d Genzou's were nearly equal. Regardless of that fact, Genzou was one to two steps ahead since his magic was already active.

Genzou kept his knife level and waved it like a flag. As anticipated, the response mowed down that side in a flash. In front of the waving blade, four enemy magicians fell, their necks spouting blood.

Genzou's magic was "Grim Reaper". It was the type of mind manipulation magic that implanted a specific image in the victim's mind. That image was "death". To the victim who had been given a premonition of death, the display of a symbol of that image was strong suggestive magic. It did not matter if the first image was only an arbitrary one. Direct or indirect contact made no difference, time and distance were also not barriers. As long as the victim was able to recall that image, a suggestion could be amplified a thousandfold to affect even the flesh.

Aside from ridding one's own memory of the image, any kind of protection was meaningless. Adversaries who met Genzou killed themselves off in the second encounter. In order for this magic "Grim Reaper" to activate, a direct meeting with the victim was necessary. For the magic to be completed, Genzou had to be aware of his foe and his foe had to be aware of him. Being plunged into your own personal valley of death was the first effect of this magic.

While regretting that the presence of the four magicians meeting their doom could not be prolonged, Genzou leveled the knife to strike them down. The director of the Kunlunfang Institute, the Dahan government's chief of military affairs, and the other Dahan dignitaries who quivered in this place simultaneously crumpled down, vomiting blood from the neck.

(This is way too quick)

Looking down on the horde of dead bodies before his eyes, Genzou soliloquized deep in his core. For this past half year, he had steadily cornered them to this end; Genzou was confident in the amount of terror he had generated in them.

Nonetheless, the way the ultimate target had been brought down left him with the feeling that it might have better if it had been an even more painful way to die.

Unexpectedly.

As dizziness overcame him, Genzou went down on his knees. He hurt like his head was split open,

(Wrong...)

In the midst of intense pain, Genzou deduced that the pain did not come from his body, but was rather sent to his body from his mind. The repeated use of "Grim Reaper" had exceeded the limits of his mind's ability to use magic.

(I will never return to Japan.)

It was unsubstantiated. The limits of an individual's magic calculation area could not yet be objectively measured by individuals. Nevertheless, Genzou was convinced of it. He who could manipulate the death visions of others felt death closer to him than ever before in his life.

Genzou sent strength into his trembling knees and stood up. In this facility, over one hundred people, the main body of all the employees and magicians who worked there remained.

(Looks like I shall be able to collect my fare to cross the Sanzu.) Genzou bared his teeth in a grin and laughed.

(Miya, Maya, forgive me.)

As Genzou sought his next prey, he apologized in his heart to his beloved daughters whom he would never see again.

Thus, the Yotsuba's revenge ended. In the aftermath, only tragedy lingered.

Yotsuba Maya lost her ability to procreate due to the injuries she received at this time. Regeneration treatment had progressed to the point of manufacturing limbs and transplanting them, but reviving her natural female abilities was beyond them.

Due to her inability to have a child, the Yotsuba clan and the Saegusa clan dissolved Maya and Kouichi's engagement. Saegusa Kouichi had forever lost his right eye and his beloved simultaneously. As for Kouichi, cloning and transplanting techniques had advanced enough to restore his eye. Nevertheless, Kouichi rejected that possibility, for he could not live on alone unmarked as if nothing had happened.

In the aftermath of this incident, Miya broke her body from overusing her mind manipulation magic before she turned twenty like a penance. She was repeatedly in and out of the hospital and lived her life under medical care for ten years.

In response to Maya's tragedy, the Yotsuba enacted a policy of attaching guards to clan members who possessed an especially superior disposition for magic. The post was not assumed by temporary guards who worked for money; these guards risked their lives to fulfill their duty throughout the lifetime of the one they protected — thus the Guardians were created.

In regards to the secret feud between the Yotsuba and Dahan; on the Yotsuba side, there were thirty dead. From this war, the Yotsuba lost the head of the family and half of its fighting strength.

On the other side, Dahan's dead were approximately four thousand. For the sacrifice of a mere thirty people, the Yotsuba clan assassinated four thousand: cabinet ministers, high class bureaucrats, officers, magicians and researchers; as for the continent of Asia, it had all its research results on modern magic annihilated.

Due to this damage, Dahan suffered an internal collapse after one year and the Great Asian Alliance unified the continent of Asia.

As for East Asia, the antagonism between the North and the South came to a resolution; as for the northern hemisphere, a resolution for the world wide border conflicts was jury-rigged.

It was the end of World War III.

And among those who knew the truth about the collapse of Dahan, the Yotsuba were feared as "Untouchable".