This situation made Leona somewhat flustered.
In Leona’s view, anyone sent by the Reincarnator Forum was bound to be extremely powerful, at least stronger than Tsukiyomi Ruri. Facing such a person, even Tsukiyomi Ruri probably couldn’t resist.
“What should we do? Let’s escape quickly, who knows what will happen if she discovers there’s a Ghost here,” Leona wrote, tracing characters on Tsukiyomi Ruri’s thigh with her finger.
Feeling the ticklish, tingling sensation on her thigh, Tsukiyomi Ruri couldn’t help but pat Leona on the head, signaling her to stop prodding randomly. As for escaping, Ruri hadn’t even considered it.
Seeing Ruri completely ignore her advice, Leona became even more panicked.
‘I should have memorized the route before coming here. Now I don’t even know where I’m standing, what the surroundings are like, or which direction to go. And Ruri isn’t giving any directions. What am I supposed to do?’
Leona was nearly in tears. She didn’t have the ability to see through the puppet costume to observe the outside environment.
Had she known coming here would lead to this, she would never have agreed to come.
She had assumed today’s situation would be similar to last night’s gathering, with no risk of exposure. She never anticipated that a woman named Kanazawa Maki would actually want to register Tsukiyomi Ruri’s true identity! Wouldn’t that make Leona extremely easy to expose?
Tsukiyomi Ruri sensed Leona’s unease. Her right hand gently stroked Leona’s head as a means of comfort.
As for her left hand, she raised it and grasped the hand Kanazawa Maki had extended towards her. “I have no intention of letting you know my true identity.”
“And if I insist on knowing?” Kanazawa Maki asked.
“Then defeat me,” Tsukiyomi Ruri replied, her voice flat and unwavering.
“Defeat you?” Kanazawa Maki couldn’t help but laugh.
But the Monkey laughed even louder, tears nearly streaming from his eyes. “What did I just hear? A low-level Reincarnator like you wants to fight Lady Kanazawa? You’re definitely a low-level Reincarnator, probably haven’t even been one for long, right? You have no idea what kind of person you’re actually facing, do you? Hahaha, this is hilarious, this alone will be my entertainment for the whole day.”
Ignoring this clownish Monkey, Tsukiyomi Ruri kept her focus on Kanazawa Maki.
She had a faint feeling that, since becoming Tsukiyomi Ruri, this was the strongest Reincarnator she had encountered thus far.
“Fine, you said ‘defeat you’, right? Then defeat you it is!” Kanazawa Maki suddenly exerted force in her hand.
She intended to break free from Ruri’s grip and forcibly remove the Little Bear Costume.
But the moment she exerted force, Kanazawa Maki sensed something was wrong. She tried hard to pull her hand back, but found she couldn’t retract it from Ruri’s left hand at all.
‘Isn’t she a low-level Reincarnator? How could a low-level Reincarnator possibly have this kind of strength? She’s definitely not a low-level Reincarnator!’
Kanazawa Maki’s heart was deeply shaken, her breathing becoming slightly heavier.
Monkey, however, noticed nothing amiss. Still standing at a distance, he jeered, “Lady Kanazawa, no need to go easy on this person. Even a mere low-level Reincarnator dares to be so arrogant. She needs to be shown how high the heavens are and how insignificant she is.”
“Shut up!” Kanazawa Maki shot Monkey a cold glare.
Startled by her reaction, Monkey had no idea why Kanazawa Maki was yelling at him. But facing such an important figure, he didn’t dare show any emotion and could only obediently shut his mouth.
Kanazawa Maki looked at Ruri. “What exactly is your level of strength?”
“There’s no need to tell you,” Tsukiyomi Ruri said calmly.
“Is that so?” Kanazawa Maki narrowed her eyes.
The next moment, blazing flames erupted from her hand. It was a kind of black flame, possessing an extremely high temperature. In an instant, it spread over Kanazawa Maki’s entire hand, as if it could incinerate everything before it.
Before the flames appeared on Kanazawa Maki’s hand, Tsukiyomi Ruri had already swiftly withdrawn her own, protecting her Little Bear Costume from harm.
“Quick reflexes!” Kanazawa Maki raised an eyebrow. She lifted her arm, wreathed in that black flame, and made a pushing motion towards Ruri through the air.
Immediately, the black flames surged forth, sweeping right before Tsukiyomi Ruri’s face.
Almost simultaneously, The Faceless materialized in front of Ruri. Wielding its scythe, it directly slashed forward. The chilling blade light forcibly split the onrushing black flames in two.
This sight nearly made the spectating Monkey’s eyeballs pop out of their sockets.
‘Did I just hallucinate? How was Lady Kanazawa’s attack so easily split apart by a low-level Reincarnator?’
Before Monkey could even recover his wits, Tsukiyomi Ruri’s subsequent performance left him utterly dumbfounded, making him start questioning his entire reality.
He saw that after splitting the black flames, The Faceless dashed forward, appearing before Kanazawa Maki in a flash. The cylindrical shaft of its scythe was thrust ferociously towards Kanazawa Maki’s abdomen.
All of this happened far too quickly, so fast that Kanazawa Maki couldn’t react in time.
“Bang!”
With the violent impact of the scythe’s shaft, a sharp pain exploded in Kanazawa Maki’s abdomen. She doubled over on the spot, nearly retching.
However, Kanazawa Maki was ultimately the person in charge sent by the Reincarnator Forum, and her experience was solid. Not hindered by her body’s discomfort, intense black flames immediately erupted from her, instantly covering her entire body and making her look like a being formed purely of fire.
A fearsome temperature rapidly radiated outward from Kanazawa Maki, as if plunging everyone into the hottest season imaginable. The temperature continued to rise, even showing signs of starting to melt the ground.
But before Kanazawa Maki could truly erupt, The Faceless struck again. The scythe’s shaft smashed directly into the back of Kanazawa Maki’s neck, slamming her face-down onto the ground.
“Withdraw your ability. You should be able to see I’ve already held back,” said Tsukiyomi Ruri.
Simultaneously, The Faceless finally stopped using the shaft. The sharp blade of the scythe descended, stopping right beside Kanazawa Maki’s head. Just a slight drag would have been enough to make Kanazawa Maki bid farewell to this world.
Everything had happened far too fast, leaving Kanazawa Maki unable to process it.
She had actually been completely defeated in just two or three exchanges? It seemed that if her opponent had so desired, she could have killed Kanazawa Maki in a single encounter. Just as her opponent had said, she had been holding back.
