Chapter 66: Evil Spirits Don't Feel Pain (Ultra-Slash/Octa-Slash)
"Chains."
Accompanying Yoru's softly spoken word, a black chain several meters long appeared in his hand.
"In the past, you mostly faced one-on-one situations. The maximum number of evil spirits you faced simultaneously was only four."
Even at this moment, Yoru didn't forget to give Miko professional guidance on exorcism, speaking with a light chuckle.
"A long katana is a very useful weapon when there aren't many enemies, but in a situation like this, it cannot provide both offense and defense."
Speaking of this, Yoru suddenly stopped smiling and said faintly.
"Get down."
Before Miko could think too much, she and her Hyakume were pressed to the ground by Hachishaku, one hand on each.
The next second, Yoru swung the black chain in his hand. The speed was so fast that it created afterimages in the air and a sound of tearing through the air.
Whoosh!
It was like playing a Musou game (Dynasty Warriors) where one mows down grass. Any evil spirit touched by the chain in Yoru's hand instantly turned into black smoke and dissipated.
Current Yoru had devoured at least thousands of evil spirits.
This meant the concentration of evil spirit power in his body had reached an astonishing density.
The katana provided by Oda Noto was good, and free.
But how could the spiritual power attached to the katana compare to the black chain condensed by Yoru using high-density evil spirit power?
Yoru swung the chain, and in less than three seconds, he had already taken the lives of more than a dozen evil spirits.
Seeing this scene, Yui Yuigahama was okay.
After all, she had already witnessed how strong Yoru was at exorcism.
But when Futaba Rio saw this, shock and disbelief appeared in her eyes behind the lenses.
This... why is it completely different from the scenes I've seen in movies?
In those horror movies, when the protagonist faces evil spirits, they have to fight while retreating, suffer heavy injuries, and then complete a desperate counterattack.
At the very least, it should be a back-and-forth battle, with both sides giving no quarter.
But now...
Why does it seem like Yoru is slaughtering these terrifying evil spirits so hard they can't even lift their heads?
Watching the evil spirits and ghosts lying on the ground in a sorry state, shivering to avoid the sweep of the black chain, Rio was about to lose it.
Who is the real evil ghost here!?
He's going crazy, absolutely crazy.
After a few more seconds, any evil spirit that didn't react in time or was too large to lie flat on the ground had vanished under the black chain.
An army of nearly a hundred evil spirits and ghosts had been reduced by half in less than seven seconds total.
And this was just the beginning of the battle.
"You can stand up now."
Yoru dispersed the pitch-black chain in his hand and said to Miko lying on the ground.
The latter climbed up from the ground. Looking at the evil spirit army that had been reduced by nearly half, even though she had expected it, she couldn't help but be shocked.
What era is this? Still playing traditional exorcism?
Why not click into this True Exorcism game: Pentakill in one second, exhilarating loot drops, infinite devouring for upgrades.
"Let's do this, Hyakume."
Since Miko had made up her mind to fight the evil spirits, she naturally wouldn't choose to slack off at a time like this.
As a spirit medium like Yoru, she also had to do what she could.
"Okay."
Hyakume and Miko were connected in mind. One person and one spirit stepped forward simultaneously, rushing towards the evil spirits in front of them.
The first target Miko chose was a tall, thin, withered evil spirit wearing tattered linen clothes.
Slash!
Without a shred of hesitation in her golden pupils, she swung the long katana quickly, severing the opponent's head from its neck.
Immediately after, Miko didn't hesitate for a moment. She turned the katana and pierced straight through the evil spirit's head that fell on the ground, watching it turn into black smoke and dissipate.
"Mmhmm, not bad."
Watching Miko's movements, Yoru nodded with satisfaction, commenting as if he were an outsider.
"You have my style."
although Miko's movements using the katana had some subtle differences, overall, her style was identical to Yoru's.
Aim for the head, use the least effort, and try to cause the most effective damage.
One strike to decapitate, one strike to finish off.
Only limited by her physical fitness, Miko's movements weren't as fast or crisp.
Even so, evolving to this level within just half a month after awakening Soul Manifestation was enough to prove Miko's talent.
"Left side."
Hearing Hyakume's reminder, Miko understood immediately. Without even turning her head, she thrust the katana towards her left side.
An evil spirit trying to sneak attack and bite her body had its wide-open mouth pierced by the sharp katana. After letting out a meaningless shrill growl, it turned into black smoke and dissipated.
This was Miko's strongest two talents.
Extraordinary psychological quality allowed her to overcome the fear in her heart. Even before her brain could react, she could overcome the body's instinctive urge to dodge and counterattack the evil spirit.
The other talent was Miko's Soul Manifestation, Hyakume.
Although their vision wasn't shared, their minds were connected.
Hyakume, who had grown to have nine eyes including the Eye of the Slaughtering Ghost, had literally zero blind spots in her vision.
As long as she spoke a reminder, Miko could immediately understand her meaning, ensuring that even if a flaw appeared and she was ambushed, she could make up for it at the fastest speed.
Miko with the "Sight", professional exorcism.
"Yo... Yotsuya-san is also this amazing?"
Seeing Miko's heroic and unwavering fighting stance, Rio was shocked again.
Her impression of Miko was a facial-paralysis girl who was very restrained even when smiling and didn't express much emotion.
Unexpectedly, this girl who usually didn't show off had the ability to fight these bizarre things head-on.
So after all this time.
In the Supernatural Quantum Mechanics Investigation and Research Club, am I the only one kept in the dark?
Watching Miko kill two evil spirits in a row, Yoru nodded slightly. It was a pity that the weapons he created by condensing evil spirit aura could only be used by himself.
Although the key to killing evil spirits lay in whether the person using the weapon was a spirit medium, it didn't mean the weapon wasn't important.
Spiritual items like the one provided by Oda Noto, which kept ordinary evil spirits and ghosts away just by being there, were considered lower-middle tier.
Inferior ones were those that could only repel weak ghosts but had no effect on evil spirits, or simply fakes for scamming money, like the talismans the Old Geezer sold him at the beginning.
What was a truly good spiritual item?
It was a real magical treasure that would cause evil spirits and ghosts to dissipate just by touching or even approaching a certain range.
But the Old Geezer didn't have such things at all, and from what he said, they were hard to find.
At the very least, it would take something like a general's sword from ancient times, or an item carried by a truly powerful ability user for a lifetime, to achieve such an effect.
Of course, Yoru believed at most half of the Old Geezer's words.
After all, the guy wasn't a real exorcist, just a half-baked one who could see some afterimages of evil spirits and ghosts but couldn't even see the truly terrifying evil spirits.
Huff, huff...
After killing two evil spirits in a row, Miko's breathing became noticeably heavier, and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.
Although she had been exercising consistently, she was just a mortal after all. Her stamina couldn't compare to Yoru, who could constantly enhance his physical fitness just by devouring evil spirits.
Miko now understood the sentence Yoru said before.
Humans have limits.
No, spirit mediums have limits.
How many millions or tens of millions of evil spirits and ghosts wandered this world?
But the only ones Miko knew who could confront evil spirits head-on were herself and Yoru.
With such a situation...
Will the day of victory really come?
"Don't get distracted."
Hearing Yoru's soft reminder, a thunderclap seemed to sound in Miko's mind, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Her pupils shrank in shock. What happened to me just now?
Logically speaking, she had long honed a psychological quality beyond ordinary people under the terrifying gazes of evil spirits and ghosts.
Now that she had awakened Soul Manifestation and possessed the ability to fight evil spirits, it was clearly a good thing.
Why did she suddenly feel an abyss-like despair just now?
As Miko woke up, she finally heard the strange flute sound beside her ears that felt like a hundred ants biting her heart, making her whole body uncomfortable.
She looked up and saw an evil spirit not far away holding a long flute and playing it by its mouth.
"This is..."
Miko's face changed. She didn't expect to encounter a strange monster mentioned in ghost stories that could capture souls with instrument sounds this time.
Indeed.
Compared to the Otherworld Kyoto, the physical world was simply too safe.
Just as Yoru said, in the physical world, when the battle started actually depended on Miko herself.
As long as she could control her fear, she always held the initiative.
But the evil spirits in the Otherworld were more powerful and didn't need to confirm the condition of "Seeing." Because anyone entering the Otherworld could see their existence, they could attack anytime, or even ambush.
Just as Miko was thinking this, she suddenly saw Yoru's figure flash and instantly appear in front of that flute evil spirit.
"Blow, blow, blow, are you ever done blowing?"
Bang!
Yoru slapped down directly, pressing the flute along with the evil spirit's head straight into the ground.
Seemingly not satisfied yet, he followed up with several kicks, forcefully stomping the evil spirit's entire body into the soil. Watching it turn into black smoke and dissipate, he clapped his hands, still wanting more.
"Really can't take a beating."
Immediately after, Yoru looked at the shivering evil spirits and ghosts intimidated by his violent actions. He revealed a kind smile and spoke softly.
"There is something I've always wanted to try."
As his voice fell, a black ring with sharp serrated teeth had already condensed in his right hand. (Note: Destructo Disc / Ultra Slash reference).
"Evil spirits don't feel pain."
Yoru charged straight into the formation, aiming at the largest, most terrifying-looking evil spirit that seemed like a mountain of meat—the one that looked the most dangerous. With a friendly and charming smile on his face, his actions showed no mercy.
"ROAR!"
Initially, when the serrated ring cut into the evil spirit, it still had the strength to let out a loud roar of pain and even swung its fan-like right palm, preparing to slap Yoru away.
However...
The evil spirit looked at its smooth, flat right wrist.
Where is my hand?
Yoru cut off its right hand too fast; the pain was even delayed by a second before the evil spirit felt it.
"HISS!!!"
"OWWW!!!"
...
After nearly a minute passed, that evil spirit had been whittled down to almost nothing.
Other evil spirits and ghosts wanted to rush up to help, but seeing Yoru constantly cutting like a hellish demon, with a kind smile on his face but excitement and madness in his eyes, they all stopped and dared not move forward, even retreating a few steps.
"Feels good."
Yoru straightened up, looking at the evil spirit lying on the ground, cut into pieces and dying. He let out a long breath of relief and uttered a sentence that Miko, Yui, and Rio found hard to understand.
"The Otherworld is really great."
This Otherworld full of evil spirits everywhere...
Is great?
Yui and Rio looked at each other, confusion showing in both their eyes.
Even for Yoru, who often went crazy and had an innate "Abstract Constitution," the sentence just now was one of the most outrageous in his life.
For some reason.
Miko could vaguely understand the meaning in Yoru's words.
The intensity of evil spirits in the physical world wasn't that high.
Ordinary evil spirits would be annihilated without a trace just by touching the black mist condensed by Yoru using evil spirit aura.
But this massive meat-mountain-like evil spirit just now could still withstand being cut by the ring in Yoru's hand.
If placed in the physical world, it would definitely be a powerful existence dominating a region.
Yoru enjoyed the process of slaughtering evil spirits.
But most of the time, there was no "process" to speak of. He attacked, the evil spirit died or was devoured; it always ended so quickly.
Finding an evil spirit with sufficient strength seemed to be a truly happy thing for Yoru.
Wait a minute.
Miko's pupils shrank suddenly in shock.
I... am actually starting to vaguely understand that guy's thoughts?
Bad, this is bad.
To Miko, this was even more terrifying than seeing ten thousand evil spirits at once.
Could it be... I'm being assimilated by Yoru?
Being an abstract funny girl or something...
No way!
"Phew."
Yoru opened his mouth slightly and, with a movement very familiar to Miko, swallowed the dying evil spirit into his stomach.
Then, he made a move that neither the Super-Quant Club members nor even Hachishaku could understand.
Yoru looked up, his gaze passing over the dozens of evil spirits in front of him, landing straight on the female ghost wearing a kimono at the back. He spoke slowly.
"That's all my strength. There's no need to continue testing. Can we talk business now?"
After a brief silence, the kimono female ghost covered her mouth and chuckled lightly.
"Interesting, truly interesting."
The evil spirits consciously parted to both sides. The kimono female ghost floated straight from the middle without her feet touching the ground.
"Since you saw through it, this mistress will no longer hide it."
"This mistress is very satisfied with the strength you displayed."
Yui and the others were confused.
What is happening now?
Just now they were killing each other, and now they are chatting and laughing like old friends discussing heroes over wine?
Besides...
What is there to talk about between an evil spirit and a human?
Wait a minute.
In the distance, Yui suddenly thought of an astonishing possibility. She lowered her voice, her small face filled with shock, and said to Rio beside her.
"This female ghost... don't tell me she has taken a fancy to Yoru?"
Rio frowned and waved her hand.
"What are you saying? How could..."
Halfway through, she paused.
This seems... not impossible.
Don't legends and stories have records of beautiful female ghosts sucking the essence (Yang energy) of young handsome men?
Although Rio didn't want to admit it, she had to admit.
Yoru's appearance was indeed very outstanding.
And he was a high school boy!
Isn't this the favorite prey of female ghosts!?
"No, absolutely not!"
Rio was afraid Yoru would lose his reason. She forced down the fear in her heart and ran over quickly.
Looking at the evil spirits in the distance and the kimono female ghost close at hand, the fear she had managed to suppress surfaced again. She hid carefully behind Yoru, clutching the corner of his clothes with both hands. Her voice was trembling, but her tone was extremely firm.
"Yo... Yo... Yoru, you can't be seduced by her. She, she wants to suck your essence dry!"
Hearing Rio's sudden outburst, Yoru froze for a moment, then replied speechlessly.
"No, do you guys have some strange misunderstanding about my XP (fetishes)?"
"Last time it was Hachishaku, this time it's this Miss Female Ghost."
"Let me emphasize again: I am a gentleman. I'm not into female ghosts at all!"
And Rio's remark about sucking men's essence seemed to make the kimono female ghost somewhat unhappy.
On her dignified and elegant beautiful face, her eyebrows furrowed slightly. She spoke slowly, complaining in a gentle voice.
"Little sister, what you said is incorrect. Does this mistress look like those little demons who use unscrupulous means just to suck a tiny bit of essence? You are insulting this mistress too much."