The battle had slowed.
Not because it was over.
Because no one had much left.
The street was broken.
Ice spread across shattered ground.Blood stained the cracks between stone.Fragments of buildings leaned like they might collapse at any moment.
Maru's breathing had turned rough.
Each inhale scraped her chest.Each exhale carried heat into the freezing air.
Her katana—
Felt heavier.
Not physically.
But like her arms had forgotten how to lift it.
Daichi's hands burned.
Not from fire—
From strain.
From gripping the axe so tightly his muscles had started to scream.
Still—
He didn't loosen his hold.
Tatsuma still smiled—
But it wasn't the same.
Blood ran from his mouth.Down his chin.
His shoulders swayed slightly.
"…Boss…"
A weak laugh slipped out.
"…I think I'm actually dying this time."
Kenta didn't look away.
Both blades still in hand.
But the easy grin from before—
Was gone.
"…Then shut up and keep standing."
Across from them—
The three leaders remained.
Yuki-onna.
White sleeves drifting softly in the freezing wind.
Her presence alone pulled the temperature lower with every passing second.
Futakuchi-onna.
Long black hair swaying slowly.
Too slowly.
Not following the wind—
Listening.
Nozuchi.
Low across the broken street.
Coiled.
Still.
Watching.
Waiting.
They weren't tired.
Not like the humans were.
They were simply… waiting for the end.
Maru clicked her tongue.
"…Tch."
Daichi spat to the side.
"…I'm done with this."
For a brief moment—
No one moved.
Then—
THUD
Something landed between them.
The road cracked.
Dust rose in a low ring around the impact.
All eyes turned.
A dark cloak.
A white mask marked with red.
A blade hanging low at his side.
Lie Hunter.
Maru's eyes sharpened instantly.
Daichi went still.
Tatsuma's grin disappeared.
Kenta's gaze narrowed.
Of course it was him.
But—
Something was wrong.
The feeling from him had changed.
At the shrine—
He had felt dangerous.
Unpredictable.
Sharp.
Now—
He felt cold.
Too cold.
Not like ice.
Not like death.
Like… absence.
Like the air itself had stopped existing around him.
Futakuchi-onna tilted her head and smiled.
"…Ara."
A soft laugh followed.
"…And who are you now, huh, cutie?"
Yuki-onna's pale lips curved faintly.
"…What do humans call it again…"
A pause.
"…Ah."
"…A cosplayer, I suppose."
Futakuchi-onna laughed lightly.
"…That must be it."
Nozuchi said nothing.
It only watched.
And unlike the others—
It did not smile.
Lie Hunter stayed silent.
Then—
He lifted his head.
And spoke.
"…You three."
His voice fell over the battlefield like something unearthed.
Cold.
Flat.
Inhuman.
Everything stopped.
The laughter died first.
Futakuchi-onna's smile vanished.
Yuki-onna's pale eyes widened.
Nozuchi's body locked so hard—
The stone beneath it cracked.
For one brief second—
None of them moved.
Then—
Their instincts caught up.
And fear hit.
Not simple fear.
Not caution.
The kind that doesn't ask questions.
The kind that doesn't think.
The kind that screams—
Run.
Futakuchi-onna took a step back.
Then another.
Her hair shifted violently—
The second mouth beneath it twitching open.
Yuki-onna's fingers tightened inside her sleeves.
Frost spread uncontrollably across the ground beneath her feet.
Nozuchi's coils jerked backward.
Instinct overriding everything else.
"…No…" Futakuchi-onna whispered.
Yuki-onna's lips parted.
"…That voice…"
Nozuchi's hiss came out thin.
Unsteady.
"…Impossible."
Maru frowned.
Daichi looked between them and Lie Hunter.
Tatsuma—
Had gone completely silent.
Even Kenta's expression changed.
Because the three leaders—
Were not looking at him like prey.
They were looking at him like something they had recognized too late.
Something they should have never approached.
Futakuchi-onna stepped back again.
Her composure—gone.
"…It cannot be…"
Yuki-onna's voice trembled.
"…You should have perished long ago."
Nozuchi lowered itself.
Not to strike.
To flee.
Its voice came rough.
Broken.
"…That hunter should not still exist."
Then—
Panic spread.
Yuki-onna screamed.
A sharp cry tore through the freezing air.
Not anger—
A warning.
Futakuchi-onna screamed next.
Louder.
Her second mouth opening beneath her hair—
Both voices overlapping in something raw.
Nozuchi reared upward—
And unleashed a long, unnatural hiss.
The sound echoed across the city.
And the parade answered.
Far across broken streets—
Yokai stopped feeding.
Stopped laughing.
Stopped chasing.
They turned.
One by one.
Then all at once.
Toward him.
Toward the single figure standing alone.
And the moment they felt it—
The Night Parade changed.
That lazy cruelty—
Gone.
That mocking rhythm—
Broken.
A wave moved through them.
Unease.
Then—
Fear.
Not all of them understood why.
But their bodies did.
That cold realization.
If I stay here… I die.
Maru felt it too.
A pressure crawling beneath her skin.
Daichi's grip tightened until his knuckles ached.
Tatsuma's smile—completely gone.
Even Kenta said nothing.
Because for the first time—
This wasn't a battlefield.
It was an execution ground.
Lie Hunter took one step forward.
The sound was soft.
But several yokai flinched.
He took another.
And some of them stepped back.
Not by command.
Not by thought.
By instinct.
Then his voice fell over them again.
"…Now then."
A pause.
His blade tilted slightly.
"…You filthy creatures."
No one laughed.
No one mocked him.
No one moved.
The three leaders stood frozen.
Like beings who had just realized—
They were already too late.
Lie Hunter took one more step.
And the entire parade seemed to freeze with him.
"…You will perish once more."
Silence.
Deep.
Ancient.
Absolute.
There—
Before the Hyakki Yagyō—
One figure stood alone.
And for the first time that night—
The hundred demons looked less like hunters—
And more like prey.
End of Chapter 38