Chapter 130: Don’t Let Him Escape, Catch Him!

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In the very last second, Riven noticed that Ryujin was hiding something dangerous. He immediately ran toward Kagehisa and shoved him hard to the side, saving him from a deadly slash that would have ended his life.

SLAAASH!

The trees behind them were suddenly all cleaved apart in a single clean cut. The spectral spirit clicked his tongue in irritation and slowly stood back up.

Behind him a seventh arm was tightly gripping a cursed sword he had summoned at the last possible moment.

By feigning that he was completely outmatched, he had planned to bisect Kagehisa with one decisive slashing attack the moment the ninja descended with his spear to finish him off.

"Hah, to think you’d save the life of the guy that tried to kill you only seconds ago, Riven Claymore. You’re sure a strange man, I have to say!" the skeleton laughed as he stood upright again, glaring at the fallen yokai corpses scattered around. "Tsk! Useless... come back, I cannot let them have your corpses. Return to the lantern and replenish it with your— Where’s the lantern?!"

He had been unable to keep a constant eye on it. He failed to realize that Riven’s Shadow Self had stolen the relic just in time, and now Hinata was holding it securely in her hands.

The rightful heir of the Sarutobi family had finally recovered the precious lantern.

"The elders never told me about this. You stole the lantern!" she accused him. "Did you?!"

"Hah!" Ryujin stood still and began manifesting more cursed weapons. Even with two of his cores already shattered and the last one barely hanging on, he still intended to take at least some of them down with him. "You think that’s the case, you little girl? It’s much more complicated than that! The Sarutobi have a massive debt. They’ve been secretly selling their relics to the Yokai Guild for years. My father merely gifted this one to me when I decided to come to America and expand our branch around here..."

"?!" Hinata was visibly shaken. "M-My...! My clan is selling their own relics?! Why didn’t they ever tell me...! I had no idea we carried such a heavy debt! Have the other clans not spoken about this at all? And what kind of debt is this supposed to be anyway?!"

"I have no necessity to further elaborate," Ryujin replied with a sneering smile. "You could always ask that stupid kid who commands you for more details, shouldn’t you?"

"...!" Hinata looked toward Kagehisa as he slowly walked closer with Riven by his side.

The entire group now had Ryujin surrounded, yet the tension remained thick.

"Kagehisa-sama...! Is it true? Is the Sarutobi Clan really struggling this badly?!"

"..." Kagehisa sighed heavily. "The Hattori have stopped providing resources to the other clans while forcing them into heavy labor inside the Gates and the spiritual realms... I’m sorry for not telling you earlier. Those damn three old men forced them to start selling their relics just to survive."

"?!" Hinata gasped in pure disbelief. "No, this cannot be—"

"Ah, poor little girl. Why don’t you become my vessel instead?"

"!!!"

Hinata gasped as the spectral avatar suddenly appeared directly behind her. All seven of his cursed weapons pointed at her body while his oppressive spiritual energy wrapped around her, nearly asphyxiating her on the spot.

"Aaack!"

"HINATA!"

Kagehisa immediately ran to save her, but Riven proved faster.

RUMBLE!

A massive shadow fist erupted from the ground and punched Ryujin hard enough to send him flying. At the same time thick shadow threads shot out and caught every one of his weapons before any of them could pierce Hinata’s body.

"Hinata!" Kagehisa caught her carefully as she fell. "Are you okay?"

"Ugh... he covered me in his murky curse, cough...!" she coughed weakly. "But Riven’s poison is already taking care of it..."

Riven charged straight toward Ryujin, grabbed his skull with both hands, and began smashing him repeatedly into the ground.

"W-What do you think you’re doing— GWAAAAAAACK!"

As he screamed in pain, the specter quickly conjured smaller summoned creatures. Snakes, bats, and turtles swarmed from every angle and attacked Riven without mercy.

"A mere spirit like you cannot beat me."

Riven drew Fenrir’s Fang and swung it in a wide arc, unleashing Death Guillotine as he did so.

SLAAASH!

RUMBLE!

A powerful beheading wave of pure death energy tore through all the summoned spiritual beasts at once and then caught Ryujin as he tried to rise into the air.

"Nnnggh?!"

He was completely bisected. His two halves collapsed onto the ground as an explosion of black fire followed. Phantasmal flames surged upward while Riven raised his hand into the sky, controlling them with greater precision than before.

Label appeared at his side, quickly drinking a Full Stat Tonic she had created using materials harvested from the Yokai King corpses.

"Riven, let me help too!"

"He’s not the real one. The bastard is still hiding somewhere."

"I know... But... I want to confront him. I..."

Riven simply nodded. Both of them took a single step forward and vanished, reappearing right in front of the specter that was desperately stitching itself back together.

Seeing how desperately the creature wanted to keep itself alive, there was clearly some important secret within it that Ryujin did not want to disclose.

That secret could very well be that the spirit could not regenerate after true death the same way his Shadow Self could.

And... it might also be a core part of Ryujin’s own powers, or perhaps a strong familiar bound to him!

What was more, when Riven had burned him earlier with his blue fire, he could clearly tell that Ryujin himself was screaming in pain. The blue flames could target the man’s soul directly through the connection.

"I-I have to... get out of here! To reunite with the main body— I cannot die— AAAHHH!"

But he screamed in pure horror as the two of them reached him at the same time, grabbed him firmly by the shoulders, and smashed his head hard into the floor.

CRASH!

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