At those words, more than a hundred villagers burst into tears of relief at having survived. They dropped to their knees and kowtowed heavily toward Rokuya.
Carrying Kanae, Rokuya walked at the front. The villagers supported one another, following silently behind him.
No one paid any attention to Reiko. The villagers did not know who that woman was. They knew only that this boy had saved them.
The group slowly climbed up the steep underground fissure Rokuro had opened.
Half an hour later.
When the last villager stumbled out onto the surface and saw the faint light again-dim though it was, it heralded morning in the human world-stifled sobs erupted from the crowd once more.
Rokuya was the last to emerge from the underground fissure.
Holding Kanae, he stood halfway up the slope of the Abandoned Mine Vein, faced the rising sun, and took a deep breath of cold air tinged with the raw scent of earth.
He turned and looked down at the enormous, bottomless fissure leading straight into the underground cavern. In the deepest part of that darkness lay a woman impaled on an earthen spike.
Rokuya freed one hand and slowly drew the Shura Greatblade at his waist.
Dark blue light shimmered along the blade once more, but this time, there was no savage killing intent in it. Instead, it held a solemn, reverent calm.
"You paid for your sins with your life. As for the rest... rest in peace in the darkness."
Rokuya gripped the blade with both hands and raised it high. The power within him surged into it like a tsunami.
Boom!!!
With a whistle that tore through the air, the Shura Greatblade cleaved savagely into the fragile rock walls on either side of the fissure!
The earth shook and the mountain trembled!
The