Chapter 157: Destroying The Last Spiritual Barrier, Facing Ryujin Kazama At Long Last!

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As explosions continued to spread across the battlefield, Riven summoned Fenrir’s Fang and the Netherworld King’s Blade from his shadows. He dual-wielded them alongside two additional Headless Knight Swords he had kept in reserve, swinging all four weapons together in perfect unison.

Four Death Guillotines followed in rapid succession — four powerful cutting waves of pure concentrated darkness, poison, ice mana, cursed energies, and ghostly power. All of them were tightly packed together and further empowered by psychic energy and spiritual arts. The result was nothing short of catastrophic!

The ground shook violently. The barrier in front of him instantly gained four deep gashes, and long cracks rapidly spread throughout the entire structure.

At the same time the defensive formations that had risen to stop him were completely destroyed. Everyone attempting to rebuild those formations was bisected and diced into dozens of tiny pieces without mercy.

Then Riven took a single step forward. He saw his remaining foes in the distance beginning to chant and immediately shut them down.

"World of Silence."

TRUUUM!

The entire world suddenly fell into absolute silence. The magicians coughed up blood from the severe backlash of having their spells interrupted mid-cast. Their magic became completely useless.

At the same moment their remaining formations shattered. Everyone present found themselves shocked and unable to believe what was happening around them.

Kagehisa ran through the chaos with his ninjas, cutting down the confused enemies as they desperately tried to defend themselves with poor coordination.

Hinata held a pair of ancient magic scrolls. She unfurled them and summoned hundreds of explosive kunai and shuriken that rained down upon the enemy ranks.

Ren controlled his threads with even greater precision now that they had been reinforced with new thread relics Riven had forged from his own metallic hair. He cut through everything with colder and more efficient precision than ever before.

Goki powered himself up to the absolute maximum. Wearing SS-Rank armor and weapons, he unleashed his full strength. His bald head suddenly blazed with flames that resembled wild red hair as he activated his secret technique after having leveled up significantly in the recent battles.

The three retainers devastated the army standing in front of Riven while Kagehisa himself took a decisive step forward. He annihilated everything in his path with his demonic spear and incredible movement speed. Elemental ninjutsu continued to rain down across the battlefield without pause.

At the same time Kagehisa suddenly transformed as well, gaining that familiar oni-like appearance. He reached the barrier right beside Riven.

"Now!"

Both men roared as they smashed into the barrier together. Their massive spiritual auras erupted outward and fully materialized into their Spiritual Beast Auras.

Riven’s Spiritual Beast Aura took the form of a gigantic black and red chimera with dozens of heads and limbs. Kagehisa’s manifested as a giant red oni with four powerful arms and a vicious, bloodthirsty smile.

BOOOOMMM!!!

As their combined fists collided into the already cracked third barrier, the spiritual barrier’s ability to resist damage finally reached its absolute limit. It exploded outward into thousands of glass-like fragments.

Noir emerged from the shadows behind them, bringing Label along. The three ninjas remained behind to finish dealing with the scattered army.

"Master, step forward! We will take care of these soldiers!" Hinata called out as she summoned all three of her Spiritual Beasts — the Flood Frog King, the three-legged Crow, and a beautiful Green Fox covered in living leaves.

"Time to go all-out!" Goki roared. He swallowed three red pills at once. His heart began beating faster and his skin turned a deep red. "Asura Vajra Body Release!!!" His entire body exploded with flames as he unleashed his true power, boosted by the dangerous drugs produced in his hidden village. Those pills exchanged large amounts of lifeforce and stamina for tremendous raw physical strength.

"Leave it to us," Ren said calmly. He manipulated a massive quantity of threads that flew in every direction and moved independently like living snakes. The threads coiled around enemies, cutting them or asphyxiating them while draining their lifeforce and feeding it back to him and his allies through the special properties of Riven’s metallic Death Mithril hair.

"Thank you, guys! Don’t you dare die on me!" Kagehisa roared with fierce loyalty. "Let’s go, Riven! Let’s fucking end this!"

"Yes. Let’s end this," Riven nodded firmly. "Label, are you ready?"

"I-I’ve never been more ready in my entire life!" Label answered with burning determination. "Ryujin will finally pay for what he did to my dad!"

"AWROOOOO!" Noir howled bravely, as if he too was joining the conversation and declaring his resolve.

Kagehisa and Riven both smiled and quickly charged toward the fortress. The massive doors of the structure opened on their own with an eerie creak, suddenly revealing a long, slimy tongue that leaked thick purple saliva.

"?!"

Everyone was shocked as the giant fortress — or rather, the massive medieval Japanese castle — rose from the ground on enormous wooden legs. Huge eyes sprouted from its windows like living organs.

It grew dozens of large wooden arms across its structure. As a titan standing several dozen meters tall, it immediately swung those gigantic limbs against the group, pushing them away and sending them flying through the air.

CRAAASH!

As they rolled across the ground to absorb the impact, Riven was the first to regain his footing and stand back up. He glared upward at the gigantic living structure and the man standing proudly on top of it.

"So you’ve finally made it, haven’t you, Riven Claymore?!" Ryujin roared with arrogant laughter.

His true appearance was that of a mountain of a man. He possessed long dark brown hair that flowed like a lion’s mane, a heavily hairy chest, and a cocky, triumphant smile. He wore traditional red samurai armor and held a giant cursed naginata in one hand.

"...Ryujin," Riven said coldly. "Is this your last tactic? A giant walking house? Just what the hell is this thing?"

"It’s a powerful Legendary Yokai that has served my family for generations," Ryujin answered with a proud, booming laugh. "The Living Fortress, Shirogami no Yōkai! A spirit that possesses and animates the very architecture of our ancestral castles. For three hundred years it has protected the Kazama bloodline... and today it will crush the Claymore pretender into paste!"

[The Living Fortress, Shirogami no Yōkai – A-Rank.]

"A-Rank?!"

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