Different Changes; and the Late Arrival

Is it over...

As he watched Spider Lilies bloom, spreading like a blood-red carpet across every inch of the temple courtyard in an instant, like Naraku's eternal flames blazing over the scorched earth of hell, guarding the Horse-Headed Demon at the center, Gu Mo experienced firsthand the shock of facing the powerful Lord of Perpetual Darkness at such close range. A thought flashed through his mind.

This was the final part of the Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village scenario. Once this Horse-Headed Demon was eliminated, the first beginner village in the game would be cleared.

So... he should be able to go back, right?

He instinctively held his breath as he watched the black-haired girl nimbly charge forward with her blade. The horse-headed monster, comparable to the Ox-Head Demon from before and as huge as a small mountain, let out a long neigh and swung its serrated greatsword—a spiked iron club blade likewise comparable to the Ox-Head Demon's—viciously across the courtyard.

There were no fancy tricks to it. Its attack range was simply enormous, and its power overwhelmingly fierce—

It was not a forty-meter blade, but the serrated greatsword was still over ten meters long in total. That was the height of a four- or five-story building.

Wielded and swung by a yokai as massive as the Horse-Headed Demon, such a serrated greatsword's sweeping strike was simply unstoppable, capable of mowing down an entire army! Even Hidechiyo had no desire to take a hit head-on, because it would definitely hurt like hell...

Even Gu Mo, standing at the gateway, could not help narrowing his eyes. The gale rushing at him was like a blade, cutting painfully across his face. Though he was standing so far away and nowhere near it, he still felt as though that serrated greatsword had swept past right in front of him, grazing the tip of his nose!

If he had stood any closer, the airflow and wind pressure it kicked up might have sliced him cleanly in half at the waist!

Through the shrieking wind, he squinted and vaguely saw that beautiful head of black hair flying wildly. The girl's figure was as swift as a swallow. Not only did the Horse-Headed Demon's sweeping attack fail to hit her, but at the exact moment it swept past, she had already leaped into the air.

As she avoided that heavy horizontal slash, powerful enough to split mountains and shatter stone monuments, the tips of her feet lightly tapped the serrated greatsword sweeping beneath her—

Borrowing its force to leap high into the air, she spun gracefully through the sky, tracing an elegant yet deadly arc above the Horse-Headed Demon's head. She finally landed behind the yokai, bending her knees slightly to absorb the impact and dropping to one knee as lightly as though she weighed nothing. The sword in her hand had already been sheathed.

Then, as though the image had lagged behind, dazzling, chaotic crescent-shaped arcs of light burst above the Horse-Headed Demon's forehead. The trails of the slashes tore through the air, shattering and intertwining... After a brief frozen instant, the pair of Demon Horns jutting into the sky from its brow exploded into fragments amid the tangled lines of slashes!

Specks of golden brilliance like ripened rice ears sparkled. A large amount of dense essence had only just surged out from the shattered Demon Horns before the gale scattered it all at once.

With a wail, the vicious Horse-Headed Demon, its resentment surging wildly, had its legs give way. Its entire mountain-like body crashed heavily to the ground, sending dust flying everywhere.

The bloody glow in its scarlet eyes was no longer blazing. It dimmed in an instant. Unable to hold its serrated greatsword any longer, it dropped it heavily to the ground, making the surrounding earth tremble slightly.

It was exactly the same process. There was nothing novel about it—

But precisely because of that, one could see just how solid the girl's fundamentals had become through slaughtering these yokai. Even against a Lord of Perpetual Darkness that ordinary people could never contend with, she could make the battle feel like an assembly-line operation.

Gu Mo was quietly amazed. Her clean, decisive fighting style was filled with sharp efficiency. Though it was not the first time he had seen it, it still left him dazzled.

It felt different from seeing her kill Ape Fiends and yokai in a single strike. Those scenes had looked powerful too, but they could not compare to the shock and impact of seeing a tiny human kill a gigantic monster like the Ox-Head Demon or Horse-Headed Demon in the same one-hit manner.

Yet at the very moment he was marveling, a flash of purple light erupted within the nearly black-and-white world of Perpetual Darkness. It was not dazzling, but it was absolutely impossible to miss!

Countless phantom-like purple flying blades shot into the sky, like a dense, massive school of fish swiftly swimming through the sea. They surged through the air, abruptly turned, and then innumerable phantom blades rained down. In an instant, the earth shook and the mountains seemed to collapse!

Dust billowed up, filling the surroundings and obscuring his vision.

Gu Mo instinctively retreated several steps, raising a hand to shield himself from the wind pressure and dust blowing into his face. Even so, he felt sand nearly get into his eyes, making it impossible to keep them open.

When the dust gradually settled, a horrific sight came into view. The entire temple courtyard had become a river of blood. The Horse-Headed Demon's enormous corpse had been pierced like a sieve by phantom blades that seemed both real and unreal, glowing with flowing purple light. It had been nailed completely to the ground, with no trace of life remaining.

The ground was devastated, and the corpse was riddled with holes. Scalding yokai blood gushed from those savage, horrifying bloody cavities like an endless fountain, splashing outward and dyeing the courtyard floor all around a sinister crimson!

At first glance, it looked like a sea of scarlet blood...

With the Horse-Headed Demon's death, the world of Perpetual Darkness faded as well. But the terrifying blood-red scene replaced the blooming and falling Spider Lilies. Under some dreadful pressure, cold sweat immediately broke out on Gu Mo's forehead. He felt a weight even more oppressive than Perpetual Darkness itself.

It was like facing an apex predator. The pressure from the top of the food chain made even his soul tremble. It had nothing to do with courage or willpower; it was simply how the world worked—just as ice would only evaporate and melt in high heat, and would not produce a different result because that piece of ice was "strong-willed" or "exceptionally brave."

His chest felt tight, and he could barely breathe. His mind knew exactly what was happening, and reason kept warning him not to be afraid, not to be afraid, yet his nerve cells kept producing fear under the combined effects of instinct and hormones...

Gu Mo panted faintly, his gaze fixed tightly on that strange yet beautiful figure.

She floated in midair, the tips of her feet about half a meter above the ground. Her silver hair cascaded loosely down her back, disordered yet possessing a distinctive air of elegant nobility. Her exquisite golden horns shone with the full glow of a golden full moon, while trails of hazy purple light circled her like dancing fireflies...

—Yokai Transformation...

—Phantom Form...

Gu Mo recognized it instantly, and his heart trembled with fear. Axiu had still undergone Yokai Transformation, just as in the story. As for whether it was due to the inertia of fate or some other reason, he truly had no idea.

The information provided by the game was actually very limited, and the story spanned an especially long time. There might be years between two quests. Thus, many questions had never been explained. At least, he had never fully understood everything, so he could not figure out what exactly was happening now.

Why had she still transformed into a yokai? She had seemingly never been injured from start to finish, and she had dealt with the Horse-Headed Demon as cleanly and decisively as she had dealt with the Ox-Head Demon before.

Gu Mo's mind was a mess. He had many guesses, but none he could confirm. And at this moment, he instinctively did not dare make any movement.

Because, amid an eerie silence that seemed to have frozen the air itself, the transformed figure turned cold eyes toward him. Purple yokai markings had appeared on her cheeks at some point, along with a horn-like layer extending downward from the two horns on her head, covering the right half of her face like a natural mask.

Noble, mysterious...

He could vaguely still make out the contours of the black-haired girl's former face, so she was not completely unrecognizable.

At that instant, time itself seemed to freeze.

Several more breaths passed without anything happening. Gu Mo stared fixedly at the strange and beautiful figure, desperately forcing himself to calm down. He realized that the girl in Yokai Transformation seemed to be struggling to suppress something—

Although she remained motionless in the air and had made no movement since killing the Horse-Headed Demon, her body had been trembling slightly the entire time.

Violence...

Chaos...

Her restless, violent instincts and her kind, rational nature were battling each other inside her body. She was trying to reclaim her own will, but the process was extraordinarily difficult. Her struggle was agonizing, and she could feel her consciousness being swallowed bit by bit beneath raging winds and waves.

Leave... leave...

Get far away from here...

While I can still barely hold it back, get away from me...

The phantom yokai desperately suppressed the violence that was nearly consuming her. Her body trembled, yet she did not move. She only stared fixedly at the person by the courtyard gate, praying that he would understand what she meant—or at least be frightened enough to run far away.

She truly could not hold on much longer. At any moment, she would become an Evil Spirit without reason!

However—

"Hold on, Axiu. I might have a way..."

The person opposite her took a deep breath, pulled a spirit stone from his pocket that glimmered with faint golden essence like ripened rice ears, and gritted his teeth as he quickly walked toward her.

He should turn around and run now, ignoring everything. This scenario should count as cleared already. As long as he returned the way he had come, experience suggested that he could leave this place and return to the residential complex in the real world... carrying all the experience, levels, and loot he had picked up along the way.

That was the choice that would maximize his gains. The Dungeon had already been cleared, so there was no need to take one last risk. In any case, the girl's value to him was no longer as great as it had been before. And although she seemed to regard him somewhat differently, she did not know who he was...

To her, he was a stranger. So he had never been obligated to do anything...

At that moment, countless thoughts flashed through Gu Mo's mind before finally converging into one sentence that echoed repeatedly within him.

The Dungeon is already cleared... The Dungeon is already cleared...

He told himself that he ought to be selfish now. Clearing the Dungeon was enough. Whatever happened afterward was no longer his concern, and it could not affect him anyway. There was no need to care so much.

But... he could not do it.

Perhaps he was not noble, but he had his own bottom line. At the very least, he did not want to become the kind of person he despised. Rather than leave himself with an unbearable knot in his heart afterward, constantly regretting and questioning himself, he might as well make the choice that would let his conscience rest easy now.

With that thought—

Though his heart pounded madly and the terrifying, almost tangible pressure bore down on him until he could barely breathe... his mind instead became completely clear, and his heart was filled with tranquil peace. He felt an unprecedented sense of freedom.

Step by step, he pushed through the pressure. Under the phantom yokai's cold stare, he walked toward her as quickly as he could, his face pale but showing little fear.

When he reached the strange yet beautiful figure, Gu Mo held the palm-sized spirit stone in his hand and tentatively offered it to the transformed Hidechiyo. In the story he knew, Tokichiro had used the power of a spirit stone to save Hidechiyo just as she was about to fall into her yokai side.

The spirit stone worked, but how was he supposed to use it?

Getting close should be enough, right? Then why was there no reaction?

Gu Mo was frantic. He decisively focused his attention and selected "Use" on the spirit stone in his hand. In the next instant, the stone shattered, and pure essence seeped into his skin from his hand like water, then seemed to evaporate into the air as it was absorbed.

His heavy body immediately felt much lighter, his stamina recovered somewhat, and his mind became cool and clear...

The effect was immediate, but this was not the effect he wanted! It was not supposed to be used on himself, damn it! How was he supposed to use this on someone else? Was there not even an interaction option for him to choose?

He clenched his teeth and tried to keep his voice calm. "D-Don't worry. I still have two more. It'll be fine..."

The phantom yokai floating before him looked down at him with exceptionally cold eyes. Terrifying, sharp ripples of killing intent and bloodthirsty light kept shifting within her gaze. Yet her body trembled more and more violently, while she still made no move at all.

Beneath that calm exterior, enormous turmoil was being suppressed!

The second spirit stone remained firmly in Gu Mo's hand, completely unchanged. This made him even more anxious. Could it be that because of his interference, Hidechiyo in this world was truly going to become a yokai?

After all, if he had not barged in and disrupted things, then after she cleared out Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village at her own pace, defeated the Horse-Headed Demon, and fell into Yokai Transformation, Tokichiro should have arrived at just the right moment, shouldn't he? But now... Monkey had not come yet.

At the thought of that terrifying possibility, Gu Mo clenched the fist of his other hand so tightly that his nails nearly drew blood.

But at that moment, the floating phantom yokai suddenly fell to the ground. As though she had lost all strength at once, she braced herself with both hands. The purple phantom light flowing over her trembling body gradually faded, and her long silver hair, hanging loose around her, lost its bright sheen and returned to its original black.

The black-haired girl, restored to her original appearance, let out a long breath and looked up at him. She had only just managed a weak smile of relief when her head tilted to one side and her entire body collapsed to the ground.

The spirit stone worked...?

Gu Mo froze for a moment, but seeing that the spirit stone in his hand had not reacted at all, he immediately rejected that possibility. In that case, Axiu had not relied on any external help. She had completed this self-rescue entirely through her own will?

He crouched down and lifted the girl's body. After checking her over, he found that she had merely fainted and was still breathing steadily. Only then did he let out a breath of relief.

"Yo, I came late—"

At that moment, a greeting came from the main gate behind him.

A middle-aged man with somewhat crafty-looking brows and eyes appeared there. Seeing the hellish scene inside, where blood flowed like a river, he was startled senseless. He looked closely and saw a young man kneeling on one knee, supporting an unconscious girl.

"You... you are the famous yokai exterminators?" The man looked confused as he opened his mouth. "I thought there was only one of you. Did you come here overnight?"

"..."

"..."

"Yes, I... we both came to this village last night."

Gu Mo glanced at the black-haired girl, who was still unconscious. After a moment of silence, he tugged at the corner of his mouth and answered carefully.