Demon Blade (Fifth Update!)

"Kiana!"

Mei, dumbfounded, had just reached out her hand and had not yet had time to stop her when Kiana moved so fast that all Mei could see was an afterimage.

Had the sword been limiting Kiana's performance?

With no time to worry about how Kiana's strength had increased again, Raiden Mei followed her into the pile of rubble with her sword in hand.

The Octopus Demon was not one of the stronger Kishin. The main reason it had survived until now was that it had been cautious enough.

It drifted along with the river, like the water ghosts and Evil Gods of legend, dragging nearby humans into the river and devouring them wherever it went.

A thousand years ago, when Takama-ga-hara had just descended, it had fought against this world's forces of resistance.

The thoughts of a low-level Kishin were limited, but it still remembered the swordsman who had cleaved it in half and nearly killed it on the spot with a single strike.

It had hidden carefully all these years. Only today, after sensing that all the swordsmen who hunted Kishin had withdrawn and detecting Mikazuchi in the area, had it grown bolder.

The octopus's legs thrashed wildly. The tentacles growing from beneath its head looked like countless horrifying, soft legs.

It wanted to escape back into the river.

"Trying to run now? Too late!"

Kiana fearlessly grabbed one of the octopus's legs as it tried to retract and flee. With a powerful pull of her arm, she yanked the Octopus Demon to a halt.

"Get back here!!!"

Using all her strength, she threw the fairly large Kishin—about the size of a minivan, with more than a dozen octopus legs—over her shoulder.

Mei arrived just in time to see Kiana grab the Kishin and give it a devastating shoulder throw.

Kiana...

No, this was not the time to think about that.

The Octopus Demon was dazed by the throw. Aside from their bloodlust, several pairs of scarlet eyes even showed a trace of confusion.

Did humans really possess this kind of strength?

No, it had to run!

The balance of power had shifted. The Octopus Demon had no desire to fight and turned to flee at full speed.

But what greeted it was a fist descending from the sky like iron, smashing it hard into the ground.

The octopus tentacles lashed out without any pattern, not even caring if they struck their own body, and ruthlessly whipped toward Kiana.

The impacts against the ground sounded dull, while the strikes against its own body were much crisper.

But hitting Kiana was not that easy. Whenever she could not dodge, she simply grabbed the incoming tentacle, then hauled up the Octopus Demon and smashed it violently from side to side.

"Who told you to jump out and scare people? You still want to eat humans, huh? Today I'm going to see how your octopus legs taste compared to the ones sold outside!"

It was an excessively violent scene.

For a moment, it was impossible to tell which one was the Kishin.

Kiana did not even need to use Phase Shift. With nothing but the physical abilities enhanced by Honkai energy, she could beat the octopus so badly it no longer knew which way was up.

The Octopus Demon looked frightening, but aside from its astonishing regenerative ability, its speed and strength were not particularly impressive—not even compared to Kiana before she had been enhanced by Honkai energy. It could do nothing but take the beating and lose its legs.

Its regeneration was simply too powerful, and she did not know how to suppress it. That was why she had no way to deal with the creature!

It was the same now.

The Kishin was tossed around by Kiana like a punching bag, looking utterly wretched. Its tentacles and other body parts suffered varying degrees of damage.

Yet after being injured by the impact of hitting the ground, its body would recover completely by the time Kiana hauled it up and threw it again. Its recovery speed was terrifying.

After throwing it more than a dozen times, Kiana grew furious. How long was this going to continue?

"Kishin power, huh? Erosion, huh? If you've got the guts, try eroding Honkai!"

The world's Honkai Energy Concentration was less than five percent.

But Kiana was no ordinary person. She grabbed the Kishin by the head and, seemingly without instruction, released the Honkai energy within her body.

The Kishin had already realized that Kiana could not find a way to kill it. It was nearly ready to give up struggling and resign itself to being a punching bag. But the moment it came into contact with Honkai energy, its reaction became violently intense.

Its entire body began twitching grotesquely, as if it had been struck by high-voltage electricity.

An indescribable scream came from its mouth.

Kiana jumped and tossed it aside, warily watching the Kishin she had infused with Honkai energy.

The Kishin rolled about in agony on the ground. When its tentacles attacked Kiana again, she violently tore them apart.

Strange patterns appeared across its surface. They were traces left behind after being eroded by Honkai energy.

Its aura surged. Just as Kiana cursed inwardly, realizing she might have gone too far and turned the creature into a Honkai Beast, the Kishin's body began melting like butter exposed to heat, dissolving into black sludge.

Slowly, the Kishin stopped struggling. Its body melted faster and faster, and it would probably be completely dissolved within a minute.

Was it dead?

She had just begun to relax and turn toward Mei when she heard the sound of Mei's sword being drawn again.

What was wrong?

She hurriedly turned back in concern and saw a tentacle less than a meter long sprouting numerous new tendrils. Raiden Mei had cut it in half with Hokushin Itto-ryu.

There was a faintly crisp sound.

As if she had struck glass?

After the tentacle Mei had cut fell to the ground, it began to vaporize into strange black-red gas. It was not just that tentacle. The hundreds of densely packed tentacles on the ground, and even the Kishin's body—eroded by Kiana's Honkai energy and melted into black water like butter—all began boiling with that crisp sound.

It was like boiling water bubbling before rapidly vaporizing. The black-red gas was drawn by some force toward the sword in Mei's hand.

The Fourteenth Chapter: Cursed Sword (Fifth Update!)

Raiden Mei frowned slightly.

An eerie aura coiled around the blade. Without hesitation, she stabbed it into the ground in front of her, then took two steps back.

Kiana was still here.

It was better to stay farther away from this unknown danger.

"Kiana, are you all right?"

She walked over to Kiana worriedly, wanting to check her condition.

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

She had truly never seen anything like this.

The sword forged in Izumo—was it really supposed to slay Kishin and absorb their power?

Were no other steps needed?

"I didn't notice it before. This monster actually has a weakness. There should be some kind of core inside its body. As long as we destroy it, we can kill them."

Mei summarized the battle.

If they encountered similar creatures in the future, they would not get stuck in a stalemate with them during combat.

However, finding the location of the core was also a great test of combat experience.

Kiana nodded thoughtfully.

The Kishin of Takama-ga-hara were rather strange. Had they really been born from nature?

"Although its intelligence wasn't very high, it was quite cunning." Raiden Mei continued, "Once it realized it wasn't your match, it split off a child body from itself and tried to escape toward the river."

She had noticed it while keeping an eye on the situation.

A Kishin like that probably belonged to the lowest tier among the Eight Million Gods.

"Good thing I had Mei with me. Otherwise, I would've let it escape."

Now that the battle was over, Kiana finally had the leisure to ask Mei why she was here.

"But Mei, why are you here?"

Mei was staring at the sword as its appearance continued changing, pondering the connection between the Kishin and the blade. She froze.

She glanced at Kiana and said in a softer voice, "I'm sorry. I was actually following behind you the whole time."

"So that's how it was." Kiana scratched her head. "I didn't want to trouble you by making you come all this way, but it seems I caused you even more trouble."

Raiden Mei let out a sigh of relief and shook her head. "I don't think this is troublesome."

If she had not followed Kiana, she would not have discovered that Kiana had encountered such danger at this time.

If Kiana had been injured, or...

She was somewhat relieved that she had followed her.

"But Mei, why did you bring a sword?"

Seeing the strange aura around them being absorbed by the sword Mei had brought from the shrine, Kiana stepped forward and picked it up. Its blade seemed wrapped in resentment, and it looked as though it had already transformed into a Cursed Sword.

Holding it gave her a cold sensation, an unpleasant feeling that pierced straight into her soul and mind.

The sword could replenish its wielder and heal the wielder's injuries, but the healing process also caused erosion.

How did Kiana know?

Naturally, because an information window had appeared before her eyes the moment she picked up the sword.

[Cursed Sword (C): The inferior blade increases the price of using it. Every slash and every use of its power will inflict twice the normal erosion effect on its wielder.

Special Effects: Broken Blade Rebirth (when the blade breaks, it immediately restores itself by consuming vitality), Life Drain (when killing a living creature, it plunders and stores the creature's vitality in its core; the stored vitality can be consumed to heal the wielder's injuries)]

There was another suggestion below the information.

[Suggestion: Recycle and dismantle]

"So that octopus couldn't recover endlessly after all." To regrow more than a hundred legs in one go, just how many people had that thing eaten?

Kiana returned the sword to its sheath.

Mei was still trying to come up with a suitable explanation for carrying a sword with her. Hearing Kiana mutter to herself, she turned her gaze toward the blade again.

"Did you discover something?"

"After I killed that Octopus Demon, this sword turned into a Cursed Sword." Kiana reached out and pressed down on Mei's hand as she tried to draw it, warning her, "This sword has a very powerful side effect."

"A Cursed Sword?"

As someone who practiced swordsmanship, Mei still wanted to see what was different about the sword Kiana called a Cursed Sword.

"Don't worry."

Mei patted Kiana to show that she was fine, then walked over to the Cursed Sword, grasped its hilt, and drew it again.

The moment she held the sword, a double discomfort spread through both her body and mind. At the same time, she sensed what made the sword different.

It could heal its wielder.

"So this is a Cursed Sword?"

Raiden Mei looked toward the direction where the thunder had sounded during the day. If the Narukami enshrined at the shrine became like this after striking down the being known as Takemikazuchi, would it also...

Kiana watched Mei nervously. The moment Mei showed any intention of trying one of the Cursed Sword's skills, Kiana would snatch it away. "You can't use it recklessly. Its erosion of the human body is extremely severe, and its attached effects aren't very good either."

It could only heal itself, not others, and healing itself caused twice the normal erosion.

What kind of healing was that?

It was poisoned healing. Using it would not save your life—it would directly erode you into a ghost.

"Don't worry, Kiana. I won't use this Cursed Sword." Seeing her concern, Mei smiled helplessly.

"That's good..."

Kiana sighed in relief.

As long as Mei did not do anything reckless.

They retrieved the scabbard and returned the Cursed Sword to it. As for how to deal with it, they still needed to think it over carefully.

Fortunately, after a Kishin died, its body would directly disappear and become nourishment for the blade. Otherwise, such a huge body—inedible and clearly the kind of thing that would drive anyone who looked at it insane—would have been very difficult to dispose of.