The Devil’s Contract

Unable to dodge, unable to block, unable to make physical contact…

The Sage stood where he was, dusting off his clothes and wiping at his graying temples.

"You’re probably the strongest Second Tier Reincarnator I’ve ever seen, Mercenary Tao…"

He seemed to be recalling something, or perhaps he found the fight rather dull now that victory was assured.

Mercenary Tao’s speed had been so fast that it was utterly impossible to follow with the naked eye. He could even weave through the Sage’s Mental Power field and directly tear through his martial arts defenses. Yet now, he had finally come to a stop.

When the Sage had said he knew a little about martial arts, it had not been some kind of joke. It was simply his usual modesty.

In truth, he was quite skilled in martial arts. He could use Mental Power to completely cover an area nearly five thousand meters around himself. Within that distance, nothing could escape his perception.

Moreover, the Sage’s Strength and Agility attributes both exceeded thirty points. Against ordinary Second Tier Reincarnators specializing in martial arts, he was by no means at a disadvantage.

It was simply that Mercenary Tao’s current speed and power were far too outrageous, leaving the Sage to be knocked flying like a punching bag.

Bai Cangshu stood in place, seemingly having lost all ability to resist.

The Sage merely raised a fist and walked toward him step by step.

Dodge the attack, and he would die.

Block the attack, and he would die.

Make physical contact, and he would die.

Buzz!

Golden ki instantly gathered at Bai Cangshu’s fingertips. With Omen of the Evil God actively unleashed, Bai Cangshu’s fingers were shrouded in a scarlet phantom.

The golden ki gathered with violent force, taking on the same scarlet hue.

The terrifying pressure made the Sage halt at once.

The air around them began to distort. Even from several hundred meters away, the Sage could still feel a burning pain in his chest.

That was where the attack was locked onto.

The Sage sighed and shook his head.

"I almost forgot. You’ve also mastered this ability. I suppose your attacks aren’t completely sealed off."

The next moment, the Sage continued walking toward Bai Cangshu, clearly not taking the attack seriously at all.

In the distance, Short Hair and Loka were suddenly seized by inexplicable terror. They were not fools. During the battle just now, they had already realized that this Sage was indeed one of those famed Title-level Reincarnators in the space.

Mercenary Tao appeared to hold the advantage, but in reality, he had already been forced to the brink of despair.

Simply by speaking, the Sage could impose rules that guaranteed the enemy’s death. To Reincarnators like them, who were in the First Tier or had only just entered the Second Tier, such a thing was utterly unimaginable.

But now, Mercenary Tao’s attack descended once more. Who would be the next to die in his place?!

"Chaos Sage’s people should all be dead already. Can he still transfer damage?!"

Lilith’s voice was very soft. Her throat had been pierced through, yet she still had not died. Fubuki, who had kept both hands extended to use her superpowers to maintain Lilith’s blood flow and breathing, frowned.

"Stop talking. We just need to wait here… wait for that person to come back…"

Fubuki was still somewhat pale, but she was in fairly good condition herself.

She used her telekinesis to lift Lilith into the air, and the group retreated even farther away. From the corner of her eye, she saw that the city had been completely warped. Half of it had twisted into bizarre, bent shapes, while the other half had been almost entirely crushed.

Fubuki had never expected that there truly existed a Supernatural Ability User capable of rivaling her sister. There was simply no room for anyone else to interfere in the battle between those two monsters.

But no matter what, she did not believe her sister would lose. In this world, perhaps the only person who could defeat Tatsumaki the Trembler was…

Fubuki’s heart skipped several beats as scarlet light suddenly flared behind them.

Pfft!

A burnt smell instantly spread through the air.

The scarlet light, condensed to its limit, pierced through the Sage’s chest in an instant and continued straight into the ground.

Crack, crack…

The earth began to split apart. That strike, which had penetrated to an unknown depth underground, rapidly caused the land to collapse and fracture.

Even subterranean fire began to flare up.

The Sage’s body swayed twice before falling over.

Lilith was fleeing through the air under Fubuki’s telekinetic control. Worriedly, she looked toward Mercenary Tao’s battlefield. Then suddenly, she saw a familiar figure at the end of Mercenary Tao’s finger.

Loka’s face was filled with disbelief. A thumb-thick hole had already appeared in his chest.

"No, no, no…"

Lilith looked behind her in despair. She saw Short Hair standing there in a daze, while Loka, who should have been fleeing alongside them, had vanished at some unknown point.

"What kind of ability… is this…"

Despair filled Short Hair’s eyes.

Loka could not possibly have been one of Chaos Sage’s people, yet the damage had still been transferred to him as a substitute death?!

Didn’t that make this ability invincible?!

As long as he was on a battlefield with more than one other person, no matter how many times he was killed, someone else would die in his place…

The Sage calmly straightened his black priest’s robe. Looking at Bai Cangshu, he raised one finger again.

"Mercenary Tao, in the following battle, if you use the same ability again, your body will explode and you will die."

The Sage imposed another restriction.

But Bai Cangshu suddenly let out a sneer.

Bang!

The ground shattered. The Sage frowned as a fist punched straight through his chest.

Pfft!

That fist directly pierced the Sage’s body and lifted him off the ground.

The Sage frowned, and his expression as he looked at Bai Cangshu became strange.

"Mercenary Tao… You really have no reason at all?!"

Bai Cangshu casually flicked his hand.

Pfft!

The corpse split into four pieces.

Bai Cangshu did not bother to see who had died. He simply stepped toward the Sage again.

Thud, thud, thud.

The momentum had completely reversed from before. Now, it was the Sage who stood still.

"You wasted one chance, didn’t you, Sage…"

Mercenary Tao’s words caused the Sage’s composed expression to change for the first time. At the same time, intense killing intent became impossible to suppress.

This guy… had actually grasped a trace of the truth behind his ability?!

Bai Cangshu instantly sensed the shift in the Sage’s emotions. That momentary hesitation exposed a flaw. His eyes narrowed as he marked the Sage with Gaze of Arrogance, and the active assault descended at the same time.

Bang!

The Sage retreated two steps, driven back by an invisible attack. Then came the second, the third…

Attack after attack forced the Sage back.

Bai Cangshu continued.

"My guess is that every time I attack you, or every time we engage in an exchange of attacks, you can place a restriction on me."

"But that restriction isn’t as invincible as it seems. Otherwise, you could have directly declared that I would die after your next attack."

Bai Cangshu continued forward. The Scarlet Sheen in his eyes resembled the gaze of a true evil god, seeing through everything.

He raised one finger, a motion almost identical to the Sage’s earlier gesture.

"So the restrictions you set the first and second times were both meant to ensure that I would continue exchanging attacks with you afterward."

"But the third time, you set a restriction that would kill me if I touched your body. Compared with the previous effects, that restriction was so much stronger that it didn’t seem like it came from the same ability. It also violated the pattern of your previous restrictions, which was to make me attack you in return…"

The Sage watched this beast-like creature peel apart and analyze his ability piece by piece. The corner of his mouth lifted into a mocking smile.

"So you trust your judgment that much?"

"If you guessed wrong, you would have already died the instant you attacked me just now."

"And believe me, even with immortality, you can’t exempt yourself that many times…"

Bai Cangshu came before him again, grabbed the Sage’s head, and squeezed hard.

Pfft!

"I won’t be wrong, and I won’t lose."

Bai Cangshu tossed aside the corpse in his hand. Judging by its appearance, it seemed to be one of Shiloh’s former companions, a fat man skilled in shooting?

He shook his head indifferently and discarded the corpse.

After that test, he had also learned some bad news.

The number of substitute bodies the Sage possessed likely far exceeded his imagination.

To the point that the Sage had no intention of dodging his attacks at all.

That ability sparked an idea in Bai Cangshu’s mind, reminding him of a certain work.

And Bai Cangshu had always trusted his instincts.

Thus, as he watched the Sage appear once more and raise a finger to set another rule, he spoke.

"You… are actually a devil, aren’t you?"

"A devil from Chainsaw Man."

The Sage lowered his finger, his eyes terrifyingly cold. There was no basis for that guess, nor any special chain of reasoning.

Yet Mercenary Tao had so bluntly identified the true nature of his ability.

At that moment, the Sage suddenly recalled what Shiloh had said before dying.

There was something wrong with Mercenary Tao.

"Then guess this—how many people who made contracts with me can die in my place?!"

The Sage’s voice suddenly appeared in Bai Cangshu’s mind. The next moment, Bai Cangshu’s surroundings began to change. The area around him rapidly turned into an ocean. Looking down, he found himself standing on an "island" no more than one meter square.

He raised his head. A gigantic dragon’s head hung down from the sky, and the Sage’s voice came from there.

Bai Cangshu looked at his body. Both Omen of the Evil God and Talent Manifestation had vanished. This was clearly not the real world.

The corner of his mouth lifted as he met the dragon’s gaze.

"Who cares about that…"

"It just means… I’ll kill you a few more times, hah…"