The battle wasn't over.
Demons kept coming, wave after relentless wave.
Muramasa had been drinking so deep it glowed red to the spine. The purple vein-like grain running along the blade pulsed like something alive — wild, fevered, ecstatic.
[Cursed Blade Muramasa: Mood — 'Ecstasy.' It conveys: 'I haven't eaten this well in a very long time.']
That sword's appetite was getting out of hand.
Kōbe Hikaru had no time to comment, because two more demons were already on top of him.
The first was a four-armed ape. Each arm was three times thicker than it had any right to be — veins bulging, muscle coiled over muscle like rope. No question what that was. A Strength-Type Mutation. Pure brute force, no finesse, and all the more obnoxious for it. Four arms meant four separate Changes stacked into one body.
Five Changes. At minimum.
The second was something else entirely — a humanoid shape condensed from fog. No face, no features, just a vague outline that kept solidifying and dissolving, solidifying and dissolving. Not something that had transformed *into* fog. Rather, the fog itself had developed consciousness. Had become a Mist Wraith, a Mirage Demon.
This was, without question, one of the most troublesome breeds in existence.
In this world, in this age, anything could become a demon — but the more rigid and 'dead' the matter, the harder the transformation. Fog was harder still. And yet, when fog did manage to awaken, it emerged at the threshold of Six Changes or beyond. Because for fog to birth a demon, it had to pass through stages — awareness, movement, cohesion, dispersal — before it could master its own form and achieve full demonhood. Each of those stages counted as a Change.
One of them was hard. One of them wasn't there.
*What a disgusting combination,* Kōbe Hikaru thought.
The four-armed ape moved first. All four fists came crashing down at once.
Kōbe Hikaru didn't meet them head-on. He slipped sideways with Phantom Step —
— and the moment he found his footing, the fog had already drifted over.
A black hand reached out from within it, driving straight for his chest.
*Thud.*
The strike sent him flying. He punched through two corridor pillars on his way down.
That was the Mist Wraith's trick: solid when it attacked, intangible when struck. Unless you caught the exact instant it solidified, you couldn't touch it.
"...Hk."
Kōbe Hikaru dragged himself out of the rubble. A thin trickle of black blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
That hit had landed hard.
But his eyes were bright.
Because he had seen it.
Through the drifting blood-mist hanging over the battlefield, he had caught the pattern — the rhythm of when the fog solidified.
Every time before an attack, its *core* condensed first. The core sat at chest-level, no bigger than a fist. It stayed solid for roughly half a breath.
Half a breath.
That was enough.
Kōbe Hikaru tightened his grip on Muramasa and charged.
The four-armed ape stepped into his path. Four fists came down again.
This time Kōbe Hikaru didn't dodge.
He raised the blade and blocked.
*CLANG——!*
The impact shuddered up both arms. His bones rattled.
But he held.
In that same instant, the fog drifted out from behind the ape. The black hand reached again — straight for the back of his heart.
Kōbe Hikaru didn't turn around.
He simply shifted his body — just enough to open a clean lane of fire behind him.
*Crack!*
A demon-breaking arrow sang through the air.
The Mist Wraith tried to dissolve — but the arrow was too fast. It only had time to solidify its core for the attack —
— and then the arrow punched straight through that core.
Spiritual power detonated.
The fog shredded apart and vanished.
Kōbe Hikaru pressed forward immediately. His blade swept upward, and in the single blink the four-armed ape spent staring at where its partner had been, he sheared off one of its arms.
The ape screamed and lurched backward.
Three arms left. It was no longer a threat.
Kōbe Hikaru followed through. Three strikes.
All four limbs severed.
One final slash. The head left the shoulders.
[Cursed Blade Muramasa: Affection +4]
[Current Affection: 93]
[It conveys a message: 'Almost. Almost full.']
Kōbe Hikaru glanced at the panel, and something stirred in his chest.
Ninety-three.
Seven points from the cap.
He swept his gaze around. Eight demons left.
More than enough.
"Keep going."
He launched at the next one.
What followed was barely a battle. It was a slaughter.
The coordination between Kōbe Hikaru and Kikyō — already seamless — became something beyond seamless. Something that had no name for it yet. Muramasa's Affection climbed with every kill.
94.
96.
98.
99…
"Last one."
Kōbe Hikaru looked at the one-horned serpent demon trembling in front of him.
Five Changes. That was all it was. It had lost its nerve completely — it wanted to run, but its legs wouldn't carry it.
Kōbe Hikaru raised the blade.
One stroke.
The head rolled.
[Cursed Blade Muramasa: Affection +1]
[Current Affection: 100 (Completion)]
[Congratulations. You have unlocked the full Bond of 'Cursed Blade Muramasa.']
[Special Ability Unlocked (III): Undying Bloodthirst]
[Effect: As long as blood coats the blade, your wounds will continuously regenerate. The more blood, the faster the recovery.]
[Muramasa conveys its final Bond message: 'I am satisfied. To be held by you has been my honor. Now — let my power flow into your flesh.']
[(After fusion, base bonuses and dialogue functions are retained, but no further special talents will be granted.)]
Kōbe Hikaru had seen this coming.
He looked down at the blade in his hand.
The black tachi was glowing. Purple light spilled from the grain of the steel, crawled up his arm, and soaked into his skin.
No pain.
Instead — something strange. A deep, spreading comfort.
Like coming home.
[Cursed Blade Muramasa's power is merging with the host body…]
['Undying Bloodthirst' — bound.]
['Resonance with Blood' — bound.]
['Bloodthirst Frenzy' — bound.]
The blood that had ceased to flow when he died — it moved again. His heartbeat too, in its fashion. For a Ghost Warrior like Kōbe Hikaru, every step of demonification was simply a process of coaxing that dead body back toward motion, back toward vitality.
He completed the sixth Change of Physical Transformation.
The Blood Change.
From this point forward, whether or not the blade was in his hand, he could wield the power of blood. He could extend his senses through blood and achieve Resonance with Blood. He could ignite the blood in his body into a frenzy without any backlash. And — he could fight soaked in blood, absorbing the blood spilled across the battlefield to replenish himself without end.
Six Changes.
Physical Transformation — complete.
He had achieved the absolute pinnacle of the first great stage of demonic evolution. The permanent gift of Muramasa was now part of him.
*Absolute windfall.*
He opened his other hand.
Invisible blood-mist rose from his palm like steam.
"…Not bad."
He closed his fist around it, then let it dissolve.
Quiet footsteps behind him.
Kikyō walked over.
Her face was pale — she had spent a considerable amount of spiritual power. But her gaze dropped to his hand, and her brow furrowed slightly.
"You… got stronger?"
"Yeah."
Kōbe Hikaru's answer was brief.
"I got stronger."
Kikyō was silent for a moment.
But she didn't press him.
She simply turned and looked at the Shikon Jewel suspended in midair.
The jewel was still radiating its ink-black light. Magatsuhi was still restless within.
"It's not over yet," she said.
"Tonight," she added, "is still long."
Kōbe Hikaru tightened his grip on the Cursed Blade Muramasa once more. Its power had fused into his body — but the blade's innate edge, and the effortless mastery that came with a completed Bond, remained an irreplaceable weapon in his hands.
He answered:
"I know."
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