Chapter 177: Soul Refining Banner! Ten Million Vengeful Spirits and Malevolent Ghosts! Buried!
Mumei, seeing Horobi instantly subdued, managed to calm her initial panic so she wouldn't react as rashly.
She walked up to Ren, her small hands clenched at her sides, and asked in a pleading tone, her voice trembling, "Please... why? Why do you want to kill my brother? He... He saved me!"
Mumei, this small girl, was also just a poor, used soul.
Ren placed his large hand on her head. Mumei, surprisingly, didn't dodge.
For short-tempered people, like Horobi just now, he would be very impatient.
But for a well-behaved little girl, even one who was a deadly Kabaneri, he was still very patient. Ren didn't speak; he chose the simplest way to tell her the truth.
"Dominator."
His eyes transformed into a galaxy of starlight.
This sudden, immense psychic pressure drew Saiki Kusuo's attention. He felt a mental power so strong it was immeasurable, dwarfing his own.
Ren transmitted a package of Biba Amatori's true memories directly into Mumei's mind.
He wasn't gentle. He showed her everything: Biba's cold-hearted experiments, his contempt for his "Hunters," his true, manipulative thoughts about Mumei—seeing her as nothing but a useful tool, a "key."
He also gave Horobi, still floating helplessly, the same memory package.
The two were stunned, their minds reeling as they digested the horrifying truth. Mumei's face went pale, her eyes losing their light as her entire world shattered. Horobi's expression twisted from loyalty to horrified disbelief, and finally, to empty despair.
That left the innocent one, Yomogawa Ayame.
Ren lifted the time stop on her only.
"Everyone, hurry! The Armored Train is about to…"
Her vigorous, commanding voice suddenly stopped.
Yomogawa Ayame looked around, her eyes wide with confusion.
Weren't... wasn't I on the Armored Train? How did I suddenly end up on the streets of Aragane Station?
Confused for a moment, Ayame quickly noticed the terrifying anomaly.
A world where everything had stopped. The Kabane, the people... all frozen like statues.
The gazes of the few... unfrozen people around her.
And the eerily motionless forms of Kurusu Konochi and Biba Amatori, and Horobi floating strangely in the air.
She was more concerned about her bodyguard at the moment, and anxiously asked the strangers, "Excuse me... what happened here? Is this... is this the world after death?"
Ren ignored her for now.
Instead, he also released Kurusu Konochi and Biba Amatori from their time stasis.
"Hahaha! I will be invincible in this world!"
Biba Amatori's sudden, maniacal laughter, completing the action he was frozen in, startled Ayame and Vivi.
Mumei and Horobi, who had just come back to their senses from the forced memories, both looked at him with indescribable, pained gazes.
Mumei understood that he was just a pawn, and also knew the true identity of the thing before her was not her brother.
Horobi felt a sharp pang of heartache. She was different from Mumei.
Mumei had been naively used.
Horobi had known Biba's true intentions to overthrow his father and had followed him anyway, admiring his strength and resolve.
Her feelings for Biba were a complex mix of fear and admiration. Her heart had also yearned for his acknowledgment.
It wasn't until she saw Biba Amatori's true, unfiltered memories that she realized how utterly ridiculous she had been.
She had always thought that the ignorant and exploited Mumei was pitiful.
She never expected that she herself was just a slightly more important, self-aware wretch.
In this transmigrator's heart, her value was even less than Mumei's. She was merely a chess piece that could be used, discarded, or killed at will.
Moreover… the person before her was no longer Biba Amatori at all.
Ren and the others, who had no emotional attachment, almost couldn't hold back their dark amusement as they heard Biba Amatori's loud, arrogant laugh in a world still frozen in time.
Soon.
Both the stunned Kurusu Konochi and the smug Biba Amatori realized that something was amiss. The world was... silent.
Before they could speak, they heard Ren say, "Show me your power. Let me see what this 'demonic cultivation' of yours truly is."
"How... how could I be here?"
This was the common thought in both their minds.
Compared to Kurusu Konochi's immediate, fearful calmness...
When Biba Amatori saw the strange surroundings, his first reaction was to frantically look around for something, his eyes wide with panic.
"Where's my Soul-Refining Banner?!"
"Are you talking about this?"
An old, tattered, and horrifyingly dark banner appeared in Ren's hand, pulsing with a faint, screaming aura.
"The Soul-Refining Banner!"
Biba Amatori's eyes glinted fiercely; that was his Soul-Refining Banner, which he had painstakingly refined!
Who knows what he had gone through?
After dying in his original world, he was reincarnated into this backward, steam-powered world.
He found that all his strength was gone, but fortunately, this world was a paradise for him as a demonic cultivator.
A vast number of dead people, and so many weak, terrified humans! All of them were nutrients for his growth.
To quickly increase his strength, he sent away all the Hunters who could threaten him in his weak period. He set up a Soul-Refining Array in a nearby city. By introducing Kabane, he refined an entire city's Kabane and humans into this Soul-Refining Banner.
Afterwards, he had refined several other cities and stations, growing his power in secret.
As long as he got that Soul-Refining Banner back, he would be invincible in this world! He would return to his peak!
Kurusu Konochi looked at the Soul-Refining Banner in disbelief.
Why would there be a Soul-Refining Banner here? The Soul-Refining Array I set up in Aragane Station clearly hasn't been activated yet!
And the number of souls on that banner... that horrifying aura... that's not something the population of Aragane Station could possess. How many people did he kill?
"Give it back to me!" Biba Amatori shouted almost maniacally. That was his life's work!
"Here you go."
Ren tossed the Soul-Refining Banner to him, his expression one of casual indifference, as if saying, "Start your performance."
Biba Amatori caught the Soul-Refining Banner.
He was momentarily stunned. He... he just gave it to me?
But after only a brief moment of confusion, Biba Amatori's lips curled into a wild, unrestrained, and cruel grin.
"Hahaha, you foolish child! You'll regret this! Let me show you my true power!"
His body rose into the air, and he waved the Soul-Refining Banner in his hand.
In the clear sky above the station, dark, roiling clouds instantly gathered, blocking out the sun and casting the world into a chilling night.
Biba Amatori's aura rapidly soared, a vortex of black energy surrounding him.
A chilling, deathly aura permeated the sky. Sunlight filtered weakly through the gaps in the dark clouds, casting a hazy, sickly light on the frozen ground.
In this silent world, a piercing shriek suddenly ripped through the air, sending shivers down everyone's spine.
The sound was like the wailing of a million wronged souls, filled with endless pain, rage, and despair.
They writhed and struggled in the darkness, spectral faces appearing and vanishing in the clouds, as if trying to escape this world of suffering.
"Ah!"
"Wooo!"
"Roar!"
The wails rose and fell, intertwining with each other, forming an extremely terrifying, deafening chorus of agony.
As the wails spread, the surrounding air seemed to become increasingly oppressive, the temperature dropping below freezing.
A chilling sensation surged from all directions, making Vivi and Ayame feel as if they were in a frozen hell.
Leaves on the few nearby trees trembled, as if weeping in sorrow for the endless grievances of these wronged souls. The earth itself quaked amidst the mournful roars, as if disturbed by the suffering.
Amidst the wailing of these millions of souls, Mikasa and Vivi couldn't help but recall the tragic events they had witnessed in their own worlds.
The people massacred, those turned into Kabane... their grievances and anger converged into a powerful force, transforming into this terrifying wailing, narrating their pain to everyone.
In this horrifying scene, Mikasa and the others couldn't help but feel an indescribable fear and anger.
Amidst the wailing, they seemed to see the twisted, screaming faces of those wronged souls and hear their painful cries.
Mumei and Horobi, who had learned of Biba Amatori's memories, stared blankly at the man they once followed.
He had destroyed several stations and cities. He had refined the souls of living people and Kabane together into the banner. Those souls would never be able to reincarnate.
"Hehehehe! This is my power!"
Biba Amatori shrieked, his voice cracking, as if he had devoured several Soul Hall elders in one meal.
His body was enveloped by the thousands of wailing soul-ghosts.
Kurusu Konochi's throat bobbed. "A perfected... Soul-Refining Banner!"
That would require tens of millions of people to refine! How did he do it?!
Vivi shivered, her teeth chattering. "So scary... so many..."
Mikasa also gripped the hilt of her sword, her knuckles white. "What are all these?"
Even the emotionally detached Saiki Kusuo was somewhat angry at this moment. "Those are souls."
He had seen souls before, through his... "friend," Toritsuka Reita. The souls of the deceased were all peaceful, at most repeating their past life's obsessions.
But these... these millions of souls screaming in pain... it was hard to imagine what they were experiencing.
Seitenshi said, her voice shaking with rage, "This person… he killed so many people."
Ren nodded, his face cold. "His sins. I could feel them from afar."
"But this power is purely the power transformed from wronged souls. If we didn't come and let him continue, all the humans on this planet would have eventually been refined by him."
"You've finished your performance," Ren said, his voice cutting through the wails. "Now die."
He gently squeezed his palm, as if crushing an insect.
"Hehehehe… Gaa!"
Biba Amatori, who was laughing maniacally just a second ago, suddenly choked, as if something was stuck in his throat.
His face instantly turned pale.
His body suddenly stiffened, and the smile on his lips froze, as if time had stopped for him alone.
Biba Amatori's throat was seized by an invisible, absolute force.
"Ah... ah ah ah!"
He let out a foul-smelling, gurgling scream.
Air currents—no, raw energy—began to drill into his body through his mouth, nose, and ears.
Biba Amatori began to inflate like an over-pressurized balloon. His skin stretched, his eyes bulged, and dark energy leaked from his pores.
Immediately after.
BOOM!
Biba Amatori exploded.
He burst into a shower of blood and flesh fragments.
But his flesh and blood could not even touch the earth.
The millions of wronged souls that had emerged from the Soul-Refining Banner, like vicious dogs that had discovered their tormentor, shrieked in unison. They swarmed down, devouring his blood, flesh, bones, and even his own terrified soul, tearing him apart completely.
"..."
Mumei and Horobi stared blankly at this scene, yet no one stopped it.
There was both disappointment in the "Biba Amatori" they knew, and the horrifying realization that Biba Amatori was already long dead.
"How... how is that possible?!" Kurusu Konochi's body trembled.
A demonic cultivator with a perfected Soul-Refining Banner... exploded in an instant? Without even a chance to resist?
He knew, instantly. These people weren't just strong. They were ultimate iron plates!
Clatter!
The vengeful spirits, having devoured Biba's remains, streamed restlessly through the dark sky. The out-of-control Soul-Refining Banner fell from the air, landing at Kurusu Konochi's feet.
Ren narrowed his eyes at the remaining cultivator and asked with a chilling smile, "Do you want to put on a show?"
Kurusu Konochi's eyelid twitched violently. He immediately clutched his head, his face twisting in 'pain' and 'confusion.'
Seemingly having just 'regained consciousness,' he immediately turned to the stunned Yomogawa Ayame and asked with deep, practiced concern, "Lady Ayame! Are you uninjured?"
"Huh?" Mikasa and Vivi blinked in confusion.
What's going on? This person... doesn't seem to be a demonic cultivator?
[Inorin Note:
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