Campione: Strongest# 470: My Name Is...

A ten-story building.

Two crescent-shaped apartments joined together, forming what appeared from outside like a massive spiral cylinder.

White walls enclosed the building's base, wrapping the entire structure with only a single walkway through the main gate leading to the building's entrance.

Shiki strode through the wall as if to spite him, immediately sensing something wrong.

The apartment beside the highway should have been constantly surrounded by traffic noise. Yet now, the silence was absolute—deathlike.

An uncanny sensation permeated the air. Though she could breathe normally, it felt as if no oxygen entered her lungs—like standing in some twisted mirror dimension.

With her back to Haru, Shiki stopped walking. She gripped her katana's scabbard tightly, her expression grave. "What is this?"

Haru, surveying their surroundings, turned at her question and explained gently:

"The highest magecraft that erodes reality with one's inner fantasy. Called the secret among secrets, the magecraft closest to True Magic—a Reality Marble."

"The technique's weakness is constantly resisting the Counter Force's corrections, requiring massive magical energy. At a human mage's limit, it could last one minute at most."

"From what I can see, they've used architectural magecraft here—intertwining the Yin of the entrance with the Yang of the building, using the spiral's contradiction to generate massive amounts of magical energy, shifting the supply from internal to external—"

Haru's mouth twitched as he stopped his explanation, watching Shiki walk away with exasperation.

His form flickered, crossing dozens of meters instantly to follow her. "I was about to explain how to counter it. Why'd you leave?"

"Why talk so much? I'll just cut through it." Shiki glanced back, her brilliant [Mystic Eyes of Death Perception] active, voice cold as winter.

To emphasize the concept of 'cutting,' she swung her blade, the air shrieking with its passage.

During the slash, the girl's dangerous gaze lingered meaningfully on Haru's neck.

Under the Mystic Eyes' stare, a chill ran up Haru's spine to his brain. He shrugged helplessly. "Fine, you win."

When exactly had this girl become so violent, threatening to cut people at the slightest provocation?

She was definitely about to go yandere on him, wasn't she? Definitely?

Grumbling internally, Haru followed Shiki into the first-floor lobby.

—————

Ogawa Apartments' Top Floor Hall

Araya Souren stood rigidly in the empty hall's center, his expression bitter.

As the Reality Marble's creator, Araya could sense every movement within Ogawa Apartments. The moment Haru and Shiki entered the main gate, he'd detected their presence.

"Unexpected. Shiki Ryougi has come to this contradictory spiral without my guidance." Araya opened his eyes.

Van-Fem stood beside Araya, swirling blood in his glass, his expression intoxicated by the crimson liquid.

"Isn't this perfect? Saves us trouble, Mr. Araya."

Under the rooftop's brilliant lights, the blood sparkled with rainbow hues, breathtakingly beautiful.

Blood extracted at specific times from pure maidens raised on medicinal diets—in a sense, this was gourmet 'cuisine' only Dead Apostle kings could enjoy.

"However, that God has also arrived. Though it shames me to admit, my methods seem ineffective against him." Araya's voice was heavy.

His only weapons were barrier techniques centered on his 'Stillness' Origin and this Reality Marble. Against that monster from the Age of Gods' apex, they were woefully inadequate.

Van-Fem sipped the blood delicately, letting it stain his lips red.

"Oh? Then I'll handle the God. Speaking of which, how nostalgic—the taste of god's blood."

"If Lord Van-Fem will act, nothing could be better." Araya's voice held no joy at escaping danger, only heavy suffering.

"Then I'll trouble you, Mr. Araya. Walking down slowly would be rather tedious."

Van-Fem dropped his wine glass, listening to the glass shatter, letting the precious unfinished blood spill across the brown tiles.

Araya nodded, forming a mudra and commanding:

"—Suppress!"

Van-Fem's figure vanished instantly from the hall.

"His personality has changed too much. What happened to the Fourteenth Ancestor? ...No matter. All I seek is the Root's end."

His bitter voice echoed through the empty hall.

—————

Passing through the apartment entrance, they first saw a spacious circular lobby. At its center, a massive pillar like the building's spine dominated the space.

At the pillar's base was a wide elevator door. Before it stood a figure.

"Our first meeting, Lord of the Christian pantheon."

The polite greeting echoed softly through the lobby.

Haru narrowed his eyes, studying the figure by the elevator. A middle-aged man in deep purple suit with brown hair and handlebar mustache bowed elegantly.

Shiki blinked, turning to Haru with confusion. Lord of the Christian pantheon? That Yahweh??

"And you are?" Haru looked at the man, puzzled.

From his memory, he'd never met this middle-aged man before.

But the man's expression—like seeing an old acquaintance—and the undisguisable hatred in his eyes told Haru he was viewed as a mortal enemy.

"Oh, right. Meeting you in this stolen body, it's natural you wouldn't recognize me." The man frowned slightly, seeming troubled.

"Then, do you perhaps remember the pitiful soul you and Crimson Moon sealed together eighteen hundred years ago?"

Words dripping with abyssal hatred echoed through the air.

The thick aura of loathing made Shiki's face change. She retreated several steps.

Haru stepped forward, shielding Shiki, looking at the man with bewilderment.

He blinked, his tone strange. "Eighteen hundred years ago? Working with Crimson Moon?"

Setting aside that he'd just turned thirty this year—when facing mortal enemies, he always obliterated them body and soul. Why would he deliberately seal someone?

Who would do something so stupid as sealing an enemy, then worrying day and night about their revenge?

"Sorry, no memory of that. So who exactly are you?" Haru raised his right hand, picking his ear with his pinky, squinting with dead-fish eyes, his tone flat.

"Hehehehehehe~"

Eerie laughter spilled from the man's mouth.

He covered half his face with white-gloved hands, crimson Dead Apostle eyes blazing with infinite hatred at Haru.

"Then let me remind you—remind you of my name—

—The Dark Six Royalty Rights!"

BOOM—!!!