Reincarnated in a Shounen Manga - Chapter 277

Chapter 277 - Painting The World in Fear

Anika and Sei held back a demon peculiar demon that looked like a door with human arms and legs. Despite its unassuming appearance, this demon possessed the ability to teleport people within a certain range, making it a challenging foe to kill.

Using their mirrors and strings, Anika and Sei created a protective canopy around the demon's teleportation range. Anika employed her strings to prevent the demon from escaping, while Sei utilized his mirrors to bring Agon back whenever the Door Demon teleported him away.

Agon found himself teleported again just as he was about to land a punch on the Door Demon. This time, he materialized next to one of Anika's strings. Swiftly, she maneuvered one of her sharpened strings so Agon didn't land on them and risk losing a limb.

"Damn it!" Agon exclaimed. "Real men weren't supposed to fight while thinking."

"Don't just go around saying stupid things. We have brains for a reason, to think," Sei sighed, though it seemed his words fell on deaf ears.

A ball of Ord, roughly the size of a human head, materialized in front of Agon. He punched the ball, sending it hurtling as a projectile.

The Door Demon opened its door, revealing an empty, dark space. Agon's attack was devoured by the door, and then a shimmering portal appeared beside Sei's head.

Anika was the first to spot this, swiftly adjusting her strings to intercept the attack as Agon's blast emerged from the shimmering portal. Her strings sliced the blast into two parts before it could reach Sei's head, causing them to land far apart and trigger separate explosions away from Sei.

Agon frowned, and a silver gauntlet materialized on his arm, extending all the way to his shoulder. The Ord surrounding him grew denser as he prepared to launch another Ord projectile.

"Hey! If you do that again, I'll kill you!" Sei warned, a vein pulsing on his forehead.

Anika sympathized with him, realizing that if the attack had struck Sei's head, it would have been fatal.

"Oh, my bad," Agon finally seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation. "Alright, teleport me close to him, and I'll punch the shit outta that demon!"

Despite his bold claims, Anika knew Agon wasn't that strong without Yamata no Orochi. Even against high-class demons, he'd face significant challenges were it not for the God of Snakes sealed inside him.

She clenched her hand into a fist, nearly drawing blood.

What if Kon had Yamata no Orochi? Now, there was someone deserving of such power! With the Snake God's regenerative abilities, he might have survived his injuries!

Anika shook her head, attempting to stop thinking of such matters. Kon was already dead, and she couldn't do anything about it, and she couldn't afford distractions in this battle. Despite her opponent being merely a high-class demon, it was a tricky one, which was precisely why her team had been dispatched to handle it.

Nevertheless, no matter how hard she tried to divert her thoughts, a bitter taste lingered in the back of her throat. With Kon and her father now gone, she had few people left she considered close. She had some half-siblings, but she cared little for any of them.

Even though she had received news of her father's disappearance, she hadn't returned to the clan. Undoubtedly, there would be infighting among her siblings. Something she wanted no part of.

Before she could dwell further on her family's predicament, a deafening cracking sound shattered her concentration. It sent chills down her spine for reasons she couldn't quite fathom.

She scanned her surroundings, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Then, she glanced upwards, half-expecting to find flying demons causing the commotion.

What she saw was far more unsettling.

The sky had cracked open, resembling shattered glass.

Even the Door Demon halted, momentarily distracted by the spectacle. The only one who didn't seem interested was Agon, who seized the opportunity and struck the Door Demon at the hinges, shattering the door and killing the demon in a single blow.

But Anika paid little attention to the demon's demise, for the sky continued to crack, revealing a small rift. On the other side lay a sea of darkness, and Anika could have sworn she saw movement within. Finally, a bloodshot red eye peered through the rift.

Terror coursed through Anika as her body shook uncontrollably. She couldn't sense what loomed above; it lay beyond her sensory reach. However, she didn't need any special abilities to recognize that it spelled disaster.

Her instincts urged her to flee, but she had nowhere else to run.

Suddenly, an intense aura manifested beside her, accompanied by an eerie, whispering sound akin to serpents hissing near her ear. Yet, when she turned, there was nothing there.

The source of this phenomenon was Agon. He had white scales on his cheeks and possessed yellow, snake-like eyes. This was no longer Agon; it was the demon residing within him.

While Anika teetered on the edge of a mental breakdown and Sei had sweat running down his face, Yamata no Orochi wore a sinister smile. "It seems like the barrier is getting broken through. Will humanity survive? Will there be another Golden Age of Exorcism? With that man dead, humanity stands no chance against creatures that man has angered!"

He declared the dawn of a new era, and Anika couldn't shake the ominous foreboding feeling that washed over her.

***

Rose was just another plain-looking girl in a no-name village. The most significant event in her village's history had been the visit of a War Hero, even before he earned that title. That had been the most impressive event in her life, or so she had thought.

That was until today when a colossal crack tore through the sky, and a monstrous red eye peered through. She stared at the thing, frozen in place, while the people around her screamed and panicked. Despite the cacophony of wails, with mothers clutching their children and elders gazing at the sky as if the world were about to end, Rose realized that nothing they did could help them survive against a creature like that.

As the end drew nearer, she couldn't help but wonder how Kon was doing. Living in a remote village meant she never received detailed news about anything. So she didn't know how Kon was, except that he was some big-shot War Hero now.

Was this how her life would end, with the only unique thing in her short existence being her encounter with Kon?

Well, there was no changing that now.

A pillar of fire obliterated whatever the creature was that had been attempting to crack the sky open like an egg. Which brought a semblance of hope within her heart.

"Rose, do you think we'll make it through?" asked her old friend.

Rose didn't know how to answer such a question. Others might hold onto hope, but it was immediately crushed when more cracks appeared in the sky, and more horrors attempted to breach it.

"Make it through? Of course, we will... Exorcists will take care of this," Rose responded absentmindedly, masking her doubts.

"Right, there are people like Kon out there!" Her friend exclaimed, with a dreamy look in her eyes. "Just like last time, he'll come and save me... I mean, save us all!"

For the first time in her life, Rose wished she could be as simple-minded as her friend.

***

Fido was a devoted Kon fan. Despite hearing rumors of Kon's demise, Fido refused to believe them for even a moment. He considered himself Kon's biggest fan, and true fans never abandoned their idols.

He strolled through the bustling streets of the capital of Sun Country, searching for a place to purchase some water talismans. He had heard a recent rumor of some secret shop.

Amidst the vibrant street vendors, he veered into an alley. The place felt damp, with an unpleasant, slightly rotten odor. Cats and mice stared at him with an eerie curiosity in their eyes.

However, Fido was undeterred by such things. He whistled loudly, startling any nearby pests. Mice scurried away from behind trash cans into the sewers, while cats leaped out of their hiding spots and growled before fleeing.

"This seems like the perfect place for an ambush," Fido muttered, surveying his surroundings.

He shrugged off the unsettling thought and continued on his journey. After several minutes of navigating the seemingly endless, sketchy alley, he finally arrived at his destination.

Before him stood a pristine shop, a stark contrast to everything else in the vicinity. As he approached, a pleasant, minty fragrance wafted through the air.

A sign above the brick shop, written in neat handwriting, read: 'Hermit's Afterlife.'

Fido entered the establishment, expecting to find a vast array of talismans on display. To his surprise, the only occupant was an elderly man with bandages wrapped around his head, gently snoring in a rocking chair.

Is he asleep?

Temptation momentarily gripped Fido, and he contemplated how many talismans he could steal. However, these thoughts were quickly replaced by the question: What would Kon do in a situation like this?

With a disappointed sigh, he knocked on the counter and was about to rouse the slumbering shop owner when a sharp cracking sound echoed from outside.

Fido's instincts kicked in, and he hurried outside. Positioned within the narrow alley, his view was limited. So, he agilely ascended to the rooftop of a nearby building.

What he witnessed left him shaken. Countless rifts had torn through the sky, and colossal entities were not only holding them open but also forcing them to expand.

These rifts spanned the entire sky, and soon a deafening crack filled the air.

Although Fido couldn't comprehend the intricacies, he could instinctively tell that some kind of barrier had been breached. Darkness loomed behind that barrier, momentarily hesitating before engulfing the world in a veil of dancing shadows.