Chapter 166: I want to ask you something.

Without losing a single second, Kai swiftly extended his swords forward, then conjured a new Jian sword in the center, aimed directly at the female Drider. At that moment, his swords began to spark with huge purple electric arcs, and a few instants later, he announced in a furious voice.

“Railgun!!”

With Kai’s announcement, the middle sword shot forward at hypersonic speed toward the female Drider, reaching her almost instantly. But to Kai’s surprise, it came to a sudden stop in midair just a few centimeters from the Drider’s chest, trapped by countless ghostly webs that seemed to emerge from space itself.

(That’s something similar to the webs that wrapped me up before, activating instantly without any warning. But at the same time, they’re different; these are ghostly and don’t appear to be corrosive, so there must be limitations. That also explains why, in the beginning, instead of wrapping me in corrosive webs, she only pulled me in with a ghostly web. It makes perfect sense—after all, even my aura has limitations, so it’s time to play dirty.)

[We’re going to discover the secrets of this thing!] With that goal in mind, Kai quickly communicated with his trusty assistant, who answered brimming with resolve, holding her miniature Jian swords and with her wings shining like a kaleidoscope.

[I’ll follow your lead, Master!]

Immediately, with a single thought, Kai separated a dozen swords from the group attacking the spider horde and sent them from different angles toward the female Drider, only visualizing the rough direction of the attack, while Sage handled the specific controls on her own. At the same time, he separated another six swords, which he quickly set to [In] mode, then arranged them in groups of three in two opposite directions, both pointing at the female Drider.

While the swords that would serve as ‘cannons’ charged with energy, and the others repelled the waves of spiders attacking fearlessly, and the webs sent by the Drider—mainly using flying slashes and the four remaining swords flying around him—Kai carefully analyzed the monster’s responses to the omnidirectional sword assault.

Due to her deep mental connection with her master, Sage only needed a small mental command to know exactly what he wanted. So she swiftly controlled things to perform different types of attacks: from flying slashes to physically stabbing or cutting, even attacking with swords in [In] mode, also wanting to test the reach of the monster’s perception.

With great interest, Kai watched the female Drider use hardened webs to repel attacks, and she even managed to dodge, displaying impressive flexibility and speed for her massive four-meter body. She also demonstrated that she could sense swords in [In] mode, so Kai instantly activated the six invisible swords in the air without saying anything.

Not speaking the ability’s name out loud would inevitably reduce its power since practically all his abilities had a pact that, if he spoke their names clearly and out loud, they would be significantly boosted. Added to that was the [In] state, which also greatly weakened them. But because they had been charging for a while, they would still have enough strength to test the hypothesis in his mind.

With the two Railgun shots, Kai saw—thanks to Gyo in his eyes—how webs materialized out of nowhere to stop the two swords flying at hypersonic speed. However, at the same time, the webs attacking him underwent a strange change, losing much of their speed, while the endless sea of attacking spiders froze for an instant.

[Sage! Now let’s try sending attacks at different speeds!]

Knowing that he had discovered something, Kai quickly gave the order while unleashing his electric aura to the fullest. At the same time, he ‘commanded’ the swords attacking the sea of spiders to go berserk, making the most of the moment, to which Sage promptly responded, perfectly aware of what her master meant.

[Right away.]

With great fluidity, Sage quickly separated half of the swords she was using to attack, then arranged them in groups of three aimed at the Drider. After which she announced in a loud voice in unison with her master, pointing her right sword at the monster.

““Railgun!!””

With Sage’s precise control, eight swords shot out at different speeds and from different directions at the Drider, from hypersonic to transonic. The result was that all the swords at supersonic speed were stopped by ghostly webs, but the slower ones—two that barely managed to touch the sonic barrier—managed to get through and destroyed a hardened web around the Drider, striking her humanoid chest and side head-on.

[It’s highly likely that this thing saw my speed or saw when I used Railgun before to kill—err, to attack whoever tried to detain Eva. It could even have been her who tried. So she’s playing it safe, and she set a ‘conditional defense’ specifically for that, and now she’s paying for it, which is why she’s not using more powerful things like the corrosive cocoon!

[We can conclude there are two ways she uses her webs: those that come out of her rear—manual mode—and those that materialize from nowhere—conditional mode. And this second one consumes a lot more energy and has limits, so it’s likely she can’t maintain many of those conditions at once, while the manual ones depend entirely on her perception!]

With a certain excitement, Kai quickly shared his analysis through the connection as he watched two of his swords fully impaling the Drider. He immediately sent thick purple lightning bolts to strike her, and Sage promptly replied while sending the swords again to attack the wounded Drider, without forgetting to continue massacring the sea of spiders, always targeting the strongest ones first.

[So we need a powerful attack that doesn’t rely on speed!]

Right then, the female Drider screeched with fury, causing a large number of spiders in the horde to start exploding, creating a rain of blood over the others. For some reason, this made them grow at an accelerated rate. At the same time, a huge number of webs began to quickly surround the Drider herself, protecting her from attacks. At that moment, Kai felt a strong pull on his leg that threw him into the center of the spider horde.

(Hehe, I knew it.)

As he fell at high speed toward the spider horde, Kai glanced down at his right foot, quickly noticing a ghostly web about to vanish—a rather weak attack compared to the corrosive cocoon that almost killed him. This basically confirmed that the conditional webs were a heavy burden on the Drider and that she couldn’t afford to do more powerful things.

At the same time, it served to solidify his idea that there were basically two ‘sets of conditions’ active at all times. First, if he moved too far away, he’d be wrapped in the corrosive cocoon—something unavoidable and capable of killing him. The second was a ‘perfect defense’ against speed, instantly trapping anything that came too fast toward the female Drider in ghostly webs.

Meanwhile, aside from the webs, the female Drider definitely had the power to control the rest of the spiders and, from how they were growing, even empower them with certain sacrifices. That easily let him see how he might kill her, since his normal slashes weren’t enough to get through her defenses, and most of his finishing attacks depended on speed or were too draining, like Kame Hame Ha or Big Bang Attack, which would leave him exposed if he failed. So his best option was to go in with a punch.

“Electric Whirlwind Slash!”

Having reached an initial plan to finish off the spider, Kai quickly spun at high speed like a top in the air and announced, unleashing a massive barrage of colossal electric slashes indiscriminately upon the spider horde. This caused an even more brutal massacre than what the swords were already doing, raising a multicolored bloody mist into the air while the ground shook violently and deep cracks formed in it. At that moment, Kai stopped spinning.

Controlling his strength, Kai quickly kicked the air to shoot himself toward the Drider, at the same time that his right sword disappeared. He clenched his fist tightly, which began to glow intensely with a dark purple ominous electric light that grew brighter at great speed, becoming incredibly dazzling.

Upon arriving in front of the Drider, Kai somehow sensed a certain nervousness in her as she sent a dozen webs to attack him, given that Sage’s sword attacks had become more erratic. But with great concentration, the blue-eyed boy activated his future vision to see what would happen, wary that a web might suddenly split while he dodged, as before.

Through his future vision, Kai noticed that indeed a couple of webs would split, so he preemptively sent two of the four swords floating around him to intercept. At the same time, he evaded with fluid movements the rest of them, keeping the other two swords just in case something unexpected happened. But it seemed there was a limit to the ability of ‘normal webs’ to split mid-flight, which allowed him to reach the monster without much trouble.

“Electric Colla—”

Just as Kai was about to unleash one of his most powerful attacks on the Drider, suddenly a sort of woven ghostly web formed out of nowhere right in front of him. At that moment, something incredibly fast went through his chest from side to side, leaving a large hole and preventing him from finishing the name of his attack, knocking him backward. Luckily, that blow didn’t reach his necklaces.

“MASTER!!!!!”

Hearing Sage’s desperate scream, Kai reacted quickly; since he couldn’t speak because his mouth filled with blood, he rapidly struck the air with his fist, causing a brutal explosion to erupt before him, flooding everything with a blinding purple electric glare. A shockwave knocked him back even further, allowing him to see from a distance how thick purple electric arcs obliterated everything around them.

[It was the electric spider, right?]

While feeling his aura move erratically in an attempt to keep him alive despite the 30 cm hole in his chest, Kai asked almost rhetorically. Although that spider’s presence had somehow weakened, thanks to Trace he already knew which one it was, and inevitably, a bitter expression formed on his face.

When he tried to run away the first time, he sensed the electric spider moving for the first time. But after the female Drider caught him, it stopped, so he ignored it. Somehow, though, that spider—previously over 20 km away—suddenly appeared out of nowhere and pierced his chest, breaking his Armament Haki at the cost of its own life.

[That’s not important, Master. You have to run!! You’ve been poisoned, and your left lung is compromised. There’s no way to defeat those things!!]

Upon hearing Sage’s agitated, worried voice, Kai couldn’t help but smile bitterly, not caring in the slightest about the spider horde trying to attack him while the flying swords took them out around him. After all, there was something much more terrifying going on—a second colossal ‘voice’ had suddenly appeared next to the wounded female Drider.

[Mystical Hand won’t be enough to close that hole, and using Angel’s Breath would be suicide. Do you really think there’s any chance of escaping from the female Drider and the new ‘voice’, Sage?]

Faced with her master’s question, Sage fell silent, as the answer was obvious. The odds were practically zero. Her master had barely a little over a minute left of Inverse Flow; after that, all his aura would vanish. And although they had more or less figured out the female Drider’s webs, now that a monster of similar strength had joined her, there was no hope. The lovely fairy could only speak in a pained tone.

[But Master, we can’t give up. Your aura reserves will last for another minute; there must be something we can do…]

Using his aura to stop feeling the pain throughout his body, Kai got up off the ground and summoned his Jian swords once more into his hands. At that moment, he spoke in a calm, steady voice through the mental connection, his attention fixed on the two ‘voices’ hiding in the smoke and dust caused by his attack.

[… Certainly, I still have one minute, and I plan to make the best use of it. Whatever happens, I’ve got to take these bitches down with me. They’re too dangerous, and even with all the weapons I’ve created and All Might at the front, there’s a high chance my family won’t survive if they attack Japan. So I want to ask you something…

[Sage, if Nen after death truly exists and is stronger than normal Nen, it might be possible for you to separate completely from me. So I entrust my family to you. Take them somewhere safe and protect them as best you can. And if possible, try to complete the QM project to strengthen them. Also, if I fail to finish off these spiders, give them all the information we gathered and tell them I truly love them. And I’m sorry—this time, it really was entirely my fault.]

[…Master… trust me. I will make sure to create the safest refuge possible for them and strengthen them until the last day of my existence, before reuniting with you…]

With tears in her eyes, Sage responded, watching with unwilling despair as her master raised his energy reserves to the maximum, causing electric bolts to blast out in all directions, charring everything around him. All for one desperate attack. Even so, he had enough time to respond to her with a telepathic message full of warmth.

[If I’m reborn again, I really hope you can be my assistant once more, Sage. You’re the best companion I could have had. Thank you for everything… and sorry for giving you such an unimaginative name…]

[…It was the best name in the world, Master. And you are the best master I could have had. I hope we can meet again in your next life, Master; this time, I’d like to meet the lady…] Sage, tears streaming from her eyes, spoke as she kept her arms extended, controlling the swords to destroy anything approaching her master. He smiled softly, transmitting his voice through the mental connection at the same time.

[Mom is the best; you’ll definitely love her, and I’m sure she’ll get along super well with you. But for now, we’ve got work to do. Make the necessary arrangements so I can talk again. Help me go out in the best way possible, like a real man—with one epic battle to protect the ones I love! Hahahaha!!!]

[At your command, Master.] Sage answered resolutely, wiping her tears away with her right forearm, just as her small swords began to shine brightly.

***

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