Chapter 317: Kouhei Faction Vs. Souichiro Faction, Part 11
Suddenly, a thunderous crash erupted from the other side, shaking the scorched ground beneath them and echoing through the smoky air like a drum of war.
Hina’s eyes snapped toward the source, and what she saw made her chest tighten.
Another wave of soldiers, armored and relentless, was steadily pushing forward, flooding the battlefield like a rising tide of iron and death.
“This is…?” she whispered under her breath.
The banners they carried, dark against the burning sky, bore the unmistakable crest of the Great House of Sarushima.
And that could only mean one thing and that was Yuuna’s father—Sarushima Kazuhiro himself—had unleashed his army onto the field, tightening his iron grip around the chaos like it was nothing more than a game.
She could sense it, clear as day that these weren’t just fresh soldiers thrown into the fray. No, these were hardened warriors, seasoned by countless battles, each one carrying the sharp, invisible weight of experience on their shoulders.
And deep down, Hina knew there was almost no chance the succubus army could stand against them in a straight fight.
She could practically taste the blood that was about to be spilled.
Yes, there were always unpredictable pieces on the board with wild cards that could flip the outcome—but who had time to think up some clever plan now, when hell itself was swallowing them whole?
‘I have to try to thin their numbers out… anything to buy us time,’ she thought, jaw tightening as raw determination flared in her chest.
Without hesitating, she surged forward, her gaze locked on the backline where Sarushima’s reinforcements kept spilling onto the field.
Dark energy gathered around her palms, coiling and swirling like living shadows before she hurled it forward in a powerful blast.
The darkness tore through the scorched air—but before it could even strike, shimmering barriers snapped into place, rippling with pale light.
They’d been waiting for her.
The enemy had learned from her earlier attacks, and now her power smashed uselessly against defenses too strong to crack.
Her attacks were losing their edge, and she felt it deep in her bones.
The Love Link that had once surged through her veins, boosting her magic beyond its limits, was fading and was flickering out like a dying candle.
And she wasn’t alone in feeling it slip away.
She could see it in Nagisa’s clenched fists and Aria’s labored breathing that the power that had once burned bright inside them was almost gone, and was leaving only exhaustion and frustration in its wake.
The tide was turning against them—cruelly and viciously—right when victory had seemed so close she could almost touch it.
Meanwhile, Yuuna stood frozen, eyes wide and lips parted as she watched her father’s army march across the bloodstained ground, unstoppable as a tidal wave.
“I have to do something…” Yuuna whispered, voice cracking under the weight of fear and love and desperation.
If she didn’t act, everyone she cared about would be crushed beneath that merciless advance.
Without another heartbeat of doubt, she spun around and sprinted toward the fortress looming behind them.
But every step felt like dragging her body through mud with the long skirt of her dress tangling around her legs and catching it with every stride.
With a ragged breath, Yuuna grabbed the fabric in both hands, tearing it apart until the torn skirt fluttered uselessly behind her.
She ripped off her shoes too, kicking them aside so her bare feet could find purchase on the ruined earth.
The ground was blisteringly hot, the cracked dirt biting into her skin, but she ignored the pain.
She just kept running with her barefooted, sweat-soaked, and her heart pounding so hard it hurt, as the world burned around her.
Kouhei stood firm, eyes locked on Souichiro, who had taken a single step back.
For the first time, there was a crack in Souichiro’s usually unshakable expression and it was something raw like he was unsettled, maybe even afraid lurking behind his gaze.
“Hey… what the fuck are you, really?” Souichiro spat, his voice rough around the edges, like he was forcing himself to sound calm.
It was the first time Kouhei had seen Souichiro rattled , and it was easy to see why.
What Kouhei had become… it shouldn’t exist.
A human body holding the essence of multiple demon races? It was an impossibility—a contradiction that defied everything Souichiro knew.
Sure, there had been stories of humans turning into demons in ancient times, but nothing—nothing in all recorded history—about a human who bore the marks and powers of different demons all at once.
And now, adding to that impossibility, Kouhei had also awakened a fallen angel’s power.
Souichiro had suspected it before, but seeing Kouhei stand there with a single, unmistakable fallen angel wing sprouting from his back made it real—and unsettling as hell.
“You really are something, huh…” Souichiro muttered, a shaky laugh slipping past his lips, half forced with the other half disbelieving.
Deep down, though, a sharp edge of fear had cut through Souichiro’s usual arrogance.
Not just fear of what Kouhei had become, but of the raw, thrumming power radiating off him with it heavy and suffocating, like standing too close to a raging fire.
There’s an old truth that people fear what they can’t understand—and for the first time in ages, Souichiro felt that prickling fear twist inside him. Even though he wasn’t even a human.
His grip tightened on the hilt of his blade, knuckles whitening. Then, without another word, he lunged forward, muscles coiling like springs.
“You think something will scare me enough to make me back down?!” he roared, voice cracking with something between rage and desperation.
No matter how twisted Kouhei had become, Souichiro thought, he was still just a former human.
He was only a fledgling fighter who had only tasted real blood and war today. There was no way he could outmatch Souichiro, who had carved his name into countless battlefields over years of blood and death.
The broken sword Kouhei held with it little more than a shattered hilt began to glow.
A fierce, blinding light erupted from it, burning so brightly that Souichiro had to squint against the glare.
And from that brilliance, a new blade took shape.
It was pure and searing.
It was a sword of light.
“Why the fuck do you have a sword of light?!” Souichiro barked out, voice raw and laced with genuine shock.
It was an angel’s weapon, forged from holy power itself. A demon’s nightmare.
Its mere touch could melt a demon’s flesh like wax, leaving wounds that wouldn’t heal for a long time… if they healed at all. The pain it inflicted wasn’t just physical as it clawed at something deeper and darker inside every demon.
“Keh…” Souichiro spat on the ground, the spit sizzling into nothing the moment it touched the scorched earth. “No matter. I just gotta keep you from landing a fucking hit with that thing. And also…”
His eyes flickered past Kouhei’s shoulder—to Masayoshi, standing there.
“You’re pretty much fucked already, with us ganging up on you,” Souichiro sneered, voice low and cold. “Think this is cheating? Nah. There’s no fucking thing as cheating or a fair one-on-one fight here. This is war, not a duel.”
Kouhei didn’t even bother turning his head at first to look back and see Masayoshi standing there.
“Fuck you, you fuckin’ bastard!” Masayoshi’s voice cracked out. “This is what you get for daring to defy Souichiro-sama and thinking you’ve got anything that could beat him! You’re nothing! You’re just a human! And with my time stop, I’ll fucking crush you!”
His words dripped with rage and arrogance as he unleashed his power, wrapping the flow of time around Kouhei.
In an instant, Kouhei felt the weight pressing down, freezing him in place, and holding him like an insect trapped in amber.
But Souichiro wasn’t frozen. Masayoshi had left him free to move, so they could finish this together.
“Ha…! This is really fuckin’ easy! I told you—you’re nothing, you mortal fuck!”
Masayoshi’s laughter erupted then, echoing around them until it was grating enough to gnaw at the nerves.
It was then, and only then, that Kouhei slowly turned his head—his gaze cold and unfazed—as he finally looked over his shoulder at Masayoshi.
“Do you really think that’d work on me again?” Kouhei’s voice cut through the air, calm yet sharp enough to draw blood.
Before Masayoshi could even draw another breath, Kouhei blurred forward, moving faster than sight itself, a flash of power and intent.
In a single, clean snap of his sword, Kouhei sliced across Masayoshi’s arm.
“Ack…! Ahh, ahhh…! Aghhhhh!”
The blade of light seared through flesh like it was nothing, and Masayoshi’s scream split the air, raw and guttural, as the pain tore into him.
His body dropped, convulsing on the ground as agony swallowed his mind whole.
“The fuck…? The time manipulation didn’t work…?” Souichiro’s voice cracked, disbelief etched across his face.
Kouhei stood there now with him something that was beyond human and something that even the rules of time itself couldn’t fully bind.
It was like he’d become an anomaly as well as an existence Masayoshi’s power couldn’t cage anymore.
“Agh…! I-It fuckin’ burns! It fuckin’ burns! S-Souichiro-sama! H-Help me!” Masayoshi shrieked, his voice trembling and wet with fear, as the holy burn of the sword of light ripped through his nerves.
His cries scraped through the battlefield, and the power he’d cast unraveled around him with the time snapping back into motion as his concentration collapsed under the weight of agony.
Kouhei’s gaze shifted back to Souichiro.
And at that moment… for the very first time… Souichiro flinched.