Rei Ao explained calmly, "That's the Seraph of the End."
"Seraph of the End?!"
At those words, Shinoa's eyes narrowed. From her Shikama Dji, she'd learned about the forbidden Seraph of the End experiment, a horrifying project that fused a fallen angel with a human body. Which meant Yichir Hyakuya was a test subjectthe second trumpet, the King of Salt.
"AAAAAHHH!!!"
At the moment, though, Yichir was consumed by rage and vengeance, unable to remain rational. The King of Salt wasn't fully awakened, leaving him a berserk creature for now.
"Hehlooks like that forbidden experiment was a big success," Ferid remarked with no great surprise. He knew quite a lot about the Progenitors' plans, the taboo experiments, and even had schemes of his own. Letting Yichir escape back then was part of Ferid's plan. Otherwise, how could a handful of children have fled from him?
Now that he'd confirmed what he wanted, it was time to leave. But
Boom!!!
Suddenly, flames surged up around the wide-open space's perimeter. Almost singed, Ferid recoiled in alarm, feeling a surge of intense danger. Realizing something, he scanned the areaonly to discover the entire clearing encircled by a wall of fire.
Now it resembled an arena that had trapped two wild beasts. The one who formed it was Rei Ao.
"Ferid, I'll give you one chance to live: defeat him," Rei Ao announced.
"!!!"
Ferid spotted Rei Ao and Shinoa watching from the side. Narrowing his slender eyes, he demanded, "Who are you?"
"Who I am doesn't matter," Rei Ao said with a faint smile. "What matters is you have no other choice."
Then, nonchalantly, he posted an update to the chat groups:
Rei Ao: "@everyone, come watch a beast fight."
Shizue Izawa: "Beast fight?"
Rei Ao: "Uh-huh. Vampire Progenitor vs. the Seraph of the End."
"I've never met such an arrogant human before," Ferid sneered, incensed at being treated like a mere animal. Rage and killing intent smoldered behind his smiling mask. He stepped toward the wall of flame.
"Hmph, just fire"
Relying on his vampire power, he confidently tried to walk through. Yet upon contact
"Shhh!!!"
An excruciating soul-searing pain made him yank back his hand, frowning down at it: his right hand's index and middle finger joints had been eaten away, replaced by a scorched wound.
"???"
He attempted to heal it, but the normal vampire regeneration did nothing. "What the?"
This was the first time Ferid showed real emotion. Not only had the fire burned away flesh and bone, but it bizarrely blocked regeneration.
"What did you do?!"
He glared at Rei Ao, alarmed. Rei Ao returned a cold smile: "Friendly tip: it's already locked onto you."
"What?!"
Ferid's pupils shrank to pinpoints. Just then, a violent shock wave burst at him. He scrambled aside, but part of his gentlemanly uniform was ripped away.
"Die!!!"
It was Yichir attacking. A mere punch produced that power. With black eyes devoid of reasonjust raw hatredthe single branch-like wing at Yichir's back quivered. The next second, he launched like a cannonball at Ferid.
"Damn it!"
Ferid cursed. He'd wanted to unravel whatever Rei Ao had done, but the rampaging, mindless Yichir gave him no time. He now had to deal with this newly unleashed foe who could move freely.
~~~
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Chapter 270: King of Salt
Seeing the livestream footage, Sakurajima Mai felt exasperated.
While she was busy hosting visitors on Rei Ao's behalf, he himself was off enjoying a "cage fight."
"Sigh"
Letting out a helpless sigh, Mai handed over some tea to the newly arrived Furuhashi Fumino.
"Thank you,"
Furuhashi Fumino said gratefully.
After returning a slight nod, Mai asked, "As I recall, there were two of you coming here for tutoring. What about Ogata Rizu?"
She hadn't seen that baby-faced, large-chested girl who had left such a strong impression earlier. Mai had even waited at the door for a while, but Ogata never showed up.
"She apparently forgot something at school," Fumino replied.
"I see."
Mai didn't ask further.
At school
Ogata Rizu went back to her classroom, anxiously rummaging through her desk.
"Found it!"
After searching for a while, she finally retrieved a notebook. Seeing it intact, she breathed a sigh of relief. It contained all her notes from tutoring sessions with Ilialuckily not lost. She carefully stowed it away and set off to leave.
Walking through the silent corridor, Ogata Rizu found herself oddly chilled, unconsciously speeding up her pace. Suddenly, a pale-blue light flashed across her glasses. Instinctively, she looked up.
At the end of the hallway, on the wall, there seemed to be a crack shimmering with light.
"?"
She approached curiously, only to see that it wasn't actually a fissure in the wall, butin the air itself?
"What is this?"
Thinking it might be an illusion, Ogata tried wiping her glasses. But abruptly, a powerful suction force erupted!
Clatter!
Her glasses and notebook fell to the ground. Ogata Rizu's entire body, like a flimsy sheet of paper, was pulled into the crack.
Moments later, the glowing rift in the empty corridor vanishedalmost as though Ogata Rizu had never been there at all.
"That Seraph of the End seems pretty weak"
Shinoa's eyes brimmed with confusion as she watched the vampire noble dominating the so-called forbidden "Seraph of the End."
"Very normal," Rei Ao commented calmly. "Right now, Hyakuya Yichir hasn't truly awakened the power of his 'Second Trumpet.'"
This wasn't what Rei Ao was waiting to see. Indeed, Ferid still held a comfortable edge in fighting Yichir. A single punch or kick could severely wound him. Yet no matter how many injuries he sustained, Yichir would keep rising, howling like a wild beast and charging at Ferid.
"Tch!"
Ferid was growing visibly impatient. Despite testing multiple angles, he couldn't find any gap in the ring of flames. Even Yichir's attacks got swallowed up by the fire. He couldn't understand how the flame, which apparently burned without any fuel, refused to extinguish. Worse still, it seemed able to consume anything that touched it.
Once more, Ferid kicked away the lunging Yichir. But this time, something ominous happenedYichir didn't rush in again. After standing up, he doubled over in agony.
"Now this is the real show,"
Rei Ao said, eyes gleaming with anticipation.
"AAAHHH!!!"
Yichir suddenly threw his head back in a roar. The atmosphere grew even more oppressive.
Finally, Ferid realized the real danger: Hyakuya Yichirhad completely lost control!
Slash!!!
Another black, branch-like wing burst from his back on the right side, and Yichir's body, as if suspended by the invisible pull of both wings, rose upright into midair. His lowered head lifted slowly, showing a face devoid of any madnessjust pitch-black eyes filled with icy indifference.
He gazed down at the pale-faced Ferid with a cold, inhuman calm. His gaze held no trace of emotion, like a lofty being eyeing an insect below.
"Insect, I shall bestow on you the 'Petrification-by-Salt' punishment."
The voice that came from Yichir was tinged with a strange divine aura.
Raising his right hand, he manifested a long spear formed of crystallized salt grains, gripping it firmly.
Ferid's face darkened further, realizing that what was before him no longer resembled a human, nor a vampire, nor a mere test subject. Hyakuya Yichir had become the ultimate Seraph of the End represented by the Second Trumpetthe King of Salt!
Rei Ao saw the same thing:
[Name]: Hyakuya Yichir
[Level]: 30
[Ability]: "Second Trumpet " King of Salt"
He had leapt from barely above average human to a powerful Level 30 being. The trumpet-called "Seraph" was indeed capablebut the cost was high. Yichir had lost control of his own body; his current body belonged to the "fallen angel," the genuine King of Salt.
Hence, when he said he would enforce the Salt Punishment on Ferid, it was no idle threat.
Merely pointing the salt spear at Ferid, he instantly transformed the ground into white salt grains, salt pillars rising toward Ferid. The King of Salt's power let him turn all things into salt.
"D-damn it!!!"
Ferid's face changed dramatically. He and Crowley had come only to probe the test subject they'd once deliberately freed. Now, he was facing the true King of Salt. Though he was a "Seventh Progenitor," that didn't mean he could face a fully awakened Seraph. Forced to dodge frantically among the encroaching pillars of salt, he clung to one hope: if those pillars could snuff out the wall of flame, maybe he could escape.
But after multiple frantic evasions, he turnedand his eyes filled with despair. Not only did the salt pillars fail to extinguish the fiery barrier, but the moment they touched the flames, they too were disintegrated.
"How can this be?!"
Ferid's eyes shone with incomprehension. The King of Salt was forbidden power, yet here was a flame that could so casually suppress even Seraph abilities?
"Could it behe also wields a forbidden power?!"
It was the only explanation Ferid could think of. But of the seven known "Trumpets," none possessed such a power.
"Huh?"
The King of SaltHyakuya Yichirarched an eyebrow as he noticed. Yet he paid it little mind; for him, the main issue was punishing the offending creature before him with the Salt Penalty.
~~~
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Chapter 271: Outdoor! (Bonus Chapter)
Tohru: "Mmm, what was supposed to be a 'cage fight' turned into a one-sided beatdown. Boring."
Mikoto Misaka: "? Not at all! The reversal was really interesting, like a movie plot."
Frieren: "A reversal?"
Mikoto Misaka: "You didn't notice? At first, the black-haired boy was completely being dominated by the vampire. Then all of a sudden he went berserk and started overpowering the vampire, like a movie protagonist having a sudden power-up."
Frieren: "Oh, I just don't know what a 'movie' is."
Mikoto Misaka: ""
Misaka realized that Frieren's world doesn't have advanced technology, so of course she wouldn't know about movies.
Mikoto Misaka: "Anyway, it's a story twist that makes the watching experience super intense."
Miko Yotsuya: "I think it's intense too, but also extremely bloody and violent."
Stella: "Doesn't seem especially bloody to me."
Yukinoshita Yukino: "Sorry, we're just ordinary folks."
Miko Yotsuya: "Yeah, same here."
Stella: "Alright, I understand."
Shiba Miyuki: "Another worldso it's possible to cast magic without using a thought-particle CAD? Truly mysterious."
Sui: "I don't know what that 'thought-particle CAD' is, but in our world, magic doesn't require any special equipment."
Frieren: "In our place, wizards generally use a staff; it's easier to channel spells that way."
Kasuga Hijiri: "Mages here can cast magic from the library by connecting to a chain of magic books"
Shiba Miyuki: "Ughsorry. I was being too self-centered, not considering everyone else in the chat."
Megumi Katou: "It's normal for folks from different worlds to find each other's ways strange. Just take it easy."
Shiba Miyuki: "Alright, I'll try to keep that in mind."
Kasuga Hijiri: "So that vampire probably can't hold out much longer, right?"
Tohru: "Rei Ao, are you just going to watch until they kill each other?"
Rei Ao: "Of course not. They're all experience points."
"Damn it, I'm not dying here!!!"
No longer maintaining any of his former elegance, Ferid was in a pitiful statedripping with blood, in tattered clothes, a world apart from his previous refined demeanor. In only a few minutes, the King of Salt had forced him to the brink of death.
At this point, every inch of ground under his feet was covered in white salt granules, and even his shoes had disintegrated to nothing. Ferid had no place left to run.
Right in front of him stood the King of Salt, Hyakuya Yichir, stepping amid the surge of salt like it was second nature.
"Insect, your time is up. Turn to salt and cleanse your sins completely."
"Heh, my sins aren't something salt can wash away; they needblood!"
Ferid knew that stepping back meant the fiery cage, stepping forward meant facing the King of Salt. He could only bet everything and charge forward, hoping it might bring him a chance at survival.
Shhh!
In the instant they made contact, a hint of resignation flashed in Ferid's eyes.
"Never imagined I'd die here"
He glanced downward. A salt spear had pierced his chest. Flesh around the entry point was quickly crystallizing into salt. Meanwhile, his sharp claws had only managed to sink into the salt-armor around the King of Salt's chestnowhere near reaching actual flesh.
So indeed, his death had been decided. Ironically, it wasn't even by Yichir's hand.
Fwoom!!!
As his life slipped away, the fiery cage came alive once more, swallowing Ferid's body.
"!!!"
King of Salt Yichir promptly withdrew to avoid being scorched, and looking again, Ferid's entire being had vanished not even ash remained. Lowering his gaze to the salt spear in his hand, the part that touched the flame was gone as well.
Then he lifted his head and found two more "insects." The salt spear re-formed.
"Insects keep coming one after anotherthen you shall also become salt!"
"Heh."
Rei Ao kept completely calm. Shinoa also showed no alarm for her own safety. After all, the man next to her was the same one who had killed an even stronger First Progenitor. Instead, she worried about something else.
"Rei Ao-kun, does that mean there's no way to bring Hyakuya Yichir back?"
"At your current level, there's no chance."
Rei Ao shook his head. In the original "Seraph of the End," Yichir had special cursed gear, Asuramaru, that could override the full King of Salt state. Restoring him right now would require a lot of effort. Rei Ao certainly wasn't so kind as to do that.
Turning Yichir into an experience bag for his allies was far more appealing than saving him.
For the King of Salt Yichir, neither Rei Ao nor Shinoa mattered. In his eyes, they were just lowly humansbugs.
Boom!!!
Salt pillars roared toward the pair.
"Esdeath, this one's yours. Finish him off," Rei Ao said. The moment he finished speaking:
