So many people... arriving the moment the teleportation channel closed.
The efficiency. The seamless coordination.
Clearly... this had been planned for a long time.
Kanzaki Rei questioned himself.
If it were himâif he knew someone was coming to hunt him downâwhat would he do?
The answer... became crystal clear.
If he had the strength to turn the tables, he would use the opportunity of being hunted... to counter-kill his pursuers.
If he didnât...
He would exhaust every possible means to escape alive.
He had been arrogant.
Arrogant enough to believe that with Akagi, Kumironi, and himself...
The three of them together were already invincible on this continent.
There was simply no room for error.
Any enemy who faced them... would only be forced into a desperate retreat.
The final outcome should have always been total victoryâreturning fully laden with spoils.
He hadnât even truly considered the possibility of being counter-killed.
"Careless."
"Utterly careless."
Boom!
Kanzaki Rei shot into the sky!
Swish! Swish swish swish swish swishâ
And almost immediatelyâ
Figures filled the sky above Sel City from every direction.
Kanzaki Reiâs gaze swept across them.
At a glanceâthere were thousands.
Not all of them were above Level 5. Most were still Level 4.
Even so...
On the Ruilen Continent, that number was terrifying.
Level 4 was already a dividing line. Level 5 was rarer stillâone in hundreds of millions.
Out of tens of billions of people, barely over two hundred Level 5s existed openly.
And nowâ
No one knew exactly how many had surrounded Sel City.
But one thing was certain...
There were many.
Their clothing was distinct.
"Tengor... Shanya... Tarabella..."
And many others he didnât recognize.
So they werenât from the Ruilen Continent.
"Of course..."
If that one who summoned monsters to attack Ruijia could escape to Tarabella...
Why couldnât people from other continents come here?
He had always assumed every battle was confined to Ruilen.
He had completely overlooked the existence of other continents.
Just because he hadnât left Ruilen...
Didnât mean his enemies were limited to it.
Kanzaki Reiâs gaze turned cold.
"My own ignorance."
A phantom ring formed in his right handâthe Star Spirit War Spear materialized.
He stood still, not making the first move.
The crowd surrounded him, their thoughts chaotic and noisy.
"That guy!"
"Itâs that Lu Cang!"
"Why is he outside?!"
"Hehâwho cares why? Heâs alone out here!"
"Lorenâs Chief Mage! Second only to Izparutâthe greatest magical prodigy!"
"If we can get his skinâ"
Crackâ
A flash of extreme light exploded.
The speaker didnât even finish his sentence.
A child in the distance had already grabbed his head with one hand.
"Is that so."
His nameâNicody. From Tarabella.
Level 4 Skin Stealer.
His parents... also from Tarabella.
Killed by his own hands.
That was the initiation test for Skin Stealers in Tarabella.
Truly...
A church that had abandoned all humanity.
Bang!
Kanzaki Rei clenched his handâ
And the manâs head exploded instantly.
Kanzaki Rei looked out at the crowd.
Their time of death...
Was short. Less than thirty minutes.
That countdown assumed a world where Kanzaki Rei didnât exist.
Without him, they might have lived that long.
But nowâ
Even if he didnât kill them, they wouldnât last much longer.
"Kill him!"
Swish!
Dozens of spells formed above Sel City!
Thunder roaredâlightning split the sky!
Dozens of violent Wind Howl Cannons blasted toward Kanzaki Rei!
Fourth-tier wind magicâhighly versatile, one of the most widely used spells of its tier.
Snapâ
Kanzaki Rei vanished instantly.
How insulting.
To think such inferior magic would be used against him.
He spun his spear casuallyâ
Boom!
Source: Heaven-Shaking Wind Roar (Fourth Tier) (LV: 301)
A violent shockwave of wind exploded outwardâ
Covering most of the sky in an instant!
Countless figures dropped from the heavens in unison.
Their souls scatteredâcollected effortlessly into Kanzaki Reiâs grasp.
He glanced at the countdown timers above their heads.
When death was strongly tied to him...
The timers were remarkably accurate.
With a single strikeâ
The advancing elites halted.
They hesitated.
Weighing whether charging first...
Would simply mean becoming his next kill.
In that brief pauseâ
Kanzaki Rei noticed one man.
Time of death: 2 hours.
Two hours?
Everyone else had thirty minutesâwhy did he have so much longer?
Kanzaki Rei focused his gaze.
"Time of Death: 2:00:00 â 0"
"AhâAAARGH!"
The man suddenly clutched his throat in agony.
His skin began to melt.
"No! Whyâwhy is this happening?!"
His struggle lasted only moments.
His skin dissolved completely.
The flesh beneath turned black, lifelessâfalling toward the ground.
"Skin... melting?"
"Why?! Why would the Elder suddenly suffer skin dissolution?!"
"The Grand Elder cherished his skin like his own lifeâwhy is it devouring him?!"
"With our Level 6 Grand Elder gone... how do we fight that monster?!"
Kanzaki Reiâs perception shifted downward.
You churches...
Playing dead?
And Ruijiaâwhere are your guards?
Whooshâ
Suddenlyâviolent winds surged!
From the four cardinal directionsâ
Four crimson creatures appeared.
They resembled upright walking flowersâ
But entirely blood-red, with muscle-like textures.
"Kanzaki Rei? Youâre Lorenâs Chief Mage?"
"This has nothing to do with you today."
"Since youâve escaped, donât seek death."
"You think standing in our way can save those trapped inside?"
"If you leave quietly now, weâll overlook your interference."
"Otherwiseâeven if Izparut himself comes..."
"Weâll kill him too!"
Kanzaki Rei narrowed his eyes.
He read their mental fluctuations.
They werenât confident at all.
Bold words... for beings like this.
To claim they could kill even Izparut.
Stillâ
He had already suffered once from underestimating the enemy.
He wouldnât make that mistake again.
He had no intention of entering reincarnation.
A hundred layers of shields rose around him.
These four flower-like monstersâ
Also had a two-hour death timer.
Kanzaki Rei paused briefly.
Then replied:
"Oh... then Iâll leave."
He vanished instantly.
Everyone presentâ
Forgot who they had just been speaking to.
Only a vague sense remainedâ
That someone had been standing in front of them.
The next momentâ
Kanzaki Rei appeared silently beside one of the flower monsters!
Battle EssenceâQuadruple Activation!
In an instant, all four layers activated!
His movements became slow, driftingâlike a sleepwalker.
Skyflow StyleâThird Form: Phantom Strike
Combat arts and magic erupted simultaneously!
Ten thousand strikes in an instant!
Bang!
The flower monster exploded into a mass of blood midair.
Kanzaki Rei raised his handâ
And extracted its soul.
"Youâ!"
His hand pressed onto the corpse as he simultaneously stripped a storage petal from its body.
Information flooded into his mind.
"Die."
Boomâ
The ground trembled!
Countless vines burst upwardâ
Blood-devouring flowers.
A race that fed exclusively on intelligent beingsâ
Especially fresh, living flesh.
But before the vines could reach the skyâ
A streak of light flashed across the heavens!
Bangâ
The remaining three flower monsters were pierced through instantly.
Kanzaki Rei hovered in the skyâ
Watching their corpses fall.
As he killed them, he had also gathered more information.
A crimson leaf flickered in his handâ
Transforming into a blood-skin-like secret order.
Creator: God of Skinning and Shapeshifting â Aelthymia
A nameless, insignificant god.
No records of it existed in the White Tower.
Kanzaki Rei scanned the order instantly.
Restrictions. Encryption.
All broken in a moment.
"Capture Kumironi alive. Deliver to the Blood and Continuation Sanctuary."
That was the only content.
But the order itselfâ
Was genuine.
Issued by a being called a god.
From the flower monsters, he learned moreâ
The Church of Molting Rose wasnât confined to Ruilen.
Its roots spread across the entire world.
In some regions, it was even considered an orthodox religion.
Its influence extended beyond the Secret Seaâ
Into the Turbid Sea, the Moon Seaâeven the Boundless Mountains.
And above the church...
There were gods.
Active ones.
For the sake of capturing Kumironiâ
For two years, elites had been continuously sent to Ruilen.
And more truths about Ruijia surfaced in his mind...
"So thatâs how it is."
Kanzaki Rei suddenly twisted his bodyâ
Slash!
A freezing dagger grazed past him.
His eyes turned icy.
An assassin had appeared without a sound.
Boom!
Kanzaki Rei brought his leg downâ
Crushing the assassin into the earth.
With a flickâ
Another soul entered his grasp.
"So this is... a godâs scheme?"
It had always sounded distant.
Irrelevant.
Something only heard in passingâ
Like when Kumironi once told Chum:
"This is all Lady Sophiaâs design."
But it had never felt real.
Yet nowâ
After killing six Level 6 class usersâ
Seven, if including the one who died from his gazeâ
The sense of danger...
Did not diminish.
It grew stronger.
Looking around againâ
More figures were rising from the forests beyond Sel City.
More enemies.
What he had just faced...
Was only a probe.
Countless eyes still watched him.
Waiting.
His perception range was only 200 kilometers.
From the center of Sel Cityâ
He couldnât reach beyond its borders.
Only his eyes could seeâ
Endless forests, with flesh-colored figures rising one after another.
And many things...
That werenât even human.
His perception turned downward.
Within the churchesâ
Clergy removed their robes.
Thenâ
Their skin.
City guards on patrolâ
Pulled their own faces off.
In one squadâ
Only one soldier didnât.
He stared in horror as his comradesâ
With blank expressionsâ
Tore off their faces in unison.
He collapsed to the ground in terror.
Blacksmiths.
Arena receptionists.
War academy instructorsâ
One after anotherâ
They shed their skin.
All of itâ
Flooded Kanzaki Reiâs mind.
As if the entire cityâ
Had been peeled.
Unknowinglyâ
The mist of the Month of Forgetting shiftedâ
From faint pink...
To a rust-scented crimson.
The bright sun in the skyâ
Slowly sank.
As if its outer layer had been stripped awayâ
Revealing a mass of flesh beneath.
Sel City...
It wasnât just officials or key figures who had been replaced by Skin Stealers.
It wasâ
The entire city.
The entire capitalâ
Had already been replaced.