Rencarnation Room {Other Story line}

Determined, El again increased the intensity of his attacks. The Metsu burned brighter, the giant rhino became more brutal, and the fight was heading towards a climax with El dominating.

Suddenly, El's Rinnegan pulsed as if responding to something invisible. A sharp pain shot through his head, making him clutch his left side in a frantic motion.

El's vision fogged, dizziness hit like a tidal wave, but his control over the giant rhino remained intact, even as El stopped moving.

At this moment, El was in the area of Aldebaran's central abdomen. All around, there were chopped organs and flesh, leaving a wide space like a cave, but suffocating.

"Ugh..." he complained, his voice hoarse. He frowned, trying to fight the stabbing pain. "What is this...? Why does my head feel like it's going to explode?"

Just then, she heard a sound. Not a voice from outside, but a subtle echo in his mind. The voice of a young girl, crying softly, full of agony.

"It hurts... Please stop... I beg you, I won't be naughty anymore..."

El gasped, her breath catching. "What is this...?" he whispered in confusion.

He focused his vision on Aldebaran, trying to find the source of the voice. However, the girl's voice continued to haunt him, seeping into his mind like a recurring memory.

El's perception split with the giant rhino, allowing him to see what was happening outside.

His gaze fell on Aldebaran, who now seemed to be moaning and writhing in pain. Slowly, El's mind began to spin.

"No way," he muttered, almost inaudibly. "That thing... can't possibly have a human side anymore."

However, the pain in his head slowly subsided. The crying girl disappeared, her voice fading away like a whisper in the wind.

El's mind refocused, feeling that if he stayed in Aldebaran's body for too long, he would be destroyed. "This is bad," El said, coldly looking around, Aldebaran was regenerating faster than before.

El immediately performed a 360-degree circular slash, cutting Aldebaran's body in half, top and bottom.

Without hesitation, El jumped out and landed on the ground gracefully, El immediately stopped the giant rhino's movement, letting Aldebaran rest and fully regenerate again.

The giant rhino retreated slowly, making room. Aldebaran began to regenerate his body quickly, but this time was different.

There was no counterattack, no resistance. Even the Gastrea under his control were silent, no longer attacking the giant rhino.

El watched closely. Aldebaran stood there, his mouth open, breathing heavily, as if enduring great pain.

If El looked closely, the creature's fiery red eyes seemed empty, yet full of an agony that was hard to describe.

"That thing really stopped?" El muttered, trying to understand the situation. "That's quite surprising... "

He watched Aldebaran's movements, looking for signs of threat. But all he saw was the creature's resigned, pleading look, as if it understood that El could hear its agonized screams.

El finally calmed himself down. Breathing heavily, he said softly, "Do you... have anything left? Is that... your human side?"

Various thoughts jumped through El's mind, as if his brain was working at full capacity. Pieces of information began to coalesce, some originating from Seitenshi's brain, something that was originally considered unimportant.

However, it now felt like a key that unlocked the veil of mystery before him. "Aldebaran... Inheritance of the 7 Stars... Stage V... Laboratory... Ardi File..."

His mind kept spinning, until he finally reached a disturbing conclusion. "It should be impossible for humans who have become Gastrea to have consciousness. Especially Aldebaran who has been a Gastrea for too long... "

Suddenly, El came to a conclusion. "Is this the effect of Rinnegan? Because these eyes are connected to the afterlife..."

El sighed softly, "So that's it..." he muttered coldly, gaze still locked on Aldebaran who was still standing silently in front of him.

"This world is really rotten. Human greed has no end... The intention of creating a cure for immortality leads to destruction." El said lowly, almost mumbling to herself.

"Does it hurt?" asked El in a flat tone, without any emotion. "How did you feel when I hurt you?"

With El's voice cold, yet containing no ill will, El said again, "Sorry, I don't feel any emotion anymore. The only thing I can do is ask."

Aldebaran remained silent. His ability to speak was long gone, erased by the inevitable mutation.

However, through El's keen sense of smell, which was almost on par with Tanjiro's, he could pick up on the complex scents emanating from the creature.

Fear, sadness, anger and hatred.

"You attack not just out of wild instinct," El said softly, as if speaking to the wind. "You move with such intense hatred... and unspoken sadness, loneliness in the darkness."

El closed his eyes for a moment, his cold gaze turning slightly dim. "But I had to kill you," he said, his tone a little calmer. "I have no other choice. You must die."

El slowly closed his left eyelid. The light from the six rotating tomoe began to fade, as El's intentions became more firm.

"I promise," she said, her voice almost a whisper. "This pain will only last for a moment."

As soon as El opened his eyes, Amaterasu burned Aldebaran's body with unquenchable black flames. The flame devoured the giant monster's body mercilessly.

Thick red blood dripped slowly from the corner of El's left eye, not as a cry of compassion, but rather the impact of the use of such terrible power.

Aldebaran screamed in agony, his huge body flailing wildly, sending black sparks shooting up and burning the Gastrea around him.

Their screams merged with Aldebaran's voice, creating a deafening, tragic symphony.

El stood still. Calmly, he canceled the summoning of the giant rhino, letting the creature vanish into a faint mist. He stared at the scene before him with blank eyes, devoid of any emotion.

However, his body moved slightly. He bowed his head, paying his last respects to Aldebaran, not as a monster, but as a victim created by human greed.

El's eyes glowed faintly under the flash of black fire. He held up the injection, staring at the liquid inside with a blank expression.

"In your second life," El said coldly, but with a tone almost like a promise, "you won't have to feel this kind of hatred anymore."

With that, El stored the injection in the storage ring, then left the place while letting Amaterasu's fire finish its work.

The remaining Gastrea were finally devoured completely by Amaterasu's black flames. There was nothing left of either their bodies or traces of their existence.

As Aldebaran let out a final scream, his giant body disintegrated mercilessly, vanishing into ashes lost in the wind.

As silence fell over the battlefield, a mechanical sound filled the air.

A holographic system notification suddenly appeared before El, projecting glowing text coldly.

Ding!

[Beyonder with serial number 120,000 has successfully completed level A side mission: -The Third Kanto War-]

[+25,000 points]

El stared at the notification with a flat expression. The flash of light from the text was unable to disturb his empty mind.

The side mission reward was the official sign that the fourth main mission had been completed. Now only the first main mission remained, waiting to be completed in this rotten world.

El sighed softly, his voice drowned out by the fading flames. "An easy victory," he said softly, his tone hollow. "But not satisfying at all. So much tragedy happened here."

His eyes gazed up into the dark sky. He continued, almost as if speaking to himself. "If this was the old me, I definitely wouldn't put up with all this."

His hands clenched into fists, but his expression remained cold. "Numbness..." he murmured, almost as a whisper. "Either this is a good thing, or it's the opposite."

El stood amidst the gray remains of Aldebaran, Amaterasu's fire, and Gastrea, like a mute statue amongst the destruction. His mind drifted far away, questioning the things that continued to haunt his.

"Why do I have this much power? What is the purpose of my life...?" said El in a tone that showed no emotion, as if it contained deep doubts.

The question, though rhetorical, echoed in his mind like a burden that he could never shake off.