Six hours passed slowly and cruelly, amidst Hattori Heizo's increasingly heavy and desperate gasps, and under the angry or horrified gazes before countless screens.
Kanjuro indeed 'kept his promise.'
When the notification sound for the end of the first hour (an exquisite little bell Kanjuro had found from somewhere, its crisp ring sounding like a death knell at this moment) rang out, he didn't even give the outside world any time to react.
The live camera focused coldly on Hattori Heizo's left hand, which was trembling violently from fear.
"Time's up." Kanjuro's voice came through the microphone, clear and calm, as if he were merely stating an objective fact.
A flash of black light streaked across—it wasn't a blade or a sword, but a beam of light condensed from pure dark energy, sharper than any physical edge.
"Aaahhh!!!"
Hattori Heizo let out a scream so shrill it didn't sound human. His left pinky finger was severed at the base and fell to the ground. However, blood didn't gush from the wound; instead, it was covered and eroded by a layer of writhing black energy, bringing a torment that went far beyond mere physical pain, piercing deep into his marrow and soul.
The camera clearly captured his face, contorted by extreme agony, and the finger on the ground, which was rapidly turning grey and decaying.
The second hour, the ring finger.
The third hour, the middle finger... When the bell for the sixth hour rang, only a solitary thumb remained on Hattori Heizo's left hand, curled up in extreme terror. The black energy at the stumps pulsed slightly like a living thing, reminding everyone that this was no nightmare, but a cruel reality unfolding before them.
"Useless! You're all useless!!" Hattori Heizo's mental defenses completely collapsed under the continuous pain and fear. Tears and snot streaming down his face, he roared hysterically at the camera, toward his subordinates who might still be trying (or rather, struggling): "Hurry up!! Find them, hurry!! One hundred! They have to be beautiful! They must be virgins!! Hurry!! Do you want to see me die?!"
He was no longer a Chief Superintendent, no longer a defender of justice; he was merely a pitiful wretch who had discarded all dignity under the demon's blade, even actively aiding the villain just to cling to a few more moments of life.
Under immense pressure and humiliation, the high-ranking officials of the Island Nation's police finally gathered one hundred female officers from their ranks. After medical verification, they were driven to the cordon outside the police station.
However, when these one hundred female officers—pale-faced and eyes filled with fear, anger, or numbness—were forced to line up before the camera—
Kanjuro merely glanced at them casually, his lips curling into a sneer of undisguised mockery.
"Heh... did you think I was that easy to fool?" He shook his head gently, as if lamenting a child's trick. "The second one in the third row on the left, the first one in the fifth row on the right, and... tsk tsk, at least three of them have turbid auras; they are no longer virgins."
His gaze seemed capable of piercing through all disguises to see the truth beneath.
"It seems your sincerity is lacking." Kanjuro sighed, his tone carrying a hint of pleasant cruelty. "Then... I'll have to collect a little more 'interest'."
Before his voice could fade, that lethal black light flashed again!
This time, the target was Hattori Heizo's right leg!
"No—!!!" Hattori Heizo let out a desperate wail.
The black light swept past, and his entire right leg was cleanly severed from the hip! The dull thud of the limb hitting the ground, accompanied by his heart-wrenching screams, slammed into the nerves of every viewer through the live broadcast signal.
"If you dare to try and fool me with defective products again," Kanjuro's voice was as cold as eternal ice, "what you lose won't just be a limb."
This bloody and precise punishment completely shattered the last shred of hope the police held. They finally understood that in front of this demon, any small tricks were futile and would only lead to more brutal consequences.
Thus, an even more thorough and humiliating screening began. Not only did they have to confirm 'aptitude,' but even appearance became a mandatory criterion—Kanjuro had explicitly stated that anyone "too ugly" would not do.
When Kanjuro pickily pointed out a few more among the subsequent female officers due to their appearance, he didn't touch Hattori Heizo's other leg, but instead turned his attention to his remaining fingers.
Amidst Hattori Heizo's rising, hair-raising wails, the fingers of his right hand also bid farewell to his body one by one.
Finally, when Hattori Heizo lay slumped in a pool of blood and severed limbs like a broken doll, with only his right thumb remaining and his breath fading—
The Island Nation's police finally gathered one hundred young, beautiful female officers who met all of Kanjuro's harsh requirements and were forced to prove their status as virgins.
They were driven like lambs to the slaughter, huddling outside the main gates of the police station, looking in terror at the building that had swallowed the lives of countless colleagues and now resembled a demon's den.
Kanjuro smiled with satisfaction as he watched the real-time footage from outside.
He walked over to the dying Hattori Heizo and lightly tapped his only intact right thumb with the tip of his boot.
"See? If you had been this obedient from the start, you wouldn't have had to suffer so much, would you?"
"Your so-called persistence and dignity are just so laughable and... fragile in the face of absolute power and the desire to survive."
He turned to the camera, revealing the dark smile of a victor.
"The first batch of'sacrifices' is in place."
"The game enters the next stage." Kanjuro looked at the terrified, angry, yet helpless gazes outside the barrier, the curve of his lips deepening. With a gentle wave of his hand, the barrier of dark energy that separated the inside from the outside rippled slightly, parting like the surface of water to create an entrance just wide enough for one person.
"Come in, my new 'assistants'." His voice carried an irresistible magic as it reached the ears of the hundred female officers through the barrier.
The female officers looked at each other, their faces etched with fear and struggle. But looking at Hattori Heizo suspended in mid-air like a bloody warning, and thinking of the hellish screening process and the inhuman power Kanjuro had displayed, their survival instinct and fear of unknown punishment finally crushed their will.
One by one, with heads bowed and heavy steps, they walked into the dark barrier that cut off everything. When the last person entered, the entrance closed silently, becoming whole once more. The outside world could no longer see anything within; they could only see Hattori Heizo's broken body still eerily suspended in the air like a cruel totem.
Inside the barrier, it was not the bloody slaughterhouse they had imagined, but a bizarre realm where space and time were distorted. All sounds and sights from the outside were completely cut off, leaving only absolute silence and a pervasive, heart-palpitating dark energy.
The hundred female officers huddled together nervously, like a startled herd of deer.
Kanjuro stood before them, his gaze calmly scanning those young faces filled with terror and despair.
"I know what you're thinking." He spoke, his voice echoing in the silent barrier. "Fear, anger, resentment, and perhaps a flicker of some ridiculous notion of resistance."
He slowly raised his hand, palm upward, and a dense, seemingly living mass of dark energy gathered and swirled within it.
"But soon, you will no longer be troubled by these useless emotions."
As he finished speaking, the mass of dark energy suddenly burst, turning into a hundred fine streaks of black light that, like living vipers, accurately plunged into the foreheads of every female officer!
"Ugh... aah!"
Shrill screams instantly filled the barrier!
The female officers collapsed to the ground in pain, clutching their heads as their bodies twitched and convulsed violently. Their consciousness was being forcibly invaded and remodeled. Past memories, held beliefs, and individual wills all rapidly crumbled and collapsed like sandcastles under the wash of that pure and overbearing dark energy.
(The process and transformation were glossed over in an instant)
As the waves of pain gradually subsided, silence returned to the barrier.
One by one, the hundred female officers slowly stood up from the ground.
Their eyes had completely changed. The former fear, anger, and struggle had vanished, replaced by an absolute, fanatical piety and cold obedience. At some point, their tattered police uniforms had been replaced by a uniform, dark-patterned, black form-fitting attire that outlined their athletic figures while adding a sense of eeriness and lethality.
Their movements were perfectly synchronized, like soldiers tempered through a thousand trials. They knelt on one knee in unison, bowing their heads, and swore an oath with voices of profound respect that sounded almost like a chant:
"Master!"
The voices echoed within the barrier, filled with unquestionable loyalty.
Kanjuro looked at the brand-new power before him that belonged entirely to him, a satisfied expression appearing on his face. He could clearly feel the unbreakable dark link established with these hundred souls. Their lives and wills were entirely within his grasp.
"Very well." Kanjuro nodded slightly. "From this day forward, you no longer belong to that laughable justice. You are my shadows, my blades. Your name shall be the 'Valkyries of the Dark Night'."
"Yes! Master!" The hundred voices rang out in unison once more, without a hint of hesitation.
With a thought from Kanjuro, the barrier separating the inside from the outside slowly receded like a tide.
The outside sunlight shone in once again, but what greeted everyone's eyes was no longer those hundred terrified and helpless female officers, but a disciplined, cold, and fanatical black unit radiating an ominous dark aura! They stood silently behind Kanjuro like the most loyal of guards.
Hattori Heizo, who was originally suspended in the air, was thrown to the ground by an invisible force like a bag of trash, falling into a pool of blood. The last bit of consciousness allowed him to see this scene that utterly shattered his soul—the female police officers under his command had all turned into the devil's most loyal minions in such a short time!
"This... this is impossible..." He let out a faint groan like weeping blood, and finally, his head tilted to the side, though it was unclear if he had fainted or died in complete despair.
Kanjuro didn't spare Hattori Heizo another glance. His gaze swept over the police personnel and various factions in the distance who were exposed again because the barrier had vanished, yet were struck speechless with horror by the sudden change. A cold smile curled at the corners of his mouth.
He gave a gentle wave of his hand.
Behind him, a hundred Valkyries of the Dark Night raised their arms simultaneously. Dark energy gathered in their palms, emitting a chilling vibration.
"The game is only truly beginning now."
"And the rules are set by me."
Following his words, a storm even more bloody and desperate, with the Valkyries of the Dark Night as the vanguard, was about to sweep through all of Osaka and even further afield. At this moment, Kanjuro's power completed a qualitative leap. Kanjuro's command echoed in the soul link of every Valkyrie of the Dark Night like the whisper of the God of Death. It was no longer a request, but the sole purpose of their existence.
"Valkyries of the Dark Night, take your orders." Kanjuro's voice was calm yet carried infinite majesty. He pointed his hand toward the police, Special Forces, and those further away who were still trying to maintain order and set up defensive lines, all thrown into chaos by the sudden change outside the barrier.
"Clear everyone before your eyes who is wearing a police uniform or is a male holding a weapon."
"Leave none alive."
The moment the command was given, a cold and fanatical killing intent burst forth from the eyes of the hundred Valkyries of the Dark Night. The dark energy surging within them suddenly boiled, burning around them like black flames.
The next second, they moved.
There were no shouts, no hesitation, only ghost-like speed and a killing efficiency precise to the extreme. A hundred black figures, like arrows released from a bow, instantly charged into the caught-off-guard crowd!
Act One: The Collapse of the Defense Line
The fragile defense lines originally built with police cars and temporary cover were practically non-existent before the Valkyries of the Dark Night. They didn't even need to use firearms; their slender fingers, entwined with dark energy like the sharpest blades, easily tore through bulletproof vests, slit throats, or directly pierced through chests. A member of the Special Forces had just raised his assault rifle when a flash of black light appeared before his eyes, and his head flew into the air with an expression of shock. The defense line disintegrated within a dozen seconds, as severed limbs and terrified screams replaced the original tactical formations.
Act Two: The Hunt Begins
The slaughter did not stop. Like a spreading net of death, the Valkyries of the Dark Night expanded from the police station toward the surrounding streets. Their target was clear—all males wearing police uniforms. A patrolman hiding on a street corner trying to call for backup on his radio was dragged into the darkness by a tentacle of dark energy stretching from the shadows, only having time to let out a short, muffled groan. A patrol car arriving on the scene was flipped over by a Valkyrie with her bare hands; amidst the flames of the explosion, she indifferently executed the male officers trying to crawl out one by one.
Act Three: Systematic Despair
Inside the police communication channels, everything was already in total chaos, filled with incomprehensible reports and desperate cries:
"They aren't human! They're monsters!"
"Requesting backup! Ah—!"
"The Third Squad is wiped out! Repeat, the Third Squad is wiped out!"
"They are moving toward the residential areas! We can't stop them!"
The command system was nearly paralyzed because any commander attempting to organize a counterattack would become a priority target for the Valkyries of the Dark Night. Osaka's police force suffered a devastating blow at the hands of their own 'converted' colleagues. The blue police uniforms that once symbolized order and safety had now become the most conspicuous marks of death.
Act Four: The City's Wail
The news spread through the citizens of Osaka like a plague, and panic diffused at an alarming rate. Vehicles clogged the streets as people fled their homes in terror, yet they knew not where to run. Shops closed, traffic was paralyzed, and the sounds of crying and screaming intertwined with the occasional distant explosions and gunshots (occasionally an officer managed to fire, but they could almost never hit the ghost-like Valkyries), turning this prosperous city into a living hell. Blood stained the streets, and the once orderly city proved fragile and defenseless under the crushing weight of dark power.
Kanjuro remained standing where he was, like a spectator removed from the events. Hattori Shizuka and Toyama Kazuha snuggled against him on either side, watching this bloody feast that he had directed.
"Look, what beautiful fireworks," Kanjuro said softly, his tone carrying a hint of appreciation.
"Brother Kanjuro is the best!" Kazuha's eyes were filled with the light of adoration.
Shizuka looked deeply at Kanjuro's profile and whispered, "This is... true power. The power to destroy the old order and establish new rules."
Meanwhile, the hundred Valkyries of the Dark Night faithfully carried out the order of massacre like tireless killing machines, sowing death and despair in every corner of Osaka. Their existence was itself Kanjuro's most naked declaration to the world—those who follow me shall prosper, and those who oppose me shall perish.
Under the iron hooves of the Valkyries of the Dark Night, Osaka fell into unprecedented misery. And this was only the beginning of Kanjuro's vast ambition.
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