"BANG——!!!"
In the next instant, Swordmaster Tomie's back slammed solidly into the sturdy concrete wall behind her.
The muffled thud of the impact was heart-stopping. Centered on that single point, the wall caved inward into a horrifying crater, spiderweb cracks spreading in every direction as fragments of stone rained down.
Yet that thick pillar of light did not relent, continuing to grind against Swordmaster Tomie's body, pinning her mercilessly against the wall!
The sound of bones shattering was distinctly audible—that powerful frame was nearly crushed under the sheer weight of the light pillar!
(How did the art style change so suddenly?)
(Hey! Did you guys wander over to the Dragon Ball set next door?)
(The Dragon Ball set never made this little commotion.)
(What the hell is a qigong wave? And what the hell is sword-qi?)
...
The incident at the Takaichi residence stirred up a massive uproar across the [Tomie Network], a churning tide of astonishment, mockery, and curiosity interweaving as one.
Amamiya Rin, who was already standing guard outside the TV studio building, immediately understood the situation the moment he sensed Swordmaster Tomie's plight.
(It isn't qigong—it's life force. The life force the Soul Reviver absorbs into his body doesn't just bring people back to life; it also carries a physical, concussive impact. In 'Soul Reviver's Sword,' when the protagonist was facing off against the Soul Reviver, he got so worked up that he spat out the life force the Soul Reviver had injected into him, and knocked the Soul Reviver flat.)
Amamiya Rin sat in the coffee shop across from the TV studio building, holding a cup of milk tea, calmly explaining to Tomies.
(No wonder—the immortal body granted by that colossal life force, and the cannon-fire produced by releasing it. Even if some secret organization wanted to capture the Soul Reviver and make him serve them, they'd have a hard time succeeding in any short span of time. No wonder Japan's political circles dare to let the Soul Reviver roam free, unafraid he'll come to harm.)
It suddenly dawned on the Tomies.
They had long found it strange. Even granting that it was a so-called short horror manga where such details needn't be dwelt upon, in the real world, how could those politicians who fancied themselves gods ever permit a Soul Reviver—who held the lifeline of their very existence—to move about freely?
So this was the reason.
That said, no one, Amamiya Rin included, felt any worry for Swordmaster Tomie.
They were both monsters with immortal bodies, but even in a battle of attrition, the life force the Soul Reviver had stockpiled could never outlast Swordmaster Tomie.
Let alone the fact that a mere gun turret that could only fire cannons posed hardly any threat at all.
At the Takaichi residence, the pillar of light finally dissipated.
Swordmaster Tomie's body slid down from the crater in the wall and crashed heavily to the floor. Her upper half was all but blasted to pieces—ribs exposed, organs ruptured, fresh blood mingled with shredded flesh splattered across the ground.
But in the next second, her flesh and blood began writhing madly, skin, muscle, and bone rapidly multiplying.
In mere seconds, the wounds had largely healed. Draped in a layer of black keratin, Swordmaster Tomie looked, amid such transformation, like some biochemical monster.
"An immortal body...?"
The Soul Reviver let out a hoarse voice. He too seemed astonished by Swordmaster Tomie's uncannily rapid self-healing, yet beneath the astonishment came a flicker of realization.
"A kin of the Great Mother..."
As if he had discerned Swordmaster Tomie's origin or true nature. But the Soul Reviver did not hesitate. He raised his arm once more, the Soul Reviver's blade pointed at Swordmaster Tomie, the black patterns along the blade faintly glowing, and another solid-like white light-blade came slashing through the air.
Swordmaster Tomie's right foot pushed off the wall with force, shattered chunks of concrete tumbling down as her whole body shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, nearly hugging the floor as she slid beneath the light-blade.
The light-blade grazed her back, carrying away a strip of flesh, but the wound sealed itself the very next second.
In the midst of the slide, her left hand slapped the ground, her right foot kicked off, and she sprang upward, hoisting that already-cracked tachi and charging at the Soul Reviver with menacing momentum.
Facing the charging Swordmaster Tomie, the Soul Reviver seemed to possess neither combat technique nor any great wealth of experience. He stood his ground without dodging and once again opened his mouth.
"BOOM——!"
A thick pillar of white light blasted toward Swordmaster Tomie at point-blank range, like a high-pressure water cannon!
And yet, at this very moment, in Swordmaster Tomie's eyes, every one of the Soul Reviver's movements could be foreseen.
Breathing Method, Total Concentration!
Her sympathetic nervous system activated to its limit, the oxygen content of her blood surging, the transmission speed of her nerve signals abruptly accelerating.
The world seemed to have its slow-motion button pressed.
Every minute movement of the Soul Reviver—the tremor of his fingers, the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, the sway of his shoulders...—all became crystal clear, like a reflection cast upon a mirror.
He opened his mouth, white light coalescing deep in his throat.
But in Swordmaster Tomie's perception at this instant, the process was sluggish and riddled with openings.
The moment the light pillar erupted, Swordmaster Tomie's feet slammed into the ground, the floorboards bursting apart beneath her tread. Her body became a blurred afterimage, and the next instant she crossed paths with the light pillar and—like a phantom—appeared in the Soul Reviver's blind spot!
The Soul Reviver seemed to sense the danger and tried to turn his body.
But it was too late!
"Shinkage-ryu · Suigetsu!"
In that instant, the tachi transformed into an almost invisible flash of cold light.
From stillness to motion—all in the space of a breath.
The tachi gripped in her left hand became a barely perceptible arc of frigid light, sweeping from below upward, precisely grazing the Soul Reviver's sword-wielding right wrist.
"Shk!"
With a soft sound, skin, flesh, sinew, and bone offered not the slightest resistance before such absolute speed and sharpness. The Soul Reviver's right hand was severed clean at the wrist, still clutching that black short sword as it flew upward with the momentum.
Swordmaster Tomie's motion did not falter in the slightest. The instant the slash was complete, her empty right hand had already shot out like lightning, snatching in midair, wresting that Soul Reviver's blade from the Soul Reviver's grasp!
Cold to the touch, the blade seemed to pulse faintly.
Seizing the sword and landing were accomplished in one seamless motion.
The moment Swordmaster Tomie's toes touched down, she whirled and swept past, appearing in an instant at the Soul Reviver's utterly defenseless back. Gripping her own tachi in a reverse hold with her left hand, she aimed the solid butt of the hilt at the back of the Soul Reviver's neck and struck down with force!
"Thud!"
A dull impact rang out. The Soul Reviver's body suddenly stiffened, and the white light gathering in his throat, poised to erupt, abruptly collapsed. Face down, his body pitched forward, crashing to the floor and moving no more.
The Soul Reviver was strong, and also weak.
In Swordmaster Tomie's eyes, he was too slow—slow as a tortoise.
Even if he could unleash a light cannon like a rocket launcher and slash out a light-wave like sword-qi, the Soul Reviver himself was no warrior, nor had he ever studied swordsmanship. Though his bombardment as a turret could not be met head-on, if his opponent were a battle-hardened swordsman—one who possessed the margin for error to endure the light cannon without dying—then seizing an opening to strike at the Soul Reviver himself was no difficult task at all. Of course, this "no difficult task" applied only to a powerhouse like Swordmaster Tomie.
This was precisely why Amamiya Rin and the others, upon recalling that the Soul Reviver did in fact possess combat ability, felt no concern.
____
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