The setting sun stretched the two figures' shadows longer and longer, until they reached all the way back to the little village that had only just returned to peace.
As always, the exorcism that had just concluded seemed not to have stirred so much as a ripple.
In this world, the strong remained forever strong.
In this age, most demon-slaying was in truth just this sort of dull, one-sided slaughter—or being slaughtered.
Encountering powerful enemies time and again, as before, was instead a rare occurrence, an exception.
On the way back, Kikyō walked in front.
The lingering glow of the setting sun plated her retreating figure with a warm golden outline; the white shrine maiden's top was pressed against her body by the breeze, tracing the slender yet upright lines of her back.
The red hakama swayed with her steps, occasionally clinging to her legs to reveal their long, evenly proportioned curves, the line of her hips faintly drawn.
Kōbe Hikaru followed behind, carrying in his hand the cloth bundle that held the Thunder Beast's horn.
His thoughts, however, were not on the scenery ahead—at least, not entirely.
Because the cloth bundle in his arms was trembling madly.
Not the occasional arc of electricity from before, but like a heart on the verge of bursting, throbbing with extreme violence.
That restlessness conducted up his arm and through Kōbe Hikaru's whole body, even drawing the yōkai aura within him into some disorder.
[Thunder Horn: Favourability 99]
Still rising.
Just a little more.
Kōbe Hikaru halted.
He looked down at the cloth bundle in his hand; he could feel that the horn inside had grown astonishingly hot.
He reached out and patted it through the cloth. "Easy now—we're not home yet."
Hmmm—!
The answer was an even more violent trembling hum; a purple arc of lightning burned straight through the thick canvas and coiled around Kōbe Hikaru's fingers like a little snake.
There was no pain.
Instead there was a kind of... blending, tingling numbness.
[Thunder Beast's Horn: Favourability +1]
[Current favourability: 100 (As One)]
[Assessment: Now is the moment. It has completely opened itself—no longer a loan, no longer manipulation; it intends to pour the very origin of that ancient Thunder God's descendant into you, holding nothing back.]
Kōbe Hikaru: "?"
The red text on the panel flashed wildly.
Kōbe Hikaru looked at that line of prompt, his brow furrowing slightly.
This was open wilderness.
No village ahead, no inn behind.
Although they had just cleared out those few small yōkai nearby, no one could guarantee whether some stronger demon—or even a ruthless person—might come bursting out of the deep mountains and ancient forests around here.
Reason told him he ought to suppress this restlessness, wait until he returned to the Shrine in Kaede Village, and perform the fusion under the protection of the barrier.
But—
He couldn't hold it down anymore.
The Thunder Horn was no longer merely trembling—it was melting.
Purple thunder-magma seeped through the cloth bundle, and the instant it dripped onto the ground, it scorched the grass underfoot into a patch of blackened char.
That sense of overflowing power was like a dam brimming full of water—it could not wait even for the next moment.
If he did not choose to absorb it now, this power would dissipate, or even explode.
A waste.
For an oni warrior who grew stronger by feeding on such things, this was an absolutely unforgivable waste.
The Thunder Beast's horn—this fellow truly lived up to its hot temper.
Kōbe Hikaru lifted his head.
Kikyō had already stopped.
She turned around, those jet-black eyes looking quietly at him, her gaze falling on the cloth bundle giving off purple smoke in his hand, then moving to his face.
No questions.
No panic, either.
She simply stood there, the longbow already held in her hand at some unnoticed moment.
"It seems we can't wait until we get home."
Kōbe Hikaru spoke, his voice mingled with the sound of wind being torn apart.
The yōkai aura within him had begun to boil.
"Mm."
Kikyō responded.
"It's very dangerous." Kōbe Hikaru looked into her eyes. "Once it begins, I won't be able to move—even my senses will be cut off."
In this Sengoku era where demons swarmed everywhere, to lose all defensive ability before a yōkai, to hand over one's very life—
this was a great taboo.
After all, in such a chaotic age, even blood brothers might stab each other in the back when interests were at stake.
But Kōbe Hikaru looked at the shrine maiden before him.
Looked at himself reflected in the depths of those cool, clear eyes.
He smiled.
A smile light and unburdened.
"Kikyō."
"I'm here."
"Help me."
"All right."
Just one word.
Crisp and decisive.
Kikyō did not ask how long it would take, nor how much commotion it would cause.
She simply turned around, facing the road they had come by, facing the mountain forest about to be swallowed by the night.
She raised her hand, a paper talisman pinched between her fingertips.
Spiritual power surged.
A pale-blue barrier spread out rapidly with the two of them at its center, enveloping an area several zhàng across.
This was not the wide-range warning barrier, but a pure, solid defensive bulwark.
Having done all this, she did not relax.
She moved to a spot at Kōbe Hikaru's side, sat down cross-legged, took the longbow from her back, and laid it across her knees.
"Rest easy."
Her voice was very soft, drifting into Kōbe Hikaru's ears on the evening wind. "As long as I'm still alive, nothing will be able to touch you."
Kōbe Hikaru looked at her profile.
The setting sun had sunk completely behind the mountains; the last trace of light traced the curve of her jaw.
This was his lover.
The strongest shrine maiden of the Sengoku era.
With her here, this desolate wilderness was the safest of fortresses.
"Then... I'm counting on you."
Kōbe Hikaru hesitated no longer.
He tore apart the scalding cloth bundle in his hand.
The purple Thunder Beast's horn had fully liquefied, becoming a mass of thunder-magma suspended in the air.
Kōbe Hikaru drew a deep breath and opened his mouth.
[Razor-Body Mutation]activated at full power.
The muscles, sinews, and bones within him—every inch of his body—began to quake, actively welcoming that mass of thunder-magma.
An ordinary fusion of course required nothing of the sort, but the Thunder Beast's horn was special: it originated from the Thunder Beast, and it itself was lightning, rather than being matter in essence like ordinary things.
What was called fusion was, in truth, fusion.
And using the Razor-Body Mutation to bear it was likewise the result of Kōbe Hikaru's deliberation.
His Razor-Body Mutation was the very first transformation, a metamorphosis of the body's structure itself.
Among the Six Mutations, it alone was closest to the body's origin.
And it alone had the best chance of turning that violent thunder into his own flesh and blood!
BOOM—!
In that instant, Kōbe Hikaru felt that what he embraced was not a mass of energy.
But thunder itself.
The violent thunder detonated within him, instantly shattering the defenses of his organs.
Pain.
Pain at its utmost.
His consciousness plunged into darkness in an instant, leaving only instinct to keep the[Six Mutations]running, striving to digest this power great enough to destroy his body.
And in the outside world.
Kikyō watched Kōbe Hikaru's body.
His skin turned bright red in an instant, then flushed blue-purple, as countless fine arcs of electricity gushed out from his pores.
Beneath that once-pale skin, his muscles writhed madly, like living things run through with electricity.
Ferocious. Terrifying.
He sat there cross-legged on the ground, jaw clenched tight, not making a sound.
Kikyō's grip on her bow tightened.
She could feel that violent yōkai aura battering against the barrier, even stirring changes in the surrounding heavens.
Dark clouds began to gather in the night sky overhead, faint thunder rolling through.
This commotion was too great.
Every yōkai within several li would be drawn here.
"So this is the path you mean to walk?"
Kikyō murmured softly.
She rose to her feet, her white robes snapping in the wind; the shrine maiden's garb—white above, red below—stood out starkly against the dark of night.
Her gaze swept over the dark mountain forest all around, where pairs of greedy beast-eyes had already lit up.
They were the riffraff drawn by the high concentration of yōkai aura.
There were many of them.
But there was not the slightest waver in Kikyō's eyes.
She drew an arrow and set it to the string.
Spiritual power surged, and a white light began to condense at the arrowhead.
The Sacred Arrow.
A single arrow was all it took to shatter a yōkai to dust.
"Come."
Her voice was cold and clear as frost.
"Cross the line, and die."
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