"Boom!"
A streak of dark blue light tore through the night like furious thunder. In Takanashi Rokuno's hands, the three-hundred-jin Shura Greatblade became a storm of pure destruction. The cage of densely packed earth and stone, supposedly indestructible, which even a Nichirin Blade could not leave so much as a white scratch on, was like fragile, thin ice beneath that slash!
Amid deafening cracks, dust and rubble exploded into the air like a torrential downpour. Without the slightest pause, Rokuya shot like an arrow from a bow into the center of the dust that had yet to fully disperse.
"Kanae!"
Rokuya swept that slender figure into his arms. Beneath his touch, she was wet and bone-chillingly cold. Kanae's eyes were tightly shut, her once-rosy lips now bloodless. Huge patches of dark red blood stained her beautiful butterfly haori, a shocking sight. She had fallen completely unconscious. Had Rokuya not arrived in time, the contracting earthen cage would have needed only a few more seconds to crush this gentle girl, along with her Nichirin Blade, into a bloody pulp.
Rokuya's gaze instantly darkened to the extreme, and barely containable fury churned wildly in his chest. He sheltered Kanae in one arm while his other hand gripped the Shura Greatblade's hilt tightly. The silvery-blue magical light flowing along the blade like breathing now flickered violently in response to its master's anger, giving off a heart-quaking hum.
System, check her vital signs, Rokuya ordered coldly in his mind.
There were no fatal injuries. Severe oxygen deprivation and immense external pressure had merely left her deeply unconscious, compounded by excessive blood loss. Rokuya relaxed slightly, but the killing intent in his eyes only intensified.
He whipped his head around, looking for Rokuro while also trying to confirm Guan Tinglingzi's location-just moments earlier, he had