When Bloed opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Aya kneeling on the ground.
Then, he saw a man swinging a blade towards her neck.
His reaction was instantaneous. Even before he could completely understand what was happening, two of his mechanic pets followed his will to protect her and the girls.
In an instant, Oculus lit up, aiming to the ground and releasing a barrage of plasma bullets that rained on the men of the church of slaughter, forcing most of them to disengage the girls and take evasive actions. At the same time, his armor, Tito, turned into a puppy that jumped between Aya and the sword aiming at her neck.
*Clang!*
With a loud metallic sound, Tito was sent flying away.
However, it managed to stop the blade aiming for Aya's neck briefly!
The man trying to behead Aya was stunned. He immediately tried to attack Aya's again, but at that moment, his body turned cold.
A feeling of danger filled his body completely, telling him to run away!
Without hesitation, he jumped back.
The next instant–
*BOOOM!!!*
Plasma bullet after plasma bullet fell on his previous position, making him pale.
If he would have not jumped back, he would have been seriously injured.
"Who is it!?" The man bellowed in rage.
But then–
*Spurt!*
A blade pierced his heart from behind.
"Y-You…" The man opened his eyes wide. Ashen white, he looked behind him, only to see the blue-haired young man who had been asleep just a moment ago stabbing a saber through his heart.
"H-How..."
The man did not know how the young man reached there. He could swear he did not feel anything until the saber was piercing his back.
Of course, he could not know that Bloed had used his stealth device to ambush him.
Bloed looked at the man with an ice-cold gaze, his bright-blue eyes glowing with strange and mysterious runes that seemed to possess infinite and unknown knowledge.
Without caring about the man's expression, Bloed pulled his saber out and swung it aside, shaking off the blood on it.
Then, the man attacking Aya fell on the ground, dead.
Until the end, he did not understand how he died so easily.
Only at that moment, the people fighting nearby reacted to Bloed presence.
"Bloed!" "Mr. Bloed!" "Captain!"
Liu Ying, Elwha, and Rana cried out in excitement when they saw Bloed. It was as though Bloed regaining consciousness gave them hope to escape from this situation.
Bloed, however, only nodded at them slightly before walking towards the cat girl who was bleeding nearby.
With a gentle look, he patted her head softly and smiled.
"Good job protecting me. Don't worry, leave the rest to me."
Aya stared at Bloed with a dazed look. She then blushed deeply and nodded with a shy expression.
"… Mm."
Then, perhaps due to the fatigue accumulated through the recent events, or perhaps due to the injury on her abdomen, she fell unconscious.
Bloed held her body gently and lay her on the ground. Only when he confirmed Aya was alright, he turned around to face the men of the Church of Slaughter.
Due to the unexpectedness of his appearance and due to how easy Bloed killed one of them, the men of the Church of Slaughter had distanced themselves from Bloed's group, looking at Bloed warily.
Bloed observed them carefully, his eyes flashing constantly to measure their strength.
Finally, his gaze fell on the cougarkin young man.
When Bloed saw Atai, he heaved a complicated sight.
"So my guess was right, huh. You were an enemy."
Atai smiled and shook his head. "As expected of captain. You sure are sharp."
"I would have preferred to be mistaken this time." Bloed sighed again. "I do not want to kill you, after all."
Atai was startled. But then, he grabbed his belly and started to laugh loudly.
"Hahahahaha, you are so funny, captain. Do you think you can kill me in the current situation? Plus, do you think the strength I showed the last time was my true strength? Let me tell you, captain. In the same rank, I'm undefeatable."
"…"
"However, I have a proposal for you, captain. I would like to finish my last battle with you. If you win, I will let your group leave. But if I wind, you all will have to die. How about that?"
"Mr. Atai. What are you doing!? Our god told us to get the heart!"
"Silence!" Atai bellowed, shutting up one of his men who tried to stop him. "My words are the law here, do you understand?" He then looked at Bloed once more. "Then, captain, are you going to accept my proposal?"
Liu Ying, Elwha, Rhone, and Rana looked at Atai nervously. They could see from Atai's confidence that he surely had a trump card he had not shown until now.
However, they had to admit that accepting and winning seemed to be the only way out of this situation.
Bloed did not reply immediately. Instead, he stood up and used his thoughts to give an order to Tito, who immediately turned into metallic sand. Bloed then took out his saber and extended it towards Atai and the others.
"Actually, I think it's pretty great you are here." Bloed suddenly said. "You will be perfect to test my new move."
Atai frowned, feeling that something was wrong. And while he tried to find the source of that feeling, Tito's metallic sand floated towards Bloed's saber, slowly taking the form of several magic runes that glued themselves to the blade of the saber.
"I would have preferred to engrave the runes on the saber instead, but I will have to improvise like this for now." Bloed nodded to himself when the runes finished forming.
Then, he raised his face and once more looked at Atai.
"About your proposal, I'm sorry, but I think it's unnecessary."
Raising his saber over his right shoulder, Bloed activated the ability he just got.
"After all–"
Part of his mind entered in [Overdrive], giving his calculation zone the ability to use [Molecular Disintegration] for an instant. At the same time, the runes on his saber lit up.
"–It's easier to defeat you all in one go."
Bloed swung his saber.
And the world in front of him was sliced into two.
...
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