The great banner bearing the character 'Bi' snapped and rustled in the twilight.
An army a thousand strong had surrounded Kaede Village on every side, their iron armour reflecting the last glow of the setting sun like a ring of glittering chains.
Iron armour bristled; spears stood thick as a forest.
Cavalry formed up on the outer edge, infantry pressed in along the inner ring, and the archers occupied the high ground all around.
The formation was rigorously precise, as though it were a single body.
Kōbe Hikaru stood at the village entrance.
Grey robe, pale hair, crimson oni mask; bone armour seeped out from beneath his skin to cover his chest and arms, and white bone spikes quivered faintly upon his shoulders.
He watched the woman who rode out alone.
Silver-grey long hair, dark-silver armour, and in her hand a tachi engraved with Sanskrit script.
Young, keen-edged, her gaze like a blade.
This was without question a female general—or rather, one should call her a princess-warlord.
"In the name of Bishamonten, be exterminated."
She spoke again, her tone neither light nor heavy, yet that voice pierced the entire battlefield, falling clearly into the ears of every single person present.
Kōbe Hikaru did not move.
He merely raised his eyes.
"Slaying demons?"
The voice came out from beneath the oni mask: "You came south all the way from Echigo, and burned three yōkai settlements along the way."
"The ones living in those places were all minor yōkai who could speak well enough."
"Did they ever kill anyone?"
"Did they ever harm anyone?"
"Or is it that—"
He raised his hand, pointing toward that great banner bearing the character 'Bi.'
"In your eyes, anything that is a yōkai deserves to die?"
The silver-haired princess-warlord did not answer.
She only narrowed her eyes slightly, gazing sternly upon the yōkai before her.
She could sense that this yōkai was different from the ones before; it had not flung itself at her like a beast, nor had it tried to flee.
She could also feel that this yōkai was strong.
Stronger than any yōkai she had encountered along the way.
That yōkai aura, though not exactly vast and surging, seemed deep and heavy, like a thundercloud compressed to its very limit, ready to burst at any moment.
"It seems you are the strongest yōkai in this region."
She spoke: "The chieftain of the yōkai hereabouts."
Kōbe Hikaru raised an eyebrow, but did not respond at once, only waiting to hear what this fellow had to say.
"My duty is to purge the evil and the unclean."
The princess-warlord lifted her tachi, its tip pointing at him: "Your very existence is an evil—and by the command of Bishamonten, any evil that seeks to encroach upon the human realm shall be purged!"
"Then come and try."
Kōbe Hikaru's hand pressed against the hilt of Muramasa: "Let's see whether you can purge me."
As the words fell, he moved.
[Spectral Step]activated.
His form turned into a grey blur, lunging straight at the silver-haired woman.
Fast.
Now that he had merged the Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body, his speed had risen by more than a single tier above before.
An ordinary person's eyes simply could not catch his trajectory.
But—
Clang!
Gold and iron rang out as they met.
Kōbe Hikaru's Muramasa was blocked.
The princess-warlord's reaction speed was equally astonishing.
Her tachi lay crosswise before her, the blade glowing with a faint golden light, steadily catching Kōbe Hikaru's slash.
"Hm?"
Kōbe Hikaru's pupils contracted slightly, somewhat surprised.
Not only because of her speed, but even more because of that blade.
Upon that tachi there was a power he had never seen before.
It was not yōkai aura, nor spiritual power.
It was something purer, something loftier.
Like... the breath of a deity, of faith?
At that very moment.
The familiar semi-transparent panel popped up before his eyes.
[Conquerable target detected]
Kōbe Hikaru froze for a moment.
What?
Instinctively he looked toward the princess-warlord.
The text on the panel continued to flicker.
[???]
[Quality: ???]
[Current favourability: -5 (Hostile)]
[Evaluation: Within her body dwells a certain special power—a power that belongs neither to humans nor to yōkai. But one thing is certain: she meets the conditions for conquest.]
Meets the conditions for conquest?
Kōbe Hikaru's mind began to spin.
His system did not count living humans or yōkai as within its scope of conquest.
But this woman—she was human.
A living human, yet she met the conditions for conquest? What did that mean?
It meant that her essence might not be entirely 'human.'
Or else—the source of that power within her body was itself some kind of artifact that could be conquered.
"Interesting."
Kōbe Hikaru murmured.
He withdrew his blade and fell back, opening up distance from the princess-warlord.
The two of them faced off, three zhang apart.
"Who are you?"
Kōbe Hikaru asked.
"The Uesugi clan of Echigo."
The princess-warlord's voice remained cold: "Kakizaki Kageie."
Kakizaki Kageie.
That name was familiar to Kōbe Hikaru.
Among the historical materials he had read before crossing over, Kakizaki Kageie was one of the fierce generals under Uesugi Kenshin.
Known as the Peerless One of Echigo's Seven Districts.
"That power within your body..."
Kōbe Hikaru's gaze fell upon the tachi in her hand: "What is it?"
Kakizaki Kageie's eyes shifted slightly.
"You can sense it?"
"I'm not blind."
Kakizaki Kageie was silent for a moment.
"In light of your remarkable skill, and your considerable sense of honour... very well, yōkai, I shall tell you. This is the power bestowed by Lord Uesugi Kenshin, the incarnation of Bishamonten."
She said: "This is the power of a divine artifact, granted by the gods and Buddhas."
A divine artifact.
The word stirred something in Kōbe Hikaru's heart.
He was no stranger to the concept of a divine artifact.
In the works he had read before crossing over, a divine artifact was a weapon or tool used by a god, possessing power that surpassed all reason.
The famed blade he had left behind earlier, Sōza Samonji—now, of course, it should be called Raikiri—had also been an attempt of his to forge a divine artifact.
Whether it had succeeded was still unknown; that too had only been an experiment.
In this world, he had in fact never truly come into contact with existences on the level of the divine.
True, the Shikon Jewel was of divine-artifact quality, and the Goshinboku was of divine-artifact quality as well.
Yet they were both objects, not gods; they had nothing to do with the divine, and clearly had only crossed into the divine realm by virtue of their quality, thereby being judged divine artifacts by the system.
But this woman before him—she said her power came from Uesugi Kenshin, the incarnation of Bishamonten.
From a god.
A so-called divine artifact.
Could it be that the Uesugi Kenshin of this world truly was the reborn incarnation of a god?
"You are Bishamonten's... what, exactly?"
Kōbe Hikaru asked, probing.
Kakizaki Kageie did not answer; she merely raised her tachi once more.
"Enough talk."
She said: "Make your move."
The blade-light flared.
She charged at him again.
Kōbe Hikaru wasted no more words either, only lifting his blade to meet her—whatever that divine artifact was, he would not hold back.
The two figures crossed in the twilight, blade-light and bone spikes clashing, sparks scattering everywhere.
Kakizaki Kageie's swordsmanship was sharp and decisive; her speed was slower than Kōbe Hikaru's, yet she could just barely keep pace, and her strength was strangely great—great beyond all ordinary measure, hardly inferior to Bankotsu of the Band of Seven.
Most important of all—that tachi in her hand could suppress yōkai aura.
With every clash of their blades, Kōbe Hikaru could feel his yōkai power being whittled down a measure by that golden radiance.
"So this is the power of that so-called divine artifact?"
Thoughts flashed through Kōbe Hikaru's mind like lightning.
"Specifically made to counter yōkai? No... it feels more like it can suppress all that is extraordinary."
Whether yōkai aura, demon-qi, or even spiritual power...
it could bring suppression to bear upon every extraordinary existence, as though looming high above and looking down—truly like a god, like a Buddha.
No wonder she dared to charge in alone.
No wonder she had the confidence to slay demons.
But Kōbe Hikaru was not flustered.
Because, during this period spent at Kikyō's side, he had in fact gained a far deeper understanding of the various systems of power in this world.
The information he could grasp as one who had crossed over made him understand a certain principle all the more.
All things give rise to and restrain one another; nothing is ever one-directional.
Just as water can quench fire, yet fire can also evaporate water.
Just as fire can burn wood, yet wood can also smother the blaze.
The same was true even of spiritual power and yōkai aura.
The mutual restraint of natures has always been thus.
So long as one was strong enough, one could ignore all suppression, and in turn suppress the opponent.
Right now,
he was merely testing her.
Testing her speed, her strength, her reactions, and the upper limit of that so-called divine-artifact power.
At the same time—he was also waiting.
Waiting for the barrier behind him to take effect.
Kaede Village's barrier had been laid down by Kikyō's own hand; even though she was in seclusion, that barrier was still operating.
Ordinary people simply could not get in.
So long as the village was safe—he could let himself go all out.
"That's enough."
Kōbe Hikaru suddenly fell back.
He stood beneath the torii at the village entrance, Muramasa held crosswise before him.
"You are strong."
He said.
"But you cannot kill me."
Kakizaki Kageie halted her steps, her gaze ice-cold.
"You're stalling for time?"
"No."
Kōbe Hikaru shook his head.
"I only wanted to confirm one thing."
He raised his left hand, purple arcs of electricity leaping at his fingertips: "To confirm whether you—are worth me taking seriously."
Thunder roared.
In the twilight, the lightning flashed into being.
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