Though the sun would not rise for nearly another hour, in that instant an idea, a plan, took shape in Shinji's mind. He made his decision. And he acted.
Purple lightning and the red evil demon's body clashed violently on the ruins of the Tahōtō. Shinji's figure blurred into a mere afterimage as he pushed [Lightning-Muscle Sharp Body] to its limit. Each swing of Muramasa carried thunderbolts capable of splitting mountains.
Thwack!
The blade severed the demon's six-fingered claw mid-swing. The cut was charred black, no blood flowing, only dark red flesh buds writhing madly.
"Truly… a sickening vitality," Shinji cursed beneath his mask.
This sensation was terrible, like cutting into thick, viscous mud. Though he could cut, the drag and the rapid healing that followed were deeply frustrating.
Though the demon was pinned in place, its upper body remained savage. The severed claw regrew in half a breath, even becoming thicker, its surface covered in a hard, shell-like skin, it was adapting to Shinji's strikes.
This was the nauseating aspect of that Demon Progenitor's bloodline. Not only undying, but constantly evolving.
"Roar—!"
The demon roared. The massive hole in its chest suddenly opened wide, spewing a thick cloud of black mist, a highly compressed demonic aura cannon capable of corroding everything before it.
But Shinji did not dodge. He did not even block.
Because a white light was faster than the black mist.
Swish—!
The purifying arrow, wrapped in brilliant spiritual power, pierced the heart of the black mist, exploding on contact and shredding that corrosive demonic aura. The arrow, its momentum undiminished, drove straight into the demon's throat, stuffing its roar back down.
Kikyō stood thirty paces away.
Her longbow level, her white top pressed against her body by the night wind, outlining the slender but straight line of her back. Her hem flared backward with the gust. Her expression was calm as water. Her dark eyes locked on the demon. Each draw of the bow was fluid, carrying an air of natural grace.
One close, one distant. One lightning, one spirit. Their coordination was flawless, keeping the centuries-old demon pinned at the center of the ruins.
Shinji, though still at the Sixth Transformation, already surpassed ordinary Seventh or even Eighth Transformation demons of the same foundation. His coordination with Kikyō had only improved.
But suppression was not killing.
The arrow in the demon's throat was pushed out by regenerating muscle and fell to the ground. Its wound healed, leaving not a trace.
It seemed aware of how troublesome this pair was, but it was not afraid. Because it was immortal. As a yōkai, immortal. As a human-demon, also immortal.
It split its mouth wide, letting out an ugly, mocking laugh.
Yet just then—
"The time is… close enough."
Shinji suddenly stopped his assault. He stood three yards from the demon, Muramasa pointing diagonally at the ground. The lightning coiling around him did not fade but grew even more blinding.
His crimson demon eyes, through the mask, coldly watched this giant.
He said "Is this your limit?"
The demon froze for a second, then erupted in rage. It was the great demon that had devoured thousands!
"Arrogant brat—" It roared, struggling to pull its legs free from the bone spurs.
"Time to go."
Shinji ignored its impotent rage. He stamped the ground.
Boom!
Not charging at the demon. But into the sky.
The explosive thrust from [Lightning-Muscle Sharp Body] sent him into the air like a purple meteor. Not to attack. More like.... luring?
The demon, pinned to the ground and enraged, blinked. Then its deep-set red eyes filled with mockery.
"Fleeing? Trying to flee into the sky? Hahahaha, you think just because you're in the sky, I can't catch you?!"
Boom!
The ground shattered completely. The demon's thick legs, which had just been freed from Shinji's bone spurs and had fully regenerated, stamped heavily on the earth. The ruins within ten yards instantly collapsed into a pit several meters deep.
With that terrifying recoil, its towering, red, five-meter-tall body shot upward like a cannonball, tearing through the air with a deafening sonic boom, chasing straight after Shinji.
It couldn't fly. But with its great demon's yōkai energy and the physical strength from its twisted bloodline, its jumping power was enough to reach the clouds.
"Don't think you can run! Leave your flesh behind!!" The demon roared, its claws tearing through the night wind, chasing relentlessly behind Shinji.
Two figures, one purple, one grey, one ahead, one behind, instantly broke through the low-altitude mist and plunged into the thick cloud layer.
…
Down below.
Behind Kikyō, the two Tahōtō shrine maidens, Momji and Botan, looked up, watching the two dark figures disappear into the clouds. Their faces froze.
"That… that demon ran away?" Botan murmured, her large eyes full of confusion. "No, he's luring that demon away… to protect us?"
Momiji said nothing. Her gaze was mostly on Kikyō.
That white-and-red shrine maiden was not looking at the sky. Nor was she giving chase. She had even withdrawn her gaze, turning instead to face the east, where the mountains stretched.
Dawn was still at least a quarter hour away. The darkness before dawn was thickest.
Yet Kikyō raised her bow anyway. Drew it taut. Spiritual power condensed at the arrowhead, not the explosive white light of attack, but a remarkably clear, pure, crystal-like luster.
Swish—!
The arrow left the string. But to Momii's confusion, this arrow wasn't aimed at the demon in the sky, nor at any target on the ground. It was aimed at the distant eastern sky, at the empty nothingness.
Then a second arrow. A third.
Each arrow aimed at a different direction. Seemingly random, even chaotic, as if she were just shooting wildly.
"What is she doing?" Momiji couldn't help but speak, her voice filled with undisguised confusion and anxiety. "That demon has chased Shinji into the sky, and she's shooting over there? Did she miss? Or is she…"
Or is she, faced with such a terrifying immortal demon and the apparent 'flight' of her partner, so unsettled that even this legendary shrine maiden had lost her composure, resorting to meaningless venting?
Those arrows flew into the high sky, exploding in the distance. No sound of explosion. Just turning into patches of pale blue light, suspended in the air. Like broken shards of glass, hanging lonely on the night canvas. Neither beautiful nor showing any sign of power.
"It's over…" Botan looked like she might cry. "That demon warrior named Shinji has been caught. Lady Kikyō has lost her mind… When that demon comes back down, we're all going to die…"
…
High above.
Cold air rushed past.
Shinji's form suddenly halted midair. Purple lightning wings unfolded behind him, suspending him above the churning sea of clouds.
Almost simultaneously,
Whoosh—!
The stench of wind hit him. The demon, breaking through the clouds with a grin, carried by momentum, rushed to Shinji's face.
"Got you!" It reached out with its six-fingered claw, grasping for Shinji's throat.
Shinji still didn't dodge. He just looked at the demon, his crimson demon mask eerily cold under the scant starlight.
"Do you think you're the hunter?" His voice was soft, broken by the high-altitude wind.
The demon's motion didn't stop. Its claw was about to touch his neck: "Enough talk! Die—"
At that moment, Shinji raised his hand.
…Lightning, scatter!
The purple lightning that had surged upward didn't strike the demon before him. Instead, it shot higher, crashing into the churning black sea of clouds above.
Boom!
The clouds parted.
And the demon's claw froze in midair. Because it felt a chill. A fear that made its very soul tremble, rising from the deepest instincts.
That was… light.
Where was the light coming from?
It was still night. The sun was still below the horizon, hidden completely behind mountains and earth.
Instinctively, the demon looked east. Still darkness.
But its peripheral vision caught something else.
Above its head, beside it, in the extremely distant high sky.
Those pale blue specks of light, the arrows Kikyō had shot, the ones that had seemed 'off-target.'
They were not meaningless fragments.
They were mirrors.
Lenses made of pure spiritual power, capable of refracting light.
The first mirror hung at an extreme height, just above the curve of the horizon, capturing that first ray of dawn, still below the horizon, on the other side of the earth, yet to touch the human world.
Refraction.
The light struck the first spiritual mirror, instantly changing direction, shooting toward the second.
Focus.
The second struck the third.
That faint dawn light, layered, focused and amplified by the successive spiritual lenses, transformed into a dazzling line of gold.
Descending from the heavens.
Like a sword of light thrust down from the realm of the gods.
"This is…" On the ground, Momiji's pupils contracted.
She finally understood.
Kikyō was using the sky as her chessboard and spiritual power as her pieces, constructing a 'path of light' across the dark night.
She had 'borrowed' the sun, still below the horizon!
With sunlight, to tear apart the immortal.
Could it be that sunlight was the demon's weakness?
Yes.
This was Shinji's plan. A half hour was too long. He couldn't wait, and wouldn't.
This was also the silent cooperation between Kikyō and Shinji. No need for words. Just watching the other's actions, they knew what the other intended.
"No—!!"
High above, the demon let out a bloodcurdling scream.
It tried to flee. To dive back below the clouds.
But it was too late.
The blood mist around Shinji had already silently spread, forming a massive cage, with lightning, trapping it within.
And that 'borrowed' sunlight, purified and focused by spiritual power
Fell upon the demon.
"Aaaahhhh—!"
The demon's body began to smoke.
Its red skin rapidly ulcerated, blackened, turned to ash, as if doused with strong acid.
It tried to hide, to escape.
But Kikyō's spiritual light intertwined, forming an absolutely enclosed barrier prison. No way up, no way down.
It could only watch, helpless, as that golden beam of light consumed it little by little.
"It's time to end this." Shinji hovered outside the beam of light, his grey robes snapping in the morning wind.
He watched the collapsing demon, his tone indifferent.
"Whether a centuries-old great demon or the bloodline of some demon progenitor."
"Under the sun"
"All turn to ash."
Boom!
Sunlight surged. Above the sea of clouds, golden light blazed. The shattered clouds. The sky, thoroughly alight.
Seven paths of light, laid out in a line!