But despite Shinji's thorough preparations, the gap in strength was still evident.
Purple light exploded.
The roof of the tenshu instantly turned to dust.
Shinji's body flew backward, crashing into the rubble below.
Most of his bone armor was shattered. His chest was charred black, flesh torn.
The battle had lasted a quarter of an hour.
More scorch marks had appeared on Shinji's bone armor. More blood streaks had appeared on the thunder beast's body.
But,
The gap was still widening.
Shinji rose unsteadily. Blood trickled from his lips.
Not just external wounds.
Internal wounds too.
The thunder beast's attacks weren't just physical. With each contact, lightning traveled through the blade into his body.
The bone armor blocked most of it, but some always seeped through.
That lightning ravaged his body, burning his meridians.
[Bloodthirsty Immortality] was desperately repairing him.
But it couldn't keep up with the damage.
"Hahaha!" The thunder beast laughed, its voice like thunder.
"That's it? That's all you've got?"
"I thought you were stronger. You're nothing special!"
It was right.
The gap between Quality Transformation and Body Transformation wasn't something skill and tactics could bridge.
The thunder beast hadn't just achieved materialization, it had achieved elemental transformation. Lightning transformation.
Lightning transformation meant completely integrating lightning power into oneself.
Every strand of its fur was lightning. Every breath brought electric arcs. Every attack carried destructive force.
It could even transform directly into lightning or rather, it was lightning.
The embodiment of lightning!
This wasn't simple attribute stacking.
This was an essential change.
Though Shinji had fused Bone Soul and reached, even exceeded the normal limit of Body Transformation,
He was still only at Body Transformation.
The difference in quality and quantity was like an ant versus an elephant.
Though the number of transformations didn't represent absolute strength, a tiny ant no matter how many transformations, couldn't match an unchanging giant beast, Quality was different.
Quality transformation could change the most essential structure of life.
And among those who achieved Quality transformation, the difference between those who held elemental transformations and those who didn't was immense!
"Accept your fate." The thunder beast advanced step by step, its limbs moving, its pale fur crackling with lightning. "Those bones and blood mist of yours are interesting, sure."
"But before true power, they're all useless."
It spoke confidently, even arrogantly.
Because it had seen through Shinji's hand.
The blood mist was just a perception method. No offensive power.
The bone spurs were annoying, but a single lightning bolt could shatter many.
This demon warrior's fighting style was indeed versatile, but every method was within its ability to counter.
"Come." The thunder beast opened its gaping maw. "Let me eat you. Absorb your demonic aura."
"Maybe it'll push me further."
Shinji didn't answer.
He stood in the rubble, both blades planted in the ground. Most of his bone armor was shattered. Cracks had appeared in his demon mask.
He looked utterly battered.
But his eyes remained calm.
"You sure?" he asked.
"Sure about what?" The thunder beast sneered.
"Sure that you've seen through all my cards?"
Shinji suddenly smiled.
That smile, through the cracks in his demon mask, looked especially eerie.
The thunder beast's expression tightened.
It seemed to sense something instinctively.
But... too late.
Boom!
It lunged again, its massive claw wrapped in lightning, aimed directly at Shinji's head.
Shinji didn't dodge.
He even released his blades.
Letting that claw pin him to the ground.
Crack—
The bone armor shattered completely.
Lightning surged from the claw into his body.
"Die!" The thunder beast roared.
Its claw pressed down, trying to crush Shinji into paste.
But the next second.
Its movement stopped. Not voluntarily.
Forced.
"What?" The thunder beast looked down.
It saw.
Around its limbs, dense black threads had somehow entangled.
Those threads were thin. So thin they were almost invisible.
They hid within the blood mist. Between the bone spurs. In every corner of this battlefield.
Like spiderwebs.
Or like...
Hair.
"This is…" The thunder beast's pupils contracted sharply.
This was Yura's hair!
The demon Shinji had already captured!
"You think…" Shinji's voice came from beneath its claw. "Why did I drag this out so long?"
The thunder beast shuddered.
It tried to break free.
But those threads seemed fused to its body. The more it struggled, the tighter they bound.
Worse
Those threads were absorbing its lightning!
Sizzle.
Purple electricity flowed along the black strands, directed toward a certain direction.
Underground.
Those threads acted like wires, channeling the thunder beast's endless lightning deep into the earth.
"Impossible!" The thunder beast roared. "How could Yura's hair withstand my lightning!"
"Normally, it couldn't." Shinji crawled out from beneath the claw and picked up his blades from the ground.
"But if it's just channeling?" His gaze fell on the black threads entangling the thunder beast. "Her hair, after being soaked in my blood mist, becomes exceptionally moist. And moisture conducts electricity."
"Her hair wasn't meant to bind you."
"It was meant to give your lightning an escape route."
"A route into the ground."
The principle of elemental opposition, Shinji, as a transmigrator, understood it well.
The thunder beast now realized why it suddenly felt weak.
Its lightning was the source of its power, Itself, As a demon that had completed materialization and elemental transformation, that was exactly how it should be.
But now, that lightning was being constantly channeled away, into the ground.
Its power, even its life, was being 'drained.'
Like a reservoir. Water still flowed in, but the outlet was wider.
The water level was falling.
Power was draining.
"You!" The thunder beast thrashed wildly.
Its body erupted with even more intense lightning, trying to burn through those damned threads.
But the threads seemed protected by something. No matter how strong the lightning, it just flowed along them instead of burning them.
The blood mist.
That mist in the air had formed a thin conductive layer on the hair's surface, also a protective film.
Blocking the lightning's direct heat.
And fully utilizing the channeling function.
The thunder beast's voice trembled. "How can you… you're not even that strong…"
"I'm not strong. But I only needed to wait." Shinji walked forward slowly, both blades lowered. "Wait for you to let your guard down."
"Wait for you to think you'd won."
"Wait for you to show an opening."
He stopped before the thunder beast.
That once-arrogant giant beast was now wrapped in countless black threads, unable to move.
The lightning within its body continued to drain. Its power waned.
"How can this be…" the thunder beast murmured. "Why would Yura help you… isn't she your prisoner…"
"Who says a prisoner can't cooperate?" A muffled voice came from Shinji's robe.
"I just hate those Kyoto guys!"
"Seeing you suffer makes me happy!"
It was Yura's voice.
The red comb was vibrating in Shinji's robe. The little skull's eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
The thunder beast was stunned.
It tried to speak.
But Shinji gave it no chance.
Both blades raised high.
Muramasa and Sōza Samonji gleamed coldly in the moonlight.
"Remember this name." Shinji spoke, repeating his earlier words. "Shinji, and… Yura."
"This is the name of the one who kills you."
"And the name of the demon who cuts you down."
As he spoke,
The blades fell.
Two edges crossed.
One black, one silver. They swept across the thunder beast's throat.
Blood gushed.
The great white wolf fell into a pool of blood.
Purple light slowly faded from its body.
Like a dying flame.
Thus.
Leading lightning into the earth.