On the battlefield, only Caesar remained.

And in the distance, Yasuo, whose legs were severed, lay motionless in the snow.

"Now, it's your turn."

Kujo Naruya turned around, his terrifying eyes showing only whites as he stared intently at Caesar.

Step by step he approached, his aura rising with every stride.

It was a terminal burst of lucidity.

And his final bout of madness.

"Bug master... all your insects are dead. What else can you do?"

Kujo Naruya's voice was hoarse and mocking.

Caesar stood his ground, not retreating.

Controlling this body, Zhou Huai watched the Grim Reaper approach step by step and suddenly smiled.

That smile looked exceptionally eerie on Caesar's compound-eye-covered face.

"Who told you... I only know how to play with bugs?"

Before the words fully faded.

Caesar's body suddenly swelled violently.

Beneath his skin, countless tiny snakes seemed to be slithering as purple light radiated from every pore.

"Self-destruction? Self-destruction again?"

"What else can you lunatics do besides self-destruct???"

Kujo Naruya's inner rage reached its peak.

He had never encountered such a mutually destructive tactic before.

Alongside his anger, a different emotion seemed to arise deep down.

That emotion was fear.

Fear of death.

"Die together!"

Zhou Huai roared.

Caesar's method of self-destruction was worlds apart from other Classer.

That humanoid body instantly burst apart, transforming into countless tiny, virtually invisible nano venomous insects.

Instead of scattering in escape, these venomous insects gathered into a purple storm, completely wrapping around Kujo Naruya.

Sacrificing the main body, turning into hundreds of millions of venomous insects, burrowing into every pore and wound of the enemy, devouring his flesh and consuming his power!

"Aaaaahhhhh!!!"

Kujo Naruya let out a scream more tragic and shrill than any before.

He frantically slapped at his body and swung his longsword, trying to drive away the venomous insects invading his body.

But it was completely useless.

Hundreds of millions of venomous insects followed the wounds across his body, burrowing into his blood vessels, his bone marrow, and even his brain!

"Get out! Get out of me!!!"

Kujo Naruya rolled frantically on the ground, golden Divine Power-infused blood spraying everywhere like water.

BOOM—!

In the end, he was forced to detonate the remaining Divine Power in his body, blowing apart his own flesh along with those venomous insects.

A blood-colored bloom of fireworks exploded across the snow.

【System Prompt: Your Avatar 'Scourge Insect Master Caesar' has died!】

At this point.

Except for the crippled Yasuo.

All of Zhou Huai's Avatars had been wiped out.

The wind stopped.

The peak of the snow mountain sank into a dead silence.

Only at the edge of that deep crater did heavy gasps resound.

Kujo Naruya was still alive.

But in his current state, he could no longer be called a human.

To expel the venomous insects from his body, he had blown off everything below his waist.

Only a battered upper torso remained, lying alone in a pool of blood.

Intestines spilled across the ground, grim white bones exposed.

His face had been devoured until only half remained, revealing gums and an eyeball.

Yet he still was not dead.

The freakishly tenacious vitality of SSS-rank allowed him to cling to his last breath.

"I won..."

"Cough, cough... I won..."

Kujo Naruya laughed crazily while coughing up blood.

Using arms that were now mostly bare bone, he clawed at the ground, crawling inch by inch toward the exit of the ruins.

As long as he got out of these damned ruins.

As long as... as long as he could crawl out.

As long as he reached the sunlight.

With the passive effect of the 【Indestructible Sun Body】, even if only his head remained, he could slowly regenerate!

"Daxia scum..."

"Once I recover... I will slaughter all of you..."

"I will turn all of Daxia... into Purgatory..."

Kujo Naruya spat venomous curses as he crawled.

The instinct for survival drove a burst of astonishing perseverance, his halved torso dragging a long, shocking trail of blood across the snow.

Ten meters.

Five meters.

Three meters.

The entrance to the ruins was right before him.

A greedy glint burst from Kujo Naruya's murky eyes.

He reached out a bloodied hand, wanting to touch that beam of light representing rebirth.

However.

Just one second before his fingertips touched the vortex of the ruins.

A shadow blocked his path.

Obscuring that single ray of hope.

Kujo Naruya froze in place.

Slowly and arduously, he raised his head.

Entering his view was a pale, stern face filled with boundless killing intent.

Yasuo.

The swordsman whose legs he had severed at the very beginning of the fight, the one he considered useless trash.

Right now.

Yasuo was propping up his body with the broken sword in his hand, kneeling on one knee before him.

Though he had lost both legs.

Though he was drenched in blood.

But the Sword Intent radiating from Yasuo was purer and sharper than ever before.

"You..."

Kujo Naruya's pupils contracted sharply; he opened his mouth to say something.

But Zhou Huai gave him no such chance.

"It's over."

Zhou Huai's consciousness sent out the final command in his mind.

This was not just Yasuo's final strike.

It was also a fatal blow delivered by Zhou Huai overdrawing all his Mental Strength and squeezing out every drop of potential.

Zzzzt—!

A faint arc of electricity flashed through the air.

The longsword in hand bore no flashy moves, no grand momentum.

Only the simplest, unadorned slash.

*Slash.*

A soft sound.

Kujo Naruya's head, filled with terror and unwillingness, flew high into the air.

Golden blood erupted into the sky like a fountain, striking and tragic in the desolate ruins.

The head tumbled several times in midair before slamming down into the soil of the pit.

Kujo Naruya's eyes were still wide open, staring fixedly at the sky.

As if even in death, he could not believe it.

That he, a dignified SSS-rank god, had actually died at the hands of a group of "ants."

Furthermore, dying under the blade of a legless man he looked down upon.

Head severed from body.

Life force extinguished.

This time, there would be no resurrection, no miracles.

This legend from five hundred years ago in Sakura Country, revered as the totem of faith, "Amaterasu."

Completely fallen!

【System Prompt: Congratulations to the Host! Successfully slain SSS-rank target 'Kujo Naruya'!】

The cold System prompt sounded in his mind.

But Zhou Huai could no longer hear it clearly.

The moment he saw Kujo Naruya's head hit the ground, the tightly wound string in his mind finally snapped.

Boundless darkness rushed over him like a tide.

Far away in Donghai City, his primary body tilted his head and collapsed into complete unconsciousness.

Meanwhile, inside the snow mountain ruins.

Yasuo's broken body was like a puppet whose strings had been cut; the broken sword slipped from his hand, and with a thud, he collapsed beside Kujo Naruya's corpse.

The wind continued to blow.

Heavy snow fluttered down, soon covering the blood and carnage on the ground.

Leaving behind only a vast, white land—so clean.