More accurately, he felt like anyone who came along right now would easily be able to kill him. This was because he was in extreme pain as he constantly coughed to the point where his body had no energy left in it.

Luckily, his opponent didn't come over.

His last attack just now had either killed or seriously injured Kungo… Seiji felt that he had been lucky.

If it wasn't for Kungo deciding to attack him at melee range, allowing Seiji to counter at close distance, this battle would have been truly difficult. Either he would need to load, or he would have to start using one-time consumable items…

After quite a while, Seiji finally managed to somewhat recover as he slowly stood up. He discovered that the mist in this area had become even denser and chillier.

Seiji remained highly on guard as he walked over to the shrine and opened its front door.

He saw that the handsome samurai was kneeling within with his head lowered and blood pooled everywhere. Kungo no longer made any sounds or movements.

Seiji felt no joy from victory upon seeing this scene. He could only remain silent.

Seiji walked over and slowly withdrew his sword from Kungo's chest. As Seiji looked at the "blood" on his sword, he felt that this blood was truly irritating to behold.

This wasn't real physical blood. Kungo wasn't an actual human. Still, those would be no reasons to kill him.

Seiji felt that he hadn't done anything wrong. He couldn't afford to show compa.s.sion.

Neither had Kungo done anything wrong.

This was… this was just how things were.

Seiji suddenly felt a powerful killing intent!

Even though he didn't see anything yet, he could sense it. A certain powerful existence was approaching while emanating tremendous killing intent!

'I'll die!' Seiji's survival instinct was warning him of immense danger.

'I'll have to either escape or load!' Seiji instantly came to such a conclusion.

Staying here to fight such an existence in his current state would only lead to death.

Was this existence the "woman" that Kungo had spoken about?

Seiji felt this was highly likely.

He took a deep breath, and exited the temple.

Even if he ran away or loaded, he wanted to first see what this "woman" appeared like. If at all possible, he would try talking to her in order to obtain some information.

Seiji imagined various appearances that she might have. Perhaps she would be a mighty female warrior, or maybe she would be a beautiful woman wearing shrine maiden attire…

However, the ident.i.ty of the person who arrived was far beyond his expectations.

"Koutarou-san...?"

Seiji was astonished upon seeing that it was the first "person" that he had met after arriving here.

The coal seller's clothing was colored in blood. Dark circles were around his eyes, and his eyes were giving off a blood-red light. There were also strange faint black runes on his face. Koutarou gave off an incredibly powerful aura filled with killing intent!

"Why are you here?" Seiji asked, wondering just how Koutarou had become like this.

Koutarou didn't answer.

The coal seller suddenly raised his hand, creating dense dark red mist, which formed a giant claw that slammed towards Seiji!!

There was a tremendous explosion as the ground shook, and snow was sent flying everywhere from the impact.

Seiji had managed to dodge this attack with the help of the buff effect from his [Bullet Time].

He knew that he would have been instantly killed if that attack had landed a direct hit!

Koutarou was now incredibly powerful.

"Koutarou…" Although Seiji reflexively raised his sword, he truly didn't want to fight Koutarou.

Seiji hadn't hesitated in the slightest when fighting against the samurais or against Kungo.

However, it was different with Koutarou.

Koutarou was only a simple coal seller! He was an ordinary "person" who shouldn't have had any combat ability. Someone else or some outside force had transformed him into this state!

Seiji wanted to know what had happened. He didn't want to attack Koutarou, who had been just a normal "person" previously.

Yet, two additional giant claws formed and attacked him!

*Boom!* *Boom!*

"Koutarou! Stop!" Seiji shouted out after dodging the second wave of attacks. "Cough, cough… I don't want to… cough… fight against you!"

"Harano…" Koutarou's expression was distorted as if he was in great pain. "Why…"

"Why what?"

"Why did you kill my mom and younger brother!?"

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

Giant claws kept smas.h.i.+ng at him. Seiji managed to wretchedly dodge them all at the last possible instant.

"I… killed your mom and younger brother?"

"It's you! It's all because of you!! You evil demon, pretending to be a human!!!" the coal seller roared as he released as much power as he possibly could!

This was a power that would cost him all of his lifeforce.

"I didn't!!" Seiji shouted in response. "I'm not an evil demon… I just…"

'I only came here to save someone!

'I'm a real human, different from all of you undead spirits! I'm a flesh and blood human!!

'I'm not an evil demon! All of you are the actual demons!!'

Seiji really wanted to shout all of this loudly.

However, he was unable to do so.

No matter what reason or n.o.ble purpose he had, it was a fact that he had brought destruction to this place.

So, he was indeed an evil demon in Koutarou's eyes. There were no excuses that he could give.

'...d.a.m.n it all.

'd.a.m.n it d.a.m.n it d.a.m.n it d.a.m.n it d.a.m.n it, d.a.m.n it all!!!'

Seiji could only furiously roar in his heart.

Yet, he could only close his mouth and remain silent.

'I didn't want things to be like this.

'I truly didn't want things to be like this.

'If there was a method to protect this place without harming a single 'person', I definitely would have done so.

'But… there was no other way!!!'

Seiji's vision became hazy.

This was because tears were now clouding his vision.

The next instant, four giant claws simultaneously attacked him.

Seiji managed to dodge them all. However, his hazy vision made it so that there was a blind spot in his vision.

*Pow!!!*

Seiji was knocked flying by a fifth giant claw that he hadn't noticed!

Seiji was sent flying through the shrine walls, all the way through to the other side of the shrine!

"Cough… cough, cough… cough, cough, cough, cough, argh…"

Seiji dropped his sword, and his helmet fell off. He crouched on the ground while coughing violently and spitting up a large amount of blood. His entire body trembled severely.

"Harano… evil demon…" Koutarou walked over with black mist swirling all around him. There was a faint shadowy figure behind him, which resembled both a demon's and a human's shadow.

"Cough, cough… you're… the one who looks more like a demon right now… haha…" Seiji had tears in his eyes as he looked at Koutarou. However, he mysterious had a weak urge to laugh.

He'd never expected that after having defeated such a powerful samurai, he would lose to an ordinary "person".

Even if Koutarou was no longer ordinary.

However… wasn't this how stories always went?

The hero who managed to slay the evil villain in the end would almost always start out as an ordinary person.

This was just another story just like in the clichés.

An incredibly cliché story about a hero defeating an evil demon… that was all there was to it.

"Come… Koutarou…" Seiji wanted to get up, but was unable to do so. Thus, he simply sat on the ground. "Kill me."

'Take your victory.'

'Without a doubt, you are the hero of your story.'

'But, this will be the only time.'

'Next time, I'll…'

"WAHHHHHHHH!!!" Koutarou roared furiously in a way that also seemed like he was crying painfully. He released countless giant claws that seemed to cover the entire sky!!

Seiji calmly watched all of this happen.

Right now, he didn't know what he was feeling. Nor did he want to know.

He only wanted to know if the coal seller would be satisfied with this.

If the answer was yes, then maybe he had managed to bring salvation to at least a single person before this place was destroyed.

Seiji smiled while looking directly at Koutarou's tears.

"Harano…" Koutarou looked at him with great hatred. Yet, a flash of something else shone in his eyes.

All of the giant claws simultaneously crashed down!!

Seiji prepared himself to activate [Bullet Time] for one last time so that he could load at the final instant.

However, his [Bullet Time] ability wouldn't activate!?

*Boom, boom, boom, boom!*

The dark red claws seemed to cover the entire ground as if an immensely dense b.l.o.o.d.y red had tainted the entire world.

"Kill… kill…" the coal seller muttered repeatedly in a low voice.