In the heart of the poisoned dimension—where trees stood petrified and the air bled ash—Kuruma stood, facing an opponent who never smiled.
His foe was the Commander of Living Venom—his body coated in dark scales, writhing with glowing green veins, and a voice that seemed to rise from the depths of an abyss.
"I expected to face a mighty shadow… but you look like a wounded ghost."
Kuruma didn't reply. His dark eyes locked onto the enemy in unwavering silence.
And the battle began.
The blows came fast.
Kuruma danced with his twin daggers—striking, vanishing, slipping between shadows—but every scratch on the enemy turned into a trap.
The poison leaked.
"Every wound I suffer… returns to you," the enemy said, smiling with toxic delight.
Kuruma's body began to falter. Green wounds bloomed across his chest and arms, each pulse of pain bursting his veins further.
He dropped to one knee, breathing hard, his gaze dimming.
"Sajibro… I failed you," he whispered through ragged breaths.
Suddenly… a voice from memory returned.
"When I rebuilt your body, I didn't just repair it..."
"I placed within you… a trace of the ancient beasts' legacy."
The memory unfurled.
He saw Sajibro, standing, hand upon Kuruma's chest, eyes filled with the calm of one who knows when to release the monster.
"When your heart nears the edge of death… the Origin will remember you."
The venom reached his heart.
And then… everything changed.
A sound like a howl tore through the dimension. Kuruma's body began to glow a deep, blood-red. His skin cracked open. Fangs emerged. Wings split from his back. Eyes blinked open across his shoulders.
He became a creature the world had never seen.
"The Beast of Redemption…" whispered Sajibro from afar, his voice slicing through dimensions.
"It does not forgive you… it purges you in blood."
The enemy screamed, tried to flee—but Kuruma struck with blinding speed. He grabbed him by the throat and opened a mouth filled with what looked like celestial fire.
With a voice that echoed in dual tones, he said:
"Your poison doesn't kill me…
It wakes me."
Then he bit down—until the enemy's body unraveled into nothingness.
The Venom Commander was gone.
The ground beneath him collapsed.
Kuruma returned to his normal form… naked, exhausted, seated in the ash of his fallen foe, blood dripping from his lips.
He smiled.
"Thank you, Sajibro."
End of Chapter Forty-Two.