"I don't agree with that, you know. Letting this country perish beneath your blade would be such a waste—why not let me rule this country instead~~"
A soft, laughter-laced female voice rose without any warning from the shadows on the other side of the great hall.
The languid laughter easily shattered the heavy air, boring its way into everyone's ears.
Immediately after, an indescribable aura, like thick ink dripped into clear water, spread out silently and without a trace.
It was unlike Swordmaster Tomie's fierce Sword Force, and unlike Amamiya Rin's limpid Nature-Light.
It was stickier, more ambiguous, carrying a rotten yet cloyingly sweet fragrance, an enchantment woven together from countless fragmentary whispers.
Swordmaster Tomie did not turn around; she merely furrowed her brow.
The maid, however, was startled awake by this voice. She whipped her head around, gazing urgently toward the source of the sound.
Beside the broken shoji door connecting the great hall to the inner courtyard, in the blurred zone where moonlight blended with the dim yellow light inside the room, at some unknown moment a silhouette had quietly come to stand.
Once again, it was another Tomie.
But this newly appeared Tomie was utterly different from the Tomie who had slaughtered her way in, and even somewhat different from the Tomie who had been clinging to Amamiya Rin's arm at the party.
Though she wore that same little black formal dress, her long hair loose and flowing, every subtle expression, every flicker of her eyes, exuded a demonic charm bewitching to the absolute extreme.
That faint smile at the corner of her mouth was seductive yet cruel, as if it could see through every last filthy desire buried in the deepest depths of the human heart.
Was she Tomie? The true Tomie? The Tomie in the files who bewitched all living things?
The maid's throat inexplicably went dry, her heart tickling as if teased by a feather.
Her gaze clung fixedly to Mara Tomie, unable to pull away, and her taut body relaxed without her realizing it. Her mind grew foggy and heavy, and all those thoughts of fear, fury, and survival seemed to soak in a hot spring and melt away, turning into a lump of paste.
Mara Tomie walked over unhurriedly. Her gaze first fell upon Swordmaster Tomie, sizing up that muscle-knotted, hulking physique. Her beautiful brows arched slightly, filled with astonishment.
"My my, to have turned yourself into such a state—truly a… one-of-a-kind aesthetic sense."
Though she did not openly mock Swordmaster Tomie's ugliness, the faint mockery that seeped through Mara Tomie's words, hidden between the lines, sent a pang of pain through Swordmaster Tomie's heart nonetheless.
The bulging muscles, the swollen tendons, the rough keratinized skin… this sinewy body, remodeled by controlling the Division (Divisão Corporal Consciente) and proliferation of the flesh for combat efficiency, appeared so coarse, so barbaric, so unbearable to look at before the other's utterly natural, bewitching allure.
In an instant, emotions mixing self-loathing and shameful rage surged into her chest like sewage from the drains.
And yet, it was only for an instant.
"Hmmm—!"
It was as if an invisible blade edge rang out within her mind!
In the next instant, those inferiority-ridden stray thoughts that had just risen up, tangled like a mess of hemp, were cut away by her with pure Sword Intent.
As cleanly and decisively as snapping off an obstructing strand of spider silk.
The stray thoughts dispersed, and her mind returned to cold clarity, like a blade washed by an icy spring, reflecting reality with perfect distinctness.
Wrong!
Swordmaster Tomie's gaze was sharp as a blade as she suddenly fixed it upon the smiling, radiant Mara Tomie.
How could she ever produce feelings of inferiority? No matter what she looked like, she was surely the most perfect of all!
It was this creature!
The fury transformed into the most direct killing intent!
Interrogation? Utterly superfluous! The best response for dealing with this kind of demon and phantom was the blade!
Swordmaster Tomie planted her stance. The blood-reek and Sword Intent still lingering about her body converged madly, and all her mind and will were converted entirely into fuel, poured into that invisible blade.
Her gaze, like a quenched blade edge, locked onto Mara Tomie's pair of smiling eyes.
"Cut!"
A low kiai burst out, short and abrupt as a blade snapping!
Almost simultaneously, Swordmaster Tomie's figure was reflected in Mara Tomie's eyes—the blade-wielding figure turning into a gust of wind that came slaughtering forth, a cold, mournful flash of blade-light crossing more than ten meters of space to split straight toward the space between her brows!
"Aah—!"
Mara Tomie let out a cry of pain, her brows knitting tightly together, tears welling at the corners of her eyes, her lips bitten pale.
Beside her, the maid felt her heart twist violently.
"Miss Tomie…!"
She cried out, unable to stop herself.
Only moments ago she had been scared to death, yet now, watching Mara Tomie's tearful, glistening appearance, she actually felt an impulse to rush forward and protect her, to comfort her.
She even felt that letting so beautiful a creature endure pain was, in itself, an unforgivable sin.
"Stop putting on an act!"
Swordmaster Tomie let out a cold snort.
"You're not that useless one who can only rely on tools. A slash of this level has no effect on you at all."
They were of one heart and one mind, so naturally she could sense that Mara Tomie had not produced any emotion of pain whatsoever.
Unlike the Evil Cultivator Tomie who used the Hypnosis App, and unlike herself, the Swordmaster who combined swordsmanship with Hypnosis, the Tomie before her was the only one who had completely mastered mind-control-tier Hypnosis. Her mental power far surpassed that of any other Tomie.
The might of the Consciousness Slash was simply not enough to affect this creature.
"Rin, she's being mean to me~~"
Facing Swordmaster Tomie's accusation, Mara Tomie turned her head, her gaze drifting toward the shadowed corridor at the other end of the great hall, her voice drawn out soft and long.
Before her voice had even faded, Swordmaster Tomie followed her gaze and looked over as well.
At some unknown moment, Amamiya Rin was already standing there, still wearing the sleepwear he had been in when he was taken out. There was no particular expression on his face, only a faint smile in his eyes, as though he'd just watched a farcical prank.
"Had enough fun?"
Amamiya Rin walked over and asked calmly.
Swordmaster Tomie gave a "tch," and her body began to change. Those bulging muscles and keratinized layers rapidly retracted, her bones let out faint cracking sounds, her height gradually shrank back to its original form, and her skin returned to its fair, smooth state.
The clothes, however, could not be restored, hanging in tatters upon her, drenched in blood and filth.
That composure Mara Tomie had shown while facing Swordmaster Tomie now melted away like thin ice under the sun. Her eyes abruptly lit up, surging within with a rich, unmeltable love.
Completely ignoring Swordmaster Tomie and the maid beside her, she pounced toward Amamiya Rin like a joyful bird, both arms wrapping tightly around his waist, her cheek pressed against his chest, rubbing against him greedily.
"What a pity~~ this time I couldn't play the beauty rescuing the hero. The hero already rescued himself."
Mara Tomie's voice was full of regret; she had wanted to bail Amamiya Rin out of trouble just like last time.
"All right, it's time to get down to business."
Feeling Mara Tomie's infatuated love, Amamiya Rin patted her back lightly, as if to soothe her, a troubled expression flashing across his face.
A demonic Bodhisattva was not so easily brought to enlightenment.
____
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