CHAPTER 305: CONDEMNATION OF DOMINION

 

As time passed, the crushing wind pressure grew fiercer and fiercer, to the point it could no longer even be called air.

Most people would have been unable to breathe, pinned flat to the ground.

Tenkei’s technique was a wide-area environmental dominion woven from wind and gravity.

The terrain he could use was probably limited, but the level of completion was extraordinarily high. If anything, it was precisely because this was Tengu Valley, surrounded by sheer rock walls, that it had become this monstrously deadly.

Every step made my bones creak.

Every breath felt like it might crush my lungs.

And in the middle of that, the steel fan in Tenkei’s hand slowly opened.

「This valley exists within the code I have laid down.」

With the pressure of those words alone, the weight of the air grew even heavier.

「If you would defy it—then be crushed.」

The ground around me caved in as though struck by a giant hammer, and invisible gravity surged toward me.

But I deliberately forced a grin onto my face.

I would never lose in spirit. Never.

「I’ll tell you as many times as it takes. That kind of code… I’m gonna smash it to pieces!」

I poured all of my magic power into my right hand and raised it high.

This was my new technique—

「—【First Hell: Black Rope Hell】」

At that instant, the world… stopped.

Sound vanished.

The wind halted.

Even the roar of gravity froze solid.

And then black patterns were carved across the earth.

Rope-like markings, almost like Sanskrit characters, spread throughout the entire valley.

The air filled with the smell of scorched space, and the lines of interference that had been invisible began to surface.

Thousands.

Tens of thousands.

As the net of dominion covering the valley became sharply visible… a massive gate appeared behind me.

From the gap as it slowly, heavily opened, black ropes came crawling out like serpents with minds of their own.

It was neither heat nor cold.

It was, in every sense of the word, the presence of judgment.

The moment I grabbed one of those ropes, brands like burned sigils spread across the surface of my skin.

Space let out a scream, and the interference lines that formed Tenkei’s domain of control were stained black, one after another.

「Impossible… A technique powerful enough to overwrite my spatial dominion…?」

For the first time, Tenkei’s voice wavered.

「Make whatever code you want. …But nobody has the right to bind freedom and steal away choice!」

I yanked on the black rope.

The wind covering the entire valley split with cracks.

Space shattered like glass, and the invisible gravity burst into fragments that danced through the air.

With violent crackling discharges, the lines of dominion snapped one after another. The transparent walls were forced apart from within and began to collapse.

The ground sank, the clouds split apart, and shockwaves scythed through the valley.

Along with all of that, one strand of black rope coiled itself around Tenkei’s steel fan.

「Wh—!」

As if recoiling from the rope itself, Tenkei tried to shake the fan free.

But he was too late.

The more Tenkei tried to fling it away, the tighter the rope wound itself around the fan, until the metal itself let out a shriek.

「Break.」

—In the next instant,

with a sound like a scream of anguish, the handle of the steel fan shattered apart.

That was the moment dominion vanished from Tengu Valley.

The gate, its role fulfilled, let out a heavy groan as it slowly closed.

The black light spilling from it disappeared, and all that remained in this place were the seared markings of the black rope.

「My technique… my code… was denied…?」

The valley sank into silence, as though even the wind itself had fallen asleep.

In that stillness, Tenkei slowly dropped to one knee and spoke.

「…To protect the valley, a code is necessary. But to protect the clan… must one not bind their freedom…?」

Tenkei’s eyes trembled.

Until now, he must have believed without question that his power itself was the code, and the judgment.

But now that all of it had been smashed apart, the very root of Tenkei’s values was shaking.

And if that was the case, then what was needed from here on wasn’t violence.

「I didn’t come here to wipe out the Tengu clan, and I didn’t come here to bind you either.」

I slowly relaxed the fist I had clenched and steadied my breathing.

「I just said I won’t stand something I don’t like.」

I’d barged headfirst into the Tengu clan’s conflict and caused absolute havoc, but originally we’d only come here to gather Bukō.

As for all this business about codes and rules, we were complete outsiders. Naturally, the ones who should decide that were the people involved.

「…Freedom carries responsibility. To make the younger ones bear that…」

「Quit spouting nonsense. Taking all of that responsibility on yourself—ain’t that what being the boss is for?」

At those words, Tenkei slowly closed his eyes.

Then, after a long silence, he spoke once more.

「Indeed… you are right. So I had bound even my own thoughts with my own hands.」

「Took you long enough to notice. From now on, don’t you dare run from your position.」

In other words, he’d only seen the role of chief as something meant to pass judgment.

Create the code. Enforce it. Punish those who break it. Over and over again.

Seriously, how the hell has he kept doing something that damn joyless for so many years?

Well, now that he understood that much, Tenkei—and this valley too—will probably start changing for the better.