geer Tartaros, barely clinging to life.
And standing directly in front of him, with an arm outstretched to shield the Underworld King from the full brunt of the blast... was another person. A person whose face Ren did not recognize.
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