Chapter 179 - Gate of Wonder

BOOM!

Hakari's fist, loaded with infinite Cursed Energy, crashed full force into Kashimo's face. The punch carried enough power to flatten an armored vehicle into scrap metal. But Kashimo didn't budge. Kashimo took the hit dead-on with his face, then one hand clamped down on Hakari's wrist like a vice.

"Posturing!"

Kashimo's face was drenched in blood, but the grin splitting his mouth only kept growing.

"You don't actually think the strongest god of thunder only operates at this level, do you?"

Kashimo laughed like a madman. The electrical sparks that had merely flickered across his skin erupted into a full thunderstorm, blasting skyward with a deafening roar. The cloud layer overhead was physically torn apart by thick columns of lightning.

"Why the hell is this old bastard's Cursed Energy still climbing? Is that even a reserve a human being can have?"

Hakari cursed inwardly, trying to yank his arm back, only to find the opposing grip was as horrifying as a hydraulic press.

"Four hundred years ago, I never found an opponent who could satisfy me. I died of old age with that regret."

Kashimo's hair stood on end in the maelstrom of electricity, like a true god of thunder descending to earth. "I suppose I owe Kenjaku some thanks, using Special Grade Cursed Tools as sacrifices to restore every ancient sorcerer in the Culling Game to peak condition!"

Kashimo fixed his gaze on Hakari, eyes blazing with absolute fanaticism. "Meeting an opponent like you, I'm glad!"

Before the words had even faded, Kashimo became a bolt of lightning too fast for the naked eye to follow.

BOOM!

A high-voltage pillar of electricity punched straight through Hakari's chest, incinerating his organs to charcoal in an instant. Hakari didn't even have time to feel the pain before Kashimo's knee had already crashed hard into his jaw. The crack of shattering bone rang out. Against Kashimo at full power, every one of Hakari's attacks was completely read.

Lightning-attribute Cursed Energy seeped into every gap, paralyzing Hakari's nerves and shredding his muscles. The recovery speed of the undying body could barely keep pace with the rate of destruction.

"Ten seconds left."

Hakari counted down internally, watching the massive puncture wound in his chest steam and knit itself shut. "If this keeps dragging on, I'm actually going to die here today."

Countdown: three, two, one. The moment the 4 minutes and 11 seconds of invincibility expired, a deafening pachinko sound effect exploded inside the Domain. On the enormous screen, numbers spun wildly, then locked into place once more: 777! The addictive BGM kicked in without a seam, filling the entire abandoned dockyard.

"Probability Shift! Consecutive jackpot!" Hakari spat a mouthful of bloody saliva. The broken arm snapped back into place in an instant. "Second round, 4 minutes and 11 seconds!"

Hakari settled back into a fighting stance, ready to meet the next round of carnage. But Kashimo, watching Hakari come back to full strength again, showed not a shred of discouragement.

"Doesn't matter how many times you pull that trick!"

Kashimo formed a one-handed seal. Lightning-attribute Cursed Energy compressed furiously in his palm, forming a blinding ball of plasma. "Just keep burning through your Cursed Energy until you drop dead!"

BOOM!

The plasma ball detonated instantly. Hakari had no space to dodge and was blown clean off his feet. His body smashed through seven or eight heavy shipping containers like a ragdoll and slammed into the concrete, gouging a crater over ten meters wide. More than half the bones in Hakari's body were shattered. The infinite Cursed Energy was running at full tilt to repair the damage.

Kashimo pushed off with one foot and was airborne in an instant. Looking down at Hakari sprawled in the crater, Kashimo raised his right foot high. Lightning gathered furiously at the sole.

"I'm curious," Kashimo said, staring down from above. "If I stomp your head straight into pulp, can you even come back from that?"

Right at that moment of despair. A violent green flare crashed into the fight like a meteor.

"oioioi, kid, you're really putting on a show."

An absurdly powerful voice cracked through the air. Before Kashimo could even react, a foot had already stamped itself into his face.

BANG!

The dull thud of flesh on flesh rang out like a thunderclap. Kashimo was flung sideways through the air. He plowed a deep trench dozens of meters long into the ground before finally stopping when he demolished an abandoned lighthouse. From the rubble, Kashimo shoved aside the steel rebar pinning him down, wiped the blood from his face, and locked his gaze dead ahead. The dust cleared.

A tall man in a green bodysuit, muscles knotted like stone, stood beside Hakari. Kashimo's eyelid twitched. This green-suited man had not a single trace of Cursed Energy on him. But the raw, purely physical pressure radiating off him was a hundredfold more intense than the kid on the ground with infinite Cursed Energy.

Standing in front of this man felt like staring down an ancient beast wearing a human skin.

"Who are you?"

Every bit of Kashimo's lightning Cursed Energy pulled taut to the breaking point, ready to fight to the death at any moment. Toji didn't even glance at him.

He crouched down and tapped Hakari with his little notebook. "Hey. You dead?"

"Not even close!"

Hakari hauled himself upright. Under the undying body's effect, flesh had reconstructed itself once again.

"That old relic is too damn fast."

Hakari gritted his teeth, seething. "The lightning has a paralysis effect, my muscle reactions can't keep up."

"What about your Eight Gates?" Toji asked.

"I can only open up to the Fifth Gate!" Hakari shouted.

"Bullshit."

Toji smacked Hakari on the back of the head hard enough to make him stumble. Kashimo watched these two completely ignoring him, chatting away like Kashimo wasn't even there, and his pride ignited instantly.

"Whoever you are — dare to ruin my fun, and you can both go die!"

Kashimo brought both hands together. A terrifying thunderstorm gathered overhead, and the entire sky darkened.

"Teacher, this old bastard is charging up a big move!" Hakari said urgently.

"Hm." Toji got to his feet and brushed the dust off his hands.

Kashimo assumed this green-suited freak was about to make a move. Even his heartbeat skipped half a beat, and he locked the majority of his focus straight onto Toji. Instead, Toji turned around and stepped back two paces, arms crossed.

"My student is in the middle of a fight. How could a teacher just step in whenever he feel like it? That'd be a real disrespect to youth."

"You're playing me? You dare look down on me!"

Kashimo flew into a rage and cursed out loud. The lightning ball in his hand grew another size.

"Hey hey hey, Teacher, what are you doing! Are you actually going to watch me die?!" Hakari was completely dumbstruck.

"Listen." Toji pointed at Hakari, his tone turning unusually serious. "Right now, you are in the undying state of 4 minutes and 11 seconds. The infinite Cursed Energy isn't just repairing your body, it's also furiously replenishing your meridians."

Hakari blinked. "What does that mean?"

"It means your body right now is a container that can never be overfilled."

Toji's grin spread wide, utterly fanatical.

"Use that move. The one I taught you."

"Completely break through the limits of the Eight Gates. Use your infinite Reverse Cursed Technique to tank every gate's cost by force!"

Hakari's eyes went wide.

"That'll kill someone!"

"So what? You can't die right now, can you?"

Toji kicked Hakari square in the backside. "Stop embarrassing me! Can't even beat one old antique, what kind of successor to youth are you supposed to be?"

Hakari ground his back teeth together. Hakari knew Toji wasn't joking. This crazy old man genuinely wanted to see what kind of monster infinite Cursed Energy combined with the Eight Gates would produce.

"Fine!" Hakari wiped the blood from his face. His eyes turned razor-sharp.

"Sixth Gate — Gate of View, open!"

BOOM! The green flare shifted in an instant to a raging crimson. But that wasn't enough. Hakari's skin began cracking and splitting across large areas of his body, but the infinite Cursed Energy forcibly stitched it back shut in the same instant. Destruction and rebirth waged a frantic tug-of-war inside his body.

"Seventh Gate..." Hakari's voice had gone hoarse from the extreme agony, but the grin at the corner of his mouth was even more reckless than anything Kashimo had shown.

"Gate of Wonder — open!"

BOOM!

The entire floor of the abandoned dockyard collapsed. A torrent of blue flame erupted from inside Hakari's body. The surrounding air was forcibly evacuated by the terrifying physical pressure, creating an absolute vacuum. Even the thunderstorm Kashimo had been building overhead began showing signs of dispersal under that pressure. The color finally drained from Kashimo's face.

"What kind of power is this?... Pure physical force?"

Kashimo could feel it: if he couldn't weather this blow, he would genuinely die.

"Stop underestimating people!"

Kashimo squeezed every last drop of Cursed Energy from within. Lightning transformed into a massive thunder beast that threw open its enormous jaws and bore down on Hakari with the force to annihilate everything.

"Take this! Mythical Beast Amber!"

Facing that world-ending thunder beast, Hakari didn't retreat a single step. The agony and raw power of the Seventh Gate had driven Hakari into a state of absolute frenzy.

"This — this is the damn jackpot I've been waiting for!"

Hakari bent his knees slightly, both hands falling into a strange stance in front of his body, compressing the surrounding air between his palms at speeds beyond the sound barrier. The extreme pressure wrung a sharp, piercing wail from the air itself.

"Watch closely, you ape! This is my—"

Hakari thrust both palms forward. The air compressed to its absolute limit detonated with a thunderous blast.

"Daytime Tiger!"

ROARRR!

The massive pressure took shape as a vividly real pure-white tiger, unleashing a roar that shook the entire Tokyo barrier. The white tiger and the blue thunder beast collided in midair. No explosion. No flash of fire. Only the absolute crushing superiority of pure physical pressure over Cursed Energy.

The vacuum Daytime Tiger created severed the thunder beast's Cursed Energy conduction in an instant. The wall of high pressure tore through the lightning like dead wood, shattering Kashimo's proudest and most powerful strike into nothing.

"Impossible..."

The manic grin froze on Kashimo's face. His pupils reflected the white tiger growing larger and larger, bearing down without mercy.

BOOM!

Daytime Tiger landed on Kashimo without holding anything back. The entire abandoned dockyard was gouged into a terrifying trench dozens of meters wide and bottomless deep. Seawater came flooding in furiously. White steam shot skyward.

Kashimo flew through the air like a kite with a snapped string, tumbling dozens of times, and slammed hard into the cliff face on the opposite side, the impact embedding him straight into the rock wall, alive or dead unknown.

"Hah... hah..."

Hakari held the follow-through of the palm strike as the blue steam slowly dissipated. Hakari looked at his own undamaged hands, then looked out at the distant wreckage.

"No way..." Hakari swallowed. "That power, it felt better than hitting a jackpot ten times in a row."

If not for being in the undying state, the moment he forced open the Seventh Gate, his body would have dissolved into a mist of blood. But right now, not only had Hakari survived, he had sent that supremely arrogant god of thunder straight into the cliff face.

"Not bad." Toji walked over, pulled out a leaf, and tucked it between his lips. "You're about halfway to being as cool as your teacher."

Hakari was about to shoot back something smug.

"Pfft."

The 4 minutes and 11 seconds of invincibility ended right on time. The backlash of the Seventh Gate hit like a flood. Every muscle in Hakari's body tore apart in under a second. Massive amounts of blood sprayed from his pores.

"Oh hell... gonna die..."

Hakari didn't even finish the sentence. Eyes rolling back, he crashed straight down to the ground and went completely silent.

➤ Next: Angel — Everyone Assembles