Chapter 177: With This Treasure I Summon…

The sphere crackled with unstable energy, growing larger until it matched the size of a human head then the blood cat released the attack.

BOOM!

The crimson sphere exploded outward and branched into thousands of crystallized blood lines with each one razor-sharp and moving like a living serpent through the air.

Each line could cut through solid steel, moving fast enough to create sonic booms in their wake…Together they formed an inescapable net that covered the entire area in three dimensions.

The attack filled the airspace like a web of death and it was designed to be inescapable… no matter your speed or defensive abilities, this attack would find you.

There were thousands of blood constructs converging from every angle at her but Riffi’s smile only grew wider with her cat face forming a smug expression.

She’d been waiting for this… Time to show this knockoff what a real familiar could do…

She activated her Mini-Domain with a surge of power that made the air vibrate. The pocket dimension manifested and expanded outward, encompassing the blood cat and all its attacks.

The domain appeared as a spherical space roughly fifty meters across with its interior filled with swirling black and purple energy that looked like a miniature galaxy… Every single blood attack simply ceased to exist.

It was not blocked or deflected but erased from reality as if they’d never been cast… They had been removed at the fundamental level.

One moment they were there and the next, there was nothing. The blood cat came crashing down in a massive impact as gravity magnified exponentially.

BOOM!

The construct slammed into earth hard enough to create a crater ten meters wide and three deep with the ground spider-webbing with cracks that spread for dozens of meters.

The blood cat tried to stand but found itself pinned as gravity had been increased to at least fifty times normal levels and the pressure would kill any normal creature instantly.

Even this magical construct was struggling. Riffi hovered above, unaffected by her own technique. She began gathering void energy in her mouth, channeling more and more power until the black and purple force formed a massive sphere three meters across.

The sphere crackled with unstable energy with reality itself seeming to bend around it, as if space couldn’t quite contain that much destructive power in one place.

The air temperature dropped as the void energy pulled heat from its surroundings.

“You picked the wrong cat to mess with…” Riffi said as her voice distorted by the power she was channeling. “Time to show you what happens to cheap imitations.”

The blood cat struggled desperately, sensing this next attack would obliterate it but the intense gravity kept forcing it down no matter how it tried to escape… whether transforming to liquid or mist.

It was trapped.

Riffi smirked and copied a line she’d heard from TV.

“Sayonara, shithead.”

She released the blast.

BOOOOOOOOM!𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The void sphere shot downward like a meteor, trailing distorted space in its wake with a visible tear in reality that slowly healed as it passed.

The explosion was catastrophic and Disguise Master had to close her eyes as the shockwave washed over her.

When it subsided, several buildings had been leveled.

Even though they were in the Outer Zone where normal humans didn’t live, the sound of those structures falling sent chills down her spine.

‘What can I do?’ Disguise Master thought desperately. She didn’t have mana… so what could someone like her possibly do?

She reached into her vest and pulled out a small stone artifact which was an emergency communication device with the Hoshigaki clan emblem.

‘I… I can’t let him die.’

There was a loud crash in the distance and she was about to press the emblem to signal her sister, but the building beneath her began vibrating violently and the stone fell from her hands.

Before she could catch it, a stray blast of void energy evaporated it.

“FUCK!” Disguise Master screamed.

She pulled out a grappling hook and fired it at another building. The woman swung through the air, but the building she’d escaped from crashed to the ground.

BOOM!

The shockwave knocked the hook loose and Disguise Master fell.

CRACK!

She hit the ground hard and something broke.

“Ugh…” She palmed the ground, pushing herself up despite the sharp pain in her ribcage. Above, Riffi and the blood cat were still fighting.

Disguise Master clutched her broken rib with one hand while reaching for another grappling gun.

‘I need to get to Master.’

Her ability was disguising but she couldn’t change her face or body in combat… that was useless here neither did she have equipment that could affect someone at this level.

At best, she was slightly above a mundane human.

‘But I have to try anyway.’

She couldn’t stand by while her Master fought for his life. She latched the hook onto another building and pulled herself up, breaking into a limping run despite her broken rib.

She swung across gaps… moving toward the source of massive shockwaves. That was where Master was and that was where she needed to be.

…

Meanwhile, Koya was spinning through the air.

“FUCKING HELL!” he yelled. This was worse than fighting Todd. A Four-liner against a silver crest… without backup? It was complete overkill.

Koya leaned backward as another blood beam shot past with the heat tearing apart the top of his shoulder.

RIP!

He was knocked off-course, landing hard and spitting blood as his skill Blessing was already working to repair the damage.

Koya flipped upright, and halfway through landing, a red blur came at him. Tej was shooting forward as her eyes were crazed with fury.

Koya activated Frame Skip again, throwing himself through an animation frame to boost himself forward and his feet collided with her face.

SHATTER!

An animation frame materialized at impact and shattered like glass, releasing stored kinetic energy. Tej was sent shooting backward, her face becoming disfigured as her nose broke, her jaw dislocated and the skin split open.

She skidded across the ground and healed completely.

‘Why is the Human God fighting so strangely?’ Tej thought. She rolled and stomped down hard, maintaining her stance.

Koya had closed the distance again, firing several spears of blue flame. Tej lifted a single finger and diverted all the flames, turning them into harmless wisps.

Koya closed in further, shrouding his right hand with crackling lightning magic. Just as Tej reached out to counterattack, Koya pivoted with explosive speed and clocked her across the face with a lightning-enhanced punch.

CRACK! BOOM!

The lightning discharged on impact and Tej skidded backward.

‘This isn’t right.’

The Human God she remembered… the one her father had warned her about had been an untouchable reality-warping entity.

A true god… but this person?

He was far weaker than her, and she was deliberately holding back.

‘Is this someone with no memories residing in the Human God’s body? No, even the body…’

It wasn’t a complete Human God form. This person only partially felt like the Human God… maybe five or ten percent similar but nowhere near the power level she remembered.

Tej would know. She’d spent three hundred years… from birth until being sealed constantly feeling that man’s overwhelming aura.

‘Maybe a descendant? A distant relative who inherited a fragment of power?’

Regardless, one thing was certain: he had slept with her baby sister Victoria and Tej could see it clearly through the Blood Bond.

As an inheritor of the Queen bloodline, she could perceive Blood Contracts within other vampires’ souls. When she looked at Koya’s chest… at his essence which was his soul, she could see the Blood Bond glowing dark crimson.

That deep red meant the bond had been fully consummated and her sister had given him everything.

“You…” Tej said coldly. “Your stars were bad.”

She shot an invisible slash forward and Koya dodged it, leaning out of the way while Tej immediately broke his guard.

WHAM!

She threw a devastating kick that collided with his side, sending him flying through a building and Koya flipped through the air then released a Blood Burst but Tej swatted it aside then pods of blood shot from her hand, surrounding Koya.

He recognized the spell and the world slowed as the pods began opening.He landed on an animation frame mid-air and shot forward, colliding with Tej and sending both spinning.

“Let go of me, filth!” Tej cried out.

“Sure…” Koya said.

The Frame World appeared and he pushed her through an animation frame and he released her. Tej shot through the air and collided with the ground.

POP!

Her right leg went splat and Koya landed before making a beeline for her. Tej raised her hand as her leg healed.

“Kaleid.”

Koya’s body froze suddenly as he couldn’t move at all and a golden beam shot back to his chest as Riffi was forcibly recalled while Tej let out a tired sigh.

“Let me explain something,” she said, standing up. “You have a Blood Marriage with a vampire. With my sister Victoria and as holder of the Vampire Queen bloodline, I have authority over all Blood Contracts involving my lineage.”

She tapped his chest.

“That means I can stop your body’s functions. I can freeze you. I can cause immense pain. I can even snuff out your life if I wanted.”

She paused.

“But I won’t kill you… Not yet.”

Tej circled him.

“I’ve seen enough. You’re not the Human God… not truly. You’re just someone with a fragment of his power and good combat instincts.”

She stopped in front of him.

“Now that I’ve calmed down, I want to know why you’re my sister’s blood mate and I want to test if your blood is actually good enough.”

Her eyes glowed crimson.

“If your blood tastes sweet… if it meets vampire standards, I’ll turn you into my mate as well. I’ll make you a vampire and keep you alive.”

She raised her hand.

“But if your blood is bitter, that proves you forced Victoria into the Contract. And in that case…”

Her expression became merciless.

“I’ll sever the Contract and kill you painfully.”

Tej’s hand began glowing.

“Vampires only choose mates with sweet blood… it’s involuntary so if yours doesn’t meet that standard, you’re an imposter.”

She was about to slash into his neck open for the usual spot in humans when—

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Small projectiles struck her back… they were bullets that were covered in mana. Tej turned to see a woman with dirty blonde hair still firing at her.

The woman’s hands trembled with fear, but she kept shooting.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

The bullets hit and fell harmlessly.

‘What is this person doing?’ The woman was clearly terrified, yet still shooting despite knowing it was useless.

Tej had to admit, the constant pelting was at least annoying. She turned fully to face Disguise Master, who had exhausted her ammunition.

Click click click!

Disguise Master dropped the gun and took a combat stance despite having no hope to wound this woman.

“You want to fight me?” Tej asked. “You, a powerless human?”

Disguise Master didn’t respond… she just charged forward and threw a punch and her fist connected.

CRACK!

Disguise Master’s hand broke instantly with every bone bending at irregular angles.

“Argh!” She cried out and staggered backward, clutching her mangled hand.

“I admire your loyalty at least,” Tej said honestly. “Charging at someone you know you can’t hurt… That takes courage.”

Then Tej punched Disguise Master once in the stomach.

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

Several ribs shattered and Disguise Master skidded backward while barely being able to breathe even staying on her feet was a miracle.

Tej opened her palm and an invisible spatial slash shot forward which was too fast for a normal human to perceive… Disguise Master felt her life flash before her eyes.

She accepted this was the end then suddenly she felt herself being violently pushed down as the sound of something being slashed filled the air.

It happened in a flash.

When Disguise Master pushed herself up, she understood. The unmoving upper half of Master Koya was lying across her lap.

His lower body… everything from the waist down was several feet away. His internal organs were spilling out between the separated halves.

Blood was everywhere and her breath fogged up.

Tej took a step closer.

‘He managed to move through my spell? What willpower.’

She looked at blood leaking from both halves and the smell was intoxicating.

‘I see why Babyhead has such taste… His blood quality is exceptional.’

Despite being cut in half, he was somehow still alive. Disguise Master clutched Koya’s head to her chest while tears dripped down and stained his closed eyelids.

“Why…?” she whispered.

Why were they always saving her?

“Why…?”

Why wasn’t she strong enough?

“Why…?”

A memory flashed with crystal clarity… She was twelve years old again.

Her father… Hoshigaki Taizen, the Head of the Hoshigaki clan was on his knees, bleeding from dozens of wounds, surrounded by Kurohane clan members.

He’d been lured into a trap. A trap that used her as bait. They’d kidnapped her, knowing her father would come alone rather than risk her life and he had come.

Because despite all her failures, despite her complete lack of magical talent, despite the straight-line crest marking her as worthless… he’d still loved her.

The current head of the Kurohane clan stood over her father’s dying form with his purple hair obscuring his face. Young her sat bound nearby with tears streaming down her face.

“Please,” her father begged, blood bubbling from his lips. “Please… let her go. She’s just a child. I’ll… I’ll give you whatever you want. Just let my second daughter live…”

The Kurohane head laughed.

“Oh, we’ll let her live,” he said. “We’re not monsters since we don’t kill children.”

He pressed his boot on her father’s chest.

“But you? You’re going to die here and it’s all because of her.”

He turned to young Disguise Master with his eyes gleaming with satisfaction.

“Thank you for being so utterly useless,” the man said mockingly. “Thank you for having zero magical talent. Thank you for being weak enough to capture easily… Thank you for being perfect bait.”

He gestured at her dying father.

“Thanks to your weakness and incompetence, thanks to your father’s love for his worthless daughter, we’ve finally killed him. We’ve wanted him dead for years, but he was too careful. But you… you gave us the perfect opening.”

He knelt to her eye level.

“How does it feel, little girl? How does it feel knowing your own existence, your own uselessness… killed your father? Or is it perhaps because you’re the product of him sleeping with a commoner instead of his own Wife… If he did, maybe you would have been like your older sister, Hakai.”

She screamed in pure anguish and her father used his last strength to look at her as his eyes were filled with love.

“It’s… not your fault…” he whispered. “Never… blame yourself… I love…”

He died before finishing… The memory faded, but the pain remained.

“Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?” Disguise Master repeated desperately.

The crest on her face began to glow with brilliant purple light… It had never glowed before… not once in her entire life but now it burned like a brand.

“Why are you all doing this to me?” She clutched Koya’s face with her heart aching. “Why did he sacrifice his life for me? For useless, powerless, worthless me? I’m not worth saving! I’ve never been worth saving!”

Tears flowed freely.

“I don’t want anyone else to die for me!” she screamed. “I don’t want to be the reason people suffer! I don’t want to be weak anymore! I don’t want to be USELESS ANYMORE!”

“WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!”

The scream tore from her throat with force that seemed to shake reality itself and Tej bounced backward, clearing meters immediately.

‘What was that?’ she thought with heart beating wildly as her body had instinctively retreated with some primal survival instinct screaming danger.

Strange mana was seeping from that mundane woman.

‘What is she doing?’

The woman’s presence had completely changed… before, there had been nothing as she was just a powerless human but now something that made Tej’s heart stifle with fear.

Disguise Master slowly stood, still holding Koya’s upper body, then gently laid him down. She raised both hands forward in a specific ritual pose with her fingers interlaced in a complex pattern.

“Hoshigaki Bloodline Technique…”

The world became engulfed in darkness. Tej took another step backward and tried to blast Disguise Master but the attack simply disappeared into nothingness.

“Twelve Shinigami Castle…”

Disguise Master spoke of a castle, but no structure formed. Instead, the darkness dimmed slightly, revealing twelve massive statues made of living shadow.

Each depicted a different creature… dragon, phoenix, serpent, tiger, and eight others and the largest stood directly behind Disguise Master.

That statue was beginning to crack as fissures spread across its surface releasing suffocating energy. Disguise Master’s dirty blonde hair faded, transforming into pure black and her eyes changed to brilliant purple leaking raw mana like tears.

“With this treasure…”

She started as the cracks spread even more.

“I summon…”

The cracks spread further with light shining through gaps.

“Twelve-Eyed Wheel Devouring Samsara…”

CRACK!

“Divine General…”

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

“APOPHIS!”

SHATTER!

The statue exploded into shadow fragments and something stepped forth as the darkness faded entirely.

WHAM!

Tej got hit by something faster than she could perceive and she was sent flying backward through five complete buildings.

CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH!

She finally skidded to a stop several hundred meters away and the hand she’d raised to block had bent out of place.

It snapped back as regeneration kicked in and standing atop a tall falling building… unbothered by the collapsing structure was the being that attacked her.

It stood twelve feet tall with a powerfully muscular, humanoid frame covered in pale gray skin that looked like living stone that was smooth and flawless as if carved from marble.

Where its face should have been was nothing… It had no eyes, no nose, and no mouth.

It was just a smooth, featureless surface like an unfinished sculpture, as if the universe had forgotten to give this being an identity.

Four arms extended from its body with two positioned normally at shoulder height, but two more sprouted from its shoulder blades at unnatural angles.

Each hand possessed seven fingers ending in bone-white claws sharp enough to cut through steel but the most striking feature floated behind its head like a profane halo.

The Cycle…

A wheel of living flesh and bone, easily six feet in diameter, suspended in air through no visible means.

It appeared made from human tissue… the skin stretched over pale bone framework with visible veins twitching as if it had its own heartbeat.

Twelve segments divided the wheel like a clock face, and embedded in each segment was a closed eye. They were not painted or carved… these were actual eyes with real eyelids made of skin stretched taut over something that moved and twitched beneath.

The wheel rotated slowly with an awful grinding sound making the noise of cracking bones and tearing meat and with each rotation, the closed eyes twitched violently as if desperately trying to open, as if something behind those lids was struggling to see.

The being stood still with its featureless face turned toward Tej despite having no eyes.

This was a Shinigami… a being summoned from the space between life and death.

…This was Apophis.