Chapter 176

By removing both Dhruv and Kurourushi, Yuta has broken the Sendai Colony's frozen balance. Uro now opens up with a technique that treats the sky itself as a surface, and while Yuta studies her attacks, he keeps asking why someone this powerful throws herself into so desperate a fight.

A massive blast hurls Yuta back, and he wonders how Uro produced such ruin. When he counters her punch with his own, she warps the space around his arm and distorts its shape, then knocks him away; the limb snaps back unharmed, leading Yuta to conclude her technique bends space like a lens rather than crushing what it holds. Uro then explains that her power treats the sky as a tangible surface, demonstrating by grabbing empty air and yanking it forward like cloth. Both strikes had bypassed his guard, so he reasons there must be a trick to wielding surfaces that way.

Rather than attack into her counter, Yuta questions Uro directly. He argues that desperation suits the powerless, not a fighter who can seize points whenever she likes. Uro replies that she takes her new body seriously, since incarnated sorcerers have effectively clawed back from the underworld, and anyone without regret would never have entered the game; prioritizing points is simply how she starts her second life. Yuta presses on, wondering if she fights for a lover or comrades, and his question about being so desperate for her own sake finally enrages her. She demands to know whether he descends from the Fujiwara clan, declaring his blood could never understand her.

Ryu cuts the talk short with Granite Blast, firing a vast wave of cursed energy at both from a nearby rooftop and complaining their flirting is whetting his appetite. Yuta survives and marvels at the attack's range, while Uro decides Ryu no longer gets a pass now that the deadlock is shattered; the two agree to eliminate him together. Yuta charges Ryu, dodges his beam barrage with agility, then vanishes by slipping through the hole Rika punched in the bridge, reaching the roof to attack at close range. Ryu blocks the strike and, amused, asks whether close combat will finally satisfy his hunger. Akutami's note jokes about steadily gaining weight on a three-steps-forward, two-steps-back schedule and maybe going too far to recover.