Chapter 225: Twins

Diamond was very patient, and he refrained from striking even though Adam was already almost within reaching distance.

The reasons for this were twofold. Firstly, he didn't have absolute confidence that he would be able to land a killing blow on Adam over this distance, and secondly, he wanted to see just how far Adam was willing to go.

The tension in the air was virtually palpable at this point, and with one more step from both Adam and Diamond, they were standing right in front of each other with virtually no distance between them.

It was also at this moment that Diamond and Adam sprang into action in unison.

At such a close range, Diamond switched from a punch to a hold, aiming to use his own body to crush Adam to death. However, Adam abruptly ducked down to avoid the grab while invoking Distortion at the same time to inhibit Diamond's movements.

Of course, given the significant power gap between Distortion and Diamond, the former was only able to impede the latter's movements very slightly, but that still gave Adam the time he needed to avoid Diamond's grab before ducking down and springing forward, trying to squeeze his way through the gap between Diamond's legs.

However, he had underestimated Diamond's reflexes.

As someone who relied solely on his physical prowess to retain his spot near the top of the S tier, Diamond was superior to Adam in both strength and speed. In the instant that Adam attempted to dart between his legs, he immediately reacted, clamping his legs together in a forceful manner to crush Adam like a hydraulic press.

"Bad choice, idiot!"

Diamond watched with vindictive glee as Adam was crushed between his legs, then picked up Adam's mangled body before slamming him down onto Yamata no Orochi's scales, shattering all of his bones from the impact.

However, at the same time, Clown's cackling rang out from above him, and his heart instantly sank.

"I forgot to tell you that I can conjure up illusions as well. Your telegnosis may be comparable with your powers, but it's never going to be quite as potent as it normally is when you're this riled up!"

Adam had managed to avoid Diamond's grab by a hair's breadth thanks to Distortion, then conjured up an illusion in the same instant that Diamond focused his undivided attention on killing his opponent. In doing so, Adam had truly played a game for the brave.

He had put his life on the line, and his gamble had failed, there was no way that he would've been able to escape from Diamond at such close proximity.

However, if his gamble were to pay off, then he would be able to bypass Diamond and directly attack Oni no Miko.

In the instant that Adam successfully bypassed Diamond, he immediately began to throw the entire arsenal at Oni no Miko.

He pulled out his gatling gun with one hand to fire a barrage of bullets, while hurling all types of explosives through the air with his other hand. At the same time, he conjured up all of the clones that he could muster up and invoked all of his anomalies, trying to instantly put an end to Oni no Miko's life.

Ultimately, his plan succeeded.

Oni no Miko's body was still yet to recover, and it was completely blown into pieces by Adam's ferocious firepower output. Prior to her demise, she took one final vicious glare at Adam before her body was completely pulverized before disintegrating into a large cloud of black mist.

Just like Adam, Diamond was also putting a life on the line, except he was betting with Oni no Miko's life instead of his own.

He had lost the game, and Oni no Miko was dead.

In this game, anyone could be the hunter or the prey at any given moment in time.

Nie Yiyi and Hook had fallen to their demise, and there was no reason why Oni no Miko couldn't suffer the same fate.

……

In the instant that Oni no Miko was killed, a woman in a certain shinto shrine in Japan abruptly opened her eyes.

She was completely identical in appearance to Oni no Miko, and it seemed that they were twins. However, in contrast with Oni no Miko, there were several snake head tattoos on her neck, and on her exposed back was a fearsome tattoo of Yamata no Orochi.

She seemed to have been able to sense Oni no Miko's death, and after rising to her feet, she was silent for a long while. All of a sudden, a burst of emotion erupted out of her body, and the psychic bodies of all of the living beings in the shinto shrine instantly perished as a result.

All of the priests, shrine maidens, and tourists, even all of the animals in the shrine, down to the tiniest ants, had met an instantaneous demise, having suffered irreversible damage to their neurons.

The woman seemed to be unable to bear this power herself, and blood began to pour out of her nostrils, while her eyeballs threatened to bulge out of their sockets.

Some type of suppressive device on her prosthetic arm was activated to make her feel a little better, but she paid no heed to her own condition as she made her way into the rear hall of the shinto shrine before making a video call.

"Oni-faced Dragon, my sister is dead."

"Indeed, she is."

"You were the one who took her away from here! Yes, she did want to go with you, but you took her away nonetheless, and now she's dead! You and everyone else in your Oni Organization have to pay with your lives, so does the bastard who killed her! Where is she right now? Tell me!"

……

Adam had no idea what type of trouble he had gotten himself into, and he had more than enough on his plate as things currently stood.

Following Oni no Miko's demise, not only did Yamata no Orochi not suffer the same fate, it was reinvigorated after absorbing all of her life force.

Its seven heads reared up again from the ground, and it began to search for targets to destroy while recovering by absorbing the black mist in the surrounding air.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"Amitabha, isn't that thing supposed to be an invoked entity of hers?" Dead Wood was holding a string of prayer beads in the distance, and the prayer beads were giving off faint glimmers of light to allow him to see through the darkness. "What a strange battle this is turning out to be. King Arthur died, but not only did his invoked entity not die, it became even more powerful. Now, Oni no Miko is dead, but not only did that Yamata no Orochi not die, it seems to have recovered its strength."

"It is indeed very strange," the portly monk chimed in with tightly furrowed brows. "That can only mean that the dragon and Yamata no Orochi weren't their invoked entities to begin with."

"What could they be then?"

"Who knows? Perhaps alternate personas? Or perhaps they're some type of psychic token like the ones imbued in the director's cards."

While Yamata no Orochi was recovering its energy, Adam had already concealed himself. He had thought that the serpent would immediately bombard him with attacks, just as it had done before, but to his surprise, the first target that it chose to attack turned out to be Diamond.

It blasted all types of attacks out of its seven mouths at Diamond, and even with his near impenetrable defense, the barrage of attacks was quickly taking a toll on his body.

"Have you gone crazy? We're on the same team!" Diamond roared in a bewildered voice, but that only seemed to have infuriated the serpent even further.

Without Oni no Miko controlling the serpent, it seemed to have truly transformed into a world-destroying beast that instinctively attacked every single living being before it.

After arriving at this realization, Adam slowly retreated from the scene in his concealed state. Yamata no Orochi had already lost its sense of reason, so it was no longer his enemy.

Without Oni no Miko providing it with further sustenance, it was naturally going to disappear once it had exhausted all of its energy.

Thus, it was no longer a cause for concern, and it was time for Adam to move on.

However, before that, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

"Hook, Nie Yiyi, where are you?"