Chapter 119: Let the Sun Stop
Although nearly an hour remained before the sun would grace the horizon, an idea had already taken root in Hikaru's mind—a thought that had blossomed into a decision.
And now, he was putting it into action.
Atop the shattered ruins of the pagoda, purple lightning and crimson flesh collided in a frantic storm of violence. Hikaru's figure moved so swiftly it was little more than a blur. He pushed his [Thunder Muscle] to its absolute limit, each swing of Muramasa carrying a thunderclap powerful enough to split mountains and shatter stone.
The blade descended, severing the six-fingered claw the demon swung at him. The cross-section was charred black, yet no blood flowed—only a dark red, granular tissue that writhed and pulsed with grotesque life.
"Truly... disgusting vitality," Hikaru cursed under his breath, his voice muffled by the Oni mask.
The sensation was foul, like hacking into a thick torrent of mud. Though his blade could cleave it apart, the cloying resistance and the infuriatingly rapid healing that followed were maddening.
Even with its lower body pinned, the demon's upper half remained a whirlwind of destruction. The severed claw regrew in less than a breath, emerging even thicker than before and coated in a layer of hard, carapace-like skin. It was adapting to his slashes.
This was the revolting nature of the bloodline that originated from the so-called Progenitor of Demons. Not only were they seemingly immortal, but they were also constantly evolving.
The demon roared, and the massive, hollow cavity in its chest gaped open, spewing a thick, black mist. It was a highly compressed cannon of Yao Qi, a blast of demonic energy capable of corroding everything in its path to nothingness.
But Hikaru did not dodge.
He didn't even bother to block.
A streak of white light, faster than the encroaching black mist, had already been unleashed.
Swoosh—
A Sacred Arrow, blazing with brilliant spiritual power, pierced through the core of the demonic blast. It detonated the moment it made contact, shredding the corrosive Yao Qi into harmless wisps. Its momentum barely slowed, the arrow slammed straight into the demon's throat, forcefully choking back its triumphant roar.
Thirty paces away, Kikyo stood poised. Her longbow was held level, the night wind pressing her white kosode against her body, outlining the slender yet unwavering line of her back. The hem of her red hakama fluttered in the turbulent air.
Her expression was as placid as still water, her pitch-black eyes locked onto the demon. Every time she drew her bow, the motion was as smooth as flowing water, possessing a grace that was entirely natural.
One fought up close, the other from afar.
One wielded thunder, the other wielded spirit.
Their cooperation was flawless, pinning the centuries-old demon firmly in the center of the ruins.
Though Hikaru was still only at the level of Six Transformations, his true power had long since surpassed that of ordinary demons of the Seventh or even Eighth Transformation. His cooperation with Kikyo had also sharpened to a razor's edge.
But suppressing the beast was not the same as killing it.
The arrow in the demon's throat was forced out by regenerating muscle and clattered to the ground. The wound sealed itself over, leaving not even a trace of a scar.
It seemed to realize just how troublesome this pair—one human, one demon—truly was, yet it remained utterly unafraid. It was immortal as a youkai, and it was immortal as a man-eating demon.
Its wide mouth split into a grating, mocking laugh.
However, right at that moment...
"It's about time."
Hikaru suddenly halted his assault. He stood ten feet before the demon, Muramasa pointed diagonally at the ground. The lightning coiling around him did not extinguish; instead, it blazed even brighter, becoming dazzlingly fierce.
Through his mask, his crimson demon eyes stared coldly at the gargantuan creature.
Then, he spoke, his voice a low challenge. "Is this your limit?"
The demon froze for a moment, its mockery turning to incandescent rage. It was a Great Demon that had devoured thousands.
"Arrogant brat—" it roared, struggling to wrench its legs free from the bone spikes pinning it to the earth.
"Be on your way," Hikaru said, completely ignoring its impotent fury.
He slammed his foot into the ground.
He didn't charge the demon.
Instead, he shot toward the sky.
The terrifying thrust generated by [Thunder Muscle] launched him from the ground like a purple meteor. It wasn't an attack; it looked more like he was… fleeing?
The demon, pinned and seething, was stunned for a split second. Then, a look of extreme mockery erupted in the red eyes buried deep within its sockets.
"Fleeing? You think you can escape to the sky?"
"Hahaha—did you think that by leaving the ground, I wouldn't be able to catch you?!"
The earth shattered completely. The demon's thick legs, now fully regenerated after being freed from the restraints, stomped heavily onto the ground. The ruins within a thirty-meter radius instantly collapsed, forming a deep pit several meters down.
Using that terrifying counterforce, its ten-foot-tall, crimson body shot out like a cannonball. It tore through the air with a piercing sonic boom, heading straight for Hikaru.
Although it couldn't fly, the demonic power of a Great Demon and the physical strength granted by its twisted bloodline gave it a jumping ability that could reach the clouds.
"Don't even think of running! Leave your flesh and blood—behind!" the demon roared, its sharp claws tearing at the night wind as it pursued him relentlessly.
Two figures, one purple and one gray, one in front and one behind, instantly broke through the low-altitude mist and plunged into the thick, dark clouds.
Meanwhile, on the ground below.
Behind Kikyo, the two other priestesses, Momiji and Botan, looked up at the two shadows disappearing into the clouds, their expressions frozen.
"Did… did that monster escape?" Botan murmured, her large eyes filled with confusion. "No, he's leading that demon away… Is it to protect us?"
Momiji didn't speak, her gaze fixed mostly on Kikyo.
The priestess in white and red wasn't looking at the sky. Nor did she give chase. She withdrew her gaze and turned toward the east—toward the continuous mountain ranges.
At this moment, it was still pitch black in that direction, with only the faintest glimmer of light on the far horizon. The darkness before dawn was at its deepest; it would be at least another quarter of an hour before the sun would rise.
And yet, Kikyo raised her bow.
She drew it to its full length.
Spiritual power condensed at the arrow's tip, but it wasn't the aggressive, bursting white light of her previous attacks. Instead, it was an extremely transparent, pure, crystal-like luster.
Swoosh—
The arrow left the string.
To Momiji's astonishment, the arrow wasn't aimed at the demon in the sky, nor at any target on the ground. It was shot toward the extremely distant high altitude in the east, into the empty void.
Then came a second arrow.
A third.
Each arrow was shot toward a different position, seemingly disorganized—one could even say, aimless.
"What is she doing?" Momiji couldn't help but ask, her tone carrying unconcealed confusion and anxiety. "That demon has already chased Hikaru into the sky! Where is she shooting? Did she miss? Or…"
Or was it that, facing such a terrifying, immortal demon and seeing her partner flee, even the legendary priestess had lost her composure and could only resort to such meaningless venting?
The arrows flew high into the atmosphere and burst in the far distance. There was no sound of an explosion. They simply turned into floating, pale blue spots of light against the night curtain, like shattered mirror fragments. They hung there, lonely and still, possessing neither beauty nor any apparent killing power.
"It's over…" Botan was on the verge of tears. "That Oni Samurai has been caught, and Lady Kikyo's arrows missed… If that demon comes back down, we're all going to die…"
High above the world, cold air currents rushed past him.
Hikaru's figure suddenly paused in mid-air. Purple wings of lightning unfolded from his back, allowing him to float above the churning sea of clouds.
Almost at the same instant—
Whoosh—
A foul wind blew in his face. The demon broke through the cloud cover, its face twisted into a hideous grin as it used its momentum to charge right at him.
"Caught you!" it shrieked, extending its six-fingered claws to seize him by the throat.
Hikaru still didn't dodge. He just quietly watched the demon, his crimson mask appearing exceptionally indifferent under the thin starlight.
"Do you really think you're the hunter?"
His voice was soft, almost carried away by the high-altitude wind.
The demon's claws didn't stop, now just inches from his neck. "Enough talk! Die—"
At that very moment, Hikaru raised his hand.
...Thunder, disperse.
The purple lightning that shot from his palm was not aimed at the demon before him. It rocketed straight up, crashing into the churning black sea of clouds above.
The sea of clouds suddenly scattered.
The demon's claws froze in mid-air.
It felt a chill—a fear from the depths of its instincts that made its very soul tremble.
That was… light.
Where did the light come from? It was clearly still night. The sun was still below the horizon, tightly blocked by the mountains and the earth.
It subconsciously looked toward the east. It was still pitch black.
But its peripheral vision caught something else.
Above its head, to its side, in that extremely distant, high altitude… were the pale blue spots of light. The ones formed by the arrows Kikyo had shot, the ones that had seemed to 'miss'.
They weren't meaningless fragments.
They were mirrors.
Lenses, composed of pure spiritual power, capable of refracting light.
The first mirror hung at a precise, impossibly high point, just over the curve of the horizon. It caught the very first ray of dawn that was still on the other side of the earth, a light that had not yet shone upon the human world.
Refraction.
The light hit the first Spiritual Mirror and was instantly redirected toward the second.
Focusing.
The second aimed at the third.
The originally weak morning light, after being focused and amplified layer by layer through several spiritual lenses, was transformed into a dazzling golden line.
It descended from the heavens.
A sword of light, stabbing down from the divine realm.
"This is…" On the ground, Momiji's pupils shrank.
She finally understood. Kikyo was using the sky as a chessboard and her spiritual power as the pieces, building a 'path of light' in the pitch-black night.
She had 'borrowed' the sun that was still below the horizon.
She was using sunlight to tear apart immortality.
Could it be that sunlight is that demon's weakness?
This was precisely Hikaru's plan. Half an hour was too long; he couldn't afford to wait, nor did he intend to. This was the tacit cooperation between him and Kikyo. No words were needed. By simply watching each other's actions, they knew exactly what the other intended to do, their minds perfectly in sync.
High in the sky, the demon let out a shrill, miserable wail.
It wanted to flee. It wanted to dive back under the clouds.
But it was too late.
The blood mist around Hikaru had already dispersed, reforming into a massive cage that, crackling with thunder, trapped the demon within.
And that 'borrowed' sunlight, purified and focused by spiritual power…
Just like that…
…shone upon the demon's body.
"Aaaaaagh—!"
The demon's body began to smoke. Its crimson skin rapidly festered as if doused in strong acid, charring and turning to ash. It wanted to hide, it wanted to run, but Kikyo's spiritual light intertwined with Hikaru's thunder, forming an absolutely sealed barrier.
There was no way to heaven and no door to the earth.
It could only watch helplessly as that golden pillar of light consumed it, bit by agonizing bit.
"It's time to end this," Hikaru said, floating just outside the pillar of light, his gray robes flapping in the dawning wind. He looked at the crumbling demon, his tone indifferent.
"Whether it's a centuries-old Great Demon or some vaunted bloodline of the Progenitor of Demons…"
"Under the sun—"
"It's all just ash."
The sunlight surged.
Above the sea of clouds, a golden radiance spread for miles, illuminating the shattered dark clouds and the sky itself, which was now, finally, completely bright.
Seven paths of light, laid out in a single, brilliant line.
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