His friend tried to approach, but with every step Yuji took, the child-version of Yagami seemed to drift farther and farther away, as though an invisible force kept widening the gap between them; something beyond reality itself.
Yuji shouted, voice thick with panic:
"Yagami! Can you hear me?! It's me… your best friend… Yuji!"
But the child didn't react. No blink, no movement.
He was somewhere else entirely.
Yuji's desperate cries echoed through the void, yet they never reached Yagami's ears.
Under his breath, in a broken, pain-filled whisper, the child murmured:
"I've always been alone… nobody ever loved me…
I thought at least my friend was by my side, but even he wasn't there the day I needed him most…"
Then, in utter despair:
"Maybe I should just die in this loneliness…"
In that instant, a wave of dark energy hurled Yuji out of Yagami's mind.
Yagami's eyes snapped open in the real world.
The monstrous state still hadn't faded; his eyes glowed, his breathing was ragged, his power unstable and wild.
A second later, he blasted his friend away with a shockwave. Yuji was flung backward…
Yagami looked skyward again. The angel was aloft once more, chanting a forbidden spell.
Yagami instantly activated his marksmanship skill and fired an arrow straight at him.
But before it could connect, a hand appeared out of nowhere and caught it mid-air.
The arrow reversed at blinding speed, aimed directly at Yagami's eye.
He barely dodged; the shaft grazed his cheek, then shattered the wall behind him like glass.
The one who had appeared was none other than the Top Floor King's right hand:
Kurojin, the Black-Blade God
A legendary dual-sword master.
Level: SSS+
Level: 125
HP: 4890
XP: 10980
Special Skills: Dual-Wielding Mastery, Magical Blade Projection
The ground trembled beneath his presence.
Kurojin spoke, voice calm and commanding:
"Draw your swords… and fight me with everything you have."
Yagami locked eyes with him and, for the first time, felt a deep, primal fear.
The man's speed, his power, even his mere existence was so overwhelming it made breathing difficult.
Without hesitation, Yagami launched himself forward in a massive leap, drawing both swords and unleashing a relentless storm of strikes; blow after blow at maximum speed and fury. The clash of steel rang through the air.
Yet…
The legendary swordsman had drawn only one of his blades.
And with that single sword, he blocked every single one of Yagami's attacks effortlessly.
Not only did he block; he didn't even receive a scratch.
For the first time, Yagami truly felt that this fight might be the end of him.
Kurojin gazed at him with cold, emotionless eyes and said:
"Is that… all your power?"
Yagami's eyes blazed with rage. He stepped back, breathing heavily.
Suddenly, dark magic ignited around his blades; a black aura coiled like deadly flames.
He hurled the magical blade like a projectile of pure death.
Kurojin didn't even blink. He stopped it calmly with one hand; no wound, no effort.
Yagami, eyes burning with fury and disbelief, charged straight at him once more.
He roared, raising his sword for a final, killing blow…
But at that exact moment, Kurojin murmured coldly:
"I'm done playing with you."
The instant Yagami's strike came down, a sickening sound tore through the air;
the wet rip of flesh, the crack of bone.
Silence and horror fell over everything.
Yuji, who had just regained consciousness, saw the scene…
His eyes widened in terror and he screamed with everything he had:
"YAGAMIIIIII!!"
Kurojin's sword was buried to the hilt in Yagami's stomach…
Blood poured endlessly onto the ground.