A Person in Izumo, Making Honkai Great Again

"Kiana!"

Mei's eyes went wide as she reached out a hand, but before she could stop her, Kiana moved so fast that only a blur remained.

Was the blade limiting Kiana's performance?

Without time to wonder why Kiana's strength had surged again, Raiden Mei gripped her sword and followed Kiana as she charged into the pile of rubble.

The Octopus Demon wasn't among the stronger class of demons. The main reason it had survived this long was its sheer cowardice.

It drifted along with rivers, like the legendary water ghosts and evil gods, dragging humans near the waterways into the depths to devour them.

That was a thousand years ago, back when Takama-ga-hara first descended and clashed with this world's resistance forces.

Low-level demons had limited thinking ability, but it still remembered the swordsman who had once cleaved it in two, nearly ending its life on the spot.

Over the years, it had hidden carefully, only daring to show itself today because it sensed that all the demon-slaying swordsmen had withdrawn, and it detected Mikazuchi's presence in this area.

Its octopus legs flailed wildly, countless tentacles sprouting from beneath its head like a nightmarish mass of writhing, soft limbs.

It wanted to flee back into the river.

"Trying to run now? Too late!"

Kiana boldly grabbed one of its retreating tentacles, yanking with all her strength to pin the Octopus Demon in place.

"Get back here!!!"

With full force, she hoisted the demon—roughly the size of a van, with over a dozen tentacles—and slammed it into the ground with a suplex.

Mei arrived just in time to see Kiana gripping the demon and delivering a devastating suplex.

Kiana...

No, this wasn't the time to overthink.

The Octopus Demon was stunned by the throw. Its several pairs of blood-red eyes, usually filled with nothing but bloodlust, now showed a hint of bewilderment.

Was this the strength a human should have?

No, it had to run!

The tables had turned. The Octopus Demon had no desire to fight; it turned and fled quickly.

But what greeted it was a fist falling from the sky, like a chunk of steel, smashing it deep into the ground.

Its tentacles lashed out wildly, not even caring about its own body, ruthlessly striking toward Kiana.

The blows landed with a dull thud on the ground, but the sound was much sharper when they hit its own body.

But hitting Kiana wasn't that easy. When she couldn't dodge, she simply grabbed the incoming tentacle, yanked the Octopus Demon up, and slammed it viciously against the ground on both sides.

"Jumping out to scare people, huh? Still want to eat people? Today I'm gonna taste your tentacles and see if they're any different from the ones sold outside!"

It was a scene of excessive violence.

It was hard to tell who was the real demon here.

Kiana didn't even need to use the 'Phase Shift' skill. Just her Honkai energy-enhanced physical strength was enough to beat this octopus senseless.

The Octopus Demon looked terrifying, but aside from its incredible regeneration, its speed and strength weren't even particularly impressive compared to Kiana before she was enhanced by Honkai energy. It was just taking a beating, losing limbs left and right.

The problem was its regeneration was too strong, and she didn't know how to counter it, so she couldn't finish it off!

It was the same now.

This demon was being tossed around like a sandbag by Kiana, its tentacles and other body parts suffering varying degrees of damage.

But when it hit the ground and got hurt, by the time she picked it up and slammed it again, its body had already healed. Its recovery speed was terrifying.

After a dozen rounds, Kiana got angry. How long was this going to drag on?

"Demon power, huh? Corrosion, huh? Go ahead and try corroding Honkai energy!"

The world's Honkai Energy Concentration was less than 5%.

But Kiana wasn't an ordinary person. She grabbed the demon's head and, without any instruction, released her own Honkai energy.

The demon, which had nearly given up struggling and resigned itself to being a sandbag, reacted violently the moment it touched the Honkai energy.

Its entire body convulsed grotesquely, as if hit by a high-voltage electric current.

A scream beyond description escaped its mouth.

Kiana was startled and threw it aside, watching warily as the demon she had injected with Honkai energy writhed on the ground.

Its tentacles tried to attack Kiana, but she tore them apart with brute force.

Strange patterns appeared on its surface—marks left by Honkai energy corrosion.

Its aura surged. Just as Kiana thought, Oh no, I might have overdone it and turned this thing into a Honkai Beast, the demon's body began to melt like butter in heat, dissolving into black sludge.

Slowly, the demon stopped struggling. Its body melted faster and faster, and in about a minute, it would be completely gone.

Was it dead?

She was about to breathe a sigh of relief and look at Mei when she heard the sound of Mei's blade being drawn again.

What now?

She quickly turned around with concern, and saw a tentacle less than a meter long sprouting new tendrils, severed cleanly by Raiden Mei using Hokushin Itto-ryu.

A slightly crisp sound.

Like striking glass?

The tentacle Mei cut fell to the ground and began to vaporize, turning into a strange black-red gas. Not just that one tentacle—the hundreds of tentacles densely covering the ground, and even the Kishin's body, which Kiana had eroded with Honkai energy until it melted like butter into black water, all began to boil at that sharp sound.

Like water bubbling over a fire, then rapidly vaporizing. The black-red gas was drawn by some force, converging toward the blade in Mei's hand.

Chapter 14: Cursed Sword (Fifth Update!)

Raiden Mei frowned.

Strange energy coiled around the blade. Without hesitation, she thrust the sword into the earth before her and stepped back two paces.

Kiana was still here.

Better to keep some distance from this unknown danger.

"Kiana, are you alright?"

She walked over to Kiana with concern, wanting to check her condition.

Kiana shook her head. "I feel pretty good, but what's going on?"

She'd never seen anything like this.

Was Izumo's sword-forging really just about slaying a Kishin, and then the sword would take its power?

No other steps needed?

"I didn't notice before. These monsters actually have a weakness—there should be some kind of core inside them. If you break it, you can kill them."

Mei made her post-battle summary.

If they ran into similar creatures again, they wouldn't have to get stuck in a stalemate.

But finding the core was still something that took combat experience.

Kiana nodded thoughtfully.

These Kishin of Takama-ga-hara were pretty strange. Were they really born from nature?

"Not very intelligent, but cunning," Raiden Mei added.

She watched the blade, which was changing as the black-red power seeped into it, and frowned. "When it realized it couldn't beat me, it split off a child body from itself and tried to escape toward the river."

But she'd been watching the situation closely and caught it.

A Kishin like this was probably among the lowest ranks of the Eight Million Gods.

"Good thing you were here, Mei. Otherwise, I'd have let it get away."

With the fight over, Kiana had the mind to ask why Mei was here.

"But Mei, how come you're here?"

Mei, who had been staring at the transforming blade and pondering the connection between the Kishin and the sword, was startled.

She looked at Kiana, her voice softening. "Sorry, I was actually following you the whole time."

"I see." Kiana scratched her head. "I didn't want to trouble you into coming all this way, but it looks like I made things worse."

Raiden Mei breathed a sigh of relief inside and shook her head. "I don't think it's a bother."

If she hadn't followed Kiana, she wouldn't have known Kiana would run into something so dangerous.

If Kiana had been hurt, or...

She was a little glad she'd come along.

"But Mei, why are you carrying a sword?"

Kiana noticed that the strange energy around them had all been absorbed by the blade Mei had brought from the Shrine. She walked over and picked up the katana, whose blade now seemed wrapped in resentment, looking like it had become a cursed sword.

Holding it gave a cold sensation—an unease that struck straight at the soul and spirit.

This sword could give back to its user, healing their injuries, but while it healed, it also corroded.

How did Kiana know?

Because the moment she picked it up, a message box appeared before her eyes.

code
[Cursed Sword (C): A shoddy blade increases the cost of using it. Each swing, each use of its power, inflicts double the erosion effect on the user.

Special Effects: Broken Blade Rebirth (When the blade breaks, it consumes life force to instantly restore itself), Life Drain (When killing a creature, it plunders the creature's life force and stores it in the core; life force can be consumed to heal the user's injuries)]

Below the info was a suggestion.

code
[Suggestion: Recycle and dismantle]

"So that octopus couldn't really regenerate forever, huh." To regrow a hundred legs at once—how many people had that thing eaten?

Kiana thrust the sword back into the ground.

Mei was still searching for a good excuse for carrying the sword, but hearing Kiana's muttering, she turned her attention back to the blade.

"Did you find something?"

"After killing that Octopus Demon, this blade turned into a Cursed Sword." Kiana reached out and pressed down on Mei's hand as she went to draw the sword, warning, "This sword has some serious side effects."

"A Cursed Sword?"

As someone who practiced the way of the blade, Mei still wanted to see what made this sword—which Kiana called a 'Cursed Sword'—so different.

"Don't worry."

Patting Kiana to show she was fine, Raiden Mei walked over to the Cursed Sword, reached out, grasped its hilt, and pulled the blade free once more.

Holding the sword, a dual discomfort came from both body and mind, yet she also sensed something different about this blade.

It could heal its wielder.

"So this is a Cursed Sword?"

Raiden Mei looked toward the direction where thunder had rumbled during the day. After cutting down that being called Takemikazuchi, would the 'Narukami' enshrined in the Shrine become like this too?

Kiana watched Mei nervously. The moment Mei showed any intention of trying out the Cursed Sword's abilities, she would snatch the blade away: "Don't use it recklessly. Its erosion on the human body is severe, and its attached effects aren't worth it either."

It could only heal itself, not others, and when healing itself, it doubled the erosion.

What kind of heal was this?

This was a poisoned heal—using it meant your life wouldn't be saved, and you'd directly be eroded into a demon.

"Don't worry, Kiana. I won't use this Cursed Sword." Mei saw her concern and gave a helpless smile.

"That's good..."

Kiana breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as Mei didn't do anything stupid.

They retrieved the scabbard, slid the Cursed Sword back into it, and still needed to think carefully about how to deal with it.

At least after the demon died, its body vanished directly, becoming nourishment for the blade. Otherwise, with a body that big—inedible and sanity-draining just to look at—it would have been a real hassle to handle.