"So this bleak surface can rise and fall, but it won''t tilt," he remarked, his right fist ready to throw another brutal strike to my reeling form.


    However, my right black spike shot out, piercing his arm and halting another blow.


    "Why are the black spikes still around, exhibitionist? And don''t lie, I saw them emerge from below."


    "You would know if you just let me finish my explanation!" I launched my left black spike at his head, but he dodged with a slight head tilt and caught it with his left.


    "Probably because of this murky surface," he said to himself, ignoring me.


    No wonder he said nothing when I called him a freak fanatic. His sharp wit is genuinely intimidating. It felt almost pointless to be cautious.


    "Yes, irritably true. In this state, they can move to any zone, with me controlling their disadvantages."


    "So many conditions, it almost feels useless."


    "Not in my hands..."


    I snapped the fragile stake pinned to the ground with a hasty flick and extended another one, swinging it to cut off his head—or at least where it should have been.


    However, it wasn''t his head that came crashing down, it was the same stake, covered in a red liquid.


    Ignoring it, I drew back my left hand, but by the time I realized that my fist was missing, he had already driven my own fist with the stake into my thigh, preparing to amputate my leg.


    A careless mistake I made in swinging my right hand had confirmed his suspicion.


    With a feeble kick to his left leg, I made him stumble forward, opting to retreat instead of confronting this savage man.


    "HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"


    "What''s so funny, you hunk of metal?!!!"


    "Haha... ''Not in my hands!'' AHAHAHAHA!!!"


    【相】(Sou)


    "Eh? Why are you deactivating it? Is having zero perception above waist really that troublesome?"


    As I reattached my fist, my mind drifted into a haze. No, it was forced into contemplation. The impatient swing I made in the dark signaled that I had no perception of the dark world.


    How much anguish did Hidesato endure to best himself? Why was he so loyal to this flawed humanity? Even after they had burdened him with such a harassing title...


    I truly wanted to stay away from your fighting technique, not wanting to tarnish it with my amateurism. Yet, it seems I must rely on your skill. So, let me express my gratitude for assisting me with this daunting task.


    "Human..."


    A single word was sufficient to signal the firmness in my voice, instantly bringing a serious expression to his face—enough to stop his laughter as he lay there.


    Hunching steadily, my hands dangling, "I am not trying to act cool..."


    Gradually bringing out the spikes, "I will prove that every word I''ve spoken is true."


    My face changes to a shade of red, "The truth that I am going against my ideals."


    Leaning below my waist, "The truth that I am going to shame you."


    Turning into a blood devil, poised to charge, "The truth that you can''t protect. Again."


    【相】(Sou)


    Reintroduced to the dark sight, a red demon melded with shadows heralding the start of the final struggle, in time with the rising intensity of the toccata and fugue.


    【相】(Sou)


    The instantaneous change in visibility made the human instinctively duck—knowing I had only turned this phase off to look up—in anticipation of a strike from above, but ended up on the tip of a red stake before it drove into his right shoulder.


    As sharp as his wit is, he quickly understood that creating distance was the last thing he should be doing and tried to grab me, ignoring his punctured shoulder. However, the red tag finally penetrated his endless defense.


    If we look at the physical properties of the red spike, aside from the red tag, we find that while the black spike is labeled as fragile, the red spike is not only sturdy, but also has another terrific feature.


    Look closely at the spine; it is menacingly covered with backward pointing barbs, each imitating a splinter of glass. Helping not only to pierce through flesh with ease but also making it excruciatingly painful while extracting them.


    Not one, not a thousand, but tens of thousands, collectively worked together to elicit the first cry from this madman.


    A pain so great that it can remind anyone of the first time they thorn-riddled themselves in an abrupt mishap. A pain so great that perhaps only a mother''s concerned chiding can ease the pain as they are pulled out.


    【相】(Sou)


    A giant leap backwards to distance myself while he was lost in agony was taken, but this unusual form caused me to slip, and the human''s eye, which was coincidentally aligned with the horizon, noticed the disturbance in the shadows.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    At this point, the tendency of the human with the hole in his right arm and shoulder is almost readable. The left arm that tried to grab my right horn was ready to be staked with a black stake.


    Like hell I''d let myself get caught again! If I had, he would probably have caught my stake just to get my hand and eventually me.


    As I made the rough retreat, the human leapt towards me, not wanting to lose sight(?) of me. Despite being dropped flat on the surface, I crawled away like a dragon lizard.


    He might feel his legs, but that is all his perception is limited to. Just like me, who have zero perception of light and faint perception of sound above the waist.


    "Don''t rush... I will reach you eventually... Ah, you can''t hear me..."


    Within the shadow barely reaching his knee and the red spike dug into his calf. "That''s for trying to amputate me," the red spike grated against his muscle.


    Time to take advantage of the human on his knee.


    The black surface ascended slowly as I swerved around him, and another spike drove into his lower abdomen. If you recognized the ferocity of this human, you also knew that the stake that had impaled him was now in his grasp... But not a problem.


    Bracing myself against his shoulders for the next swift move, I emerged from the shadows, while submerging him until his head was alarmingly close to mine. In a flash, I lifted the red spike just above the darkness and shattered it as I leapt away from him with the kinetic energy built up in my legs.


    Once again, I successfully created some distance. However, I still hadn''t managed to sever his legs, which were crucial for activating the red tag. It''s not that I couldn''t activate it now, but immobilization was necessary to create the exact scenery.


    The bloody world to stand in, the abandoned world to gaze at.


    Next... Huh? The right hand... This is not a cut, but a blunt damage.Did he actually succeed in pinching off my muscle in such a short time? He... Hehe... Quite the character.


    This power is [: Base limited] for a reason, and this human is proving the point. Let''s just mix in some of my moves.


    That impressive spine of this human kept him standing tall. It didn''t even waver at the sight of the devil rising from the murky shadow. I simply stood there, with barely any movement, yet it conveyed to him as a mere taunt and charged at me.


    With a flick of my right hand aimed directly at his sight, he instinctively blocked it with his already injured right hand. That hand, which I had previously impaled, was once again pierced by my own right hand I had severed myself.


    Still, the human pressed forward, only to be skewered by the red spike hidden from his sight. Heeding no mind to my actions, he hugged me tightly. To say it was an embrace might be a lie, but let''s just say it wasn''t because I don''t know what I''m feeling.


    Barging his salivating jaws, he sank his teeth deep into my cervical muscles. "Take whatever you can. Take how much ever you can. Take this as my gratitude," twisting the stake, "...for showing me the heretic that I am," I continued, yanking it out ruthlessly as his muffled screams sang a lullaby in my ears.


    His metal nails began to claw into my back, but getting any closer would be foolish. Hidesato would never let himself be so close to his foes, but unlike him, I''m an immortal confronting an unarmed human.


    My guess was binary as I threw away my fist, anticipating his movements based solely on what I could see, but now to retrieve it......


    The human didn''t have much of a grip, as his hands came loose relatively easily after a brief tussle. Unconfident in my ability to pull him down, I wrapped my legs around his waist and arched back.


    In that fleeting moment of surprise as he watched the shadow change sides, I kicked my severed fist away from him.


    Seizing the momentum, I sprang straight back at him, leaving the shards of glass into him again... and again... and again... Countless stakes skewered, many blades shattered, drenched in his own blood, silenced by the agony of every last barb in him, enough to hate your own existence. Yet... this human stood tall.


    With his movements growing sluggish, the red devil rampaged, the world was ridiculed by the shifting shadows, leaving him no choice but to witness the hopelessness dancing around him.


    Along with that, I made one last rush towards his unsteady feet, determined to make him kiss the ground... And I succeeded in completing the last piece of the puzzle.


    紅札相察腰 (Benifudasousakkoshi); this blessing didn''t have a black tag. It was only to simplify the understanding that such a lie was made up. So what was the black paint? It was just a shadow that lost its host, trying its best to not also to lose its existence.


    The crimson tag, Benifuda, relies on the miniature thorns embedded within the enemy. The thorns that were deserted by the red stake, the thorns that are concealed from the red realm, the thorns that resent their host for losing them.


    Including the major condition being that the victim stays in the red world.


    With all the extensive movements and continuous world alterations, the red thorns that failed to stay in the red world may have vanished, yet those that remain should be more than sufficient.


    【紅札】(Benifuda)


    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA


    It is a call to them... A summon to inform them that their host is beckoning them. A summon to urge them to rush towards me…


    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH


    The air became thick with the cries of human suffering. Neither the pounding against the ground nor the harsh coughs of bad blood was enough. Moreover, the absence of the summoned thorns only confirmed the prolongation of the ongoing misery.


    HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH


    There was no way that the dispassionate call of their master could satisfy their abhorrence, causing the pouted crimson needles to distance themselves from me, even if it meant ambling deep into the victim with their phantom limbs.


    HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"


    Maintaining the distance, I steadily rise to my feet as a swell of pride(?) fills my chest with each gasp of air.


    Surely, this must be one last effort from the human, I mused, watching him spring forward in a desperate lunge from the tips of his toes. A pitiful effort, driven by a bloodied head, destined to end beneath my foot... once again, painting the canvas with the same unchanging hues of red and black.


    His screams became muffled cries as I continued to push his head deep into the ground, muttering, "Will that count as shameful enough?"


    There he goes again, trying to cop a feel– Tsk, tsk! Moving his feeble fingers in an attempt to still get a grip on me. After a casual kick to his face, I turn my attention to the brat as the man loosens his grip.


    Slowly extending a red spike, "And now… To show you that you are gonna fail once again..."


    "True that..."


    With a sharp inhale, I quickly turned around, and before I could fully grasp that the human who should have been there was absent, a fierce strike hit my head, sending me rolling to the floor and reminding me of the only disrespect I know.