"Izumo broke twelve swords and forged the final two blades of world-salvation."
Leon's narration ended there.
"(...)"
A sudden ominous premonition surged in Stelle's mind.
Her vision blurred for an instant, and the scene changed immediately.
The sky was overcast, torrential rain pouring down.
It was almost impossible to see five fingers ahead.
In the darkness, something seemed to be summoning her forward.
"Finally a hands-on segment! But this interface…"
Players noticed that the edges of the Ultimate button in the lower-right corner began emitting a dim black glow.
The skill icon was crossed out with an X, and even the normal attack button was the same—temporarily unusable.
The character remained in first-person perspective and could only move.
[First-person is a bit rough for someone like me who gets 3D motion sickness.]
[Watching a stream shouldn't be too bad, right?]
[Take some motion sickness pills and you'll be fine.]
Stelle lifted her foot and realized she was in water that reached her knees.
Each step grew heavier, as if something underwater was dragging her down.
After walking a distance, numerous black hands appeared in her dim field of vision—like demonic claws.
Those clawed hands surged toward her.
Stelle frowned, ignored the water resistance, and quickened her pace.
Soon, something new appeared in her view—
A slender tachi stabbed into the water.
Pull it out…
Pull it out...
Pull it out.
No urging, no pressure.
From that indistinct voice, she only perceived one meaning—
The repetitive murmur of fate.
Ah Xian stared at the three identical red-text options, her scalp tingling.
All of them told her to draw the blade.
Compared to the closed beta, ever since the official release reduced the proportion of character choices in the story, meaningless options had become rare—let alone three identical ones.
"Is this emphasizing a predestined choice, or an inescapable fate?"
She pondered, then gently clicked the mouse, transitioning into the cutscene CG.
Unlike the adrenaline-pumping moment of drawing the gun in the Cocolia fight, Raiden Bosenmori Mei in the cutscene reached out and lightly grasped the hilt.
Water splashed lightly as the long blade fully left the surface.
It was a blade entirely bone-white, its edge radiating a trace of deathly stillness and emptiness.
The moment the blade was drawn, the scene changed again.
The city, long reduced to ruins, was shrouded in dark crimson.
And now, that dark crimson was slowly fading.
Stelle looked up at the sky, her pupils involuntarily contracting.
An existence indistinguishable as a scarlet sun or moon was gradually being swallowed by pitch black.
While she was dazed, movement came from the ground.
One after another, fallen figures staggered to their feet and charged toward her with eerie steps.
Some even picked up broken weapons from the ground.
"(These are… the dead…?)"
She gripped the long blade tightly and quickly made her decision—
Kill.
From the player's perspective, the previously locked E skill finally unlocked.
[Can continuously use Hokushin Itto-ryu to slay wicked Oni.]
Gray enemies resembling mud figures had already swarmed before her. Ah Xian could only press E.
The first enemy struck instantly fell, and a prompt popped up allowing continued presses.
Continuously pressing E, slashing enemies from the character's first-person perspective—one blade per kill—gave her the refreshing feeling of mowing grass.
"Kind of like that Fire Trailblazer exclusive segment in Belobog, but now it supports combos."
"If the new version had this skill for treasure hunting on the overworld, that would be amazing."
"…Speaking of which, when Mei enters the banner, won't her Ultimate be this move?"
She pressed E for a full half minute.
Her fingers were starting to ache.
"Why won't they end? And there's only the sound of swinging and hitting."
"The background music disappeared too. The character doesn't even grunt—it's so weird…"
Yet reality proved even more surprising and baffling.
After another twenty-plus slashes, even the remaining sounds vanished.
It was as if she were in absolute silence—lonely enough to make one's heart palpitate.
The screen filter gradually turned gray, freezing into a black-and-white photograph style.
"Holy crap, don't scare me!"
She hadn't understood this plot segment at all—for now…
No mission prompt, not a character trial either.
Even the previous mission coordinates had disappeared.
Just when Ah Xian was starting to feel unable to bear the oppression, the cutscene CG finally began.
The perspective switched to third-person. Raiden Bosenmori Mei held the long blade and slowly raised her head.
The black sun on the horizon would soon be complete.
Then she looked at the figure standing ahead.
"Leon!"
Ah Xian's eyes lit up.
But the next second, that light instantly turned to shock.
Leon stood motionless, expression neither joyful nor sorrowful as he looked up at the approaching figure.
"So this day has finally come…"
As he spoke, a pair of pitch-black sharp horns grew from Leon's head, and his pupils turned crimson.
Strange patterns of the same color appeared on his exposed skin, such as his neck.
For some reason, he had turned into an Oni.
A sharp whistling sound fell from the sky as a remnant shadow crashed down heavily.
The earth trembled, and the shadow revealed its true form.
It was an enormous edgeless black sword.
The rain-soaked ground churned once more as countless deformed figures crawled out and charged past Leon toward Raiden Bosenmori Mei.
Now she understood.
But not completely.
"Are these wicked Oni transformed from the dead, or is there another reason? Why did the two turn against each other…?"
[This old man smells the scent of betrayal!]
[Here it comes, here it comes—the classic scene of former comrades turning blades on each other.]
[But what's the reason??]
There was no time to discuss.
A trace of helplessness flashed in Raiden Bosenmori Mei's eyes before she charged into the black mass of enemies.
Each swing of her blade inevitably felled a large swath of wicked Oni.
Time unknown passed until only two people remained standing.
"You're wavering." Leon's eyelids twitched.
"…"
Raiden Bosenmori Mei slowly closed her eyes, letting rainwater slide down her cheeks.
She wanted to say something, yet seemed unable to speak.
After a moment of silence, she gripped the long blade tightly once more—and charged at Leon.
Leon placed his palm on the sword hilt.
Two white-clothed figures flashed and darted through the rain, simultaneously stepping toward their fated conclusion.
Just when players thought this would be a pure CG battle, the combat scene suddenly froze at the instant their blades crossed, then split.
"Huh? I have to fight Leon?"
Turn-based combat began.
Looking at the lone figure standing in the center, wielding a black greatsword—familiar yet unfamiliar—players were stunned.
Seeing the two small red dots above the health bar, everyone understood—
He had become the BOSS.
"Since even Leon became a BOSS, why not give us a Mei trial? I'm dying of curiosity!"
It would be a lie to say they weren't curious about Mei's skills.
BOSS Leon's Phase 1 had few skills—only four.
Three were plain sword attacks, and one was a charge attack with basically no special effects.
"So plain… Looks like Yanqing and Gepard—when we get the character, the skills are very different from the BOSS version."