The moment Shinohara Yukinori issued his ultimatum, the temperature on the entire third floor seemed to plummet.
The cornered Koukaku ghoul froze in astonishment before a wave of manic ecstasy washed over his face.
He scrambled frantically across the concrete, attempting to scramble behind Shinohara’s armored frame for protection, but was instantly cut off by the deployment of a jagged, razor-sharp Quinque.
”One more step, and you die,” Mado Kureo hissed, staring at the creature with unadulterated disgust.
While he understood Shinohara’s bureaucratic objective, every primitive fiber of his being demanded that these monsters be slaughtered down to the last drop of blood.
A creature that viewed humanity as livestock deserved nothing less than immediate execution!
Kenji looked at Shinohara standing directly in his path.
He didn’t offer a single syllable in response, nor did his measured stride stutter.
[Gilded Cloud] continued its lazy, heavy trek across the concrete floor, leaving an even deeper, jagged groove in the stone.
Tatap…
Tatap…
Tatap…
Screeech…
Screeech…
The silent, ruined VIP suite echoed with nothing but the rhythmic cadence of Kenji’s boots and the grating scrape of steel against stone.
As the distance between the two men rapidly evaporated, a suffocating, physical weight began to press down on Shinohara’s chest.
Every step Kenji took felt like a localized shockwave hammering his heart, sending cold, hyper-acute sweat beads tracking down his temples.
Even as a certified Special Class Investigator, the sheer martial gravity radiating from this young man left him profoundly shaken.
”As a Special Class Investigator of the CCG, is your designated mandate to act as a shield for monsters?”
Finally, Kenji broke the silence.
His voice was level, entirely devoid of emotion.
Shinohara’s expression tightened drastically, immediately opening his mouth to counter: “The CCG would never protect a ghoul!
We have been tracking this network for months!
We mobilized a massive offensive grid specifically to uproot this den of filth.
This creature is the final surviving high-tier asset in the building; extracting actionable intelligence from his mouth is infinitely more beneficial to humanity’s survival than turning him into a corpse!”
”Oh?”
Kenji raised an eyebrow, his tone shifting into a cold, dangerous drawl.
“So what you’re telling me is…
your intelligence division already knew about the subterranean cells packed with mutilated children.
But for the sake of your perfect bureaucratic preparations, you chose to sit on that data, waiting until tonight to finally lift a finger.
Am I understanding your timeline correctly?”
Thud.
Shinohara’s entire frame shuddered.
His throat clicked, but no words came out.
Beside him, the usually impassive Mado Kureo parted his lips slightly, his white-knuckled fist tightening so ruthlessly around his Quinque that the metal groaned.
”Does the CCG exist to liberate humanity from predators, or do you simply march to the whim of whatever script your so-called high commanders hand down to you?” Kenji continued, a trace of dark, mocking amusement dancing in his voice.
The words struck like physical blows.
Shinohara and Kureo locked up entirely, completely paralyzed by the sheer, unyielding validity of his accusation.
They had no counterargument.
”I have zero interest in wasting my breath on philosophy.
But if you two intend to remain standing between me and my harvest—”
Kenji left the sentence dangling, his dead, predatory gaze locking onto Shinohara’s eyes.
Shinohara instinctively tried to shift his weapon, but a firm, heavy hand clamped onto his shoulder armor, pulling him back.
”Shinohara, don’t stand in his way,” Mado Kureo whispered, his voice trembling slightly.
“That man…
is entirely serious.”
Seeing his colleague slowly shake his head, Shinohara let out a long, defeated sigh.
He lowered his defensive stance, stepping aside to watch how this anomaly would execute his next move.
The Koukaku ghoul stared at the two retreating investigators in absolute, paralyzed disbelief.
“Aren’t you guys supposed to be the law?!
I surrender!
I’ll give you everything!
I’ll sell out every single hidden faction in the wards!
Just block him! Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
STOP HIM!”
The monster shrieked into the void, but the only response he received was the rhythmic advance of Kenji’s shadow and the flash of a white blade.
Zheng!
Steel flashed, and a severed arm flew high into the spotlight.
Shinohara’s expression darkened as he witnessed the sequence.
Does this guy possess a psychological craving for torture?
From the pulverized mass of Big Madam to the clinical dismemberment unfolding before his eyes, Shinohara had already cataloged Kenji under a series of distinct mental profiles: Overwhelmingly powerful.
Callous.
Cold-blooded.
Brutal.
Completely unaligned with institutional order.
Beside him, however, Mado Kureo was quietly viewing the spectacle with a dark sense of psychological validation.
In his eyes, this absolute, unrelenting savagery was the only appropriate vocabulary to use when dealing with ghouls.
Humanity’s structured, lawful tribunals were a joke.
To combat absolute evil, one had to deploy localized terror.
Yet, as a uniform-wearing officer of the CCG, his position prevented him from openly applauding Kenji’s methods.
He could only remain silent, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Shinohara.
The systemic deconstruction of the S-rate ghoul continued.
This time, Kenji deliberately avoided the vital organs.
With terrifying, surgical precision, he shaved away the monster’s limbs one by one, rendering him into a pathetic, limbless torso.
”Now, crawl down those stairs.
Head straight for the subterranean cells.
If you stop, I will make your existence a living hell.”
Kenji’s voice drifted down from above, freezing and absolute.
The agonizing, phantom pain of his missing limbs battered the ghoul’s consciousness.
Kenji’s blade remained lightly pinned through his flesh, ensuring that every microscopic shift of his torso violently agitated the raw nerves.
The edge of [Gilded Cloud] scraped against his bone, inflicting an exquisite, blinding torment.
Yet, as an S-rate ghoul, his hyper-active RC biological matrix actively worked against him, rapidly clotting the wounds to ensure he didn’t lose enough blood to drift into unconsciousness.
His superior physiology kept his mind perfectly, agonizingly awake.
He had thought about throwing his life away in a final, suicidal counterattack.
But facing this human anomaly, any semblance of resistance was instantly met with an exponentially more sadistic punishment.
The sheer weight of Kenji’s malice had entirely broken his psychological will to fight.
He had degenerated into a meat machine blindly executing commands.
”If you manage to crawl all the way down to the cells, I will hand your pathetic hide over to the CCG.
You have my word.”
Kenji’s low murmur echoed in his ear.
In that exact microsecond, a desperate, pathetic spark of hope ignited within the ghoul’s dilated eyes.
”You want to live?”
”Cough…
yes!
Yes, I’ll crawl!
Please…
I beg of you, just let me live…”
Kenji offered a warm, serene smile, a demonic whisper enveloping the monster’s senses.
“Of course.
As long as you make it down there, I’ll let you go.”
Clinging to that solitary lie, the S-rate ghoul blocked out the blinding agony racking his nervous system, using his chin and torso to slowly wriggle forward, dragging his bloody frame down from the third-floor balcony.
Shinohara and Kureo trailed closely behind, their eyes wide with unadulterated shock.
Buried beneath that shock, in the deepest, most primitive recesses of their minds, was a burgeoning sense of pure terror toward Kenji.
Third floor…
Second floor…
First floor.
Despite his lack of limbs, the sheer terror of death propelled the S-rate ghoul at a remarkable pace, quickly breaching the ground floor arena.
The moment they emerged, the entire facility locked up. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
The tactical CCG operators who were busy rounding up surviving low-tier ghouls, the resisting monsters, and the terror-stricken children waiting on the auction blocks—everyone was completely frozen by the visual reality before them.
An S-rate ghoul…
reduced to this?
An S-rate designation was a label reserved for localized natural disasters—monsters that could cause entire wards to live in a state of perpetual terror.
Standard CCG doctrine mandated the deployment of a Special Class squad leader just to establish a stable engagement vector.
Yet, right here, right now, one of those legendary apex predators had been stripped of its limbs, wriggling through the dirt like a common earthworm.
Was this truly the same dominant, terrifying species that viewed humanity as livestock?
And who on earth…
was the cloaked man casually trailing behind it?
The question echoed like a silent thunderclap through the minds of every CCG operative present.
But no one stepped forward to offer an answer.
Soon, the limbless torso reached the entrance of the subterranean holding cells.
As the tactical flashlights illuminated the dark corridor, the true, graphic horrors of the cages were fully revealed to Shinohara, Kureo, and the rest of the CCG vanguard.
A heavy, suffocating silence blanketed the underground hallway.
”I…
I made it to the cells.
Can you let me go now?
Please…
I beg you…” The ghoul’s voice was a frail, breathless wheeze, echoing pitifully against the concrete walls.
But Kenji’s response instantly dragged his soul into a bottomless abyss.
Kenji slowly squatted down, looking down at the mangled visage of the monster.
He casually tapped his ear with his pinky finger, flashing a brilliantly cruel smile.
”Oh?
Since when did I ever say I was going to let you go?”
”I lied to you.
Regardless of whether you crawled down here or not, your death was a settled variable.
Furthermore, I am going to execute you with the absolute peak of human cruelty.”
”I am going to ensure your nervous system registers every conceivable threshold of agony before you expire, until you perceive the concept of death as a beautiful, merciful blessing.”
”Now…
let us begin the banquet.”
AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
STOP!
PLEASE!
JUST KILL ME!
I BEG OF YOU, KILL ME!
I DON’T WANT TO LIVE ANYMORE!
JUST END IT!
AHHHH!
Fresh, violent crimson sprayed across the cell bars.
The agonizing shrieks reverberated through the hollow corridors.
But within the darkness of the cages, the eyes of the surviving children began to glow with a brilliant, reawakened light.
The crushed flowers of this world would bloom once more.
Up on the ruined third-floor balcony, the solitary white-haired figure who had remained perfectly motionless through the entire raid finally stirred.
He staggered forward on trembling, uncoordinated legs, navigating through the debris until he collapsed directly in front of Big Madam’s crushed, lifeless skull.
He reached out with trembling hands, pulling the ruined head tightly against his chest.
A fragile, fractured teenage voice drifted out into the cold darkness:
”What…
what am I supposed to do now?”
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