Slain! / The Ringing Blade

"Adaptability..."

Mei stopped between herself and Takemikazuchi, staring at the colossal creature before her.

"If even I, who resonate with Takemikazuchi, am not the one capable of wielding a Resonating Blade, then Izumo probably won't be able to find anyone compatible with one."

Sirin's eyes widened slightly. "You? Resonate? You've got to be joking!"

Mei shook her head. "Miss Sirin just said that the quality of the vessel only affects how severely the curse corrodes the human body."

Mei was doing this for...

Kiana furrowed her brows and wanted to say something to Mei, but then she saw Mei give her a slight shake of the head, a faint smile on her face.

Sirin fell into troubled thought.

Mei silently mouthed to Kiana, "I believe you."

She believed that the Stigma Kiana spoke of could rival the power of the Kishin, and she also believed Kiana's warning that Takemikazuchi would trigger a Honkai disaster after being completely corrupted.

Kiana lowered her head glumly.

If the Edict Blade's vessel proved unsuitable and caused the same side effect as the previous one—doubling the backlash with every use—she could sell it and buy Mei better equipment.

But Mei had stepped forward and volunteered to bear the consequences, so they should stop thinking about everything else and kill Takemikazuchi first.

There was nothing wrong with that.

Yet she still felt somewhat unhappy. Just two days ago, she had said that she wouldn't let Mei get hurt, and that she wouldn't build her own plans on Mei's sacrifice.

But wasn't that exactly what was happening now?

She was still too weak. If she had enough strength, she wouldn't need Mei to step forward.

"You really want to use that broken sword in your hand as the vessel for the Resonating Blade? Even if the Resonating Blade forged from it corrodes your body and turns you into something neither human nor ghost?"

Sirin didn't immediately agree to Kiana's proposal. Her main concern was who would become the Resonating Blade's future Blade Master, but Raiden Mei's meaning was clear: she would definitely become its Blade Master.

And she didn't care.

Whether it was true or not.

All Sirin needed now was an excuse.

Because she also leaned toward believing Kiana. Kiana had saved her, so there was no reason for her to lie.

It wouldn't benefit anyone.

If she only represented herself, she wouldn't need to overthink things or consider every possibility.

Sirin was depressed too.

Another day when she didn't want to keep working.

"...This isn't a broken sword." Mei retorted, and then currents of electricity wrapped around the blade. "You only need to believe me. I'm willing to bear all the consequences."

"And me! I'm willing to bear the consequences with Mei. If it doesn't work, at worst I'll compensate you with equipment no worse than the Edict Blade!"

Ignoring Kiana's promise to compensate her, Sirin's gaze fell upon the sword in Mei's hand.

"You..."

The sword in Raiden Mei's hand wasn't a Cursed Sword.

Then what were these electric currents...?

Could this girl's adaptability be even stronger than her own? Was she truly the chosen one of the Resonating Blade?!

Slaughter!

The chains extending from the void tightened around Takemikazuchi, while Sirin helped Raiden Mei suppress it.

"I'll believe you this once."

Since Mei had said she was willing to bear all the consequences, Sirin said nothing more. She selectively ignored the fact that this went against the rules and decided to help her this once.

"Thank you."

Mei walked before Takemikazuchi and fearlessly met its scarlet, vertical pupils.

Was this the strongest Kishin?

The feeling it gave off was completely different from the other Kishin she had encountered before.

"It's time to end this."

Perhaps it had sensed danger, or perhaps it had sensed the insult. Takemikazuchi struggled beneath Sirin's restraints, moving its body as though it wanted to kill the human before it.

Mei moved faster than the lightning it wielded, swiftly closing the distance between them.

"Its weakness is the head," Sirin reminded her.

Still in the midst of its transformation, heavily wounded, and spatially restrained by Sirin wielding the Imperial Blade of Heaven, Takemikazuchi was like meat on a chopping block.

But Takemikazuchi was ultimately one of the strongest Kishin. Blood-red lightning coiled around its body, and several chains restraining it shattered under some inexplicable force.

"It's actively transforming into Honkai energy. It's preparing to abandon itself completely..."

Kiana could feel the rate of Honkai energy transformation accelerating. The Kishin power that had originally resisted the Honkai's corrosion had now taken the initiative to embrace the Honkai, cooperating with the transformation of the Honkai energy.

This discovery was terrible beyond words.

Did it even know what the Honkai was? How could it throw itself into the Honkai's embrace?

There was nothing more to say.

Kiana immediately bought a rocket launcher, hoisted it onto her shoulder, moved away from the position of Takemikazuchi's head where Mei was, and fired several rockets at its body.

Sirin, maintaining the spatial chains, caught sight of Kiana pulling out a rocket launcher and thought she was seeing things. It wasn't until the ammunition exploded against Takemikazuchi's body that she widened her eyes and stared at the weapon in Kiana's hands.

Where had Kiana pulled that thing out from?

She could barely understand the healing potions, since they were small. But where had Kiana gotten a rocket launcher that large, one unaffected by the blood-red lightning around Takemikazuchi and capable of striking it directly?

Even the base's heavy weapons weren't so cleverly designed. One person could carry them on their shoulder and fire them repeatedly, yet their power was astonishing.

Takemikazuchi's defense was incredible. The rockets struck its body without causing the kind of wounds that tore its flesh open.

If its power to resist hadn't weakened, Sirin would have thought those rockets had done nothing at all.

"Kiana, keep going!"

Since it worked, they should continue.

"Got it!"

This was Kiana's first time using this type of weapon, but she had to admit that suppressing the enemy with such firepower was incredibly satisfying.

It was also exceptionally effective against such a large creature.

Kiana aimed at the same spot and fired the rest of her ammunition, sending every rocket into the black dragon.

Explosions rang out one after another.

Moving in tandem with the explosions was the afterimage Mei left behind as she advanced single-mindedly with her blade.

The closer she got to Takemikazuchi, the stronger the inexplicable pressure became. Enduring the discomfort, Mei leaped into the air.

The excessive Honkai energy within Takemikazuchi became the force assisting her draw in that instant.

In the high-concentration Honkai region, bolstered by her Stigma and her conviction, she leaped high and struck down at the gaping maw of Takemikazuchi with the most dazzling slash she had ever unleashed.

"Mei!"

All Kiana could see was blinding lightning blooming from Takemikazuchi's body, bright enough to tear everything apart and obscure everything else.

Kiana couldn't see Mei. She could no longer remain calm, so she tossed the rocket launcher aside and ran toward the flashing lightning.

Sirin, still shaken, came back to herself when she heard Kiana's voice. She quickly grabbed Kiana as she tried to run off and said, "Don't panic. She's fine."

If she hadn't seen wrong just now, Raiden Mei had actually turned Takemikazuchi's own power against it, making it the means by which she killed Takemikazuchi.

Sirin was genuinely convinced.

She believed what Raiden Mei had said earlier.

"The Resonating Blade's chosen Blade Master."

Sirin let out a long breath. If she was infinitely close to the first Blade Master's adaptability to the Edict Blade, then Raiden Mei possessed the same talent as the first true Blade Master.

Resonance...

Sirin couldn't be bothered to think about why this phenomenon had occurred. She was merely a sword wielder; all she needed to do was slay the Kishin.

If the first Blade Master from a thousand years ago had possessed the same resonance ability as Raiden Mei, then it made sense that they had been able to kill the most troublesome Tsumugari no Kami without the Edict Blade's assistance.

"Let go of me first."

Kiana shook off Sirin's hand.

Only then did the dazzling lightning vanish, finally revealing what had happened there.

The lightning had actually come from Raiden Mei's blade. She stood atop Takemikazuchi's head, the samurai sword in her hand having just carried lightning capable of tearing through everything. With unstoppable force, it had broken through the black dragon's defenses and directly destroyed its core.

With Sirin's help, Takemikazuchi had nowhere to flee. Moreover, it was in the critical stage of transformation. The Honkai power it could no longer control, along with the Kishin power being rapidly assimilated by the Honkai energy, could not become the final resistance of the heavily wounded Takemikazuchi.

Takemikazuchi, one of the twelve strongest Kishin in the world, which had invaded from Takama-ga-hara a thousand years ago, had died at the hands of Raiden Mei, who had only just embarked on the path of slaying Kishin.

Takemikazuchi had, in a sense, been completely ruined by the Honkai energy.

Without the Honkai energy, it wouldn't have lost so miserably or so quickly.

Once it had fully accepted the Honkai energy and transformed into a Honkai beast, Izumo's forces might not have been its match.

Yet it had chosen the most awkward moment, neither here nor there, to tear through its restraints and force its descent.

After Takemikazuchi died, only half of the Kishin power remained in its body. The other half had already been twisted and assimilated by the Honkai energy that had reached into it and begun its corrosion.

Some kind of rule seemed to exist in the unseen realm.

The blade that had slain Takemikazuchi was being twisted in shape by the Kishin's power. Takemikazuchi's power, carrying the Honkai energy that had yet to disperse, merged into the blade atop its head.

Mei decisively released her grip and leaped down from the corpse shrouded in black energy, watching as the scene unfolded.

Just as had happened when she slew the Kishin before, Takemikazuchi's corpse disintegrated, transforming into the purest power—power that made one instinctively uncomfortable—which surged frenziedly into the blade.

Black energy spiraled around the blade. Perhaps the power was simply too great, for even the clouds blocking out the sky were drawn in by it, forming a massive vortex together with the eerie aura and the remaining Honkai energy. The sight was utterly astonishing.

"Are you hurt?" Kiana reached her side and asked anxiously, gripping her.

"Don't worry, Kiana."

Breaking free of that strange sensation, Raiden Mei patted Kiana and indicated that she wasn't injured.

How should she put it...

It was true that she had been the one to slay Takemikazuchi, but she felt that the sensation of swinging her blade had been strange.

She had prepared herself to kill Takemikazuchi, but she had never imagined that a single slash from her could kill such a terrifying Kishin.

It was something she hadn't dared to imagine.

Yet it had happened.

Moreover, after killing Takemikazuchi, the enhancement her Stigma provided to her normal state had multiplied several times over.

Had she... undergone a transformation?

Resonating Blade

[You have brought an undeniable impact to Izumo (world). Honkai Energy Concentration (world) has permanently increased by 5%]

[Obtained Gift of Honkai. Finality Process has permanently increased by 5%]

[Finality Process has reached 10% (permanent). Eligibility to obtain Stigmata has been unlocked]

Name: Kiana

Faction: [Honkai]

Talent: Power of the End

Skill: Phase Shift (Empty)