Encroachment

Kakuhanbo coughed violently and incessantly. Beneath his golden mask, his once handsome face had now become gaunt and withered, as crimson blood mist continuously seeped from his skin, intense pain tormenting his nerves.

With trembling hands, Kakuhanbo reached inside his clothes and pulled out the small box he had recently received from Roku. Opening it, he took out a red pill and swallowed it as he always did.

“Cough… cough, cough, cough!!”

However, this time, Kakuhanbo's symptoms did not alleviate after taking the medicine from the box; instead, they seemed to worsen.

“Cough, cough… Hah… Ugh… What in the world is this…”

“Want to know why the medicine isn't working?” Roku's lips curled into a faint smile as he watched the suffering Kakuhanbo. He looked at his former friend, now his superior, with not a trace of pity in his eyes.

“The reason is simple. What's acting up inside you now isn't the poison itself, but the medicine I gave you. Heh heh, this medicine's efficacy isn't just about suppressing poison, you see.”

Roku spoke, his eyes filled with a ruthless expression.

“You've been taking this medicine for ten years… all its effects have accumulated, waiting for this ultimate eruption! Now, become a puppet of this blood power!”

With Roku's loud cry, Kakuhanbo let out a wail, spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood. An even larger crimson mist billowed from his body, enveloping him entirely. All of this… was the accumulated medicinal power secretly hidden within him. If Miketsu were present, she would clearly recognize this blood mist as identical to what she had seen on the leopard cat yokai.

This was the power of Blood Sacrifice; the true nature of the medicine Kakuhanbo had been taking for ten years was actually a highly corrosive Blood Sacrifice power!

Kakuhanbo gasped in agony. His massive wings were now tainted with dark crimson, and one of his eyes had already turned blood-red. His sanity began to fray, and his gaunt face beneath the golden mask was filled with astonishment and fury.

“It was you… So all these recent events were your doing… Why, Roku, why would you do this?!” Kakuhanbo shouted, resisting the encroachment of the vast, sinister power accumulated within his body. He was now beginning to realize that all the strange occurrences lately were likely tied to the person he trusted most, standing before him.

“Why? Isn't it obvious? Naturally, it's to reclaim what should have been mine… Don't forget, from childhood, I was the most outstanding among us. Becoming a Great Tengu… it should have been me.” Roku's lips curled into a smile as he looked at his former close friend, his expression relaxed, as if years of forbearance were finally released in that moment.

Hearing Roku's words, Kakuhanbo was momentarily stunned, then his gaze darkened as he spoke.

“I thought… after all these years, you had already let go of everything. It seems I was too optimistic… But Roku, I didn't steal anything from you. Without the proper aptitude, you would never be able to bear the burden…”

“I don't care about any damned aptitude!” Roku waved his hand and roared loudly, his voice clearly trembling.

“Becoming a Great Tengu, sitting on the clan leader's throne, should have been me, the strongest among our generation! You're inferior to me in every way, so why did you end up inheriting the Tengu-do… just because of some cursed aptitude?

“Today, I'll take back everything that belongs to me!”

Listening to Roku's wild words, Kakuhanbo fell silent for a moment. After a long pause, he endured the intense pain and continued with a sigh.

“Cough, cough… cough… Ah… It seems I truly am an unfit clan leader. My former closest friend harbored such resentment while staying by my side for centuries, yet I noticed nothing, allowing this situation to brew today… I have failed the Old Clan Leader's trust; after I reach the Underworld, I ought to beg his forgiveness…”

With a hint of regret, Kakuhanbo spoke slowly. His gaze fixed on Roku, and in his dim eyes, a sharp glint reappeared.

“But before that… I need to cleanse the Sugo Ungo of its traitor!”

Suddenly, a colossal demonic aura erupted from Kakuhanbo's body, and a fierce gust of wind swept forth. Kakuhanbo, who had been barely able to stand, surged from his spot and swiftly charged towards Roku.

“What…?”

Roku evidently hadn't anticipated that Kakuhanbo, suffering from the poison's onset and being eroded by the Blood Sacrifice power, could suddenly erupt with such force. In his haste, he immediately hurled two wind blades at Kakuhanbo.

Roku's blades accurately struck the rapidly approaching Kakuhanbo, tearing through his outer garments, but only leaving shallow blood marks when they actually hit his flesh, completely failing to stop him in the slightest.

In merely an instant, Kakuhanbo was already before Roku. He raised his hand-blade, poised to strike. The encroachment of the Blood Sacrifice power had made his demonic energy chaotic, so Kakuhanbo intended to kill Roku directly with a physical strike. With his Yokai Lord physique, this was absolutely achievable; a single hand-blade strike would undoubtedly cleave Roku in two.

Facing Kakuhanbo, whose speed was incredibly swift, Roku had no time to even dodge. He could only stand rooted to the spot, watching helplessly as he was about to perish by Kakuhanbo's hand.

But at that very moment, an unforeseen change occurred. Kakuhanbo's hand-blade, halfway through its descent, stopped in mid-air. His imposing figure was now frozen in place, unable to move.

“Ugh…”

Kakuhanbo slowly lowered his head, staring in disbelief at his chest. There, a blood-dripping blade had pierced him from behind, emerging through his front.

Kakuhanbo turned his head to the side, glancing behind him. Standing there was a human male.

He was a middle-aged man, around thirty or forty, with disheveled black hair cascading down, and ancient, tattered armor. In the man's hand was a sword radiating an endless sinister aura, and it was this very blade that had pierced Kakuhanbo's chest.

“It's… you… Ughhh Ahhh!”

Kakuhanbo had no chance to say anything further when a terrifying Blood Sacrifice power surged from the ancient blade in the man's hand, directly pouring into Kakuhanbo's body. It resonated with the large amount of Blood Sacrifice power already accumulated within Kakuhanbo, attacking from both inside and out, rapidly completing the erosion.

Amidst Kakuhanbo's agonizing wails, his massive wings were stained dark crimson, the light in his eyes rapidly faded, and his already dwindling sanity completely collapsed at that moment.

With a crisp snap, the human man dressed as a Samurai easily broke his sword, took two steps back, leaving the broken blade lodged within Kakuhanbo's body. Then, he slowly spoke to Kakuhanbo, who was still in agony.

“Now, go fulfill your mission. Go to the Land of the Four Gods, and use all your might to completely destroy it!”

After hearing the man's words, the struggling Kakuhanbo fell silent. Just a moment later, a terrifying red light gleamed in his eyes.

With a powerful flap of his dark crimson, broad wings, accompanied by a colossal demonic aura that surged skyward, Kakuhanbo flew straight into the distance at an unimaginable speed. Amidst the thunderous sonic boom that echoed throughout Sugo Ungo, Kakuhanbo's figure vanished into the distant horizon.