A sword that mimics the man's Odachi forms by hardening the blood.
Johannes observes this with furrowed brows.
"What do you intend to do with that, monster?"
He asks me while keeping the Odachi in a defensive position. He probably thinks I'm going to attack him with this blood Odachi.
At that, I smile. The smile I have on my face right now is probably pretty unpleasant. I can feel how my own facial muscles stretch.
"Mm... I'm testing something. Stay there for a second."
"Test..."
—Slash!
The blood Odachi flickers as it descends, cutting my own body. Right below my left shoulder, where Johannes cut me before, and I drag it diagonally down to the middle of my chest. The cut is deeper than Johannes's, to the point where I feel my ribs being severed.
"Ghhk..."
I spit out mouthfuls of blood. It's true it hurts like hell, I won't deny it. But that doesn't remove the fact that a bloody smile shows on my face while I don't take my eyes off Johannes.
Just to clarify, I don't think I'm a masochist who enjoys cutting himself, or do I?
Anyway, this has a purpose.
The cut flesh separates from my body and falls to the ground.
When the flesh and contaminated blood touch the ground, they start emitting white smoke before a few seconds later, the flesh decomposes and becomes a blackish mass that smells bad. The sacred energy that was inside it corrodes faster because that part detached from me and no longer has my active regeneration that can slow it down.
Johannes looks at this with wide eyes.
"You cut yourself?"
I separate the blood odachi from me.
What just happened confirms what I've been thinking before.
"Your sacred energy entered my body through the cut you made. It mixed with my blood and my flesh, and from there it interfered with my regeneration. So the solution was pretty simple. I just had to remove the contaminated part."
I point with my chin toward the smoking mass on the ground.
"There's your purification. Heh, doesn't look very divine lying on the floor."
Johannes's expression darkens at the same time he murmurs words I don't hear, though it probably has to do with killing me.
In front of him, the wound on my shoulder and chest starts closing as muscles rebuild, tendons reconnect, and new skin grows over all of it, closing the cut completely.
Three seconds for not even a scar to remain.
Johannes stops murmuring and narrows his gaze while observing me with a serious expression. After a second or two, a smile returns to his fanatic face.
"...Clever move. Cutting yourself to expel the Lord's energy from your body."
He pauses and raises the Odachi, pointing it at me.
"Don't think you're completely free. Lord's energy also affects your soul. Tell me, what can you do about that? Huhuhu."
Damage to the soul?
Yes, I've already reached that conclusion before. That's exactly why I'm not so alarmed feeling my soul itching, as if thousands of ants were biting me at the same time.
Either way, it doesn't change what I have to do now.
I move my shoulders, rotate my neck side to side until they crack, and flex the fingers of both hands. I feel everything responding the way they should respond.
And now...
I bring out my two kagunes again. In my left hand, the blood blade is still there.
—Shriiip!
I cut my wrist, and tons of blood in the form of threads start coming out, expanding through the air and forming several blades.
Johannes looks at me and his eyes shine with excitement.
"Coming with everything? Good! That's how it should be!"
I launch myself at him.
The first blood blade shoots toward his left side. Johannes cuts it with the Odachi, and the blood disperses upon being touched by the sacred energy. While his attention is on the blade, two of my tentacles attack from above and below at the same time.
Johannes dodges the one below by jumping and blocks the one above with the Odachi's edge. The sacred energy partially cuts the tentacle. Before the energy can spread, I retract the tentacle and the cut part detaches on its own.
I'm not going to let that shit accumulate inside my body again.
"Hah!"
While Johannes is in the air, the Odachi traces a horizontal arc and a wave of sacred energy shoots from the blade.
My body dissolves and becomes blood mist in an instant. The energy wave passes through where I was standing and hits the wall behind, leaving a deep crack.
The blood mist moves to the right at a speed no human eye could follow, and recomposes five meters away.
Johannes lands and turns his head toward where I am.
"You can turn your entire body into mist..."
"Surprised?"
"Fascinated."
This guy really enjoys this.
Well, so do I.
Changing his stance, Johannes drives a foot into the ground and the Odachi starts emitting more sacred energy, which expands making the tunnel air uncomfortable to breathe.
I launch again. Instead of forming blades, I extend it over my arms and legs like armor made of a thin layer, but very dense that covers my skin.
If the sacred energy comes in contact with the external blood layer, the blood absorbs the damage instead of my body. It would be a good disposable shield I can constantly replace.
Of course, I must be careful with my energy reserve, since if it runs out, I won't be able to regenerate my blood and much less my body if I'm wounded.
My tentacles attack from three different directions. Johannes cuts two of them and dodges the third, but while he does, I'm already at his side with the claymore raised.
Our weapons clash.
—Clank!
The impact is so strong that the ground beneath Johannes cracks deeply. Even the walls and ceiling start crumbling.
I push harder, making Johannes retreat.
"Ngh...!"
Despite his skill and his sacred energy, in brute strength I'm superior. So he's going to try something, and indeed he does.
Johannes releases one of his hands from the Odachi and extends it toward me. From his palm, which bears the scar of a cross, comes a flash of sacred energy directly toward my face.
I turn my head into mist just in time. The flash passes through the mist without doing damage and hits the tunnel ceiling. My head recomposes a second later.
"That trick of yours is annoying."
Johannes says that with a tense smile.
Even so, turning into mist requires a fraction of a second to work, because if I fail the timing, I'll receive damage.
I return the smile while using three tentacles to push him back. At the same time, the blood blades I keep floating launch toward him from different angles.
Johannes spins the Odachi in a complete circle, creating a barrier of sacred energy around him that destroys all the blood blades on contact, evaporating them.
But while he does that, he can't see what's coming from behind.
A blood tentacle I sent along the ground while he was busy with the blades wraps around his right ankle.
"...!?"
Pulling him down, Johannes loses his balance for a second.
I take advantage of that second by making my claymore descend.
Johannes, even falling, manages to position the Odachi to block my cut. The clash produces another pressure wave that destroys the tunnel, but he deflects my attack enough so the claymore passes him by.
He rolls on the ground and jumps to his feet, separating from me.
We both look at each other. We're ten meters apart. Johannes is breathing with some difficulty, and there's blood dripping from a cut on his cheek I made with one of the blood blades.
I, who apart from my soul making me uncomfortable, am fine because the blood layer on my body absorbed the sacred energy residue from our clashes.
Johannes wipes the blood from his cheek with the back of his hand and looks at it. Then he looks at me.
"Really... really you are magnificent! In all my years hunting monsters outside Europe, I never found anything like you. Your regeneration, your tentacles, your ability to turn into mist, your control over blood, and on top of all that, intelligence to adapt in the middle of combat."
He pauses while his smile becomes disproportionate.
"In Japan... a true monster has truly been born."
"Then... I suppose I must use everything I have."
Johannes drives the Odachi into the ground in front of him. Then he brings both hands together in front of his chest, closes his eyes, and starts murmuring something in Latin.
I don't understand the words, but I feel that despite the energy being the sacred energy from before, this time it seems multiplied by ten.
Then the embedded Odachi rises from the ground and positions itself vertically in front of Johannes, floating in the air with the tip upward. The sacred energy surrounding it expands and solidifies, forming a cross of golden light around the sword.
An enormous cross that almost touches the ceiling and tunnel walls.
Seeing this cross produces unease in me.
"In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit..."
Johannes's eyes open, revealing his gray eye transforming to gold as he extends his arms to the sides.
"PURIFICATION!"
The cross of light explodes and comes toward me.