Shizuku's desperate cry of persuasion echoed throughout the trial hall.

The phantom didn't move. Perhaps this was part of the test. He gazed at Guanghui with a mocking look, a hint of testing in his eyes.

Hajime simply waited behind Shizuku without a word. Even when the other party showed murderous intent, he did not immediately attack, probably because he was concerned about Shizuku.

Under the gaze of three pairs of eyes, Guanghui finally...

A smile appeared on his face. At first glance, it was the kind of smile that had made many girls fall in love in Japan... but it was slightly distorted.

"Thank you, Shizuku. You always think so sincerely about me."

“Glory…”

Shizuku's face showed a hint of anticipation and sadness.

"I'm really happy. Even though you've been brainwashed, you still care about me."

“…Glory?”

"It's okay. I will defeat the monster that looks just like me, and I will rescue you from Nagumo. Shizuku, you don't need to stay with a man you don't like anymore. I will let you return to a place that suits you."

"..."

After hearing what Kouki said, Shizuku clenched her hands tightly, as if trying to suppress something. Then, her expression shifted to a blank, emotionless expression, and she replied in a flat tone:

"...Where is the right place for me?"

"Is that so? You can't even discern something like this. How pitiful! I will never forgive Nagumo."

"Kui-ki, answer me."

"Of course it's by my side, right? It's always been like this, and it will always be like this."

Shizuku couldn't help but sigh. A dark cloud rolled over her chest, and she sighed deeply.

"... Kouki, do you remember what happened that night? What I said on the bridge the day Kaori set out on her journey?"

"Yes, of course I remember. You want me to doubt my own integrity, right? No problem. At first, I thought Nagumo was a dangerous guy, but because of what you said, I have been observing him closely until now. However, he is just a despicable and shameless person after all."

"No, Kouki! What I meant to say is—"

"Don't talk about it, Shizuku. You can't judge right from wrong while you're brainwashed, but everything I do is 'justice'."

Guanghui interrupted Shizuku who was about to continue persuading her.

Everything is done to obtain the future that one desires most with the wishful explanation of "the other party has been brainwashed".

At the same time, he looked at Hajime with eyes as cloudy as the muddy water, and lowered his body. The light of "Limit Breakthrough" that had been deliberately weakened during the conversation with Shizuku, as if it had been reborn, once again released a brilliant light.

"Kuiki, stop it!"

The cries of his childhood sweetheart, a mixture of anxiety and heartache... never reached his ears in the end.

Trailing a trail of light, he charged forward with fierce momentum. Shizuku had already vanished from his sight, leaving only his enemy, Hajime.

Persuasion - failed.

The phantom scoffed, and Hajime clicked his tongue impatiently. At the same time, the warmth in Hajime's eyes faded, replaced by a cold glint.

Shizuku's face was pale. Hajime and Kouki's fight was a nightmare from hell.

"Wait, I'll stop him!"

When Kouki activated her "Limit Break," her power far surpassed Shizuku's. The chances of successfully stopping her were slim, and even with Kouki in her current form, there was no guarantee she could escape unscathed. Even so, Shizuku, unwilling to witness her nightmare, pushed herself, still exhausted, between the two...

"Yaegashi, on the right."

“Eh? Huh!?”

Despite her confusion, her body reflexively acted.

As Shizuku raised her black sword to her right, a phantom with a cold smile suddenly appeared in the corner of her vision. Shizuku felt a chill down her spine and shuddered, but she also braced herself for the impact. However, at this moment, a familiar weapon rushed in.

It was a cross wrapped in scarlet magic power—the cross floater of "King Kong" was activated.

The cross blocked direct hits, acting as an airbag to cushion the impact. However, the phantom attack, strengthened to its limit, reached an extraordinary level of power.

“Hmm!”

Shizuku moaned softly but was suddenly knocked away and taken away by the phantom.

The remnants of dark magic passed through the battle between Guanghui and Hajime like a cloud of airplanes.

At the same time, the holy sword, which could easily cut rocks in two, swung down towards Hajime's head. Hajime defended himself with the donar that covered the Azantium.

Amidst a loud bang, the phantom's joyful laughter from a distance reached my ears.

"Shizuku's opponent is me. Just have a good fight with this hateful enemy."

Shizuku roared with a ferocious expression.

"Ugh, damn it! Go away! Now's not the time for this!"

"Give up, that guy only has eyes for Nanyun Hajime now. The content of the trial has been transferred to Nanyun Hajime, so don't interfere."

"Don't act on your own!"

It seems the Phantom intends to use Hajime as a test for Kouki. Can he quench the raging flames of hatred? Can he accept reality and regain his sanity? The Phantom seems intent on seeing what kind of outcome Kouki will face through his battle with Hajime.

Hajime, who had been made the examiner without permission, glanced at Shizuku who was fighting the phantom and asked Kouki in a cold tone.

"Is this okay? Your most important childhood friend was attacked?"

"...That thing is mine, so I won't kill Shizuku. A little damage will be just enough to punish her for being brainwashed by a man like you."

"Didn't you just say that thing was a monster?"

"That's a monster that copied my emotions and mimicked them, right? If that's the case, even a monster wouldn't kill Shizuku."

"That's completely illogical."

That was entirely Kouki's own wishful thinking. Kouki first asserted that the phantom was a monster unrelated to him, then went on to claim that the phantom, having copied him, was harmless to Shizuku, completely ignoring even the flaws in his logic. No, even so, perhaps in Kouki's heart, this was the truth.

Kouki exerted his strength, attempting to sever Hajime and Donal together. However, even at his "Limit Breakthrough" state, he was unable to cut through the massive steel-like opponent, and in his rage, he suddenly relaxed his strength.

"Wake up! I won't let you do whatever you want anymore. Whether it's Shizuku, Kaori, or Yue, I will definitely liberate everyone!"

As he spoke, Guanghui twisted his wrist and slashed at Hajime. Without hesitation, the decapitation strike struck again.

However, Shi Yun still blocked it calmly.

And this time he used Donal's gun to block it accurately.

"What!?"

Hajime stared at Kouki, who had cried out in shock, with a gaze that could see deep into his heart, his brow furrowed. Then, Hajime narrowed his eyes and stabbed Kouki with a tone so cold it could chill one's hair to the bone.

"Nothing is more meaningless than calling a real idiot an idiot. But I just have one thing to say—who gave you permission to call my woman by her first name? Huh?"

“Hmm!?”

In an instant, a torrent of murderous intent erupted, creating a sense of immense oppression like the pressure of a waterfall. That astonishingly overwhelming force was far too great for a human being.

Guanghui, who was bearing the real pressure of the monster at such a close distance, subconsciously stiffened his body.

The explosion was deafening.

The electromagnetically accelerated bullet deflected the Holy Sword blocking the gun's muzzle like a pebble. The impact was so intense that Guanghui felt his entire wrist was shattered into dust. Unable to withstand the impact, the Holy Sword fell from his grasp and spun several times in the air.

The impact forced Kouki's hand, holding the holy sword, upwards. At the same time, a dark shadow appeared below Kouki—Hajime unleashed his ultimate rogue kick.

“Huh!?”

With the sound of bones cracking, Kouki's body bent into a U-shape. It was hard to imagine that the sound was coming from human flesh. Kouki floated in mid-air in this position, and in that instant, a merciless roundhouse kick followed.

The power of the kick, which harnessed centrifugal force, was immense. Kouki was sent flying with such force that it felt as if he had been struck head-on by a large truck.

He was launched outwards on a horizontal trajectory like a human cannonball. Guanghui was completely unable to stop, and he was already exerting all his strength just to protect the back of his neck with his hands.

Guanghui's back slammed into the ice wall, shattering it radially due to the force of the impact. Despite this, thanks to the collision avoidance posture he had unconsciously adopted, Guanghui was able to maintain consciousness.

That being said, he was undoubtedly seriously injured. As he slid to the ground and lay prostrate, drops of blood dripped from his mouth.

Hajime didn't use a "Limit Break" like Kouki did, and he didn't even use a weapon. With just a kick, he damaged Kouki's internal organs while wearing a national treasure-level divine weapon...

This fact made Guanghui groan in pain and grit his teeth in regret.

However, Hajime certainly wouldn't give him time to slowly regret it.

The sound of explosions one after another filled the entire space.

Two crimson flashes shot towards the crouching Kouki. Feeling Hajime's murderous intent, Kouki dodged sideways as he pulled the trigger.

However, this move was of no avail.

Even his evasive direction was seen through, and the moment he landed, the third bullet pierced his shoulder. A sharp pain, like a file scraping against his forehead, shot up into his head, yet Kouki shuddered as he sensed something else.

(The bullet speed is different──)

Indeed, the speed of the first two bullets that he successfully dodged was significantly different from the third bullet that pierced his shoulder. The reason was simple: except for the third bullet, the others were just ordinary bullets wrapped in magic power and disguised as railguns.

The reason for using ordinary bullets is...

“Huh!?”

In order to make it ricochet, the bullet took advantage of the subtle unevenness of the ground and bounced around, passing through the gap in the armor like a bad joke and piercing the knee joint of the trophy.

“Ugh… come on, holy sword!!”

Collapsing on the ground, his shoulders and feet covered in blood, Guanghui reached out for the holy sword that had fallen a little distance away.

The holy sword responded to Guanghui's request and flew straight towards him.

The trajectory was too easy to see through, so the moment the holy sword flew into Guanghui's palm, it was stepped on by Hajime.

Whether driven by loyalty or function, the holy sword struggled to return to its master. However, Hajime's foot held it firmly in place, as if to say that resistance was pointless.

"This is horrible. Why don't you use the additional function? That way you can fight more properly."

There was no hint of helplessness or humiliation in Hajime's tone; he was clearly just stating the facts.

On the contrary, the angered Kouki ignited a raging flame of hatred. The Kouki's appearance before being summoned was gone, and the eyes that glared at Hajime were completely tainted, frantically trying to satisfy the murderous desire he had once tried so hard to deny.

Hajime pressed Donal against Kouki's forehead.

He also emanated a strong murderous aura. If it were an ordinary person, they would have already had a heart attack.

No matter who looked at it, this was already a "checkmate" situation. It could be over with just a flick of the finger.

Because of this, someone's desperate cry echoed all around.

"Nagumo! Please stop! I'll be responsible for convincing Kouki!"

It was Shizuku. While confronting the phantom, she frantically begged Hajime to spare her life.

However, this went against Phantom's expectations.

"Shall I let you leave first?"

“Huh!?”

Shizuku's desperate pleas left her vulnerable. The relentless phantom, taking advantage of the situation, unleashed a "Light Explosion," and the resulting shockwave powerfully assaulted Shizuku's entire body.

Immediately after that, the phantom used "Sky-Soaring Flash Shock" and pursued the stumbling Shizuku. The phantom used the ability assigned by Hajime without resistance.

The moment before Shizuku used the black sword as a shield to block, the cross floater had already intervened to act as a shield.

Fortunately, Shizuku didn't have to be "forced to leave the battle line due to serious injuries."

Because "Ten Xiang Shan" was blocked by the Cross Floater—perhaps Phantom had shown mercy, and the Cross Floater could have been used to block it with the Black Sword—Shizuku was only affected by the shock wave of "Zhen" and suffered a concussion, and then lost consciousness.

She was flung against the wall, but before she could violently collide with the ice, the Cross Floater came to her aid. It slowed down to gently catch Shizuku, who was flying straight at it. Then, it gently leaned Shizuku against the wall, as if she were sitting on a reclining chair, and then opened its barrier, forming an absolute barrier to protect Shizuku.

The phantom shrugged and curled his lips. The next second, he suddenly turned around and stretched out his magic sword towards Shi with a very natural movement. In an instant, the black light cannon shot out almost simultaneously.

The spiraling flash of light, judging by its unbiased trajectory, would undoubtedly engulf the radiance as well. Perhaps the phantom was attempting to send both of them to hell...

At that moment, Hajime glanced at Shizuku, frowning as if to say, "This is so troublesome!", and then leaped away and fled the scene. Of course, only Kouki was left behind.

“Aa ...

Guanghui, whose knee joint was pierced, couldn't even stand up smoothly.

He couldn't evade the attack, so he cried out in surprise and took a defensive stance. However, before the black light bombardment could reach him, it suddenly changed its course, targeting Hajime. Like a missile, the bombardment clung to its prey.

Hajime focused his consciousness on the Mystic Eye Stone deep within his eyepatch.

The magic core appeared in his sight. With astonishingly accurate "precision shooting," he effortlessly shot through the tiny, pinhole-like core, causing it to dissipate in a cloud of mist.

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