Hidden Management Department garrison.
Nia Honjo, clad in a pale yellow knit sweater, sat cross-legged on the sofa, holding Raziel with a smile as she addressed the visibly nervous Miko Yotsuya:
"Just as I explained to you earlier, Miko-chan."
"Because your eyes possess the power of sight, you can directly perceive the entities within the Abyss passage."
"To see is to acknowledge existence, and existence means they can be touched."
Nia Honjo gazed at the intently listening Miko Yotsuya, revealing a mischievous smile:
"The things within the Abyss use your eyes as a bridge to connect with reality."
"In other words, if you're willing, Miko, you can pull whatever you see in the Abyss back into reality."
"That's why the Evil Spirits in the Abyss keep asking if you can see them."
"The conditions within the Abyss passage are so harsh that even Evil Spirits can't endure them."
"So in truth, those vengeful spirits aren't asking if you can see them—they're begging you to save them!"
"Begging for help?" Miko Yotsuya stared at Nia Honjo in shock. "But... they attacked me! As if they wanted to kill me..."
"That can't be helped. Evil Spirits don't have positive emotions like gratitude. To them, killing you and devouring your soul might be the best form of thanks."
"But that's not the important part. What matters is that you've seen it, haven't you, Miko?"
Nia asked with a playful smile:
"Kotori is very close to reality right now."
As soon as she finished speaking, Miko hurriedly scanned her surroundings. Before long, she spotted a small, red-haired girl curled up in the corner of the room.
Seeing this, Miko hesitated slightly.
She worried that if she approached now, the girl might turn into an Evil Spirit and attack her as the others had.
Just then, Nia appeared behind Miko without warning and gave her a gentle push.
"Go on. Use your hands to help her return to reality, just like how Luo Shu helped you before."
Hearing this, Miko stumbled forward a few steps until she stood before the bowed head of Kotori Itsuka.
Instinctively, she gripped her right hand with her left, hesitating for a moment before finally reaching out to Kotori and whispering:
"Um... I see you."
Kotori shuddered, then slowly raised her head, revealing eyes that were half-black and half-white:
"...You see me?"
"Yes, I see you," Miko nodded, emphasising her words.
"Finally... someone sees me..." Kotori's eyes blurred with tears as she spoke with heartfelt relief.
The moment she finished, Miko tightened her grip on Kotori's hand and pulled with all her might—dragging the Spirit back into the human world!
...
Underground hidden space.
Within the enormous void above the Yellow Emperor's Blood.
The rattling chains strained as they pulled desperately on a heavy object, trying to drag it into reality.
But suddenly—
The black-red chains clattered wildly, retracting at lightning speed. In the span of a breath, they had all returned to reality.
And the thing they had been pulling vanished without a trace.
Seeing this, Luo Shu exhaled in relief before quickly stepping forward, rushing toward the massive void.
At the same time, from within the void, a voice filled with rage roared:
"WHO WAS IT?!!"
Luo Shu didn't respond. Instead, he clenched his right fist, wrapping the Calamity Concept around his hand, and without hesitation, struck the void.
And at that very moment, dense and numerous arms covered in moss abruptly stretched out from the void, crashing directly towards Luo Shu's fist.
In the next instant, Calamity violently struck those cracked moss-covered arms from a distance.
Black-red lightning erupted.
The moss-covered arms exploded one after another, scattering in all directions.
"Hmm!"
A muffled grunt sounded from within the void, followed by a voice filled with suspicion and suppressed anger:
"—Concept Entanglement?"
Clearly, the being on the other side of the void had noticed something amiss.
"Hah, ambushing me?"
Arm after arm extended from the void, the moss-covered limbs continuously branching and growing.
A power akin to concepts, yet far more profound, began to brew within them.
"Ridiculous. Do you know who you're facing?"
The multitude of moss-covered arms suddenly turned, aimed at Luo Shu, and clenched silently.
Caught off guard, Luo Shu's hair, eyelashes, nails, and even his skin seemed to gain consciousness at that moment, competing for the body's nutrients and rapidly growing across his skin.
Under this power's influence, Luo Shu's bodily defences might as well not have existed, utterly incapable of resisting this force.
Only by wrapping himself in Concept Entanglement did he barely manage to slow this bizarre growth somewhat.
Yet even so, within just one or two breaths, Luo Shu's body seemed on the verge of being completely consumed by these rebellious tissues.
Evidently, this wasn't an ability possessed by Demigods, but rather the embryonic form of Divine Authority wielded only by Apostles!
"Oh?"
At this moment, the being beyond the void seemed to notice the suspiciously smooth progress of its ability, emitting a sound of surprise:
"You're not a Demigod?"
Before the other party could receive an answer, the entity beyond the void suddenly gave a pained grunt, and the growth of Luo Shu's rebellious tissues abruptly came to a halt.
"World suppression? Damn it!!"
Seizing this opening, Luo Shu violently struck his own chest with his right hand and muttered: "Absorb!"
Instantly, all the rebellious growth returned to normal, and Luo Shu sharply looked up at the arms extending from the void.
"As expected, Hero Rank is still too inadequate against them..."
Luo Shu laughed self-deprecatingly, amused by his earlier delusion of facing an Apostle as a mere Hero.
The opponent had nearly overwhelmed him with a casual move - with such an experience fresh in mind, Luo Shu prudently chose the safest approach.
Having resolved himself, Luo Shu took a deep breath and shouted:
"—Kurumi!"
"—Mukuro!"
As the words fell, a girl's playful laughter rang out.
"You called too late~"
"Zafkiel!"
"Seventh Bullet!"
"Sixteenth Bullet!"
Two Kurumi Tokisakis abruptly emerged from Luo Shu's shadow at that moment, raising their short guns and firing two shots towards the void with a bang.
One shot was the time-stopping Seventh Bullet, the other the space-sealing Sixteenth Bullet.
Both shots struck the multitude of moss-covered arms, instantly rendering all limbs frozen in an eerie grey-white stasis.
At the same moment, Mukuro Hoshimiya's figure suddenly traversed space, arriving directly before the void. Wielding a long-bladed weapon, she unhesitatingly thrust it into the emptiness.
"Master of Seal and Unlock, seal!!"
With the girl's spirited cry, the opened Abyss passage violently snapped shut in an instant under the Sealing Concept of the Master of Seal and Unlock.
As the passage closed, the entity beyond the void let out a pained cry, seemingly suffering severe damage.
Then, in the moment before spatial closure...
A muscular, bronze-coloured arm suddenly fell from the air.
With a thud, the arm hit the ground, splattering droplets of black blood.
Witnessing this, Luo Shu was momentarily stunned before his gaze sharpened. He forcibly bestowed the Time-Stop Concept upon the fallen limb.
The severed arm that had cleanly dropped into the human world abruptly flexed, as if preparing to act - but in the next instant, Luo Shu's bestowed Seventh Bullet froze it in place, transforming it into a greyish-white object suspended in stasis.
Seizing this opportunity, Luo Shu stepped forward, swiftly closing the distance to grab the frozen wrist as he muttered:
"Calamity Absorption!"
The arm trembled slightly, resisting the Seventh Bullet's time-stop, but before it could break free, Luo Shu drained all its power. Mid-air, it abruptly disintegrated into ashes, scattering in all directions with the breeze.
Seeing this, Luo Shu exhaled in relief, wiping sweat from his brow as he admitted with lingering fear:
"As I instinctively suspected... an existence at the Apostle level can itself be a form of Calamity..."
"Which means the Calamity Priest can completely seize and absorb this demonic arm's power, converting it into their own strength..."
He paused then, his expression turning odd:
"Wait... while I haven't grown an extra arm, does this technically make me a man with three hands now?"
It seemed a question worth pondering.
But for now, Luo Shu had no leisure for such thoughts.
Turning his head, he glanced at Kurumi Tokisaki, then at Mukuro Hoshimiya still floating mid-air, before smiling lightly:
"You've both worked hard~"
Without hesitation, Mukuro swooped down from above, embracing Luo Shu eagerly:
"Big Brother~ Did Muku help you?"
"You did, tremendously so."
Holding Mukuro close, Luo Shu patted her head affectionately:
"Thanks to Mukuro, we drove the bad guys away so easily~"
Just then, Kurumi approached, surveyed the platform's condition, and asked, "Resolved?"
"Probably." Luo Shu answered uncertainly, then shrugged. "Though we should have Nia investigate thoroughly after returning."
He paused, lifting his gaze to the silvery-grey ceiling above:
"Assuming whatever's up there doesn't cause trouble first, that is!"
Sensing the spiritual fluctuations from above, Luo Shu murmured:
"This energy signature... is that Hao Asakura?"
"He's arrived remarkably fast..."