Moreover, Haruki’s custom Varanium bde, Onikiri, had begun to show signs of structural fatigue. After the relentless, high-intensity cshing with Aldebaran’s hide, the edge was notched, and the metal groaned under the strain. It was on the verge of shattering.

  In contrast, Aldebaran—though it had been cleaved and mangled—seemed retively unbothered. Its regenerative cells were working overtime, sealing the massive gashes in its torso within seconds.

  Watching the bance of power shift, Haruki realized he couldn't let this stalemate continue. Without his Blood Burst, his normal physical limits weren't enough to deliver a killing blow to a mountain.

  "I guess I have no choice..."

  Haruki took a deep breath, his hands steady as he reached for the massive, bck-wrapped hilt on his back. He drew the IISO-issued Varanium Greatsword. It was a brutal sb of dark metal, built for heavy impact rather than finesse.

  As he gripped the hilt, he closed his eyes. He began to call upon a power that the System had beled as "corruptive."

  It was his Level 3 archetype—the power of the Darkin Bde.

  Unlike the Wuju style, which was a refined discipline, the Darkin tempte was a sentient force of nature. In the lore provided by the System, the Darkin were once god-like Ascended warriors who fought a war against a void beyond existence. In the process, their minds were warped by pure hatred and trauma, turning them into immortal demons trapped within their own weapons.

  The Darkin style was a cursed gift. Simply touching the power risked being erased, your personality overwritten by an ancient, bloodthirsty consciousness.

  Up until now, Haruki had only practiced the movements. He had never dared to invite the essence into his soul. To a true swordsman, the bde must follow the will, not the other way around. If the sword wore the man, then the man was no longer a warrior—he was a puppet.

  But facing Aldebaran, Haruki Aizawa chose to gamble.

  RUMBLE!

  The moment he released the mental seal, a thick, oily bck mist erupted from his body. A tidal wave of raw, malevolent energy surged through his veins, coalescing into a spinning vortex of shadow around his frame.

  VROOOOM!

  Aldebaran’s tentacles shed out, sensing the change. The monster instinctively tried to crush the new threat before it could fully manifest.

  But Haruki’s eyes snapped open.

  They were no longer the deep violet of a ghost-syer. They were two pits of burning, incandescent crimson, radiating a level of manic, focused fury that made the Gastrea’s own bloodlust look like a flickering candle.

  BOOM!

  Haruki swung the Greatsword.

  The movement was almost identical to his earlier strikes, but the result was cataclysmic. When his bde met Aldebaran’s tentacle, there was no resistance. The Varanium sb tore through the flesh, releasing a shockwave of dark energy that literally split the earth beneath them.

  A devastating downward ssh tore through the clouds and buried itself in Aldebaran’s back.

  "GRAAAAAAAAGH!!!"

  The Stage IV monster let out a sound that wasn't a roar, but a shriek of genuine, soul-deep agony. Its massive body buckled, the ground cracking for hundreds of meters around the point of impact.

  Haruki stood before the beast, wreathed in bck fmes. He raised the sword again, his movements mechanical and cold.

  CRACK!

  The Greatsword descended, cleaving Aldebaran’s mountain-sized torso in half.

  Even with its regeneration, the monster was being overwhelmed. But the Promoters watching from the ridge weren't cheering. They were paralyzed with fear. They weren't looking at their commander anymore. They were looking at a living nightmare—a Demon King who had come to cim the world.

  Haruki felt the corruption cwing at his mind. A voice—ancient, rasping, and filled with a hunger to end all things—began to drown out his own thoughts. His arm felt like it was melting into the hilt of the sword.

  At the final moment, Haruki gripped his own head, a roar of defiance tearing from his throat.

  "GET OUT... OF MY HEAD! I am Haruki Aizawa! I am the Master of the Bde, and I will not be your vessel!"

  With a burst of sheer, indomitable willpower, Haruki forced the bck mist to recede. He didn't banish the power; he tamed it. He pinned the Darkin consciousness into a corner of his mind, forcing the demonic energy to serve his will.

  Having wrestled control back from the Darkin's influence, Haruki stood like a man who had just crawled out of a deep, crushing ocean. He was panting, his skin slick with sweat and dark residue, but he had done it. He had mastered the forbidden.

  He had learned the secret of the Darkin Bde: Life-Sapping.

  While the Blood Burst consumed his own life, the Darkin style fueled itself on the blood of the enemy. Every drop of Gastrea fluid spilled by his bde was converted into raw kinetic energy and biological repair for his own body. To Haruki, this battlefield was no longer a pce of exhaustion—it was an infinite well of power.

  THUD!

  Aldebaran’s shell vibrated, sending out a seismic ripple. The monster was panicking. It realized that its "immortality" meant nothing to the man in front of it.

  It decided to use its final trump card.

  "ROOOOOAR!!!"

  As the titan howled, the hundreds of Gastrea surrounding it—the beetles, the spiders, the flying mantises—all converged. They didn't attack Haruki; they formed a physical rey, their bodies pulsing with a bio-luminescent charge.

  The Promoters knew this sight. It was the "Light Spear."

  "Haruki-san! Get out of there!" the Seitenshi screamed into the radio at the command center.

  Kayo and Tina, watching from the secondary line, felt their hearts stop. They knew the power of that beam. It was a weapon designed to level cities. At point-bnk range, it would vaporize a mountain.

  Haruki stood his ground. He didn't dodge. He didn't look for cover. He raised his Greatsword, the red veins on the dark bde pulsing like a heartbeat.

  He began to absorb every stray bit of energy in the air, his wings—vestigial arcs of dark light—forming behind his back.

  "..."

  To the onlookers, it looked like Haruki had lost his mind. He was charging straight into the focal point of the beam.

  KABOOM!

  Like a falling star, the Light Spear erupted. A pilr of incandescent white energy tore through the night, a river of psma that swallowed Haruki whole. The impact was so bright that the satellite feeds washed out into pure white.

  "Haruki!!"

  "No... it can't be!"

  Despair swept through the Civil Security ranks. If the Sword Ghost—their strongest pilr—was gone, then Tokyo was already a graveyard. The Promoters began to back away, their weapons drooping.

  The Seitenshi slumped against the railing, her eyes gssy. "Is this the end...?"

  But as the white gre began to fade, a pulse of dark, oily energy pierced through the center of the crater.

  RUMBLE...

  In the heart of the ruins, a figure emerged.

  It looked like Haruki Aizawa, yet it was something else entirely. He was encased in a suit of dark, organic armor that seemed to be forged from the void itself. A pair of massive, tattered bck wings stretched ten meters wide behind him. The Greatsword in his hand was no longer just metal; it was a living extension of his arm, glowing with a deep, pulsing crimson.

  His aura was so heavy, so overwhelmingly evil, that even the Gastrea stopped their advance. They felt a predator that was older and more malevolent than their entire species combined.

  "What... is that...?" Rentaro whispered, his legs shaking. He felt like he should be bowing in prayer or screaming in terror.

  Haruki didn't speak. He took to the air, his wings beating with a sound like thunder. He hovered above the battlefield, a god of the apocalypse.

  SHING!

  He swung the Greatsword. A wave of blood-red energy—a Deathbringer Strike—swept across the pin. It didn't just kill the Gastrea; it dissolved them. Their life force flowed through the air like red ribbons, rushing toward Haruki, making his wings grow rger and his armor more ornate.

  Haruki looked down at Aldebaran. The monster looked small now.

  "WORLD ENDER!"

  The demon-swordsman descended. The war for Tokyo was over; the sughter had begun.

  ***********************************************

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