Consciousness shattering, vision blurring... the Shikon no Tama was familiar with this sensation.
It was the specific flavor of "death."
Now that it thought about it, the localized entity had never truly internalised the lethality of Akame's cursed blade. It didn't know exactly how the fermentation of the poison worked until it was already too late.
Most of the time, it had been Muzan's subordinates who bore the brunt of that particular agony. For the Shikon no Tama itself, the effect of the [Cursed Poison] was a variable it hadn't prepared for--a conceptual ambush.
There truly was a chance to kill it.
Before, Akame simply couldn't bypass its physical defenses to trigger the "on-hit kill" mechanic. But now, with her strength bolstered by the abandonment of her humanity, she had sliced through its jagged skin as if it were parchment.
"Rikuo!"
"I know!"
Sensing the sudden lethargy in the surrounding demon army, Cu Chulainn swept them aside with a massive spear-vortex and shouted for his companion to move.
Rikuo nodded, sliding back to the marked coordinate and raising his pitch-black [Nenekirimaru].
"[Meido Zangetsuha]!!"
"[Meido Zangetsuha]!!!"
The same incantation echoed through two different dimensions at the exact same moment, both blades carving into the same coordinate of the space-time fabric.
CREAK--!!
"It's opening!" Kagome cheered from the other side as a jagged rift of starlight appeared in the center of the void.
"Go!"
Without a second's hesitation, Toga, Kirinmaru, and Inuyasha lunged through the breach, Kagome clung tightly to Inuyasha's back.
"Hah! Kagome! They're back!"
"Wait... Toga and Kirinmaru too?"
"It looks like they reached an agreement! Thank the gods! We're safe now!"
Nothing brought more relief to the beleaguered group than seeing those four arrive together. Shippo and Jaken finally felt their pounding hearts begin to steady.
"Mom!"
"Moroha!"
As Moroha dove into her embrace, Kagome caught her, whispering words of comfort as the girl clung to her.
"Looks like you guys did a hell of a job holding the fort," Inuyasha remarked, glancing at the demons that had deflated like withered husks the moment the Jewel fell.
"Heh, holding it wasn't the problem. Ending it was."
Inuyasha looked at Rikuo's black [Nenekirimaru]. It was a stroke of absolute luck that Totosai had "accidentally" embedded a seed of the [Meido] in the blade. Without it, they might never have found the key to this locked room.
"What about the Shikon no Tama?"
The malevolent pressure in the air hadn't dissipated. If anything, the weakening of the Jewel's life sign only signaled a more terrifying change.
"It seems it can indeed be killed by an attack it hasn't predicted," Toga noted, his eyes fixed on the epicenter of the miasma. "But it hasn't been erased from existence yet."
Everyone turned their gaze toward Akame, who was standing over the decapitated remains.
"Moroha, join me! We need to purify this miasma now!"
"Right!"
Mother and daughter notched their arrows, the holy light of their bows resonating as they fired into the center of the darkness.
WHOOSH--!!
The brilliance of the [Sacred Arrows] pierced the gloom, temporarily clearing the air of the oily, negative energy left behind by the Jewel's death.
"Even with that, I don't feel like it's dead," Moroha muttered, her brow furrowing with a sense of impending dread.
"Purification alone won't be enough to finish it..."
"Then what will?"
As they spoke, the surrounding demon husks suddenly dissolved into motes of black light, swirling upward and condensing in the center of the clearing.
RUMBLE--!!
Even in this fabricated dimension, the sky crackled with unnatural lightning.
"Stay back!"
"Something is coming!"
Toga and Kirinmaru stepped to the front, their hands on their hilts as they stared at the rising storm of energy.
"This is..."
"The pressure... the youki... it's on a different level entirely!"
Miroku stared at the manifesting aura, his eyes wide with shock. He had never witnessed a monster of this magnitude. The youki radiating from that spot was now equal to, if not surpassing, the presence of the Great Dog Demon himself.
"It's coming back to life!"
The black matter solidified into a towering, humanoid shape. But unlike its previous fleshy, insectoid form, the Shikon no Tama had transformed into a skeletal nightmare. Spikes jutted from its spine like a crown of thorns, and its body was a mesh of bone and dark energy.
A massive, black Pearl was embedded in its sternum, glowing with a pulsing, violet light.
"I didn't expect to be pushed this far," a slow, cold voice vibrated through the air. Everyone recognized that tone--it was the Jewel, but stripped of its earlier arrogance, replaced by a crystalline malice.
"Time and time again..."
"You break my calculations. Humans, half-demons, youkai, Servants!"
"You all think you've won. But you have only fast-forwarded your own ends!"
The Shikon no Tama radiated a pressure that felt like gravity itself was doubling.
"Eliminate!"
Without a moment of hesitation, Akame moved. Her shadowed silhouette flickered across the ground, aiming to repeat the decapitation that had brought the Jewel down.
But this time, the outcome was different.
CRACK!
The assassin's blade was caught mid-air by a massive, skeletal hand. Even though the blade bit into the bone, the black vein-like patterns that should have signaled the poison's onset dissolved into nothing within seconds.
"!"
For the first time, a look of genuine shock crossed Akame's face.
[Murasame]... failed?
"Die."
The skeleton's eyes flamed with a piercing red light, locking onto the Assassin in front of it.
"Watch out!!"
Rikuo's shout came just as the Jewel's eyes fired two beams of concentrated, pure energy. Akame moved on instinct, twisting her body in mid-air.
SIZZLE--!!
The beam grazed her calf. Even that slight contact was enough to incinerate the flesh instantly, leaving a clean, cauterized hole through her leg as if it had been bored out by a drill.
"A laser?"
Kagome and Rikuo recognized the "high-tech" nature of the attack instantly. It was a power that didn't belong in this era.
"[Meido Zangetsuha]!!"
"[Demon Fireball]!!"
Before the Jewel could pursue Akame, Toga and Kirinmaru unleashed their own barrages.
BOOM--!!
The fire and the void consumed the skeletal form, but to the horror of everyone watching, the bones began to reassemble before the attack even finished.
"The wounds are healing the instant they are made..."
"It's too fast!"
Whether it was the erasure of the [Meido] or the incineration of the flames, the Shikon no Tama stood there, unscathed, the bones knitting together as if they were immortal.
"Hmph. This time, none of you will have the luxury of an accidental survival."
"To be killed by my final form... you should consider it the highest honor of your miserable lives."
The Shikon no Tama looked down at them with a bone-chilling coldness.
It hadn't intended to use its final Noble Phantasm, [Demon King: Half-God], this early. It had entered this world in a perfect body, expecting to effortlessly crush Inuyasha's band.
But instead, it had been cut down by a reinforced Sesshomaru, and then "assassinated" by a human using a conceptual poison. It had literally been pushed into its desperation stage.
The thought filled it with a white-hot humiliation.
But there was a silver lining. It was now overwhelmingly powerful. The only downside was that if it died in this form, it would truly be the end.
But then it thought of the "Dragon Balls" waiting for it in the future. As long as it won today, nothing else mattered.
In this state, the Shikon no Tama was confident. It had transcended humanity; it had transcended the youkai.
It was no longer a spirit in a jewel.
It was a supreme [Half-God].
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]