The three Blue-Skin Fiend corpses hadn't even hit the ground when the system panel refreshed.
But not with what he'd been expecting. It was still just Muramasa's affection counter.
Of course. He'd known it wouldn't be that simple.
Killing and purifying were completely different things.
No matter how fast his blade was, all it did was split a demon's body in two. The demon-qi still clung to the corpse. The resentment still lingered in the blood.
That wasn't purification. That was chopping vegetables.
True purification — his gaze drifted, almost involuntarily, toward the interior of the barrier.
Every time one of Kikyō's demon-breaking arrows found its mark, the demon's body dissolved in a blaze of white light. No ash. No bone fragments. Nothing.
That was purification.
Spiritual power burning away every trace of demon-qi. Driving out every shred of resentment. Clean. Complete. Not a single particle left behind.
"So I need her help for this…"
Kōbe Hikaru muttered it under his breath.
But there was the problem. He was standing in the middle of the demon horde. Kikyō was inside the barrier. Ten zhang of distance and an unknowable number of demons between them.
How was he supposed to coordinate with her? How was he supposed to make Kikyō's arrows 'happen' to strike the demons he'd just cut down? How was he supposed to make that residual wave of spiritual power 'happen' to wash over his targets?
And then there was the more fundamental question — did Kikyō even know who he was?
No. She didn't.
She was a shrine maiden whose entire existence was built around slaying demons. What were the odds she'd look at a Ghost Warrior who'd just crawled out of a pile of demon corpses and think ally?
Absolutely zero.
What were the odds she'd shoot him on sight?
Extremely high.
"…Fine. Overthinking it won't help."
Kōbe Hikaru tightened his grip on Muramasa.
To unlock the Naohi route, he needed purification. To achieve purification, he needed spiritual power. The nearest source of spiritual power was Kikyō's arrows.
So — all he had to do was herd demons into her line of fire.
No, wait. They were already in her line of fire.
All he had to do was make enough noise that Kikyō had to notice him.
Make her notice he was killing demons. Not helping them.
Make her notice the Shikon Jewel's light on his person — that thought stopped him cold.
He looked down at the bundle pressed against his chest.
The Shikon Jewel was still glowing. The cloth wrapping and the cracked armor plates suppressed most of it, but the light was still there — faint, persistent.
If he removed the concealment entirely — no. Too dangerous. That blaze of light would draw every demon in the horde straight to him. Instead of herding them, he'd be the one getting herded.
But what if he only let it show for a moment?
Just a single instant?
The exact moment he cut a demon down — let the Shikon Jewel's Naohi radiance flicker once. Just enough for Kikyō to sense it.
She was the Anchor of Suppression. She had a natural, innate connection to the Shikon Jewel. Even a single heartbeat of faint light should be enough for her to pick up.
"One gamble."
Kōbe Hikaru had made his decision — but before he could act on it —
BOOM——!
An explosion rang out from the western ridge. The ground shuddered.
Demon-qi.
Massive demon-qi, surging into existence.
Not one source. Four — closing in from four separate directions.
The first to appear was a One-Horned Oni.
Over two zhang tall, its skin a deep, bruised violet, a single curved horn jutting from the center of its forehead. It vaulted off the ridge in a single leap and crashed down behind the demon horde, cratering the earth on impact. The spiked club in its fists — carved from an entire felled tree — swung high above its head.
The second was a Giant Python.
Thick as a barrel, five zhang in length, its body cloaked in blue-black scales. Its forked tongue lashed the air.
The third was a Three-Eyed Crow, its body the size of a warhorse, three eyes blazing in three different colors — red, blue, and yellow.
The fourth —
Kōbe Hikaru's instincts screamed.
At the edge of the demon horde, a humanoid silhouette was walking forward at a measured, unhurried pace.
Tattered samurai armor. A rusted tachi held loosely at its side. A white Hannya mask covering its face.
By its bearing and shape, it was also a Ghost Warrior — but stronger than Kōbe Hikaru. It had completed all six Changes of Physical Transformation, putting it one stage ahead of him.
"Four high-ranking demons…"
Kōbe Hikaru breathed the count silently, but there was no time left to hesitate.
This was unmistakably the source of those four powerful presences he'd sensed lurking in the surrounding mountains. They'd tracked the Shikon Jewel's residual aura straight here — following the breadcrumb trail his body had been leaving the entire journey.
The moment those four entered the battle, the situation would collapse. Kikyō would have her hands full dealing with them. She wouldn't have a shred of attention to spare for some Ghost Warrior lurking in the middle of the demon rabble.
He had to make his move before they could act.
Make Kikyō see him.
Make Kikyō see the Shikon Jewel.
Force her to make a call.
"Move!"
Kōbe Hikaru stopped hiding. He burst out of the pile of corpses, Muramasa sweeping in a wide horizontal arc.
A Cyclops Fiend blocking his path was cleaved in two at the waist. Its upper half spun through the air and crashed into the cluster of demons behind it.
He didn't stop. He drove forward, the blade flashing in continuous arcs.
A serpent-body demon's head went airborne. A centipede spirit's chitinous shell split open, viscera spilling across the ground. Two Blue-Skin Fiends were threaded through by the same stroke.
"What is that?"
"A Ghost Warrior — he's killing our people!"
"Kill him!"
Shrieks erupted from all directions. A dozen demons peeled away from the main force besieging the barrier and lunged at him.
Good. That was exactly what he wanted.
He needed chaos. The more chaotic, the better. Chaotic enough that even Kikyō couldn't ignore it.
He charged straight into the oncoming wave, Muramasa singing.
One stroke, one kill. Occasionally two. Never three.
Demon blood sprayed in every direction. [Resonance with Blood] ignited at full capacity.
Every droplet scattered in the air became his eye — feeding him the position of every demon, the arc of every incoming limb, the trajectory of every strike.
Dodge left. Slash right. Thrust forward. Backswing.
He carved a path of blood through the demon horde. The armor on his body was already dyed deep violet with demon ichor.
But as it turned out — he didn't even need to keep killing.
Kikyō had already seen him.
Inside the barrier. Before the shrine steps.
Kikyō's hand had stopped.
She had been mid-draw, arrow nocked and aimed at an earth-burrowing fiend that was tunneling beneath the barrier's perimeter. But in that single instant —
Her spiritual power sense had caught something. A clear, unmistakable signal.
She had seen it. The Shikon Jewel's light.
Not from far away.
Close. Right here — inside the demon horde.
Kikyō's eyes widened fractionally.
She abandoned her original target. Her gaze swept the battlefield beyond the barrier in a rapid, precise scan.
Chaos. Blood. Demons fighting in every direction.
But within that chaos — one figure stood apart from all the rest.
A demon killing other demons. One demon, cutting down its own kind.
Tattered red armor. Pale, unbound hair. A demon warrior's red-patterned face. A black tachi in its hand, casting a cold, eerie violet gleam in the moonlight.
And the radiance she had just sensed — the Shikon Jewel's Naohi light — had come from him.
Yes. Kikyō could see it directly.
As the one long since chosen as the Anchor of Suppression — her gaze could pierce through any obstruction and perceive the Shikon Jewel's existence with perfect clarity.
The shrine maiden paused. Just for a moment.
She didn't understand it. She had no explanation for it.
But she only needed that one moment to reach a decision.
The bowstring drew taut.
The arrow's aim shifted.
No longer at the earth-burrowing fiend digging beneath the barrier.
Instead — at the cluster of demons surrounding that Ghost Warrior.
At the demon that was killing demons.
Shhk——!
The demon-breaking arrow sang free of the bowstring. A streak of white light cut through the grey-green miasma, passed through the barrier's surface without resistance, and drove straight through the skull of a serpent-body demon that had been lunging at Kōbe Hikaru from the side.
Spiritual power detonated.
The serpent-body demon's body ignited in white fire — burning, disintegrating, dissolving into ash. Not a fragment of bone remained.
And the residual wave of that spiritual power — washed across the ground at Kōbe Hikaru's feet, over the three Blue-Skin Fiend corpses he had cut down first.
Ash.
All three bodies dissolved in the lingering surge of spiritual power, rising as fine pale dust and scattering on the wind.
Clean. Complete. Not a particle left behind.
That — was purification.
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