Chapter 83: The Invincible Demon, The True Gambit for the Land's Favor
Hikaru landed softly in front of Kikyo.
His gray robes flapped in the night wind, and his long, pale hair billowed behind him. The crimson Hannya mask covered most of his face, revealing only a pair of equally crimson eyes that glinted coldly under the moonlight.
Hikaru didn't look back.
He just stood there, his left hand holding the Thunder Horn slightly raised. Faint purple arcs of lightning still danced between his fingers.
But this silent, unmoving presence was enough to finally allow Kikyo's anxious heart to settle.
"The demonic energy from all four directions has vanished," Kikyo stated, her voice calm but carrying a trace of relief.
"It's settled." Hikaru's tone remained flat, a simple statement of fact. "The Thunder Beast, Gakimaru, the Venomous Flood Dragon, the Nekomata... they're all dead."
Kikyo didn't press for details. She simply watched his back, her gaze fixed on the nape of his neck, faintly visible beneath the strands of his pale hair.
[Shikon Jewel: Naohi Favorability +1]
[Current Favorability: 58 (Trust)]
[A whisper of approval: Well done.]
Hikaru saw the prompt on his system panel but had no time to dwell on it.
Because—
"Interesting."
Kidomaru's voice echoed from the darkness ahead. It was an ancient, cold sound, laced with the lingering embers of fury and a sharp spike of astonishment. "So, you are that Kobe Hikaru?"
He stood thirty meters away, his long blade hanging loosely at his side, the steel shimmering with an eerie blue light. Those cloudy, ancient eyes were fixed on Hikaru, sizing him up as if he were a curious new toy.
"To think you could kill four yokai leaders in a single night..." His gaze drifted down, settling on the Thunder Horn in Hikaru's left hand. "And you've even claimed the Thunder Beast's power for your own?"
Hikaru didn't answer. He simply raised his left hand, and the purple light crackling within the horn grew a few shades brighter.
"You are strong," Kidomaru continued, a note of detached appraisal in his voice. "Stronger than I imagined."
Then, he vanished.
It was as if he had been erased from the air itself.
Hikaru's pupils constricted. Too fast!
He instinctively swung his blade to parry.
CLANG!
Metal screamed against metal, and a shower of sparks erupted in the night. Muramasa collided with that eerie blue blade, the resulting shockwave blasting away all the surrounding grass and shrubs. Hikaru's arm went numb from the impact, and he was driven back three heavy steps.
And Kidomaru—
He was still standing in his original spot, his posture utterly unchanged.
"A good reaction," the old demon's voice drifted from behind him, now tinged with what sounded like genuine appreciation. "Though your demonic energy is weak, this physique of yours is certainly beyond that of any ordinary lesser yokai."
Hikaru, possessing the Bone Soul Transformation, didn't have a dense well of demonic energy, but in terms of pure physical combat power, he could indeed rival a common yokai at the seventh transformation.
However...
Hikaru spun around abruptly, Muramasa slashing horizontally, but his blade only cut through empty air. Kidomaru had already reappeared on his right, the tip of his sword now mere inches from his ribs.
"A pity. Still too slow."
Hikaru didn't hesitate. A razor-sharp bone spike erupted from beneath his ribs, shooting straight for Kidomaru's wrist.
[Bone Soul Transformation] activated.
White bone spikes, like the petals of a deadly, blooming flower, burst from all over his body simultaneously. A dozen, then twenty, forming a spherical barrier of sharpened bone.
Kidomaru's figure flickered and vanished again. The next second, he reappeared thirty meters away. A small, fresh tear was now visible on his sleeve.
"Bone spikes... an ability similar to the Gashadokuro? Somewhat interesting." He glanced down at the tear. "Much weaker than that priestess's arrows, but certainly harder to dodge."
Hikaru offered no reply. His right hand had already pulled something else from within his robes. It was a dark purple scale, the size of his palm, covered in eerie, swirling patterns.
The Venomous Flood Dragon's scale.
This was the prize he had claimed after killing the ancient serpent. The Venomous Flood Dragon had cultivated its power for hundreds of years; its poison could corrode anything, even rendering the very air toxic. This single scale was the crystallized essence of its venomous might. Although the favorability system's analysis of these yokai remains wasn't complete, he could already manage their basic functions.
Hikaru poured his demonic energy into the dragon scale.
A thick cloud of dark purple mist billowed from the scale, spreading rapidly toward Kidomaru. Wherever the mist passed, plants withered into black dust, and the very earth cracked and sizzled.
It was a deadly poison, one that even yokai at the Materialization level could not withstand. On his own, Hikaru knew he couldn't compare to Kidomaru, perhaps not even keep him occupied. But by borrowing the power of his fallen enemies, he could hold his ground for a precious moment.
He was fighting far above his weight class, if only for a short time.
"Useless," Kidomaru's voice remained utterly calm.
He gave a light, almost dismissive wave of his hand. A flash of blade-light, invisible to the naked eye, streaked through the air. The toxic mist was sliced cleanly in two, drifting harmlessly past his sides without a single wisp touching his body.
"The essence of the Transformation of Speed is not making oneself faster," Kidomaru explained as he began to walk forward, each step slow and deliberate, yet radiating immense pressure. "It is making everything around you slower."
"Within my domain, no matter how fast your toxic mist is, it is but a crawl."
Hikaru's brow furrowed even tighter. He pulled out a third item. It was a withered cat's claw, black as ink, with several wisps of a cold, spectral aura still clinging to it.
The Nekomata's Claws.
Nekomata were yokai capable of controlling the corpses of the dead, making them move like puppets. This claw was the vessel for that unholy power.
Hikaru channeled his demonic energy into the claw. A frigid aura surged from it, seeping into the ground. The surrounding yokai corpses, which had been pinned down and inert under Kidomaru's oppressive presence, suddenly began to tremble.
One, then two, then ten.
The low-level yokai that had already fallen stood up once more, animated by the power of the Nekomata's Claws. There was no light in their eyes, only a hollow emptiness, but their bodies were moving.
"Necromancy?" Kidomaru showed a flicker of surprise for the second time. "You've even obtained the power of the Nekomata?"
Hikaru didn't answer. He simply brandished the Thunder Horn, the dragon scale, and the Nekomata Claws all at once.
Three distinct powers erupted simultaneously.
Purple lightning rained down from the sky.
Dark purple toxic mist flooded the battlefield.
Dozens of undead corpses lunged from every direction.
A three-pronged assault. This was the trump card he had accumulated, grinding his way through battle after battle. From the Thunder Beast, he obtained the power of lightning. From the Venomous Flood Dragon, the power of deadly poison. From the Nekomata, the power to command the dead.
Although his control over each was only superficial, and each relied on an external object rather than being his own internalized power... the three combined were enough to deal with most high-level yokai leaders of the Materialization realm.
"To deal with me, this is not enough, brat."
Kidomaru's voice seemed to come from all directions at once.
Hikaru saw only a fleeting afterimage.
Then, the lightning was shattered. The toxic mist was dispersed. The undead corpses were slashed into a rain of mangled pieces.
It all happened in a single, stunning instant. So fast that Hikaru didn't even have time to react.
"I will say it again: you are indeed not bad," Kidomaru stated, appearing before him once more. The tip of his blade was now pressed against Hikaru's chest. "Even though your demonic energy is still weak and your transformations are only skin-deep, you are already stronger than most yokai."
"However—" A bone-chilling coldness surfaced in his ancient eyes. "Before me, you are still far too weak."
Hikaru felt a stinging pain in his chest. The deep blue longsword had already pierced his skin, and a trickle of blood flowed down the length of the blade.
Kidomaru's voice was a final pronouncement. "No matter how many abilities you possess, it is merely an accumulation of quantity."
"And I—"
"Have long since completed the Materialization."
His speed was absolute. So fast that Hikaru's bone spikes didn't have time to grow. So fast that Kikyo's arrow didn't have time to find its mark. So fast that all resistance seemed utterly meaningless.
"It's over."
Kidomaru's blade began to press down.
In the distance, Kikyo's bowstring was pulled to its absolute limit. She knew she wouldn't hit him; at this distance, against Kidomaru's speed, her arrow would be a joke. However, she also knew that a yokai of his caliber would never dare to take one of her arrows head-on. All Kikyo wanted was to force him back, to create an opening. That would be enough. She was confident that as long as she and Hikaru joined forces, even a Great Yokai could not afford to look down on them.
Just then, Hikaru suddenly spoke. With his demonic vitality and the unique strength of his Six Transformations, which rivaled the Seventh, he was not yet at the point of being instantly killed. Kidomaru was absurdly fast, rivaling or even surpassing a common Great Yokai, but he did not have a true physical body. His attacks weren't overwhelmingly strong—though they weren't weak, either—and without stacking multiple slashes, they weren't enough to instantly kill Hikaru. This was the price of sacrificing everything, even his flesh, in exchange for absolute speed. It was also why Hikaru could still speak.
He said, "You're right."
"In terms of pure strength, I am indeed no match for you."
His gaze fell upon the very land beneath his feet.
"But you forgot one thing."
Kidomaru's movements paused. "What?"
"This land," Hikaru said. "In the last two days and nights, I have walked through the territory of the Imagawa Clan and slain the Thunder Beast."
"I have walked through the cities of the Hojo Clan and slain Gakimaru."
"I have walked through the northern mountains and forests and slain the Venomous Flood Dragon."
"I have walked through the eastern villages and slain the Nekomata."
His voice grew lower, yet each word was clearer and heavier than the last.
"The yokai of the four directions were cleared by me, one by one."
"The turbid air and demonic miasma that occupied this land were purified by me, one by one."
"Who do you think—" He looked up, his crimson eyes staring directly into Kidomaru's. "—this land will side with?"
The land?
Kidomaru was momentarily stunned. He wanted to scoff at such absurd words, to dismiss the nonsense—how could the land, the unconscious earth itself, possibly take a side?
However, the retort was stuck in his throat, impossible to utter.
Because he felt it.
The land beneath his feet was trembling.
[Kanto Region: Favorability +1]
[Current Favorability: 1 (Recognition)]
[This land has felt your act of purification. It has begun to recognize your existence.]
Hikaru looked at the prompt on his panel.
This was his true trump card. Not the Thunder Horn, not the dragon scale, not the Nekomata's Claws.
It was the entire Kanto region—the very land he had personally purified.
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