Hina's eyes widened the instant it happened.
The world around her collapsed into a blur of silence and horror with her entire focus locking solely onto Kouhei, who was now impaled through the chest by Masayoshi's blood-slicked hand.
Her breath caught in her throat.
She felt like she couldn't even inhale properly.
A shaky, stuttering gasp escaped her lips.
There was a metallic ringing in her ears as well.
Her vision flickered...
Blurring and sharpening.
Like a failing projector trying to cling to reality.
The words tumbled from her lips in a broken whisper, her mouth moving on its own.
She hadn't consciously spoken.
She was frozen in time... literally.
But somehow, her body acted on pure instinct, her voice slipping out as if trying to deny the nightmare unfolding before her.
"Blug... Brughhhhhhhhhh... gagghhhh..."
A horrible gurgle burst from Kouhei's mouth, followed by an explosive torrent of blood that splattered from his lips in thick, wet splashes.
It poured like a crimson waterfall, staining his shirt, his chin as well as the air around him.
More than he thought a person could ever have.
'Is all this… blood really coming from me…?' he asked himself in numb disbelief.
But the pain… the pain wasn't there.
His body refused to register it.
His brain had effectively shut down the panic switch, refusing to process the grotesque wound that now had a hand jutting clean out of his back.
"I'm really fucking pissed off right now," Masayoshi muttered, voice low and seething. "I was planning to drag this out… and kill you both slowly, piece by piece. But you pissed me the fuck off by fucking destroying my damn clothes like that…"
He gritted his teeth.
"My suit—my fucking suit—was expensive. You couldn't afford to replace it. Not even with your miserable fucking life."
Kouhei twitched, trying to wriggle free from the hand embedded deep in his chest.
The flesh had clamped down around the invading limb like a vice.
His muscles screamed in protest, but he couldn't move.
He couldn't even budge.
"You're not getting away with this. You're already dead…"
Masayoshi's head tilted to the side, and his eyes fell on Hina.
Though time had been halted for her, something within her stirred.
She wasn't completely still.
Her expression twisted with rage simmering and boiling behind her widening eyes.
All of it—every last drop of her fury—was aimed at Masayoshi.
"Oh? You love this man, do you?" Masayoshi sneered, tilting his head mockingly. "A pathetic mortal human and a filthy demon succubus… what a delightful little combination."
"But don't you think you should've chosen someone more… your caliber? You're a primordial succubus. One of a kind. You could've had someone like me."
He licked his lips, voice turning low and venomous.
"An untainted, virgin succubus… untouched because of your curse. That's fucking rare. Most succubi don't even know the meaning of chastity. But you? You kept it. Untouched poison, that's what you are…"
"I would've loved a taste of that deadly nectar."
His tone then shifted to one of bitter mockery.
"But you went and tainted yourself. Stained by this human trash. You lowered yourself."
With a grunt, Masayoshi lifted his arm—the one still buried in Kouhei's chest—hoisting him off the ground like a lifeless ragdoll.
Kouhei's limbs dangled limply as he was raised, blood trickling down from the gaping wound and pattering onto the ground below.
His mind was fading... slipping slowly into unconsciousness.
Each breath was shallow and ragged. Every moment felt like it could be his last.
Masayoshi let out a long, theatrical sigh, eyes closing as if bored.
"Oh well. You two can just die together, I guess…"
Then, like a match igniting gasoline—
"YOOOOOUUUUUUUUUU! I'LL KILL YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!"
Hina's voice erupted from her throat.
The ground beneath her cracked slightly.
The air around her shimmered.
Even though she was still frozen by Masayoshi's time-stopping mana, she had screamed. She had moved. Even if only a little.
"Huh?" Masayoshi blinked, genuinely surprised. "That's… unexpected."
He glanced at her, his smile faltering just a bit.
"I stopped the mana all around you. Time should've been completely frozen in your space. So how the hell are you still able to speak?"
His powers didn't work on things devoid of mana.
But almost everything—spells, creatures, even the atmosphere—was laced with it.
If something had mana, he could stop it. Reverse it. Twist it.
Everything in his field should have been paralyzed.
But Hina defied that.
She screamed. She resisted.
She burned with something dangerous.
"Interesting," he muttered, staring at her like she was some fascinating creature under a microscope.
Without warning, he yanked his bloodied arm out of Kouhei's body, blood spurting in an arc as Kouhei's body was flung to the side like a discarded towel.
Then, before the blood could even dry on his hand, Masayoshi activated his power, reversing time only for his limb.
In a second, the crimson stains vanished, his skin returning to pristine condition.
"You love him that much, huh? Enough to defy time itself?" he said with a crooked grin. "Too bad it doesn't mean shit. You can't even take a step. You're frozen. I killed him… right in front of you… and you couldn't do a damn thing about it."
Hina clenched her teeth.
Her entire body trembled... not from fear, but from fury.
Pure, consuming, blinding rage.
For the first time in her life, she felt something more than apathy.
It tore her open inside.
Kouhei was the one who made her feel .
For better or worse… he had changed her.
"I'LL KILL YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!"
She screamed again, her voice like a sonic boom ripping through the air.
Her muscles groaned in resistance as she tried to move.
Slowly—agonizingly—she lifted her foot.
It took everything in her to do just that.
Then she stepped forward.
It wasn't fast. It wasn't powerful.
She did it again. Another step.
Her body shook, the space around her trembling from the strain.
Masayoshi watched her with growing amusement… then disinterest.
The flame that sparked his curiosity was already flickering out.
With a yawn, he turned his head, bored again.
"I guess it's time for me to end this. Souichiro-sama's going to be delighted when he hears the news..."
A twisted smirk crawled across his face.
"...The last Primordial Succubus in the world, dead... and the Child of Anti-Prophecy? Erased."
Then… he began walking toward Hina.
Was he going to do to her what he did to Kouhei?
Was he about to shove his hand into her chest and tear her heart out?
But before Masayoshi could even take another step—
A grotesque, wet tearing sound suddenly echoed through the air.
It sounded like flesh being split open by a butcher's knife.
Masayoshi blinked, his eyes drifting downward… only to see cold steel protruding from his chest.
The blade gleamed under the dim light, drenched in fresh blood.
"…What?" he breathed, stunned.
He also didn't cry. Not even a twitch of pain.
He just… looked at it.
As if trying to make sense of what had just happened.
"…What the fuck are you doing?" he asked flatly, turning his head slightly, his voice now laced with growing confusion and annoyance. "I thought you were already dead."
Standing right behind him, sword buried to the hilt through his back, was Kouhei.
His body was a horrifying sight to behold.
A massive, open cavity gaped where his chest should've been.
It was nothing but darkness and gore inside.
There was no skin, no muscle but only mangled ribs and crushed organs.
His lungs were deflated and collapsed inside the void.
His heart still beat, faintly… grotesquely visible through what little flesh remained.It pulsed slowly… weakly… like it had no right to still be moving.
But Kouhei was still on his feet.
And still strong enough to ram his sword through Masayoshi.
With blood dripping from his chin, running down his neck and soaking into the tattered remains of his shirt, he managed to smile.
A crooked, pain-laced grin stretched across his bloodied lips.
"Made you look," he muttered, the words soaked in sarcasm and defiance.
Masayoshi's eyes widened.
Something was coming.
He didn't even see it—he just felt it.
A force so overwhelming it didn't just hit him—it dragged him.
It was like the world cracked open and began pulling him into a void he couldn't resist.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?"
His scream was bloodcurdling.
It torn straight from his throat.
The power that Hina had prepared—the one she'd been about to unleash earlier before Masayoshi stopped her—finally erupted.
And this time, there was no one to stop it.
Kouhei had made sure Masayoshi didn't see it coming.
He'd blinded him and distracted him, cut off his focus so he couldn't use his time manipulation.
He had also done it to cancel the time stop he'd placed on Hina, freeing her in that single, critical moment.
And the instant her attack hit, Kouhei yanked himself away, barely escaping its radius.
Swallowing everything.
You couldn't even see shadows in that darkness.
Inside it, Masayoshi was being torn apart, his body shredded like paper caught in a violent storm of blades.
His flesh, his bones, his screams... all vanished into the suffocating black.
Kouhei stared at the spectacle, his bloody eyes unmoving.
He watched the last few shreds of light flicker inside the darkness before it finally began to fade.
And when the blackness lifted—
Kouhei's eyes flickered one last time… then slowly rolled upward.
His consciousness faded into the dark.