That protagonist is trash; I could do better!

Ereshkigal didn't waste any words, "The only way you can pay for the sin of disrespect you have committed is with your lives. I'll give you two choices."

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada and Fuma Kotaro exchanged glances. Fuma Kotaro, being a ninja, was not good at socializing and handed over all the talking to Amakusa Shiro Tokisada.

Hall, who was hiding his tracks and watching from the sidelines, suppressed a laugh. To be honest, Ereshkigal was putting on a very convincing act.

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada respectfully said, "Please speak."

"First, offer the souls of 500 humans."

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada refused without hesitation: "Please forgive me for not being able to accept this. We Servants are manifestations of the Wheel of Self-Suppression. In order to protect the existence of humanity, it is absolutely impossible for us to kill humans."

You, as a Ruler, are not like that.

Hall curled his lip.

"Secondly, one can immediately enter the underworld by passing the test of the Soul Judge Gundyr."

"The test, you mean this?" Fuma Kotaro, who had been silent until now, looked at the Soul Judge Gundy, who was kneeling on the ground not far away.

To them, it was just a huge, ordinary stone statue, but they could inexplicably feel a sense of heaviness. This was the second anomaly that Fuma Kotaro noticed.

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada's senses are more acute, and his unique skill [Revelation] warns him to stay away from the Soul Judge, Kodak.

"Exactly."

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada smiled bitterly: "They didn't give us any choice at all."

Ereshkigal chuckled, but to Amakusa Shiro Tokisada it was a sinister laugh: "Enjoy it to the fullest. This is the world I rule. You will not die easily. Each time you die, your spiritual foundation will be reduced by one point until you fall into the form of soul-craving undead."

Her figure gradually disappeared, returning to Hall's side in the shadows, and she asked in a bright and playful tone, "How was it?"

"what?"

"Of course, it's the majesty of being the goddess of the underworld. Don't let my current appearance fool you; I used to be far more formidable and unapproachable."

Hall smiled and said, "Well done."

A simple compliment made Ereshkigal very happy.

On the other side, Amakusa Shiro Tokisada and Fuuma Kotaro cautiously examined the Soul Judge Kodatsu. Amakusa Shiro Tokisada revealed a samurai sword in his hand, preparing to try a slash first.

With focused concentration, he raised his long sword high and brought it down vertically.

Clang!

A burst of sparks flew, and the sharp samurai sword left only a white mark under the heavy armor of the Soul Judge Gundyr.

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada felt a chill run down his spine, his heart filled with shock: "This is no ordinary metal!"

Hall activated the puppet's operating logic, his spectator mentality growing stronger.

Rumble!

Shattered stones fell from the body of the Soul Judge Gundyr. He slowly stood up, releasing a powerful and fierce aura, and grabbed the spear stuck in the ground beside him.

Its movements were neither hurried nor slow, yet they made Amakusa Shiro Tokisada tremble all over.

The moment the Soul Judge Gundyr awoke, he sensed the difference between them.

"Lord Amakusa! Watch out!" Kotaro Fuma warned in alarm.

The Soul Judge, Kodachi, casually raised his hand, and the broad blade of his spear cleaved through the air like thunder, striking towards Amakusa Shiro Tokisada.

Sharp and fierce, simple yet deadly.

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada, a hero who had fought his way through the battlefield, reacted immediately, gripping his samurai sword with both hands and holding it in front of him.

Clang!

With an even louder metallic clang than before, Amakusa Shiro Tokisada felt a numbness in his hands, and his body flew backward like a cannonball, crashing into several tombstones before falling to the ground.

Absolute overwhelming power.

Smoke and dust filled the air. Amakusa Shiro Tokisada was in a daze and couldn't react. When he looked down, he saw that the hilt of the samurai sword was stained red with blood, the tiger head had been shattered, and his fingers were twisted into a pretzel.

Bang~ Bang~ Bang~

The Soul Judge, Kodachi, walked with heavy steps toward Amakusa Shiro Tokisada, each step like a death knell tolling in Tokisada's heart.

dead.

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada saw his own fate through the "Revelation," and gave a bitter laugh. Even though there was only one enemy, he felt more desperate than when he was besieged by 100,000 shogunate soldiers.

Invincible!

"careful!"

Fuma Kotaro, unaware of why Amakusa Shiro Tokisada had suddenly lost his composure, anxiously threw a shuriken from a distance.

Swish!

A fierce wind roared as the giant shuriken tore through the air, generating wind pressure comparable to the power of the Wind King's barrier after it was closed, determined to shatter the Soul Judge Gundyr.

The wind blows, the gun is drawn.

Soul Judge Guddar had anticipated this, and without stopping, casually flicked his spear backward.

boom!

The shuriken was shattered by the spear, the force of the wind exploded, and the powerful wind pressure turned into countless tiny wind blades, leaving countless sword marks on the ground within a radius of several meters.

Meanwhile, the Soul Judge Gundyr, bathed in the intense pressure of the vortex, remained completely oblivious.

"What kind of monster is this?!"

Kotaro Fuma trembled. As a legendary ninja who was used to dying, he was afraid of the person in front of him. Only then did he realize what kind of opponent Amakusa Shiro Tokisada was facing.

Soul Judge Guda turns to look at Fuuma Kotaro, changing his target and moving closer to him.

This is the operating logic set by Hall, which prioritizes dealing with threatening enemies.

With a few steps, Soul Judge Gundyr suddenly accelerated, shattering the ground into a spiderweb-like pattern of pits, and his massive body charged towards Fuuma Kotaro.

boom!

Fuma Kotaro felt as if a huge mountain was crashing down on him, and the ground beneath his feet trembled.

"There's no turning back, we have to go for it."

"Lord Amakusa was just knocked away, so I can't compete with it in terms of strength. But when it comes to speed and skill, I'm confident I'm second to none!"

Kotaro Fuma forced himself to calm down, focusing his gaze on the blade of the Soul Judge Gundyr, judging its attack trajectory, and retreating in a phantom form the instant it struck.

boom!boom!

A fierce gust of wind exploded in Kotaro Fuma's ears. Even though the sharp blade did not strike his body, the wind pressure from the spear felt like a stone hitting him.

"Well!"

With a muffled groan, Fuuma Kotaro completed his measurement of Soul Judge Gundyr, quickly adjusted his body, calmly assessed the situation, and used his speed advantage to dodge Soul Judge Gundyr's spear attack.

"Fortunately, speed is my advantage."

Fuma Kotaro breathed a sigh of relief, confident that this would make him invincible.

He suddenly stopped moving, watching helplessly as his body was cleaved in two by the spear, vanishing into nothingness. Another version of himself appeared behind the Soul Judge Gundyr, his dagger aimed at the seam of the armor.

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada could not cut through the armor, so he could not break through its defenses, but no matter how strong the armor was, there would always be gaps.

"It's just an inanimate object after all."

Fuma Kotaro was confident, seeing that Soul Judge Gundyr was too slow to react and had not yet retracted his spear.

wrong!

Fuma Kotaro snapped back to reality, sensing a warning sign, and instantly pulled back, simultaneously protecting his chest with both hands.

His eyes saw the Soul Judge Gundyr deftly swing his right leg, his speed and timing impeccable, as if he had anticipated his move and set a trap.

In the blink of an eye, Kotaro Fuuma realized a terrifying truth: the Soul Judge Gundyr possessed martial arts skills that rivaled those of martial arts-type Servants.

boom!

A cloud of blood mist burst from Fuma Kotaro's body, and he was blasted away, crashing into a wall and shattering it.

His hands were completely crippled, the muscles burst open, the bones were broken inch by inch, and his ribs were shattered.

Great!

"Judge! I am your opponent!"

On the other side, Amakusa Shiro Tokisada stood up, cut off his long black hair with his samurai sword, untied his hairband, and tied it to his right arm. Blood kept flowing from his severed fingers, staining the sword blade red.

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada resolutely muttered to himself, "It's just hell, it's not like I haven't been there before."

The Soul Judge Gundyr turned and walked toward him again.

The moment Amakusa Shiro Tokisada swung his samurai sword, the spear, with its absolute advantage in length, mercilessly pierced through his chest.

Amakusa Shiro Tokisada smiled bitterly, his hands falling limply to his sides, blood mixed with fragments of internal organs spurting from the corner of his mouth: "Failed again...."

The two Servants were executed without any ability to resist.

······

After Amakusa Shiro Tokisada and Fuma Kotaro regained consciousness, they found themselves lying in an open field with a pile of flames burning in front of them, and an old longsword stuck in the center of the flames.

The surroundings were lifeless, the city entrance was just over ten meters away, and the distance was shrouded in white mist.

Everything felt like a dream, but the sense of oppression and fear only grew stronger.

"Where is this? I remember..." Amakusa Shiro Tokisada's face turned pale as he recalled the despair and helplessness he felt when he was executed by the Soul Judge Kodatsu.

Fuma Kotaro muttered to himself, "I can't die even if I'm killed. What kind of world is this?"

"Do you remember what Lord Hall encountered in the underground palace of Uruk? This world seems to have a place similar to hell. This is probably the underworld, the place where the souls of the dead go. Only this can explain it."

"We are already dead."

The fire-lighting ritual site, the place where dreams begin.

Chapter 421 An Unexpected Reunion.

"The First Issue of the Survey Report on Kusa City"

"The city of Kusa was swallowed up by a colorless, thick fog."