From a window on the hotel's top floor, Kanjuro looked down at the fierce battle below, his eyes like those of a calm scientist observing the struggle of microorganisms in a petri dish.
As Diarmuid Ua Duibhne's mana, filled with filth and hatred, erupted with full force and collided violently with Jeanne's unceasing Crimson Lotus Holy Fire, his keen gaze caught some unusual details.
"Oh?" Kanjuro's fingertips lightly tapped the windowsill. "This familiar, nauseating mana fluctuation... the Matou Family's Crest Worms? Heh, it seems our Sir Knight was so desperate for power that he'd eat anything, even finding such filthy things palatable."
He instantly understood the reason for Diarmuid's sudden surge in strength overnight.
At the same time, he observed Jeanne's state more clearly. "The obsession and the Noble Phantasm have perfectly merged. As long as that obsession born of betrayal and revenge does not dissipate, and as long as the mana supply from my side continues, she can be reborn countless times in the flames... Truly an immortal Jeanne. Interesting, truly interesting."
He gained a deeper understanding of the essence of Jeanne's abilities.
Below, the battle had become completely one-sided.
No matter how sharp Diarmuid's twin swords were, or how many times they inflicted seemingly fatal wounds on Jeanne, the dark red flames could always repair them in an instant. Jeanne's sword style became increasingly steady, like an immovable mountain, pushing Diarmuid toward a dead end step by step.
She raised her holy sword high, the dark red flames condensing into a destructive pillar of light, seemingly about to completely swallow Diarmuid, who had exhausted most of his strength and exposed a weakness!
At this critical moment—
A deep darkness, as if it could absorb all light, appeared between Jeanne's blade and Diarmuid like a teleportation!
It was a tentacle condensed from the purest Black Magic, incredibly tough, forcefully blocking Jeanne's killing blow. The dark red flames and dark energy collided, making a sizzling burning sound, yet neither could overcome the other.
Kanjuro's figure appeared in the center of the battlefield at some unknown point, his posture still leisurely, as if he were just taking a stroll downstairs.
Jeanne retracted her sword and stepped back, her brow slightly furrowed, her cold voice carrying a hint of confusion: "You told me to kill him, yet now you step in to stop it?"
Having escaped death, Diarmuid panted heavily. He looked up and saw Kanjuro's handsome face, which he loathed to the extreme, and a monstrous hatred instantly erupted in his eyes!
"Kanjuro!! You damned beast!!" he roared, almost grinding his teeth to pieces. "Give Sola-Ui back to me!!"
Facing this accusation full of blood and tears, Kanjuro just casually picked his ear, as if he had heard some noise.
"Sola-Ui?"
A malicious smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
"Her? Last night, to beg me to spare you, she worked quite 'hard'... She's probably still exhausted and sleeping now? You should be thanking her."
These frivolous and highly insulting words were like the final spark igniting a powder keg!
Diarmuid's rationality snapped completely. With a roar, he recklessly swung his twin swords, pouring all his remaining mana into them, and charged at Kanjuro like a moth to a flame! He wanted to tear this man, who had defiled everything he held dear, into a thousand pieces!
However, facing this life-risking strike, Kanjuro didn't even move his feet.
He just casually raised his right hand.
"Gospel of Matthew: Manifestation."
Along with his indifferent voice, the dark mana in his hand instantly surged and took shape!
In an instant, two demonic swords, identical in appearance to the 'beag-alltach' and 'mor-alltach' in Diarmuid's hands but pitch black and wreathed in ominous black mist, appeared in his hands!
They were imitations perfectly simulated and reproduced by the power of the dark bible!
"Clang!!!"
The four demonic swords collided violently!
There was no world-shaking explosion as imagined. Diarmuid only felt that his strike, which concentrated all his hatred and strength, was like a drop of ink in the ocean, easily swallowed and neutralized by a deeper, more vast, and more despairing dark energy! The opponent's arm didn't even shake!
The massive gap in strength was like ice water poured over his head, instantly extinguishing Diarmuid's frantic rage, leaving only boundless fear and horror.
He stared blankly at the pair of pitch-black demonic swords in Kanjuro's hands, feeling the opponent's mana, which was as unfathomable as an abyss. A sense of insignificance, like an ant facing the sky, gripped his heart tightly.
Seeing his despondent state, Kanjuro lost interest in playing with him.
He extended his left index finger and, at a speed Diarmuid couldn't possibly react to, lightly tapped his forehead.
"Memory Authority: Access."
In an instant, all the memories in Diarmuid's mind from last night until now—especially the images of Kariya Matou leading him into the worm pit and accepting the Crest Worms' enhancement—appeared clearly before Kanjuro's "eyes" like turning pages of a book.
After a moment, Kanjuro withdrew his finger. The expression on his face became somewhat strange; first, he was slightly stunned, and then, he actually began to laugh softly.
"Heh... haha... hahaha..." The laughter started low and gradually became somewhat out of control, even... carrying a hint of indescribable madness, as if he had heard the most absurd joke in the world. As he laughed, crystal-like tear stains actually seeped from the corners of his eyes.
This abnormal behavior left Jeanne, who was standing nearby with her sword, bewildered and confused.
She had never seen Kanjuro show such an emotion... bordering on "sadness."
"What... are you laughing at?" Jeanne couldn't help but ask.
Kanjuro stopped laughing and wiped the moisture from the corner of his eyes with his finger, but the complex emotions in his gaze were hard to settle.
He looked at Jeanne, or perhaps through her at something else, his voice carrying a rare, almost self-mocking exhaustion:
"I'm laughing at... the absurdity of fate," he said slowly. "Jeanne, do you know? In my life, I don't think I've done many things that could be called 'good.' Toying with people's hearts, trampling on dignity, treating all things as mere pawns... I've long since grown accustomed to being one with the darkness."
His gaze fell once more on Diarmuid, who was in a trance because his memories had been accessed, and his tone became somewhat ethereal:
"It's just that I didn't expect... I really didn't expect.
On a rare whim, or rather, to satisfy my own boring desire for control, I 'helped' one or two people, allowing them to temporarily escape their predetermined tragic fates... but in the end, some of them would actually turn around and use every means possible to 'harm' me?"
He shook his head, the smile on his face a mixture of bitterness and a coldness that had seen through the world:
"Tell me, isn't this pathetic? It really is... pathetic."
Although Diarmuid was suppressed by an invisible force and his spirit was near collapse, hearing Kanjuro's self-pitying yet twisted remarks, he still squeezed out a broken, hate-filled sneer from his throat: "Committing so many evils... this... is the price... you deserve!!"
Hearing this, Kanjuro didn't get angry; instead, he actually sighed, his expression showing a hint of loneliness, as if he had suffered a great grievance.
"Yes, I have committed many evils; I never deny that," he admitted plainly. "But on the rare occasion... the rare occasion I wanted to do a 'good deed' and show some kindness, what happened? That person not only failed to be grateful but instead deliberately plotted to harm me..."
His voice carried a sense of betrayed, exaggerated disgust: "It's really... nauseating." Then, as if he had figured something out, his tone became playful and cruel, "But then again, it makes sense. After all... that Sakura he cares about most... hehe, she seems to be my daughter? And she is also a 'delicacy' that will inevitably fall into my hands in the future."
"Naturally, he can't stand to see someone like me 'corrupting' her, so he's trying his hardest to stop me..."
He tilted his head as if pondering an extremely profound question, his tone growing more excited, carrying a crazed logic: "Ah, humans are truly complex creatures. Why can't they... occasionally accommodate a villain like me for the sake of survival? If everyone were peaceful, he could continue his protection, and I could play my games. Perhaps... no one would have to die, right? Why must I be forced to take action?"
The more he spoke, the denser the darkness in his eyes became. It wasn't anger, but a chilling pleasure born from finding a reasonable excuse.
He stopped talking and bent down. One hand gripped Diarmuid's hair like an iron pincer, effortlessly dragging him off the ground as if he were a bag of worthless trash, then turned and headed toward the hotel entrance.
Jeanne followed silently behind him. Watching the absolute power he displayed with such ease and his indifference toward human life, a clear, icy fear rose within her toward Kanjuro for the first time.
This fear didn't stem from a gap in strength, but from his pure 'evil'—an evil that defied common sense and trampled all ethics and morality underfoot. Yet, deep within that fear, her curiosity about the essence of Kanjuro's existence tightened like poisonous vines, growing more lush.
Stepping into the hotel's magnificent lobby in the early morning, there were already a few scattered guests and staff members.
Seeing Kanjuro dragging a blood-covered man in tattered armor, they were all struck dumb with terror. A waiter instinctively wanted to step forward to inquire or stop him.
Kanjuro didn't even spare them a glance; he simply snapped his fingers casually.
In the next moment, a sudden mutation occurred!
Countless pitch-black, slimy tentacles burst out without warning from the floor, walls, and even the ceiling! Like venomous snakes from the abyss, they moved at a speed difficult for the naked eye to track, accurately piercing the hearts and heads of every living person in the lobby!
In an instant, the screams stopped abruptly, leaving only the dull thuds of flesh being pierced and the hissing sound of spraying blood. The originally clean and elegant lobby was instantly transformed into a slaughterhouse piled with blood and corpses, the thick stench of blood hitting the senses.
Diarmuid was so shocked by this groundless, sudden massacre that his eyes nearly split. A 'he-he' sound came from his throat, but he couldn't utter a single word due to his injuries and shock.
Jeanne looked at this hellish scene on earth, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened them again. Her eyes were filled with an icy, dead silence. She said softly, "Kanjuro... you are becoming less and less... like a human."
Kanjuro burst into laughter, as if he had heard some interesting compliment. Stepping through the pools of blood, his pace remained leisurely, and his tone carried an otherworldly indifference: "Human lives? They are but straw and mustard seed in this world. Heaven and earth are heartless, treating all things as sacrificial straw dogs. Before a truly powerful person, what is the difference between sentient beings and ants? My mood just happens to be a bit bad today. Who told them... to have such bad luck as to appear before my eyes at this time?"
He blamed everything on his arbitrary 'mood,' as if destroying the lives in a hotel was no different from stepping on a nest of ants.
Dragging the deathly pale Diarmuid, he ignored the bloody hell behind him and walked straight up the stairs to the suite attic where Sola was. He tossed Diarmuid onto the cold floor like a discarded sack.
Hearing the commotion, Sola, who had long since woken up and was feeling uneasy, hurriedly ran out from the inner room. When she saw the bruised and dying Diarmuid on the floor, she let out a shrill cry, as if struck by lightning.
She immediately knelt on the ground, throwing herself recklessly at Kanjuro's feet. Raising her tear-stained face, she cried out in a trembling voice full of despair and pleading:
"Lord Kanjuro! I beg of you! Please spare Diarmuid! It's all my fault! I'll do anything you want! Please don't kill him! I beg you!!"
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