I was ignored...
Seeing that Xia Xi neither retreated nor intended to acknowledge her, Kanae felt conflicted.
"The Twelve Kizuki? I can tell you..."
Before he finished speaking, the wooden hounds around them lunged forward.
"But only after I've eaten you!"
The demon did not risk attacking in person. Having nearly been beheaded just moments ago, he had grown more cautious.
I'll test him with the creations of my Blood Demon Art first.
The next second, several wooden hounds created by his Blood Demon Art sprang forward, yet Xia Xi showed no sign of preparing to defend himself.
This swordsman isn't running or attacking?
Has fear scared him witless?
Then, to his astonishment, the demon realized that his opponent had not failed to attack.
Rather, the right hand gripping his sword hilt...
Had vanished?
The vicious hounds lunging toward him were still in midair.
Sword light flashed.
Every wooden hound's head was severed at the very same instant.
No!
His hand hasn't vanished. This brat is drawing his sword too fast!
[Thunder Breathing]
[Sixth Form: Rumble and Flash]
It was so fast that even the gleam of the slashes failed to register in the demon's eyes.
Before the demon could react, every wooden hound created by his Blood Demon Art had been wiped out.
Watching from the sidelines, Kanae's eyes widened in disbelief.
She had always known Thunder Breathing was famed for its speed, but this swordsman's strikes were absurdly fast...
She reckoned that even her earlier strike, which had surpassed her usual abilities, fell far short of this.
He's so strong!
A Lower Rank swordsman, or even Middle Rank!
"Can we talk properly now?" The young swordsman rested his blade on his shoulder and tilted his head at the demon. "You're so weak. Stop wasting my time."
[Tanmu???] [Power level: 119 (body 73, technique 29, mind 17)] [Blood Demon Art: Mimetic Matter (iron)]
A month ago, this demon might have given Xia Xi a hard fight with the aid of his Blood Demon Art.
But now?
He was just another roadside mob.
An ordinary enemy who had barely been worth noticing in the previous version.
Physical attacks, no special mechanics, no elemental effects.
And his stats could not keep up with the current version's power level.
Had his mention of the Twelve Kizuki not piqued Xia Xi's interest, Xia Xi would have killed him the instant the fight began.
Faced with Xia Xi's utter disregard for him.
Tanmu fell silent for a moment.
Then his veins bulged, and he roared as he lunged at Xia Xi, metallic gleams rippling over his body.
What does it matter how fast you slash?
My body is as hard as steel!
That female swordsman only stabbed me because I let my guard down. I won't hold back now.
If I unleash my Blood Demon Art at full power, my body is even harder than your Nichirin Blades!
He hurled himself at the boy, each step sending dirt flying.
Naturally, Xia Xi saw through his plan.
Relying on your muscles, are you?
But with nothing more than a body cursed into demonhood and balloon muscles inflated by a Blood Demon Art...
How could you match my swordsmanship, honed through countless trials?
[Thunder Breathing, Second Form: Rice Spirit]
The blade flared, and lightning burst into five intersecting arcs.
They struck the demon's limbs head-on.
The next second, black blood sprayed everywhere. All four of Tanmu's limbs were severed, and he tumbled pathetically to the ground.
"W-what happened?!"
The demon shrieked, "How could my perfect body, as strong as steel, be cut apart?!"
So he turns his body into metal?
No wonder there was some resistance when I cut him just now...
The sensation went from slicing through butter to chopping through a layer of hard, brittle wafer.
Xia Xi flicked his Nichirin Blade, shaking off a few drops of foul blood.
"Steel is merely the starting point of the Swordmaster Realm."
Spouting nonsense, Xia Xi strolled up to the demon and lifted his chin with the tip of his sword.
He felt that the scene deserved a line of poetry to give it a touch of elegance.
"As the saying goes, hmm... without shadow or form, pure steel cleaves iron and severs nails."
He had forgotten the first line, and the second too, but getting the gist across was enough.
In short, his sword could cut through steel.
Tanmu was in no mood to listen to poetry.
He desperately urged his limbs to regenerate and tried to rise, but the moment slender buds of muscle emerged, sword light fell again.
His newly grown limbs were severed once more, with no time to recover.
Still more blood spilled.
Agony washed over his consciousness like a tide, leaving him almost unable to think.
"I ask. You answer."
Who am I... where am I... why is this brat so strong?
Tanmu gazed at the starry sky, his consciousness still drifting somewhere beyond the world.
Seeing how stubbornly defiant his opponent was.
Xia Xi sighed. "You monsters don't feel pain. That really is convenient."
"Being stubborn is one thing, but refusing to say a single word even after losing your arms and legs? That backbone... you're a real man."
Tanmu's eyes shifted slightly, focusing emptily on Xia Xi's face.
What did this brat just say?
"Since you'd rather die than yield, I won't waste any more time."
"Don't be a red-name mob in your next life."
Tanmu: ???
Wait, when was I being stubborn? When did I choose death over surrender?! Just ask me again!
[Thunder Breathing, First Form: Thunderclap...]
Never mind. No need to use an ultimate move to finish off a demon with barely any health left.
The gathering lightning abruptly dispersed, and Xia Xi raised his Nichirin Blade.
The demon was still struggling to escape.
But he was far too slow.
To Xia Xi, the world seemed frozen. He took in both the fear on the demon's face and the astonishment on the girl's beside him.
One step forward.
The blade descended, trailing sparks of electricity.
[Proficiency +253] [Thunder Breathing] LV.3 (620/2000)
I... am going to die?!
No! No! No!
Shock first crossed the demon's face, then gave way to fear and rage.
He struggled to rise, but because Xia Xi had severed
his limbs, he could only roll on the ground, spilling ever more blood.
But a beheaded demon was like a fish dropped into a desert.
No matter how desperately he struggled, death was inevitable.
His body began to crack and scatter...
Even his iron-hard body crumbled inch by inch like a weathered sandcastle.
I don't want to die, Brother!
Brother?
Like a pebble long submerged in a deep pool, it suddenly stirred spreading ripples.
Into Tanmu's fading consciousness, images buried beneath blood and the passage of years slowly began to surface...
It was as though memories sealed away beneath dust had suddenly been opened again.
There was a warm workshop, wood shavings flying through the air, filled with the familiar fragrance of pine.
His younger self leaned over the workbench, his nose almost touching the wood as he carved a bird figurine he loved...
And his brother leaned against the doorframe, a gentle smile on his face.
"You know, if you keep leaning in that close, you'll ruin your eyes."
As a human, he had been raised entirely by his brother.
His brother's home had been his whole world.
He could have lived out a peaceful life that way, carving wood with his knife under his brother's care.
Until the day his brother fell gravely ill and lay at death's door.
Every medicine proved useless.
He knelt beside his brother's bed, carving a bird to pray for his recovery, his tears staining the wooden figure dark brown.
"Someone... please save him..."
That was when the shadow descended.
That devil dripped a red medicinal liquid, like hellfire, into his brother's mouth.
But it brought no miracle.
Instead, it dragged him into an abyss of regret.
His brother mutated in excruciating agony and slaughtered every loved one present.
His wife, his close friend.
Tanmu tried to stop him, but his brother knocked him down effortlessly.
Then the devil's corrupt blood was forced down his throat as well.
"Make good use of this [talent]."
His human memories ended abruptly.
All that remained were long, twisted years of darkness, so vile that merely recalling them made him want to vomit.
He had killed his niece when she returned home.
He had devoured the master who taught him to carve.
And countless innocent people whose names he did not even know...
I really... deserve to go to hell.
Damn it! Damn it!
If only I hadn't summoned that devil back then!
Tears of pain and regret gathered in his eyes.
In the hazy light and shadow between life and death, Tanmu seemed to see a quiet, winding river.
On the far bank, red spider lilies swayed gently.
Among the shadows of the flowers.
He seemed to see his master and his old friends.
They said nothing, only gazed at him quietly, before finally shaking their heads with a sigh.
Yet their silence still pierced his fragile heart.
His tears burst forth.
"...s-sorry..."
[Tanmu???] → [Tanmu (Akabane Jiro)]
"The bird... brought misfortune... I'm sorry..."
Before his gradually blurring eyes, the swaying sea of spider lilies slowly faded.
It revealed Kanae Kocho, standing before his head, leaning on her Nichirin Blade.
Though she had no idea what he had been thinking as he lay dying, he had cried. This demon, at the very end of his life...
Had looked so terribly sad.
Kanae gripped the hilt tightly, her emotions tangled.
She hated him for every crime he had committed as a demon, but the pain and tears that had spilled out as he faded away, almost overflowing...
She could not simply ignore them.
Before they had fallen and become demons, perhaps these demons had been no more than ordinary people among the countless masses.
They had not been born villains.
But once they were tainted by the Demon King's blood...
Their wills could only be twisted by him, controlled and corrupted by him... until they became monsters lurking in the dark.
So far, there had not been a single exception.
She tightened her grip on her Nichirin Blade.
Kanae felt an even deeper loathing for that lord of demons she had never met, the source of all this evil.
At last, she let out a long breath and steadied her emotions.
I still need to go help Kojiro.
Turning back, the girl bowed to Xia Xi and said, "Thank you for coming to my aid in a moment of danger, sir. But the situation right now is dire-"
Then she noticed Xia Xi's faraway expression.
Kanae: ?
Is he... spacing out?
Before you continue