His normal luminous blue eyes were long gone, drowned beneath endless darkness that held no reflection, no light, and no humanity.

Just beneath the corners of his eyes, the skin began to tremble, a slit appearing and parting, revealing two more eyes.

Marking a total of four.

But that wasn’t the end.

The skin on his forehead also began to shake quietly, a slit appearing, with dark blood pouring out, but it never opened.

His skin began to undergo a change.

Once dark and filled with life, it began to turn pale white and become deathly smooth, drained of all mortal colour.

Across his throat and collarbone, thin lines of black spread and vanished, then returned elsewhere.

His fingers grew longer, the nails black, curved, and cleanly pointed, every slight movement of them leaving faint distortions in the air.

Behind him, the shadows rose higher, twisting into wing-like masses that never fully formed, folding and unfolding in silence, and once they flapped as White rose onto his feet.

In that moment, the slit on his forehead finally opened, revealing a darkness at the centre of which rested a crimson red dot.

His lips slowly parted open, his mouth widening into a maw, and rows of crimson teeth were revealed, sharp and uneven, stretching into a smile that carried no warmth.

There was no feeling of revenge in him, neither hate.

They were nothing but a funny feeling in his chest, a feeling of unexplainable joy and happiness, and slowly—

"Hehehehe."

The cackle began ringing out as he slowly turned his head upward, where the battle of crimson blade and tentacles was still ongoing.

His chilling laughter brought the world to a sudden stop, as both Innumaki and Rukun halted mid-step, their eyes instantly turning down to where White’s corpse ought to lay.

But there was no White on the ground.

Instead was a five-meter-tall being of darkness, cackles leaving its wide crimson maw as it stared at both of them.

"What... what is that?"

Rukun asked, as fear took him.

An unexplainable fear that made the feet standing on the blade begin to shake uncontrollably.

To Irasul, the fear was far greater.

It was a being born from the darkness, the Otherworld, yet looking at this creature—

Though they seemed to have come from the same darkness, there was something about him.

Something so... wrong.

Without a word, it took two steps back, and in the next moment, Irasul fled into the distance.

Rukun remained paralysed with fear, so much so that the blade he was standing on, and had conjured in his mind, faded as he lost concentration over his ability.

To the fleeing Irasul, White’s smile never faded, instead slowly reaching out with a claw that pointed toward Irasul.

There was the link to Irasul’s shadow on the ground as he ran, and through that link, White could feel himself easily grabbing at Irasul.

Slowly, his fingers curled inward, and in that moment, Irasul’s eyes flashed in horror as he felt all of his movement suddenly locked.

Then came the dragging force.

It turned its head, witnessing White slowly curling his fingers in.

"No... no!"

it screamed into the air, all of its tentacles reaching forward, grabbing onto the skyscrapers to resist the pull.

It seemed to work—

Until White’s other hand moved with the same grin, and he began to cut away at the shadows of the tentacles.

The action led to all of Irasul’s tentacles falling to the ground.

It immediately tried to grow them back, but the unbelievable happened.

They didn’t grow back.

The tentacles, which it used to be able to regenerate almost instantly, completely refused to grow, and the source of it was clear as it looked and found the unsettling darkness around the edge of each cut.

The absorption increased as he was reeled in, and with no way out, Irasul turned forward, roaring aloud.

"DIIIIEEEEE!"

All of its tentacles glowed with dark runes, turning thrice larger than their previous size before all slammed down onto White with great force.

The ground beneath him caved in from the force of the attack, revealing Irasul had spared nothing in the strike.

Yet before the attack had reached halfway to White—

"Hehehehe."

There was a mocking chuckle from White as his hand suddenly moved to Irasul’s shadow, and a single finger of his made a simple line over its neck.

The tentacles never landed when an object slowly rolled off, landing onto the ground.

With mouth agape, Rukun watched as Innumaki’s head simply fell off his neck, like the bond that held it together had suddenly been severed.

The loss of his head made the tentacles immediately lose their trajectory, landing a couple meters away from White’s feet, but they didn’t reach him.

The head distantly rolled across the ground, eventually pausing by White, who bent down and picked it up with his right hand.

Innumaki was long dead, but Irasul remained conscious, its eyes still flashing in shock as its own life rapidly faded.

It looked at the being before him, this madness of existence, whose long fingers were slowly dipping into its mouth, beginning to dig in.

While its other hand grabbed from behind the back of its head.

"Mon... monster."

BURST!

Blood and brain matter splashed into the air as the head was completely crushed apart, and White’s fingers spread wide, letting the fluids rain onto the ground.

"Hehehehehehe."

The scene of the broken head brought an incurable feeling of joy, and lust... lust for more.

His eyes frantically turned to look forward, and there was still the kneeling Rukun.

Shackled by too much fear to even move or say a word, all Rukun could do was whimper in terror as White eventually reached him.

He bent to one knee, getting closer to Rukun, while his long finger traced the sharpness of his face, until it eventually came to rest just beneath his jaw, and then—

PSSSST!

A gentle sound of skin being pierced through, and Rukun’s body lost its weight, falling onto White’s hands.

CREEAAAK!

The sound of bone breaking followed.

RIIIIIP!

SPLASH!

The sound of something being ripped out whole, followed by liquid splashing onto the ground, like heavy rain.