A single glance. Bushidora instantly understood the insurmountable gulf between himself and Loki. Before this boy, he felt no urge to fight,
A single glance.
Bushidora instantly understood the insurmountable gulf between himself and Loki.
Before this boy, he felt no urge to fight, only a strange, oppressive weight pressing down on him, an irresistible urge to kneel in submission.
Any thought of resistance evaporated.
'Monster!' he thought. 'What kind of gaze is this? Even a hellish demon's gaze couldn't be this terrifying!' Loki, after that single, piercing look, turned away, his gaze drifting to the side.
But that one glance... time itself seemed to freeze.
A single second stretched into an agonizing eternity—perhaps the longest second of Bushidora's life, feeling like tens of minutes, even an hour.
Only when Loki turned back to the window did Bushidora feel the crushing pressure lift. He gasped for air, frantically wiping at his face, his entire visage slick with sweat.
Large beads of perspiration continued to roll down his cheeks.
"Get lost! Trash like you isn't worth the effort," Loki stated dismissively.
Bushidora lowered his head, frantically nodding, his body trembling uncontrollably. He tried to speak, but lifting his head, he found himself still standing outside Loki's door.
His eyes darted wildly, focusing on the figures lined up before the door—his men.
Had what he experienced been real, or merely a hallucination? He couldn't tell. He touched his sweat-drenched face, unsure if he'd even entered the room.
The experience was surreal, terrifying.
Regardless of whether it was real or not, the individual inside was someone he couldn't possibly provoke.
His men, one by one, regained consciousness.
But their first action wasn't shouting or attacking; it was to turn and flee, leaving as quickly as possible.
Bushidora, without hesitation, followed them, escaping the Hunter Association headquarters with all possible haste.
When Cheadle arrived to investigate, the figures outside Loki's room were gone. She opened the door to find Loki lying in bed, slowly opening his eyes to look at her.
"Do you have to watch me even while I sleep?" he asked.
Cheadle, about to question him about the people outside, abruptly closed the door and left. She knew questioning Loki would be futile; she would investigate herself.
Outside the Hunter Association, Teradein and Loupe anxiously awaited news from Bushidora. The longer they waited, the more their apprehension grew.
Bushidora was taking far too long. Several hours passed without a single update, and none of the men he'd taken with him had returned.
Finally, Teradein and Loupe contacted Bushidora again.
Bushidora, on a train, dressed in plain clothes, stared at the incoming call on his phone, finally answering after a long moment of hesitation.
"Well? Did you capture the brat?" Teradein's voice demanded.
The moment Bushidora heard the word "brat," his face paled, his voice heavy with a profound sense of dread.
"Give it up!" he said, his voice strained. "Give it up! That monster... you can't handle him. He's from a different dimension entirely. The Zodiacs' cooperation isn't due to manipulation; even the Zodiacs are no match for that demon."
Teradein and Loupe were completely bewildered by his words.
"Did you fight him?" they asked urgently.
"Fight him?" Bushidora gave a self-deprecating chuckle. "With my strength... against that... demon? I'd be dead before I could even land a blow!"
He let out a long, weary sigh. "I only saw his eyes."
At the mere memory of those crimson eyes, Bushidora trembled uncontrollably. His voice trembled with an almost palpable fear.
"They were..." he whispered, his voice barely audible. "...the eyes of a demon".
You absolutely do not want to see those eyes. Cold... unimaginably cold.
"Seeing that gaze... I never want to be a Hunter again. I just want to be an ordinary person, to live a normal life."
Bushidora had no desire to ever encounter that "demon" again. He had survived this time, but next time...? The thought sent a shiver down his spine. The call ended abruptly. Teradein and Loupe tried calling back, but there was no answer.
Back at the Pure Paladin Squad faction's headquarters, Teradein looked at Loupe, his face etched with worry.
Bushidora's words implied that a single glance from Loki had stripped him of his courage as a Hunter. What kind of gaze could instill such abject terror in a seasoned, experienced one-star Hunter?
What kind of gaze could make a seasoned one-star hunter so afraid that he would abandon his career and seek the anonymity of an ordinary life?
Teradein and Loupe couldn't even begin to imagine the terror that must have been inflicted. Perhaps only by experiencing it firsthand could they understand why Bushidora had been reduced to this state by a single glance.
As the moon yielded to the rising sun, Teradein and Loupe finally realized the full extent of their failure.
In a single night, they had not only failed to capture Loki but had also lost half their personnel.
Those dispatched with Bushidora hadn't died; they had fled, likely never to return to the Hunter Association.
This revelation sent another wave of shock through Teradein and Loupe.
One person fleeing was one thing; an entire group, inexplicably driven away by a child, was utterly incomprehensible.
Loupe, now beginning to grasp the true extent of Loki's terrifying power, advised Teradein, "Give it up. That brat... he's clearly beyond our capabilities."
Even with Loupe's assessment, Teradein couldn't accept defeat.
He had initiated this entire operation, and the thought of losing so many men, failing to achieve any of their goals, and losing Bushidora as well, was unbearable.
He sat slumped in the Pure Paladin Squad faction's office, his fists clenching and unclenching repeatedly, his eyes bloodshot with frustration and a burning sense of injustice.
He couldn't, and wouldn't, accept this outcome.
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