Son of Destruction Hakai No Miko Chapter 1.44

The figures of people had vanished from sight within the city.
Even the main street, which pierces through the city's centre and had been flouris.h.i.+ng with people until yesterday, had not a single cat loitering around. Instead, one could spot fresh bloodstains on the ground and the traces of larger-scaled destruction visible on the street's houses.
He accepted it as the natural outcome, but upon witnessing that scenery, Souma was lost for words due to the difference in the scenery compared to yesterday.
Shahata, worried over the unusual state of Souma, sent a questioning gaze to Shyemul, but she shook her head lightly and whispered 「Don't say anything」.
Shahata had been staying behind in the fortress to take care of Hopkin's family, per Souma's request.
No matter how much Garam and the others swore that they will follow Souma's orders, there are still many among the zoan who harbor negative feelings in regards to humans. One of the few zoan that Souma felt comfortable entrusting Hopkin's family, who are also important hostages, was Shahata. Besides Shyemul, he is the one that Souma trusts the most.
Shahata was disappointed that he couldn't partic.i.p.ate in capturing the fort and that he wasn't allowed to follow Souma even as his guard, but it would be very unlikely for him to be able to refuse a request from Souma.
Shahata racked his brain how to look after Hopkins' overly frightened wife and his son, who had actually gotten emotionally attached to him to a degree that he became perplexed instead. Eventually, they were able to return the two to Hopkins as promised in addition to taking the city. Believing that he will finally return to guard duty after this, Shahata was delighted. But since reuniting with Souma after a long time, Souma himself was far from happy, despite taking the city splendidly. Even Shahata, who still struggles to guess the emotions of humans, could see how dispirited Souma was from just a glance at his face.
He wonders whether something happened, but with even Shyemul looking troubled, it's difficult for him to ask.
Shahata also gradually ended up a.s.suming a gloomy look as he wonders what the problem is.
However, Souma didn't have the composure to notice the state of those two.
Souma aimlessly wandered through the city in silence while accompanied by them. Before he realized, he was heading towards the mansion of the slave dealer Grokakos.
While he's aware of the result of the operation he designed himself, Souma leaks a small groan from his mouth after seeing the mansion.
The mansion, which had been built with baked bricks, had burned down beyond recognition. Even from outside the mansion, he can spot many corpses scattered here and there within the s.p.a.cious courtyard. The hate of the former slaves apparently even befell the earthen wall that surrounded the mansion. It was so thoroughly destroyed that it had transformed into a lump of soil.
Souma, who averted his face away from Grokakos' mansion, by chance looks at something laying in an alley ahead of his sight and knits his eyebrows.
What he saw there was the corpse of a little girl.
Spreading her light-brown, long hair on the ground like a large-petalled flower, the little girl had collapsed face-down. The white one-piece like clothes she wore are smeared with mud and blood, and tainted with spots.
While pressing his hand against his chest that hurts sharply due to the acute feeling of regret, Souma squeezes out his voice.

“Shahata, please bury that girl properly.”

Right after saying that, Souma turned on his heels and left on the spot.
Shahata saw off the figures of Souma and Shyemul, who chases Souma after swiftly exchanging looks with Shahata, until they vanished around a street corner and sighs with a worried look.

“I wonder, is Sir Soma really alright…?”

However, the only thing Shahata can do currently is to hold a memorial for the corpse of the girl while keeping it as courteous as possible. I guess it's fine as long as it eases Souma's mood to some extent.
Thinking that, Shahata, who tried to carry the girl's corpse, doubted his own eyes.
The corpse of the girl that had been there until just now had vanished.
He surveys the surroundings in a panic, but the girl's corpse has disappeared without a single trace. He tries to blink his eyes many times over, but it's not as if the girl's corpse will rematerialize due to him doing that.

“… Have a I mistaken her for something?”

But it wasn't just me. Soma had seen her as well. Even while thinking that it's impossible for him to have made such a mistake, Shahata couldn't think of any way to explain the situation with anything but that.
Something moved in the corner of Shahata's vision.
Once he s.h.i.+fted his focus that way in a hurry, he caught sight of the retreating figure of a girl turning around the alley's corner at that exact moment.
Seemingly being happy about something, the girl vanishes around the alley's corner, skipping at a light pace.
Due to that, Shahata's body s.h.i.+vered without him knowing the reason for it.

◆◇◆◇◆

The lives of this world's people were aligned to the sun.
People rising with the sunrise and going to sleep at sunset is common.
This was mostly because things that would be used as a source of light, such as candles, were expensive commodities. In addition, there was also a fear of fire. It wasn't something that could easily be used by ordinary commoners. Hence, meetings and banquets that were held late into the night were a rarity, due to need to hire guards specialized in maintaining the lighting and acting as a night watch. They were limited to a small fraction of n.o.bles and merchants.
And, since it was strictly prohibited to go out at night in Bolnis according to Souma's order, the city welcomed the night faster and more deeply than usual.
In a room of the feudal lord's official residence, which had been confiscated by the zoan a short while ago, Souma sat in one of the room's corners, clutching both of his knees in worry, and not catching a wink of sleep.
Souma already understood what the problem was.
Everyone's objectives are all over the place.
The highest priority for the zoan is protecting the plains where they live.
Garam and Zurgu understand the necessity for the zoan to go outside the plains, but the majority of the other zoan are just following them as their clan chiefs. I can't discard the possibility that we will be confined to the plains if the situation worsens either.
The dwarves around Dvalin apparently strongly desire to return to their own native land.
Having been boarded on a s.h.i.+p as slaves and transported to a distant country without any regards towards their will, he could understand their feelings of nostalgia. They want to go back home as soon as possible, but because there's no way that they can accomplish that, the real situation is probably that they are reluctantly obeying Souma. Because of this, there's even the concern that they would flee without a fight if a large human army showed up.
And, the most problematic ones are the dinosaurians who have chosen Jahangil as their representative.
They are foremost instigating their revenge against the humans instead of returning to their own lands. With how warlike they are, if an army were to show up, they'd be the ones to ignore orders and fight without a second thought. If they were to self-destruct like that it'd be their own problem, but if we get dragged into it, we will lose everything.
A group with such scattered goals and intentions now being somehow gathered on a single spot makes me fear the punitive force of Holmea State that's bound to show up eventually.
However, Souma couldn't consider something like that as anything but completely meaningless.
No matter how many troops we gather and no matter how much they excel in individual military prowess, if they can't even cooperate, they are nothing more than a disorderly mob. In that case we should have no real chance against a trained military force.
Even in the unlikely event that I was wrong and we win, only self-destruction through internal discord awaits us next. As such, the only difference is whether we will quickly or slowly be annihilated by the humans.
Absent-minded murmurs leak out of Souma's mouth.

“I have to change everyone's goal into one and unify their wills…”

If the goals are split apart, it will be fine as long as I can focus them on one thing.
But, how do I do that?
The goals are different depending on the race and the individuals. No matter how much I reconcile these, transforming them into one is impossible.

“In that case I have to fabricate a bigger goal…”

It will be alright if I tout a big goal, which ends up overshadowing the goals of the races and the individuals, in front of them. It will be fine as long as everything's painted over by one big objective.
If everyone's goals turn into one, their wills will naturally get united.

“That's right. A big goal is necessary. And in addition to that, it has to be a goal similar to an extraordinary and huge dream.”

He was able to consider that as a very good idea.
The bigger the goal, the better.
I don't mind even if trials and tribulations stand in the way of achieving it. Not only that, even if hards.h.i.+ps stand in front of such a dream-like goal, they will likely change in order to obtain the delight of having overcome that.
And, Souma knew of precedents that accomplished that.
Through the means of a major power that was composed of many races, with differing languages and skin colors.
Through the means of a dictators.h.i.+p that unified the people suffering from starvation.

“If everyone becomes one, the probability for winning will be high as well…”

Souma shuddered due to the voice he spoke himself.
What did I plan just now?
To rewrite everyone's goals for the sake of victory.
To unify the wills of everyone for the sake of victory.
Isn't this totally similar to thought control or brainwas.h.i.+ng!?
Noticing that his thoughts started to run into a dangerous direction, Souma shakes his head in panic to get rid of those thoughts.
However, those thoughts don't vanish from his mind and clog it, just like sticky clots of blood.

“But, to save everyone…”

Not only that, just like clotted blood clinging to his hands, which he had been trying to clean, similar thoughts are rapidly filling Souma's mind.
He couldn't help considering that much as fascinating idea.
He couldn't help considering that much as terrible idea.

“Say, my beloved Souma. Why are you wavering so much?”

Souma stands up with a jump due to the girl's voice that echoed within the room that should have no one besides him in it.
Surveying the vicinity swiftly, Souma discovered a single girl in the darkness of a corner of the room.

“Even with different appearances, the people of different races will unify for a single goal. Everyone will live for the sake of that goal and everyone will die for the sake of that goal.”

The girl has long, light brown hair and wore a simple, white and poncho-like one piece. She revealed an entranced expression, as if drunk on her own words, and steps towards Souma from within the darkness without making a single sound.

“A spiraling stairway repeatedly stacking up life and death for the sake of a single dream. Everyone dreams of ascending those stairs and using up all their strength along the way, they also become a part of the spiral.”

The feudal lord's official residence, which Souma was staying at, had a tight security set up by the zoan to guard against the residents, whom might rise up in revolt at an unknown time, as well as the slaves with highly strung emotions. The girl who managed to trespa.s.s up until this room without being seen or questioned by anyone among the zoan horrifies Souma.
Is it the revenge of a residential girl whose family was killed in the battle during the day?
Or is she an a.s.sa.s.sin that was already dispatched by Holmea State to deal with me?
However, a convincing hunch that easily blew away such guesses. .h.i.t Souma.
This girl is neither an avenger nor an a.s.sa.s.sin.
She's nothing that cute.
She's something much older.
She's something much more frightening.

“An endless dream and the spiral of life and death linked to it. Aren't those simply wonderful things, I wonder? Right, my precious Souma?”

The girl bends her head slightly to one side in a lovely motion and seeks Souma's agreement.
But, due to Souma being bound by fear and thus unable to return any response, the girl slightly pushes out her small lips as if sulking.

“Everyone will die if you can't win. At that time anything and everything will come to an end. It's for the sake of saving everyone. There's no other way. As it's inevitable, you have to do it, right? Of course that doesn't mean that you like doing it. Everyone will understand as long as they are aware of that. Right? Isn't that so?”

That's a justification towards the sin that will be committed by Souma.
Souma wants to stretch out his hands to that sweet temptation, but even so Souma feels hesitant in his own deliberations. Due to his half hearted att.i.tude, the girl's lovely smile vanishes and is replaced by a scornful expression.

“Why are you acting like a good child? Did you already forget? Since a long time ago, your hands are stained bright red with blood. There's a mountain of corpses below your feet and a horde of the dead behind you.”

Alongside the girl's words, he feels a slippery sensation on his hands.
Once he opened both hands in panic, his palms were covered in fresh blood that is not his own. When he tries to move back and raises a scream, his feet are grabbed by something from below and he ends up falling on his backside. Another scream escapes from Souma's mouth, who checked what was ensnaring his feet. Before he became aware of it, countless corpses had acc.u.mulated at his feet, and he had been tripped up by one of them.

“You strengthened your determination to to go forward for the sake of saving everyone, didn't you? You had the resolve to kill others for that reason, right? And yet, why are you hesitating at this point in time now?”

While sitting on his b.u.t.t, he hugged his body with both arms. Looking down on Souma who was terribly quivering in fear, the girl told him with sympathy,

“But, that's not unreasonable either.”

Completely changing over, the girl shows a feeling of joy across her whole face.

“I mean, you are empty after all.”

Those words stabbed Souma's heard like a sharp knife.

“Oh pitiful Souma, I accepted your as my divine child and yet you haven't changed at all since that night. You are an empty box with nothing in it. An empty box that only had its exterior decorated.
That's why you end up easily toppling over by just a small stumble. You end up shaking like a leaf with just the smallest nudge
The resolve and determination you should have made are only empty husks. The real you doesn't have the resolve to save everyone no matter what you have to do for it. You don't have the determination to save everyone by betting it all. Oh, how unsightly and pathetic you are, my Souma.”

It's just as the girl says, Souma thought.
Once I try to think back, everything simply came to be in the course of events.
Within the despair and anxiety I felt after falling into this world from j.a.pan, in this world where I didn't know left from right, I relied on Shyemul, the only person that treated me gently. Because I couldn't let her predicament pa.s.s, I only ended up saving the zoan by lending my knowledge for their battle with the humans. And because I felt indebted to the lives already lost for that reason, I merely continued in a loop of paying my debts.
The girl cornered Souma, who was immersed in such m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic thoughts, even further.

“There's only one single thing within you.”

The girl shows a mischievous smile similar to that of a child that is about to disclose a precious secret.

“It's something beautiful you saw for the first time in this world.”

Upon those words, Souma's heart beats with a single, big throb.

“The moment you were connected to this world was the time of your second birth. What the you, who had only been born then, encountered was something very beautiful and n.o.ble.
That's why you yearned for it and the reason why you felt attracted by it.
You couldn't forgive for that to get hurt, could you? You acted as a good child because you didn't want to be hated, right? You played the role of a hero because you wanted to be loved, didn't you?”

The girl stretched out her white, slender hand in front and what was placed on her hand, starting from the wrist, was a puppet.
With black eyes that were drawn with ink in a disorderly fas.h.i.+on and black, knitted wool hair, it's a ventriloquist puppet that would flap its big mouth open and shut in accordance to the girl's finger movements.

『Look at me! Don't desert me! Stay with me! Don't leave me alone!』

The girl says this in a falsetto while making the puppet's mouth flap open and closed.

“Oh, how ridiculous it is. How lovely it is. And how ugly and disgusting it is!”

Souma's shame and wrath for having his hidden feelings exposed exceeds his fear towards the girl that was cackling with a look of glee, as if she were enjoying it from the bottom of her heart.
Souma stood up, thrust his finger at the girl and shouted with conviction,

“Be quiet, Aura!”

At that moment the girl's light brown hair color is immediately dyed in the purest white.
On her pure white forehead without a single blemish, an eerie seal appears. It looks like two snakes coiled around each other, writhing and biting each other's tails in something that looked like a combined 8 and ∞, as a dazzling red light pulses out of it.

“You are Aura! The G.o.ddess of death and destruction!”

Aura simply stared at Souma with a broad grin even as he raises his voice in anger.
His att.i.tude is excessively affected by his temper. Souma presses a question at Aura as if yelling at her.

“What are you planning to do to me!?”

However, seemingly not even feeling a gentle breeze from Souma's wrath, Aura smoothly answered,

“It's what you desire and want to do.”

“What's your objective!?”

“For you to be yourself.”

“Don't screw with me!!”

In spite of not even trying to answer seriously, Aura unnaturally fakes a sob and uses her lightly balled up firsts to rub against the corners of her eyes, which actually don't even have a single tear towards the raging Souma.

“Oh, unkind Souma, for you to not believe in my words. There's no necessity to do anything to you. After all, your existence in itself is already a deadly poison for this world.”

“… Deadly poison?”

“Indeed. You are a deadly poison. Something that drives the functions of a body mad and which drives others into death is a poison. That being the case, calling you, who throws the principles of the world out of order and drives people into death, a poison is fine, isn't it?
Your thoughts, words and actions, all of those are such a lovely and diverse deadly poison for this world. It's fine for the deadly poison that you are to stay as you are.”

Souma himself sensed that as well.
For my words and deeds that were disconnected from the common sense of this world to be about to cause an unthinkable state of affairs.
For my knowledge that doesn't exist in this world to be about to give birth to terrible consequences.
Forgetting his shame and honor, Souma spat out what he really thought.

“Send me back to j.a.pan! Send me back to my former world right away! Send me home!”

That was a complaint he definitely couldn't mention in front of Shyemul and the others.
However, due to that, Aura answers with a happy look instead.

“Yes, that's good, my miserable Souma.”

A mouth opens on the white face of the girl in the shape of a gaping smile just like a crescent moon that became flat.

“But I wonder whether you can really go home? Can you really abandon everyone who followed you, those who believed in you from within their hearts? If you disappear, everyone that got left behind by you will be slaughtered.
Not only that, it'll be such a very gruesome sight.
Their eyeb.a.l.l.s will be gouged out, their tongues will be torn out, their ears will be plucked off, their noses will be cut off, their blood will be extracted, their teeth will be broken, their fingernails will be ripped off, their skin will be roasted, their hair will be torn out, their fingers will be chopped—”

“S-Stop! Don't say it! Just stop!”

Each and every single of Aura's words tore Souma's heart into shreds. Aura revealed a lewd smile due to Souma's anguish and peered into his face.

“There's no way for you to be able to go back home, is there, my kind, kind Soumaaa?”

Souma's body lost its strength because of his despair and he fell on his back on the spot, with a loud thump.
Aura raises a cackling laughter towards Souma's state.

“If it's my smart Souma, you have understood it since a long time ago already, haven't you? It's too late by now. You have no other option but to forge onwards. And yet you are only worrying and hesitating. Even for me, that's a bore. It's so very, very dull. That's why I will make an exception only this time. I will push your back just a tiny bit.”

Saying so, she slightly pushed the back of the puppet. Due to that impact, the head of the puppet falls off and lightly rolls up to Souma's toes.
After the puppet vanishes from her grasp, Aura slowly extended her right hand in front of Souma's terrified face.
Thereupon the horrific scenery of a battlefield spreads behind Aura's right side.
Within the scenery, where many corpses of soldiers are lined up, where the blood has turned into a river and where broken spears and swords have been thrust into the ground like grave-markers, behind her, Aura solemnly announced,

“In order to save your precious people, you either kill other people, or—”

Then she stretched out her left arm next and a scenery of a burned-down city of Bolnis spread out on the left side behind Aura.
The bodies of zoan, dwarves and dinosaurians are piled up all over the city and their freshly severed heads were impaled by spears, as they stared at Souma with hateful expressions.
And, among those, there were also the heads of people Souma knows.
Over there's Garam. In this direction is Zurgu. That way are Banuka, Dvalin, Shunpa, Jeeta and Shyepoma.
And, over there is, over there is…!

“Or abandon those precious to you for the sake of saving other people—”

With the two sceneries behind her, Aura opens the palms of both her extended hands in a grand manner and urges Souma to pick either of them.

“Hurry and choose, my cute, cute Souma.”

The head of the puppet that had toppled sideways below Souma's feet turned its face his way. It started to flap its mouth open and shut, and raised its voice.

『Choose! Choose! Choose!!』

Souma plugs both his ears to get rid of the puppet's jarring voice and frantically shouts,

“No! No more! I don't want to kill anyone! I don't want to destroy anything!”

Due to Souma's shameful behaviour, Aura licks her lips with her tongue moving bewitchingly in a manner that doesn't befit a young girl.

“Not choosing is a choice as well, isn't it? The outcome of that choice is…”

Saying that, Aura slowly lowers one hand.

“N-No!”

Souma instinctively grasped the hand Aura tried to lower.
A silence descends on that place that seems to result in an earache.
Even though Aura doesn't say anything no matter how much time pa.s.ses, Souma, who felt anxious, secretly gazed with upturned eyes at Aura's face as he slightly lets his head hang in shame while his body trembles repeatedly.
Once he looked up, the two eyes within the girl's face sparkled dazzlingly.

“You made your choice, didn't you, Souma?”

Upon Aura's whisper, Souma promptly shakes off the hand he was clutching.
While turning around and delightfully caressing her own hand that had been shaken off,

“Very, very admirable, my adorable, adorable Soumaaa.
I will watch attentively. How many corpses you will pile up. How deeply you will dye the earth red. Until the time you die within the sea of blood you spilled and on top of the corpses you piled up yourself. I will always, always watch over you.”

Aura's cheeks flushed faintly and her eyes were thickly filled with l.u.s.t.

“Oh! My beloved, beloved Souma. I feel awfully good. After all, you called my name for the first time.”

And then, as if confessing her love, she sweetly whispers to Souma,

“That's why I will give you my blessing.”

Originally, in this world it's a mysterious power people don't possess which also serves as a proof of the G.o.ds' deep affection.
However, even though he will be bestowed that, an indescribable chill ran along Souma's spine.

“My sole divine child. My precious and irresistable divine child. I worried what would be the best blessing to give you, but I will grant your wishes. I will give you the blessing you desired.”

Approaching Souma to the extent of touching his body, Aura pressed her white finger against the seal on Souma's forehead. Because that chain of actions was far too natural, Souma is unable to run away or brush off her hand, and thus tolerates it.

“No matter who it might be, you won't be able to injure them. No matter what it might be, you won't be able to destroy it. — That's my blessing for you.”

At that moment a pain travels through Souma's forehead.
Looking down on Souma who raises a small cry of pain and suppresses his forehead with a hand, Aura said as if singing,

“Oh, my arrogant Souma. To not want to kill anyone even though you have to eat something besides yourself for survival! To not want to destroy anything even though you have to wage war either way to protect someone! What do you call that if not vanity?”

Aura laughs cacklingly in front of the suffering Souma.

“You must use others in order to survive. You must force those you love to wage war in order to protect those you love. Ah, how foolish, arrogant, ugly, cruel and adorable, right!? My Souma! My beloved Souma!!”

◆◇◆◇◆

“Are you alright, Soma?”

Noticing his shoulders being gently shaken, Souma suddenly opened his eyes.
The one in front of him was not Aura, but instead Shyemul, who had a worried frown on her face.

“I am, just what…?”

“You had quite the nightmare, Soma.”

Once he looked around him, he saw that it was the feudal lord's bedroom that had been allotted to him. In the room that was illuminated by bluish-white moonlight which shone through the window, there's no one beside him and Shyemul. The figure of that mad G.o.ddess is nowhere to be seen.

“… A dream? Was it?”

It was a terrible nightmare.
I have wracked my brain too much over the problem of the plans from now on and how to persuade the former slaves which awaited me by tomorrow. That was becoming more of a burden on my mind than I expected, which probably made it possible for a nightmare to appear.
After lightly shaking his head in order to shake off the remnants of the nightmare clinging to his mind, Souma called out to Shyemul.

“Sorry for making you worry. I might have been more nervous than I thought since I have to persuade everyone on what to do tomorrow.”

“In that case it's alright. But please don't force yourself too much, Soma.”

“Yeah. But can you leave me alone? I want to think on how to persuade everyone tomorrow for just a bit longer.”

It didn't seem like she agreed with it too strongly, but with Souma going that far, Shyemul couldn't say anything.

“… Got it. But, please, don't be unreasonable.”

Even though the tips of her ears were hanging down slightly and despite her feeling painfully reluctant, Shyemul left the room. I probably ended up making her worry quite a bit since she looked like that, when she usually isn't that fussy, Souma releases a single big sigh.

“In any event, I wonder whether I'm worn out for having such a weird dream?”

Just when he was talking to himself like that, there was a clanking sound inside the room.
Once Souma turned around in the direction from where the sound came from, he saw a small wooden box that had fallen on the ground.
I guess the box that had likely been placed on top of the desk fell to the ground due to some chance.
The box that's sparkling with twinkles after being bathed in the moonlight is probably something similar to a jewel box where one hides valuable items. Its surface has been decorated with elaborate ornaments. It has been adorned with something that seems to be gold leaves and small gems.
However, contrary to those showy ornaments, the box' inside that had peeked out through a gap in the lid that opened when it fell to the floor was completely empty. It was merely a decorated yet empty box.

“What, it's just an empty box, huh…?”

Muttering that, the remark of Aura, which Souma had heard within his dream, revived in the ears of Souma.
“You are an empty box with nothing in it. An empty box that only had its exterior decorated.”
Souma got gooseb.u.mps.

“You don't say! That was a dream… merely a dream…!?”

Losing his grip on the differentiation between reality and illusion, Souma's head was in chaos.
When he unsteadily steps back, his back b.u.mps into the wall. While pressing his back against the wall just like that, Souma sat down on the spot and felt a hard sensation next to his waist. Once he tries to touch it, it's the small machete he was given by Shyemul for self-defense.
Fixing his eyes on that machete for a while, Souma abruptly drew it out of its scabbard.
And then, he gently presses a finger against its blade that reflects the bluish-white, glaring moonlight.
While feeling his heart beating strongly as if it's about to jump out up to his throat, Souma made the blade slide across the finger he pressed against it in one go.
However, there's not even a single wound on that finger.

“No way…!?”

Souma got up and stood in front of the thin cloth that was hanging over his bed. And widely brandis.h.i.+ng the machete, he instantly swings it down while targeting the thin cloth.
But, he wasn't able to cut it.
He messily brandishes the machete and slashes at the thin cloth.
Even so, he can't damage even a single strand of it.

“This is… something like that is my blessing as divine child…!?”

The machete slips out of Souma's hands and loudly tumbles on the floor.

“Aura! d.a.m.ned Aura! You told me to make everyone shed blood by deceiving everyone in order to save everyone, didn't you!?”

Souma crumbled to his knees then and there.

“To this me…!”

All of his paths of retreat had been shut out.
There was only one path left for Souma.
For the sake of protecting those important to him, he has to defeat everyone else.
For that reason, Souma would release the seed of destruction and the spark of death he brings about as 「Divine Child of Destruction」 towards the zoan and slaves.