Utterly Defenseless.

Ordinary Kishin are not difficult to deal with; if a Kishin were truly powerful, it wouldn't have chosen to keep humans as captives.

Although she cannot unleash her full power in the Stigmata world, dealing with Kishin should not be a problem.

"... I remember he threw that knife in the storage room on the floor."

After the items enshrined at the shrine were changed, the sword that had been worshipped by the shrine for generations became an abandoned item.

If I remember correctly.

It should be in the warehouse.

Yae Sakura is not good at staying calm. Even though she has been preparing to kill a god, she doesn't actually have much confidence.

Because she was, after all, just a mortal.

But their opponent is Evil God who transcends humanity.

"I'll go find it."

She didn't want to waste a single second.

Knowing that the sword enshrined at the shrine could be the key to breaking the deadlock, Yae Sakura just wanted to get her hands on it as soon as possible, lest things change if she delayed.

"I'll be with you."

Kiana quickly caught up with Yae Sakura, who showed no signs of sleepiness, and followed her out of the courtyard, retracing their steps.

As they walked, Kiana tried to find topics to talk about.

"By the way, you said before that I was being targeted. Is that one of its abilities?"

"The statue is its eyes; even when it's not at the shrine, it can see the shrine through the statue."

Yae Sakura said hatefully, "It uses this ability to select sacrifices. Anyone who dares to appear in front of the statue may be marked as its prey. Once marked, the village will receive its instructions to prepare cruel human sacrifices for it, offering the marked person to the Evil God in the vain hope of gaining eternal peace."

I am in this village.

And it's the dirtiest place.

Yae Sakura knew they were beyond redemption, and she didn't believe that the man kept her around because she was his daughter.

She has been accumulating strength.

All the forbearance was for the sake of striking decisively and completely eliminating the scourge of Evil God.

"Is he really taking on the role of Evil God?"

Kiana's expression was strange. She had seen many Kishin, but this was the first time she had ever heard of Kishin that kept humans as Evil God and then specifically targeted and ate them.

Noticing her expression, Yae Sakura asked, "Weren't the Kishin you saw outside like this?"

"No."

Kiana shook her head and said, "I've encountered many Kishin, some powerful and some weak, and it's always been a direct confrontation."

Yae Sakura's eyes darkened as she said, "It really likes 'pain'."

Kiana frowned.

"The more twisted and painful the emotion, the more it likes it; it chooses its favorite living sacrifice because it wants to enjoy the fear of the sacrifice before its death."

Yae Sakura made it very clear.

Kiana understood the subtext of her words: the Kishin that Yae Sakura wanted to slay was a special type that Kiana had never seen before.

Yae Sakura walked quickly, worried that her father might return to the shrine ahead of time. She soon descended from inside the shrine to the underground storage room located directly beneath it.

No one had been to the storage room for a year, and a thick layer of dust had accumulated on the floor.

The Yae Sakura lit a bonfire to illuminate the darkness.

Pushing open the unlocked door, I found the Frost Blade, which had been tossed aside in a corner as scrap metal, in a storage room filled with odds and ends.

Its shape is peculiar, but it doesn't reveal any divine significance.

It doesn't feel special when you hold it in your hand.

It is precisely because it is almost indistinguishable from ordinary swords that it was thrown here as scrap metal.

"The Frost Blade you mentioned, is that it?"

The knife was in my hand, and it looked the same as any I'd ever touched before; there was nothing particularly special about it.

Yae Sakura handed the Frost Blade to Kiana.

Kiana took the sword from her hand, looking at the Edict Blade, as if she had returned to the day before it happened, before everyone died.

Holding its hilt, Kiana felt the dormant power within the blade, the power that had seized the Amatsuyu.

This is not the power of a half-finished product.

It was a complete Edict Blade.

Kiana was filled with doubt. This Edict Blade from the Stigmata world should only be a half-finished product at this point.

She tried to awaken the power within the Frost Blade, but she was not the blade's recognized master, making communication quite difficult.

She used Honkai energy to force the power of the Edict Blade to reawaken, but only awakened a portion of its power.

For some reason, this sword seemed to be sealed, unable to unleash most of its power.

Kiana's furrowed brows could trap a fly. She could clearly sense that this was the complete Edict Blade after it had slain the Amatsuyu, but now it could only unleash the power of a half-finished product.

Were they suppressed by the Stigmata world?

Or is it that, in the Stigmata world, this sword only possesses this level of power?

Is the so-called completeness just an illusion?

"I have awakened a part of its power. You are its recognized master. Take it and do what you want to do."

Kiana was somewhat confused about what was going on, so she returned the sword to Yae Sakura and decided to wait and see.

Even a fraction of its power is enough.

Surely the Kishin of Yae Village can't be a rare, top-tier Kishin?

The top-tier Kishin are second only to the Twelve Oni Gods.

Its immense destructive power and size mean it has no need to hide in a Yae Village and play any domestication games with the humans there.

30

Chapter Thirty: utterly vulnerable.

Yae Sakura drew her sword, and a chilling aura emanated from the otherwise ordinary blade, causing the temperature in the basement to plummet by more than ten degrees and continue to drop below zero.

There were no unexpected methods.

Feeling the chill, Yae Sakura sheathed her sword.

She thought that after obtaining the Frost Blade, she would need to perform some rituals, since it had been enshrined at the shrine for so many years but had never shown any similar miracles.

Kiana only held the Frost Blade in her hand for a short while before it displayed immense power.

If this knife really has an owner, it should be Kiana, since she did come into contact with it when she was young.

"Thanks."

Clinging to her hopes for revenge, Yae Sakura spoke gratefully to Kiana she already felt a fondness for.

In her opinion, Kiana must have known that she wanted to end it all herself, which is why she said those words to encourage her.

--Go do what she wants to do.

What does she most want to do?

There's only one answer in my heart, an answer I'll never forget, even in my dreams.

When Kiana was with Yae Sakura, she couldn't help but look at her face.

Upon hearing her say thank you, Kiana said meaningfully, "You're welcome. I didn't do anything, and besides, we're friends, aren't we?"

The Yae Sakura she knew inexplicably cared a lot about being friends with her.

If she were the Yae Sakura she knew, she would probably have a different reaction to hearing that, right?

Yae Sakura was indeed taken aback upon hearing her words, showing surprise and disbelief.

The word "friend" was somewhat foreign to her, after all, it was a distant concept for a priestess who lived under the watchful eye of Evil God and never knew when she would become a sacrifice.

Before her mother was alive, and before all of this happened, she had playmates in the village.

But...

Yae Sakura thought of some painful memories, lowered her eyes to hide those past events that had passed but would never be forgotten.

Doesn't that count?

Everything that was once desirable but unattainable was now laid out before her all at once. Yae Sakura instinctively wanted to keep her distance, afraid of implicating the kind-hearted Kiana.

But then he remembered that Kiana had come to deal with the Evil God, and the fear that made him instinctively want to back down, afraid of implicating others, and afraid of seeing his loved ones become sacrifices again, dissipated considerably.

Although she and Kiana only met today, they share the same goal.

Destroy that Evil God!

We share the same ideals and goals... how can you say we don't?

"Of course it counts!"

As she said those words, Yae Sakura found herself feeling much lighter.

"That's more like it. Let's go. The statue of the deity is up there. If we walk around, will that Kishin know we're going to deal with it?"

"It won't care."

Yae Sakura shook her head and led the way out of the basement and up the stairs. "It's arrogant, treating everyone like food, like ants."

They sound like they'd be easy to deal with.

Kiana chatted with her about the Kishin. Yae Sakura, who lived at the shrine, was the person who had the most contact with the Kishin besides the shrine's Shrine Master.

As Kiana listened to Yae Sakura's explanation, she began to form a general idea of the Kishin in Yae Village.

They walked and talked for a while before heading back.

The next morning.

Kiana formally taught Yae Sakura the techniques of using the Frost Blade, explaining to her the fighting style of Yae Sakura that she knew.

She picked it up very quickly.

It's like we've trained like this countless times.

As time went by, the scales in her heart slowly tipped towards the side where this was the Yae Sakura she knew.

And so, she observed Yae Sakura from her side, and three days passed in the Stigmata world.

On the third day, the Shrine Master of Yae Shrine finally returned, bringing with him, as usual, a decree from the Evil God to conduct a new ritual.

This time, Yae Sakura no longer held back.

Holding the Frost Blade, she stood at the entrance of the shrine, looking at the man she called father, her eyes filled with only a chilling indifference.

She had waited too long for this day.

"Sakura, are you going to betray the gods?"

Her father, the shrine's Shrine Master, was kneeling before the statue of the deity, praying devoutly, before Yae Sakura arrived.

Until Yae Sakura appeared.

He had just finished praying when he coldly stood up, turned around, and looked at his daughter, who had grown into a young woman.

It is not God.

Yae Sakura thought she could control it, but after the truth was revealed, she found that she couldn't control it at all.

His eyes were filled with deep hatred.

The Evil God was someone she had to kill, but she hated this man even more than the Evil God.

Because the man in front of her was once a person, her mother's husband, and also her and Rin's biological father.

"And you, my father, are beyond redemption; even hell would reject your rotten, foul soul."