Bright morning sunlight shone down upon the smoke-filled ruins of the Central District, highlighting the horrifying rubble following two waves of heavy bombardment. Within the early morning atmosphere thick with gunsmoke and ash, Akai Kiriko quietly placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.
SZIIP!
The Katana blade was slowly drawn from its scabbard. Its steel surface bore exquisite, undulating rippling patterns like flowing water, reflecting the morning light into cold streaks of color. Yet, behind that mesmerizing, haunting beauty lay a suffocating pressure of pure evil, dense demon aura surging outward in waves.
Shin narrowed his eyes, feeling every muscle fiber in his body stand on end:
— "Can a sword... emit such terrifying pressure on its own?"
Kiriko tilted her head slightly, her fox ears twitching gently, her voice calm:
— "Its name is Akeomi (朱臣)."
Before Shin could even comprehend it, a barrage of slimy blood tendrils burst forth from the Katana's hilt like eager parasites. They tightly wrapped around Kiriko's slender hand, then ruthlessly drove deep into her skin, stabbing straight through her flesh into her vascular system!
Shin gasped, his pupils contracting:
— "Why would a sword do that to its owner?!"
Kiriko kept a smile on her lips, though beads of cold sweat glistened on her forehead. She replied casually:
— "Because it has a mind of its own... It constantly craves fresh blood. Fighting alongside this sword is like walking a thin rope suspended over an endless abyss... If I close my eyes for even a single second, I will cease to be myself!"
SWOOSH!
Before the sentence even ended, giving Shin no room to breathe, Kiriko swung her blade! A single slash tore through the morning sky, carrying a surging wave of deep crimson demon aura.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The path of the sword slash pulverized and split multiple high-rise buildings behind Shin like thin paper! Shin bent backward to dodge in the nick of time, the slash grazing past and severing a single strand of his hair before smashing into distant architecture.
Kiriko smirked. Shin stood back up, lightly stroking his cut strand of hair, his voice deep:
— "Is every sword wielder in this world this fast?”
Without answering Shin, Kiriko immediately tightened her grip on Akeomi's hilt, executing her first fatal technique:
— "Blood Fox Howling Wind: Artery Slash (血狐嚎風: 斬脈)!"
Her petite frame lunged forward at extreme velocity, shattering the sound barrier. Kiriko unleashed a barrage of arc slashes wreathed in deep crimson demon aura. Waves of sword qi formed giant claw-like slashes sweeping across kilometers!
The attack not only cleanly severed the hardest obstacles, but more dangerously, those slashes carried the ability to drain surrounding vitality. Plants and green patches under the morning light withered, blackened, and died in the blink of an eye, their life sap drained completely to feed back into Akeomi's blade!
Shin continuously used footwork to dodge, shouting with a frown:
— "At this rate, you're going to make the entire city vanish!”
Kiriko sped past, her voice clear and bright:
— "The citizens have all evacuated! Now it's just the two of us playing around!"
Without stopping, Kiriko twisted her waist, concentrated all demon aura into Akeomi, and plunged the blade hard into the ground!
— "Blood Deer Demon Lair: Demon Forest (血鹿魔穴: 鬼林)!"
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BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Tens of thousands of blood tendrils from Akeomi plunged deep into the earth, triggering violent seismic shocks akin to a massive earthquake that cracked the ground into huge chunks. Shin leaped repeatedly, searching for safe footholds to avoid being swept into the radius of destruction.
Shin grit his teeth, thinking: 'This move... feels as destructive as Roxy's, but...!'
Instead of spewing magma, violent streams of demonic blood erupted from the fissures like blazing flames! Tens of thousands of bone spikes and razor-sharp blood blades stabbed upward from underground at horrifying speeds, turning the massive area into a steaming blood-spike swamp that impaled and crushed all concrete and stone structures.
At that moment, from a safe distance away, the Zero Horizon squad had retreated in time.
Seeing the blood-spike swamp expanding, Shin's eyes turned dead serious. He took a deep breath, breaking past his body's safe limiters to enter his strongest combat state:
— "Crimson-Black Overdrive!"
ROAR!
Shin's entire body erupted with a brilliant red aura tightly intertwined with a deep, mystical black hue. The dense protective aura surrounding him caused the morning air to expand and contract repeatedly, making unsettling, compressed pop explosions.
BOOM!
The surface of the blood-spike swamp shattered. Shin rocketed forward at terrifying speed, the sheer ground pressure from his footsteps sinking the stone floor beneath!
Kiriko's pupils shrank in shock:
— "What kind of speed is this?!"
In a split second, Shin closed the distance. He reached out and grabbed Kiriko straight by the neck, dragging her forward at the speed of an unstoppable artillery shell, crashing through dozens of consecutive buildings!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
After being dragged through a trail of collapsed architecture, Kiriko flipped back onto her feet, demon aura towering around her. But what lunged at her next wasn't Shin!
— "OPEN YOUR EYES AND LOOK AT THIS!!"
Roxy unexpectedly materialized from a blind spot, driving a hellfire-wrapped punch straight into Kiriko's face! Kiriko gasped, hastily raising Akeomi to block.
BANG!
The impact from Roxy's punch pushed Kiriko back several meters. Before she could regain her balance, a chilly wave of sword qi tore through the air. Kamishiro Seijuro unleashed a precise, powerful slash! Kiriko used miraculous reflexes to duck, dodging by a hair's width.
Before her shock could fade, Kwon Tae-Joon plunged from above like a meteor, channeling full gravity into his heel to slam directly into the spot Kiriko stood, shattering the bedrock!
Kiriko somersaulted multiple times in mid-air before landing on a pile of rubble, her fox ears standing straight up in a mix of bewilderment and anger:
— "I said no third parties! Turns out you guys are a team?!"
Shin stood in the distance, his face darkening as he saw his teammates intervene. He waved his hand, shouting sternly:
— "What are you guys doing?! Let this be a 1v1, don't butt in!"
Roxy wiped a streak of blood from the corner of her lips, arguing:
— "We just wanted to help you!"
Shin clenched his Crimson-Black-wrapped fists, his gaze unwavering:
— "If you want to help, then watch! That's how you help me right now! Let me defeat this girl with my own hands today!"
Seeing Shin's firm stance, Roxy, Seijuro, Tae-Joon, and Xie Xingchen understood. They nodded and quickly pulled back to a safe vantage point to observe. Ling Mo glided like a quiet shadow across distant rooftops, his sharp eyes tracking every move.
Now, only Shin and Kiriko remained facing off in the open clearing.
Kiriko dusted off her shoulder, her fox eyes contemplating Shin before smiling:
— "Seems you're their leader, huh? A strong leader who sets an example for his members... I actually quite like that about you."
Shin lowered his center of gravity, the red-and-black force around him swirling violently:
— "I want to fully enjoy this fight! You still haven't gone all out, have you? Let me take you somewhere we can go wild without worrying about a thing!"
Kiriko smirked, her eyes flashing with excitement:
— "Deal!"
SWOOSH!
Both burst into extreme speed simultaneously, leaving the urban Central District behind and hurtling toward the desolate, barren mountain range in the north—a vast wasteland spanning thousands of miles without a single soul.
The moment they touched down on the barren rock mountains, Kiriko stopped holding back. She completely unleashed her entire reservoir of evil demonic aura!
— "Blood Deer Demon Lair: Demon Forest!”
— "Blood Fox Howling Wind: Artery Slash!"
The two combo ultimate moves were executed on a scale ten times more horrific! The entire rocky mountain range was torn apart, geological plates inverted completely. Massive demon-aura slashes split majestic mountain peaks in two, leaving deep chasms plunged straight into the earth like bottomless abysses.
Seeing Kiriko burst with such terrifying power, Shin did not hesitate to respond with his absolute control technique:
— "Nirvana Heart Realm (寂滅心界)!"
BOOM!
An independent spatial barrier formed in a flash, enveloping Kiriko's entire silhouette. The moment she was trapped inside, the unique Sophion energy wavelength of the Heart Realm directly invaded, manipulating and suppressing Kiriko's perception, consciousness, and battle intent!
Kiriko fell onto one knee on the void floor of the domain, her head spinning:
— "Damn it... A spatial domain manipulating perception?! Staying here means big trouble... I have to shatter this space immediately!"
However, at the exact moment Kiriko's mind was shaken and weakened by the Nirvana Heart Realm, the demon blade Akeomi in her hand began violently thrashing!
TEAR! TEAR! TEAR!
— "Ngh... Ahh... AHHH!"
Kiriko suddenly screamed in excruciating agony! The evil blood tendrils oozing from the hilt no longer stopped at her hand. They went wild, ruthlessly tearing through skin and flesh, burrowing deep inside her body!
— "It hurts... Damn it! It's... it's taking advantage of this to hijack my body!!"
The scene became terrifyingly brutal and horrific. Deep black demonic blood tendrils, resembling giant blood worms, squirmed under Kiriko's smooth skin. They covered her entire arm, shredding muscle fibers, crawling up her neck, across her collarbone, and spreading across her beautiful face!
The skin on Kiriko's face cracked, fresh blood spurting out heavily. The blood vessels on her forehead and cheeks bulged in gruesome blackish-red hues.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The sound of snapping bones echoed painfully. From behind Kiriko, her soft fox tail twitched violently, and then... TEAR!
From her spine, eight tails made of razor-sharp demonic blood blades stabbed straight through her flesh, shredding her clothes and bursting outward! Fresh blood splattered everywhere. Kiriko clutched her head, her body contorting on the ground, thrashing and screaming in a pool of her own blood as she endured bone-chilling agony to reclaim control of her body.
Shin stood outside the Heart Realm, staring in shock at the horrific spectacle:
— "What's happening to her?! What is that state?!"
BOOM!
The demonic blood accumulated inside Kiriko exploded to a degree that shattered the domain's tolerance threshold! The rampage of demon aura completely shattered the structure of the Nirvana Heart Realm.
A colossal pillar of blood-red light pierced through space, soaring into the sky and tearing apart the morning ozone layer, dyeing the clear morning sky into a deep, blood-soaked red!
Inside the blazing crimson light, Kiriko grit her teeth so hard fresh blood oozed out, her bloodshot eyes roaring with her final sliver of sanity:
— "Stop... stop it right now! You're just an obedient tool!!"
From within the sword Akeomi, a deep, ancient, and demonic voice echoed directly into her mind:
— "I am something weak creatures like you could never comprehend in a lifetime...!!"
The morning sky was dyed completely red.
Around Kiriko's silhouette, the demon aura condensed into the form of a thousand-year-old ancient demon. Shin swallowed hard, clenching his fists, standing face-to-face with an opponent transformed into a true, corrupted monster…
(To be continued)