Chapter 108
The rain thinned into a ghostly mist, trailing between the trees like the breath of the dying. Only moments ago, the forest had been filled with shrieks, the crunch of bones, and the wet tearing of flesh. Now filled with silence
Hiroto dragged his blade across a torn cloak, wiping off the darkened blood as his shoulders eased with exhaustion
Gasp gasp you're fun to work with Renji
Renji, standing only a few steps away, exhaled once quiet, almost lazy. He rolled his shoulders as though he'd just finished a warm-up stretch and not a massacre.
A hunter stumbled forward, eyes wide in disbelief. "Oo–oooi! Renji-san! You're strong way too strong!"
Renji blinked, caught off guard.
"Ehh? Really? Thank you…" He scratched the back of his head with that familiar sheepish smile.
More hunters rushed over, buzzing with excitement rather than fear.
"Did you see him move? It was insane!"
"He even outpaced Hiroto-san at some points!"
"What is he?! Is he really just an S-rank?!"
Renji laughed nervously, rubbing his neck, trying to shrink beneath the sudden praise. But one person didn't join in.
Anya.
Her eyes usually calm, analytical—narrowed ever so slightly. She wasn't looking at Renji's awkward smile. She was looking past it… deeper.
His presence is wrong. His aura no, that's not an aura. That's a void. No fluctuations, no leaks, no trace of magical activity. A normal SS-rank can't hide their presence that perfectly. And those movements earlier…
No… no ordinary hunter or an SS ranked human moves like that.
A chill crept up her spine.
He feels… as powerful as a Pillar.
She opened her mouth to call out to Hiroto, but another voice reached Renji first.
"Renji. Can I… talk to you?"
Arisa stepped toward him. Rain plastered her bangs to her cheeks, and her lips quivered not from cold, but something heavier. Her face was tinged red with something she never dared voice.
Renji tilted his head.
"Ehh? What's wrong, Arisa?"
But before she could speak
Renji stopped moving.
His breath halted. His pupils narrowed into thin slits. A faint glow flickered in his eyes—alive with something inhuman.
"Eh? Renji?" Arisa stepped closer, confused.
But he didn't blink. Didn't look at her. Didn't even acknowledge the world around him.
He was listening to something far away.
A sound only he could hear.
Then he spoke
"How long do you want to hide behind those walls?"
His voice dropped into a chilling whisper—one that didn't sound like him at all.
A shudder rippled through every hunter present.
Hiroto's instincts erupted violently.
"Everyone! Formation! NOW!"
Boots splashed through mud as raiders scrambled back. A terrifying pressure pressed against their chests—heavy, suffocating.
Then
A voice echoed through the forest.
Calm. Cold. Ancient.
"Humans… They never learn."
The world trembled.
Leaves shook. Branches bent. Even the air felt like it was recoiling from whatever approached.
The forest parted with a thunderous rumble.
A towering monster stepped forward skin black as obsidian, muscles bulging like sculpted iron. Two spiraled horns curved backward, pulsing with crimson light. Lava-like cracks spidered across its chest, glowing with molten fury. Its eyes were nothing but hatred given form.
Even breathing near it hurt.
" one hunter spoke H-hey… what is that…"
"My legs… they won't stop shaking…"
"Is that… the boss…?"
Hiroto clenched his jaw, his instincts screaming.
This aura… It's beyond SS-rank. Almost… almost at Pillar level.
He stepped beside Renji.
"Renji. Listen. Together, we can—"
But Renji wasn't looking at him.
You are the .....
He wasn't looking at anything except the beast.
His face usually warm and gentle twisted into something monstrous.
Rage.
Boundless, seething rage buried so deep it felt like it came from another lifetime.
"Renji…?" Hiroto whispered.
What is this? What's happening to him?
Arisa reached out, her voice trembling.
"Renji, what's wrong? Please talk to m—"
But Renji didn't answer.
Because in the next instant
He vanished.
A shockwave blew outwards, sending mist blasting through the trees.
"O–Oi! Ren—!"
Hiroto didn't finish.
Because Renji was already standing in front of the boss.
The boss moved it's head but it was to late
As Renji hand was already on its skull.
What!! He's fast !! The boss said
Then ...
CRACK—!!!
With a single downward slam, Renji crushed the demon's head into the earth. The entire forest floor ruptured. Mud, roots, and stone erupted upward in a violent fountain.
The demon gurgled, coughing out dark blood.
Tch… impossible… What is this speed—?!
Who—no, what—is this human?!
Renji didn't give him time to breathe.
He grabbed the demon by the horn, effortlessly hefting its colossal body off the ground.
Then—
BOOOOOOM!!!
He hurled it like a broken toy. Trees exploded as its body tore through them, snapping trunks like brittle twigs.
Anya stumbled back, unable to breathe.
"H-he… he didn't chant… didn't gather mana… didn't even focus. That strength— that speed— it's monstrous!"
But Arisa felt something else something colder.
Her fingers trembled uncontrollably.
"No… that isn't Renji."
Hiroto spun toward her.
"What do you mean?"
"That aura…" Arisa whispered.
"That killing intent… I've never felt anything like it. Renji doesn't fight with bloodlust. He never has. This isn't him. Something inside him… woke up."
Hiroto's heart dropped.
It can't be ... Shit Renji control yourself c'mon!!!
Across the forest, the demon struggled to stand. Bones cracked back into place, smoke rising from its regenerating flesh.
Youuu!!
Renji walked forward—slowly. Rain hissed as it touched the violent aura around him.
Golden , ethereal daggers materialized in his hands shimmering with a killing intent so dense it warped the air.
"Do you remember me?"
The demon froze.
Renji's voice trembled with hatred raw, unfiltered, trembling not with fury but with anguish.
"I can't believe fate brought you to me again. I told myself… If I ever found you "
His eyes glowed with grief sharpened into madness.
"I'd kill you. I'd tear you apart limb by limb. And I'd make sure you felt every pain I did. A slow death. One you earned."
"RENJI, STOP!!!" Arisa sprinted toward him.
But when Renji turned his head
Her body collapsed.
Her knees slammed into the mud.
She couldn't breathe.
Couldn't move.
Her whole being was suffocating under his killing intent.
"Don't move," Renji said quietly.
His voice wasn't angry.
It wasn't cold.
It was… empty.
Hiroto eyes glowed ready to take action Incase it was januza controlling Renji
This pressure… This bloodlust… I'm standing before a monster. Not a hunter. Not a human— A demon wearing Renji's skin.
The forest shook.
He's fast to fast! Then I'll just go even faster
The demon's body contorted muscles compressing, bones sharpening, its aura igniting as it entered a more vicious state.
"HOW DARE YOU, HUMAN!" it shrieked.
Renji twirled his daggers once.
The air screamed.
His eyes calm, dead, merciless.
Get up!
"Let's begin."
The they both moved
Slash!
Slash!
Slash!
But Renji wasn't slowing down ..
The demon boss staggered backward, its massive hoof-like feet gouging trenches into the rain-soaked forest floor as Renji's blade traced a scorching line across its chest. Steam hissed from the wound as the cold rain poured, mingling with the smoke of seared flesh.
Renji didn't even flinch.
He stood there—calm, cold, unblinking.
His drenched hair clung to his forehead, and his eyes glowed with a murderous light that belonged to no living man.
His presence… it pressed against the air itself.
Suffocating.
The demon trembled.
Not from fear of his strength.
But from the rage that emanated from him.
A rage that had festered for five long years.
A rage born on the night he lost everything.
Flashback – Five Years Ago
The burning screams.
The collapsing beams.
The choking heat.
Renji remembered it all—the searing pain in his lungs, the roar of fire, the shattering of his world.
He remembered his father's voice cutting through the inferno:
"Stay back, Renji! I'll get her out! I promise!"
He remembered the unnatural twisting of the flames, almost as if they had a mind of their own.
The windows exploded outward with demonic force.
The creature's roar echoed through the house before the fire swallowed it whole.
He remembered being yanked out of the collapsing building by his father while his screams tore through the night:
"Dad! Mom! DAD—!!"
And then… silence.
His father never returned. The charred remnants of the man were all that remained he had given his life to save Renji's mother.
His mother… she survived. But she did not survive the weight of grief.
Her soul had been hollowed out by guilt, drowning in sorrow for the man she had lost.
Renji remembered the day the authorities came for her in their home empty bottles scattered across the floor, a life consumed by despair.
And the one responsible… the demon that had destroyed everything…
It had survived.
It's a face he would never forget even though he was weak and being ridiculed he promised he would avenge his father even if it means his death
Back to Present
Renji's eyes narrowed, droplets sliding down his cheeks like cold tears.
The boss roared, spitting flames that set the forest ablaze. Hunters fell back, shielding themselves from the inferno.
Hiroto shouted:
"RENJI!!!"
The flames recoiled as Renji walked forward, untouched. His voice, low and deadly, whispered through the torrential rain:
"Before I kill you… I want you to look at me. Properly."
The demon froze. For the first time, You are the..... it saw the boy hidden within the man the boy whose life it had shattered.
He's different!!!
Renji's sword rose.
A shockwave of aura burst outward, tearing apart everything
"…Didn't I tell you… that I would make you feel the pain you caused me five years ago?"
The ground cracked beneath him as he vanished.
The demon raised its claws in defense
but Renji was already above it.
CRACK—!!!
His heel crushed its spine. The monster screamed as its body bent unnaturally, but Renji didn't let it hit the ground. He grabbed its horn, slamming its face into the mud.
Once.
Twice.
A third time.
Blood mixed with the rain-soaked earth.
"Struggling already?" Renji whispered, his tone as cold as the rain.
The demon flailed its tail, desperate.
Renji sliced it away in a single, merciless motion.
He blurred behind the creature, stabbing through its shoulder before tearing the arm off with his bare hand.
The hunters watching froze in disbelief. Even Hiroto felt his blood run cold.
Renji wasn't fighting.
He was punishing.
Every strike carried years of buried anguish years of nightmares, the pain of having to survive in poverty, guilt, and wishing he had been stronger, faster, anything to save his family.
He kicked the demon skyward, flash-stepped above it, and slammed it into the mud, carving a massive crater into the forest floor.
The monster's eyes widened as it stared at him broken, bleeding, terrified.
Renji walked toward it slowly. Calmly.
Rain dripped from the edge of his blade.
"Five years ago… you burned my home." you could have picked any home but I picked mine
Do you remember the gate which broke ???
And you escaped while my father died!!
The demon tried to crawl away.
"Five years ago… you killed my father."
The monster wailed.
Renji's voice cracked not from sorrow, but from a fury so deep it seemed to shake the air itself.
"And my mother… she died because of the guilt you left her with."
The beast remembered the night, the screams, the fire. The weight of the lives it had destroyed pressed against it.
Renji lowered himself to the demon's level. His expression was empty, merciless.
"Do you remember now…?"
The demon tried to plead.
Renji didn't allow it. His blade pierced its throat, blood gushing like a fountain. But he didn't stop.
He dragged the sword upward, splitting the head from the neck with brutal precision.
The forest fell silent.
Rain washed the blood from the mud, from his hands, but not from his soul.
Renji stood, breathing slowly. A tremor of relief passed through him, the first in five years.
"…Dad… Mom… I finally did it."
His sword fell into the mud.
He did not cry not at first
He merely closed his eyes, as if the weight he had carried since that night had finally lifted.
The hunters watched in stunned silence. Hiroto lowered his weapon, a mixture of awe and sorrow etched across his face.
Anya's hands shook as she whispered:
"This… this is the man who fought beside us? All that strength… came from so much pain?"
Arisa stepped forward, hesitant, seeing the fragile calm in his shoulders. Then hugged him
Renji remained still, Crying away his pain screaming out mother the rain washing away the blood but leaving the peace he had long been denied