Extermination order

A piercing, otherworldly scream tore through the night, so powerful that the very air seemed to tremble. It wasn't human. It wasn't animal. It was something else—something unnatural. The sound carried through the mountains, reaching deep into Hagakure Village, filling the hearts of its people with a nameless dread.

Kaito froze. His breath hitched in his throat. A primal fear took hold of him, a fear that overrode reason. He had never heard anything like it before, yet something deep inside told him exactly what it meant.

Something was coming.

Shinzo's expression darkened. His body tensed, every fiber of his being on high alert. His trained senses picked up something else—something more than just the scream. A massive surge of malevolent Essence energy, compressed and focused, was hurtling toward them from the forest.

Not just any attack. A direct strike. Calculated.

"Kaito! Inside! NOW!" Shinzo commanded, his voice sharp with urgency.

But before Kaito could even move, the night was torn apart by a blinding flash—pure, destructive force streaking toward them like a comet.

A blast of terrifying power.

A fraction of a second was all Shinzo had. He could dodge it. But if he did, Kaito wouldn't survive. The house wouldn't survive. Reika wouldn't survive.

No choice, but to deflect it. Blocking it was impossible. The output was too powerful and Shinzo knew it will tear him apart if he tried blocking it head on.

He planted his feet, Essence energy flooding his muscles, reinforcing every fiber of his body. His arms crossed before him as the devastating force made impact.

The explosion was deafening.

A shockwave ripped through the ground, shattering the earth beneath them. The very air ignited, burning white-hot. Trees snapped like twigs. The night was swallowed by light.

Kaito was thrown back, his ears ringing, his vision blurred from the impact. He barely registered the sight before him—his father, standing in the heart of destruction, his feet buried in the ground from the sheer force of the blast. Smoke and dust swirled around him, the remnants of his deflected attack dissipating into the wind.

Shinzo exhaled, steam rising from his body. His arms burned with the strain of the impact. But he was still standing. And his family was still alive.

For now.

But this was just the beginning.

Elsewhere, in the Depths of the Forest

Rengoku Itsuya snapped his head toward the village, his sharp eyes narrowing. He had heard the scream, but more than that, he had felt it. The surge of Essence energy that followed was unnatural—vicious, precise. This wasn't the work of an ordinary Eldritch Beast.

No.

This was something else.

Something far worse.

And the amount of Essence energy...

His expression hardened. This power... It rivals an Elite Exterminator at the very least. Maybe even higher. Almost at a Grandmaster level.

That realization made his blood run cold.

He had no time. If he ran at full speed, he could reach the village in fifteen minutes. Maybe twenty.

Not because he was slow. But because the distance was too great—too vast, even for an exterminator of his caliber.

His hands clenched into fists.

He needed to move. If there were any survivors, he had to reach them.

And if there weren't…

Then he had to exterminate whatever was waiting on the other side.

Without hesitation, Rengoku Itsuya moved.

And in the distance, the darkness of the forest shifted.

Something had awakened.

Smoke and dust filled the air, and for a few moments, there was only silence. Then—BOOM. Another impact, this time deeper in the forest. Something was coming. Something powerful.

Shinzo slowly lowered his arms, his breathing heavy. A sharp, searing pain shot through his body as he looked down at himself. His sleeves had been completely burned away, revealing charred skin and deep cracks running along his forearms. His fingers twitched, barely responsive, and his muscles screamed in agony. Even after reinforcing himself with every ounce of Essence Energy he could muster, it had still almost torn him apart.

His mind raced. If he had tried to block that head-on, it wouldn't have just broken his arms—it would have vaporized him. The decision to deflect it had been the only reason he was still standing, but even then… he could barely feel his arms. His entire body ached as if every bone had been shaken loose from the impact.

"What the hell was that?" he thought.

No Eldritch Beast he had ever encountered had released that kind of concentrated malice. That wasn't just raw power—it was focused, precise, and intentional.

He clenched his jaw, pushing the pain aside as best he could. There was no time to hesitate.

He turned his head slightly, speaking in a tone Kaito had never heard before—calm, but laced with something cold and absolute.

"Kaito. Get your mother and run."

Kaito's body stiffened. Run? His father never told him to run. No matter how intense their training was, no matter how badly he lost, Shinzo always told him to stand back up. But now… his father wasn't even looking at him. His eyes were locked on the forest.

And then Kaito felt it. That presence. The one that had been watching him for weeks. It was no longer just a feeling—it was real. It was here.

The trees in the distance twisted and groaned as something massive pushed through them. The oppressive pressure grew stronger, sending chills down Kaito's spine. It was like a black hole, sucking in all the warmth from the air.

A single, inhuman clicking noise echoed through the forest. Then another. And another. Like bones snapping back into place.

Then, a voice.

"Found you."

Shinzo's entire world froze.

His breath hitched for a fraction of a second, his muscles tensing instinctively. His mind struggled to process what he had just heard.

An Eldritch Beast… spoke?

It was impossible. It had to be. They weren't capable of speech. Every exterminator knew that. Eldritch Beasts were mindless entities of destruction, existing only to feed, to kill, to consume. They acted on instinct, not intelligence.

And yet—before him stood something that not only spoke but hunted with purpose.

Shinzo's pulse quickened, but his expression remained unreadable, his face a mask of absolute calm. A veteran's reflex. But deep inside…

He was shaken.

The attack. The intelligence. The voice.

This wasn't just an Eldritch Beast. This was something else entirely.

His stance shifted instantly. His foot slid back slightly, his body lowering into a battle-ready position. His aura flared—thick, controlled, but undeniably lethal. His arms were in no condition for prolonged combat, but he wouldn't need them—as long as he could exterminate this thing quickly.

On the other side of the forest, Rengoku Itsuya pushed forward at full speed, his coat billowing behind him as he sprinted through the trees. He could feel it now, clearer than ever.

This wasn't an ordinary threat.

And at the rate this presence was growing, Shinzo might not have that long.

He gritted his teeth, his grip tightening around his sword. If Shinzo Tenshiro was in danger… this thing was beyond anything they had faced before.

And if it was targeting Kaito…

Then it wasn't just an attack. It was a hunt.

The air was thick with tension, the pressure so overwhelming that Kaito could barely breathe. The presence standing before them wasn't just powerful—it was unnatural.

Shinzo's sharp eyes remained locked on the creature, his body instinctively ready to strike at any moment, but his mind was reeling. A speaking Eldritch Beast? He had fought countless of them in his lifetime, but never had he encountered one that displayed intelligence—let alone speech.

Then, the creature stepped forward, its form becoming fully visible.

Unlike the grotesque, misshapen abominations Shinzo had slaughtered before, this one had an almost humanoid structure. It stood tall, at least seven feet in height, its elongated limbs and jagged, obsidian-like skin pulsing faintly with dark energy. Its face was a chilling fusion of human and beast—a sharp, angular jawline with a twisted grin, void-like eyes that seemed to swallow the light around them.

Then, in a voice that was both deep and distorted, it spoke.

"I am Malakai."

Shinzo remained silent, his mind sharpening through the haze of pain from his burned arms. He had no time to process the horror before him, only time to act.

Malakai's grin widened as it lifted a clawed finger and pointed directly at Kaito.

"That boy. I want him."

Kaito felt an ice-cold chill run through his spine. Me? His body refused to move. His breathing grew shallow. He had never seen something like this before, never felt such crushing malice directed at him.

Shinzo's eyes narrowed. Why Kaito?

But then, he noticed something.

Malakai wasn't attacking.

Despite its overwhelming presence, despite being close enough to strike, it remained still—watching, analyzing. It was being cautious.

Shinzo clenched his fists. It's calculating my strength.

It saw me deflect its blast, and now it isn't sure.

That meant one thing—it wasn't completely confident it could kill him.

Shinzo took a deep breath, pushing past the searing pain in his body. His voice was cold and sharp.

"What do you want with my son?"

Malakai didn't answer. Instead, it chuckled, a slow, eerie sound that echoed unnaturally through the night air.

"I never wanted to face you, Dark Blade."

Shinzo's pupils contracted.

It knows my name?

A deep, unsettling feeling spread through his gut. His past as the Dark Blade was something only exterminators and high-ranking officials knew. Eldritch Beasts were supposed to be mindless. There was no reason one should know who he was.

Malakai's grin remained unchanging as it spoke again.

"I've been watching him… your son… for six months now."

Shinzo stiffened.

It's been watching Kaito?!

Malakai's tone was laced with amusement.

"But back then, he was weak. Just another insignificant brat. However… I must admit, he has sharp instincts."

The creature tilted its head slightly, those void-like eyes shifting toward Kaito, who was frozen in place.

"Every time I watched him, he would stare back. Not directly at me, but… he could feel me."

Shinzo's mind raced. That explained Kaito's constant unease these past few months. He wasn't imagining things. He truly had been watched.

And I ignored it.

Malakai continued, stepping forward slightly.

"I could have taken him before. He was vulnerable in his sleep. But you—" Malakai's eyes flickered with something dark. "—you were always there. And I knew if I made my move, you'd kill me with ease."

It exhaled slowly, its grin never fading.

"So, I waited. I grew stronger. And now, I'm here… for a head-on confrontation."

Silence.

The tension in the air was suffocating. Kaito was still struggling to process what was happening, his wide eyes locked onto the creature before him. It had been stalking him. For months.

Shinzo, despite his injuries, remained standing firm. His mind was still processing everything.

This wasn't just an attack.

And Malakai had come prepared.

But Shinzo wasn't about to let him have his son.

He took a step forward, his aura shifting.

Malakai chuckled.

"Now, let's see if the legend lives up to his name."

Shinzo's expression remained unreadable, but his presence was suffocating.

No one touches my son.