Just as everyone was lost in a daze, disaster struck without warning!
Without the slightest sign, the paper sliding door on the side of the hall burst apart!
Amid the flying wood splinters and shreds of paper, a burly figure came charging in!
A bizarre person whose gender was impossible to tell, with the appearance—and temperament—of an ancient wild samurai... The one who slammed straight into the room had disheveled hair, a rugged face, and eyes burning with pure madness, looking exactly as though they had stepped right out of a Warring States scroll painting.
Behind her, in the corridor beyond the door, several armed bodyguards had already crumpled silently to the floor, like dolls carelessly tossed aside.
There were no visible wounds on their bodies, as if in a single instant all their strength had simply been drained away.
What had happened?
The assembled dignitaries in the hall stared dumbstruck, their minds gone utterly blank.
They had clearly heard no sounds of struggle or gunfire—so how had those well-trained guards fallen?
In this deathly silence, there was only the soft rustle of wood chips settling to the floor, and the intruder's heavy breathing.
"A brawny figure like a wild samurai... It's the murderer who killed Lord Takaichi!"
Witnessing the newcomer's appearance, Sekiguchi—commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Department—was the first to break free of the shock.
This figure matched perfectly with the killer the maid had described!
"Enemy attack!!"
In his terror, the Metropolitan Police Department commissioner hastily shouted a warning, his right hand instinctively reaching for his waist.
But before he could draw his pistol, Swordmaster Tomie's blade had already left its sheath first.
"Slash!"
The rough female voice exploded through the air, crashing directly into the depths of everyone's consciousness.
A flash of blade-light bloomed from Swordmaster Tomie's waist at a speed beyond all perception.
Sekiguchi felt only a chill at his neck, as if an invisible blade had swept across his skin, and the agonizing pain of his head being severed was utterly, unbearably real.
Even though no real blade existed, his brain had already faithfully received every signal of impending death.
His eyes snapped wide, the whites rolling upward, and his body—like a puppet with its strings cut—pitched stiffly forward, crashing heavily onto the tatami.
He was not the only one to fall.
The invisible slash swept across the entire hall like spreading ripples.
Every person touched by that thought—whether trembling wealthy merchants or politicians forcing an air of calm—froze in the very same instant, the color draining from their faces as identical expressions of horror and pain surfaced.
In the blink of an eye, no one in the hall remained standing—only bodies sprawled in disarray.
"How crude."
At the entrance of the shattered sliding door, the light dimmed slightly.
A slender figure walked in, unhurried and calm.
Mara Tomie, a faint, barely-there smile on her face, let her gaze wander leisurely over the wreckage of the hall and teased Swordmaster Tomie.
"Don't spout such nonsense in front of me."
Swordmaster Tomie did not even turn her head, her voice hoarse and vicious as she slid her blade back into its sheath, the motion still carrying an undissipated killing intent.
"Since we've confirmed that the Soul Reviver and his sword are the real thing, there's nothing left to wait for!"
As she spoke, Swordmaster Tomie looked toward the Soul Reviver.
The Soul Reviver still held his kneeling posture, head bowed deeply, his disheveled hair hanging down to conceal his face.
The dark short sword clutched tightly in his hand lay across his knees; the fresh blood staining the blade had not yet congealed, sliding slowly down along the ancient blade-patterns and seeping into the tatami beneath him.
Swordmaster Tomie's gaze locked onto that dark short sword. She strode toward the kneeling Soul Reviver and reached out to seize the Soul Reviver's Sword.
However, at the very moment her fingers were about to touch the hilt, the Soul Reviver—who had been hanging his head and seemed to have lost consciousness—suddenly lifted it. That face, crawling with dark red bloodveins, turned toward Swordmaster Tomie and opened its mouth wide.
"Whoooo——!!!"
A visible pillar of white light burst forth from his mouth!
That column of energy was as solid as a physical object; the instant it blasted out, the air was savagely torn apart, erupting with a dull, thunderous roar.
Wherever it passed, the tatami was plowed open into a deep furrow, debris scattering in all directions!
Before the impact force carried by the pillar of light even reached her body, the fierce wind was already rushing at her face, blowing the messy hair on Swordmaster Tomie's forehead straight back!
Swordmaster Tomie's pupils contracted—there was no time to block. In that hair's-breadth moment, she tightened her core, pivoted on her left foot, and wrenched her body to the side like a whirlwind!
At the same time, the tachi in her right hand, borrowing the momentum of the spin, swept up diagonally from below, its sharp edge slicing into the rim of the light pillar.
The blade collided with that solid-seeming pillar of light, letting out an ear-piercing screech of friction.
A tremendous brute force transmitted up along the blade, jolting Swordmaster Tomie until her whole body went numb—she could feel the overwhelming power.
The mass of her blade could not hold against it!
Realizing this, Swordmaster Tomie ducked low and spun, slipping past the destructive stream of light like a darting fish!
The pillar of light that grazed past her side slammed into the wall, and the sheer mass and impact force it carried blasted a gaping hole straight through the concrete.
"A qigong wave? It can still be cut!"
Facing this formidable power, Swordmaster Tomie's eyes held no trace of fear—instead, a fiercer battle lust blazed to life. Her gaze sharpened, and an invisible Sword Force laced with murderous intent turned into a flash of blade-light that chopped straight down at the Soul Reviver's head!
Consciousness Slash, striking directly at the mind!
However, that slash—enough to shatter an ordinary person's psyche—landed on the Soul Reviver like a clay ox sinking into the sea, without stirring even the faintest ripple.
The Soul Reviver's blood-vein-covered face remained utterly expressionless, as if that earth-shaking attack a moment ago and this invisible slash now both had nothing whatsoever to do with him.
"The Consciousness Slash has no effect?"
A chill ran through Swordmaster Tomie's heart; she was taken aback.
This was the first time she had ever encountered such a thing.
But when her gaze swept once more over the Soul Reviver's hollow, milky-white eyes, she understood at once.
There was no human ripple of emotion in those eyes—only a deathly, silent blankness.
The Soul Reviver had already lost consciousness; the will controlling this man now was most certainly not the Soul Reviver himself!
Decades of mastery in Hypnosis meant that, when it came to perceiving another's emotions, she could never be wrong.
"In other words... that sword truly is alive?"
Swordmaster Tomie's gaze fixed on the short sword in the Soul Reviver's hand, and at that very same instant, the Soul Reviver raised the short sword and swung it through the empty air!
White light overflowed from the symbols engraved on the blade, condensing into a solid-like white light-blade that slashed at Swordmaster Tomie's waist.
The white light-blade howled toward her; Swordmaster Tomie kicked off the ground, her body leaping into the air. The white energy-blade whistled past beneath her feet, cleaving the folding screen behind her clean in two.
But it was not over yet—the Soul Reviver tilted his head back and opened his mouth once again.
"Boom——!!!"
An even thicker pillar of white light shot out, like a physical cannon blast, roaring straight at Swordmaster Tomie in midair!
This blast was impossible to evade. In the blink of an eye, Swordmaster Tomie's body was swallowed by the pillar of light. She felt as though she'd been struck head-on by a truck at full speed, hurled flying backward.
____
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