Kōbe Hikaru landed before Kikyō.
His gray robes snapped in the wind, his pale long hair streaming up in the night breeze.
That crimson oni mask hid most of his face, leaving only a pair of equally crimson eyes exposed, glinting with a cold, biting light beneath the moonlight.
Kōbe Hikaru did not turn his head.
He merely stood there, the left hand that gripped the Thunder Horn lifting slightly, purple arcs of electricity still leaping between his fingers.
Yet this silence, somehow, let the dread weighing on Kikyō's heart settle a little at last.
"The yōkai aura in all four directions has vanished."
Kikyō said.
"Dealt with."
Kōbe Hikaru's tone remained flat: "The Thunder Beast, Gakimaru, the Dokukō, the Nekomata… every one of them is dead."
Kikyō did not press for details.
She merely gazed at that back, at the nape of his neck faintly visible beneath that pale long hair.
[Shikon Jewel — Naohi: favourability +1]
[Current favourability: 58 (Trust)]
[Nicely done—it says]
Kōbe Hikaru saw the prompt on the panel.
But he had no time to respond.
Because——
"Interesting."
Kibōmaru's voice came from up ahead—aged, cold and sinister, carrying an unspent fury and astonishment: "So you're that Kōbe Hikaru?"
He stood some ten zhang away, the longsword in his hand hanging low, its blade glimmering with a faint blue light.
Those pair of murky old eyes were fixed upon Kōbe Hikaru, as though sizing up an amusing toy.
"Slaying four yōkai chieftains in a single night…"
His gaze fell upon the Thunder Horn in Kōbe Hikaru's left hand.
"And you even made the Thunder Beast's power your own?"
Kōbe Hikaru did not answer.
He merely raised his left hand, the purple radiance within the Thunder Horn flaring a few shades brighter.
"You're strong."
Kibōmaru went on: "Stronger than I imagined."
"But——"
He vanished.
Almost as though he had vanished into thin air.
Kōbe Hikaru's pupils contracted sharply.
Fast!
Too fast!
He instinctively swung his blade to parry.
Clang—!
Metal rang against metal, sparks scattering in all directions.
Muramasa collided with that faint-blue longsword, the shockwave blasting all the surrounding grass and trees away.
Kōbe Hikaru's arm went numb, his whole body driven back more than three steps.
As for Kibōmaru——
He still stood where he was, his posture unchanged.
"Decent reflexes. Though your yōkai aura is weak, this physique of yours is indeed not something an ordinary lesser yōkai could compare to."
The old oni's voice came from behind him.
He seemed full of admiration.
Kōbe Hikaru, who possessed the Bone Soul Transformation, though his yōkai aura was not particularly thick, could in terms of sheer combat power indeed compare to an ordinary seven-mutation yōkai.
And yet…
Kōbe Hikaru whirled around violently, Muramasa slashing across, but it only cut through empty air.
Kibōmaru had already appeared at his right side, the blade-tip mere inches from beneath his ribs.
"A pity—still too slow."
Kōbe Hikaru did not hesitate.
Bone spikes drilled out from beneath his ribs, striking straight for Kibōmaru's wrist.
[Bone Soul Transformation]activated.
White bone spikes, like flowers suddenly bursting into bloom, drilled out from all over his body at once.
A dozen, then a score of them.
Forming a spherical barrier of bone spikes.
"Oh?"
Kibōmaru's figure vanished once more.
The next second, he appeared some ten zhang away, a small tear now in his sleeve.
"Bone spikes… an ability similar to the Wild Skeleton's? Rather interesting."
He lowered his head to look at that tear: "Far weaker in power than that shrine maiden's arrows, but harder to dodge."
Kōbe Hikaru did not take up the conversation.
His right hand had already drawn another object from his bosom.
It was a dark-purple scale, the size of a palm, its surface covered in eerie patterns.
——The Dokukō's reverse scale.
This was the trophy he had obtained after slaying the Dokukō.
The Dokukō was an old serpent that had cultivated for several centuries; its venom could corrode all things, turning even the very air into deadly poison.
And this reverse scale was the very essence of its full body of toxicity.
Though the favourability system's analysis of these remains was not yet complete, the most basic use of them could already be achieved.
Kōbe Hikaru poured yōkai power into the reverse scale.
Sssss——
A wisp of dark-purple mist surged out from the scale, spreading toward Kibōmaru's direction.
Wherever that mist passed, grass and trees withered, and the soil cracked apart.
Deadly poison.
A deadly poison that not even a Qualitative-Transformation-tier yōkai could withstand.
By his own strength alone, he naturally could not match Kibōmaru—he could not even manage to entangle him—but by borrowing external power, he could hold out in a stalemate for a brief while.
To fight above his rank, in an extremely short span of time!
But——
"Useless."
Kibōmaru's voice remained calm.
He merely gave a light wave of his hand.
A flash of blade-light, impossible for the naked eye to catch, swept past.
That poison mist was cloven in two, drifting past both his sides without ever touching his body at all.
"The essence of the Speed Mutation is not making oneself faster."
Kibōmaru advanced at a measured pace, each step very slow, yet exuding a sense of oppression: "It is making everything around you slower."
"Within my domain, however fast your poison mist may be, it is no more than slow motion."
Kōbe Hikaru's brow furrowed even tighter.
He drew out yet a third object.
It was a withered cat's paw, black as ink, with a few strands of cold, sinister aura still lingering upon it.
——The Nekomata's claw.
The Nekomata was a yōkai that could manipulate the corpses of the dead, making the bodies move like puppets.
This claw was the vessel of that very power.
Kōbe Hikaru poured yōkai power into the claw.
Hssss——
A cold, sinister aura surged out from the claw, seeping into the ground.
Those yōkai corpses all around, pinned motionless by Kibōmaru's aura field, suddenly began to tremble.
One, two, ten.
Those already-dead lower yōkai rose to their feet once more under the power of the Nekomata's claw.
Their eyes held no spark, only hollow emptiness.
But their bodies were moving.
Rushing toward Kibōmaru's direction.
"Necromancy?"
Kibōmaru's face took on a look of surprise once again: "You got the Nekomata's power too?"
Kōbe Hikaru did not answer.
He merely brandished the Thunder Horn, the reverse scale, and the Nekomata's claw all at once.
Three powers erupted simultaneously.
Purple thunder descended from the heavens.
Dark-purple poison mist spread in every direction.
Dozens of undead corpses lunged in from all sides.
A three-pronged assault.
This was the trump card he had amassed all along the way, fighting battle to fuel battle.
From the Thunder Beast he had gained the power of thunder.
From the Dokukō he had gained the power of deadly poison.
From the Nekomata he had gained the power to manipulate the dead.
Though each was but a shallow application, each could only rely upon an external object and had not yet been made his own… still, the three powers stacked together were enough to deal with most high-tier yōkai chieftains of the Qualitative-Transformation rank.
Only——
"If you mean to deal with me, this much still isn't enough, little brat."
Kibōmaru's voice came from all four directions at once.
Kōbe Hikaru saw only a single afterimage.
And then, that thunder was cut to pieces.
The poison mist was slashed apart.
The undead corpses were carved into fragments.
It all happened in a single instant.
So fast that Kōbe Hikaru did not even have time to react.
"As I said before, you truly aren't bad."
Kibōmaru appeared before him once more, the blade-tip pressed against his chest: "Even though your yōkai aura is still feeble, even though your mutations still remain on the surface—you're already stronger than most yōkai."
"However——"
A chill, frosty cold surfaced in his eyes:
"Before this old one, you are still too weak."
Kōbe Hikaru felt a stabbing pain in his chest.
That faint-blue longsword had already pierced his skin, fresh blood trickling down along the blade.
Kibōmaru's voice was like a pronouncement of sentence: "No matter how many abilities you possess, it is merely a stacking of quantity."
"Whereas I——"
"Have long since completed the transformation of quality."
His speed was too fast.
So fast that Kōbe Hikaru's bone spikes had no time to grow, so fast that Kikyō's arrows had no time to take aim.
So fast that——
All resistance seemed to become utterly meaningless.
"It's over."
Kibōmaru's blade began to press down.
In the distance, Kikyō's bowstring was already drawn to the full.
She knew she could not hit—at this distance, before Kibōmaru's speed, her arrow would only become a joke.
And yet, her opponent would never dare to take her arrow head-on.
What Kikyō wanted was only to force Kibōmaru back, and that would be enough.
She was confident that, so long as she and Kōbe Hikaru joined forces, even a great yōkai could by no means make light of them.
It was just then.
Kōbe Hikaru suddenly spoke—with a yōkai's life force, and with his unique six-mutation strength that rivaled the seven-mutation, he was not, after all, one to be slain in an instant by Kibōmaru.
When all was said and done, Kibōmaru's speed was very fast, fast enough to rival and even surpass an ordinary great yōkai.
But he had no true physical body.
His attacks were not strong—though not weak either—yet without stacking the slashes, they were still not enough to instantly slay Kōbe Hikaru, who at six mutations could rival a seven-mutation yōkai.
This was the price of casting away everything, even his very flesh, in exchange for absolute speed—and it was also the reason Kōbe Hikaru could still speak.
He said:
"You're right."
"In raw strength alone, I truly am no match for you."
"But——"
His gaze fell upon the earth beneath his feet.
"You've forgotten one thing."
Kibōmaru's movement paused for a moment: "What?"
"This land."
Kōbe Hikaru said: "Over these past two days and two nights, I walked through the domain of the Imagawa clan and slew the Thunder Beast."
"I walked through the castle of the Hōjō clan and slew Gakimaru."
"I walked through the mountain forests of the north and slew the Dokukō."
"I walked through the villages of the east and slew the Nekomata."
His voice grew lower and lower, yet clearer and clearer.
"The demons of all four directions—cleared away by me."
"The foul vapors and yōkai miasma that festered upon this land—purified by me."
"Do you think—"
He raised his head, his crimson eyes staring straight at Kibōmaru.
"—whose side will this land stand on?"
The land?
Kibōmaru was slightly taken aback, and the next second, his pupils suddenly contracted.
He had meant to retort against such absurd words from Kōbe Hikaru, meant to answer his opponent's ravings—the land, the unconscious earth, how could it possibly stand on anyone's side?
And yet.
Such words stuck in his throat, impossible to utter.
Because.
He felt it.
The earth beneath his feet was trembling.
[Land of Kantō: favourability +1]
[Current favourability: 1 (Recognition)]
[Appraisal: This land has felt your act of purification. It begins to acknowledge your existence.]
Kōbe Hikaru looked at the prompt on the panel.
This was his true hidden move.
Not the Thunder Horn, not the reverse scale, not the Nekomata's claw.
But this—the great land of Kantō, which he had purified with his own hands!
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