"Do you understand now? If I truly wanted to act, you would not survive even a single breath before being erased." Hayashi grabbed him by the hair, staring down at him with icy indifference.
Through those blood-red eyes, Nishio seemed to glimpse a scene straight out of hell itself—a vision of death harvesting lives without end. Countless corpses. Endless wails. Absolute annihilation. When he snapped back to reality, Nishio's body was trembling uncontrollably.
"Then why didn't you just kill me earlier? Why did you keep dragging things out with me?" Forcing himself to calm down, Nishio pushed his glasses up and barely lifted his head.
"Because I was bored. Killing you outright would have been too dull." Hayashi nodded, answering as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"So everything you did before… was just for your amusement?" Nishio's eyes filled with confusion.
At that moment, he finally understood what kind of monster stood before him. Everything he had thrown out with all his strength, every desperate attack—to this man, it had all been nothing more than a game. Only now did he truly comprehend the gap between them. A gap so vast it inspired nothing but despair, like a mayfly staring up at the sky.
"But at least you did entertain me a little. So as a reward, I will let you witness my true power." Hayashi released his grip and straightened up. "Just try not to die too quickly. I would hate to lose interest halfway through."
Nishio struggled to his feet. The shattered wounds on his body had already mostly healed. In the very next instant, Hayashi vanished.
Boom!
A deafening impact exploded through the air. The wall in front of them collapsed violently, bricks and rubble scattering everywhere.
"What just happened…?"
Before Nishio could even process it, his body was already smashed into a bloody mess. That was not the end. Explosive sounds rang out again and again, like continuous detonations. One wall after another shattered. The already ruined ground collapsed even further. A rain of blood fell from above, and flesh flew through the air in a horrifying display.
Nishio was unrecognizable now. His body was on the verge of total disintegration. His presence weakened to an extreme, as if death would claim him in the very next second. This had already gone far beyond what ghoul regeneration could handle. No matter how hard he tried, his body could not stop collapsing.
"So this is it… Am I really dying here today?" As his consciousness began to fade, Nishio's memories flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern. He never imagined that such a terrifying existence could exist in this world—something that could no longer be described as human.
As his breathing weakened, Nishio slowly closed his eyes. And then, suddenly, a warm sensation surged through his body. In the next moment, his nearly destroyed body began to regenerate at a speed visible to the naked eye. In the blink of an eye, he went from the brink of death back to peak condition.
"What… what is going on?" Confused, Nishio slowly lifted his head.
The first thing that entered his vision was the gentle, jade-like face of the white-haired boy.
"Relax. I will not let you die." Hayashi nodded, wearing a kind smile that strangely inspired a sense of safety. "Because the game… has only just begun."