Chapter 10: The True Purification
Before the bodies of the three blue-skinned Oni even struck the dirt, a new prompt flickered to life on the system panel.
But it wasn't the one he expected. It was still just a notification about Muramasa's favorability.
'Of course,'Hikaru thought with a grimace.'It was never going to be that simple.'
Killing and purifying were two entirely different concepts. No matter how swift his blade, it could only cleave a demon's physical form in two. The foul Yao Qi remained, clinging to the corpses like a shroud, and the bitter resentment lingered in the pooling blood.
That wasn't purification. That was just butchery.
As for true purification… his gaze drifted involuntarily toward the shimmering interior of the barrier.
With every one of Kikyo's Sacred Arrows that found its mark, the targeted demon's body would erupt in a flash of brilliant white light, disintegrating into nothing but ash. Not so much as a fragment of bone would be left behind.
That was true purification. Her spiritual power would thoroughly incinerate the Yao Qi and completely disperse the lingering resentment, leaving the ground clean, as if the creature had never existed.
"That's why I need her help…" Hikaru muttered under his breath.
But therein lay the problem. He was currently standing in the heart of a demon horde, while Kikyo was safe inside her barrier. Between them lay a thirty-meter sea of claws and fangs, an unknown number of demons churning in a chaotic tide.
How was he supposed to coordinate with her? How could he possibly arrange for Kikyo's arrows to 'happen' to strike the demons near him? How could he ensure the aftershocks of that spiritual power would 'happen' to wash over the targets he had already slain?
There was an even more fundamental question—did Kikyo even know who he was?
She didn't.
As a professional demon-slaying priestess, was it even conceivable for her to harbor goodwill toward an Oni Samurai who had just clawed his way out of a pile of demon corpses?
Absolutely not.
Would she simply treat him as another target to be eliminated?
The likelihood was dangerously high.
"...Forget it. There's no use overthinking it."
Hikaru's grip tightened on Muramasa's hilt. To unlock the Naohi, he had to perform a purification. To perform a purification, he had to borrow spiritual power. The closest, and only, source of that power was Kikyo's arrows.
Therefore, he just needed to herd the demons into her line of fire.
No, they were already well within her range.
He just needed to kill conspicuously enough for her to notice him. He needed her to see that he was slaughtering demons, not aiding them. He needed her to notice the light of the Shikon Jewel on his person—
At that thought, an idea sparked in Hikaru's mind. He glanced down at his chest. The faint light of the Shikon Jewel was still there, suppressed and dimmed by the cloth wrapping and his lacquered armor, but it was present.
'If I remove the covering… no. Far too risky.'
That pure light would instantly draw the frenzied attention of every demon on the battlefield. Instead of him herding them, they would be herding him.
But what if he only exposed a sliver of it? Just for a split second?
What if, at the precise moment he slew a demon, he allowed the Naohi's light to flicker once—just enough for Kikyo to sense it? She was its Guardian. She possessed a natural, instinctual perception of the Shikon Jewel. Even a momentary glimmer should be enough for her to catch.
"Time to gamble," Hikaru decided.
But before he could put his plan into action—
BOOM—!
A deafening explosion ripped through the air from the western ridge, and the ground trembled violently beneath his feet.
It was Yao Qi. A powerful wave of it had just appeared.
And it wasn't just one. There were four… surging from four different directions.
The first to reveal itself was a One-Horned Oni. It stood over six meters tall, its skin a deep, bruised purple, with a long, cruelly curved horn jutting from its forehead. It leaped from the ridge, landing behind the demon horde with a ground-shattering impact that carved a massive crater in the earth. In its grip, it brandished a spiked club fashioned from the trunk of an entire tree.
The second was a giant python. Its body was as thick as a water barrel and stretched nearly fifteen meters long, its hide a sheath of blue-black scales. Its forked tongue flickered, tasting the demon-tainted air.
The third was a Three-Eyed Crow, its wingspan rivaling that of a warhorse. Its three eyes glowed with malevolent red, blue, and yellow light.
The fourth—
Hikaru's instincts screamed a warning. At the edge of the demon horde, a humanoid figure was slowly approaching. It wore tattered samurai armor and carried a rust-stained tachi, its face obscured by a stark white Hannya mask. Judging by its posture and the oppressive aura it radiated, it was another Oni Samurai—but one far stronger than Hikaru. It was a being that had completed at least one more of the Six Transformations than he had.
"Four high-level demons…" Hikaru murmured, but he had no more time to hesitate.
These were undoubtedly the four powerful presences that had been lurking nearby. Once they joined the fray, the situation would deteriorate in an instant. Kikyo would be hard-pressed just to defend the barrier, let alone spare a single glance for an unknown Oni Samurai mixed in with the rabble.
He had to cause a big enough commotion before they launched their assault.
He had to make Kikyo see him.
He had to make her see the Shikon Jewel.
He had to force her to make a judgment.
"Here I go!"
Hikaru threw all caution to the wind. He burst from the pile of corpses he'd been using as cover, Muramasa swinging in a wide, horizontal arc.
A One-Eyed Demon blocking his path was neatly sliced in two at the waist. Its upper body flew through the air, crashing into several other demons and sending them tumbling.
He didn't stop, pressing forward as his blade flashed again and again. The head of a Snake-Bodied Demon flew from its shoulders. The carapace of a Centipede Spirit was split wide open, its foul entrails spilling onto the blood-soaked ground. In the same fluid motion, his blade pierced through two Blue-Skinned Oni, skewering them both in a single thrust.
"What is that thing?"
"An Oni Samurai? He's killing our own kind!"
"Kill him!"
A chorus of enraged roars erupted as a dozen demons broke away from the main force besieging the barrier and lunged toward him.
'Perfect.' This was exactly the effect Hikaru wanted. He needed to create chaos—the messier, the better.
He charged headlong into the surging demon horde, Muramasa a whirlwind of death in his hands.
One strike, one life.
Occasionally two, but never a third.
Demon blood sprayed through the air as his Resonance with Blood activated fully. The crimson droplets, suspended in the air for a fraction of a second, became his eyes, feeding him the position, movement, and attack trajectory of every enemy in his vicinity.
Dodge left, slash right. Thrust forward, swing up from behind.
He carved a bloody path through the demonic tide, his armor already stained a deep, glistening purple by their foul blood.
But in truth, he didn't even need to kill anymore.
Kikyo had already seen it.
Inside the barrier, before the sacred shrine, Kikyo's hand paused.
She was in the middle of drawing her bow, the consecrated tip of her arrow aimed at a burrowing demon trying to tunnel under the barrier's edge.
But in that instant—her spiritual perception caught a clear, unmistakable signal.
And then she saw it—the light of the Shikon Jewel.
It wasn't coming from far away. It was nearby, right there—smack in the middle of the demon horde.
Kikyo's eyes widened slightly.
She abandoned her original target, her gaze sweeping rapidly across the chaotic battlefield outside the barrier. Amidst the writhing mass of corruption, one figure stood out, strikingly different from the rest.
He was killing demons. A demon was killing other demons.
He was clad in tattered red armor, his pale hair disheveled, his face hidden by a crimson oni mask. In his hand, he wielded a black tachi that glinted with a cold, eerie purple light under the moon.
And that pure, Naohi light of the Shikon Jewel she had just sensed—it had emanated from him.
Yes, Kikyo could see it directly. As the long-chosen Guardian of the Jewel, her vision could penetrate all obstacles, physical or mystical, to perceive its presence.
The priestess froze for a single, fleeting moment.
Though she didn't understand the reason or the circumstances, in the space of a single heartbeat, she made a decision.
The bowstring was drawn taut to its absolute limit.
The direction of the arrow shifted.
It no longer pointed at the burrowing demon.
Instead, it aimed toward the seething cluster of demons near that lone Oni Samurai. Toward that demon who was killing other demons.
Swish—!
The Sacred Arrow was loosed. A streak of pure white light, it cut through the grayish-green Yao Qi and passed through the barrier without resistance. With a resonant hum, it struck a Snake-Bodied Demon that was lunging at Hikaru from his flank.
Spiritual power exploded.
The Snake-Bodied Demon's form burned, disintegrated, and turned to ash within the blinding white light. Not even a speck of bone remained.
And the aftershock of that spiritual power—it washed over the three Blue-Skinned Oni corpses at Hikaru's feet, the ones he had slain just moments before.
Ash.
The three corpses dissolved into motes of flying ash in the wake of the spiritual power, dissipating on the wind.
Clean. Tidy. Not a single trace left behind.
This was purification.
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