Chapter 322
"Of course. When it comes to hunting, I’m the best there is."
Esdeath lifted her chin proudly.
And so, they followed her plan.
Word that Kiriya had been seriously injured and was coughing up blood was quickly confirmed by scouts from several different factions, immediately causing another uproar.
Even more forces joined the pursuit.
By this point, not even the great noble houses trying to block their competitors could keep everyone under control.
Their only choice was to race ahead and capture Kiriya’s group before anyone else did.
Unfortunately for them, all three girls possessed monstrous stamina.
Even with each of them carrying either a prisoner or an injured companion, they still moved at tremendous speed.
No matter how desperately the pursuers ran, they could only eat dust behind them, which naturally left everyone furious.
Kiriya’s group led them in circles through the mountains for several hours.
By the time the sky was beginning to brighten, the pursuing armies finally managed to corner them inside a valley.
Mountains enclosed three sides.
The surrounding slopes were packed with soldiers.
The valley’s only exit had been completely sealed by the combined forces of the various factions.
Looking down at Kiriya’s group, many of them wore vicious smiles.
"Heh. The head of the regicide will be mine."
"I want the pointy-eared girl. Damn, that’s a genuine exotic race right there."
"Hehehe. I prefer the busty blonde next to her. She’d definitely be fun."
"You’re all too inexperienced. Look at that blue-haired woman. Breaking someone that proud and watching her fall—that’s the finest kind of pleasure."
"Oh, damn. There are even two little girls. This haul just keeps getting better."
"Whoa, isn’t that the Prime Minister? What happened to him? He’s practically missing all three legs."
"Prime Minister, you poor bastard! Don’t worry, I’ll put you out of your misery soon. Hehehe..."
People throughout the valley made shameless comments as though Kiriya and the others were already dishes laid out on a table, free for them to divide however they pleased.
"Are they done yet?"
Esdeath rolled her neck, her voice turning dangerously cold.
"Because I’m running out of patience."
"Approximately five thousand people."
Under Kiriya’s Sharingan genjutsu, Honest answered obediently.
"The elite forces of most of the major families and noble houses in the Imperial Capital are here. The Imperial Palace Guard is also present, including most of its surviving elite troops."
"Good."
Esdeath reached behind herself and slapped Kiriya on the ass.
"Stop pretending to sleep. Get up and work."
"Okay."
Under the stunned gazes of thousands of pursuers, Kiriya yawned, climbed down from Esdeath’s back, and flashed everyone a bright set of white teeth.
"Yo. Morning, everyone."
His pupils had turned horizontal, while orange pigmentation framed his eyes.
An ethereal, almost otherworldly presence surrounded his entire body.
"He... isn’t injured?"
"They tricked us?"
"We walked into a trap!"
"Shit! Who the fuck supplied that intelligence?! I’m going to kill him!"
The pursuing forces immediately erupted into chaos.
The leaders instinctively tried to withdraw, but the valley was packed shoulder to shoulder with people.
How were they supposed to retreat quickly?
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Ryuu cast Luminous Wind, blasting apart sections of the surrounding mountain.
Enormous boulders crashed down and completely sealed the entrance to the valley.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
At the same time, Esdeath raised a ring of towering, enormously thick ice walls along the surrounding slopes.
With only a few simple moves, the entire situation reversed.
Cold sweat poured down the faces of the powerful nobles and military leaders.
What the hell?
They hadn’t surrounded these youngsters at all.
These youngsters had surrounded them.
"You have two choices."
Kiriya smiled and raised two fingers.
"Either you kill us..."
His smile widened.
"Or I kill you."
The atmosphere throughout the valley instantly became suffocating.
Everyone stared at Kiriya as beads of sweat rolled down their foreheads. Many people were visibly trembling.
"Relax."
Seeing their fear, Kiriya cheerfully added fuel to the fire.
"I won’t use the move that killed the Emperor."
"OOOOOOOOH—!"
Hysterical battle cries immediately thundered throughout the valley.
Their opponent was arrogant enough to voluntarily seal away his strongest technique.
If they still lacked the courage to gamble on this opportunity, they might as well give up on ambition entirely.
"Hehe. Now that’s more like it."
Esdeath drew the slender sword at her waist.
"Kiriya, you’re losing this competition."
"That’s not guaranteed."
Kiriya brought his hands together and gave Esdeath a playful wink.
"Sorry, but I’m taking this whole crowd for myself."
Then he roared—
"Sage Art: Wood Release—True Several Thousand Hands!"
The earth erupted.
A colossal wooden Buddha several hundred meters tall rose from the ground, its face serene and compassionate, its presence vast and solemn.
But what truly left everyone speechless were the arms spread behind it.
Layer upon layer.
Ring after ring.
At least a thousand enormous wooden hands fanned outward behind the Buddha, making the structure resemble an entire mountain range standing upright before them.
After more than half a year of relentless training and growth in this world, Kiriya’s total chakra reserves had finally broken through the four-hundred-Kakashi mark.
Combined with Sage Mode, he could at last unleash the complete version of Wood Release’s ultimate technique.
"This..."
Even Esdeath stared upward, completely dumbfounded.
She had assumed Kiriya’s Complete Body Susanoo was already his largest-scale technique.
She had never imagined he still had something like this hidden away.
Compared with the gigantic Buddha towering before her, even the Complete Body Susanoo from earlier looked almost child-sized.
For the first time, even the endlessly proud and confident Esdeath could not help asking herself one question.
’Can I... really defeat this man someday?’
Ryuu and Jeanne were even more overwhelmed.
They stood atop the Buddha’s enormous head and looked down at the dense crowds below, who now resembled nothing more than swarms of ants.
The sheer scale left both women lightheaded, their hearts pounding wildly.
"You..."
Ryuu stared at Kiriya.
"Are you sure you aren’t some god pretending to be human?"
"Kiriya, are you absolutely certain you aren’t the illegitimate son of some deity?"
Jeanne joined in with complete seriousness.
"Sorry, but I’m genuinely just human."
Kiriya held up two fingers a tiny distance apart.
"I merely possess a little talent... and an itsy-bitsy amount of hard work."
"You’re lying!"
All three girls rejected the claim simultaneously.
Kurome, Akame, and Honest stared blankly.
Σ(っ°Д°;)っ
’A human can do this?!’
If even Kiriya’s own companions reacted like that, the people trapped below were in far worse condition.
Some began sobbing.
Some completely lost their minds.
Others fell to their knees and begged for mercy.
In an instant, every trace of fighting spirit vanished.
There was no helping it.
In this world, bigger really was better, and more really was beautiful.
And Kiriya’s Buddha was both absurdly huge and equipped with an absurd number of hands.
That was justice.
That was truth.
Only one thought remained in the minds of the thousands below.
’What the hell did I do to deserve this?!’
𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Jeanne looked down at the terrified crowd, and hesitation entered her voice.
"Should we... stop?"
"Only those who truly experience pain can understand peace."
Kiriya’s voice became calm.
"Besides, Jeanne... hasn’t Revelation already shown you what kind of people most of those below us really are?"
Jeanne fell silent.
That was precisely why she had only sounded hesitant rather than firmly opposing him.
She had seen what Revelation showed her.
"See pain. Experience pain. Fear pain."
Kiriya pointed toward the crowd below.
"Only then will people genuinely learn to stay away from it."
"Rather than forcing ordinary civilians to experience that suffering, I’d rather let people like these bear it."
His gaze hardened.
"A new world always demands a few sacrifices."
Jeanne remained silent for several seconds before eventually giving a helpless, bitter smile.
"I really am not very good at thinking about things like this."
"Whether it was the right choice or not, what happens afterward will give us the answer."
Kiriya looked down at the army below.
A grin slowly spread across his face.
"Well then, everyone."
"Experience pain."
The thousand arms behind the Buddha moved.
"Top Transformed Buddha!"
With a single command—a thousand colossal hands descended.