Chapter 700: Mask of Sin
Isamu suddenly became afraid that he was being targeted, but soon he realized that he was mistaken.
Those two people weren't looking at him. They were looking at a black-clad figure that appeared in a cloud of black mist in front of them...
The crow-masked person!
After activating the game card, Seiji and Shika entered the dream game world together.
They knew already that this was the scene of the Spirit World "Ironfire Castle"!
The real Ironfire Castle was more dangerous than the Forest Palace, but less dangerous than the Blood Moon Mountain. Yet, this dream was only imitating the Ironfire Castle's terrain.
Not long after Seiji and Shika entered, they were attacked by a bunch of other players.
After dealing with the ambushers, a silver-haired, black yukata-wearing crow-masked figure appeared close to them.
"Welcome~" Itsuki Kamitani's voice sounded. "You came later than I expected, Haruta nii-san."
"One must be prepared when visiting a stranger's home," Seiji responded.
"How can you say that I'm a stranger? We already know each other and even played a game together. That makes us friends!"
"I believe that we may have different understandings of the word 'friend', Kamitani-san."
"No need to act so seriously, you know."
As they spoke, the ambushers who collapsed on the ground all suddenly vanished.
There was then the sound of rapid bullet fire!
*Tat tat tat tat*
Seiji and Shika dodged the bullets in time by jumping behind a pipe. The bullets clanged loudly against the pipe.
The attack came from a man wearing a wolf head mask who wielded an assult rifle.
Kamitani looked towards the man. Black mist immediately appeared behind the man and transformed into a huge claw that captured him!
"My apologies for the poor welcome."
Seiji looked towards Kamitani and asked him directly, "...What exactly is your goal here?"
"Eh?"
"This dream, this so-called game, why did you create all this?"
"To let everyone have fun, of course!" Kamitani extended his palms. "That's how it is for all the games in the world!"
Seiji was rendered speechless.
He folded his arms and gave off an aura of "I'm just here to watch you spout bullshit."
"Fine, that's not quite entirely the case." Kamitani coughed. "The Messengers have their reason for creating this game... But please believe me, the only reason I'm hosting this game is because I want to have fun."
"Is it fun to toy around with others' lives?"
"I'm not toying around with lives, I'm simply toying with their souls."
The atmosphere suddenly became tense.
"No need to be so serious. Although some people died, it's their own fault." Kamitani chuckled as he noticed that Seiji had visibly become angry.
Seiji stared directly at Kamitani and inquired, "What exactly do you want to do? Previously, you said that people will die if I don't come. What did you mean by that?"
"I want to do an experiment. Although it's a bit early to do this, I feel that the game's current state isn't fun enough, so I've decided to perform it earlier than planned," Kamitani told him. "If you don't come, it's likely that more people than before will end up dying. Perhaps the dead will even include someone you know."
*Boom!!*
A tremendous fireball hit Kamitani and exploded into flames that seemed to represent Seiji's fury.
The black mist wiped away the flames. The silver-haired boy remained completely uninjured.
"Don't be like that. The person that you know entered this game of their own volition. I didn't force that person at all. And rather than death, I think that person might even receive benefits because they seem to have quite some potential."
"Who is it!?" Seiji clenched his fists.
"That's a secret~ It would be boring to tell you, so why don't you find out for yourself?" Kamitani chuckled.
Many possibilities flashed through Seiji's mind.
He thought that one person was more likely than the others, but there was too little information for him to go on right now.
"As for my experiment, rather than explaining about it, it'll be quicker to simply show you."
Before Seiji could ask any more questions, Kamitani waved his hand, bringing the black claw over to him and tossing the wolf-masked man on the ground.
The silver-haired boy then pointed and caused more black mist to appear, entering the wolf mask. This caused the man to scream out in pain.
"Wargh!!!!!!"
The man's body started expanding, while his clothes turned into fur. His screams transformed into a wolf's howling at the end. His mask grew to cover his entire face and distorted even more...
After a short few seconds, the wolf-masked man transformed into a gray wolfman with a powerful body that was more than two meters tall!
"I call these masks the 'Mask of Sin'. And, this transformation is known as 'Sin Activation'." Kamitani chatted as if he was a kid showing off his favorite toy.
Right after saying this, the wolfman howled as he charged towards Seiji and Shika!
*Boom!!*
Seiji shot out another large fireball that landed a direct hit on the wolfman's head.
Yet, this seemed to be useless as the wolfman dashed right through the flames and swung its claws at Seiji!
Seiji agilely dodged the attack, while Shika used a whirlwind kick to viciously kick the wolfman!
Shika's kick would have been powerful enough to send an ordinary adult flying a great distance away. However, the wolfman didn't even budge.
The wolfman's eyes gave off a blood-red glow as he furiously waved his claws! He was so fast that only afterimages could be seen.
Although Seiji and Shika were unarmed, they continuously retreated.
Shika then lifted her hands and formed sharp ice blades by summoning a chilly mist. She then took a chance to counterattack!
She successfully injured the wolfman's right paw. The wolfman roared in anger and spat out a large amount of grayish-white fluid at her!
Defense curse, [Turtle Armor]!
Seiji cast his overlapping defensive barrier and got in front of Shika in time to block this unavoidable attack.
The grayish-white fluid gave off an indescribably strange stink that was disgusting to inhale.
The injury on the wolfman's right paw speedily recovered; it was as if he'd never received the injury in the first place.
He then went around to the side to continue swiping with his claws. A fierce glint appeared in Seiji's eyes. Seiji suddenly gathered powerful white light on his right hand, then combined it with Yomi's power to transform it into a sword of light that emanated faint golden holy-like waves.
This was his [Evolved White Lotus Blade]!
With a slash and a flash of light, the wolfman's left paw was sliced off!
He wailed in pain and started retreating.
The next second, grayish liquid welled out of the injury and speedily formed the wolf's paw again. It was soon restored to its original form.
The wolfman then jumped upwards and started jumping swiftly between the corridors and buildings.
Seiji and Shika backed up against each other and observed him while remaining highly vigilant.
The wolfman continuously increased his speed through successive jumps, creating large numbers of afterimages everywhere. Finally, he suddenly jumped down from straight above! He opened his mouth and spat out enough grayish-white liquid to drown both of them...
*Shing!!*
A blade of light entered the wolfman's mouth and exited from the wolfman's lower half!
Seiji had seen through this attack and pierced the wolfman in midair.
His spiritual blade then exploded in a flash of brilliant light!
The wolfman's body was split into two halves from this explosion.
Grayish-white liquid splattered everywhere, causing everything to become indescribably stinky.
After the two halves landed on the ground, they soon started to squirm and appeared to be attempting to put themselves back together again with powerful regenerative abilities.
[Evolved Fire Bullet]!
Seiji sent out golden flames that burned half of the wolfman's body.
Shika froze and shattered the other half of the wolfman's body.
*Clap clap clap...* There was the sound of applause.
"Not bad," Kamitani praised them. "As you can see, Sin Activation can turn a normal human player that you should have easily been able to deal with into something that will give you slight difficulty. The more people a player kills in the game, the more beautiful the Mask of Sin will become and the more powerful the Sin Activation will be.
"The stronger the Sin Activation, the more difficult it will be to withstand. Game players that can't withstand it will have their minds shatter or even receive serious injuries to their souls to the point of death. If you don't want people to die, then you need to kill them to make them quit the game before that happens. Haruta nii-san, don't you really love saving people? Then hurry and kill all the players in here as quickly as possible, including that person you know."