Sagiri Mountain’s mist was swept away by the moonlight and vanished.
The silence was split by dozens of sword flashes spreading outward in a circle.
Moon Breathing, Twelfth Form: Full Moon Slaughter Light.
In that instant, the night air turned into a brutal vortex. The afterimages left by each blade stacked layer upon layer, slashing at Rengoku and Katane from every direction at once.
Boom
Crack
The mountain cliff split like waves, and the trees fell like the screaming of the forest itself. Each sword flash came raining down like a brand of judgment against life.
“Ghk――!”
Rengoku was the first to cough up blood. A razor-sharp flash of the blade gouged deep into his shoulder, splitting flesh and bone at once. His vision flickered red, and both legs trembled helplessly beneath him.
Katane, too, staggered while gasping for breath.
The wounds carved into his side and thigh poured out the stench of blood. Even as his knees buckled, he never let go of his sword hilt.
“This… monster…”
Katane whispered through clenched teeth. His teeth were broken by the blood in his mouth, yet the light in his eyes did not go out.
Instead, Kokushibo looked down at the two of them slowly and coldly, as though staring at corpses.
“So this is all you amount to. Your breathing is incomplete and immature. In the past, the generation of the beginning had stronger men than this.”
His voice echoed like a sound rolling through a deep valley.
“And yet before this blade… they fell one after another.”
Rengoku dragged in a rough breath and grabbed Katane.
“...Katane, get a hold of yourself. At this rate, we’ll die together. Use your breathing to contract the muscles around the torn wounds.”
Katane’s eyes wavered. Despair seeped through his blood-smeared face, but at the same time, a faint, unextinguished flame flickered there.
“We… have to carry on Master’s will. We still… here…”
“You survive to carry it on!”
Rengoku snapped the words off, grinding his teeth. Through the widening gaps in the blade wounds, Katane stared at Kokushibo with blood-filled eyes.
“Nothing is left behind by dying!”
The two moved at once. With their blood-soaked bodies, they threw themselves into the rubble while clutching each other’s shoulders.
Crack
The next instant, the afterimages of Full Moon Slaughter Light burst out behind them, tearing the air apart. The cliff’s rocks rained down in chunks, and the earth caved in.
The mist surged wildly, briefly blocking their sight. Using that gap, Rengoku and Katane barely rolled and hurled themselves down the cliff.
Their breathing came in ragged bursts. Pain like their bodies were shattering from head to toe. But even more terrifying than that was the fear still pressing down on them.
Their bodies, crushed by overwhelming might, stiffened against their own will. They could not even breathe properly.
This wasn’t a fight from the start. We were nothing but prey.
Rengoku muttered inwardly in despair.
That man isn’t crossing blades with humans. He’s just cutting them down.
But then――
“You thought… you could run.”
Kokushibo’s six eyes glinted coldly through the mist. Another sword flash tore through the air and came flying at them.
Boom
The bloodied Katane brushed past Rengoku’s side as the rock wall was severed cleanly.
The two instinctively threw themselves aside, but their wounded bodies could no longer hold out.
Katane’s leg gave out and slammed into the ground, and Rengoku’s sword slipped from his hand.
Kokushibo’s shadow parted the mist and approached.
Slowly, but surely.
Like an executioner walking toward a prisoner bound to the scaffold.
“Even if you keep gasping and struggling until the end, the result will be the same.”
His voice sank even lower.
“Before me, humans ultimately… collapse in vain.”
The mist swayed quietly. The tip of the Red Blade, glowing hotly, was raised toward the two of them.
Rengoku and Katane looked at each other. No words were spoken. But the same vow lived in both of their eyes.
We have to survive. No matter the shame or pain… to carry on Master’s will.
Their breaths joined at the same time.
But Kokushibo’s six eyes were already preparing a merciless sentence.
§§§
Sagiri Mountain’s mist was so still it seemed to have stopped breathing for an instant.
As the glowing Red Blade cut through the air, even the atmosphere split with heavy force.
Rengoku and Katane. Their breathing was already ragged, on the verge of breaking.
And yet their eyes had not gone out.
“Katane… listen carefully.”
Rengoku whispered low.
“...Lord Rengoku?”
The bloodied young man turned his gaze while gasping for breath. His eyes still trembled uneasily, unable to let go of the fire of battle.
Rengoku met that gaze with unwavering resolve.
“You have to live.”
In that instant, Katane’s chest shook violently.
“What…?”
Kokushibo’s six eyes lowered coldly.
“You waste time with useless conversation. The ending has already been decided.”
The red glow of the Red Blade grew even fiercer, mixed with purple light. The moment the blade tip tore through the air, the mountainside heaved and split once more.
Rengoku clenched his teeth.
A brief, fleeting instant. One choice only.
He grabbed Katane by the collar and shoved him away with all the strength of a man on the verge of death.
“I’m sorry, Katane. Live.”
“Aaaah――!”
Katane’s body swallowed its scream as it plunged down the deep cliff. Even if he reached out, the distance was already beyond his grasp.
The last thing Katane saw with wide eyes was Rengoku’s back.
That unwavering silhouette, standing with absolute resolve.
“Lord Rengoku――!!”
The scream tore through the air and spread out.
But Rengoku did not even turn his head. He stood facing only Kokushibo.
“If it means… saving one.”
Rengoku drew a slow breath and lifted his sword.
“I can gladly offer my life.”
Kokushibo’s six eyes flashed for a moment.
“Foolish… to throw away your life for that brat? How ridiculous. You too will end in vain.”
Rengoku raised his breathing with precision. The veins all over his body bulged as if they would burst, and blood poured from his torn shoulder.
Yet his gaze did not waver even a hair’s breadth.
“Thunder Breathing――Secret Art.”
His voice was calm, but within it lived a hardened vow.
“With my sword, I will save the possibility of the future.”
Rumble――!
Lightning burst from the tip of his blade and filled the mountainside. The roar of thunder split the mist and drove straight toward Kokushibo.
For a brief instant, all of Sagiri Mountain blazed as bright as day.
“Seventh Form: Heaven-Piercing Thunder Slash!”
Rengoku raised his sword straight ahead and created a thunderclap that shook both earth and sky. Vast lightning power poured out from his body. A straight line of destruction, a storm condensed into a single sword strike.
At that life-burning blow, Kokushibo’s six eyes trembled slightly.
“Oh…”
Kokushibo quietly leveled his sword sideways.
The Red Blade’s crimson light and the moon’s sword flash shimmered at the same time.
――Moon Breathing, Twelfth Form: Full Moon Slaughter Light, Radiant Fang.
A massive crescent-shaped sword flash formed. Within it, dozens of fangs of light burst outward and collided head-on with the lightning flash.
BOOOOOOM――!
Thunder and moonlight exploded, and the earth shook.
Rengoku’s body could not endure it. His arms and legs were torn apart as though severed, and his whole body was soaked in red blood.
“Katane… live… no matter what…”
With that one final line, the Red Blade’s tip pierced through his chest.
Crack.
His heart was ripped apart, and hot blood burst out like an explosion.
Rengoku’s eyes blurred for an instant, but the resolve within them never disappeared.
“So you throw yourself away just to save that brat.”
Kokushibo’s voice was cold, but one of his six eyes wavered ever so slightly.
“Foolishness… or is that the power of humans?”
Rengoku smiled until the very end.
“Of course… it’s human power… a demon like you who abandoned humanity would never understand…”
“Human potential is… always infinite… and a demon like you… will never know that…”
With those words, his body slowly began to collapse. He fell onto the black ground and lay frozen in the moonlight, no longer moving.
“How laughable. If you die… even that wish ends forever… Abandon such foolish thoughts.”
A prominent vein bulged at Kokushibo’s temple. A faint, burning anger struck him, as if denying Rengoku’s words.
The mist spread out again in silence.
Katane, having fallen below the cliff, watched Rengoku’s death to the very end through his blurred vision. Tears mixed with blood and ran down his cheeks.
“Lord Rengoku…!”
At that moment, despair turned once more into flame.
What was carved into his chest was not death, but a vow: survive, and carry it on no matter what.
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