In the small town.
Having narrowly escaped death, Iaiand the others stood frozen in place.
"That sword energy… it's that boy's!"
Bushidrill collapsed to the ground with a thud, landing flat on his butt.
The abyss before him exuded such terrifying sword intent that even a glance made his heart tremble with fear!
That overwhelming, tyrannical sword aura—there was no doubt that only the boy who had just slain the armored gorilla in a single strike could have done this!
Bushidrill had already thought that sword strike was astonishing beyond belief.
Given the boy's age, his displayed strength could easily be called a once-in-a-generation talent.
But now—
This sword strike, one that had nearly altered the landscape itself, made Bushidrill realize just how shallow his imagination had been!
Compared to this abyss, that blow which killed the armored gorilla seemed almost insignificant.
Compared to him, Iaiand Okamaitachi were even more shaken.
They gulped, then slowly approached the edge of the abyss.
Peering downward—
The dark abyss was a void where nothing could be seen.
Staring into it felt as if countless sword tips glinting with cold light were pressing against their skin!
They felt real, physical pain.
The sword intent emanating from within was enough to shake them to their core.
"It's the same sword energy we felt at Haneoka."
The two exchanged glances, falling silent.
What shocked them the most—
Was the overwhelming sense of suppression they felt from that sword aura!
Yes—
The boy had held back… and still created this monstrous change in the terrain!
If he had gone all out…
"He might've left a scar on the Earth itself," Iaian muttered.
Compared to them, Zombie Man, who couldn't sense much sword intent, was more stunned by the raw destructive power.
Looking toward the House of Evolution, he followed the rift with his eyes.
It seemed like the place had been sliced in half.
"Looks like someone beat us to the punch," he said darkly.
Then, turning to Iaiand the others:
"The House of Evolution probably hasn't been completely wiped out. I'm heading over to check—are you coming?"
The three exchanged glances and smiled awkwardly.
At best, they could delay a demon-level monster.
But against the terrifying sword aura they had just felt, even a demon-level monster would be obliterated without resistance.
Why go?
After witnessing this abyss carved by a single sword strike, and feeling that domineering aura, their resolve as swordsmen was shaken.
If they saw another strike like that… their path of swordsmanship might end then and there.
No further growth would be possible.
"We'll stay here and regroup with other heroes. Once we've gathered enough, we'll come support you," Iaian said with a long exhale.
Zombie Man nodded.
Then he handed the unconscious Genos under his arm to Iaian.
"Take care of this guy for me…"
Before he could finish, Genos cut him off.
"Wait—take me with you!"
Zombie Man blinked.
"You're basically a stump with limbs. Going there is just asking to die."
But Genos stared at the abyss where the House of Evolution lay, over ten kilometers away.
"I want to see it with my own eyes—how someone that powerful fights!"
He took a deep breath, eyes blazing.
His fight with Mosquito Girl had shown him how weak he was.
He had to get stronger—fast!
If possible, he wanted to ask that boy to be his teacher.
But Zombie Man waved his hand and rejected the request outright.
He could go—even if he got torn apart, he wouldn't die.
Genos, on the other hand, would be completely dead if he went.
Watching Zombie Man's receding figure, Genos looked toward Iaiand the others with frustration.
"Don't look at me like that. We're not taking you," Iaian said with a shrug.
Genos could only lie back on the ground in resignation.
Zombie Man quickly made his way toward the House of Evolution.
As one of its creations, he knew better than anyone how terrifying Dr. Genus was.
That man had even broken the shackles of life itself, gaining eternal life. There was no way he would die so easily!
Soon, inside the half-destroyed mountain, he spotted the remains of the House of Evolution.
"There… Dr. Genus," Zombie Man muttered, scanning the area quickly.
His eyes locked onto a familiar figure—Asura Kabuto!
His expression darkened.
"Dr. Genus really let this thing out…"
He knew that the monster had an 'Asura Mode'.
Once activated, it would lose all sanity and become a mindless killing machine.
If left unchecked, it could slaughter an entire city's worth of people in just a week.
"I have to act fast…"
Zombie Man pulled out his weapon.
Just as he was about to launch a sneak attack with a high-caliber cannon—
He noticed something strange.
Asura Kabuto… seemed afraid.
It was trembling against a wall, curled in a defensive posture, shivering in fear.
"Asura Kabuto… is scared?"
Zombie Man froze.
Could it be… was he afraid of the boy Bushidrill mentioned?
At that moment, he saw Dr. Genus looking up at the sky with a devastated expression.
Zombie Man instinctively looked up too.
And then—
He saw it.
A figure suspended high in the sky.
From this distance, the boy looked tiny.
But above his head, a massive storm vortex was gathering—
Even without any special abilities, Zombie Man could feel the monstrous energy being condensed in that vortex.
He stood still for three seconds.
Then decisively holstered his weapon.
Run.
Run now!
He might not die…
But that didn't mean he wasn't afraid of pain.
And the pain of death—was excruciating.
If he could avoid it, he would.
There was no doubt—
Once that energy came down, he'd be caught in the blast too!
Zombie Man sprinted in the direction he had come.
After two or three kilometers, a solemn and divine voice echoed from the sky:
"Divine Strike!"
In the next instant—
A blinding white light brighter than the sun consumed everything!
A torrent of terrifying, pure energy fell from the sky.
In a flash, the House of Evolution was reduced to dust!
Zombie Man didn't even hear the explosion—
The spreading energy wave swallowed him whole.
He blacked out instantly.
Not long after Zombie Man left, Fubuki's group and the S-Class hero Tank Top Master arrived at Iaian's location.
They stared at the abyss in the earth in shock.
As B-Class heroes, it was their first time witnessing something so overwhelming.
"You're saying this was made with one sword strike?"
"With someone this strong, do we even need to be here?"
They were in disbelief.
In Fubuki's mind, the image of Kuzeha appeared. She whispered in shock:
"He's gotten that strong…"
Tank Top Master, however, was fired up.
"Zombie Man already left?"
"Let's go too!"
He clenched his fists, voice firm.
"Wait!"
Genos's voice rang out.
Everyone looked down and noticed the half-destroyed cyborg lying on the ground.
"What, you want to go too?"
Iaian sighed.
But Genos's voice was cold and serious:
"There's a massive energy gathering in the sky!"
Everyone froze.
Following Genos's gaze, they looked up—
And when the vortex gathering high above came into view, they were stunned.
"What is that?"
"Is this the end of the world?"
"Is that… a person in the sky?"
Genos's eyesight was far superior to normal humans.
He focused, zoomed in—
And clearly saw a boy standing in the sky.
"It's a boy," he said gravely.
"A boy?"
Iaiand the others immediately turned to Bushidrill and Fubuki.
"A swordsman?"
"A swordsman?"
Genos's tone confused them—
Until his next words broke their minds.
"With the energy he's gathering… if it hits the ground, the blast radius will be tens of thousands of kilometers."
Tens of thousands of kilometers.
Everyone's brains froze.
That was the size of several entire cities!
"Tokyo would be wiped out?"
Iaian murmured.
But Genos didn't answer.
Tokyo? That was the old estimate.
In just a few seconds—
The energy around the boy had multiplied again.
"At this rate… if it hits the ground, it might sink the entire island of Japan…"
What sounded like a joke came from Genos's mouth with terrifying gravity.
Iaiand the others looked up, unable to react.
Moments later, they turned to Genos in disbelief.
"Is this… the end of a nation?"
Genos whispered as if in a dream:
"He's doing it."
In the next instant—
Blinding light filled their vision.
The mountain where the House of Evolution had stood—was annihilated.
The surrounding air was compressed to the extreme—
Then exploded outward in a devastating storm.
Everything in its path—hills, trees, buildings—was leveled.
Genos was hurled hundreds of meters through the air.
Fubuki's group was all gravely injured.
If Fubuki hadn't thrown up a protective barrier in the nick of time, her B-Class team would've been killed instantly.
Iaiand the others struggled to their feet.
Dust filled the sky.
The town was gone.
Before them—only barren earth remained.
If the townspeople hadn't already evacuated to underground shelters, there would've been countless casualties.
"…We're still alive," Iaian said, patting himself and letting out a breath.
When that world-ending energy had descended, he thought he was done for.
"He narrowed the strike zone—that's why we only got hit by the shockwave."
Genos, now battered beyond recognition, murmured:
"To control such terrifying energy with that precision…"
"You must've calculated wrong. No one can destroy a country with one hit…" Okamaitachi laughed nervously.
Even his master wasn't on that level.
"No, my calculations were accurate," Genos said.
"He did release all that energy. He just controlled the area of effect—so the destruction isn't in breadth, but in depth."
As the dust settled, they finally saw the truth.
Behind them, everything was flattened.
In front of them—just a few kilometers away—
The Sword Abyss was gone.
In its place was a massive crater, dozens of kilometers wide and so deep no light could reflect from the bottom.
It looked like it connected straight to hell.
Even from several kilometers away, it made them feel like they couldn't breathe.
High above—
Kuzeha looked down at the bottomless pit.
He had compressed the Divine Strike's area to just over ten kilometers, perfectly encompassing the House of Evolution.
That nation-ending energy had been tightly packed into that space, and the result—was unimaginable penetration power.
He did some quick calculations.
"Probably pierced the crust…"
With his current power—
"A decent performance…"
A full-force Divine Strike from him could easily obliterate the surface of a planet.
But at this point, there wasn't much difference between that and a normal attack for him.
The divine essence of the War God had a special trait—
When his energy dropped below his peak, it instantly refilled to max.
And Kuzeha could sense that this power still had immense potential left to unlock.
"This is just the beginning."
He slowly descended from the sky.
Directly beneath him—
Once a luxury snow resort—was now leveled.
Even the underground shelter beneath it was exposed.
Though it was buried deep underground, being close to the House of Evolution meant even this area had been torn apart by the explosion.
A massive chunk of the shelter's ceiling had been ripped off.
The people inside looked up at the boy descending slowly from the sky—
Their stunned eyes filled with awe.
As if they were witnessing a god worthy of worship.
Read advance chapters on: patre on.com/Bored_Mortal