The twilight was torn by lightning.
Purple electric arcs exploded in the air, colliding with the golden-glowing divine tachi.
Clang—!
tal clashed.
Kakizaki Kageie's tachi was held horizontally before her, the blade glowing faintly with golden light. That so-called divine artifact's power flowed along the edge, firmly stopping Shinji's strike.
But that was all.
It stopped, but didn't block.
The mont their blades t, an irresistible force traveled down the blade. Kakizaki Kageie's arms suddenly dropped, a bloodied crack opening at her tiger's mouth.
Her body was pushed back several yards by that single strike.
Iron boots carved two deep furrows in the mud. Her silver armored skirt was lifted by the shockwave and fell again. Her legs, in their tall boots, braced hard against the ground to keep from falling back.
"Hmm?" Shinji tilted his head slightly.
When he had struck just now, he had clearly felt his demonic aura being shaved by that golden light.
For an ordinary demon below materialization, even one who had undergone six transformations, there was a high probability that power would suppress them to the point of being unable to muster any strength.
But the problem was.....
He was not an ordinary demon.
Though nominally at the Sixth Transformation, his demonic aura's thickness was already close to the Eighth Transformation. His actual strength even more so.
It had shaved off a layer of skin, but beneath that skin, the flesh, the bone, the demonic aura that had beco thick and nearly solid after fusing lightning into the Sharp Body Change
Unmoved.
"Your blade is very interesting," Shinji's voice ca from beneath the demon mask.
Very flat.
So flat it didn't sound like he was addressing an enemy who had nearly blocked his attack. More like he was evaluating an object that had caught his interest.
Kakizaki Kageie's pupils contracted sharply.
Her instincts were screaming with warning.
That strike just now, the demon's attack had been too heavy. Her arms were still numb. Even the divine tachi bearing Bishamonten's power was humming with vibration.
And.
It hadn't gone all out.
A seasoned general could tell whether an enemy was being serious.
That strike had been astonishingly fast, its power incredible, but the movent itself, too casual.
It really had looked like a casual swing.
"Don't zone out."
Then his voice ca again, suddenly, in her ear.
Kakizaki Kageie's body reacted faster than her mind. Her tachi swung horizontally, golden light surging.
But her blade cut through empty air. Shinji was no longer there.
He was close to her.
To her left? Right?
No—
Above!
Kakizaki Kageie looked up sharply.
Against the twilight sky, that grey figure was passing over her head. His white hair trailed an arc in the wind. The crimson demon mask looked down at her from above.
Those eyes, glowing with an eerie red light, held no killing intent.
Only looking down.
"Too slow." His voice fell from above.
Then
Bone spurs.
White bone spurs shot from his elbow, not at her, but into the mud at her feet.
Crack, crack, crack, crack—!
Four bone spurs, driven into the ground around her like stakes, completely locking her position.
Kakizaki Kageie tried to move, but the demonic aura from the spurs ford a miniature cage, making every step feel like wading through mud.
"You—!" She gritted her teeth.
The golden light on the tachi surged again. That divine artifact's power frantically poured out, trying to shatter the surrounding bone spurs.
The mont the golden light touched the spurs, fine cracks indeed appeared on their white surface.
That power was indeed suppressing demonic aura.
It could indeed suppress anything extraordinary
But.
Pop.
Where the bone spurs cracked, purple electric arcs burst from the fissures.
Lightning.
The lightning after fusing the Lightning-Muscle Sharp Body was not a superficial power tacked onto his body. It had beco part of his essential being.
That lightning traveled through the bone spurs, rushing back into the golden light.
Zzzap—!
The golden light shattered.
Kakizaki Kageie's tachi trembled violently. The bloodied crack at her tiger's mouth tore wider. Blood dripped down the hilt.
Her body was pushed back another step by the shockwave.
And Shinji had already landed before her.
Very close.
Close enough for her to see her own disheveled reflection in the crimson eyes beneath the demon mask.
"Your blade can suppress demonic aura," his tone was almost appreciative. "But it can't suppress ."
Muramasa hung at his side, its tip pointing down.
This was not a fighting stance. This was a posture of indifference, after having confird everything.
Kakizaki Kageie looked at the demon mask inches away.
Her face beneath that silver-grey hair was now full of unwillingness.
But she was not foolish.
She clearly recognized a fact, alone, not only could she not defeat this demon in a short ti,
She barely even qualified to fight him.
He had never been serious from beginning to end. This realization was more fatal than any blade.
She imdiately made a decision.
She suddenly retreated!
"All troops!" Her voice simultaneously pierced the battlefield, clear and loud. "Form up! Surround and kill!"
Boom—!
The thousand-man army, which had been silent, moved.
Cavalry began to charge. Infantry raised spear walls and advanced. The archers in the rear drew their bowstrings.
The 'Bi' banner snapped in the wind.
The overwhelming pressure, like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami surging, rushed toward him.
No longer a duel. It had beco war.
A thousand n in formation. A terrifying display of force.
Hundreds of arrows rose like a black cloud, blotting out the sky where the sun was setting.
Shinji looked at the rain of arrows, then at Kakizaki Kageie, who had retreated into the army formation, preparing to use the army's montum to deliver a killing blow.
He smiled.
Beneath that half-crimson demon mask, the corner of his mouth curved into an arrogant arc.
"Can't beat , so you call for help?"
He didn't dodge. He didn't even move.
[Blood Change].
Red mist erupted from his body.
Not the thin mist of probing, but a thick, blood-plasma-like substance.
The blood mist instantly spread, swallowing an area a hundred ters in diater.
The arrows shot into the blood mist....
And vanished.
Caught by the mist, slowed, stopped, and finally, like stones sinking into a swamp, they silently fell to the ground.
Hundreds upon hundreds of arrows, not a single one penetrated.
Then,
Purple light exploded.
[Lightning-Muscle Sharp Body] fully activated.
Shinji's figure vanished from the blood mist.
Replaced by a purple bolt of lightning charging wildly through the red sea of mist.
He charged into the cavalry formation.
"The general has ordered! Stop him!" The front-row cavalry roared, thrusting their spears.
The spear tips struck, struck his shoulder.
Then the shafts shattered.
Like a chopstick poking a city wall, the bone armor didn't even tremble. The spearheads flew off, and the shrapnel embedded itself in the riders' own faces.
The next second.
Bone spurs erged from the blood mist.
Not one.
Over a dozen.
From the ground, from the air, from both sides of the trail left by that bolt of lightning, white bone spurs, as if with eyes, pierced straight through horses' necks, flung the riders from their saddles, then sent them falling onto the spurs below, raising another spray of blood.
Without rcy, horses and riders fell.
Screams filled the air.
But that purple bolt of lightning showed no sign of stopping.
It tore through the cavalry formation, through the infantry square, through the archers' firing line.
Wherever it passed, spears snapped, iron armor shattered, warhorses scread and fell.
Lightning raged, electrocuting nearby soldiers until they convulsed, unable to even hold their weapons.
Blood mist spread, blinding everyone, leaving them unable to tell where the enemy was.
Shinji moved as if through empty land.
His body was the strongest weapon.
Muramasa hadn't even been drawn again. Just bone spurs and lightning, just that body, hardened under the double reinforcent of Sharp Body Change and Lightning-Muscle Sharp Body, as tough as any armor
He alone pierced through the thousand-man army.
From north to south.
A straight line.
Clean and decisive.
He carved a bloody path through thousands of soldiers.
Straight toward Kakizaki Kageie at the center of the formation.
Kakizaki Kageie watched the lightning drawing closer.
She saw it clearly.
Too clearly.
Her pride, her thousand elite soldiers before that demon, they were like paper.
It wasn't that her soldiers were weak.
It was that thing, too absurd.
"Bishamonten above!" She held nothing back.
The divine artifact's power within her burned to its limit. The golden light on her tachi surged to its maximum, transforming into a massive blade of light.
This strike condensed all her spirit, energy, and essence, even borrowing the montum of the army behind her.
'Montum,' or perhaps, human energy.
Another form of 'Fear,' within humanity, the awe of soldiers for their leader.
The montum of a thousand n, condensed into a single blade, attached to the power of a divine artifact.
"Expel Evil!" She struck down at the approaching lightning.
The golden blade of light, three yards long, split the blood mist, split the ground, carrying a pressure almost divine, crashing down toward that purple lightning.
Enough to sever a mountain.
And Shinji....
Finally drew his blade again.
Not because he had to.
Because that strike of light was indeed beautiful, worth responding to in kind.
Muramasa left its sheath. No unnecessary movent.
Just a simple upward swing.
Blade-light t golden light.
No stalemate, no process of resistance.
Just the soft sound of tearing cloth.
That three-yard-long golden blade of light was split in two from the middle.
Golden light shattered, scattering as countless particles of light.
And Muramasa's montum didn't diminish. Passing through the gap in the shattered light, carrying a layer of purple lightning, it landed squarely on Kakizaki Kageie.
The two passed each other.
In the end, Shinji landed, Muramasa pointing diagonally at the ground. Not a single drop of blood on the blade, the lightning had instantly cauterized the cut.
Behind him,
Kakizaki Kageie remained in her striking pose. Her dark silver armor had split from her shoulder down to her side.
On her delicate face, confusion and disbelief.
"This… how…" She had lost.
And she was dead.
Two armies in battle. The enemy had co with killing intent. Shinji had no reason to hold back.
Even if the other was a claimable 'divine artifact'!
At the sa ti.
Hundreds of miles away, in the mountains between Echigo and Musashi, inside a brightly lit military tent.
A figure in armor, wearing a white veil, beneath which silver-white soft hair fell, framing delicate yet heroic features, suddenly opened her eyes.
There, a dark shadow appeared.
A long sword.
But the blade… was cracked.
Then, it shattered.
"Kakizaki Kageie's soul…"
"Has returned to Takamagahara?"
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