Chapter 224: The Ruins Beneath the Monster Association
The moment the crushing psychic force pinned him down, Sonic called out within his mind.
"Asuramaru, give me everything."
They had settled on this plan before entering the Monster Association.
There would be no testing the enemy, no drawn out struggle, and no mercy.
Sonic would enter at full strength and slaughter every Monster gathered before him.
Inside the sword, Asuramaru responded without hesitation.
Demon Power flooded into Sonic's body.
Ittō Shura activated.
Demon Lord Possession followed.
Purple armor formed around him as a demonic mask covered his face, but his power continued to rise.
He was still short of true God level.
Asuramaru pushed Demonization to the absolute limit Sonic's body could endure.
The amount of Demon Power consumed with every passing second became astronomical.
Light purple markings spread across Sonic's face beneath the mask. His eyes changed color, and a pair of demonic horns emerged from his forehead.
Then the final barrier shattered.
His power reached its peak.
Sonic had truly stepped into God level.
The pressure weighing upon him disappeared.
Psykos's psychic power, which had felt like a mountain moments earlier, became so insignificant that Sonic could barely sense it.
The attacks approaching from every direction seemed to stop in midair.
Even time itself appeared frozen.
Sonic felt the power coursing through him.
It was enough to overturn the world.
A confident smile appeared beneath his mask.
Asuramaru immediately ruined the moment.
"You can maintain this state for only three minutes."
His voice turned stern.
"Do not waste them."
Three minutes.
For an ordinary person, it was barely any time at all.
For Sonic as he was now, it felt almost endless.
His hand closed around the hilt.
The sword left its sheath.
Sonic vanished.
A dark afterimage crossed the chamber.
Cold light flashed once.
The attacks that had surrounded him continued forward, striking only empty space.
Then the heads of the Monster Association's strongest members separated from their bodies.
Gums was split apart from top to bottom.
Overgrown Rover's enormous head fell from its shoulders.
Homeless Emperor, Psykos, and even Monster King Orochi were decapitated before any of them understood that Sonic had moved.
Evil Natural Water was torn apart as well, but its unusual body prevented it from dying completely. The scattered liquid collapsed into a puddle among the ruins.
Only Black Sperm avoided suffering a fatal injury.
His body was cut in half.
A moment later, the two halves became two separate Black Sperms.
Just one attack.
That was all it had taken.
Black Sperm had not even seen the sword move.
When he recovered from the shock and looked around, horror flooded his face.
It was not only him.
Every powerful Monster in the chamber had been struck down at the same time.
A chill rushed through his entire body.
There was no time to think.
Black Sperm divided into hundreds of copies.
Those copies split again while fleeing through different passages, rapidly becoming thousands.
As long as even one of them survived, Black Sperm would not truly die.
Sonic appeared in front of the fleeing swarm.
He swung his sword.
Countless Black Sperms were shredded in a single flash.
The severed pieces split again.
Every fragment transformed into another complete body, and each possessed Demon level strength.
Before Sonic, they were still nothing more than ants.
"So you multiply whenever you are cut?"
Sonic watched the black swarm spread throughout the chamber.
"Annoying."
A violent presence rose behind him.
Monster King Orochi had not died.
His severed head reconnected with his body, and the colossal Monster finally rose from his throne.
Dozens of serpent shaped cannons emerged from his flesh.
They opened their jaws and fired at Sonic from every direction.
At the same time, Orochi drove his fists forward, unleashing the martial arts he had copied and mastered.
The situation could not have been worse for him.
In a single instant, nearly the entire combat force of the Monster Association had been destroyed.
Only Orochi and Black Sperm remained capable of fighting.
Yet rather than break his will, the overwhelming danger ignited Orochi's fighting spirit.
Sonic appeared before him.
The sword swept across Orochi's neck once again.
His head fell.
This time, Orochi did not reconnect it.
Instead, the abyssal cavity in his chest churned violently.
His flesh twisted and expanded, rebuilding itself around a new core. Flames covered his rapidly transforming body until he emerged in a completely different form.
Orochi struck the ground.
The colossal serpents growing from him fired together.
The entire floor beneath the Monster Association shattered.
"It has been a long time since anyone awakened this much fighting spirit within me."
Orochi's voice thundered through the collapsing chamber.
"I invite you to continue our battle below."
The ground gave way.
Orochi fell into the depths.
Sonic stood upon one of the viewing platforms and glanced toward the countless Black Sperm clones nearby.
Then he jumped after Orochi.
Black Sperm hesitated for a moment before following.
Before descending, however, he separated a mass containing hundreds of millions of cells and ordered it to remain behind.
That way, even if the body below was destroyed, Black Sperm would still survive.
The three descended into the darkness.
Sonic landed upon a reef of black stone.
Only then did he see the hidden world buried beneath the Monster Association.
Ancient ruins stretched across an enormous cavern filled with magma. Weathered structures rose from the molten lake, their surfaces carved with symbols from a forgotten age.
Monster King Orochi stood within the magma.
He looked toward Sonic on the distant reef.
"Magnificent, is it not?"
Orochi spread his arms toward the ruins.
"I discovered this place long ago."
"These carvings reveal the secret through which my race may attain godhood."
Sonic looked toward the stone tablet looming above the ruins.
Orochi continued.
"A sacrifice is required."
His many eyes fixed upon Sonic.
"And today, that sacrifice has finally come to me."
"If I kill and devour you here, I will be reborn."
His voice shook the cavern.
"I will become the God of this planet!"
Sonic studied the ancient tablet with obvious doubt.
"If anyone on Earth deserves to become a God, it would be Saitama."
He looked back at Orochi.
"Are you certain this is not some ancient fraud?"
"It does not matter."
Orochi's tail plunged deep into the magma.
"We will know once I succeed!"
The appendage continued downward, piercing into the depths of the planet.
Orochi began drawing energy from the Earth's core.
The consequences spread across the world at once.
City Z was struck by a violent earthquake.
Volcanoes erupted in distant regions.
The ground trembled as a portion of the planet's power flowed toward the ancient ruins.
That energy gathered within Orochi.
Light blazed from the opening in his chest.
"Take this!"
The cavern shook beneath his roar.
"Gaia Cannon!"
A colossal beam erupted from Orochi's chest.
It carried a fragment of the Earth's own power.
For the first time since reaching God level, Sonic felt genuine pressure.
The attack contained extraordinary power.
But it was far too slow.
Sonic formed a hand seal.
"Flying Thunder God!"
A spatial barrier opened before him.
The Gaia Cannon entered the distortion and vanished.
Orochi's expression changed.
"Impossible."
His eyes widened.
"What did you do?"
A Flying Thunder God Mark glowed upon Orochi's neck.
Space twisted.
The Gaia Cannon reappeared directly in front of his chest.
Orochi had no time to evade.
His own attack struck him.
Endless radiance swallowed the ruins.
The resulting explosion shook the entire underground world.
The beam tore upward through layer after layer of earth before piercing the surface and shooting into the clouds.
Nearly half of the Ghost Town collapsed.
The surrounding mountains caved in as well, leaving behind a vast sinkhole of unimaginable size.
And all of that destruction was merely the aftermath.
When the light finally faded, Orochi's shattered body lay scattered throughout the magma.
Even then, a trace of life remained.
With his last strength, Monster King Orochi raised his ruined head.
"What..."
His voice had become a weak rasp.
"What just happened?"
....
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