"Given up resisting? How dull."
Looking at Maki Zenin, whose eyes were closed, Yotohime's lips curled into a cruel sneer.
Though a faint unease lingered in her heart, she held absolute confidence in the demonic blade gorged with fresh blood in her hands.
"Then just die like a good girl!"
Whoosh—!
Yotohime gripped the blade with both hands. Amid an ear-piercing sonic boom, that tachi shimmering with an eerie crimson glow slashed relentlessly toward Maki's neck, carrying terrifying cursed energy capable of cleaving even steel with ease!
This slash reached the peak of speed and the extreme of ruthlessness.
Yet.
At the precise instant the blade's edge hung less than a centimeter from Maki's skin.
Maki's body moved.
Without the slightest warning, without any superfluous movement.
She merely tilted her head ever so slightly, slipping past this lethal strike with flawless precision in a manner that could even be described as uncanny!
Hum—!
The chilled blade aura grazed Maki's cheek, shearing off several blood-stained strands of short hair.
"What?!"
Yotohime's pupils constricted sharply, disbelief plastering her face.
A coincidence?
No, absolutely impossible!
With that strike just now, she had sealed every path of retreat; under that kind of severe blood loss, there was no way anyone could evade it!
"Again!"
Yotohime roared. The tachi in her grip turned into a flurry of scarlet flashes, pouring frantically toward Maki like a tempestuous squall.
High overhead chops, horizontal waist-cleaving swings, thrusts like vipers darting in...
Every strike carried lethal murderous intent; every strike drove straight for Maki's vitals.
Yet.
What happened next plunged Yotohime entirely into self-doubt and panic.
Dodged.
Every single one had been dodged!
With her eyes shut, Maki resembled a fallen leaf fluttering in a gale.
No matter how dense or frantic Yotohime's assault became, Maki always managed to perfectly clear every blade edge at the narrowest possible margin with the tiniest movement!
She had not so much as grazed the hem of her clothes!
"Th-This is impossible!"
Yotohime's voice turned shrill from sheer shock.
"You clearly had no strength left! You're clearly already a dead person!"
"Why?! Why can you still dodge my blade?!"
Phoo—
Maki slowly exhaled a warm breath tinged with the scent of blood.
Her eyes remained shut, yet her world had become clearer in this moment than ever before.
That was the world Yoru had once shown her.
Free of the interference of sight, devoid of the perception of cursed energy.
Only the pure, absolute realm belonging to Heavenly Restriction.
In the state of "no-thought," her skin felt the faint breeze stirred by Yotohime's swings.
Her hearing caught the subtle sounds of Yotohime's muscles contracting and blood accelerating.
She could even distinctly perceive every shift in Yotohime's center of gravity through the ground beneath her feet.
"Your blade is too loud."
Maki parted her dry, cracked lips slightly, speaking cold and level words.
"So loud that... I can hear crystal clear where you're going to strike next second."
Boom!
The instant the words left her mouth, a dormant volcano seemed to abruptly erupt within Maki's exhausted body!
Under the ultimate pressure at the boundary of life and death, the true power of Heavenly Restriction finally achieved total awakening!
Crack—!
The bluestone flags under Maki's feet instantly pulverized into countless specks of dust.
Her body transformed into a streak of black lightning too fast for even afterimages to track, proactively cutting into Yotohime's blind spot with unprecedented, terrifying speed!
'Not good!'
Alarm bells rang wildly in Yotohime's heart as she instinctively tried to pull her blade back on defense.
Too late.
"This strike is payback for the innocent people you killed!"
Maki snapped her eyes open, a wild, tangible murderous aura erupting from her previously unfocused gaze.
The Pseudo-Soul Splitter Katana in her hands brought forth a shrill, cold flash, slashing viciously upward into Yotohime's chest!
Squelch—!
Blood sprayed wildly!
Though Yotohime desperately twisted her torso at the final moment to keep her heart out of harm's way, Maki's slash still opened a horrifying, bone-deep wound across her chest!
"Aaaaargh!"
Letting out a shrill shriek of agony, Yotohime flew backward through the air and crashed heavily against a crumbling wall.
"Damned monkey! I'll kill you! I'm going to tear you into ten thousand pieces!"
With disheveled hair, Yotohime scrambled out of the rubble, her face behind the hannya mask contorted with excruciating agony and fury.
She abruptly drove Blood Sakura into her own wound.
Gurgle... gurgle...
Accompanied by a nauseating swallowing sound, the blood within Yotohime's body was feverishly devoured by the demonic blade.
In exchange, terrifying cursed energy several times greater than before—even verging on the threshold of special grade—roared forth from that wicked sword!
"Blood Sakura: Maximum: Cherry Blossom Blizzard!"
Roaring, Yotohime gripped the hilt with both hands and slashed from afar at Maki, unleashing a colossal scarlet wave condensed of pure cursed energy and blood!
This blade aura stretched tens of meters long; every structure along its path rapidly dissolved and disintegrated the instant it made contact with the bloody light, as though scorched by concentrated acid.
"Bring it!"
Confronted with this cataclysmic, terrifying blow, Maki, having awakened the state of no-thought, did not back down in the slightest.
Grasping the Pseudo-Soul Splitter Katana firmly with both hands, she pushed the violent power belonging to Heavenly Restriction inside her body to the absolute limit, bracing to meet this lethal strike head-on!
Even if it meant mutual destruction, she was going to cut this monster down!
Yet.
Just as that crimson blade light was about to swallow Maki whole.
A deep-crimson meteor abruptly tore through the thick cloud layer of the Kyoto Colony, plummeting from the sky carrying a terrifying heat that felt capable of setting the entire world ablaze!
Clang—!
A sword chime crisp enough to shatter the soul rang across the entire ancient capital.
Immediately following, beneath Maki's astounded gaze.
That scarlet blade light Yotohime had unleashed with everything she had—potent enough to instantly kill a Grade 1 sorcerer.
Was split right down the middle with effortless grace by that falling, deep-crimson blade edge, just like fragile tofu.
Then, under the extreme heat, it evaporated instantly into nothingness!
Rumble—!
Its momentum unabated, the deep-crimson blade slammed heavily into the earth.
A bottomless, terrifying fissure, its rims still oozing dark-red magma, surged madly toward Yotohime like an unstoppable tide!
Amid the billowing firelight and smoke.
A slender figure holding a long sword, clad in a black Jujutsu High uniform, stepped slowly in front of Maki like a deity descending upon the mortal world.
That familiar and incomparably reassuring absolute oppression finally allowed Maki's nerves, strained to their breaking point, to completely relax at this very moment.
[ Author's Note : If you're loving the story, a power_stone, review or comment means the world!
Want 40+ chapters ahead right now? patreon.com/Royal_ink ]