6
The blade, the guard, and the hilt of Juzumaru transform into countless bubbles.
The iron-colored bubbles, instead of scattering on the ground, begin to attach themselves to Goz’s body as if each had its own will.
It took only a moment for Goz’s entire body, from the top of his head to his toes, to be completely covered in bubbles.
Originally, Goz’s height was as tall as if piercing the clouds, and the robustness of his limbs was reminiscent of a bear.
The foam that enveloped this gigantic body rapidly increased in volume, making Goz’s body even larger by one or two sizes.
Small bubbles pop and overlap, overlap and pop, melting together and quickly taking shape.
Eventually, what appeared was Eastern armor that completely covered the entire body.
But it wasn’t just any armor. It had no gaps at all in the joint areas where they should normally exist.
No matter how elaborately crafted, armor usually needs some gaps to allow movement of the neck and limbs. If the gauntlets and sleeves are connected, one can’t bend their arms, and if the greaves and leg guards are connected, even walking becomes difficult.
However, Goz’s armor had no such gaps at all. All parts were connected without even the slightest opening, and yet, there was no hindrance to movement.
With his entire body encased in the glossy black armor, and his face completely covered by a helmet shaped like an ox head, the current Goz can protect himself from any attack.
Of course, it’s not just for defense. The giant Bluish-Green Curved Blade that Goz holds in his right hand is a celestial weapon inlaid with the Big Dipper.
His appearance was that of the Ox King himself, descended to the mortal world.
“──Lord Sora.”
Goz’s voice comes from behind the ox face. Just that alone unleashed an overwhelming fighting spirit, forcing Sora to grit his back teeth to withstand the pressure.
The current Goz has his eyes, nose, mouth, and even ears covered by the helmet. Yet it seems to have no effect on his senses, as Sora could clearly feel Goz’s gaze.
“This is my form that has reached emptiness. And the other name of my homogeneous existence, Juzumaru, is the Heavenly Great Sage, Ox Demon King. One of the Seven Heavens who once invaded the celestial realm. Afterwards, he was defeated, repented, bound himself, and returned to serve the celestial realm… A bull-headed war god. Perhaps a fitting homogeneous existence for me, who challenged Lord Mitsurugi, was defeated, and came to serve the Mitsurugi family.”
With those words, Goz reversed the blade he held and stabbed it into the ground.
Sora looked at Goz, who now seemed to have discarded his weapon, with an irritated glare. It appeared as if Goz was saying he didn’t even need to use his weapon. And indeed, Sora’s assumption was correct.
“From this point on, I will engage you unarmed. But do not think I am holding back. My goal is to correct you, Sora-dono, and I am simply choosing the most effective means to achieve that.”
“Do as you like.”
“Understood. One more thing: your Soul Eater is already in a state where it can unleash its full power. Feel free to come at me with everything you have.”
“…What?”
“The binding power of Juzumaru is primarily to control its overwhelming strength. Suppressing the abilities of others is merely a side effect. To draw out all its power, the chains must be released, but in doing so, it can no longer suppress others’ abilities. That is how it works.”
Hearing this, Sora furrowed his brow, trying to grasp the meaning of Goz’s words.
Goz’s power, self-imposed bondage, had been canceling out Sora’s abilities as a byproduct.
Though Sora couldn’t fully understand the concept of using a similar power to bind a kindred being, he could make sense of it if he thought of Goz as a berserker.
Even if it meant weakening himself, it seemed that Goz had no choice but to control his power. The episode of defying the heavens hinted at a fierce, rebellious spirit.
If that was the case, then the time Goz could maintain his full power wouldn’t be long—Sora guessed. Throughout history, berserkers were always like that.
As if reading Sora’s thoughts, Goz’s ox-headed helmet bobbed up and down.
“It seems you have realized it. Indeed, my armor’s power has a time limit. Fighting to stall for time is one option you could take.”
Goz then added with a slight smile,
“If you can manage that, of course.”
Declaring the conversation over, Goz lowered his stance, ready to fight.
In response, Sora readied his Soul Eater and faced Goz.
Now clad in his armored ox-headed form, Goz stood over two meters tall, with limbs as thick as logs. He had literally transformed into a giant.
When that enormous figure disappeared from Sora’s sight, he instinctively tried to retreat. But by then, Goz’s fist, encased in black armor, was already driving into his abdomen.
There was no way to endure it.
Sora’s body flew through the air, crashing into the stone pavement.
“Guh…!”
Forcing down the pain and bile that surged up, Sora immediately tried to stand. However, as he placed his hands on the ground to push himself up, Goz had already moved right beside him.
Predicting a kick, Sora reflexively guarded his side with his left elbow. But Goz’s kick lifted both the elbow and Sora’s body off the ground.
“Gah!?”
A sickening crunch echoed as Sora’s arm joint twisted, his body spinning like a ball through the air. In an instant, he was flung nearly ten meters high.
Goz looked up, locating Sora in mid-air, and kicked off the stone pavement, launching himself upward. Reaching Sora in no time, the ox-headed warrior clasped his hands together, forming an improvised weapon—
“Huah!”
Without hesitation, Goz struck down.
Sora’s body crashed into the ground before he could even scream. The impact sent tremors through the earth, kicking up a cloud of dust.
“Gah…!”
Unable to stand, Sora writhed in agony, gasping for air.
Goz, who had landed silently on the ground, looked down at the suffering Sora.
In Goz’s eyes, Sora, though writhing in pain, hadn’t let go of his weapon. Silently impressed by this, Goz finally spoke.
“If you can no longer fight, you should release your weapon. That will be taken as your surrender.”
Goz’s calm, unwavering demeanor radiated with absolute confidence.
He didn’t need to say it out loud, but his attitude made it clear.
Even with the power of the Soul Eater, and even with a limited time to fight, it was impossible for Misurugi Sora to defeat Goz-Shima.
When he and Sora faced each other, Goz would always be the stronger one, and Sora the weaker—Goz was convinced of this, as if it were a universal truth.
And this confidence was based on undeniable facts. When forced to crawl on the ground, even the most stubborn person would have to acknowledge it.
Sora acknowledged it too.
A sickening sound accompanied a spurt of red bile from his mouth. Choking violently, Sora struggled to stand, but his battered body refused to move as he wanted.
Goz looked down at Sora through his ox mask.
Because of Goz’s armor, Sora couldn’t see his face, but he knew exactly what kind of expression Goz was wearing.
Surely, Goz was looking at him with pity, far from any malice. Just like five years ago.
—And that was infuriating.
The days on Onigashima flooded back into Sora’s mind.
Days where he was constantly labeled as weak.
Being insulted out of malice was still tolerable—it fueled his resolve to prove them wrong.
But how could one erase the wretchedness that arose when pitied out of kindness?
The one who often cast that pity upon him was none other than the caretaker standing before him.
If there was a shackle, it was that pity. Sora couldn’t even fight back; instead, it etched the identity of weakness into his body and soul.
Goz-Shima had always forced Misurugi Sora to be weak. Even after five years, it hadn’t changed.
—And that was infuriating.
So, what should he do?
Goz wasn’t even using half, no, not even a tenth of his true strength. Yet against this Goz, Sora was being utterly defeated. It was clear he had no chance of winning, and if Goz decided to kill Suzume right now, Sora wouldn’t be able to stop him.
He couldn’t fight, he couldn’t protect.
What could someone like that possibly do?
—The answer is simple. Devour it all.
That was the only thing Misurugi Sora could do. No, it was the only thing he ever could do.
Wasn’t that the one valuable truth he had learned over the past five years?
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“…Yes, that’s right.”
“Sora-dono?”
“…Trying to fight you… or protect Suzume… thinking like that was never going to work. I should have just focused on devouring everything…”
“What?”
Goz looked at Sora with suspicion, then at the Soul Eater he was holding.
Sora, who was barely able to breathe, shouldn’t have had the strength to imbue his weapon with any energy.
And yet, the black blade was being enveloped by a dense force.
—No, this wasn’t form of magic. It wasn’t the power born from humans, nor was it the magic created by the world. It was something denser, more fundamental—a power that could only be called divine energy or elemental force.
With a thunderous roar, the power enveloped the Soul Equipment. But it wasn’t just that. The torrent of energy was also flowing into Sora, the wielder.
“What!?”
In the next instant, Goz leaped back instinctively.
It was a hair’s breadth escape. A streak of light slashed through the space where Goz had been standing just moments ago.
Sora, who had collapsed, had swung his Soul Equipment. It was a sharp slash, unbelievable from someone who had been writhing in pain just moments earlier.
Sora slowly rose to his feet within Goz’s view.
The agony on his face was gone. Wiping the bile from his lips with his sleeve, Sora looked at the tense Goz and curled his lips into a sneer.
“Goz, I’m going to eat you.”
The moment Goz heard that voice, a chill ran down his spine. Even though his void armor had been activated, offering him ironclad defense, he still shivered at the sight of Sora’s gaze.
He instinctively reached for the sword he had planted in the ground.
His instincts warned him that facing Sora barehanded now would be dangerous.
With a burst of energy, Sora lunged at Goz. There was no sign of injury in his movement, and in terms of speed alone, he was on par with Goz, who was clad in void armor.
Goz speculated that the Soul Equipment’s power must have healed Sora’s wounds. Then, could this extraordinary speed also be due to the Soul Equipment’s assistance? Or had Sora mastered Goz’s footwork in such a short time?
Either way, it was dangerous to consider the current Sora as the same person he had been earlier.
The original plan to overwhelm Sora with sheer power and force him to surrender had to be abandoned. No matter how many times he knocked Sora down, if the Soul Equipment kept healing him, it was meaningless.
Perhaps the healing technique had a limit on the number of uses, but Goz had no time to figure that out. He decided that he needed to end this quickly.
The Soul Eater, gripped in Sora’s hand, was raging as if to vent all the frustrations he had held. It gave Sora, who wasn’t large in stature, the imposing presence of a giant.
Sora and Goz clashed head-on. Goz fixed his gaze on the approaching black blade and swung his Qinglongdao in a flash.
“Illusory One-Sword Style, Intermediate Form—Radiance!”
It was a light-infused slash that combined strength and swordsmanship. Its target was not Sora’s body but his Soul Equipment.
Goz’s plan was to strike down the Soul Equipment from Sora’s hand with this technique, severing the mysterious power flowing into Sora from the Soul Equipment.
In contrast, Sora’s slash had no finesse of the Illusory One-Sword Style. It lacked the surging force of the Void Devourer that he had unleashed on Kuraia. It was simply a strike, swung with all the power he could muster.
The two blades collided.
In the next moment, Goz’s light-wreathed sword flickered violently—before shattering with a loud crack.
“What!?”
A voice of shock burst from behind the bull-faced helmet.
It had been a strike he had executed with confidence, a slash swung with all his strength. The fact that it was literally severed by Sora left Goz stunned for a fraction of a second.
Both the Soul Equipment and void armor were not mere objects. They were manifestations of the user’s essence, the embodiment of the wielder’s soul.
The clash of the Soul Equipment was a battle between the users’ souls. Goz had lost that battle. He had challenged Sora, who could only wield the Soul Equipment, with his void armor—and he was defeated. The shock of it was so profound that it drove the excruciating pain of having his soul torn apart from his mind.
Of course, Goz didn’t remain dazed forever. In reality, he was stunned for only a brief moment.
But for the current Sora, that moment was more than enough to decide the battle.
With the momentum from cutting through the sword, the black blade of the Soul Eater slashed at Goz. The void armor that covered his body entirely tried to deflect the blow, but its resistance was swiftly overwhelmed.
With a sound like a scream, the armor on Goz’s left shoulder shattered. The Soul Eater, having broken through his defense, slashed deep into Goz’s body, crushing his collarbone and embedding its blade even further.
After a heartbeat, blood gushed from Goz’s shoulder like a floodgate had been opened.
At the same time, deep within the forest of Tittis.
[It] was quietly slumbering.
Like thunder. Like a tornado. Like an earthquake. Or perhaps like a volcanic eruption.
A phenomenon that manifests when the conditions of the world are met—a Illusory calamity born of flesh and blood.
[It] had been gradually, slowly manifesting for several months.
The stakes that had been preventing its manifestation had already been pulled out, and there was no sign of them being driven in again. Thus, [It]’s manifestation could not be stopped.
Just a little longer, and it would fully emerge.
Until then, [It] intended to continue slumbering.
However, today, [It] sensed a disturbing presence.
Someone capable of killing [It] was nearby.
In the sense that it would manifest when the conditions of the world were met, [It] was like a natural phenomenon. However, being born of flesh and blood, [It] possessed a function absent in natural phenomena—self-preservation.
It could not tolerate the existence of something that could destroy it.
[It] raised its head.
Slowly, like a snake lifting its neck—[It] raised all eight of its heads.
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