To the shock of everyone present, Haruki didn’t bother with a stealthy approach. He didn’t try to slip through the shadows or use a disguise. He simply walked straight up to the massive front gates of the Tendo estate, as if he were arriving for a casual stroll.

  The police units were the first to react.

  The moment they confirmed his identity, the commanding officer shrieked the order to fire. Submachine guns, assault rifles, and tactical shotguns—the absolute pinnacle of modern ballistic technology—erupted in a deafening chorus of lead.

  RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

  Haruki’s response was clinical.

  He fred his Highnd Soul. To the onlookers, it looked as if he had simply vanished into thin air, leaving only a shimmering green distortion behind. In reality, he was moving at a velocity that the human eye, and even high-speed cameras, couldn't track.

  By the time the soldiers realized their targets were hitting nothing but air, Haruki had already cleared the kill zone.

  He reappeared in the center of their formation. In the blink of an eye, dozen of armed officers colpsed into the dirt, the crimson spray from their wounds painting a gruesome picture on the white gravel of the courtyard.

  "He’s... he’s actually killing them?"

  Watching Haruki’s bde run red, the Promoters on the inner wall felt a wave of genuine horror.

  Until now, they had viewed Haruki as a peer—a fellow Civil Security officer. They assumed that no matter how strong he was, he wouldn't turn his bde on his own kind. After all, a Promoter's job was to kill Gastrea. Killing humans was a line that led to life in prison or execution. It was a completely different world.

  But Haruki’s cold, efficient movements told them everything they needed to know. He wasn't a hero, and he wasn't a w-abiding citizen. He was a Demon of the Bde.

  Once he had made his decision, he didn't care if the obstacles in front of him were monsters or men. Anyone standing between him and Tendo was already dead; they just hadn't stopped breathing yet.

  As Haruki tore through the Tendo estate's defenses, the sheer weight of the "Sword Ghost’s" presence began to crush the morale of the defenders. Conventional firearms were useless. No matter how thick the hail of lead, Haruki moved through it like a ghost through a graveyard—untouched and inevitable.

  The outer military perimeter was shattered in minutes. Haruki moved like a harvesting bde through a field of wheat.

  "I didn't think he’d be this much of a nightmare," Tamaki Katagiri muttered. His previous arrogance had vanished, repced by a grim, focused intensity. "Satomi! We can't wait for the army. It’s up to us!"

  "Us?"

  Rentaro Satomi hesitated for a fraction of a second, his heart hammering against his ribs.

  But Tamaki didn't give him time to think. With a sharp whistle, he signaled his Initiator, Yuzuki, and the two of them lunged forward to intercept Haruki’s path.

  Faced with his friend's reckless charge, Rentaro’s instincts as a Promoter took over. He gritted his teeth and signaled Enju. "Let’s go, Enju! Don't let them face him alone!"

  Two Promoters and two high-tier Initiators converged on Haruki from four separate angles. It was a pincer maneuver designed to overwhelm even the fastest opponent. The atmospheric pressure in the courtyard spiked as their combined killing intent focused on a single point.

  Haruki didn't even slow down.

  He scanned their trajectories in a microsecond. Just as their bdes and kicks were about to connect, he smmed his boots into the ground and leaped.

  BOOM!

  The simple jump sent him ten meters into the air, causing the four attackers to collide with empty space. While still descending, Haruki adjusted his grip on his bde, the tip pointing straight down.

  "Silver Cut!"

  One of the fundamental arts of the ghost-sying style. Haruki plummeted like a meteor, his bde leading the way.

  KABOOM!

  The shockwave from the impact sent Rentaro and Tamaki tumbling backward, their breath knocked out of them by the sheer concussive force of the nding.

  However, while the Promoters were staggered, the Initiators were a different breed.

  Enju Aihara, Rentaro’s partner, managed to flip mid-air and stick the nding. Even though her IP Rank was officially low, her combat prowess was easily within the top thousand. She was a "Rabbit-type"—fast, agile, and incredibly powerful.

  Simultaneously, Tamaki’s partner, Yuzuki—a "Spider-type"—skittered across the wall with unnatural grace, unching a high-speed strike from Haruki’s blind spot.

  The two girls moved with a synchronization that would have ended any other swordsman. But Haruki wasn't any other swordsman. He knew they were victims of this world, but on the battlefield, he didn't distinguish by age or gender. If you stood in his path with a weapon, you were an enemy.

  "Alpha Strike!"

  Haruki vanished again.

  CLANG! CLANG!

  Sparks erupted in two pces at once. Haruki’s bde moved with the weight of the Wuju style, augmented by the dark hunger of the Darkin. A normal Cursed Child’s body was as tough as steel, capable of shrugging off bullets and crushing Gastrea bones. But Haruki’s bde was forged of high-purity Varanium and backed by a soul that had seen a thousand battles.

  CRACK!

  After just a few exchanges, Yuzuki and Enju were sent reeling, their limbs bruised and blood seeping from shallow cuts. Haruki’s Onikiri acted as a natural suppressor, its Varanium composition dampening the regenerative cells in their bodies.

  He had effectively neutralized the two strongest Initiators in the courtyard in seconds.

  Flick.

  Haruki flicked the blood from his bde with a cold, detached motion. He didn't finish the girls; he didn't want their lives. He simply stepped over them and continued his march toward the main mansion.

  But before he could reach the sliding doors, two new figures emerged from the shadows of the porch.

  It was a bald, imposing man in a suit and a young girl with long bck hair. Both wore traditional samurai-style armor over their clothes, but the armor was reinforced with high-tech, cybernetic exoskeletons. You could see the hydraulic pistons and power cables integrated directly into their bodies. They looked like something out of a futuristic war film.

  The surrounding Promoters let out a collective sigh of relief. To them, these two were the ultimate insurance policy.

  "So, you are the one they call the Sword Ghost," the man said.

  Despite the carnage Haruki had just wrought, the man’s voice was steady. He radiated a calm, disciplined authority. The girl beside him, however, didn't share his composure. She stared at Haruki with a gaze filled with raw, naked hostility.

  "And you are?" Haruki asked, coming to a halt. The pressure coming from these two was genuine.

  "I am Nagamasa Gado, IP Rank 275," the man said, offering a stiff, warrior's bow. "And this is my partner, Asaka Mibu. We have been tasked with the protection of Counselor Tendo. I am told you intend to take his life. Is this true?"

  "It is."

  "Why? Counselor Tendo has spent his entire life building the foundations of Tokyo. He is our hope for reciming the world from the Gastrea. Why would you strike down the architect of our survival?"

  Gado spoke with the conviction of a true believer. He genuinely saw Tendo as a hero.

  Haruki let out a short, dry ugh. "I don't care about the 'foundations' of Tokyo, and I don't care about your war with the Gastrea. I’m here because of the children you've left to rot in the mud. I'm here for the girl who blinded herself because of his ws."

  "The children in the Outer Districts?" Gado’s expression turned into one of pity. He fell silent for a moment before speaking. "I didn't realize the Sword Ghost was such a sentimentalist. There are barely a few thousand of them. Compared to the millions of citizens in Tokyo, they are... an unfortunate necessity."

  "Funny. I’ve never been very good at math," Haruki said, his hand tightening on the hilt of his greatsword. "I don't measure lives in numbers."

  "Then we have nothing more to say. If you insist on this path, then today is the day your legend ends."

  The air between them shattered. The final obstacle stood before him.

  There was no middle ground between Haruki Aizawa and Nagamasa Gado. The moment their brief exchange ended, the courtyard became a pressure cooker of killing intent.

  As Rank 275, Gado wasn't a full mechanized soldier like Kagetane, but he was a "Cyborg-Promoter." His exoskeleton was fused with his nervous system, giving him reaction speeds and strength that far exceeded any human limit.

  His partner, Asaka Mibu, was even more dangerous. As an Initiator with an integrated exoskeleton, her combat capability was off the charts. Both of them were master swordsmen, wielding custom-made Varanium katanas that hummed with lethal intent.

  "Sword Ghost, if you are determined to py the assassin, then die as one!" Gado roared.

  "Try it."

  Haruki didn't move. He stood in a rexed stance, waiting for the first strike.

  Gado didn't disappoint. He lunged forward, his bde a blur of silver. The atmospheric pressure from his swing was enough to crack the floor tiles before the bde even touched them. Gado was likely the strongest "human" swordsman Haruki had faced in this world. Without his repulsion shield, Kagetane Hiruko wouldn't have sted ten seconds against this man.

  But to Haruki, Gado’s speed was... manageable. Compared to the Bzers of the previous world or the refined perfection of the Wuju style, Gado was powerful but "loud." His movements were too heavy, too reliant on mechanical torque.

  CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

  Haruki parried three strikes with clinical ease, his own bde barely moving. With a single, sharp riposte, he forced Gado back five paces.

  "How is this possible...?"

  Gado’s confidence wavered. He was a master of the sword, yet he felt as if he were a student being lectured by a teacher. Haruki was suppressing him with pure technique.

  But Gado was a veteran. He didn't let his ego get in the way. He lunged again, but this time it was a diversion.

  "Now, Asaka!"

  Asaka Mibu’s crimson eyes fred. She had been circling the perimeter, waiting for the perfect opening. As Haruki engaged Gado, she became a streak of bck-and-red light, appearing behind Haruki in a heartbeat.

  "Oh? Finally, someone worth the effort," Haruki muttered.

  His expression sharpened. While Gado was a threat he could handle with basic swordsmanship, Asaka was different. Her speed was real. She was pushing the limits of the Initiator biology, and for the first time in this fight, Haruki felt the need to use his own gifts.

  ***********************************************

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