Natsuki moved like a shadow across the Thunder Plains, retracing the same route he had used to infiltrate the Oni Temple before.
This time, he wasn't rescuing anyone.
This time, he was here to kill.
He clung to the mountain cliffs, leapt silently across the ledges, and dropped down through the same mossy trapdoor he'd slipped through before.
The stale stench of incense and blood returned instantly.
He was back.
As he crept through the upper rafters, something caught his ear—a familiar voice.
The bearded oni—the small one who had grabbed Rumi's face—was shouting in frustration.
Natsuki crouched low and slipped into a nearby vent space overlooking a war room.
He stayed hidden, listening.
"You fools! How could you idiots lose the Life Seed?!" the small oni roared, hurling a clay pot across the room.
The pot smashed against Gamakichi's face. The general didn't even blink.
Didn't flinch.
Didn't react.
Just stood there like a statue, the shards rolling off his skin like dust.
The smaller oni pointed a trembling finger at him, voice shrill with rage.
"I don't know how you ever became a general, but letting one damned ninja escape with the most precious piece of flesh we've ever captured? The Queen will have our heads!"
Gamakichi said nothing. But behind his calm exterior, his thoughts were a storm.
> This little twink is dead the second the Queen blinks…
Maybe I'll just kill him now and say the Nightwalker got him too...
The small oni kept pacing.
"That girl was the final component! If the ritual had been completed, the King would've returned already! He'd have shattered the human barriers by now!"
Another oni soldier stepped forward.
"Sir, couldn't we just use our human spies to weaken the barriers from the inside like last time ? Do we really need the King?"
The room fell silent.
The bearded oni turned slowly.
His eye twitched.
"You..." he whispered.
Suddenly, with a flick of his wrist, a long, jagged bone spike burst from his palm—piercing the soldier's chest. The guard gasped, frozen in shock.
Then—
BOOM!
The spike detonated, erupting into a nest of splinters that tore through the guard's body in every direction.
Chunks of armor and flesh slammed into the walls.
Blood sprayed across the stone floor like paint.
The small oni turned back to the others, his face calm—almost bored.
"Anyone else want to suggest we wait to reclaim the girl?"
The other guards quickly shook their heads.
Natsuki narrowed his eyes from above, heart pounding—not from fear, but from anticipation.
> So that's how deep this goes... spies inside human cities that might be the reason Ino's village barrier weakened … and a Queen higher than even Gamakichi…
He clenched his fists.
This wasn't just a rescue anymore.
It was a war.
And he was about to start painting the battlefield in oni blood.
The smaller oni stormed across the room, his footsteps echoing with arrogant fury. Reaching the far corner, he raised his clawed hand and slashed the air.
Fwoooosh—!
A swirling, jagged portal tore open—a sickening rift of red mist and warped flame. Its edges crackled with cursed energy.
A gateway to Tartarus—the oni's twisted home dimension.
He turned back, his eyes glowing with venom.
"I better hear that you've found the girl by the time I return," he growled, voice sharp enough to cut steel, "or I'll execute every last one of you myself."
Without another word, the smaller oni stepped into the portal—and vanished.
The gateway sealed shut behind him with a thunderous snap, leaving silence in his wake.
That silence only lasted a heartbeat.
> "Swarm."
From the shadows above, Natsuki gave the command.
Instantly, every bug tattoo across his back ignited with a pulse of ink.
Black wings exploded into the air as a living storm of insects descended from the rafters. The swarm blanketed the room like a plague, diving onto the unsuspecting guards.
Screams erupted as oni flailed and choked, overwhelmed by the inky flood pouring into their mouths, ears, and eyes.
Within seconds—dead silence.
Dozens of oni collapsed, lifeless, buried beneath crawling black.
Only one remained.
Gamakichi.
His muscles tensed as the swarm closed in—only to split around him like water against stone. He grunted, flames erupting from his skin in waves of heat, scorching the nearest bugs to ash.
But it was already too late.
From the ink cloud, Natsuki shot forward like a bullet—his eyes sharp, locked onto his target.
In one hand, a sword materialized mid-dash—its jagged blade of smoldering ash identical to Gamakichi's own.
The Copy Artist's power had recreated it flawlessly.
Before Gamakichi could react—
SLAASH!
One clean cut.
Both his arms were severed at the shoulders, dropping to the floor with a meaty thud.
Blood sprayed across the tiles.
Gamakichi screamed, stumbling back, eyes wide with disbelief.
"You—YOU DAMNED NIGHTWALKER!" he bellowed, his voice shaking the walls.
But Natsuki was already gone, stepping back into the swarm, blade still crackling in his grip, face calm and deadly.
"You should've stayed in the clouds."
Natsuki danced through the cloud of ink and chaos, like a phantom. Each time he struck Gamakichi, it was like a ghost passing through the smoke—swift, brutal, and gone in the blink of an eye.
The oni general howled in frustration, fresh wounds opening faster than they could close.
"RAAAAAH!!" Gamakichi bellowed. His body trembled from blood loss, torn by a hundred shallow gashes.
Every time his flesh began to mend—slash! Natsuki appeared, his stolen ash blade cutting deeper. Then gone again.
"You coward!! FIGHT ME HEAD ON!!" Gamakichi roared, his crimson eyes blazing.
But Natsuki only whispered from the shadows, "You bleed just fine this way."
> "ASH MAGIC—EXPLOSIVE ASH!"
Gamakichi slammed his foot to the ground.
A massive cloud of dark gray ash exploded from his mouth, engulfing the entire chamber in seconds.
BOOOOM!!!
A fireball detonated at the core of the ash cloud, ripping through the temple's stonework and blowing open half the chamber.
Natsuki crossed his arms and shouted, "Shield!"
In response, the bugs swarmed around him, forming a protective dome of black chitin. The blast rocked the temple, and even with the shield, the heat scorched his robes and rattled his bones.
Dust settled. Flames licked the walls. Rubble buried the dead.
The detonation had done its job—if only for a moment.
Gamakichi stood at the far end of the ruined room, panting, his charred flesh already starting to regenerate.
He glared with fury as the ash spiraled around him.
Behind him, a familiar shape burst from the broken floorboards.
The ash dragon returned—reborn, twice as large and infinitely angrier. It coiled behind Gamakichi, its eyes glowing like dying suns.
"NOW, NIGHTWALKER—YOU DIE."
Natsuki tried to move—but his body staggered.
Then—footsteps.
More and more.
From the shattered doorways and halls, a wave of oni guards poured in, their weapons drawn, their auras twisted with killing intent.
In moments, Natsuki was completely surrounded—Gamakichi before him, the ash dragon coiled above, and a ring of bloodthirsty oni on all sides.
No exits.
No hope.
At least…
That would've been the case—
If Natsuki hadn't planned for this.
In a flash of ink and intent, his tattoos lit up like searing brands.
> "Summon—Tiger Pack!"
From his arms and back, dozens of feral, inky tigers exploded into reality, their roars shaking the very walls. Fangs bared, claws outstretched—they pounced into the circle of oni with unrelenting fury.
Screams erupted.
Blood sprayed. Oni warriors fell left and right—slashed, mauled, ripped apart before they could even raise their blades. The tigers moved with the ferocity of pure instinct, tearing into the enemy lines without mercy.
Gamakichi's ash dragon screeched and tried to bite into one—only for a tiger to clamp onto its throat and drag it down with it.
"RAAAGH—GET OFF ME!!" Gamakichi bellowed, smashing one after another, but more kept coming.
And then—
Natsuki slammed his palm against the dragon tattoos wrapping his arms.
> "Summon—Serpent Kings!"
With a sound like ink boiling, two massive serpent dragons burst from his arms—twisting through the smoke and flame with terrifying speed.
Their eyes glowed like cursed lanterns as they slithered to opposite sides of the crumbling chamber.
> "Wrap the pillars. Bring the temple down."
The serpents obeyed instantly, coiling around the four main support beams, hissing and pulsing with mana.
Their scales flared black and violet, spreading corrosive runes across the stone.
CRACK.
CRACKKK—!!
The entire foundation shuddered.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
Gamakichi's eyes widened. "WAIT—YOU'RE BRINGING IT DOWN?!"
Natsuki grinned.
"Enjoy hell."
> "Collapse."
The serpents gave one last tightening squeeze—and the support beams shattered into splinters of cursed stone.
The entire temple began to fall.
Giant slabs of rock caved in from above. Fire burst through the collapsing ceiling. Screams of dying oni echoed from every corner.
In the center of it all—Natsuki stood still.
The two serpents shot back to his side, curling around him like a living dome as the temple's remains thundered down in an avalanche of stone and fire.
BOOOOM—!!!
The ground trembled.
Dust blanketed the earth.
And beneath the rubble, Gamakichi's final roar was drowned beneath the weight of the collapsing fortress.