The Raven Dark Hero 111

Chapter 111 : Shadow Forces

TL:SummerPeanut

Roppongi Buildings - Rooftop

Chronos, the oldest of the Kuroyume Numbers and the number 3, the ruler of space, had come to Roppongi Hills, one of the locations where the bomb was placed.

Since there had been a bomb threat, the general public had already been evacuated but in exchange there were many police officers and military personnel.

However, Chronos is able to get past the many police and military personnel and reach the roof. And there……

“Could it be, I never thought I'd see you out on the stage……”

Kagerou’s boss, Kirisame, standing in front of him with his five minions behind, was looking down on the city from a rooftop sixty stories above the ground.

“It's high up here and it's a good vantage point. Still, I never thought that Chronos, the ruler of space who was once said to be more powerful than Kiryuu, would show up……Lucky me.”

Kirisame smiled with genuine joy. In his mind, all he could think about was to use Chronos as his shadow.

“Hoh, That's a lot of composure to show in front of me. No wonder you are the one in charge of the Kagerou. But……That margin of composure will quickly turn to despair.”

“Amazing~. Well then, why don't you take care of my members for now?”

Five of his minions braced themselves against Chronos.

“Now, you all, if you can defeat this old man, I'll select you as the new Four Heavenly Kings. Good luck.”

His words filled the minions with motivation. It had been five years since Chronos had left the headquarters. Since then, he hadn't been active in the public eye, and the younger members of Kagerou who were present had never heard of Chronos.

“Oh dear…… I've been underestimated, huh.”

All of Kirisame’s minions jumped towards Chronos at once.

Chronos turned his palm toward one of his minions, and a circle the size of a soccer ball appeared as if it were attached to his palm and touched the minion’s face. Then, only the face disappeared.

He continued to touch one of them on his robes and the other on his stomach with the circle, and only the touched part disappeared completely.

“Just by touching someone, it erased those parts……. I'm getting more and more excited. I can't wait to see you become my shadow.”

“That's a lot of composure. Don't think you'll make it out alive, please?”

“I'll return tit-for-tat exactly to you……”

Suddenly, thirty shadows appeared around Kirisame. Then, one of the shadows cut down the remaining minions as if they were in the way.

This time, the shadow soldiers were not the shadows sent to Kuroyume's branch but instead the most elite shadows in Kirisame's collection.

“……An army of shadows. I've heard the rumors, but this is a terrific gift. There is no other like it.”

Among the shadows, there were also the shadows of former powerful people that Chronos knew.

“Now, shadows, do everything you can to take him down.”

The shadows all jumped at Chronos at once.

“……Hmm, It's going to be a pain in the ass to take these numbers seriously……”

Chronos activated his gift, ‘World Dimension’. Then, a circle with a radius of one meter appeared at his feet, and when Chronos jumped into the circle, his body disappeared from the spot……No, he disappeared from the very space.

“He disappeared? So that’s Chronos’s gift, World Dimension……”

There was no sign of Chronos in the area. But when a circle appeared behind Kirisame, Chronos came out of it and……

“It’s over.”

He tried to touch Kirisame's neck with his palm which was covered with a circle.

“……Wha-?”

……However, the attack was blocked by a giant shadow. Naturally, the blocked arm disappears but the non-living shadow doesn't bleed or feel any pain, it just lost its arm and couldn’t be more unconcerned.

“Wow! As expected of the ruler of space! You'll really get your six taken before you know it!”

Kirisame smiled, unable to hide his excitement.

“Tsk, how many shadows can you cast, my friend?”

Chronos jumped into the circle again and disappeared.

The inside of the circle is a subspace and the ceiling is transparent to the situation on the ground.

World Dimension. This gift that bears the name world is a ranked S gift and boasts the ability to create a subspace that is slightly different from the actual world. This allows the holder to create small circles like the one before, which can be used as a powerful attack by sending the part touched by the circle into subspace, and larger circles that can be used to move in and out.

The subspace Chronos is capable of creating ranges up to one kilometer square under the ground. Since the subspace could only be entered through a circle, it could be considered a completely safe zone.

(Now, since there is a shadow that is exclusively guarding Kirisame himself, it'll be difficult to hit them with my attacks if I go about it normally. Hmm, Ukyo Kirisame……I've heard rumors about him, but he's a real pain in the ass.)

In addition to the usefulness of Kirisame's gift itself, there were several shadows that would be troublesome for Chronos to fight on his own. Considering he got the ability to use such powerful shadows at his will, one could determine that Kirisame is also one of the strongest.

(I could just let it play out and wait for reinforcements but we're on the back foot on this one. But if we destroy Kirisame here, Kagerou will collapse. All problems will end…… There’s no other way. I'll just have to be as careful as possible.)

There is no time limit in subspace. If Chronos wanted to, he could stay hidden as long as his stamina lasted. And in his perfect physical condition, he has enough stamina to stay in subspace for a whole day.

Normally, Chronos would have decided that it would be safer to avoid fighting Kirisame if there was even the slightest chance of losing. If he died, he would become a member of the shadows.

However, Kiryu was not around at the moment. On top of that, three of the Numbers, including Number One, were also absent. In some places, bombs had already detonated, and they were completely put at a disadvantage.

Chronos decided that it was up to him to change this situation.

“Eh~. Could it be, you couldn’t be running away now, would you~?  If so, I'll be very disappointed~…… I thought I was going to have a powerful friend. I guess getting old makes you a coward, huh~?”

On the ground, Kirisame was grumbling about how uninteresting the situation is, but Chronos didn’t care.

(Speak for yourself. I’m just going to do my job.)

“Mhm~, you’re a little more patient than I think. Hmm, what to do~. I think I'll just blow this place up and go home~”

Five minutes have passed since Chronos disappeared. After five minutes had passed, Kirisame finally noticed something strange.

“……The shadows, are decreasing?”

He looked around and saw that the number of shadows had decreased from thirty to twenty.

“I’ve been had…… Shadows! Watch your feet!”

Under Kirisame's direction, the shadows were also watching their steps. Some of the shadows were unable to react to the suddenly appearing circles and their bodies were dragged in one after another, but the shadows that were powerful before their deaths began to evade the circles.

(The number of them had considerably decreased, huh……. Alright.)

Finally, Chronos emerges from the circle. He created a circle in both hands.[1]

“So there's 10 shadows left……. Are you ready? Kirisame.”

“Fu fu fu, I knew you were the real deal. I can't wait for you to be mine!”

The remaining shadows were the elite of the elite. Among them, the one that caught Chronos' attention was the shadow of a tall woman in armor.

“Rosia…… I never thought I'd see you again in a place like this……”

The shadow called Rosia did not respond. It just shimmered.

Rosia is the former Kuroyume number eight, one of the founding members of Kuroyume along with Kiryu and Chronos.

Kirisame became the head of the Kagerou five years ago. Since then, Kuroyume and Kagerou had been enemies but had never fallen into a full-scale war. The battle for supremacy in the filths organization intensified when the former Kagerou’s boss was in charge. In the end, Kiryu defeated the former Kagerou boss in a final battle in which both sides suffered considerable casualties. The battle for supremacy was decided in favor of Kuroyume. Rosia lost her life during that battle.

“Feeling nostalgic yet? Well then, I'll give you another person you'll miss.”

Kirisame made a new shadow appear. This shadow must be Kirisame's trump card, since he had not shown it until now.

“……I see, so even you have become a shadow. Onoda Gouken……”

The shadow was the two-meter tall Onoda Gouken, the former boss of the Kagerou, who was known as the Gouken of Destruction before his death.

“Oh dear…… that is definitely a bad sign.”

“You say that, but it sounds like you're ready to fight it.”

Chronos let out a sigh. But his eyes, as Kirisame had said, were filled with fighting spirit…… or rather, it was filled with anger.

Anger at the fact that he had used his former comrade, Rosia, as his shadow.

And Onoda that had killed many of his comrades. He was angry because he remembered that.

Two rages swelled up, making Chronos lose his cool.

(I never thought I'd be dealing with Rosia and Onoda at the same time……. What are the chances of that? But……)

“You're just a shadow with no self-awareness!”

Unable to control his anger, Chronos rushed headlong into the remaining shadows, and Rosia came forward to intercept him.

Rosia's gift is the ability to materialize a spear, ‘Material Gungnir’. Her gift rank is A. It was even said that a spear fired from her hand would always hit its target.

Rosia thrusted the spear at Chronos, but Chronos swallowed it into a circle.

“I knew it, it was only a shadow. The trajectory of the real Rosia's spear was not this easy to read!”

As he was about to swallow Rosia's head in a circle, Onoda's fist flew at him from the side.

“TSK!”

Chronos immediately swallowed Onoda's right fist with his palm facing Rosia. But while Onoda's right hand was swallowed, he swung his free left fist.

“UOOOOOH!”

Chronos also blocked it with the circle of his other palm. It obliterated both of Onoda's fists. ……However, Rosia re-materialized the erased spear and pierced Chronos' stomach.

“GUFH……, th-the shadows feel no pain, huh!”

Despite being pierced in the stomach, Chronos spun on the spot and used his rotation to obliterate Rosia and Onoda's heads.

Chronos did not expect to win against these two unscathed from the start. That's why he chose a method that would ensure that he could take care of them even if he took heavy damage.

“Phew~. I suppose a shadow is just a shadow in the end. Their power has increased but they don't have the awareness to make full use of their past experiences. Even so, you were able to defeat those two in an instant. Well, it looks like you paid quite the big price though.”

“Hmph, I was just barely missing the kill shot. If it weren't for those two, the rest wouldn't be a problem.”

After defeating the two most troublesome ones, there were only nine shadows left.

Chronos didn’t know the fighting strength of Kirisame himself but he believed that he could defeat the remaining shadows.

(Considering how he can control this many shadows. There's no reason for him to have high personal combat strength. Moreover, his stamina must be on the verge of being quenched.)

“You got a point, it's going to be tough to deal with an old man like you without those two. That’s why…… here.”

At the same time as Kirisame’s words, the shadows of Rosia and Onoda reappeared.

(What's going on? Doesn't a shadow controller need stamina, or is his stamina bottomless?)

“I know what you're thinking, old man. So I'll answer you……”

Shadows appeared one after another. The next thing he knew, an army of shadows surrounded Chronos, filling the rooftop of Roppongi Bills.

“Strangely enough, I don't need any stamina to have the shadows appear. So the shadows will appear again and again until I die.”

“……I see. It's no wonder that Kiryuu would give a second glance to this monster.”

As he said so, he created an opening to make a circle appear under his feet. Chronos was not reckless enough to choose to fight in this situation……But just as he was about to jump into the circle, one of the shadows hit him with great speed.

“GURGH……!?”

“What do you think? The shadow had the gift of Speed Star before he died. According to him, he was a very good soldier in the NDF but he was discharged because of his bad behavior.”

Chronos had no way of knowing but the shadow was that same Kurosaki who had caused Kouki to manifest his gift.

Bleeding away from a stab wound in the side may not be fatal but it can be deadly if prolonged.

(……But that's not the point. Was losing my cool to the shadows of Rosia and Onoda the reason for my defeat…… No, I guess I made a mistake when I chose to attack Kirisame. It's a pity, I've been away from the front lines for so long that my instincts have been dulled……)

“Now, shadows. Use all your strength to defeat Chronos, the ruler of space……”

Led by Rosia and Onoda, the army of shadows attacked Chronos at once.

“Good grief…… To think that of all people, I would…in a place like this……”

Chronos looked up to the heavens, and then, as if exerting his last ounce of strength, he went to face the army of shadows…….

Author’s Note:

The book version of "The Raven Dark Hero" is now on sale, though I'm not sure if it's well-received or not! If you haven't bought one already, please do!

And the next update will be in three days. At last, it’s Bright’s turn to shine, please look forward to it!

<<Prev 

Next>> 

TL’s note:

1. We Dr. Strange now?