After spotting her from far away, he began to slow down before stopping in front of Sirin.
"Lady Sirin!"
She was really still alive. That was wonderful!
The werewolf quickly removed the box strapped to his back and opened it, revealing the Edict Blade inside, which had already regressed into the form of an ordinary sword.
Without needing to say anything more, Sirin nodded to him in thanks and reached inside to take out the familiar Heavenly Blade.
Perhaps Kiana was a suitable candidate too.
The thought suddenly surfaced in her mind.
Even without the Edict Blade, Kiana had been able to enter Imaginary Space and even rescue her from the collapsing Imaginary Space.
She definitely had talent in this area.
Sirin made a casual slash with the Edict Blade. Carrying it with her, she returned directly to the battlefield through spatial teleportation.
Kiana had saved her. How could she repay that kindness by pushing Kiana into that horrifying fate?
She silently dismissed the thought.
She did not want Kiana, who had saved her, to one day bear the same fate of being unable to live freely.
The battlefield was utterly horrific.
Countless broken swords were either stuck in or lying across the already-charred ground.
The culprit was the black dragon in the thunderclouds—the existence known as Takemikazuchi.
Killing a Kishin of the Twelve Oni Gods' caliber was already unbelievably difficult, let alone one that could fly and remain hidden in the clouds.
Most of the blade wielders were helpless against it. They could only do their best to kill the low-level Kishin drawn over by Takemikazuchi, preventing those creatures from interfering with the main force attacking it.
More than a dozen bolts of lightning as thick as barrels descended from the clouds, yet none struck the blade wielders struggling to kill the Kishin drawn over by Takemikazuchi.
The lightning was blocked by a barrier.
A transparent spatial barrier.
"It's Lady Sirin!"
"It's the Heavenly Blade!"
The moment Sirin appeared, she blocked Takemikazuchi's attack. The news that she was still alive greatly invigorated everyone.
"You're as useless as ever."
Catching sight of the broken swords scattered across the scorched earth from the corner of her eye, Sirin's gaze turned cold.
She did not turn around, but her words were unmistakably directed at the brown-haired man with glasses not far away.
He was the new Blade Master of the True Edict Blade, having inherited the name Welt.
"Welcome back. But our situation is terrible. The Command Center's weapons can't hit Takemikazuchi."
Facing her decade-long barbs, Welt remained calm. He had long since grown used to them.
"I know you're still hung up on what happened more than a decade ago, but with a powerful enemy before us, I hope you'll cooperate with my actions unconditionally."
"You?"
Releasing the Edict Blade of Void, Sirin's voice carried a hint of mockery aimed at Welt. "Cooperate with you to turn this place into a new Far North?"
"If turning this place into a new Far North would be enough to defeat Takemikazuchi, then I would carry it out without hesitation."
Welt's words nearly provoked Sirin into killing him.
Before Sirin could continue, Welt issued an order. "Cooperate with me and create an opportunity for me to inflict a severe blow on it!"
From the Clouds
"Let's count up today's gains!"
After finishing a day of hunting, if they had not been able to sense the passage of time through other means, they would have had no idea what time it was after the sun had been hidden by the dark clouds and everything had become pitch-black.
Kiana was extremely excited.
Today, she and Mei had split up and followed the markers left by those people. In just a few hours, they had killed six Kishin.
Of course, they were the lowest-level kind.
Even so, that had given her six hundred crystals, pushing her balance past one thousand again.
"These are mine."
Raiden Mei removed the temporary cloth pouch hanging from her waist and spread its contents across the table.
Inside were twelve black crystals in total. The number stunned Kiana.
"How did you manage that, Mei?"
"On the way to the marked location, I ran into several Kishin gathered together," Raiden Mei explained.
It had only taken a single slash.
Those Kishin had turned into the crystals Kiana needed.
"Let's sacrifice them."
"We're recycling them right away!"
Kiana picked up the crystals and recycled them, not forgetting to ask Mei, "Mei, do you think there's anything you need to improve?"
"Me?"
Raiden Mei pondered for a moment. She knew Kiana was asking for her opinion so she could buy her something like a samurai sword to improve her strength.
With every battle, she felt herself becoming stronger.
If she had to name a weakness...
"Speed," Mei said. "If I were a little faster, I wouldn't have to waste so much time traveling."
Even against enemies she could not kill with one slash, she could wear them down with greater speed.
Just like the one she had encountered moments ago...
"What's this?" During the recycling process, a B-rank crystal worth one thousand appeared. Kiana slapped the table. "You ran into a monster on the level of the Spider Kishin again?"
A thousand extra crystals had appeared.
But Kiana was not happy at all.
She anxiously looked at Mei and reached out to examine her, but felt too embarrassed to pull open Mei's clothes and check.
"Were you hurt? I have healing potions here. Don't force yourself, Mei."
Warmth spread through Raiden Mei's heart, and her gaze softened. "Don't worry, Kiana. It's only a minor external injury."
"Even a minor external injury can't be underestimated!"
Kiana had not been injured at all and had not encountered another Kishin on the level of the Spider Kishin.
As for low-level Kishin, she could kill them with one punch.
She happened to have some healing potions left. Kiana smashed one onto the ground, and green healing mist enveloped Mei.
"This is a healing potion. It can continuously heal anyone standing in the mist for five seconds. I used this to heal Sirin."
Kiana moved too quickly for Mei to refuse before she was enveloped in the green mist. Because she trusted Kiana, Mei was not startled.
Feeling the wound on her hand itch, Mei kept a calm expression and gently told Kiana about what had happened after they split up.
It had been a giant wolf with two heads, and it was faster than Raiden Mei.
Forced onto the defensive, Raiden Mei had ultimately killed the two-headed giant wolf at the cost of being injured. She had also realized that her speed might become a weakness.
Fortunately, she had this samurai sword.
She had triggered bleeding several times, injuring the giant wolf and reducing its speed. Relying on her composure and judgment, she had found an opening and slain it.
"...It's my fault. If I had thought of this sooner, Mei wouldn't have been injured."
"Before encountering an enemy skilled in speed, I hadn't realized that speed could become a weakness in battle either."
Mei shook her head and comforted the dejected Kiana. "Kiana, you've already helped me. It was precisely because of this samurai sword that I was able to kill that Kishin smoothly at the smallest possible cost."
"So you need speed, right?"
After receiving the two thousand one hundred crystals from Mei and adding the one thousand two hundred she already had, her savings had reached three thousand three hundred.
But that was still not enough to buy high-star equipment with powerful enhancements. Three-star equipment was too expensive, so she could only continue buying equipment capped at two stars.
"Being able to increase speed would be best."
She could break through defenses with strength, and her Stigma made her stronger and stronger in battle, so she was not in such a hurry on that front.
Right now, Kiana urgently needed the crystals left behind after Kishin died. If she were faster, her efficiency at killing Kishin would improve as well.
"I understand!"
As for speed-related badges, there was currently only one she could afford.
[Windrush Technique (Novice) Two-Star: Increases the wearer's constant speed by 19.49% and melee attack speed by 3.39%. The effect increases with Honkai energy intensity, reaching a maximum increase of 24.97% constant speed and 5.39% melee attack speed.]
She bought four identical pieces of equipment and combined them into two two-star badges. She also bought another Yamamoto Night Shadow Samurai Sword, raising Mei's sword by one level.
"This spray is for healing. You should carry it too, Mei."
She would not be able to gather ten thousand in the short term, let alone one hundred thousand, so Kiana felt no pain spending the money.
As for the badge she needed, she already had a target in mind.
That was Knights Don't Die Unarmed!
A badge that could greatly increase unarmed damage was, in Kiana's opinion, much more useful than guns or cannons.
Once Sirin paid her and she became rich, she would prepare a Savior's Medallion for herself as well, increasing her unarmed damage six hundredfold.
With the bonuses from those badges, Kiana confidently felt that she would become a one-punch hero.
Even if she played it safe, punching that black dragon out of the sky would not be impossible.
Her thoughts had wandered elsewhere, but her hands did not slow down in the slightest as she handed all the newly purchased equipment to Mei.
"Want to go outside and try them?"
Kiana made the suggestion.
After equipping the two new badges, Mei tested them and nodded. "I do need to get used to them."
If her speed had increased, then her techniques needed to change as well.
Her swordsmanship truly was not polished enough. She had heard that the legendary sword masters could adapt their techniques to any situation, bringing anything to hand with ease.
Still, she believed she could reach that level too, and it definitely would not take long.
"I'll go try them with you. After we're done..."
A flash of light unlike lightning illuminated one corner of the horizon. Its watery-blue color even overshadowed the lightning.
"What's that?"
Kiana stared at the unusual patch of sky. She remembered that direction—it was precisely where Takemikazuchi was.
That unusual light...
Was it a battle?
No!
The distance was too great. All they could see was one corner of the sky dyed blue by the light. But Kiana's eyesight was excellent. It was not an illusion—she saw an unidentified object falling from the clouds.
Because of the distance, she could not see it clearly, but something had definitely fallen from the clouds, something visible even from this far away.
Escape
"Welt, you madman!"
She did not know that Takemikazuchi would suddenly weaken. While holding the absolute upper hand, it had suddenly lost its reason and gone berserk.
But neither she nor Welt had let this perfect opportunity pass.
Before you continue