Ghost-qi was a branch of demon-qi.
The murk that permeated heaven and earth took many forms. Beasts absorbed it and produced beast-qi — cold, savage, predatory. Plants absorbed it and produced wood-qi — dense, somber, heavy with age. Objects absorbed it and produced vessel-qi — honed to a fine edge, saturated with obsession.
Ghost-qi was something different. A unique existence born when the resentment of the dead fused with demon-qi.
It carried the turbidity of demon-qi, the bone-deep chill of the departed, and layered over both — the lingering obsession and will of something that had once been human.
This kind of aura was rare among yōkai.
Because the resentment of most dead men was simply too faint. Too weak to fuse with demon-qi at all. It dissolved into the air of heaven and earth and was forgotten.
Only warriors — those who had been exceptional fighters in life, those whose obsessions ran marrow-deep in death — only they had any chance of becoming Ghost Warriors.
And Kōbe Hikaru's ghost-qi was rarer still.
As he had come to understand:
Ordinary demons achieved their transformations — even Ghost Warriors did — by absorbing the demon-qi of heaven and earth. And demon-qi, at its core, was a churning amalgam of the resentment of countless living things, the rot of countless decaying things, the pollution of countless corrupting things. It was the sunken, descending counterpart to the pure spiritual energy that arose naturally from the world. Even demons themselves could not wield such murk with complete freedom.
It was like kneading dough with muddy water. No matter how skilled the hand, the dough would always carry impurities.
But Kōbe Hikaru was different.
Every one of his transformations had been completed by capturing weapons through the Affection System — absorbing their power into his own flesh. Those weapons had been tainted by demon-qi, yes. But after passing through the Affection System's conversion, they had been purified. Considerably.
Dough kneaded with distilled water. Clean. Compact. Without a single impurity.
And so —
In this moment, as Kōbe Hikaru erupted with everything he had, the ghost-qi surging from his body was denser than the Kamaitachi's Corporeal Sublimation-class demon-qi.
More solid.
Sharper.
By a significant margin.
Even though the sheer volume of his demon-qi and ghost-qi fell far short of the Kamaitachi's — in terms of concentration, it was enough to pierce through surface area with a single point. Enough to break through the binding suppression of the Kamaitachi's wind.
"—?!"
The Kamaitachi let out a bewildered shriek.
It had felt that ghost-qi pressing against it. A sensation it had never experienced before. How could a lower-ranked demon make it feel threatened?
Impossible.
Absolutely impossible.
Inside the Kamaitachi's hollow eye sockets, the spiraling currents of air began to accelerate.
It was done probing.
"In that case —"
Its voice was like a howling gale.
"Let me see just where your limits lie."
The Kamaitachi opened its maw. Ashen-grey currents erupted from deep within its throat — not wind, but something more akin to a blade honed to its absolute extreme. Countless wind-blades, each as fine as a strand of hair, woven into an airtight net that descended over Kōbe Hikaru.
This, too, was the signature trait of a high-ranking yōkai that had crossed into Corporeal Sublimation.
Wind compressed to its ultimate density.
Wherever it passed, even solid rock was ground to powder.
Kōbe Hikaru's pupils contracted.
He could see them. Through the blood-mist scattered across the air by [Resonance with Blood], he could trace the trajectory of every single wind-blade with perfect clarity.
Seeing them didn't mean he could dodge them.
There were too many. The gaps between them were nearly nonexistent.
He raised his blade to block.
Ghost-qi erupted, condensing into a black barrier along the flat of the steel.
Clang clang clang clang — the sound of metal impacts blurred into a continuous roar.
The wind-blades hammered into the barrier relentlessly. Every strike shaved it thinner.
Kōbe Hikaru's feet kept sliding backward. The stone tiles shattered beneath him, leaving two deep furrows carved into the ground.
But he held.
Inside the Kamaitachi's hollow sockets, the currents spun faster still.
"Interesting," it said.
Then its body began to change.
That three-jō frame was shrinking.
But Kōbe Hikaru knew it wasn't truly shrinking. It was condensing. The core ability of a Corporeal Sublimation yōkai — density control. Compressing mass that had been spread across a vast volume into a much smaller one.
The volume decreased. The weight did not.
Only the speed would climb. And the force — the force would climb even higher.
Each strike would be sharper than the last.
This was the true terror of Corporeal Sublimation yōkai. They could reshape themselves at will, shifting freely between overwhelming speed and overwhelming power.
The Kamaitachi's body shrank from three jō to one jō.
And then — it vanished.
Not invisibility. Simply movement too fast for the eye to track.
Kōbe Hikaru's [Razor-Eye Mutation] screamed into overdrive, coupling with [Blood Change], straining with everything it had to catch the afterimages flickering through the air.
Left!
He swept his blade horizontal to block.
Clang—
Tremendous force detonated through the impact. His body launched to the right, slamming into a corridor pillar.
Before he could find his footing, a tearing sound ripped through the air behind him.
He threw himself forward — barely evading. The pillar at his back was sheared clean through the middle.
Too fast.
Even when he could see it coming, he couldn't react in time. And that was assuming the Kamaitachi wasn't still holding something back.
The gap between Physical Transformation and Corporeal Sublimation — it really wasn't the kind of thing that could be bridged so easily. No matter how pure his ghost-qi was, he had only achieved the completion of Physical Transformation.
The Kamaitachi's attacks grew faster. Kōbe Hikaru could no longer fully block them.
A wind-blade raked across his arm, leaving a gash so deep it exposed bone. Another tore through his thigh, and blood sprayed free.
Good thing.
[Undying Bloodthirst] began to work. The wounds were knitting closed — slowly — but closing.
Even if the rate of healing couldn't quite keep pace with the rate of injury.
He could still hold on.
Kōbe Hikaru was driven into a corner.
Behind him was Kikyō, pouring every ounce of her power into suppressing Magatsuhi.
He could not retreat. There was nowhere to retreat to.
"So this is your limit?" The Kamaitachi's voice carried a new edge — mockery. "I thought you might still have a few more surprises in you, little ghost."
Its body condensed again. From one jō down to half a jō.
Which meant its next strike would double in both speed and power.
Kōbe Hikaru had no realistic chance of blocking it.
"Very well," the Kamaitachi said. "This has been entertaining. But it's time to end it."
"That jewel —"
Its gaze slid past Kōbe Hikaru and settled on the Shikon Jewel, hovering in the air behind him, wrapped in layer upon layer of Kikyō's sealing formations.
"— is mine."
BOOM.
Before the wind even fully rose, the shockwave alone was enough to make the entire shrine shudder — and the very earth beneath their feet.
Kōbe Hikaru knew he couldn't block this.
But he didn't dodge.
He simply —
opened his mouth.
"Old locust tree."
He called out.
"Big stone."
"Water well."
"Thatch hut."
"Hoe."
He was calling their names. The names of every thing he had gone out of his way to 'visit,' every single day, over the past several days.
The Kamaitachi hesitated.
This little demon's lost its mind. Muttering nonsense like that with death breathing down its neck?
But in the very next instant — it understood how wrong it was.
Catastrophically wrong.
Because the things being called… responded.
The ground began to tremble.
The two-hundred-year-old locust tree at the village entrance swayed and rustled — and then began to move against the wind, its branches spreading wide to obstruct the flow of the gale.
The large stone that Kōbe Hikaru had spent every day talking to began rolling — of its own accord — directly into the Kamaitachi's charge path.
The water well erupted in a torrent of rushing water.
The timber of the abandoned thatch hut launched itself into the air and scattered outward like a volley of thrown daggers.
Even the discarded hoe managed to stand itself upright, trembling.
The wind was whittled down layer by layer.
The Kamaitachi's momentum was forced to slow.
It twisted left and right, weaving between the sudden onslaught of 'enemies' that had materialized from every direction.
But there were too many of them.
And they were coming from every side.
"This is…"
For the first time, the Kamaitachi's voice carried genuine shock.
A reaction far more severe than when it had first witnessed Kōbe Hikaru's unusually dense ghost-qi.
"What is happening?!"
It stared at Kōbe Hikaru.
Utterly beyond comprehension. Beyond any model it had for how the world worked.
The blood-soaked Ghost Warrior was standing exactly where he had been. Not moving. But the corner of his mouth had curved upward.
He was watching the system panel in front of him detonate with notifications — and then, despite everything, he actually laughed.
[Old Locust Tree: Affection 15. It heard your call. It is willing to help you.]
[Big Stone: Affection 12. It heard your call. The effort is considerable, but it moved anyway.]
[Water Well: Affection 18. It heard your call. It is very happy to be of use.]
[Abandoned Thatch Hut: Affection 12. It heard your call. It is doing its best.]
[Hoe: Affection 9. It heard your call. It is trying.]
Kōbe Hikaru read through those notifications, and the laugh escaped him before he could stop it.
Yes.
This was the result of those past several days — going out every day to have conversations with trees, flowers, rocks, and water wells.
And more than that — this had always been his contingency plan for tonight.
At this moment. On this night.
Kikyō was not the only one who had come prepared.
He had learned of Kikyō's plan for tonight three days ago, from the Naohi. He had always intended to be part of it.
Naturally, that meant preparing in advance.
____
________________________________________
If you want more chapters, please consider supporting my page on (P). with 50 advanced chapters available on (P)
👻 Join the crew by searching Leanzin on (P). You know the spot! 😉