Chapter 36: The Dread of Yokai, A Fire to Illuminate All Living Beings
The moonlight was a thin, silver sliver in the night sky.
Hikaru and Kikyo walked along the village's dirt road, making their way toward the shrine on the hill. The further they ascended, the more humid and sticky the air became, carrying an indescribable stench of decay that clung to the back of the throat.
Hikaru's brow furrowed. "This smell..."
"Yao Qi," Kikyo's voice was low and steady. "The concentration is very high. That thing has likely been entrenched here for quite some time."
The silhouette of the shrine gradually sharpened against the darkness. Its vermilion Torii gate looked exceptionally eerie in the night, the paint mottled and dark as if stained with dried blood. The stone steps leading up to it were covered in a layer of slippery moss.
No, it wasn't moss. It was slime.
Hikaru crouched, touching the tip of his blade to the viscous substance. The slime instantly sizzled, emitting a wisp of white smoke where it made contact with the steel.
"It's poisonous," he said, withdrawing Muramasa and rising to his feet. "And quite potent."
[Your blade, Muramasa, indicates that this substance tastes terrible and it refuses to eat it.]
"Picky eaters don't get strong," Hikaru muttered to his companion blade.
Though Muramasa's favorability was already maxed out and could no longer provide him with new abilities, its sharpness had long since reached a level comparable to a true demonic tool. Hikaru had no intention of neglecting it. With a final word to the sword, he stepped onto the stone path.
He had taken only three steps when the flagstone beneath his foot suddenly softened, the solid rock deforming into a semi-liquid sludge that began to sink.
With a flicker of Ghost Step, Hikaru flashed to the side, landing on a patch of rock that was still reasonably dry.
"The poison has corroded the very ground," he observed, his eyes scanning the area. "It seems the entire shrine has been 'remodeled' by the yokai masquerading as a deity."
Kikyo stood beside him, her longbow already in hand. Her gaze swept across their surroundings. "The ground, the stone steps, even those Torii gates... everything is soaked in its poison. This is no longer a shrine; it's a nest."
Hikaru looked ahead. A dim, yellow light shone from the shrine's main hall, flickering rhythmically, like the breathing of some great beast.
"So that's why the old man said we couldn't enter," he murmured, the pieces clicking into place. "It wasn't some nonsense about divine punishment. An ordinary person literally cannot enter. The toxic fumes alone would claim their life the moment they stepped foot here."
"Yes," Kikyo nodded. "But for us, it is not a problem."
Hikaru drew Muramasa. The blade shimmered with a faint purple light, a spectral radiance gifted by the blood of the countless demons and ghosts it had slain.
"Let's go."
He took a single step forward.
In the next instant, his own potent Yao Qi erupted from his body, a violent counter-pressure against the cloying demonic energy of the shrine. A gale of spiritual force surged around him, his long sleeves billowing out as the slime on the ground hissed and recoiled, kept at bay by his power.
Boom!
The doors to the main hall were blown open by the force of his aura, and a thick, fishy stench rushed out to meet them.
Hikaru narrowed his eyes. There was no enshrined deity statue in the hall, nor were there any incense tables or candle stands. Only the flickering candlelight on either side illuminated a muddy swamp that had consumed the temple's center. In the middle of that swamp, a massive creature lay crouched.
The candlelight was too dim to reveal more than its general silhouette—a mountain of flesh with gray-green skin and short, thick limbs.
It was a toad. A gargantuan, monstrous toad.
"Hmph." The toad spoke, its voice a hoarse rasp, as if squeezed from rotten mud. "You are no offering... How dare you trespass into this god's residence." Its voice dripped with menace. "Do you seek death?"
Hikaru looked at it, the corners of his mouth curling into a slight, mocking smile. "God?" he laughed softly. "You?"
The toad's eyes narrowed, a cold light flashing in their turbid depths. "Foolish creature."
It opened its cavernous mouth. A cloud of thick, green mist gushed from the depths of its throat, instantly filling the entire main hall.
It was a poison mist.
Hikaru's focus sharpened. Though as an Oni Samurai he had no need to breathe, the foul stench still made him instinctively want to recoil. He took half a step back, holding his blade across his chest.
"Don't go in," Kikyo's voice came from behind him. "This poison mist will corrode spiritual and demonic power."
Hikaru nodded. He could feel the roiling green fog eroding everything around them. The stone walls began to smoke, and the wooden support beams showed signs of rot. Even the ambient Yao Qi and spiritual power in the air were being dissolved.
"Troublesome," he whispered.
The toad's raw strength wasn't particularly great; judging by the concentration of its Yao Qi, it was only at the level of the fifth Physical Transformation. However, it had completely terraformed the entire shrine into its personal domain. In this poisonous marsh, its toxic mist was functionally infinite, and its venom coated every inch of the ground. Ordinary attacks wouldn't even get close to it.
also, Hikaru sensed something else. Something far more difficult to deal with than simple poison.
It was 'Fear'.
This was a concept he had learned about during his time among the yokai. Some demons weren't physically powerful, their bodily mutations limited. Instead, they excelled at cultivating a 'Field'. By spreading terror and keeping the humans in their territory on edge day and night, that massive, condensed sense of dread would transform into the demon's source of power, forming a force field known as 'Fear'.
The essence of 'Fear'was similar to the faith offered to a god, except one stemmed from negative emotions while the other embraced positive aspirations. Demons could rely on the power of'Fear' to briefly enhance themselves. While temporary—lasting only as long as the people's terror persisted—it was a potent shortcut compared to the lifelong process of absorbing Yao Qi or devouring their own kind.
No wonder. This toad was being treated as a 'God'.
Though it was only at the fifth transformation, with the blessing of 'Fear' in this poisonous marsh it had cultivated for months, its effective strength was comparable to a high-level demon of the Seventh Transformation.
In this poisonous marsh, this toad was sovereign.
"Guaaaargh—!"
A strange cry, like muffled thunder, suddenly exploded from the mist. A crimson whip shot out from the yellow-green fog, fast as lightning, aimed straight for Kikyo's face.
It was its tongue.
Kikyo didn't dodge. She didn't even blink. She simply raised her hand.
A sharp thrum vibrated from her bowstring.
A Sacred Arrow, wreathed in pure white light, shot out and struck the tip of the tongue dead center. A sizzling sound, like a branding iron on raw meat, filled the air as white smoke billowed. The tongue snapped back instantly, and a piercing, miserable howl echoed from within the toxic mist.
The attack, however, seemed to enrage the swamp itself. The surrounding quagmire became even more frenzied. The mud churned, transforming into countless black hands that clawed at their legs and waists.
"Annoying," Hikaru grunted, severing three mud hands with a single slash. He activated Blood Transformation, the demonic power in his veins surging as he forcibly broke free from the restraints and leaped onto the top of the Torii gate.
From this vantage point, he saw it clearly. The toad was indeed only at the level of the fifth Physical Transformation. Its body had undergone five types of mutations, but it had not yet reached the threshold of a Qualitative Transformation.
But this toxic mist and quagmire were an infuriatingly effective defense. As long as the people in the village feared it, this 'Fear' would flow endlessly, and the quagmire would never run dry. Although Kikyo's spiritual power was formidable, purifying this filth would be a battle of attrition—one not worth fighting against this toad in its own filthy home field.
That left only one option.
Force it out of its territory.
"Kikyo!" Hikaru shouted. "Cover me!"
Kikyo didn't ask what he was doing. With a flick of her wrist, she fired three arrows in rapid succession. The white light fell like rain, piercing through countless hands of black mud.
Hikaru's eyes locked onto the large lamps on both sides of the shrine. The lamp oil was animal fat, offered by the villagers from their meager savings. It was kept in large vats and left burning year-round in a desperate prayer for their 'god's' anger to subside.
What fine fuel.
"Let me borrow some fire," he said to himself.
His figure was a blur of motion. Pivoting in mid-air, he kicked over the large oil vat on the left.
Splash!
The rendered fat spilled out, flowing down the steps and into the churning toxic marsh. He wasn't finished. He kicked over the one on the right as well. Two vats of oil now covered more than half of the courtyard.
The toad seemed to sense something was wrong. Countless poison spikes sprouted from the quagmire to intercept him, but Kikyo's arrows were faster. Each one pinned a spike down right in front of Hikaru's landing points, clearing a path of pure land for him.
Hikaru landed, the tip of his blade deftly picking up a still-burning lamp wick. With a flick of his wrist, the spark fell into the oil.
BOOM—!
Flames soared into the sky.
This was no ordinary fire. The miasma and swamp gas that had accumulated in the toxic marsh for who-knows-how-many years ignited instantly upon contact with the open flame. With the oil acting as an accelerant, the entire shrine was instantly engulfed, transformed into a giant furnace.
"GUAAAAAAA—!"
This time, the scream was much clearer, laced with a heart-wrenching agony. The toxic mist was dispersed by the rolling heatwave, and the quagmire was baked dry until it cracked.
The 'God' that had been hiding in the shadows could finally stay hidden no longer.
A bloated, black shadow crashed through the wooden wall of the main hall, stumbling out while wreathed in fire. Inside the shrine, the giant toad hadn't seemed so large, but now that it was exposed, its sheer size was startling.
It was a hideous monster as large as an ox, its body covered in weeping pustules. Its thick skin oozed venom, and its lashing tongue was covered in wriggling barbs. Its leg muscles were knotted with bulging veins that writhed like snakes, and its back was humped like a closed flower bud, continuously spewing toxic mist from its center. Its eyes were located on the top of its head, but they were densely packed—a horrifying cluster of compound eyes.
It was shatteringly ugly.
At this moment, the pustules on its body crackled and popped from the intense heat. The venom was scorched dry before it could even flow out. The creature rolled on the ground in pain, its 'Divine' dignity burning away into nothingness.
At the foot of the mountain, the firelight illuminated half the village.
The toad rolled through the equally muddy marshland outside the shrine, letting out a roar like a cornered beast. It was manic, and it was furious. Its gaze fell upon the priestess in white robes and red hakama, standing calmly on a boulder with her longbow raised.
Then it saw him. The Oni Samurai who had forced it from its sanctuary. He was smiling.
His long blade swept upward.
His voice boomed, carrying across the night.
"People of this village, wake up!" he roared, his words a thunderclap. "Help me slay this demon!"
His fire was clearly not just to drive the toad out of the shrine.
It was to illuminate its existence.
To light a beacon for the people cowering in the village below.
To let everyone see the true, grotesque face of the so-called 'God' they so feared.
He had lit a fire so that all people, all living beings, would know the truth.
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