Chapter 168: Aftermath in Ashes
Ren's feet crunched through shattered stone and splintered wood as he sprinted through what used to be the mansion. The floor was a jagged quilt of debris, charred beams jutting upward like broken ribs. His breaths came sharp and uneven, and every step was weighted by the ticking clock in his chest.
He spotted it—the staff, Playful Cloud—half-buried under fractured tiles. He bent down, grabbed it, and muttered through clenched teeth,
"Ugh… It fell out of my hand when that monster shot that slash at me. Damn thing nearly cut me in two… Anyway, I need to get moving. I only have sixty minutes before… I die, pretty much."
No hesitation. No second thought. Ren snapped his hand open toward the shadows, and Worm crawled out with a wet sound, its body shimmering red under the faint cursed energy glow. He pressed Playful Cloud into its gaping maw. The worm swallowed the staff whole, wriggled once, and slipped back into Ren's shadow with a ripple. Ren didn't even look back—he was already running, pushing cursed energy into his legs, lungs, and heart, forcing his battered body forward.
The view pulled wide.
The mansion was gone. Erased. The once lush Congo jungle had been mutilated. The core half-kilometer radius was nothing but a scar on the earth, leveled into jagged craters and molten earth. From there, a radius of nearly two kilometers was shredded and burned, trees uprooted and turned to splinters, and rivers diverted into ash-strewn trenches. Beyond that, for three to five kilometers more, the jungle bore deep wounds—trunks twisted, soil vitrified into glassy black patches, and smoke pillars still rising.
It looked less like a battle and more like a divine punishment. A hurricane's rage. A wildfire's hunger. Artillery's precision. Layered together into one apocalypse. Even the sky itself was scarred—clouds split apart, like something had carved a wound into the heavens.
Far above, a crow circled, tiny against the immensity of destruction, its black wings cutting across the ashen winds.
In a hut, far from the battlefield, Mei Mei's hand trembled. She'd seen battles. She'd seen monsters. But what she felt in her chest now—what she had just watched through her crow—was beyond even her control-hardened nerves.
She muttered, "This fight did not make sense. Did the both of them use more than one cursed technique?"
Beside her, Ogami lay slumped, barely upright. The old woman's disguise was gone, revealing the skeletal truth of her body. Burnout had claimed her. Her cursed technique had devoured too much; she was now just a frail, trembling elder, breath shallow. Still, her eyes were wide in something close to fear.
"H-How?" Ogami's voice cracked like breaking glass. "He should be under stress… His body unbalanced… his soul unstable… How is he able to use such output? It should be impossible! The only explanation… is that his cursed energy output is lowered. But…" Her wrinkled lips trembled. "If this is lowered output… then what is his true output?!"
The words landed heavy. Mei Mei's eyes widened even further, her perfectly calm exterior cracking. Her phone slipped from her hand and clattered to the floor, forgotten.
Meanwhile, Ren kept running, vision bouncing between the ruins and the dense forest beyond. His mind screamed louder than his feet.
'Fucking hell… Where the fuck are those two?! Where did they run off to?! Shit, I don't have much time…'
He nearly stumbled but forced himself to breathe.
'No. Calm down. Think. Where would both of them go? This is the Congo jungle. Other than the city, the only place nearby is… tribal land. They'd go there. They have to. Ogami's in burnout; she can't move far. Mei Mei wouldn't abandon her—she'd wait. Wait for me.'
Ren's mind clicked.
'Wait… Mei Mei. Of course. Crows!'
He skidded to a stop, sweat dripping down his temple, and snapped his gaze upward. His eyes scanned the torn sky.
There—one crow, its wings black against the split clouds.
Ren waved sharply, then jumped high, his body shooting up like a fired arrow. The crow's head tilted. It saw him. It circled once… then descended, landing in front of him. It tilted its head, then nodded.
Ren let out a slow breath. "Good… she got the hint. No way a crow could just… do that, right?"
Back in the hut, Mei Mei's eyes narrowed. She felt it—the pull of her crow.
"What? He saw my crow? Why is he… jumping?" Her lips pressed thin. "Does he need help?"
The decision hit her faster than she thought. She stood in one smooth motion, turning to Ogami.
"You stay here. I'll get Ren. He must be weak after a fight like that."
She didn't wait for Ogami's response. Mei Mei rushed out into the jungle, her braid whipping behind her.
Ren lowered himself to the ground, every joint burning. He collapsed to a sit, chest heaving, and let the weight roll off his shoulders for a breath.
The crow landed beside him, cocking its head like a silent companion.
"Ah…" Ren muttered. "So she understood… good." He shut his eyes briefly, feeling the ache in every nerve. "God, that fight was too much… I can't even use cursed energy normally now. Is this… the effect of having an unstable soul? I didn't notice before because with Rika, I had limitless cursed energy. In the fight, I just burned energy left and right. Shit… I could've won that fight faster if not for this…"
He tilted his head back, looking at the fractured sky. A small smile ghosted across his lips despite the exhaustion.
"But at least something good came out of it. Project (Rebirth) works another trump card up my sleeve… Even though I can only use it once a year, it's still amazing.... The binding vow on Rika… it's broken. Finally. And not just that—I got his cursed technique too."
He laughed once, weakly but sharply. "Ha. What a fucked-up cursed technique, huh?"
The crow tilted its head again, as if waiting for him to elaborate.
But Ren didn't.
The thought lingered only in his mind, sinking into silence.—