Chapter 30
Swish, swish, swish—
Razor-sharp sword energy landed across their bodies, cutting wounds so deep the bone could be seen.
Two unlucky fools who had charged in too quickly were even sliced cleanly in half at the waist.
In an instant, the area within ten feet of Kiriya had turned into a slaughterhouse of flesh and blood.
Blood and gore splattered onto one of the nearby Apollo Familia members.
The man only felt a thick, nauseating stench of blood rush straight from his nose to his head, and he immediately bent over and vomited hard enough to nearly bring up bile.
The bloody scene left the whole of Orario speechless.
"That’s... way too brutal, isn’t it?" an adventurer said indignantly, without noticing that his own voice was trembling.
"What’s the problem?" another adventurer beside him replied, not bothered at all. "Didn’t you see what those Apollo Familia guys were trying to do just now? They were going straight for the kill. He’s just defending himself!"
"Even so, don’t you think this is too much?" another adventurer said righteously. "It should’ve been enough to defeat them, but he went straight to killing..."
"Oh, wow, everyone come look! We’ve got a genius over here," a bearded adventurer said with heavy sarcasm. "It’s a life-or-death situation, and you’re blaming the guy for being ruthless? How cheap can you get?"
"Seriously, that’s low! Hahaha—"
People all over the city were arguing fiercely, but if one listened closely, most of them were actually on Kiriya’s side.
The reason was simple and very solid.
The guy was already fighting one against a hundred.
What more did they want from him? If you’ve got so much to say, go up there yourself!
Inside the gods’ meeting hall, Apollo let out one strange cry after another, as if he had suffered the most terrible wound in the world.
He clutched his chest and wept bitterly.
"My adorable children! You died so miserably!"
Apollo’s tears flowed like someone had opened a faucet.
His grieving tone and dramatic movements made it seem as though he were truly on the verge of a mental breakdown.
In response, the gods all began raising their thumbs and praising him for his excellent acting.
With acting skills like this, why was this guy a sun god? He should have been competing for the title of god of the arts.
As for Hestia, she remained silent and could not even be bothered to lift her eyelids.
In the end, even Loki could not stand it anymore.
"Apollo, if you’re going to play the game, then learn to accept the result. This fake crying is way too ugly."
"Exactly. You look like a shrew."
"It was clearly self-defense."
"Don’t try to sell misery and beg for sympathy."
"No one ever said people couldn’t die in a War Game."
A large group of gods nearby chimed in, causing Apollo’s face to twist.
Normally, this guy used every dirty trick imaginable to steal other people’s Familia members.
He had done plenty of disgusting things, and now that he was finally getting payback, the gods felt incredibly refreshed.
It was no worse than drinking the finest wine brewed by Soma.
....
On the city wall, Kiriya stood with his sword lowered.
His emotionless gaze swept across every direction.
"Anyone else?"
"You bastard!"
When Hyacinthus saw the miserable state of his subordinates, he was so furious his hair nearly stood on end.
Especially when he saw the last dozen or so remaining subordinates, each with pale faces and trembling legs, clearly scared out of their minds.
That made him even angrier.
This had been a situation where victory should have been guaranteed, yet he had turned it into this mess.
He had no idea how he was supposed to face Lord Apollo after this.
"You made me lose my dignity in front of Lord Apollo. I’ll make you pay!"
That was what Hyacinthus thought.
Just then, a clear metallic cracking sound drew everyone’s attention.
They looked toward the sound and saw the sword in Kiriya’s hand covered in cracks.
Then, with a crisp snap, it shattered all over the ground.
Forget everyone else.
Even Kiriya himself had not expected that.
’Good grief, this thing is way too fragile,’ Kiriya complained inwardly. ’Looks like it’s time to get a proper weapon.’
"Heaven is helping me."
Hyacinthus was overjoyed and immediately roared at the people around him.
"What are you standing there for?! He doesn’t have a weapon anymore! Hurry up and kill him!"
The surviving Apollo Familia adventurers looked at one another, all seeing bitterness in each other’s eyes.
In their hearts, they could not help wailing.
’Boss, even barehanded, that guy can still beat the hell out of us!’
"Idiots! Can’t you see? He’s already at the end of his strength."
Hyacinthus’s voice grew even colder.
"Get over there now. Otherwise, I’ll execute you on the spot."
The moment those words came out, the surviving members felt chills run down their spines.
Looking at Hyacinthus’s face, now cold to the extreme, they knew there was no way to avoid this anymore.
They could only grit their teeth and charge forward.
Maybe, just maybe, it would work.
Hyacinthus widened his eyes and carefully watched Kiriya’s every move.
At the same time, he began muttering under his breath, preparing his own powerful magic.
After watching the battle just now, he did not dare underestimate Kiriya in the slightest.
Those people were nothing more than pawns he had pushed across the river, tools to test Kiriya’s trump cards.
He had never expected them to defeat Kiriya.
The one who would ultimately decide victory was still him, the captain.
Facing the adventurers charging at him with bloodshot eyes and twisted faces, Kiriya smiled faintly.
"You think I’m weak just because I’m barehanded? Naive!"
As he spoke, he clenched his fists, lowered his body into a horse stance, pulled both fists back to his waist, and then punched at extreme speed.
"Final Form: Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow."
"What the hell is that guy doing now?"
Hyacinthus watched Kiriya randomly punch in every direction, and a huge question mark appeared in his mind.
For a moment, he almost thought something had gone wrong with Kiriya’s brain.
But a mere tenth of a second later, he felt a needle-like pain at the center of his brow.
Without thinking, he immediately retreated, fleeing dozens, even nearly a hundred meters in an instant.
As a Lv. 3 adventurer, his speed was naturally far beyond ordinary people, almost comparable to a gust of wind.
But the underlings who had rushed forward were not so lucky.
Those adventurers looked as if they had been hit by invisible cars.
Their bodies were violently thrown backward, and as they flew through the air, a series of sharp cracking sounds came from their bones.
Not only that, but within several dozen meters of Kiriya, large sections of the huge trees he had summoned shattered apart, scattering wood chips everywhere.
The solid stone wall was left covered in pits and dents.
The scene looked as if a Gatling gun had just gone wild!
"..."
In an instant, the whole of Orario fell silent again.
The audience blinked, unable to understand what had just happened.
"Was that... magic?"
"There was no chant. It doesn’t look like magic too."
"Are you stupid? Look at that stance. It’s obviously some kind of martial technique."
"You’re the stupid one! Can a pure technique really do something like that?"
Everyone began arguing.
Inside the gods’ meeting hall, the gods also fell silent.
Then they all looked toward Takemikazuchi.
"Take, that..."
"Mm."
Takemikazuchi nodded, his brows filled with admiration.
"That little guy threw dozens of punches in an instant and created an effect similar to air bullets... Tsk, tsk. I’m really curious what kind of body he has, to be able to use such a fierce technique."
"Hmph, hmph, hmph! I told you already. My Kiriya is the strongest!"
Hestia folded her arms across her chest, her imaginary tail practically raised to the sky.
"Haha, Apollo, you’re in trouble now! Looks like you’re definitely going to lose."
"That’s right. Make sure to let us know when you leave Orario. We’ll come send you off properly!"
Several nearby gods immediately kicked Apollo while he was down, mocking him from every direction.
"Don’t get cocky."
Apollo’s face was as ugly as could be.
With a wave of his hand, he said, "It’s not over until the final moment. We still don’t know who will win."
Then he saw the scene in the Divine Mirror, and his face immediately lit up with joy.
"See? I knew it. In the end, I’m the one who will win."
The gods froze, then looked toward the Divine Mirror.
They saw that the situation on the battlefield seemed to be showing signs of reversing.
...
A few seconds earlier.
After Kiriya used Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow, he did not continue pressing the attack.
Instead, he remained where he stood.
The reason was simple.
He had used too much force just now, and several parts of his body had been injured.
Especially his arms, waist, and back—several muscles had torn.
If this had happened to someone else, even if they did not immediately lose the ability to fight, their condition would still be greatly affected.
But Kiriya...
He could heal himself.
"Everflowing Vitality."
A faint green light appeared over his body, quickly soothing the injuries within him.
"After all, it’s that guy’s technique. I’m still not that smooth with it yet."
Kiriya grimaced slightly and sighed.
Whether it was Akaza’s Blue Silver Chaotic Afterglow, Air Type, or Leg Type, all of them were part of his martial arts.
It was only because Akaza used them through his inhuman body that their power seemed so tremendous.
But a technique was still a technique.
And as long as it was a technique, his Sharingan could see through it, copy it, and turn it into his own.
However, he was not an old demon like Akaza who had lived for over a century.
His body had not yet reached that inhuman level.
When he used the technique, it hurt both the enemy and himself, and its power could not yet reach Akaza’s level.
If Akaza using it was like hundreds of heavy cannons firing all at once, then in Kiriya’s hands, it was currently closer to machine-gun fire.
But that was fine.
Kiriya was confident that his potential was endless.
His future upper limit far exceeded Akaza’s.
In his hands, this technique would definitely shine brilliantly one day.
"My name is love, beloved child of light. I offer this body to my sun! My name is sin, envy of the wind. I call a fierce gale to descend upon this body! Cast forth the wheel of flame! Come, western wind!"
"Aro Zephyros."
Just as Kiriya was reflecting on this, Hyacinthus’s loud voice rang out.
It was a magic chant.
Kiriya looked up and saw Hyacinthus standing atop the battlements.
Flames gathered and spun in his palm, forming a burning discus.
"Die, Kiriya!"
With a roar, he threw the flaming wheel.
The discus spun at high speed as it cut through the air, dragging a dazzling tail of fire behind it.
Scarlet flames clung to it, bright and scorching like the rising sun.
Even from far away, Kiriya could feel the intense heat and violent energy contained within it.
"Not good. Getting hit by that thing would be pretty bad."
Kiriya muttered to himself, but his hands did not slow at all.
He formed several hand seals.
"Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall."
Following his movements, several heavy semicircular wooden walls rose from the ground a few yards in front of him.
Layer after layer, seven or eight in total.
"You think something that’ll break with one poke can stop my magic? How stupid can you be?"
Hyacinthus sneered.
His magic was the flame of the sun. It was perfectly suited to countering plant-type magic.
This guy was actually using that kind of magic to defend himself. He was digging his own grave!
"Die! Once you’re dead, Lord Apollo will set his eyes only on me."
"Lord Apollo’s love belongs to me!"
"Vermillion Bloom."
"Rumble—!"
With his shout, the blazing wheel of fire suddenly exploded.
Heat and shockwaves swept outward, directly blasting a large section of the solid city wall apart.
"Hahahahaha—!"
Hyacinthus laughed freely, as if he could already see Apollo praising him.
Behind him was the city wall swallowed by explosive flames and smoke.
At that moment, countless places across Orario rang out with cries of shock and sighs, as if everyone had already seen Kiriya’s crushing defeat.
"Hey, what are you screaming about over there?"
Just then, a cold voice suddenly rang out, cutting Hyacinthus’s laughter off like a duck whose neck had been grabbed.
He mechanically turned his head and looked into the deepest part of the dust cloud.
When he saw the intact circular wooden wall, his entire mind collapsed.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Hyacinthus clenched his fists, veins bulging on his forehead.
"A mere wooden plank! A mere wooden plank! How could it possibly block my magic?! You cheated! You definitely cheated!"
"Clack, clack—"
The wooden wall slowly withdrew, revealing Kiriya standing there completely unharmed.
He picked at his ear, looking utterly bored.
"You’re a Lv. 3 adventurer and a captain, yet you’re this bad?"
"Like god, like Familia i guess. With a god like that, of course the followers turn out the same."
Kiriya delivered a harsh and cutting evaluation.
"Shut up! Don’t you dare insult Lord Apollo!"
Hearing this, Hyacinthus’s expression changed dramatically.
He drew the sword at his waist and charged toward Kiriya.
He refused to believe it!
His magic attack had clearly landed. There was no way that guy was truly unharmed.
Even if he was, Hyacinthus was still a Lv. 3 adventurer. His ability values overwhelmed the other party.
In close combat, he still had a chance.
Hyacinthus continued hypnotizing himself like this as he rushed up to Kiriya and thrust his sword at the boy’s chest.
Kiriya did not dodge.
He looked at Hyacinthus as if he were watching a clown.
"You really are... pathetic."
Kiriya raised his hand slightly, and the back of his fist tapped the spine of Hyacinthus’s sword like lightning.
"Bell Cutter."
"Crack—"
The fine sword Hyacinthus had spent a huge amount of money to forge was snapped barehanded by Kiriya just like that.
The motion was so light and casual that everyone who witnessed it had the illusion that the sword might have been made of mud.
"N-No... impossi—"
Hyacinthus was about to say more, but Kiriya’s attack shut him up.
"Destructive Death: Leg Type — Crown Splitter."
Using his left foot as the axis, Kiriya raised his right leg high and smashed it down like a heavy hammer onto Hyacinthus’s face, directly warping that unusually handsome face out of shape.
"Boom!"
Hyacinthus’s head crashed into the city wall.
His legs kicked once, and then he lost consciousness.
With that, the War Game finally came to an end.
The victor: Hestia Familia.