The dusk was torn apart by lightning.
Violet electric arcs burst in the air, colliding with that tachi shimmering with golden divine light.
Clang——!
Metal rang against metal.
Kakizaki Kageie's tachi lay horizontal before her, the blade shimmering with a faint golden glow, that so-called power of a divine artifact flowing across the edge, steadily catching Kōbe Hikaru's slash.
But that was all.
She had caught it, yet had not blocked it.
The instant the blades met, an irresistible, enormous force surged down the blade. Kakizaki Kageie's arms sank violently, and a bloody split burst open at the web of her hand.
Her body was driven back several yards by that single blow.
Her iron boots carved two deep furrows in the muddy ground; her silver armored skirt was lifted and dropped by the wave of force, and only by her booted legs bracing desperately against the earth did she avoid being pushed back further.
"Hm?"
Instead, it was Kōbe Hikaru who tilted his head slightly.
When he had brought that blade down just now, he had clearly felt his yōkai power shaved a layer thinner by that golden radiance.
Had it been an ordinary yōkai below the Qualitative Transformation tier—even one that had gone through six mutations—there was a very high chance it would have been suppressed by that power until it couldn't summon any strength at all.
But the thing was——
He was no ordinary yōkai.
Though he was nominally at the Six Mutations stage, in terms of the thickness of his yōkai aura he was already close to Eight Mutations—and his strength even more so.
It had shaved off a layer of his skin, but the flesh beneath that skin, the bone beneath that skin, the yōkai power beneath that skin—grown so thick after fusing thunder within the Razor-Body Mutation that it was nearly solid——
Not the slightest stir.
"Your blade is interesting."
Kōbe Hikaru's voice came from beneath the oni mask.
Very flat.
So flat it didn't sound like he was speaking to an enemy who had just nearly blocked his attack—more like he was appraising some object he found mildly interesting.
Kakizaki Kageie's pupils shrank sharply.
Her intuition was reverberating with frantic alarm.
That blow just now—the yōkai's striking force had been too heavy, heavy enough that her arms still tingled numbly, heavy enough that the tachi in her hands, bearing the power of Bishamonten, was humming and trembling.
And more.
It had not used its full strength.
A battle-hardened general could tell whether an enemy was being serious.
That stroke had been astonishingly fast, its force inconceivable, yet the motion itself was far too casual.
It really did look like a careless swing.
"Don't space out."
The voice suddenly rang out beside her ear.
Kakizaki Kageie's body reacted faster than her mind—the tachi swept across, golden light surging.
But her blade cut through empty air; Kōbe Hikaru was no longer there.
He was somewhere near her.
Left side? Right side?
No——
He was—above!
Kakizaki Kageie jerked her head up.
Beneath the curtain of dusk, that grey figure was sweeping over her head, his pale long hair trailing an arc in the wind, the crimson oni mask looking down at her from on high.
In those eyes glowing with an eerie red light, there was no killing intent.
There was only that downward gaze.
"Too slow."
His voice fell from overhead.
Immediately after——
Bone spikes.
White bone spikes burst out from his elbows—not aimed at her person, but nailing into the muddy ground beneath her feet.
Ka-ka-ka-ka——!
Four bone spikes stabbed into the ground around her like wooden stakes, locking down her footing completely.
Kakizaki Kageie tried to move, but the yōkai aura emanating from the bone spikes formed a miniature cage, pressing down until every step felt like wading through a quagmire.
"You——!"
She gritted her teeth.
The golden light on the tachi surged again, the power of the divine artifact pouring out wildly, trying to shatter the surrounding bone spikes.
The instant the golden light touched the bone spikes, fine cracks did indeed appear on the white surface.
That power was indeed suppressing the yōkai aura.
It could indeed suppress all things extraordinary——
But.
Pop.
From where the bone spikes had cracked, violet electric arcs darted out from the fissures.
Thunder.
The thunder fused through the Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body was no superficial trick layered upon the body's surface—it was a power that had already become part of the very essence of his body.
That thunder conducted along the bone spikes, surging back into the golden light.
Bzzzt——!
The golden light shattered.
The tachi in Kakizaki Kageie's hands shook violently, the bloody split in her hand tearing wider, blood trickling down the hilt.
Her body was shaken back another step by the aftershock.
And Kōbe Hikaru had already landed before her.
Very close.
Close enough that she could see her own wretched reflection in those crimson eyes beneath the oni mask.
"Your blade can suppress yōkai aura."
His tone even carried a touch of appreciation: "But it can't suppress me."
Muramasa lay horizontal at his side, blade tip pointed downward.
This was not a battle stance; this was—the indifferent posture of one who had finished confirming what he needed to know.
Kakizaki Kageie stared at the oni mask mere inches away.
The face beneath that silver-grey long hair was now filled with unwillingness.
But she was no fool.
She recognized one fact with perfect clarity—on her own, never mind taking this fellow down in any short span of time.
Even the qualification to cross blades with him was barely within reach.
The opponent had not been serious from start to finish—that realization was more lethal than any blade.
And so she swiftly made her decision.
A sudden leap backward!
"All forces!"
Her voice pierced the battlefield at the same moment, clear and ringing: "Form ranks! Surround and slay!"
Roar——!
The thousand-strong army that had stayed silent all this while now moved.
The cavalry began to charge, the infantry raised a wall of long spears and pressed forward, and the archers in the rear drew their bowstrings.
The great banner bearing the character "Bi" snapped and crackled in the wind.
That sense of oppression, like a landslide or a tsunami, came surging in, blotting out heaven and earth.
No longer a duel—it had become war.
A thousand men in formation, their momentum staggering.
Hundreds of arrows rose like a black cloud, blotting out the sky where the setting sun descended.
Kōbe Hikaru looked at that sky-filling rain of arrows, then at Kakizaki Kageie, who had already retreated into the formation, preparing to launch a killing blow by borrowing the army's momentum.
He smiled.
Beneath that half-crimson oni mask, the corner of his mouth curved into a wanton arc.
Can't beat me, so you call for backup?
He did not dodge—did not even move.
[Blood Mutation].
Red mist erupted from within his body.
Not a tentative thin haze, but something substantial, thick as blood plasma.
The blood mist spread instantly, swallowing the area within a hundred meters.
The arrows shot into the blood mist——
And vanished.
Wrapped by that blood mist, slowed, stalled, and finally—like pebbles sinking into a mire—they fell soundlessly to the ground.
Of those hundreds, nearly a thousand arrows, not a single one pierced through.
Right after.
Violet light burst.
[Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body], fully unleashed.
Kōbe Hikaru's figure vanished from the blood mist.
In its place was a bolt of violet thunder tearing forward through the sea of red mist.
He charged into the cavalry ranks.
"The commander's order—stop him!"
The front-row cavalry roared, thrusting out their spears.
The spear tips struck—struck his shoulder.
Then the spear shafts shattered.
Like a chopstick jabbed against a city wall—the bone armor did not so much as quiver; the spearheads simply snapped off and flew, the rebounding fragments embedding themselves in the cavalrymen's own cheeks.
The next second.
Bone spikes emerged from the blood mist.
Not one.
But a dozen or more.
From the ground, from the air, from both sides of the trail that bolt of lightning had left—the white bone spikes, as if they had grown eyes, pierced straight through the horses' necks, flung the riders from their mounts, and then dropped them upon the bone spikes blanketing the ground, raising yet another spray of blood.
Without the slightest mercy, men toppled and horses overturned.
Screams merged into one.
But that violet bolt of lightning showed no intention of stopping at all.
It passed through the cavalry ranks, through the infantry square, through the archers' firing line.
Wherever it passed, spears broke, iron armor shattered, warhorses screamed and fell.
The thunder ran rampant, electrocuting nearby soldiers into full-body convulsions until they could not even grip their weapons.
The blood mist spread everywhere, stripping everyone of their sight, leaving them unable to even tell where the enemy was.
Kōbe Hikaru moved as if through an unguarded land.
His body itself was the mightiest weapon.
Muramasa had not even left its sheath again; with bone spikes and thunder alone, with nothing but that body—hardened under the dual empowerment of the Razor-Body Mutation and the Thunder-Sinew Razor-Body until it yielded to no armor—a single man bored straight through a thousand-man formation.
From north to south.
A single straight line.
Clean and decisive.
He had carved a road of blood through that host of thousands.
Pointing straight at Kakizaki Kageie at the center of the formation.
Kakizaki Kageie watched that bolt of lightning draw ever nearer.
She saw it clearly.
All too clearly.
Her thousand-strong elite, the pride of her heart, were like paper before that yōkai.
It was not that her soldiers were weak.
It was that that thing—was simply too absurd.
"In the name of Bishamonten!"
She held nothing back anymore.
The power of the divine artifact within her burned to its very dregs; the golden light on the tachi surged to its limit, transforming into an enormous blade of light.
This stroke gathered all of her spirit, essence, and will—and even borrowed the momentum of the army behind her.
"Momentum"—or one might also call it the spirit of the people.
It was a different sort of "awe"—the reverence within humankind for a leader, for one who commands an army.
The momentum of a thousand, condensed into a single stroke, fastened upon the power of the divine artifact.
"Evil-Banishing!"
She brought it down to meet that bolt of lightning.
The golden blade of light was a full three zhang long, splitting the blood mist, cleaving the ground, crashing toward that violet thunder with an almost holy pressure.
Enough to cut through mountains.
And Kōbe Hikaru——
At last drew his blade once more.
Not because he had no choice but to draw.
But because the radiance of that stroke was truly beautiful, worthy of a response in kind.
Muramasa left its sheath, again with not a single wasted motion.
Just a simple, plain upward flick.
Blade-light collided with golden glow.
There was no deadlock, not even a process of resistance.
Only the soft sound of cloth tearing.
That three-zhang golden blade of light was cleaved in two right down the middle.
The golden light shattered, scattering into a sky full of glittering motes.
Yet Muramasa's momentum did not wane in the least; following the gap where the blade of light had broken, wreathed in a layer of violet thunder-glow, it fell straight upon Kakizaki Kageie.
The two crossed past each other.
In the end, Kōbe Hikaru landed, Muramasa pointing slantwise at the ground, not even a droplet of blood upon the blade—because the lightning of that stroke had instantly seared the wound shut.
Behind him.
Kakizaki Kageie held the posture of her swing, her dark-silver armor split open from the shoulder, the rift extending all the way to her waist.
That delicate face wore an expression of shock and incomprehension.
"This... how is this possible..."
She had lost.
And, too, she was dead.
When two armies clash and the enemy comes on fiercely, harboring killing intent, it was only natural that Kōbe Hikaru had no reason to hold back.
Even if the opponent was a conquerable divine artifact!
...
At that same moment.
Hundreds of li away.
Among the mountains at the border of Echigo and Musashi, inside a brightly lit war tent.
A girl clad in armor, a white veil over her head—beneath which silvery-white, soft long hair cascaded down, setting off a face both exquisite and gallant—suddenly opened her eyes.
There, a pitch-black phantom image surfaced.
It was a long blade.
Only, the blade... had split open.
And then, shattered.
"Kakizaki Kageie's soul..."
"Has it returned... to Takamagahara?"
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