First Night.
We entered the mountain just as the sun set. The mountain was far larger than I had thought earlier, plenty of room for all the examinees to be spread out.
The ground was no longer neatly cut or maintained, thick roots erupting from the soil like twisted veins, jagged rocks jutting out at dangerous angles. Every step needed awareness, precision; here, a careless ankle slip was as deadly as any demon.
I stopped only for a breath, letting the darkness settle.
The air slid into my lungs, slow and steady, the practised rhythm calming me. It filled me like cold water being poured into overheated metal, cooling, centring, refining.
Inhale, exhale, hold.
Not panic. Not fear.
Focus.
From deeper in the trees, something screamed. A human voice, but already distant, already fading. A wet tearing sound followed, sharp enough to echo off the branches. Then silence. The sort of silence that felt like the forest was holding its breath, waiting to see what moved next.
I was fully awake now.
I have the strength to fight, therefore I am responsible for ending at least one person's suffering. Strength was never a gift; it must be treated as an obligation. Corruption follows otherwise.
I started walking.
The moon broke through the canopy occasionally, streaks of silver slicing across the pathless ground and lighting fog that tangled around the ankles. The temperature dropped sharply; each exhale came out in pale white clouds. The air tasted metallic, sharp, as though laced with blood.
Somewhere ahead, branches cracked rapidly, unevenly. Something was running. Chasing. Hunting.
I slipped forward, quiet as breath. The wind rushed past me.
The first demon appeared only moments later, a hulking shape crouched over an injured examinee. They looked to be unconscious, with hair damp with blood, uniform hung off them in strings. The demon's back was broad and hunched, ribs protruding like broken armour plates. Sickly grey skin pulled taut over its bones, and its head swung toward me at an unnatural angle, eyes wide and bulging.
"You smell different," it snarled, voice thick with saliva. "Not frightened. That's irritating… I like the terrified ones."
Its tongue scraped across jagged teeth as it rose to all fours, muscles twitching with anticipation.
I inhaled.
"Well, I don't really like demons that smell like you either, so that makes two of us"
The air caught in my lungs seemed to sharpen, the pressure building behind my sternum like a taut bowstring.
Sky Breathing First Form: Horizon Slash.
My foot slid forward, blade sweeping in a clean, devastating arc that split the air itself. A bright azure light shone in the forest around me; it was as if the infinite horizon was on the tip of the broken blade, making it appear long enough to cut anything. The slash was carved through the demon's neck before it even started its leap. For one frozen heartbeat, its head just seemed surprised, mouth twisted open as though still framing the words it never finished. Then it thudded into the dirt.
No scream.
No drama.
I exhaled, steam curling from my lips.
Time to take care of the unconscious dude. I go forward to pick him up without trying to be too rough. Looks like a head injury. The best thing I could do was let him rest in a stable position, which was difficult to do in an entire mountain full of demons. I'd have to find a small crook in the mountain and just pray.
Another scream tore the silence apart seconds later. The mountain was still alive with slaughter.
But I didn't run toward their voices. I need to find a place for this person before I can move out.
Thankfully, after a minute of slow wandering, making sure I didn't move the head of the injured person too much, I found an opening in one of the trees. I slowly put him down, making sure most of his body was hidden inside the tree. I put his blade next to him and rested his head on a small patch of grass; hopefully, it was enough.
This was the Final Selection. I couldn't just kill the demon, and we could all go home happy and safe. All I could do was save as many people as I could in front of me. Choices I didn't want to make, but I didn't really have the liberty to think about this deeply.
I turned inland, deeper into the forest where the demonic scents were thickest. There, the trees were denser, thick black trunks twisting into tangled shapes like tortured limbs. The ground was damp and soft; every step sent faint ripples through the fog.
Something was moving behind me, far too quiet for human feet.
I spun, blade already lifting.
A smaller demon sprang from the darkness, wiry and sinewy, its limbs bending backward like a spider. Claws that could split bark shone in the gloom as it leapt, shrieking.
My breathing didn't even need to change for this.
Sky Breathing Third Form: Raging Lightning
I shifted direction midstep, my body turning emitted sparks of white light before I disappeared from where I stood. The demon crashed into empty air. Momentum carried me behind the demon halfway up a tree, my blade came out already out and in position to end this vermin. Slicing cleanly from hip to collarbone, a streak of lightning burst out of the demon's body, moving to the closest object it could find near the body. The demon dissolved into ash on the wind, fragments floating like dirty snowflakes. Dead in only two moves.
Before the ash had even settled, two more burst from opposite sides, jaws stretched grotesquely wide, teeth twisted like broken glass.
I planted my feet firmly, breath drawing deep.
Sky Breathing Eight Form: Cloudless Day
The blade in my hand shone, catching a fragile sheen of blue, like the first light breaking across the horizon after a storm. I lowered the tip toward the earth, and in that suspended breath, the world changed. The suffocating darkness of the forest peeled away, revealing a sky so clear it felt unreal. Moonlight bent and softened into the bright stillness of a perfect daytime sky.
Even the wind held its breath.
I moved. The swing flowed outward in a sweeping arc, weightless and serene, a motion without resistance-like sunlight cutting through morning mist. Air parted around the blade, splitting with a quiet rippling sound, gentle yet absolute. For a heartbeat, all colour drained from the world, swallowed by bright blue; then the illusion shattered.
Both demons in a single motion of a dual sweeping cut split apart and hit the ground before the echoes of my footsteps faded.
The forest was quiet once more.
I leaned forward and sprinted, instinct leading, chasing the concentrated swell of demonic presence deeper into the mountain. My feet barely touched the ground as the fog shifted into streaks beneath me.
The smell of blood thickened.
Soon enough, I found a clearing , ringed by enormous thorn covered vines. Demons prowled the edge like starving wolves, tall ones, crawling ones, some child-sized, others towering twice my height. Their eyes glowed with hunger, jaws dripping.
At least a dozen. Maybe more.
I stepped forward.
I inhaled.
The night air rushed into me, expanding my chest like a storm filling a valley. My pulse steadied; time slowed still.
Sky Breathing Second Form: Playful Cloud
I leapt into the centre of them, blade spinning in a violent cascade. Each strike painted a beautiful stroke of white, like bringing clouds into life seamlessly. Each step taken was like I was running on top of the world, a dreamlike moment of playing on the clouds. Heads flew. Limbs severed. Bodies dissolved into ash mid scream. Their claws scraped through the cloud but never made contact with anything else. Their attacks added to the beauty of the stokes, making shapes only found in the dance of battle.
One lunged at my throat too close for a full swing. I ducked low.
One precision thrust drove straight through its solar plexus, spine to sternum. It dissolved on the wind, a plume of smoke burst in the direction of my stroke like a cannon as I surged to my feet again.
Another demon charged, this one quicker, brighter, ducking behind me in a blur of motion. Its arm lengthened grotesquely, claws snatching toward my spine.
My body twisted, feet pushing explosively off the soil. In a flash, a diagonal slash tore across the demon's torso, cleaving it cleanly in half in mid-air.
A beautiful cloud emerging from the dance. Ash rained like soot. Adding a vibrance of violence.
Still more poured from the trees, dozens, perhaps a hundred, scattered singly and in clusters. This wasn't a normal horde.
But that didn't matter.
Not tonight.
Not to me.
I stepped forward.
Sky Breathing Tenth Form: Dream Constellations
Startlingly bright lights showed up between the demons. Orbs of sand speckle burning with life, ready to burn through everything.
A blinding flash of movement split the clearing. My blade connects the dots between each orb. Bodies erupting into clouds of smoke. A beautiful white-rainbow like light connected each speckle, making an intricate shape emerging from my desire to kill each demon at once. Beauty only found in the struggles of conflict.
More screams. More ash.
The clearing was nearly empty now; the last demon stumbled backward, on shaking legs, staring wide-eyed, trembling. It fell onto the ground, scrambling frantically.
"P-please! Please wait- don't- I'll eat less! I'll hide- I'll-"
I breathed softly.
It froze.
No anger. No hatred. No hesitation.
A single clean cut ended it quietly, minimally, mercifully.
Silence ensued.
The only movement now was the wind, blowing through the trees, stirring the ash into pale, ghostly whirlwinds. My breathing slowed, my body relaxing as the surge of combat ebbed away.
Above the treetops, the night sky yawned open, a deep, endless black peppered with faint stars. My hands still gripped lightly on the sword's tsuka, warm beneath my grip. The blade was still preserved after all the fighting.
Dozens of demons gone.
Dozens were stopped from taking any more lives.
Responsibility carried weight, but tonight, my shoulders did not feel heavy.
I found a large flat stone at the edge of the clearing and lowered myself onto it, sitting in silence. The forest creaked and shifted around me, but nothing threatened. The absence of danger was strange wrong even but not unwelcome.
The moon had now dipped behind the mountain. It was many hours until dawn yet.
I tipped my head back, blowing out slowly.
One night over.
Six more to go. The mountain was full of malice, hungry, waiting. Challenges for tomorrow. For the first time since stepping onto the mountain, I allowed my eyes to close.
No fear. No regret. Only purpose.
* * *
Fourth Night.
The sun was about to set, and with that so did my rest. Demons really do enjoy running around. After a point, it becomes less fulfilling and more tiring to slay them. Though the screams really do invigorate my purpose and goal, while also damping any mood I build up from cloud gazing.
I could only stand up now and start another night of self-deluded, purposeful justice. I've started to wonder if killing this many demons serves any purpose, considering they would simply replace them after I was done. Also, were the lives I was saving now only cursing them for the future?
I think the best course of action I could take is to simply consider the lives saved now and the time I buy them with my action, and let my mind rest with that. Any more thought into this might really begin to tear me up from the inside before any demon could even rest a hand on me.
Resting my gaze on the north of the mountain, I begin my journey towards that direction. From random conversations with the other examinees, I've picked up that there was a rather annoying demon over on that side of the mountain that hadn't taken any lives yet, but was stronger than the average demon on the mountain. I'd kill it before it had any lasting impact.
An entire hour went by without me seeing a single demon; hopefully, that means the demon population on this mountain is down. Although I could sense I was nearing a demon in front of me. Tonight might just end with only one dead demon. Far more tame than the previous nights, good news for me.
Slowly, the trees spread out more the further I went north, until I came onto a clearing in the forest. The shift was instantaneous. Everything opened suddenly into a wide space under the moonlight. The quiet here wasn't peaceful; it was heavy and tense.
I stopped at the tree line.
The air changed.
The damp moss and soil scent was gone, replaced by a sour metallic reek-rot and long dried blood. The stench hit the back of my throat hard, and I forced my face not to twist. Ahead of me, the ground was torn open, and trenches were dragged violently across the clearing. White fragments littered the ground, old broken bits of carved masks split straight down the middle, some darkened with old stains. A massive boulder in the centre lay cracked apart, half of it crushed and cratered as if something had slammed into it many times with brutal force.
Then I heard it, not a scream but a wet, ragged breath.
Sounds of dragging arose, like stone being forced through dirt.
My hand moved to my sword.
Something enormous stirred behind the broken boulder.
The moonlight shifted, catching the edges of a hulking shape crouched low. Thick arms twisted over one another like coiled serpents far too many of them. Fingers dug into the soil, their nails black and curved like polished stone. Each hand was larger than my head.
It breathed again a trembling, furious sound, like one scarcely keeping back a sob.
Then the voice came, rough and strangled
"…Another one…"
The shape rose, unfolding upwards until it towered over the clearing. Masks crunched beneath its feet, cracking loudly in the silence.
"…Always another one."
The moon slipped from behind a cloud, fully illuminating the creature.
Where a face should have been, there pulsed and flexed dozens of hands layered over each other, the fingers twitching like they were alive. Eyes glinted from somewhere deep inside that nest of palms eyes full of rage.
That was no hunger.
It was vengeance.
This thing had been waiting a long time.
I stepped forward, and my sword slid free with a low whisper.
Something twisted in my chest, not fear, but certainty.
The demon's breath rattled, the sound shaking through its mountain of arms. "I'll kill you…" It snarled, the voice cracking under emotion. "Just like all the rest." The clearing fell silent once more. Even the wind stopped moving.
My stance was settled. Letting out a laugh I replied.
"How about you give me a smile before you try and kill me, we can work something after that I promise"
The demon snarled in annoyance, but before it had a chance to unwrap its arms, my blade was already ready like a viper. Legs crouched, I gulped in the air around me. My lungs expanded, ready to spread the blood around my body to supercharge every single muscle.
Sky Breathing First Form: Horizon Slash
I jumped straight for the demon's neck, covered by the demon's hands. The blade did a full sweep, and I could see the reflection in the demon's eyes. I felt resistance halfway through the sweep, but decided to continue forward. My momentum carried me over to the side of the demon.
By the time my feet landed on the ground, all I could hear was screams from the demon. But when I rested my sight over the demon, all I could see was a massive scar on a few of the hands, while a tinge of glowing blue skin was the only evidence of my strike hitting the neck.
The demon writhed, clutching its neck with trembling fingers.
"That hurt-" it choked, voice shaking with fury.
"How dare you! You think you're stronger? You're nothing! Nothing!"
Clearly, this demon would require a little bit more force than I thought. Inspecting my sword, I could see that the strike had taken some invisible durability from it. No visible scars, but the resistance definitely gave me some clues that this blade wouldn't last me the entire seven nights. I need to kill this demon quickly and find a replacement sword before it shatters completely.
"Hey, you slob, I'm not much of a hugger, but I'll promise I'll try to give more effort if you spread your arms for me"
The demon laughed low, uneven, filled with something unhinged.
"Effort? You can cut until your arms fall off. I don't die. Not until I've crushed every last one of you"
A tremor passed through its curled hands, muscles twitching violently.
"Your bones will snap like theirs. I'll rip your head off and watch you beg."
I slid one foot back, blade angled forward again, pulse steady.
"I'm just trying out hugs right now, no need to start me of with a bear hug"
The demon looked properly mad now. It lifted its towering mass, dozens of hands stretching wide like wings made of twisted flesh.
Its voice cracked, half-roar, half sob.
"COME DIE WITH THEM!"
This demon had to be young; it didn't notice my broken sword, nor did it understand that its hands were the only reason it didn't die in one move. Spreading all of its hands trying to grab me, clearly, this demon didn't understand how easy death could come to it. Arrogance and rage, stuck fighting to be demon slayers had dulled its survival instinct. If it had lived longer, perhaps it would have been a threat, but now it simply presented itself to me. Easy pickings.
Crouching again, this time I let the blade face the ground, adjusting my shoulders for the strike.
Time slowed down in my eyes; all the hands of the demon were simply noise that would all disappear with one slice of the neck. My breathing remained stable. After years of practising the blade, breathing came to me naturally. My eyes landed on the neck of the demon; it was as if the moonlight only shone on it. Heat gathered in my lungs like the first sunbeam cresting a horizon.
Sky Breathing Forth Form: Dawn Break
A blaze of royal yellow and orange shone from my blade as it was raised up. My legs left the ground with a flash, moving me towards the goal. The blade drew an arc of morning fire, a newborn sun splitting night. By the time the blade met the skin of the demon's neck, it was facing the sky at an angle, my shoulder moving to get a perfect straight slice. The smoothness of the blade entering the neck was like I was cutting the clouds themselves, indescribable any other way. A bright ray escaped the demon when the blade made it completely through the neck. The forest shone as if the sun had risen at that moment; the light followed my blade, disappearing as my feet landed on the ground.
The world was as silent as the moment before sunrise broke.
I could finally see my handiwork. The demon's hands remained moving but mindlessly as the body sagged to its knees. The demon's head struck the dirt with a muffled thud, rolling until it lay face-up in the torn earth. For a moment, the clearing fell into unnatural stillness no wind, no breath, no sound but the faint wet drip of blood falling onto leaves.
The demon's fractured voice had crawled weakly from the severed head.
"…warm…"
Its eyes flickered, unfocused, searching for a memory buried under years of rage.
"…is that… sunlight?
I stepped closer. The light fading from my blade caught the dying reflection in its pupils, a dying ember.
"…I remember… a morning like that…"
A trembling smile, small and human and horribly out of place, formed at the edge of its torn mouth.
"My brother held my hand. We were just children. watching the sun rise from our village hill."
Its body toppled sideways, arms finally going still.
"…why… did it all… disappear…"
A last breath, hardly there
"…I just wanted…to go home…"
Again, silence swallowed the clearing. Only the wind answered.
I let out a slow exhale, tension draining from my shoulders. Even this monster once had a name and story buried beneath layers of blood. The blade trembled faintly in my hand, thin cracks of strain beginning to spider near the guard.
"Rest," I whispered. "Your sunrise is over."
I took a moment to pray.
"No one deserves to become a monster," I said softly. "I hope you find rest"
Ash began to rise from the demon's body, drifting upwards like fireflies caught in a gentle breeze. I watched them lift into the night sky, small sparks swallowed by the darkness. Each one a reminder, every demon was once someone. Someone afraid. Someone human.
For them and for the people they've harmed, I have to keep going.
I wiped the blade clean, though there was no blood to stain it, only habit and respect. I sheathed it and bowed my head toward the remains not in apology, but in acknowledgment.
"Thank you for fighting", I whispered.
I straightened my back. My muscles ached, and the sword felt lighter than it should, weakened and brittle. But resolve steadied me far more than steel ever could.
I stepped back into the dark, my breath even and steady, eyes fixed forward.
And again, the forest swallowed me.