Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

As the dragon was severely damaged and sunk by the lightning, the eight water snakes that had been tightly binding the stone giant seemed to have lost their backbone and collapsed one after another, turning back into turbid floodwaters that raged wildly towards the lower-lying areas in all directions.

The Fuji River also stopped flowing backward, turning into a tsunami as it flowed down the lowlands, destroying everything in its path.

The stone giant slowly rose, and the lingering, violent lightning power that had permeated the surroundings poured into its body.

On the cracked surface of the stone, the charred parts peeled off rapidly, and the cracks healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, transforming into golden armor.

On the golden armor, there were also leaping silver lightning patterns. Its huge hand clenched in the river water, and a stone sword was formed and pulled out of the water.

The golden-armored giant held a stone sword high above his head, the tip of which pointed directly at the still churning, thick, dark clouds.

In an instant, countless thunderclaps resounded.

Bolts of lightning struck down, creating a continuous thunderstorm.

Like a river bursting its banks, it surged and raged down from the clouds where the giant sword pointed, pouring into the stone sword and the giant.

The blinding white light and electromagnetic radiation caused the command room to lose signal, and the huge roar, even from this distance, still made the windows of the temporary command post vibrate.

Leon stared at the scene visible to the naked eye in the distance, the muscles at the corners of his mouth twitching uncontrollably.

Very well, now he believes in ancient myths about angels and gods. It seems the world's religions are getting worse and worse. Don't they have any decent things passed down? Now is the time for you to show your supernatural abilities!

The thunderous waterfall lasted for a good ten seconds, turning the sky and water into a boiling silver sea.

The waters near the golden-armored giant were like a giant fish tank electrified with high voltage, hissing and crackling, with dense arcs of electricity leaping and darting across the surface.

Countless fish-headed monsters hiding underwater didn't even have time to scream before they were instantly electrocuted by ultra-high voltage, turning into charred remains and exploding to their deaths.

But even more of the fish-headed monsters charged forward fearlessly, their corpses covering each other as they pounced on the golden-armored giant's body, tearing at its electrified golden armor, determined to fall with a fragment even in death.

The golden-armored giant, wielding swords in both hands, thrust them forcefully into the river below. In an instant, lightning crackled, and like electric fish, countless fish-headed monsters leaped from the entire body of water.

The fish-headed monster covering its body was instantly charred.

The strong, fishy stench seemed to be faintly detectable even from several kilometers away.

Wow!

The water exploded.

The serpent hovered in mid-air once more.

But at this moment, it was in a very sorry state.

His dark, tightly packed scales were shattered and torn, and his scorched red wounds were crisscrossed, so deep that the bone was visible. In some places, the flesh was even sizzling and steaming. His eyes revealed an extreme fear buried deep in his marrow.

"No, Master! I can still fight! No—"

The serpent suddenly turned towards Mount Fuji and let out a shrill scream filled with fear and pleading, while its massive body writhed violently in mid-air.

Unfortunately, it was useless.

Visibly, a thick substance, resembling unsolidified blackish-red magma, suddenly seeped and gushed out from the wound on its head, its eyes, ears, nose, and even every hole.

This substance greedily covered and assimilated its original black scales and flesh, and wherever it passed, the scales turned from black to red, as if soaked in thick blood.

The wound was healing rapidly, but the newly formed skin and muscles had a more bizarre, dark color, as if lava was flowing inside! Its body was also visibly swelling, twisting and deforming, its back arching, and growing even more ferocious bone spurs.

Even those already scarlet vertical pupils were completely covered by an even deeper, darker, and murky red color that was almost black.

Deep within its pupils, the last trace of the serpent's own consciousness was forcibly erased amidst immense pain, replaced by a cold resentment.

Behind the serpent, in the sky above Mount Fuji, the clouds were torn open by two rifts that stretched across the horizon.

From within the crack, a pair of eyes, identical to those of the serpent at this moment, opened.

His gaze alone seemed to freeze the air.

It raised its head, facing the golden-armored giant, and let out a roar that sounded like the wailing of ten thousand ghosts.

"Damn it, there's a second phase."

Ethan Reno, hiding on a hillside, couldn't help but complain.

The previous battles were already far beyond their level, and if they were to intensify their attack, Renault looked around and decided it was best to run away and watch from a distance.

With that thought in mind, he spread his blood wings and flew towards a more distant mountain to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

Although the blood of that serpent was tempting, he knew the dangers and knew that if he went too close, he would only lose his life.

The current Jiaoshe has basically broken away from the snake form and can be called a Jiaolong, although its appearance is quite ugly.

The bony spurs of varying heights that spread along the spine resemble Godzilla, with bright red tips, like signal receivers receiving the immense energy transmitted from Mount Fuji.

The blood dragon's massive body, accompanied by a foul stench, hurtled straight at the golden-armored giant, its speed far exceeding that of before.

boom!

There are no fancy techniques, only the most primal collisions.

The blood dragon collided with the golden-armored giant like a burning meteorite falling to earth. The surrounding blood-red shield clashed violently with the giant's golden lightning armor, and dark red and golden-white energy turbulence burst out in the air, easily tearing away and shattering the remaining low hills and mountains on the riverbank.

The giant swung his thunder sword, the lightning power contained within its blade striking the blood dragon's scales, but the crimson shield only dented a few centimeters, and the torso remained unharmed.

The blood dragon coiled around the thunder sword, its tail, covered in bone spurs, lashing out at the giant's arm.

Boom!

The giant in golden armor staggered, a large dent appearing in the golden armor on its arm, and lightning flashed violently.

Despite the impact, it prepared to raise the Thunder Sword high and once again use the same trick to summon down heavenly lightning.

The Blood Dragon immediately blocked the Thunder Sword, tensing its strength to prevent the giant from succeeding.

Zila——!

With a piercing crack, the Thunder Sword developed cracks.

The golden-armored giant abruptly abandoned the Thunder Sword, letting it shatter into countless arcs of electricity as it was coiled around the blood dragon's body.

At the same time, the huge arms, like strong iron hoops, tightly hugged the blood dragon's body covered with bone spurs.

The blood dragon didn't struggle; it aimed directly at the giant's basalt head and was about to spew its blood.

Suddenly, the character "兵" (soldier) burst forth with golden light.

In the thick, dark clouds of the sky, the last bolt of lightning, which had been gathering strength for a long time, was about to strike.

The target is the thickest central bone spur on the Blood Dragon's spine.

Clearly, the golden-armored giant knew that this was the Blood Serpent's weakness—the connecting passage to the energy source of Mount Fuji.

Click!

The lightning pierced through the blood dragon's protective blood shield and struck the central bone spike, which resembled a lightning rod. The electric arc instantly spread throughout its body.

There were no earth-shattering explosions.

Only a single white flash, seemingly capable of slicing through the world, illuminated for a fleeting moment before vanishing immediately.

At this moment, the bone spurs, along with the surrounding large areas of blood-red scales and flesh, turned to ashes under the extremely concentrated divine power of thunder, as if they had been directly wiped out.

There was no pain in the blood dragon's eyes. It simply stopped spitting and then violently swung its body, breaking its already shattered body in two.

Then, hovering in mid-air, its eyes, along with the giant eyes in the sky, did not look at the golden-armored giant, but instead gazed into the distance at the basin buildings that were laid out before it.

The golden-armored giant wasted no time; it lunged at its own basalt rock.

Snap, snap——!

A burst of golden lightning flashed, accompanied by the ear-piercing screeching sound of massive rocks shattering.

That piece of basalt, which was tiny compared to its entire body, was forcibly torn off from its head.

The moment it was stripped away, the golden light on the giant's entire body dimmed rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The rocks that make up its massive body also began to crumble and peel away in large pieces, collapsing at an alarming rate.

It was as if the pillars supporting the soul had been removed, leaving only a huge, collapsing rock skeleton.

But its right arm is raised high, gripping the basalt.

On the basalt, the golden-glowing character "兵" (soldier) shone with a final, brilliant light, as all the golden lightning power and the giant's remaining energy were poured into it.

The giant assumed a javelin-throwing stance, then hurled the basalt towards Mount Fuji. It streaked across the sky, leaving a long, golden-red trail of flame as it sped away.

On Mount Fuji, the two eyes in the sky calmly watched all this unfold, and the half-blood dragon they controlled made no attempt to stop it.

A muffled clap of thunder sounded.

Above Mount Fuji, basalt shattered and fell to the ground like a shower of petals from a fairy.

But the broken basalt revealed what was inside the core.

It was a golden talisman.

It floated down like that, seemingly so easily blown away by a gust of wind, yet it landed steadily on Mount Fuji.

The entire Mount Fuji appears to be shimmering with gold dust, as if surrounded by stars, forming a protective dome.

Wow.

The golden-armored giant completely shattered and rebuilt itself into an isolated island in the river.

"I've tasted the flavors of a thousand years and a hundred years, how many more days can this trap me?"

The Blood Dragon revealed a cold smile, and its eyes finally showed a hint of emotion, a mocking one.

"The one who survives to the end is the winner."

In the Fuji River basin and its upper reaches, the river water swells rapidly, as if groundwater is gushing onto the surface.

The upstream water flow breached the dam, while the downstream water flowed upstream against the current. The combined force of the two seemed to be turning the entire basin into a swamp.

The eye in the sky slowly disappeared, and the blood dragon gradually turned into ashes and vanished from the spot.

The giant node finally broke, and the floodwaters rebounded, engulfing the entire basin. It's unknown how many days it will take for the water to drain away.

Fortunately, most people managed to relocate, and Kurosaki's last desperate attempt to escape also worked, ultimately activating the backup plan left by the unknown Taoist priest and successfully buying an unknown number of days.

At least it gives humanity more time to prepare for this.

rumble rumble

Another earthquake struck, but unlike before, this time wisps of black smoke rose from the summit of Mount Fuji.

"I caught you!"

In Kofu City, which resembles a vast ocean, on a tree that rises high above the water, Kurosaki Chimei seized the opportunity and reached out to grab the Heimori Dragon flowing towards him—uh, his hand was too slippery, and he missed.

But the next second, the branch suddenly extended and pulled Ping Shenglong out of the water.

"Hehe. Thank you."

Almost exhausted, Heisei Ryu hugged the tree branch, his eyes sweeping over the embarrassed Kurosaki before landing on the treetop above, where Hirosue Eri was sitting.

It's obvious that this is the person who saved my life.

"You're welcome."

Eri nodded casually, patted the special cherry blossom tree beneath her, and gestured for it to continue searching for the next survivor.

The spiritually imbued cherry blossom trees, braving the flowing water, continue their journey through the submerged city.

2285: Information Review

228.5: Information Review

(Post-battle summary, no significant progress, this chapter is free)

"The above is the complete account of this incident. The events unfolded as predicted by the Fifth Investigation Team, therefore..."

Leon put down the documents in his hand and looked at the Prime Minister, who was sitting at the head of the meeting.

"What we are currently suffering is only a portion of the leaked power from that unknown entity sealed within Mount Fuji. The talisman on Mount Fuji will not last long; when it does, it will descend in an even more terrifying form."

The meeting room fell into a deathly silence. Officials on both sides of the long table, whether representatives of the Self-Defense Forces or the head of the Cabinet Intelligence Office, subconsciously held their breath, afraid that making even the slightest noise would attract attention.

The Prime Minister's eyes were somewhat unfocused, his gaze passing over Leon's shoulder as if piercing through a thick wall to see the outline of the smoking volcano.

After several seconds, he slowly blinked and asked an unexpected question: "...Has Genji been found?"

Leon immediately replied, "We are searching with all our might, but, Your Excellency, our primary task should be to build up the defenses around Mount Fuji. We cannot devote too many additional resources to search and rescue at the moment."

“Minister Leon.” The Prime Minister’s voice was low, directly interrupting Leon’s explanation.