Surviving the Death Hunt

The Will of the Underworld was a difficult Inheritance to wield, as V well understood. It granted the power of judgment, deciding who and what deserved to go to the underworld. Such power demanded absolute justice and complete impartiality from its wielder. V was perfectly suited.

Born into the Zheng clan, he’d always been treated like the chosen one, and, truthfully, he saw nothing wrong with that. He was indeed different from everyone else. He bore the Zheng clan’s principles proudly.

Like every Zheng, he sought to ease humanity’s burden. He wanted the world to know only peace and happiness. The path was clear: take their souls and shoulder their suffering himself.

But at the moment, fury consumed him. Leonard and Kong refused to give him space, their attacks were useless, yet they disrupted his plans.

The true danger, however, waited below. Theo, Ally of Mankind, was watching him.

Theo had prolonged its fight with the Gate God until dawn. V had anticipated this, he could feel Theo’s power even from here. He needed to go down there and end Theo. It couldn’t be allowed to disrupt his plans anymore.

"I need to take care of this confinement."

V muttered under his breath, glancing around to assess Leonard’s confinement. The energy barrier was impressively refined, breaking it would be a pain.

His mind cycled through possibilities. Overwhelming force to shatter it in one blow? Or unleash his stolen souls to wear it down?

Each possibility had drawbacks until one clear solution emerged: his Protector State. Being tier-4 meant his was fully equipped, refined to perfection.

But before V could trigger it, Leonard’s voice cut through, rushed and urgent.

"It’s alright, sir. I’d say Theo’s ready for him now."

Leonard dropped the barrier immediately. Kong was throwing a fit about their fight being over, so Leonard trapped him in confinement and bolted from the arena.

V paused, confused. He’d known during the battle that they weren’t fighting seriously, but not that they were working with Theo. Summoning Theo had required so many soul sacrifices. It made him question whether these heroes were truly different from himself.

But at the same time, while Leonard and Kong were still visible in the distance, V caught a scent that made him frown instantly.

His gaze shot to Theo, but Theo just stood there calmly; it wasn’t him. This feeling was both bizarre and achingly familiar, something V couldn’t forget no matter how much he might want to.

Before he could make sense of it, a blade sliced through the air toward him with impossible speed and precision. Even his protective souls, swirling constantly around him, almost failed to intercept it.

KWARK

His head snapped toward the source. There was Kaito, a member of the Kugo clan, his blade caught tight in the jaws of one of V’s protective souls.

Kaito struggled to escape, but with one crushing grind, the soul destroyed his blade completely. He started falling, but another soul caught him by the leg, beginning to devour him slowly.

The next moment surprised even V. Isa’s blade flashed through at lightning speed, severing the soul’s head and freeing Kaito. Though Kaito had already lost his leg.

But the following attack intrigued V. He was familiar with these techniques. Kaito’s first strike had used Water Breathing, so smooth and gentle that it had nearly slipped past even his souls’ guard.

Isa followed with the Lightning Breathing technique, moving so fast and precisely that his souls couldn’t even respond.

But the most dangerous and aggressive technique was being unleashed now: Fire Breathing and Haste drove it straight toward his head.

Reflexively, V sent more souls at Haste, but they might as well have been nothing. Though Haste was airborne without actual flight ability, staying aloft through sheer speed alone, he still cut through three souls without breaking his breathing technique.

V clicked his tongue in irritation before directing his souls to strike more aggressively. One caught Haste by the hand, breaking his momentum mid-strike.

It should have ended there, but the fierce determination in Haste’s gaze told a different story. He let the sword drop from his trapped hand and snatched it with the free one.

"Spider Breathing Technique, outburst."

The moment those words left his lips, V froze, trapped as if in a massive spiderweb. Then Haste struck with Fire Breathing, cutting through his own ensnared arm. In the same motion, the blade reached V’s neck.

V’s head was cleaved off cleanly. Before it could even fall, Isa struck with Lightning Breathing, a devastating blow that bisected V’s body. Then she caught Haste before he could plummet.

It seemed finished for a moment. Yet Theo remained below, observing with unsettling composure as if nothing unusual had transpired. More disturbing still: V, head severed and body halved, was smiling.

"Thank you," V whispered.

All at once, his souls took form again and rushed into his body as if compelled by survival instinct. V’s severed pieces fused back together seamlessly, leaving him looking untouched by the devastating wounds he’d just received.

This was why everyone hesitated to fight V, even entities like Theo. With Will of the Underworld, he held the remaining lifespans of every stolen soul, letting him swap souls or sacrifice souls in place of his own when death threatened.

Fighting V wasn’t the challenge, killing him was. How do you end someone with hundreds of lives?

"Ah, the Kugo clan. I knew you would come for me once I broke free. Still, I never imagined you’d grant me such a gift... restoring my forgotten memories."

He exhaled deeply.

"So you’ve perfected your technique and even created something as powerful as the Spider Breathing technique. Impressive. Had you possessed it decades ago, you might have succeeded in killing me. I wouldn’t have needed your clan."

Down below, Isa fought to hold back her own leader. While the others processed V’s survival, Haste wanted nothing more than to attack again. Isa restrained him anyway, accepting the punishment that would surely come.

Haste’s gaze found Isa and Kaito. His eyes were empty, lifeless—dark as though the soul behind them had died.

"I’ll kill you all as painfully as possible."

The words came again and again, spoken with absolute certainty. Haste’s devotion to the Kugo clan exceeded even that of his fellow Four Wings. The clan’s decree was clear: V must fall to a Kugo blade. Anyone standing in his way was an enemy, friend or not.

Haste’s dangerous state didn’t continue long. Kaito hit him from behind, rendering him unconscious just as V began speaking again.

"You’ve done well to last this long. I won’t kill you today, take your time and recover, or leave if you wish. It won’t change your fate. When the time comes, you will die."

With a gentle smile, V started descending through the air toward Theo below.

"You must be Theo... the so-called Ally of Mankind. How much longer will you deceive humanity about what you truly are?"